Now this is the way Washington should work: civil, bipartisan cooperation to ignore and thwart the wishes of 70% of the public.

Call It a Bump and Repost! I meant to do that -- it's just that important.

(Ahem.)

Posted by: Ace at 11:43 AM | Comments (75)
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You know the Democrats' spin that oil companies should be forced to drill in places where they have leases before being granted the right to explore for oil in other places?

They can't drill where they have leases, either.

Remember those 68 million acres House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the oil companies had to use or lose? According to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, they can't drill there either...

Last Thursday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a major drilling effort in the Beaufort Sea, ruling that federal officials failed to properly address environmental concerns when they granted permission to Shell Oil to drill there. The decision followed a temporary order issued last year that halted Shell's drilling at Sivulliq, 16 miles off the coast of northern Alaska.

"There remains substantial questions as to whether Shell's plan may cause significant harm to the people and wildlife of the Beaufort Sea region," the current ruling said.

..

In a July interview with IBD in which we asked better questions than Katie Couric, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, before she was picked as John McCain's running mate, said: "There are even bigger sources of crude than ANWR . . . such as offshore areas like the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea."

...

The Alaskan Outer Continental Shelf holds 26.6 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil and 132 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, according to recent Minerals Management Service estimates. Most of that is in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

This issue should be front-and-center. The GOP should never stop pushing it.

Yes, gas prices have fallen dramatically, but only owing to a worldwide recession. The GOP has to keep reminding people about the Democrats' age-old whine -- "But it would take years before we start seeing oil flowing from new wells!" -- and suggest that maybe we should start that now before we're in this crisis again, only to be told "But it would take years before we start seeing oil flowing from new wells!"

Furthermore, the public must be made to know that when (if?) the economy begins to recover, oil prices will soar again, thus choking any nascent recovery in the cradle -- unless we find some way to increase the supply of oil and put a check on skyrocketing fuel costs.

Melissa Clouthier: Luddite Environmentalism Is a Luxury We Can't Afford: Especially now.

Carbon Dioxide is Not a "Pollutant:" Though the EPA desperately wishes to categorize it as such. Write to them during their period of public comment to reject this categorization.

Posted by: Ace at 10:45 AM | Comments (58)
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Um, invitation declined.

Posted by: Ace at 10:19 AM | Comments (18)
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No, really.

Really?

Really.

The normally peaceful Cap d’Agde, a magnet for nudists in the south of France, has been plunged into anxiety. Investigators suspect “fundamentalist” naturists of harbouring a grudge against the échangistes, or swingers, who are drawn to the town by the promise of sex.

A so-called boîte échangiste, or wife-swapping club, called Glamour, where couples engage in group sex, was the first to be razed, in April. The next day the Palme Ré, another orgy venue, went up in flames. In September the Tantra club and Zen, its neighbouring bar, were destroyed in blazes.

Nobody was hurt but the fires have shocked a community whose crime rate has been dominated until now by cases of exhibitionism. Recently, police had to intervene as a man whipped his wife on the balcony of an apartment for the gratification of spectators in the courtyard below. “Generally we let them get on with it,” said a spokesman for the local gendarmerie. “But when there are complaints about improper behaviour, we have to act.”

Tensions have arisen between the naturists, who believe that nudity is a healthy choice of lifestyle and nothing to do with sex, and the échangistes, who are attracted to nudist camps by the prospect of multiple partners.

“What goes on in certain places is not naturism,” said Guy Delfour, former head of the French federation of naturism. “Nudity is just one element of naturism. There are other values to recognise, such as the protection of nature.”

This latest violence underscored a long-standing tension between nudists, who believe nudity should be confined to 75 year old hippies with scraggly drooping old-man balls, and wife-swappers, who insist on the right of one hundred twenty pound men to swap their two-hundred-forty pound wives for other swinging women in the two-bill range.

I may have added the last paragraph, but if HBO's Real Sex is any guide, it's true.

More at the link.

We Need a Hero! Such as (moderate content warning) Naked Testicle Spiderman.

He'll save the city. He always does.

Posted by: Ace at 09:24 AM | Comments (57)
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Just because some have grown bored with terrorism, doesn't mean terrorism has grown bored with them:

MI5 have warned Britain’s cash-strapped National Health Services that dozens of ambulances–along with old police cars and fire engines past their sell-by date–are being snapped up by al-Qaeda operatives in the United Kingdom to mount suicide bomb attacks.

So serious is the problem that counter-terrorism officials at the Home Office have written to eBay, the Internet auctioneer, asking them to stop selling emergency service vehicles, equipment and uniforms.

But eBay has insisted it can only halt the sales if a new law is passed by Parliament. That could take many months to enact.

...

“It is almost rare that police will stop such vehicles on suspicious grounds. An ambulance rigged with high explosives could drive into any ultra-sensitive target like a nuclear power station or even Whitehall”, said a senior MI5 source.

...

“An ambulance could carry half a ton of explosives. A rigged police car could carry half that amount. So could a fire engine”, states the MI5 report.

MI5 counter-terrorism officers say such attacks have been successfully carried out in Iraq and Israel.

Thanks to Bonnie.

Posted by: Ace at 09:12 AM | Comments (27)
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I have a question for you...would you like a bite of the 'comprehensive immigration reform' shit sandwich? Ha! It's a trick question. No one cares if you want it or not, you're going to get it.

And guess who is going to feed it to you...John McCain.

So says Harry Reid.

Q. With more Democrats in the Senate and the House and a Democrat in the White House, how do you see congressional efforts playing out on such issues as health care and immigration?

A: On immigration, there's been an agreement between (President-elect Barack) Obama and (Arizona Republican Sen. John) McCain to move forward on that. ... We'll do that. We have to get this economy stuff figured out first, so I think we'll have a shot at doing something on health care in the next Congress for sure.

Q: Will there be as much of a fight on immigration as last time?

A: We've got McCain and we've got a few others. I don't expect much of a fight at all.

They'll be a fight alright, it's just the numbers of opponents and leverage we have is less than last time and that was a near run thing as it was. This time? Let's just say at this point optimism isn't exactly the order of the day.

Don't worry McCain, you just do what you do best (screw and attack Republicans) and you'll be back in the good graces of those you care most about much faster than you think. I'm guessing we'll start seeing pieces saying 'This is the John McCain we knew and loved!' in places like the NY Times and Newsweek just before Christmas.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:46 AM | Comments (60)
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Maybe I'm just getting old but I remember when 100 BILLION freaking dollars was a lot of money. Now it's just tossed out before breakfast as part of the normal course of the day's business.

Today's Bailout Bingo winners...mortgage and consumer debt holders. Congratulations!

The central bank will purchase as much as $600 billion in debt issued or backed by government-chartered housing-finance companies. It will also set up a program of $200 billion to support consumer and small-business loans, the Fed said in statements today in Washington.

...Separately, under the new Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, the Fed will lend up to $200 billion on a non-recourse basis to holders of AAA rated asset-backed securities backed by “newly and recently originated” loans, such as for education, automobiles, credit cards and loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration, the Fed said.

The Fed hopes to have the TALF running by February. Traditional investors in the asset-backed securities include securities lenders and bank-affiliated conduits, the government officials said.

As the old saying goes a billion hundred billion trillion here, a trillion there and pretty soon you are talking about real money.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:57 AM | Comments (82)
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Remember all those small donors that gave Obama cover to break his pledge to participate in the public financing program? Turns out, like much of what The One was selling, it was more spin than anything.

"It turns out that Barack Obama's donors may not have been quite as different as we had thought," says the Institute's study. "Throughout the election season, this organization and others have been reporting that Obama received about half of his discrete contributions in amounts of $200 or less. The Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) noted in past releases that donations are not the same as donors, since many people give more than once. After a more thorough analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC), it has become clear that repeaters and large donors were even more important for Obama than we or other analysts had fully appreciated."

"The myth is that money from small donors dominated Barack Obama's finances," said CFI's executive director Michael J. Malbin. "The reality of Obama's fundraising was impressive, but the reality does not match the myth."

...PEBO ultimately received about 80 percent more money from large donors (giving more than $1,000) than from small donors -- 47 percent of his total cash, compared with 56 percent for Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in 2004, and 60 percent for both Bush and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

No word yet on if that includes all those donations from people like "JarackBoe BOamabiden" and "Della Ware".

Now what the study doesn't seem to get into is that average amount of individual donations. What the Obama people seemed to be very good at was getting people who may not donate $500 or $1,000 at a pop to pony up $50 or $75, 7 or 8 times over the course of the campaign.

So yes, a lot of people may have been donating small amounts repeatedly and not maxing out with $2,300 check once but the cumulative effect is the same. A lot of people who thought of themselves as 'small donors' (and were portrayed that way by Team Hope 'n Change) simply weren't.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:40 AM | Comments (24)
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Ezra Levant writes about the Candadian Human Rights Commission's EPIC FAIL of an attempt at public relations:

In the past, Moon had written favourably about government limits on free speech. That, plus a large payment for his brief report, made Moon’s review look like a PR stunt, especially since the CHRC simultaneously hired the pricey lobby firm Hill & Knowlton to provide “communications” advice. It all looked like a strategy to offset six months of bad press — not to mention embarrassing investigations into the CHRC’s conduct by the RCMP, the Privacy Commissioner and Parliament’s Justice Committee.

But to the surprise of critics like me, Moon recommended that section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act — the so-called “hate speech” provision, which empowers the CHRC to censor the Internet and other electronic media — be repealed. Instead of a whitewash, Moon’s report was the opposite — another nail in the coffin of the thought police.

The CHRC was surprised, too, and obviously not pleased. Although Moon’s report used the word “repeal” 11 times — it was his primary recommendation — that word appears nowhere in the CHRC’s press release announcing his findings.

In fact, the CHRC has already thrown Moon under the bus, minimizing his report as merely some “suggestions,” and announcing that they want a do-over. In the very same press release, they announced another round of consultations on the subject, at untold public expense — and this time they’ll be more careful about who’s allowed to participate.

A complaint about Moon's government-sponsored hate speech is being hastily drafted. After all, he's subjecting a Canadian minority to scorn and public ridicule.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:29 AM | Comments (19)
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"That's right, I'm finding it hard to forgive. So what are you gonna give me to help the process?"

Collins told colleagues at a small Senate prayer breakfast meeting last week that she still felt lingering resentment toward Democratic senators who campaigned against her in Maine.

She confessed that she had “trouble forgiving colleagues” who traveled to Maine and told voters she was “a Bush clone and called into question her ethics,” said a senator who attended the meeting.

CollinsÂ’s lingering resentment could emerge as a snag for Democratic leaders who expect her to side with them on many important votes.

Unless Democrats win a recount in Minnesota and a runoff in Georgia, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will need at least two Republicans to side with his conference on procedural votes next year to overcome GOP filibusters.

CollinsÂ’s spokesman, Kevin Kelley, said his boss does not hold a grudge.

This is a shakedown. I have no doubt Collins was hurt by Democrats' attacks during the campaign. But she is politically savvy enough to take advantage by signaling to Democrats that she's willing to let bygones be bygones for the right price. The same offer is available to the Republicans, of course.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:12 AM | Comments (32)
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