Obama’s Stage Magic
I love stage magic.
Big stage effects like making the Statue of Liberty disappear, cabaret magic like sawing a lady in half, or, best of all, the close-up effects of table magic (i.e., making coins appear and disappear, floating business cards, all that sort of thing). I even had my own small magic show in junior high, and while I never could develop the dexterity for the best tricks, I learned enough to love the craft and respect the skill involved.
When you’re an aspiring magician, you watch the best magicians you can find, trying to see how the trick is done. You learn not to watch what the magician wants, to look where the magician isn’t looking, to concentrate on the left hand if the trick seems to be happening in the right hand.
This skill is turning very useful watching the Obama administration. This week, for example, there was a big announcement of a change in the Obama administration’s policy toward oil drilling, dutifully announced as the administration opening up great areas offshore for oil development.
Watch the other hand. Since the administration took over, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has canceled oil-drilling leases on wide areas of the U.S. that already have known reserves, and the Obama administration is seriously considering making even more of the American West inaccessible for oil production — and lots of other uses — by declaring millions of acres as national monuments. ANWR, with well-known oil reserves, is out, but other areas in Alaska are being opened … for exploration. In fact, even this announcement included the Department of the Interior canceling already pending sales in Alaska so that the areas involved could be made available for exploratory studies. (Got that? The administration canceled pending lease sales and “opened” the area for exploration.)
Known reserves on the Pacific Coast: out. Exploration off the Atlantic Coast, more than 50 miles offshore: in.
Or make that “in, maybe,” because there are some other issues. Many of the areas opened for exploration also turn out to be areas with environmental issues, or existing congressional limits on development. Even if oil and gas are found, it’s unclear when — or if — it could even actually be pumped.
Consistently, the Obama administration’s “new” oil policy comes down to be taking existing reserves off the table and announcing permission to begin to start to explore for oil and natural gas, which if found won’t be leasable. And as Rick Moran said here in PJM, any production that might come of it will be long after Obama has left office.
Well, it won’t be much of a trick to get the media to look where they are supposed to. Of course they will, and be grateful that they get to ignore what the other hand is doing.
0bama also said he want to get the GOP on board with cap and tax, and that he is therefore offering them a few fish. Sure, and a Fiat 500 in your garage!
This is completely off topic but how do you add an avatar besides the ghostly one that comes. I am a PJTV registered and have looked all around and can not see how or where to change or include one. Just wondering?
Steve, that’s an excellent question — mine just magically appeared, I’m not sure where it’s coming from. It’s not my head shot from the editors’ page.
And I think I know the answer: I just noticed that the page is now loading something from gravatar.com. I’ll bet it’s via gravatars and/or via a WordPress.com account.
Well I don’t use Word Press so I suppose that might be it. It would be nice to see further ways to fix the comments but the new replies here seem to work just fine instead of referring to a post number like #46 or #2 and a handle!
Yep you get a gravatar account and add the pic you want and it is associated with your email account, mine is there now. Wow the Gravatars are kinda cool, especially since you can change them, but not alter the size too much. It seems that 48 x 48 pixels is the limit at least on this site but it is cool anyway. I would like to see Poor Citizens (that would be nice)! You notice I am wearing my hard hat getting ready to get on a buck hoist on a fifteen story flop that only has thirteen occupants in Nashville Tennessee with a lousy view, but hey I just put the electrical distribution in that crappy building!
It appears that it is a Gravatar from the link you provided and it is associated with your e-mail address, and you can change the avatar by going to your account. Thanks for the link!
A number of us warned long before the election that Barack Obama would be our first postmodern president. The truth is to be squeezed, bent, and all sorts of other nasty things done to it. Obama is deceiving the common folk for their own good. They cannot handle the truth. It’s similar to a parent telling their small children about the existence of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Obama perceives himself as self-sacrificing and well educated. The main thing is to grab as much power as possible. The messy details can be worked out at a later date. A crisis is indeed too good to waste—and it behooves Obama and his top people to constantly create new ones.
Barack Obama has a long history of sleight of speech.
Pronouncements on energy policy (such as expanding nuclear in the SOTU & recent remarks on exploration/drilling) would follow the same pattern, convenient utterances, signifying not much.
The Complete List of Obama Statement Expiration Dates
Apparently, Obama has discovered, in the past week or so, that “green” can’t cut it just now in terms of powering the nation, and, as a result of that light bulb coming on, he’s throwing some words at a solution. Also, cynically enough, throwing a bone to up his popularity numbers.
(Liberals seem to figure throwing syllables in the direction of a problem is tantamount to solving it.)
Maybe he doesn’t want to solve it. A hobbled nation in decline is so much more in need of the all-encompassing Nanny State.
This kind of thing proves that liberals have no common sense. The U.S has the strictest drilling requirments in the world, but Obama would rather have countries with no enviromental regulations at all do the drilling.
This does more to prove that there is NO deceit liberals won’t stoop to. Obama and his Social Democrats are fully aware of the contradictions in their policy pronouncements and in their actions. While liberals by definition lack common sense this current energy policy perfidy isn’t due to lack of common sense. The difference between the sleight of hand practiced by magicians and the current Bolshevik regime is the magician’s benign attempt to entertain where as the Social Democrats purpose is to steal our freedom as well our money.
Noticeably absent in Obama’s “drilling” proposal was any sort of regulatory reduction or method of reducing the frivolous lawsuits that radical environmentalists have used for years to cripple our ability to produce our own energy.
I’m sorry, Mr. Obama the Magnificent, that coin didn’t really come out of my ear, regardless of what you say.
The outright lying this administration does is exemplified in the claim that Obama is “opening” up new areas for production. This charts best reveals what Obama actually did….
http://www.c3headlines.com/2010/04/obama-democrats-destroying-us-energy-security-with-incompetence-and-insanity.html
So he cancels more areas open to leasing to give this fake show of progress.
Gasolene has gone up a dollar a gallon since he came in. Part is due to the debt killing the exchange value of the dollar.
The consequences of higher energy costs is it always allows for less money to be spent on cars, homes and consumer products and services.
Obama is a mental midget in economics. Every dollar spent on fuel gives people one less dollar to spend on one of those dangerous high mileage minnie cars.
You almost got it right. Obama is the Charlie McCarthy ventriloquist dummy. Stop looking at him and start looking for the one who’s writing his words and moving his mouth. Who’s standing in for Edgar Bergen in this act? Is anyone paying attention?
“(Liberals seem to figure throwing syllables in the direction of a problem is tantamount to solving it.)”
Those embracing a utopian mindset are overly confident concerning their ability to solve problems. After all, they are wonderful and supremely well credentialed. In one way or another, it will work out in the end. The only real obstacle is the existence of the reactionaries. Such Neanderthals must be “nudged” as quickly as possible. And if that doesn’t work—rougher measures will be required.
I have a most disturbing theory to offer: it is my adamant conviction that Barack Obama doesn’t even spend five minutes a week truly worrying about the growing national debt! In his heart of hearts, this would be a total waste of time. It will be taken care of once he acquires sufficient power.
Perhaps because of his sneering contempt for America’s founding principles, the core values of her people, and the God-given rights enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, Barry Sotero (aka Obama) feels free to use the unprincipled, con-man tactics (a la Marxist practitioners throughout history) of misdirection and strawman “arguments” to push his narcissistic and authoritarian agenda. Sotero, who embodies the hopes and dreams of supposedly morally superior socialists everywhere, will use any and all means within what he views as his power, regardless of traditional moral, legal, or certainly constitutional constraints, to dismantle and/or overturn America’s foundational tenets, liberties, and free-market economy–thus preparing the way for our political and economic serfdom.
The good news is, the citizen-stakeholders in the true American dream and way of life are beginning to awaken, indeed to protest Sotero’s attempt to create a culture of envy, manufacture “useful” crises, forge the socioeconomic chains of dependency, and push America into steep decline if not the dustbin. Hopefully, their emergence will outpace Sotero’s race to replace America with a Marxist dystopia.
I should add something else. Some people reading my previous comments might conclude that I am engaging in a bit of hyperbole when asserting Obama probably doesn’t even spend five minutes a week worrying about the national debt. Nothing could be further from the truth. I carefully chose my words.
The progressive/liberal/socialist/communist Democrats have raised misdirection to an artform.
Perhaps most ironic is that as our president makes this sleight of hand announcement, the Chinese are already erecting oil rigs in, the Gulf of Mexico. The Chinese choose sites just outside our legal authority or waters. So, the Chinese drill within one hundred yards of our waters, while just one hundred yards away our companies cannot drill. Seems the EPA has authority over drilling operations of American based companies regardless of the drill locations.
Many existing, unused leases are unused because the oil companies have simply not gotten around to dedicating tens of millions of dollars for those sites until they have reasonable evidence there is oil. So, not using a lease has nothing to do with stockpiling them & everything to do with enough money to be able to explore & develop sites that “might” have oil, or not.
Ignoring the very real fact that no matter how much we commit to “green energy”, the very real fact of the matter is, we will need a bridge source of fuel until the green alternatives are economically & operationally viable.
Spain tried the Green Jobs route. Their ten years of experience shows, for every green job created, two ordinary jobs were lost. Other nations have similar experiences, but Spain’s is based on a study done by their government & by more years of experience than those others who tried this approach.
Why our leaders (sic) refuse to accept the obvious confuses most of us. They will one day be required to embrace drill now, drill often, drill soon, because we will run out of oil, will run into problems acquiring oil from other nations for one reason or another, & will run into problems getting other nations to buy our debt instruments as their values drop like rocks. By then, responding to our needs will mean one to three decades of serious pain in America, because it will take that long to find, develop, drill, & begin pumping actual oil.
Maybe they really do want to destroy America by crippling our ability to function?
Jim M:
You have nailed it. It’s not smoke and mirrors as much a puppetry. Ventriloquism along with Pinocchio style fabrications.
My bet that the main one pulling the strings is George Soros.
I can’t prove it, and wish somebody could or would, but I imagine that the Sept 2008 financial meltdown was engineered by Soros and his minions to drive the stock market into the dumpster.
If I recall correctly, the McCain/Palin ticket was leading up until that day.
David Thomson:
I for one don’t imagine you are offering up hyperbolic theories. I think you are spot on.
The man spends more time worrying about the pick and roll on the roundball court than he does his day job.
To that end he reminds me of the kid who sucks on the basketball court, who can’t get his game on but owns the ball.
Eventually he will lose his temper, take his ball and go home. On the way, he will let the air out of everybody’s bicycle tires.
Let’s hope his tantrum will occur in a less damaging one term than a severely devastating two.
The typical American would be stunned to release the extent of his indifference. Obama probably does indeed spends more time and effort selecting his college basketball teams than running the country. The petty details are beneath him. Obama is a narcissist who is convinced that his virtue and talents will get him out of any difficulty. He merely needs to step on the court of life and the game will be easily won.
Obama dont allow drilling, you dont like it. Obama allows drilling, you dont like it. I think you just dont like it. Just admit it/// man up. Now, how do you like that? I din’t think so…
Good Luck
I think your name was well chosen.
it DOES renew a little faith in the marketplace, doesn’t it.
D-bagged intellectual horsepower on display here. Just because you are unable to distinguish between empty rhetoric while double dealing doesn’t mean the rest of us are so handicapped.
Let me know when we get to the “allows drilling” part.
Obama isn’t allowing anything! Congress (democrats) repealed the moratorium on off-shore drilling in the fall of 2008, just in time for the Nov. elections. Surprise, surprise! Oil exploration was going to happen regardless of Obama, or Clinton, or any other disease ridden liberal’s opposition.
http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2008/USoilban_lifted
You STILL here PC typing as “THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE DIE” ( well thats what YOU claim isn’t it) so how come you have so much time on your hands why are you not helping these THOUSANDS of dying people? N.B. YOU stopping writing perpetual nonsense would be a good first move LOL
In his magnificent benevolence he is letting companies explore places that probably he has no right to control i.e. 50 miles off the east coast. That is open water and the US can not/does not control it and besides it probably is going to be really difficult because of the water depth. But as one commentator said China is drill right outside our 12 mile limit. He is not giving us anything except the back of his hand.
Actually, current international law recognizes a “exclusive economic zone” out to 200 miles. That’s what China is staying out of, and where Obama is now allowing exploration.
“Obama dont allow drilling, you dont like it. Obama
allowslies about allowing drilling, you dont like it.”Corrected that lie for you, PC.
Actually there is more to correct in the following sentence from Ole PC.
Obama dont allow drilling, you dont like it. Obama allows drilling, you dont like it
Obama dont like drilling should be Obama doesn’t like drilling don’t means do not and is poor grammar
but the second and third don’t is O.K as in you do not like it the first don’t is a grammatical error aside from not including the apostrophe. Other than that I think you did a fine job!
I am presuming that, come summer and $4/gal gasoline, Obama will be able to say, with a straight face of course, that he changed the energy policy by allowing construction of nuclear facilities and opening new areas for drilling.
Who’s to blame if we are short on supplies? The oil companies.
A small man should be spelled with small letters. obama.
Act I. The Oval Office
Axelrod: Barry, I think Sarah Palin is getting a lot of traction with that “drill, baby drill” thing; I have an idea, why don’t we send you out with a similar message and see your approval ratings skyrocket.
Barry: Good idea Ax, I think I’ll do that.
Emanuel: Yes, but we’ve got to be sure that it doesn’t actually happen, cause there go your loons to the left. I’m going to ask Cass to see what he can do to make sure that this doesn’t happen.
Barry: Good idea Rahm, please do.
Act II. The Office of the Information and Regulatory Affairs.
Secretary: Cass, “dead fish” on line 1.
Sunstein: Thanks Huanita; Hi Rahm. What’s up? Did you see how smoothly the vote went in the House? That draft-idea about the “rules” did do what it was supposed to do, didn’t it? Now, what’s the problem?
Emanuel: Ax had this funny idea, have Barry throw out this “drill, baby, drill” thing, and we want you to draft the regulations that this doesn’t do what it says it does. Can you do that in, say… 10 minutes?
Sunstein: No problemo Rahm; give me 15′ though.
Emanuel: You’ve got it, Cass. Fax me. See you Thursday night at 7:00 sharp, we’ll have grilled salmon.
Thanks Charlie,
For me, living in Alaska, the bellweather that I’ve been observing to see if they are serious about energy, is the proposed exploratory drilling in the Chukchi by Shell. If they truly wanted to drill without worrying about offshore oils spills and harming whales etc, they would drill ANWR, but lets put that aside.
In order to drill in the Chukchi Shell needs a long leadtime to accomplish the expensive logistics of moving men and machinery to the Chukchi for this summer’s proposed exploratory drilling. It also had to send its drilling ship to the Philippines for $25 million worth of enviro-modifications, so all this stuff doesn’t happen at the drop of a hat.
In November Salazar made big headlines by giving approval for the summer drilling of 2 exploratory wells. However, careful readings of the details showed Salazar still sat on other approvals that prevented Shell from actually doing the exploratory drilling. Shell likewise had to wait for EPA approval and Enviro-lawsuits.
When Salazar/Obama came out last week announcing their new policy, again it received big headlines, and amazingly within 24 hours the EPA now gave Shell approval of their air quality drilling permits. All sounds good, yet still, if you carefully read the reports, Shell still has Enviro-Legal hurdles to jump over.
http://www.adn.com/2010/03/31/1207546/31alaska-offshore-lawsuits.html
“Three lawsuits are pending, and Shell could encounter additional legal challenges if it receives key permits from federal regulators it still needs this spring.
Here’s a round-up of the litigation:
• Several North Slope villages and environmental groups filed a lawsuit to overturn the 2007-2012 oil and gas leasing plan approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior during the Bush administration. A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., ruled that the plan’s environmental analysis was flawed and must be redone. The Obama administration is collecting public comment on the revised plan, unveiled Wednesday, for 30 days before finalizing it and sending it to the court for approval or rejection.
• Many of the same villages and groups are contesting the 2008 federal lease sale that awarded leases in the Chukchi. That case is still pending in federal district court in Anchorage.
• Similar groups are also challenging Shell’s exploration plans for the Beaufort and Chukchi this summer. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to rule before the summer.”
And remember, all this isn’t for drilling. It is for “Exploratory” drilling. A big difference, as legal challenges will cloud the picture even if the Exploratory drilling goes through. So thats what I’m currently watching for to see if this Administration is truly interested in a realistic and sensible energy policy.
And BTW, within the last 2 years China signed a 25 Billion Dollar Oil Pipeline and a 3.5 Billion dollar Gas deal with the Russians, and as I type are currently building 20 Nuclear Power facilities in China. That’s what a a nation that is serious about energy development looks like. http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf63.html
OOFTA! Salazar,Obama’s hispanic race baiter, is beside himself over the rapidly expanding production of Oil and Gas in the Williston Basin of North Dakota and Montana. There is not a damned thing they can do about it as it is all on private land. For now,anyway, but watch them try to pull off something like “Sage Grouse Rights” to try to shut down drilling. Those grizzled old ranchers and farmers have let Salazar know not to come back if he wants to avoid being bent over like a double barreled shotgun!
The author forgot to mention that if a magician where to tell the truth he would not have an act, as the late great host at the Hollywood Magic Castle Don Lawton said, “the bigger the lie, the better the magician.”
If Obama and company would allow drilling in ANWR and off the coast of Santa Barbara, the oil could be flowing into pipelines in three years. It would:
1.Create many new jobs.
2.Keep the price of oil in a reasonable zone.
3.Allow us to buy less imported oil, which would cut our balance of payments.
4.Help alleviate California’s financial problems.
5.Bring billions in tax revenues and royalties into the government’s coffers.
6.Make us more secure.
In my book there is little downside.
But I forgot. The caribou wouldn’t like it. There might be an environmental disaster. You know, like in the Gulf after Katrina. (Oh, right. It didn’t happen.) And then there’s the real biggie – the Sierra Club wouldn’t like it.
So, no, it’s not gonna happen. Unless we elect more people who aren’t in the pocket of the Greenies and who care about the fiscal condition of the country. Can. Not. Wait. For. November!
The typical American would be stunned to release the extent of his indifference.
I do so believe that. That unless something is a direct extension of his own ego, the man simply isn’t interested.
Altho’ occasionally some handlers get together with Barack and decide on some false representation, some spin, to placate critics.
(Ideally, Obama would use the power of the federal government to simply silence those critics in the spirit of “shut up, we won.”)
Anyway, the putative leader of the free world misspelled Syracuse (“Sycacuse”) on his NCAA picks
The man is a liar. It is his native tongue.
A malevolent liar to boot.
Your forgot the other hands working against coal mining while he distracts us with nuclear and the supposed proposed drilling for oil and gas… yes it is misdirection top to bottom with this Administration.
On the nuclear option, Will Collier at PJM had an interesting article on smaller nuke plants, similar to what Bill Gates showcased a month or so later at TED. These small plants would conceivably stay on-site rather than using Yucca Mountain or some other large scale repository for waste disposal.
Even better, some of the new cycle reactors produce dramatically less waste anyway. Here are a couple of google searches for thorium cycle and traveling wave fission reactors. Both promising ideas, neither leading to energy production in the near term.
Obama’s nuclear policies seem created to aid the French government.
A federal loan guarantee for a uranium enrichment plant in Idaho for the FRENCH government is almost certain ($2 billion to insure the French taxpayer?)
Foregoing Yucca Mountain does make sense since reprocessing is much more economical. However, who is proposing a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the US? That same French government corporation that will get the loan guarantee for the uranium enrichment plant.
Somehow, I think that the French benefit most from Obama’s nuclear energy policies.
Its really fairly simple. If the product you’re trying to sell is the welfare state, you need customers — people who are not economically self-sufficient. In order to have a dynamic economy that can provide jobs and opportunities for people to be self-sufficient, you need plentiful and relatively inexpensive energy. Every modern economy requires this.
So, if you want to sell the welfare state, keep energy supplies low and expensive. The “green” aspect is just cover, a means to an unspoken end, not an end in itself. What Obama’s energy policy will do to our nation is not, by his lights, a bug, but a feature.
Testing… 1..2 ..3
The Democrats are incapable of coming up with an energy policy that provides energy – their environmental and lawyer base will prevent any initiative from succeeding, even if Obama and his ilk deign to allow Americans to drill or build reactors.
They have been leading us down the road to energy poverty for decades, and with Obama in charge, it’s even worse. He is such a clueless and incompetent clown, we are in deep trouble.
One of the scariest things is this “National Monument” nonsense. One of the last things Clinton/Babbitt did was turn a bunch of Arizona/Utah into one of these – to prevent the mining of our vast reserves of coal. Is there no end to federal power????
Finally, I gotta see if my Gravatar shows up…
you are too kind Charlie. calling it magic or obama a magician is giving him more credit then he deserves.
what he is doing and has done is criminal.
he and his supporters are at the least dishonest.
There are a lot of hack magicians in the world, The Amazing Randi, his claim to fame was at the expense of other way more talented people, The Masked Magician, exposing creative endeavors to make a cheap buck by stealing their ideas, Obama, lies and smiles while he picks your pocket. All hacks.
Drill baby Drill!!! (anywhere there is no oil)!
…I have to sort of admire the Obama administration, as their ability to misdirect, to get the media to look where they’re supposed to, is truly skillful.
The media isn’t being misdirected, they’re largely part of Obama’s crew.