Those of you who live in the Charlotte metro area like I do are already well aware that we’re pretty much out of gas.  Just about every gas station has bags over its pumps and it’s been like this since Ike.  For those who don’t live here and don’t know what I’m talking about, Hurricane Ike’s effects are being felt here all too well even though we missed the bad weather.

Because of Ike the Houston refineries were shut down for several days.  While they are running again, they are not operating at capacity.  The City of Charlotte, as well as other southeastern cities, get our gas from Houston, so the equation is quite simple.  No refining, no gas.  Believe me when I tell you it’s like 1973 here.  The very few stations that manage to get a delivery are jammed.  There are major lines eight, nine, and ten cars deep at any gas station that has fuel.  I sat at an intersection leaving Winthrop University tonight for at least a half an hour.  I wasn’t able to turn on to the road ahead of me because of the number of cars lined up down the road to get gas at the one Exxon station in all of Rock Hill that has gasoline tonight.

This has happened because of the drilling bans we’ve had for the last almost 30 years.  If the radical environmentalist kooks in Congress hadn’t voted to ban offshore drilling along most of the American coastline and Bush 41 hadn’t capitulated with his own executive order we’d have an enormously large oil supply, more refineries, and we likely wouldn’t going through this hell right now.

Update:  Here is a picture from today’s Charlotte Observer.  This is a common scene all over the place.

I wasn’t impressed by Bush’s speech.  What I heard was more government and more regulation.  Those are the last things we need as it was government meddling by both parties that caused this to happen in the first thing and that’s exactly what Bush should have come out and said.  He should have told the real story of when this started and came to fruition, but he didn’t.  It was a lost opportunity, one of many during Bush’s tenure.

I would like to see John McCain, Mister fiscal responsibility, come out and oppose this bailout but he isn’t and of course, he won’t.  The Republicans aren’t going to allow a bailout not to happen because if the market tanks even worse the ignorant sheeple throughout the land are going to wrongly point the finger at the GOP because a Republican sits in the White House.  The result would be McCain losing the election and painful losses in Congress.  So we’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

WASHINGTON - Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters Tuesday that a provision continuing the moratorium will be dropped this year from a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running after Congress recesses for the election.

Republicans have made lifting the ban a key campaign issue after gasoline prices spiked this summer and public opinion turned in favor of more drilling. President Bush lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling in July.

Yahoo

Boy, I don’t know. I smell a rat here. These people have been way too adamant about not allowing this drilling. I can’t help to suspect this is just an election year ploy to help them at the polls and that they’re banking on an Obama presidency where they can then, with a Democratic majority in Congress, reinstate it once the new Congress convenes. That’s my own little conspiracy theory for the day.

You know those alternative history books that take actual historic event, and turn them around and add a “what if” scenario? Newt Gingrich has done a few of those that, I’ve been told, are very good. I tend to avoid those because, frankly, I’ve only got enough room in my tiny head for actual history.

Anyways, if this whole Vice President thing doesn’t work out for Joe Biden, he and Newt ought to team up for some alternative history books. He’s already come up with a dandy plot for one set during the Great Depression:

“When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the princes of greed,” Biden told Couric. “He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened.’”

As Reason’s Jesse Walker footnotes it: “And if you owned an experimental TV set in 1929, you would have seen him. And you would have said to yourself, ‘Who is that guy? What happened to President Hoover?’”

The Politico

How about we play our own little alternative history game. Let’s pretend that instead of Joe Biden, who as we all know is the second-smartest-person-in-the-world (behind The Obamessiah, of course), it was Sarah Palin who made those comments. What would the reaction have been? Would the media have asked if having 5 kids damaged her cognitive abilities? Would they have speculated that spending too much time in the cold winters of that strange exotic barbarian wilderness called Alaska numbed her brain? Oh, the possibilities are endless…

What do you get when you mix the “astroturfing” of David Axelrod, a supposedly “viral” YouTube video that has too many connections to a PR firm and a well-connected Democratic family to be coincidental, and the Jawa Report blog doing yeoman’s work cacheing pages and videos (which were of course deleted by the parties responsible), and linking the dots in a very intricate maze of deception and questionable campaign tactics?

You get the best campaign story broken by a blog ever.  Stay classy, Obama campaign.

Go read what they have put together so far - it’s long, but worth it.  Welcome to Chicago style politics.   Hopechangehopechange astroturf.

I’m posting this because even though Jawa Report has done all the hard work here, (and Ace of Spades HQ has helped with support commentary)  every conservative/right-leaning blog out there needs to help give this story exposure.  Axelrod and Co. want their fraudulent “grassroots” video of falsehoods to go “viral”?  You got it, guys.

I’m going to meander around the blogosphere; I expect many many blogs to be covering this; we know the MSM will have to be dragged kicking and screaming to report on it.

UPDATE: Jack reminded me that the Rathergate story in 2004 was also broken by blogs, so this may not be “the best ever.”  I agree that these two are certainly in the running for that title though.  If it turns out that, as suspected, there were direct links to the Obama campaign in this issue, I think this one wins.  There were never any direct links between the Kerry campaign and Dan Rather’s story to my knowledge.

From HUMAN EVENTS:

House Democrats are bypassing renewal of the offshore oil drilling ban by including the entire Pelosi “drill nothing” energy bill in a draft of a Continuing Resolution. HUMAN EVENTS obtained a copy of the most recent House draft CR this morning.

The Pelosi bill, HR 6899, fails to open more than a miniscule part of the available offshore drilling areas and — even worse — it establishes permanent bans on development of most other domestic energy sources (natural gas, oil shale, etc.) and does nothing to develop nuclear power.  It passed the House earlier this month and is now languishing in the Senate as a separate measure.

…
Congress must pass a continuing resolution before September 30 in order to prevent a government shut-down for lack of funding.

(The Democratic leadership has managed to do what hasn’t been done for about 70 years: go through an entire year without passing a single appropriations bill.  Without appropriations measures, government agencies lack funds to operate. The CR will include measures to keep all agencies going at least until congress returns either later this year or when it reconvenes next year.)

I expect the GOP in the House to fight this tooth and nail.  The Senate is anyone’s guess with the “Gang of (whatever number it is now)” acting like a bunch of clowns.  If it makes it to the President’s desk he better veto this POS bill.

Hat Tip to Erick Erickson at RedState.

So His O-ness had a rough couple weeks in early September, but he appears to have re-established his footing. He’s regained enough chutzpah to extol his drones to “get in the face” of us evil conservatives. A lot of people will tell you that his resurgence is due to bad economic news dominating the headlines; I disagree.

I think Obama is back on top because his allies in the media have hit the alarm button and are now in full scale war mode against John McCain. They tried destroying Sarah Palin and watched it backfire miserably, but now they’ve adjusted their sights and are not only hitting the right person (McCain rather than Palin) but hitting him where it hurts- his integrity. Even when McCain says something truthful (like it or not, Obama DID vote for sex education for kindergartners- suck it up, libs), the media still pick him apart and make him look like a lying jerk… all while giving their boy Barry a bunch of freebies.

Stephen Hayes sums it up quite nicely the Weekly Standard:

The media line on the new Obama is simple: It’s John McCain’s fault. Barack Obama would like to win the presidency the right way but McCain won’t let him.

According to the press, in recent weeks, the McCain campaign has so distorted Obama’s record and campaign proposals that the young senator has had no choice but to fight back with old-school tactics. “McCain’s tactics are drawing the scorn of many in the media and organizations tasked with fact-checking the truthfulness of campaigns,” wrote Politico’s Jonathan Martin. “In recent weeks, Team McCain has been described as dishonorable, disingenuous and downright cynical.”

And so while McCain’s every utterance is factchecked and factchecked again in an attempt to shame him from challenging Obama too aggressively, Obama gets a pass.

When it comes to political attacks, everyone says that you should hit your opponent where they are weakest. That’s true. But the single most devastating thing you can do to an opponent is political jujitsu- take their strength and use it against them. McCain’s strength is his honesty and integrity, and if the media succeeds in destroying it, McCain is doomed. 

It’s up to people like us to call out the corrupt media for what it is. If the media’s lies and distortions actually succeed in putting this unqualified smarmy hypocrite in the White House, our country is in deep trouble.

H/T- Dirty Harry

From the Miscellanies

Until the inauguration in January, PBS is offering free downloads of 13 documentaries in “The Presidents” series (American Experience). iTunes users can find an entire index to the 20 hours of video by clicking here

Or is it?

WASHINGTON (AP) - Deep-seated racial misgivings could cost Barack Obama the White House if the election is close, according to an AP-Yahoo News poll that found one-third of white Democrats harbor negative views toward blacks—many calling them “lazy,” “violent” or responsible for their own troubles.

Breitbart

That’s some rather shocking information coming from the party of alleged racial purity.  Obama could lose the election not because of Republicans, but because of his own base turning their backs on him out of racism.  That would be poetic justice now, wouldn’t it.

And from the list of links on SavetheGOP.

Memo to Taegan Goddard: I’ve been reading your blog for more than two years. If you market your site as a clearinghouse for political news, slanting your coverage of the presidential race to the degree that you have done recently will drive away readers.

In this time of inter-party strife, concern over the economy, high gas prices, worries about whether our nation can survive an Obama presidency, the number of houses John McCain owns, and of course, pigs with lipstick on them, we should set aside days to remember all the things that bring us together as a blog, a party, and as a nation. To celebrate that which is pure, good, and totally awesome in every way. Today is one of those days.

I am of course talking about my birthday, which is today.

No, just kidding (kind of). Today is also International Talk Like a Pirate Day, when we set aside the cramped and stodgy standards that society places upon us and are free to unleash our inner pirate! Arrrrrgggg!

So for a few hours, set aside all that dour economic news and the looming socialism set to engulf our country in a vicegrip of big-government enforced mediocrity, and go shout “AVAST!” to all yer mateys as you hoist the jolly rogers up the yardon! And while you’re at it, tell those liberal scaliwags to stop pillaging and plundering yer hard earned swag, arrrrgggg!

I found this article about the fragile state of China by accident, but as I read it I realized it was written by a former professor of mine from Georgia Tech, Wang Fei-ling. This is well worth a read if you are into international affairs and the future of the second most powerful country in the world.

China has risen a great deal, as the Beijing Games have shown. But Beijing remains a top-heavy, utterly insecure dragon caught in the unavoidable and unfamiliar nets of the market economy at home and abroad. The outcome of this ongoing struggle will ultimately determine what political legacy, if any, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games has for China and the world.

I took Wang Fei-ling’s signature course, the Political Economy of China back in fall 2003 before I went to live in Beijing. The information learned in his class was some of my only China knowledge that actually stood up to scrutiny of living in-country which puts it in some rarefied air for sure.

Not only does RedState have great political commentary from true conservatives in the Republican party, but it has two great econ/finance bloggers in the form of blackhedd and Pejman Yousefzadeh who blog regularly about the markets and economic policy. These two guys (while I don’t always agree with their analysis) will make you smarter just by reading them.

Here is blackhedd, who is required reading if you want to understand what has been happening recently in the financial world.

Another extremely important point I need to make is this: the distress is confined largely to Wall Street. America’s industrial businesses are in exceptionally good financial health. They’ve been building their balance sheets for at least two years now, and they’re well-positioned to come roaring back as soon as the financial system and the economy stabilize. And there is an enormous amount of capital lying fallow right now, in hedge funds and private-equity firms. That money will come flooding out to revive the financial system, as soon as Wall Street finishes dying.

Good points all.

Here is Pejman Yousefzadeh (who normally blogs quite a bit about the merits of free trade) on Constitution day.

The Constitution is a glorious document for reasons so many people know so well; separation of powers, bicameral legislature, checks and balances, Bill of Rights, you know the drill.

But as Don Boudreaux points out, the Constitution should also be celebrated because it has helped promote free trade within the United States.

Hell while I’m at it, Don Boudreaux rocks as well.

The Politico has a story up on how GOP members of congress have started to question the economic policy of the president. Some of this questioning is little more than political grandstanding, since many of those now criticizing Bush were on board with him for some of his more socialist policies.

Whipsawed by the government’s on-again, off-again intervention in the nation’s financial crisis, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said Wednesday that congressional Republicans “don’t feel like they understand the coherent strategy” of the Bush administration — “if there is one.”

Roy Blunt isn’t much of a small government conservative to begin with so seeing him blame the Bush administration for not adhering to free market, limited government policies is a bit odd and smacks of press release politics.

Some of the other names that are complaining about the actions of the White House carry more weight when it comes to their free market credentials.

The chairman of the 100-strong conservative Republican Study Committee, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, said that the administration has stumbled down a road that makes many conservatives uncomfortable.

“It’s time to bail out the taxpayers from bailout mania,” Hensarling said. “Neither the secretary of the Treasury nor the Fed has articulated a clear standard” for who gets bailed out and who doesn’t. “We’ve given a blank check to the secretary of the Treasury.”

Republican Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky was more blunt.

“To say I am outraged by this would be an understatement,” Bunning said. “The greed on Wall Street is only exceeded by the stupidity of the Treasury secretary and the chairman of the Federal Reserve.”

Bunning compared the federal government’s interventions with the actions of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez — and not favorably. “The only difference between what the Fed did and what Hugo Chavez is doing in Venezuela is Chavez doesn’t put taxpayer dollars at risk when he takes over companies — he just takes them,” he said.

Another small-government crusader, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), complained that “failed government policies” allowed the financial crisis to occur in the first place.

“Our leaders need to wake up, exercise some real discipline, and push for policies that reduce the failed role of government and reduce taxes on American investment to attract new capital to our markets.”

The Club for Growth, a guiding light for fiscal conservatives, celebrated the weekend’s announcement that Lehman Brothers would be left to die, saying, “Resisting another bailout was a smart move.”

DeMint, Hensarling and Bunning can speak out with confidence that this has been a disaster because they have fought tooth and nail against the RINOs who helped create it. Guys like Roy Blunt had best remember their part in how we arrived here.

Thanks to the Club for Growth, hat-tip boys.

Read what Ace of Spades has on Obamessiah’s creepy lordship over His minions who act like thugs against His critics on His behalf.  Is this the “new politics” you promised, Barack?

If my post mocking Barack Obama mocking John McCain below isn’t enough for you, read what Rachel Lucas has to say.

H/T to TigerHawk.

According to behavioral Economist Arthur C. Brooks:

…conservatives who practice religion, live in traditional nuclear families and reject the notion that the government should engage in income redistribution are the most generous Americans, by any measure.

     Conversely, secular liberals who believe fervently in government entitlement programs give far less to charity. They want everyone’s tax dollars to support charitable causes and are reluctant to write checks to those causes, even when governments don’t provide them with enough money.

The Wall Street Journal reports on Sen. Joe Bidens tax returns:

The amount they gave to charity during this period never exceeded one-half of 1% of their annual income. The Bidens never gave more than $995 to charity in any of the tax years, and usually gave much less.

This is not surprising in the least. I ran across this passage while I was clinging to my Bible and my guns,

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. –Mal 3:10 ESV–

Thanks to Greg Mankiw for the pointer

Because your attempt at tough-guy machismo snark is, well, embarrassing:

“Sen. McCain bragged about how as chairman of the Commerce Committee in the Senate, he had oversight of every part of the economy. Well, all I can say to Sen. McCain is, ‘Nice job. Nice job,’” Obama said at a rally at a baseball stadium in Las Vegas. “Where is he getting these lines? The lobbyists running his campaign?”

Yes, the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee is the supreme overlord of the nation’s economy, according to Wunderkid Obama.  Say, how about you claiming to be part of the Banking Committee, which isn’t actually true?  Want to make the same claim now that it’s not politically feasible?  How about all the donations you got from Fannie/Freddie people?  And all the government expansion you’re agitating for, which has contributed to our current economic woes?

The feistier, more sarcastic tone came as worried Democrats urged Obama to get tougher and show more passion. Obama has tried to assure donors and voters that he’s been schooled by Chicago politics.

Memo to Obama: You might want to keep the references to sleazy Chicago machine politics to a minimum.  I’m just sayin’.

“Yesterday, John McCain actually said that if he’s president he’ll take on — and I quote — ‘the old boys network in Washington.’ I’m not making this up,” Obama said. “This is somebody who’s been in Congress for 26 years, who put seven of the most powerful Washington lobbyists in charge of his campaign.

“And now he tells us that he’s the one who’s going to take on the old boys network,” Obama said. “The old boys network. In the McCain campaign that’s called a staff meeting. Come on.”

Um, Sen. Obama, your Vice Presidential nominee was in the Senate when Sen. McCain was a POW in Vietnam.  Give the “old boys’ network” line a rest, will ya?

In Elko, Obama tried to anticipate his critics and called on the crowd of about 1,500 to sharpen their elbows, too.

“I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face,” he said.

Argue with people and  get in their face?  Yes, Sen. Obama, please push that.  It is a perfect reflection of your arrogance by your supporters.

“And if they tell you that, ‘Well, we’re not sure where he stands on guns.’ I want you to say, ‘He believes in the Second Amendment.’ If they tell you, ‘Well, he’s going to raise your taxes,’ you say, ‘No, he’s not, he’s going lower them.’ You are my ambassadors. You guys are the ones who can make the case.”

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Wait, I’m not done… HAHAHAHAHAHA.  This is great stuff!

“I will crack down on predatory lenders — who all too often target the African-American community, target the Hispanic community — with tough new penalties that treat mortgage fraud like the crime that it is,” he said.

THERE we go!  There’s the Race Card I was waiting for him to throw!  What ever happened to your candidacy being “post-racial,” Sen. Obama?

Seriously, Sen. Obama, if you think these are winning talking points, you’ve got another thing coming.

Heartbreak:

JUNEAU — U.S. Rep. Don Young has won the Republican primary battle over the state’s only seat in the House, Alaska election officials said.

In a close race only decided Wednesday with the final counting of about 350 outstanding absentee and questioned ballots, Young beat Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell by 304 votes.

State election officials will certify the election today.

Parnell has said he may ask for a recount. Election officials have said a recount of the Aug. 26 vote could take up to 10 days.

Since the primary, Young has held a slim lead over Parnell, who had the backing of his popular boss, Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate.

Guess we can’t win them all against the RINO establishment.

Ace of Spades spreads the warning:

The new legions of Concerned Christian Conservative Commenters who are — inexplicably — suddenly coming out of the woodwork to slam McCain/Palin despite the ticket now having the enthusiastic support of nearly 90% of Republicans are now infesting my blog too.

It seems that when they’re not asking mom to heat up another hot pocket or expecting the government to subsidize them for playing World of Warcraft, our troll friends (who used to live under bridges but now reside in their mothers’ basements), have found a new hobby- pretending to be conservatives and posting “I used to be a Republican, but…” messages on sites like this.

Beats finding a real job, I guess.

Anyways, be on the look out. And Shiffman- I’m keeping a close eye on you, pal. Give a reason, punk. Give me a reason…  :)