Oil and Idiots and Obama, Oh My!

Is Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) an idiot?

That is the question on the lips of every talking head and politician of every stripe. Conservatives and radical leftists alike are debating endlessly about his speaking his mind during the recent hearings on the Gulf spill. And thanks to a media who are generally supportive of El Presidente, we’re all supposed to believe that it is worthy of conversation, as well. So what is the answer? Is Joe an idiot?

And the answer is…’yes’. That is, he was an idiot, but not for the reasons the Far Left would have you to believe.

You see, Rep. Barton had the right sentiment. MSNBC this week gleefully bragged about how their boy in Washington 'shook down' BP for the fund. And the congressman is familiar with the tactics of the White House, and more importantly, with the Chicago-style politics practiced by Obama and those of his ilk. In their political world, persuasion is accompanied by threats and other strong-arm methods. Think Rahm Emmanuel, Obama’s right hand man, who is known throughout the political landscape as a hardballer. Think Rod Blagojevich, who apparently demanded political contributions before he would release federal funding and who may have extorted reporters as the Chicago Tribune. Think Bill Ayers: terrorist with whom Obama is sure he never met. In Chicago. Never-ever.

Barton was correct in thinking that Obama may have applied some Windy City pressure to BP to get them to front the $20 billion claims fund to help folks affected by the oil spill. The president had already ratcheted-up his rhetoric against British Petroleum in order to cap the huge leak in his poll numbers. But even threats from the White House aren’t enough to get that kind of scratch from any business in one 15 minute meeting.

The fact is that BP knew they were helping their own cause by offering the money for the claims fund and Obama would be able to look as if he was actually doing something. This move was most likely in the works for some time, as well. BP knew they would pay the money anyway, and this way they appeared more compassionate.

So what of the good congressman?

He was an idiot by giving the administration something useful to divert attention from their own lack of action. Barton took something that should be preordained for a catastrophe such as this and turned it into a chance for the Left to make his party look like they were in the backseat with Big Oil, getting all handsy and such. Since those stupid remarks left his mouth, it has been a daily political sleight-of-hand from the White House.



It would have been better for Barton to acknowledge that BP was absolutely culpable, and then he could have moved on to the fact that the administration has failed us yet again. How about how the administration’s insistence on ‘greening’ America apparently doesn’t mean anything when it comes to upholding drilling regulations? Or how about the entrenched bureaucracy at the Minerals Management Service was allowed to be lax on a company who continuously violated its own policies on offshore platform drilling? How about how Obama has been like a deer in the proverbial headlights when failing to react as soon as he could to this disaster? Or how nothing Obama has done has kept one bit of oil from continuing to flow into the Gulf?

Finally, where is the discussion about Obama making a speech, ostensibly about the spill, where he mainly touts yet another bloated and corrupt government program accompanied by some additional taxes?

Now, for almost the past week, the conversation was allowed to drift from these salient points…all because Rep. Barton tried to score some cheap political points. BP, and our government, are equally guilty. And by him lowering himself to the level of the Left, we again see that politics can still trump real need – just pay no attention to that oil spill behind the curtain.

South Carolina? IT'S A TRAP! says Jim Clyburn

Who is who?

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), who has never met a rock under which he couldn't find some racism, has called shenanigans in regards to Alvin Greene's unlikely win in the Democrat Senate primary. He would know something about shenanigans and South Carolina, as his own 6th congressional district was gerrymandered to cover the black neighborhoods of virtually every town in the eastern part of the state. And like our favorite Star Wars crustacean, he thinks the primary election is a trap.

Clyburn has taken time off from calling Tea Party folks 'terrorists' to assert that Greene is part of an insidious plan by Republicans to usurp the election process by secretly supporting the unknown winner. He has called for an investigation into how Democrat voters could be so dumb to vote for a virtually unknown person.

Perhaps Rep. Clyburn should concentrate on doing the job for which he was elected and stop trying find corruption in everything his opponents do...especially when his 'corruption detector' seems to be on the fritz when his side is involved. Hopefully someone will remind him of that, especially since he was one of only 15 congressmen who voted for a pay increase in this bad economy, (House members only make a salary of $174,000 per year), versus 402 against. And of the 15, 13 were members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Clyburn.

Speaking of the CBC, they have 39 voting members, or only 9.3% of the House of Representatives. But 17% of  the worst 100 congressmen for attending votes (what they're paid to do) are in the CBC, or 43.5% of their own membership. And of those 17 worst, over half were the lazy-asses wanting more pay.

Admiral Ackbar had it correct, it's a trap all right...and it's called delusion.

How Did Ashton Kutcher Punk an Entire State?

Of the more interesting primary victories this week was the big win for South Carolina Democrat Senatorial Candidate Alvin Greene. Alvin's stunning victory may be a part of a greater strategy by the DNC and the White House to influence elections by secretly putting up candidates whom they see as policy experts. Sort of like Alvin. Here are some of the more interesting points about this future leader, culled from various media outlets:

• He is an unemployed ex-vet who was reportedly 'forced out' of the Army.
• Greene had virtually no money, no campaign donations, no advertising of any kind, and no campaign website. Lobbyists can't influence you when they don't know who you are.
• Greene lives with his parents. He is not on home incarceration, either.
• A tidbit from his foreign policy platform: 'I think there should be one Korea, under democracy, done peacefully.  It would be good for the economy of the nation and South Carolina and our allies.' Very brave of him to not let history or political realities to get in the way of his beliefs -- he's a true Democrat. There is no word yet on whether he believes there should be a worldwide minimum wage of $37 per hour or if every global citizen should have a right to 'Free Ice Cream Wednesdays'.
• Greene is, of course, a big supporter of President Obama and Obamacare.
• When asked about TARP funding to bail out financial institutions, and how he would have voted on the measure, he replied, "TARP? What's that? (pause) I'll have to get back to you on that." Thank you Jake Gibson of Fox News for being one of the only media guys to report this.
• Greene was equally astute on the subject of Iran: 'I think how we're going about, what we're doing is OK, I think ... Look, I have someone beeping on the other line, I have to move on ... I'm exhausted.'
• He has said he is looking forward to debating Republican incumbent Senator Jim DeMint. Sorry Mr. Greene, you are not nearly excited about that debate as the rest of us are.

• Greene apparently took an interview in his dad's living room in a pair of sweatpants and family reunion t-shirt from 1993. They always love those shirts, with all the tacky airbrushing and  the memorial 'R.I.P. Jamal' stuff written all over them. Let's not forget the grainy family pics printed on them, too. I wonder if they had a step competition for that one back in '93?
• The AP broke the story the day after Greene's victory that he was recently hit with a felony obscenity charge. Greene apparently approached Camille McCoy, then 18, in a computer lab in November at the University of South Carolina and showed her porn. He is then alleged to have propositioned her and asked to follow her back to her room.  Miss McCoy, a young self-described Republican, was stunned that her alleged harasser had wone the Democrat Senate primary or was even in the race, for that matter. Unfortunately, there are no pics of the teen victim that can be found, but The Third Front is really anxious to see what she looks like. Really, really anxious.
• There are no reports as to what he was doing in a college campus computer lab. Maybe he was taking a break from raking leaves.

The South Carolina state Democrat political machine, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic National Convention have all ignored Alvin Greene, except to ask him to drop out of the race. Doubtless the Obama Administration will have Rahm Emmanuel use an intermediary (like Tyler Perry, perhaps) to offer this guy a job in the government -- with his ideas he seems right in line with Obama's foreign policy advisors anyway, so he might be a natural fit.

However, I think I share the view of the nation in saying NO! Mr. Greene should stick with his campaign. Here is a young, moral, intelligent African-American who had the audacity of hope to go against all odds and run a campaign for the U.S. Senate just because he has a lot of time on his hands. This rising Democrat star is being held down by the man, and the small-minded bureaucrats in his party need to see his true potential. After all, if our president was a U.S. senator for only about 17 days, and had a resume' rich with just some community organizing, why can't Alvin Greene take his vast expertise to Washington? We say take it, brother.

Regardless of the outcome, this is the classic American story of a guy who dared to reach for the stars -- by giving the finger to Obama. This is Alvin Greene's V-E Day.  It's his day to storm the Bastille, or to be the first one to get his Popeye's coupons in the mail. But more than that, this may just be his way to say to Obama, "Screw you and your failed stimminus! You done bailed out da wrong folks...you promised green jobs and I ain't got no Greene job, but I's about to!"

So we say to Senatorial candidate Alvin Green that you've given us hope and change we can believe in. And for that, we thank you.