Abandon Ship Cartoon

Abandon Ship!

Don't thank Obama: America's energy independence is almost here

The line for gasoline was several blocks long as I sat behind the wheel of my father’s Chevrolet and cracked open “The Catcher in the Rye”. It was 1973.
I finished the novel by the time I pulled up to the pump hours later, hoping there’d still be gas to put in the empty tank. I read a lot of books that year with my keister stuck to the vinyl front seat of dad’s Chevy. It always happened on odd-numbered days which matched the last digit of his license plate. That’s how it was back then. Odd or even.
If you want to know the truth --as Holden Caulfield was fond of saying-- I hated OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) for holding the U.S. hostage over its need for fuel. Who in this country didn’t? Americans seethed as they waited in long lines to “fill her up”. With transportation crippled, businesses everywhere struggled or folded.
The oil cartel, comprised of 12 partners, was guilty of malevolence and greed. They monopolized the marketplace, restricted access and fixed prices. But America was guilty of myopia and stupidity. We had allowed ourselves to become dependent on, and controlled by, foreign oil. The result was a debilitating embargo that cost this country dearly. Oil prices quadrupled and shortages ensued, triggering recessions and high inflation that persisted for more than a decade.

Our nation’s long awaited energy ascendance has come despite the vigorous actions of President Obama to curtail or shutdown oil and gas production. 

So forgive my glee over the recent implosion of OPEC’s grip on petro power. It only took us four decades to figure out the obvious: energy independence and freedom from foreign extortionists can only be attained by producing it yourself. Allowing others, including hostile and corrupt governments, to dictate supplies and prices is as crazy as Caulfield’s fear of falling out of a field of rye over a cliff.
America has finally backed away from its own energy cliff and is today on the precipice of energy success. Now, roughly 85 % self-sufficient, we are poised to become the world’s top producer of crude oil, having already become the top producer of natural gas. With it, comes the ability to render OPEC enervated and, perhaps someday, irrelevant.
Importantly, it is energizing our economy by reducing fuel prices, lowering transportation costs, and increasing the purchasing power of consumers, while boosting both manufacturers and retailers. Energy independence also impacts long-term economic growth in the form of lower inflation, a stronger dollar, and an improved trade deficit. Increased production here at home created jobs and fostered prosperity. It was the engine that helped drive our economy out of the recent bleak recession.
Our nation’s long awaited energy ascendance has come despite the vigorous actions of President Obama to curtail or shutdown oil and gas production. 
He has waged a six year war onfossil fuels, restricting access and delaying permits. Under his watch, oil and gas leases for federal lands and offshore sites in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans have been postponed, rescinded or cancelled. Don’t believe me? Check out the nifty list compiled by Doc Hastings, House Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee.
Yet, President Obama brags to audiences that “under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last 8 years.” He implies he had something to do with it. He did not. According to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, “all the increases in production since 2007 have taken place on non-federal lands.” In other words, it happened on private and state lands over which the president has little or no authority. Meanwhile, production has decreased significantly on federal lands over which Obama exerts control.
The president seems allergic to the notion of giving credit where credit is due. He had nothing whatsoever to do with opening new opportunities for drilling and increasing production. To the contrary, he fought it every step of the way. Credit is owing entirely to American oil and gas companies which had the ingenuity and tenacity to develop new energy-producing technologies that revolutionized the industry by discovering and recovering fuels that were heretofore unreachable. Their innovations have increased our nation’s oil production by 80 % since 2008.
America is on its way to becoming not only energy independent, but energy dominant. No thanks to President Obama. He didn’t want to hear it. Literally. I sat down with Harold Hamm, the billionaire oilman who opened up the vast Bakken oil and gas fields of the northern plains. He told me the story of meeting with the president at the White House early in his first term.
Question: What happened?
Hamm: I wanted him to know for sure the opportunity that we had. We were creating a whole new renaissance of American oil and gas. And there are a lot of good things that come from that. Good middle-class jobs, for instance. National security. The balance of trade.
Question: And his reaction?
Hamm: He didn’t want to hear it. And he didn’t hear it.
And then, something curious happened. Two weeks later, Obama’s Department of Justice brought criminal charges against Hamm’s oil and gas company. The crime? Killing a single bird. It was found in what’s called a “reserve pit” used to collect the waste and mud from drilling. A federal judge eventually dismissed the charge, but not before lambasting the D-O-J for its frivolous and wrongful use of legal muscle. Hamm had a different term for it –retribution, for trying to tell the president something he did not want to hear.
The incident may speak volumes about a president who appears to surround himself with sycophants, turn a deaf ear to the ideas of others, and castigate those who dare disagree with him. When it comes to energy, he has his own ideas. To wit, supporting neophyte companies like Solyndra which blew a half a billion dollars of taxpayer money on solar panels before going belly-up. It joins a list of 36 Obama-backed green energy companies that have either filed for bankruptcy or are faltering.
This is not to suggest that renewable energy is unwise or foolish. Indeed, it is vital part of our nation’s future if we wish to protect the environment and reduce our reliance on oil and natural gas as diminishing resources. But pervasive use of renewables are, at best, a generation away. Right now, wind, solar and biofuels are inefficient, expensive and intermittent. They account for a mere 6 % of the electricity generated in America.
Jimmy Carter’s answer to the chronic oil crisis of the 70’s was to turn down the thermostat and put on a cardigan sweater. It was a nice look, but didn’t really catch on. Most other presidents since then realized that the most effective strategy to combating domestic scarcity and foreign dependence was to simply drill more and increase production. But President Obama approach has been truly novel: oppose that very strategy while pretending to embrace it.
When you think about it… it’s an astonishing act of temerity for Obama to take credit for the oil boom he tried to block.
It brings to mind Holden Caulfield’s favorite word: “phony.”

St. Louis police allege hate crime in latest attack on Bosnian resident

The St. Louis police chief has asked for the FBI's help investigating what he believes was a hate crime attack against a woman in the same Bosnian neighborhood where a man was beaten to death days earlier by hammer-wielding teens, and where assaults have spiked dramatically in recent months.
The 26-year-old Bosnian-American woman told police she was stopped in her car by three African-American teens early Friday morning in the city's Bevo Mill section, where tens of thousands of Bosnians settled following the civil war in the former Yugoslavia 20 years ago. The incident occurred just blocks from where Zemir Begic, a 32-year-old Bosnian-American, was beaten to death by teenagers with hammers a week earlier.
One of the assailants flashed a gun and ordered the woman out of her vehicle and another hit the woman's windshield with what police believe was a crowbar, authorities said.
"You're Bosnian," one of the suspects allegedly said. "I should just kill you now."
The woman, who was pulled from the car and then beaten, was found unconscious by a passerby, police said. The alleged statement prompted St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson to present the case to the FBI.

"We have been stopped at intersections in Bevo and our car attacked by teens who pound on the car -- laughing at us."- Resident of St. Louis' Bosnian enclave

"As of now, officers are investigating this incident as a bias crime based on the victim's account of the incident," the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said in an email Monday. "The investigation is ongoing."
Authorities said they don't believe the attacks on Begic and the woman are related, but acknowledged a disturbing rise in violent crime in the area in recent months. Although police have not made a connection, the crime spike coincides with the rioting that followed the August police shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer in nearby Ferguson, Mo.
Bevo Mill residents, whose neighborhood has seen a cumulative 24-percent rise in aggravated assaults over the last three months, say assaults and threats by packs of teenagers against Bosnians have become the norm. One who spoke to FoxNews.com on condition of anonymity due to safety reasons claims he and his family experienced a similar attack and said there is a disturbing pattern of violence against white residents in the area.
"It is common for African-American teens to walk in the middle of the street and block in cars at intersections," said the man, who has lived in the neighborhood for half a decade. "We have been stopped at intersections in Bevo and our car attacked by teens who pound on the car -- laughing at us."
"They only do this to white individuals, who they have learned will generally not respond. There is a pattern here and it is racially motivated," he alleged. "Many of us are arming ourselves in order to avoid becoming the next victim to be beaten to death in the streets."
"Overall the whole neighborhood is on alert," Alderman Carol Howard told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "There’s been an uptick in crime since August. I really do believe it has set off a sense of lawlessness."
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, at the urging of Dotson, is working on a plan to put 160 additional officers on the street in response to the recent increase in crime, Slay's office said Monday.
Aggravated assault, for example, was up 19.6 percent in the Bevo Mill neighborhood in September when compared to September 2013, according to crime statistics posted on the St. Louis Police Department website. In October 2014, aggravated assault was up by 24.1 percent and by 29 percent in November when compared to the same month in 2013.

Jonathan Gruber on the hot seat heading into hearing

Republicans in Congress plan to launch its final assault on ObamaCare as consultant Jonathan Gruber will face questions about possible deceptions and a lack of transparency in the 2010 Affordable Care Act Monday.
Lawmakers have obtained videos that show Gruber saying the act was written in a “very tortured way” to hide taxes and it passed because of the “stupidity of the American voter.”
Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee told Reuters the public deserves an explanation from Gruber. Issa has used his position to attack the administration on issues such as the IRS scandal, misplaced guns and U.S. deaths in Benghazi.
"If you can't trust what he says, and what he says he'll do, to get votes and trick the American people into voting for something, then can you trust his analytics?" Issa said of Gruber.
"It is our job to see that the administration is working to run the country and that they are reporting honestly their successes and their failures,” he told Reuters.
Like many congressional hearings, Tuesday's session may provide partisan fireworks while doing little or nothing to change government policy. The president says he will veto any effort to overturn what Republicans call "Obamacare," should such a bill reach his desk after Republicans add Senate control to their House majority next year.
Gruber has served as health care adviser to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and has been dubbed “architect” of Obamacare by some Republicans. The government paid Gruber nearly $400,000 for his work.
Also testifying Tuesday will be Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In an effort to distance Tavenner from Gruber's remarks, the administration asked Issa to put her on a different witness panel. Issa's staff said it was weighing the request.
Issa calls the health care law "the poster child for this administration's broken transparency promises."
Issa's bare-knuckled inquiries into administration policies and missteps have often infuriated Democrats while providing welcome fodder for conservative talk shows, speeches and campaigns.
Issa has clashed with the administration on numerous topics. When he accused it of improper campaigning, he tried to bring two former Cabinet members — former Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis — before his committee. They declined.

'Unconscionable': Top Republicans lash out ahead of release of CIA report

The Three Stooges.

Top Republicans are lashing out ahead of the release of a long-anticipated report on the CIA's interrogation techniques, calling the decision to disclose the documents “unconscionable.”
Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, spoke out in a statement Monday after lawmakers and Obama administration officials warned that releasing the report could lead to a backlash against Americans around the world.
Rubio and Risch called the choice to release the report a “partisan effort” by Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, saying the report is not “serious or constructive.”
“We are concerned that this release could endanger the lives of Americans overseas, jeopardize U.S. relations with foreign partners, potentially incite violence, create political problems for our allies, and be used as a recruitment tool for our enemies,” the senators said. “Simply put, this release is reckless and irresponsible.”
The lawmakers spoke out as alleged new details of the report, which is expected to be released Tuesday, began to emerge. The 480-page report, a summary of a still-classified 6,000 page study, amounts to the first public accounting of the CIA's alleged use of torture on suspected Al Qaeda detainees held in secret facilities in Europe and Asia in the years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Reuters reported Monday night that the report contains graphic details about the techniques, including sexual threats made to detainees.
According to Reuters, the report describes how at least one detainee was threatened in a sexual manner with a broomstick. In another example, Reuters reported, a detained Al Qaeda operative was threatened with a buzzing power drill.
U.S. officials who have read the report say it includes disturbing new details about the CIA's use of such techniques as sleep deprivation, confinement in small spaces, humiliation and the simulated drowning process known as waterboarding.
A former CIA officer told Fox News Monday that the agency's techniques led to helpful intelligence. The former officer noted that once accused Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's will was broken, he generated more than 2,000 intelligence reports.
In addition, three former CIA officers from the program told Fox News that they believe the Senate report seeks to minimize intelligence that led the U.S. to Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti-- Usama bin Laden's trusted courier.
Another former officer told Fox News that the CIA was encouraged by lawmakers "to do whatever it takes" to prevent another attack on the scale of Sept. 2001.  The former officer said that Hill leadership was briefed more than three dozen times before the program was shuttered.
The White House on Monday reiterated its support for the report’s release, despite the warnings it could provoke violence. Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the administration has been preparing "for months" for the report's release.
However, Secretary of State John Kerry last week asked the Senate Intelligence Committee to "consider" the timing of the release.
The administration's stance was criticized by GOP Sen. Richard Burr, the prospective new chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Burr, R-N.C., said that Kerry's request that the report be delayed didn't jibe with Earnest's comments.
“It’s dumbfounding they can call and ask for it to be delayed and then say they want it out. You can’t have it both ways,” Burr told Fox News.
U.S. officials have confirmed to Fox News that an advisory has been sent urging U.S. personnel overseas to reassess security measures in anticipation of the release. The message directs all overseas posts, including those used by CIA personnel, to "review their security posture" for a "range of reactions that might occur."
A similar statement was being sent to military combatant commands to assess their readiness. Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said Monday the combatant commands have been urged to "take appropriate force protection measures within their areas of responsibility."
In Washington, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said America's allies are predicting "this will cause violence and deaths." He said U.S. intelligence agencies and foreign governments have said privately that the release of the Senate intelligence panel report on CIA interrogations a decade ago will be used by extremists to incite violence that is likely to cost lives.