Keystone Pipeline is Shovel Ready, but Obama Blocks it Anyway

U.S. energy independence is both an economic and a national security issue. Canadian pundit Ezra Levant of the Sun News Network raises a basic question in this video: Why does the Obama administration prefer to buy oil from dictatorships such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela rather than from our friend and ally Canada via the "shovel ready" Keystone XL Pipeline?

Does blocking the pipeline project make sense to anyone outside of radical environmentalists and other ideologues and cronies whose agenda supersedes the best interests of our country.

Levant: "Obama treats enemies like friends and friends like enemies."

If Prime Minister Stephen Harper does eventually go ahead and sell the oil to China instead, where does that leave us?

 

Writing at Forbes.com, Warren Meyer contends that that environmental impact concerns were exaggerated by those advocating "Medieval Socialism" and that "the Obama Administration could easily have approved the line with conditions or route modifications." Moreover...

The Keystone XL pipeline would have single-handedly carried more energy to the United States than the sum of all the green energy projects funded by the Obama Administration. And it would have done so entirely with private  funds rather than the [Administration's] increasingly ill-fated and ham-handed attempts at venture capitalism with taxpayer funds. The fact of the matter is that, for the foreseeable future, opposing fossil fuels is equivalent to opposing energy use.

Let's stop politicizing science.

The Most Interesting Man in the...South Carolina Primary

   [Image ©Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com]

GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum this week called front-running rival Mitt Romney "bland and boring."

Would any of remaining candidates, including Mr. Santorum himself, be considered charismatic?

If you were casting for the Dos Equis beer "the most interesting man in the world" radio and TV commercials, would any of these dudes qualify?

We do know, however, that Newt Gingrich (particularly in his performance last night) is the best debater in the group.

The infighting among the the active candidates is one thing; what continues to be disturbing is the intense hostility among the commenters on the right-of-center blogs. "My candidate is perfect--your horrible candidate is fatally flawed." "My candidate is electable--your wretched candidate has no chance in November."

The actual comments aren't that polite.

If Romney is the nominee, we have no idea if he will be a good general election candidate. For one thing, in an ill-advised search for something to brag about in the 2008 presidential election, the former governor messed up bigtime by implementing RomneyCare in Massachusetts.

That being said, given the intellectually bankrupt mainstream media who will protect and push Obama at every turn, the Republican alternative--whoever he is--will have his hands full.

Only one person can get the GOP nomination. To save the country from socialism and crony capitalism, those on the right and in the middle must unite in support of that candidate in the 2012 general election.

To all those Romney bashers, as well as bashers of other candidates who seek "purity" on all issues, do you really want Obama by default spending four more years loading up the federal agencies and federal courts with radical ideologues?

Tim Tebow--All He Does is Win...Sometimes

Except perhaps for Around the Horn's clown prince Woody Paige, no one is giving the Denver Broncos a chance against the New England Patriots in Saturday's NFL playoff match-up.

That being said, Tebow-mania appears to be here to stay regardless of what happens on the gridiron tomorrow night.

Here is DJ Steve Porter's superb tribute to the both maligned and celebrated former Florida quarterback featuring, among others, Paige's equally low-key ESPN colleague Skip Bayless:

Date Rape Allegation by Casey Anthony

In newly released pre-trial depositions, America's non-sweetheart Casey Anthony claims that she became pregnant with her late daughter Caylee following what amounted to date rape at a 2004 party. Anthony told the court-appointed psychiatrist and psychologist (who never testified during the murder trial) that she was drugged and passed out at the party and has no idea who the father might have been.

Separately, the New York Post claims that Anthony wants to fire her lawyer Jose Baez because--get this--Baez is too much of a publicity hound to help her cash in on her fame:

Sources tell us Anthony is furious that Baez has been basking in the limelight and rubbing shoulders with top TV talent, but hasn’t nailed down a big interview deal for her.

Anthony is in hiding somewhere in Florida while serving a year of probation on an unrelated check fraud conviction.

New Hampshire Primary Vote Fraud

New Hampshire's motto is "live free or die." It could also be "vote even you're dead."

In this video made on primary day, muckraker James O'Keefe reveals how easy it is to commit vote fraud in that state--and in other states that require no photo ID to vote or that fail to scrub the voter rolls of ineligible voters.

Only the Alice in Wonderland Democrats (including New Hampshire's governor who vetoed a voter ID bill) oppose reasonable efforts to prevent shenanigans at the polls.

Corrupt or incompetent state officials, aided and abetted by the U.S. Justice Department, are turning a blind eye to vote fraud--although in this case the New Hampshire attorney general claims he will conduct an investigation.



Requiring voters to show a photo ID before voting is one issue; fraud-prevention reforms also need to be made in the distribution of absentee ballots.
 

Is Illegal Immigration Still Illegal?

In its ongoing efforts to circumvent Congress, the Obama administration has announced a new rule that would "significantly shorten the time that illegal immigrants would have to spend away from their U.S. citizen spouses or parents while seeking legal status." On the surface, it sound reasonable perhaps.

But Mark Krikorian, president of the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Washington Post that...

the rule change could encourage marriage fraud by taking the risks out of applying for a waiver. 'There’s a reason to make people leave the country when they’re applying,' he said. “If they get turned down, they’ve already deported themselves.”

The rule change, he said, “presupposes the approval of all applicants — and if you don’t get it, you just go back to what you were doing.”

The administration also already tried to implement a stealth amnesty program that undermines the rule of law and national security.

But it gets worse. Separately, the Daily reports that there is rampant corruption in the federal government when it comes to granting visas:

Higher-ups within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are pressuring rank-and-file officers to rubber-stamp immigrants’ visa applications, sometimes against the officers’ will, according to a Homeland Security report and internal documents exclusively obtained by The Daily.

A 40-page report, drafted by the Office of Inspector General in September but not publicly released, details the immense pressure immigration service officers are under to approve visa applications quickly, sometimes while overlooking concerns about fraud, eligibility or security.

One-quarter of the 254 officers surveyed said they have been pressured to approve questionable cases, sometimes “against their will.”

Once again, this administration puts politics above the rule of law and national security.

The left has a penchant for opening the floodgates to illegal immigration regardless of the consequences. The Labor Party in the U.K. (which was thrown out of office in 2010) did the same thing according to the London Telegraph:

The huge increases in migrants over the last decade were partly due to a politically motivated attempt by ministers to radically change the country and "rub the Right's nose in diversity", according to Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett

He said Labour's relaxation of controls was a deliberate plan to "open up the UK to mass migration" but that ministers were nervous and reluctant to discuss such a move publicly for fear it would alienate its "core working class vote".

 ...Critics said the revelations showed a "conspiracy" within Government to impose mass immigration for "cynical" political reasons.

The Clinton/Gore administration apparently fast-tracked about one million aliens for naturalization in time for the 2000 election without going through the appropriate security checks but there was never a full investigation of this shady deal.

Through the White House Looking Glass

With all the irrational, bad-faith, and unconstitutional actions by the Obama administration, we often thought we might be living in an Alice in Wonderland world--but figuratively speaking only.

Until now.

Apparently, the administration adopted its literal meaning, the New York Post reports:

It was the tea party the Obamas just couldn’t resist. 

A White House “Alice in Wonderland” costume ball — put on by Johnny Depp and Hollywood director Tim Burton — proved to be a Mad-as-a-Hatter idea that was never made public for fear of a political backlash during hard economic times, according to a new tell-all...

The book reveals how any official announcement of the glittering affair — coming at a time when Tea Party activists and voters furious over the lagging economy, 10-percent unemployment rate, bank bailouts and Obama’s health-care plan were staging protests — quickly vanished down the rabbit hole.