Whose to Blame for the Crisis? The Democrats' Disastrous Dismantling of the Bush Energy Plan

...A New York Times headline from August 20, 2003, sums it up: "Ambitious Bush Plan Is Undone by Energy Politics."

That's an understatement. Instead, Democrats ridiculed Vice President Cheney for meeting with oil industry representatives to craft U.S. energy policy — and for insisting on finding more oil.

They had no plan themselves, mind you — apart from massively expensive global warming initiatives that would force Americans to lower their standard of living to Third World levels by spending as much as $800 billion a year to cool Earth.

Yet, if Bush's plan had been put in place in 2001, we'd have replaced millions of barrels of oil, billions of tons of coal and untold trillions of acre feet of natural gas with clean, safe nuclear power.

We'd be pumping millions of barrels more of oil, creating thousands of American jobs, cutting prices and saving literally hundreds of billions of dollars every year —money that today goes to line the pockets of the Saudi royal family, Venezuelan petrotyrant Hugo Chavez, Libyan leader-for-life Muammar Qadhafi and Vladimir Putin's Russia.

When the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, and oil was $50 a barrel and corn $2 a bushel, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promised an energy plan. We're still waiting for it. Today, crude oil is $134 and corn is $6.50.

It's pretty clear who's to blame: Congress. In fact, House and Senate Democrats have obstructed any progress in America's fight to regain some semblance of energy independence.

"Now is the time for Congress to move and get something done," President Bush said all the way back in August 2003. He's still waiting, and so are we...

The entirety of this brilliant June 16 editorial from Investor's Business Daily is reprinted by Smart Green USA right here.

Have Our Leaders Lost Their Minds?

That's the extremely pointed (but eminently pertinent) question asked by Newt Gingrich in this Human Events essay. In it he deals with Israel's and America's recent forays into the most irrational and dangerous appeasement policies.

Is the "Cat Out of the Bag" in John Edwards' Scandal Story

Roger Simon over at Pajamas Media weighs in (and strongly) on the John Edwards adultery scandal.

Another Oops Moment for Denver's Democrat Mayor

The city of Denver doesn't pay fuel taxes (state or federal) and, it turns out, neither do the Democrats who are organizing this summer's political convention. A sweet deal, to be sure.

The deal was between Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper (himself a Democrat and thus a generously free-spender of other people's money) and the convention committee members which allowed them to fill up their vehicles at the city's own gas pumps. Thus, they avoided paying the 40.4 cents per gallon in state and federal fuel taxes that all other Colorado citizens and visitors must.

Oh yeah; there were free car washes too.

It is, of course, an ugly and, according to the state's attorney general, probably illegal act of favoritism. And it's been going on for 4 months.

Not surprisingly, the deal was shelved as soon as the public became aware of it. (Well, there were a few hours in between, perhaps to allow the Democrat committee members to top off their tanks.)

The red-faced mayor's immediate reaction was to duck for cover and insist, like a goofy teenager, that his actions were excusable because others were doing it too. "I do know for a fact that they're doing the same exact thing in Minneapolis," Hickenlooper insisted.

That's not a good defense in any case.

But it's an even worse defense when it's a lie.

Teresa McFarland, a spokeswoman for the Minneapolis-St. Paul host committee for the G.O.P. convention there, said its members are getting their gas at public pumps. "We're not getting a tax break on fuel," she said. "That's not the setup at this end."

There are other shenanigans of Mayor Hickenlooper's discussed in this Rocky Mountain News story, including his administration's habitual practice of having work performed on behalf of the city before a contract for that work has been fully executed and properly signed. Like an unbelievable 79% of the time?

Here's the story.

Today's Posts

Preventing Abortion And...

Obama's "Fake Interviews" Disturbs Veteran Reporter

Planned Parenthood Can't Stand the Truth...In More Ways Than One

Secularism Reigns...But Not Well

Preventing Abortion And...

The following comes from the AZ (Arizona) Policy Blog. It's a valuable site and their latest post is a great sanity check for pro-life activists.

During this legislative session, there was a lot of discussion about banning partial-birth abortions through legislation. One legislator argued that we instead should focus on preventing unwanted pregnancies, and thus preventing abortions. This legislator was pro-choice, but I don't think she wanted more and more abortions to be performed in Arizona.

Is this something we can all agree on? "We should work together to prevent abortions." Certainly, we can find "common ground" here. But does that mean we should only focus on prevention?

A lot of abortion advocates want to direct our attention away from banning (or restricting) abortions through laws, and instead focus on prevention through education. Pro-choice advocates criticize pro-life groups for not focusing their attention on "prevention." But there seems to be a problem with that criticism.

Imagine if dentists wouldn't treat cavities, but they would only try to prevent them. What if plumbers decided not to fix your leaky sink, but only work to prevent the problems? Obviously, that doesn't make much sense.

If there are certain negative consequences (abortions, cavities, leaky sinks), you need to work to fix them. One way to address the negative consequences of abortion is to pass laws to restrict abortions and punish doctors for killing innocent babies.

Does this method fix all the problems and address all the issues? Probably not, but that doesn't mean our only focus should be prevention.

Pro-choice and pro-life groups can probably agree that preventing abortions is a good thing. But pro-life advocates should not waver in their stance to make sure that these terrible procedures are outlawed and that people are punished for killing innocent babies.

Obama's "Fake Interviews" Disturbs Veteran Reporter

Andrea Mitchell might be a doyenne of the liberal media, but she has her reporter's pride and principles, both of which have been trampled by the way the Obama campaign has managed the media during the candidate's current trip to Afghanistan and Iraq. Mitchell let loose on this evening's Hardball, speaking of "fake interviews" and indicating we don't know the truth of the trip because we don't know what was edited out of the video that's been released...

Lucianne.com excerpts this teaser from a Mark Finkelstein post over at NewsBusters, a post dealing complaints by longtime (and hardly conservative) TV reporter Andrea Mitchell about Barack Obama's "fake interviews."

However, when a middling size site like NewsBusters gets headlined by a mega site like Lucianne.com, the server of the former can easily be overwhelmed. And that's just what's happened. So, if your attempt to link to the NewsBusters post doesn't go through, try later in the day to watch that video clip. It's worth it.

Planned Parenthood Can't Stand the Truth...In More Ways Than One

What happens when Planned Parenthood is forced to tell the truth about abortion?

Planned Parenthood closes down.

Here's the story.

Secularism Reigns...But Not Well

Following up on a post from several days ago, here's a few more alarming items regarding England's youth. Both reports demonstrate the sad consequences of a comprehensive secularism.

* Knife crime continued to make the headlines in Britain as fatal stabbings continued. Police recorded 22,151 knife crimes in England and Wales in a year. The British Crime Survey showed 130,000 knife attacks a year. The Daily Mail said the actual figure was probably 80 per cent higher. It said the majority of people found carrying knives were let off with a caution, and of 6,314 convicted of carrying a knife in 2006, only nine were given a maximum sentence. If offenders were sent to jail at the same rate as in Spain, it said, the UK would have 369,000 in prison instead of 80,000.

* Figures for sexually transmitted diseases in Britain in 2007 were six per cent up on the previous year and the highest since current records began. Although the 16-to-24 age group comprises only one-eighth of the population, it accounted for 65 per cent of new cases of chlamydia, 55 per cent of new cases of genital warts and 50 per cent of new cases of gonorrhoea. Professor Peter Borriello, of the Health Protection Agency, said casual sex is now ‘part of the territory, part of life’ for young people.

(Source: If you would like to receive e-mails with the Prayer Digest reports, just, send your e-mail address to prayerdigest@uwclub.net, and it will be e-mailed to you.)

Today's Posts

Who Needs More Grossness in Their Life? Comments on Batman: The Dark Knight

Religious Robbery

Looking for Help After an Abortion?

Colombians Really Have Something to Celebrate

Facing the "New Realities" in Iraq

Who Needs More Grossness in Their Life? Comments on Batman: The Dark Knight

Chuck Donovan, commenting on the blog of the Family Research Council, is one of the millions of moviegoers who gave Batman: The Dark Knight the largest opening gross ever. But his review, though a generally positive one, was enough to convince me to save my money.

Indeed, even from Chuck's muted description, it seems evident that the word "gross" is applicable to the film in more ways than one.

And really, guys...who needs even more grossness in their life?

Aren't the "fightings within and without" that Christians experience in this decadent, death-mesmerized culture more than enough? Do we need to let grossness serve as the locus of our entertainment too?

Apparently I've got a much lower "gross tolerance" than Chuck for there's no way I could find pleasurably entertaining a film that, using Chuck's own words, is "almost unremittingly dark." Indeed, he describes Gotham City as a "murky moral swamp" and admits the film is needlessly violent with "instances of implied sexuality and some language." (Batman: The Dark Knight is, of course, a "talkie" so I assume Chuck means by that last bit -- profane language.)

Oh, yes; he also gives this pointed warning. "The Joker wielding knives in the face of his victims are stomach-churning to watch."

Now, that would be called a "spoiler" for some moviegoers, but personally I'm quite grateful for it. For that line alone will keep me from "spoiling" an evening (and perhaps even a subsequent dinner) by going to see Batman: The Dark Knight.

Am I too squeamish? Too much of a prude? Not adult enough? Is that why my entertainment choices run more to the films of, say, Fred Astaire, Ronald Colman or Groucho Marx than to "almost unremittingly dark" stomach-churners which feature neurotic anti-heroes?

Hardly. Here then, in short and basic form, are the three basic reasons for that lower "gross tolerance" I mentioned earlier.

1) As a Christian pro-life activist, one who is daily engaged in fighting such evils as abortion, euthanasia, genetic engineering, the persecution of believers, drunk drivers, and not to mention the efforts to persuade people to receive the gospel of Christ and therefore escape the unremitting horrors of hell, I'm just not going to find solace (or even a pleasurable recess) in films, plays or novels which are set in "murky moral swamps."

And no, this isn't mere escapism for, again, I haven't shied away from actively opposing (and for an awfully long time now) "real life" wickedness. So consider -- why would a sidewalk counselor like myself find entertainment value in a film where a greedy, heartless villain threatens (with a blade, no less) innocent victims?

2) There are alternatives to schlock. For crying out loud, we are not beholden to Hollywood to watch whatever they produce. We never need drink from unhealthy waters. Indeed, Christians have been given very strict commands about these matters. There are movies (I won't even bother right now to get into matters of literature, sport, conversation, hobbies and other alternatives to moviegoing) which uplift, ennoble, and are fun. And through technological innovations, we have more opportunities to watch those than ever before. For example, the internet and subscriber film services have now made hundreds of fine films easily and inexpensively available to your family -- films that entertain without requiring a compromise of your values. Why on earth don't we take advantage of these opportunities?

Squeamish? No, just selective. I want the best.

Prudish? No, just principled. I don't want to surrender my conscience (or my sensitivity, standards and reputation) for a couple of hours of unsatisfactory entertainment.

And finally, 3) Though I became a Christian at a young age (19), the years immediately preceding my conversion were a headlong pursuit of pride and hedonistic pleasure. A detailed description of the "murky moral swamps" in which I slogged isn't necessary so let it suffice to say that I've already experienced my nauseating fill of the "dark nights" that the world has to offer. Therefore, novels and films which use them as their milieu are anything but entertaining to me. They are but reminders of the agonizing emptiness and oppressive frustration which once dominated my life...and which I know is still the lot of millions of people. (Included in that last group, of course, was Heath Ledger, the actor who plays The Joker in the movie. Ledger, a product of a broken family who suffered clinical depression, died from a drug overdose earlier this year.)

So no, the world's system (sought always by moderns to be portrayed, to use their words, in "gritty realism") remains my enemy. It is something to expose, not be entertained by...something to actively resist, not inattentively receive.

My specific suggestion then? Don't bother with, as Chuck Donovan describes, the "twisted ethical dilemmas" of Batman: The Dark Knight. Why not try the alternative Claire and I went with; namely, watching Batman: The Movie, a camp classic from 1966? You'll have a lot of fun watching the Dynamic Duo win out against no less than 4 super-villains and smile at a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor.

And, not at all insignificant, you'll not have a single scene that churns your stomach, twists your ethics, or causes you embarrassment in front of your kids. Enjoy.

Religious Robbery

Here's yet another example of the teachings of Christianity being wildly distorted and then exploited by malicious men of the cloth. This story involves a couple of the usual characters, the egocentric (and eerie) televangelists Benny Hinn and Todd Koontz, shepherds whose lavish wealth has come from their manipulative talents not to lead the sheep...just to shear them.

Pastor Tommie Ferreira of the AGS Church in Johannesburg, who was himself helping out in Hinn's grandiose event said one of Hinn's American guest speakers, Pastor Todd Koontz, spoke about financial burdens and said 500 audience members would receive "an exceptional blessing". "He said the service would yield millionaires and billionaires within 24 hours. Everyone had to donate $1,000 because an exceptional blessing rested on $1,000." Koontz apparently really had the congregation scrambling when he said, "This blessing will be poured out for only two minutes." Ferreira said: "People stormed to the front - poor people, rich people, people from all sections of our society."

Hinn's co-pastors apparently had credit-card machines ready with which they could take donations. "He (Koontz) said God would bless the people's credit cards and they would be able to rule over South Africa with their money."

"Eventually there were no fewer than 1,000 people who made such donations."...

The Lord hasn't yet made millionaires out of any of these people, though two have come forward to testify they soon will be. It seems they received e-mails from "the widow of a Nigerian prince" promising them $200 million if they would only send over a $500 administration fee.

They did.

Gullibility is a hardy vice.

Looking for Help After an Abortion?

"How you can find hope, help and healing after abortion?"

Leslie Graves has an extremely informative article which answers the above question -- an article written with compassion, grace and wide-ranging knowledge.

You'll find it, along with many other helpful resources, at the Silent No More website.

Colombians Really Have Something to Celebrate

"For the first time in my lifetime we are really starting to believe that peace is possible."

Contrary to the opinions of the leftist politicians, journalists and judges who coddle criminals (even murdering terrorists), it is only when governments get tough on the bad guys that freedom and justice have a genuine chance to flourish. Note this story from the International Herald Tribune about the huge Independence Day rallies in Colombia -- rallies involving more than a million people who were celebrating, more than anything else, President Alvaro Uribe's determination to triumph in the 44-year old guerrilla war with the thugs of FARC.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia pose as a socialist people's army but are merely an anarchistic gang of murderers, terrorists, bombers, kidnappers, extortionists, drug dealers, and...you get the idea. But until Uribe, no one has dared to take them on with a practical view to beat them.

And so the people are happy, hopeful and joining in his resolve. That's the spirit of true independence.

Here is a related story from MSNBC that details correlating events occurring in some 40 other cities around the world.

Facing the "New Realities" in Iraq

Peter Ferrara gives us a review of recent history that is "just a tad different" from what we've been getting from Katie and company. Below is a portion of that National Review Online report:

Barack Obama continues his overseas trip today in the Middle East, where the facts on the ground have recently been moving so fast hardly anyone in the U.S. has really kept up. But unheralded press reports in recent weeks establish this new reality.

The war in Iraq is over. America and her allies won. Sorry, Barack, but it is too late for you and your misguided, uninformed, anti-American netroots to surrender.

The surge that Obama opposed and said would fail has succeeded spectacularly. McCain was right about that from the beginning.

General Petraeus, leading American and Iraqi troops, has smashed al-Qaeda, which has now basically withdrawn and fled to remote hideouts in lawless, ungoverned, western Pakistan. The Sunni Awakening is now over a year old and has been widely reported. The Shia majority government of elected Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has moved brilliantly in recent months to rout the Shia militias as well, creating a broad, popular base of support for him. The Kurds continue to prosper in peace and harmony.

American troops are already coming home. As McCain reported weeks ago, the surge itself is now basically over, with the additional troops all now on their way out. This fall, more American troops will be coming home. By January, still more will have returned.

The only real question now is which U.S. forces will be stationed in long term bases in Iraq. American and Iraqi government officials are even now negotiating a permanent status of forces agreement to take effect next year that will resolve that question. The plan is for Iraqi forces to take over responsibility for all remaining Iraqi provinces by then, with American troops out of all Iraqi cities. Probably less than half of the full complement of American forces will remain in Iraq long term to back up the Iraqi military, and keep tabs on Iran.

One big remaining fly in the ointment is that Iraq continues to be under attack by Iranian special forces — which may attempt intensified attacks this fall. Iran remains unfinished business. But the brutal defeat that al Qaeda suffered in Iraq discredited it in the Arab world. As Osama bin Laden himself has said, people will follow the strong horse. It is America, not al Qaeda, that is now that strong horse...

Today's Posts

These Sure Aren't Your Mom's Girl Scouts!

FRC's Latest Review of Adult Stem Cell Successes

Peru Fights International Abortion Agitators

An Embarrassing Revelation for Darwinians

Physicist Organization Reverses Its Position on Global Warming

These Sure Aren't Your Mom's Girl Scouts!

Former Girl Scout Jane Chastain is shocked, disappointed and angered at the transformation of that once-noble organization, particularly at their embrace of the eerie New Age doctrines of Transitional Awareness.

"Back in 1995, the Girl Scouts put an asterisk by the word "God" in the Girl Scout Promise, which allowed members to tell the Almighty to take a hike. It's been downhill ever since."

Read Jane's description of just how steep and slippery that slope has become right here. And then be sure to remember these spooky things the next time cookie-selling season and, for that matter, the coercive United Way drive comes round.

FRC's Latest Review of Adult Stem Cell Successes

It takes a while to scan through -- but it's well worth your time.

I'm talking about the Family Research Council's terrific review of adult stem cell success stories. This is their third such report (boy, these guys are invaluable, aren't they?) and this review, though just covering adult stem cell success stories from this year to date, is their biggest yet.

From Northwestern University's Dr. Richard Burt's work with autoimmune disorders, to heart tissue regeneration, breast reconstruction, leukemia, Parkinson's Disease, cerebral palsy, vision restoration, sickle cell disease, and many more, the advances in medical science which utilize adult stem cells are not providing tremendous hopes for the future, they're helping people in many marvelous ways right now!

I think you'll find it very encouraging reading. Plus, it's a great resource to remember when addressing your political representatives, local hospitals and letters to the editor columns about science that, unlike embryonic stem cell research, is working wonders and doesn't kill anyone.

(H/T: A Matthew Eppinette post on Americans United for Life Blog.)

Peru Fights International Abortion Agitators

Apparently frustrated by the failures of the international abortion lobby to decriminalize the killing of the unborn in Peru, the pro-abortion organization "Human Rights Watch" is lashing out at the country in a new report that critics say distorts and misrepresents the truth about Peruvian law and the nation's maternal health.

Despite an ongoing campaign funded by multi-million dollar organizations, the Peruvian government has resisted all attempts to establish abortion as a legal "right" by means of a "protocol for therapeutic abortion" - an official document demanded by pro-abortion groups that would give guidelines for killing unborn children in specified cases...

Here's more from LifeSiteNews.com.

An Embarrassing Revelation for Darwinians

"When a butterfly has to look like a leaf, not only are all the details of a leaf beautifully rendered but markings mimicking grub-bored holes are generously thrown in. "Natural Selection," in the Darwinian sense, could not explain the miraculous coincidence of imitative aspect and imitative behavior, nor could one appeal to the theory of "the struggle for life" when a protective device was carried to a point of mimetic subtlety, exuberance, and luxury far in excess of a predator's power of appreciation. I discovered in nature the nonutilitarian delights that I sought in art. Both were a form of magic, both were a game of intricate enchantment and deception."

The above paragraph was written, not by William Jennings Bryan or Ben Stein, but by the decidedly irreligious author of Lolita and Pale Fire (and, more importantly for my money, the translator of Pushkin), Vladimir Nabokov.

It turns out that Nabokov served as the curator of lepidoptera (butterflies) at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology in the 1940s. In fact, according to his biographer, Nabokov "became the authority on the little-studied blue butterflies (Polyommatini) of North and South America" and was " a pioneer in the study of butterflies' microscopic anatomy, distinguishing otherwise almost identical blues by differences in their genital parts." And besides his novels and short stories, he published articles in such scientific journals as The Entomologist, The Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, The Lepidopterists' News, and Psyche: A Journal of Entomology.

This creates a problem, of course, for the secularists who have so highly regarded Nabokov's literary work. I mean, a liberal humanist who vigorously disputes evolution -- and does so from the most intricate scientific reasoning?

Richard Dawkins, call your office.

Here's more from the Discovery Institute.