Wow. Maybe the lawyers defending this suit don't talk to the higher ups, but it appears the Obama administration
is not walking back this disastrous drilling moratorium,
as I had suspected. This is terrible economic policy, as
noted by me (
and a panel of experts), but it is also bad politics. Obama pleases a fringe slice of his base while putting thousands out of work when his administration and his party need every last job that they can find going into midterm elections and beyond. Secondarily, the
last thing he needs is higher oil prices. He is playing with the white hot type of political fire here, unemployment and gas prices, and on present course he's gonna get badly burned.
Jim Chanos is shorting Ford because the UAW is both inside Ford and in the Board Room at GM and Chrysler.
Where did I hear before that this might be a problem?
Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell, Democrats both,
take to the pages of the WSJ to analyze the anti-incumbent political landscape and their opening line is this: "The most important story from last week's primary elections is that, for the first time in recent memory, inexperience has become a badge of honor, as opposed to an impediment to winning office." I have never heard such a piece of news that makes me more optimistic about the health of our nation as this!!
Put aside for a minute our
thuggish, mafia-like Presidential administration (not to say that it is not a
BIG issue, but put it aside anyway), I am beginning to see the potential brilliance in BP's acquiescence to the $20 billion escrow account. They may owe more eventually, but it'll be years before the final number is known. In the meantime the $20 billion is teed up, and when there is an outcry over how it is dispensed (and there will be inevitably, but especially when you throw the government's famed efficiency at it), BP can safely (and happily) say "Hey man, talk to the government, they are in charge." BP has thus bought immunity from voluminous bad press and outrageous outrage for years to come over who gets money, how much money and when they get it. Once again the government is brimming with the false bravado of having won a battle when the war is looking quite bleak for them.
You've heard of the "Five Biggest Lies", the first of which is "the check is in the mail"? Well, we have a sixth.
Coming from the Obama administration, it is "We're
open to good ideas from all sources, and will be working with Senators on a comprehensive proposal." This is utter bullsit that no one believes this any more, if they were stupid enough to believe it ever.
The jobs numbers out today let the rightosphere (and libertarianoshere) continue to indulge in their favorite running joke..."
Unexpectedly!" For those who don't get the joke, the media keeps pointing to negative news about jobs and the economy as if it all was somehow inexplicable, anomalously incongruent with Obama's genius, wizardry, and deep understanding of our economy. But there are those of us who
actually know what the disastrous policies coming out of Washington DC are doing and will do to our economy...and the bad news is
far from "Unexpected." Case in point, I said the
gratuitous attack on the credit card industry would reduce consumer credit, limiting consumer spending. Check. Today's shocking cause and effect item...
the free checking account is disappearing, because of new regulatory costs imposed on banks. Go figure. Will the MSM be using this "Unexpectedly" meme when they all go the way of the dodo like Newsweek? I can just see the headline now "New York Times Unexpectedly Goes into Chapter 11?"
Finally, in honor of the circus being conducted in Washington DC today with politicians berating BP, we have
another gem from Ramirez.
