Maybe the only surprising thing about Barack Obama’s latest statement about offshore drilling, for the moment, he’s for it, is that it took so long for him to change his mind. I would imagine that being in Florida, a coastal state that has…

And I’m sure a book of yours would have more meat to it than Pelosi’s.

The New York Times really knows how to spread a little icing on an oily flip-flop.
On Wednesday, here is Obama in Springfield, Missouri, calling offshore drilling the Republicans “latest scheme” and saying, “So If I thought that by d…

Which, MrLynn, is pretty much in line with your examples.

My experiences in government? Makes for some pretty dull reading, I assure you. I was one of those nameless faceless types who sat in on all sorts of meetings, or took part as a “sherpa” for a couple Summits, or otherwise got to engage with some really off the wall foreign types overseas at my government’s behest. Lots of mileage. Lots of grey hair these days, too. I was pretty average back in the day, really. Still am. Single, pretty much over the hill. Kids are grown. Just me and the cats. HA is my current domain. Was over at Captain’s Quarters for a couple years. Have been contemplating doing some writing, but until they change a few laws, regarding pre-approval of publications, don’t know if the hassle is worth the effort. I mean, if someone as esteemed as Speaker of the House Pelosi writes a book and it only hits in the 1500 range on Amazon…

But thank you for your very kind comments, regardless. I enjoy engaging here at Hot Air. Keeps the grey matter sharp.

. . . look at what private individuals working out of their garage did to change the face of communications, commerce and exchange of knowledge across the globe. It wasn’t government. Why cannot more people understand this simple very simple idea?

coldwarrior on August 3, 2008 at 11:37 AM

Valid point, but we should admit that government can sometimes play a constructive role: 19th-century land grants for railroads, Apollo 11, the Arpanet (which become the Internet), etc.

Excellent posts, Coldwarrior. Good reading. If you haven’t already, you really ought to find a more visible outlet than these ephemeral HA threads. Would like to hear more about your experience in government–and out of it, for that matter.

Obama surrogate Robert Rubin on “Face the Nation” this morning. It was a masterful example of pin point parsing and cagey cozening. Click the pic to read this exchange in particular: He becomes even more incomprehensible later in the interview,……

Thanks again. I love it.

rockhauler on August 3, 2008 at 1:11 AM

(Let’s make this the last off-topic response on this particular thread, shall we? I feel guilty eating up bandwidth. I’m a guest here. We oughta get back to Obama and his new solution whatever that might be today, or later today, or this evening…)

The global Islamist movement is not an organized entity like one would see with the Sicilian “mafia” or organized crime, or the old COMINTERN. It is not a structure. It is a movement. It has independent cells, fellow travelers, cells of opportunity…one or two guys sitting in Tunis can design and execute an operation in Rome, or Dakar, or Long Beach…and when it is all done, and the smoke has cleared, and the bodies processed at the morgue, these two guys can get on the internet and proclaim they are AQ in Tunisia, or Long Beach…having never met Osama, and having never met anyone in AQ. Osama’s organization pretty much exists in name only and in the form of a rapidly dwindling number of Osama-trained and financed thugs with targets on their backs hiding out along the Pak-Afghan border. This is one of the reasons we are spending so much time and effort across the Third World using small teams, instructors and advisors help[ing local governments root out, run down, and destroy thugs and AQ-wannabe’s before they can carry out that big hit. This is also why such things as a free-trade agreement with Colombia, for example is so vital. Enabling economic progress in backwards nations is a key element in all of this. The war on the jihadis is NOT confined to Iraq and Afghanistan. Over 60 countries are directly involved, sometimes more, sometimes fewer. It doesn’t make the headlines because, frankly, it shouldn’t. But the overall effect of any successful jihadis effort is to show the world that the jihad is alive and growing…even if it is not.

As for China, China has NO connection to the Islamacists…they are cracking down heaviily in their far Western Islamic areas inside China, especially in the run-up to the Olympics. They’ve offered limited autonomy to Moslems within their Moslem areas, but have a firm hand on anything that might even look like straying from the approved texts and draconian Chinese law.

Now, for Obama…

The Left (especially in the form of Maxie Waters) has made a number of feints and jabs at getting the US to nationalize the oil industry. Their belief seems to parrot alphie’s. But, this would bring higher prices in the long run here in the US, not lower. Whenever my wife(ex-wife, thank you, God) would start to compain about some program, she’d normally start off with “the government needs to do something to fix this…” I’d look at her and say “Oh, really? I’m part of the government, you want guys like me to fix something?” That’d put the issue at rest as she would walk off grumbling and mumbling some epithet or two..

“Whatever happened to Captains of industry bringing us products and services we couldn’t provide for ourselves?”

Excellent point, Speakup. Excellent point.

A lot of those captians of industry started out in the barn, or garage, or basement or their kitchen table with an idea, and tweaking it, refining it, putting their own money, efforts and time into it, developed a process, a product, a better mousetrap…and then sold it…or got venture capitalists to invest in it to make it better or sell it on a larger scale. Look at that annual listing of millionaires and such. Look at how many rich folk in the US are rich because of inherited money and how many are rich through their own efforts. Then look from year to year and see who is new on the list and who has dropped out. Being Rich in America is a pretty fluid thing. Today’s captain of industry may be an itinerate rag picker tomorrow. Taking risk is what has driven our industrial development since before we became a nation. There are no guarantees of wealth or income. The role of government should be to clear the path, get the roadblocks out of thwe way, not to control the outputs. Obama thnks differently, as do many, too many, on the Left.

Look over what happened in the Soviet Union over 70 years. State control of capital, the means of production, wages, raw materials accomplished what? When Gorbachev began his perestroika campaign, his intent was to reform Communism, Communism with a happy face, as many called it. But the very nature of Communism made this reform impossible from the start. [I’d love to get into this…but hit the library and pick up a copy of “The Man Who Changed the World” by Gail Sheehy. Then pick up a copy of Gorbachev’s “Perestroika.” Then you’ll understand fully why Communism and vibrant economies cannot co-exist. Ever.)

Speakup raises a very vital point in all of this, something that the Obamaniacs seem to want to ignore, something the Left actually wants to quash.

Government can’t do it. Without venture capital and risk, and the freedom to fail that is built into the capitalist system, we would not be posting on the internet. There’d be no internet for the average American. There might be computer to computer commo between engineers and scientists, we’d probably still be using Cobal and Fortran and key-punch to use that system…but look at what private individuals working out of their garage did to change the face of communications, commerce and exchange of knowledge across the globe. It wasn’t government. Why cannot more people understand this simple very simple idea?

Hint: Obama’s lips are moving. He is lying. Again.

hillbillyjim on August 3, 2008 at 9:49 AM

I’m sorry, hillbilly, I’ll have to give Obama a pass on that. All politicians lie every time their mouths move.

Governments could care less about innovation except as a political tool, minus capitalism Americans would never have benefited from a great many things they take for granted now.

The oil industry is pure venture, way out of the governments league.

If Bill Gates were institutionalized in a government production facility would we be talking now? Hardly.

Life isn’t fair, can’t be made fair either, get over it.

I don’t want to be so rigid that we can’t get something done,” Obama said.

That’s crap, because he’s voted against it every single time, and anyone arguing that this isn’t a total reversal i simply disingenuous.

DO YOU DM USLESS RINO’s GET THAT!!!!

NO tid bit rino will get power from me!!!

Or was I confusing you with Soupy? Or ReJeKt?
If so, I apologize.
The amazingly tolerant Cathy(RIP) always had quite a collection of interesting posters (and I’m not even including David Ehrenstein or Luke).

alphie on August 3, 2008 at 1:42 AM

Alphie, let us put it to a test…….. Petroleum products are much more than just “cheap gas”, in fact if put lubrication on one or more holes on your body today, it came from a petroleum product……… so……… besides “gas” what are you willing to live without?

Are you that same idiot who used to troll on Cathy Seipp’s blog.

If you want cheap gas, make sure your overnment controls the oil industry.

Or borrow Nixon’s price control scheme…

So the best way to get cheaper gas is to nationalize the oil industry?

alphie on August 3, 2008 at 1:31 AM

Which nominee suggests that?

I’m sitting in the front row when you’re at the podium.