would not solve US problems: Bush

May 17, 2008

US President George W. Bush said on Saturday that a hike in oil output by Saudi Arabia would not solve American energy problems.”It’s not enough, it’s something but it doesn’t solve our problem,” Bush told reporters in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Bush said he was “pleased” with a Saudi decision taken on May 10 to increase its oil production by 300,000 barrels per day in response to customers, but said that he was “also realistic” about what the Americans should do. “Our problem in America gets solved when we aggressively go for domestic exploration. Our problem in America gets solved if we expand our refining capacity, promote nuclear energy and continue our strategy for the advancing of alternative energies as well as conservation,” he said. “One interesting thing about American politics these days is those who are screaming the loudest for increased production from Saudi Arabia are the very same people who are fighting the fiercest against domestic exploration, against the development of nuclear power and against expanding refining capacity.” Bush was in Egypt for talks with Palestinian leaders and to address the Middle East World Economic Forum which brings together 1,500 people, including heads of state, business leaders and ministers from 55 countries. Lee ADDS: It is the Democrats that serve the wishes of their POLITICAL CONTRIBUTORS instead of the needs of their constituents that are the ENERGY PROBLEM CAUSERS!

Loud and clear:

Earlier today, Senator Obama made a few remarks I would like to respond to. I welcome a debate about protecting America . No issue is more important. Senator Obama claimed all I had to offer was the ‘naive and irresponsible belief’ that tough talk would cause Iran to give up its nuclear program. He should know better. I have some news for Senator Obama: Talking, not even with soaring rhetoric, in unconditional meetings with the man who calls Israel a ’stinking corpse’ and arms terrorist who kill Americans will not convince Iran to give up its nuclear program. It is reckless to suggest that unconditional meetings will advance our interests.

It would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a world where we don’t have enemies. But that is not the world we live in, and until Senator Obama understands that reality, the American people have every reason to doubt whether he has the strength, judgment, and determination to keep us safe

Lee ADDS: Obama may be good at delivering speeches but his knowledge of World Politics is rather weak and almost ‘mind numbing.’

According to a transcript provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Dr. Alloush said, “Whoever managed to get a martyrdom-seeker into Dimona, should consider how to get martyrdom-seekers into Dimona and elsewhere armed with non-conventional explosives - and perhaps even small nuclear bombs,” he stated. “We should think in this direction.”

Alloush lived for 13 years in the United States, earning graduate degrees at Ohio University and Oklahoma State University, where he earned a doctorate in economics.

Lee ADDS: OK, Obama, ashow us how good you are. Talk this guy out of it!

Harkin said that “it’s one thing to have been drafted and served, but another thing when you come from generations of military people and that’s just how you’re steeped, how you’ve learned, how you’ve grown up.”

A McCain spokesman said Harkin’s remarks were offensive and showed that Democrats are out of touch with Americans’ values.

“Senator Harkin’s comments are an affront to the many thousands of Iowans who have served our country so valiantly for generations,” said spokesman Jeff Sadosky. “This sort of attack shows just how out of touch Democratic leadership has become with the values that have made our country so great.”

Lee ADDS: This Democrat Senator prove that he is ‘out of touch with reality!’

…at least nine HIV-positive individuals in the US have previously been sentenced to much longer prison terms for spitting. A 2003 analysis from the Yale University Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS “found 24 instances of prosecutions for spitting…[and] convictions for HIV exposure in eight cases, in which there were two convictions for attempted murder, two for criminal exposure to HIV, one for assault with a deadly weapon, two for assault, and one for battery by body waste. The sentences imposed ranged from 90 days in jail to 25 years incarceration to life imprisonment.”

U.S. Than Its Enemies?

Friday , May 16, 2008

By Greg Gutfeld

Apparently, Barack Obama is more frightened of America than he is of its enemies.

Case in point: His boxers are in a bunch over what President Bush said on the 60th anniversary of Israel’s statehood. Bush said, “Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists… as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along… We have heard these foolish delusions before,” he says, recalling the Nazis… or the Belgians — I can never remember.

This is good stuff. But not for Obama, who replied, “It is sad that President Bush would use a speech on the 60th anniversary of Israel’s independence to launch a false political attack.”

So let’s get this straight: Obama thinks it’s wrong for Bush to say, on Israel’s birthday, that we shouldn’t appease enemies of Israel.

But what’s better, Obama? Should Bush echo your words and lunch with an Iranian madman who vows to wipe Israel off the map? That’s a crappy birthday gift. Worse than soap on a rope.

Here’s my real point: Obama must come up with a real plan to fight terror beyond scheduling tea time with tyrants. Problem is, instead of coming up with a plan, the Dems have spent the last seven years blaming Bush for everything. But he isn’t going to be president anymore.

So, Senator, where’s your plan?

You call Bush’s policies “politics of fear,” but we didn’t fly planes into buildings — they did. Terrorism is “politics of fear” — destroying terrorists is not.

So, until you lose this relativistic bulls—, the White House cat has more balls than you.

And if you disagree with me, then you sir, are worse than Hitler.

Lee ADDS: Now that is saying it like it is!

Saturday, May 17, 2008

CAPITOL HILL —  With the average price of a gallon of regular gas approaching $4, Congress is planning more hearings next week to discuss the problem.

The Senate judiciary committee is summoning top oil company executives and they can expect some tough questioning.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said people in one small town in her state are already paying $8.65 a gallon.

The Energy Department stopped buying additional oil stockpiles for the nation’s strategic petroleum reserves and said it won’t buy more for the rest of the year. That move came a day after Congress passed legislation requiring the president to stop the oil purchases.

Some lawmakers believe the 70,000 barrels-a-day that will now end up on the open market will lower gas prices. The White House said it probably won’t make a dent and some analysts agree.

Lee ADDS: Since Senator Schurmer says that ANWR Oil would not decrease the price of gasoline by .01 (one penny) how is it that curtailing oil flowing into the National Reserve will have a greater effect?

The way to get SEVERE PRICE REDUCTION is to< 1. Drill offshore NOW, 2. Drill in ANWR NOW, 3. Build at least 2 new refireries, 4. Advise OPEC that unless thety cut the price of their oil by AT LEAST 1/2, we will cease buying oil from them in 10 years! If OPEC agrees and cuts their prices we would continue to buy their oil for a gauranteed 20 year term then cut that purchase by 1/2. Any future attempts to increase the prise of Oil, by OPEC, will result in cessation of our purchasing FORTHWITH! 

WASHINGTON - A Democratic congressman on Saturday urged Republicans to “step up to the plate” to help veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., pointed to the updated GI Bill, which the House passed Thursday, as one way “a grateful nation can repay its heroes.”

“President Bush and our Republican colleagues in Congress should join Democrats to make these policies the law of the land so that a grateful nation can repay its heroes,” the congressman said.

The new GI Bill essentially would guarantee a full scholarship at any in-state public university, along with a monthly housing stipend, for anyone who serves in the military for at least three years. It is aimed at replicating the benefits awarded veterans of World War II and would cost $52 billion over 10 years.

To pay for it, the Democratic plan would impose a surtax on individuals with incomes above $500,000. Couples would pay the tax on income exceeding $1 million. Senators in both parties balked at the increase in tax rates, but 32 Republicans joined Democrats on the 256-166 vote in favor of the bill.

The vote on the GI Bill came amid a hectic series of votes Thursday, during which the House killed legislation to continue funding the Iraq war — money that the Senate is sure to revive in the coming week.

Becerra compared the GI Bill with the original legislation of 1944. “From President Roosevelt’s promise of a New Deal for America’s GIs was born the middle class,” he said. “Our economy grew, and our nation, armed with a growingly educated people, became the world’s powerhouse.”

The new bill would have a similar effect, Becerra said. “The GI Bill for the 21st century will strengthen the middle class, and it will make our heroes from Iraq and Afghanistan the front line of our American economic recovery,” he said.

“Our men and women in uniform have stepped up to the plate for the good of our country,” Becerra said. “It is time we step up to the plate for the good of our veterans.”

Lee ADDS: What about the money the Vets get for College schooling just for enlisting? Will that be curtailed? Why seek to ’spread the wealth’ of producers? What the earnings requirement of $500K? Why not put the tax levels are GROSS EARNINGS of the AVERAGE Senator with NO DEDUCTIONS ALLOWED?  

By DAVID ESPO and GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writers 16 minutes ago

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy had a seizure at his home and was hospitalized Saturday, his spokeswoman said.

The Massachusetts Democrat did not appear to have had a stroke as initially suspected, Kennedy spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said. She said he is undergoing tests at Massachusetts General Hospital to determine the cause of the seizure.

“Senator Kennedy is resting comfortably, and it is unlikely we will know anything more for the next 48 hours,” she said.

Kennedy went to Cape Cod Hospital on Saturday morning “after feeling ill at his home,” Cutter said. After discussion with his doctors in Boston, Kennedy was taken to Massachusetts General.

An official who declined to be identified by name, citing the sensitivity of the events, had earlier said that Kennedy had stroke-like symptoms. The hospital declined to comment on his condition.

Hyannis Fire Lt. Bill Rex told The Associated Press that a 911 call came in from the Kennedy family compound at 8:19 a.m. A man was transported to Cape Cod Hospital and transferred by air at 10:10 a.m. from Barnstable Municipal Airport to Massachusetts General.

David Reilly, a spokesman for Cape Cod Hospital, said that Kennedy was brought to the hospital at about 9 a.m. and stayed for about an hour before being flown by helicopter to the Boston hospital.

Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts did not talk to reporters when he arrived at the hospital shortly after 1 p.m.

Kennedy, 76, has been in the Senate since election in 1962, filling out the term won by his brother, John F. Kennedy.

In October, Kennedy had surgery to repair a nearly complete blockage in a major neck artery. The discovery was made during a routine examination of a decades-old back injury.

The hourlong procedure on his left carotid artery — a main supplier of blood to the face and brain — was performed at Massachusetts General. This type of operation is performed on more than 180,000 people a year to prevent a stroke.

The doctor who operated on Kennedy said at the time that surgery is reserved for those with more than 70 percent blockage, and Kennedy had “a very high-grade blockage.”

Kennedy is the lone surviving son in a famed political family. His eldest brother, Joseph, was killed in a World War II airplane crash. President John Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and his brother Robert was assassinated in 1968.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, beginning a tour of hospitals in Eugene, Ore., told reporters that he had been in touch with the senator’s family. “Ted Kennedy is a giant in American political history. He’s done more for health care than just about anybody in history. We are going to be routing for him. I insist on being optimistic about how it’s going to turn out.”

Kennedy gave Obama’s presidential campaign a big boost this year with his endorsement and has campaigned actively for the Illinois senator.

Kennedy was preparing to host the annual Best Buddies Challenge event on Saturday afternoon, a fundraiser for the Best Buddies organization founded by Anthony Kennedy Shriver that helps people with intellectual disabilities.

Hundreds are expected to participate in the event, which started with a 100-mile bicycle ride from the Kennedy Library in Boston to Hyannisport, and closes out with a concert at the Kennedy compound.

A man walking by the hospital was startled by the news when he asked about the reason for the large media presence.

“Ted? Is he all right? Jeez, I’m taken aback. I just saw him on television yesterday,” said Jerry Leonard, 76, a retired bartender.

“He’s a Kennedy. His name is synonymous with this area. I’m a Bostonian, too, and he’s done a lot for us around here and for the senior citizens in particular. I don’t know him but I feel a connection.”

Published on FOXNews.com on May 16, 2008.

President Bush is absolutely right to criticize sharply direct negotiations with Iranian President Ahmadinejad. Barack Obama’s embrace of the idea of direct negotiations is both naïve and dangerous and should be a big issue in the campaign.

The reason not to negotiate with Ahmadinejad is not simply to stand on ceremony or some kind of policy of non-recognition. It is based on the fundamental need to topple his regime by increasing the sense the Iranian people have — that he has isolated Iran from the rest of the world, to its severe and ongoing detriment.

The Iranian regime is almost entirely dependent on oil and gas revenues to pay for the vast program of social subsidies with which the government buys domestic support. Gasoline costs 35 cents a gallon in Teheran. Bread and all other staples are subsidized from public funds. But 85 percent of all government revenues come from oil and gas exports. There lies the regime’s vulnerability.

Iran is sitting atop the second largest oil reserves in the world. Only Saudi Arabia has more. But it can’t get at them. It lacks the foreign investment and technology necessary to increase, or even to sustain, its petroleum output. Under the Shah, Iran pumped upwards of six million barrels of oil a day. Now, Iran generates fewer than four million daily barrels. With domestic consumption of energy increasing at 10 percent a year — due in part to the massive subsidies which hold the price down — Iran is expected to see its oil exports cut in half by 2011 and entirely eliminated by 2014. If Iran cannot export oil, it cannot pay for social peace and the regime could be in dire trouble.

Without subsidies, the Iranian people, half of whom are under 30 and only 40 percent of whom are ethnically Farsi, will become restive and resentful. Already, many complain that Ahmadinejad’s policies have led to global isolation of Iran and stymied economic growth and social upward mobility. While opinion surveys in Iran indicate that the people support the nuclear aspirations of the regime, they are not willing to pay a price of international isolation.

If a President Obama were to meet with President Ahmadinejad, it would send a signal to the Iranian people that they are not isolated but that the rest of the world has come to respect them and to have to deal with them. The leading argument for toppling the current regime will have been fatally undermined.

But if the West sustains a policy of economic sanctions, curbs on foreign investment, and diplomatic isolation, the Iranian regime’s days are numbered.

Official United Nations sanctions are having some effect on Iran but the real power lies in cutting off investment by foreign companies, particularly in the banking and energy sectors. American companies are already prohibited from doing business there, although General Electric may be seeking ways around this prohibition through foreign subsidiaries.

Frank Gaffney, formerly of Reagan’s Pentagon, has pioneered the use of private economic disinvestment in companies that do business with Iran, Syria, North Korea, or Sudan. On his Web site, he has identified almost 500 companies that do business with these terror sponsoring nations. They include such international powerhouses as Sieman’s, Shell, Repsol, BNP Paribus, and Hyundai. He has crafted a terror free mutual fund which can earn good returns while avoiding investment in any of these companies.

Missouri Treasurer Sarah Steelman — now running for governor — pioneered disinvesting pension funds in these companies. Now California, Florida, and Louisiana have followed suit.

We need to let these policies work and global isolation of Iran is the way to do it. Negotiating with Ahmadinejad would simply boost his domestic stature and enhance his political stability, the exact opposite of what we should — and must — be doing.

Lee ADDS: In his political rants Obama has mase repeated claims that “As President I would deal more effectively with Iran than does Prersident Bush.”"

That alone is food for thought! President Bush has made every effort to secure the cooperation f the U.N. to severely isolate Iran anly to have nations that are not so concerned issues such as Nuclear Weapomry soften our every approach. At every turn America;s efforts are either denied or diluted so as to make any attempts fruitless!

Obama would… Oh, Yeah…Sit down and talk with Iran’s President…Gosh…That’ll show them…for sure!