1. No Act of Moderation: Why Barack Obama cannot fix the economy

2. Screw the Gulf Coast. White House Staff Plays Beer Pong & Water Guns

3. Whoever takes Helen Thomas’ spot should show up to work wearing ruby slippers

4. Remember Those Deficit Savings From Obamacare?

5. What Kind of MMS Did Obama Inherit?

1. No Act of Moderation: Why Barack Obama cannot fix the economy

This past week, the Gulf States who hoped Barack Obama would actually do something to help them were stunned when he imposed a ban on deep water offshore drilling.It is no exaggeration to say that as much as shrimping is part of the way of life in the Gulf Coast area, oil drilling is too. Barack Obama, with the stroke of a pen, put tens of thousands of men and women on the unemployment line.That was no act of moderation. That was an overreaction — a desire by Obama to move the narrative from “do nothing” to “do something.” He did something alright. In his zeal to turn this from his Katrina to his 9/11 with a “Never Again” moment, he destroyed an entire industry.That was not an act of moderation. It was a desperate, selfish bid to change the narrative, despite all sorts of collateral damage.It was one well, one platform, and one company well connected to Barack Obama and those with whom he has surrounded himself. Now a whole industry is out of work.The move came as the Department of Labor announced a horrible jobs number touted by the White House as good news. Take out the census’s temporary jobs and the private sector economy grew by only 41,000 people. Moreover, take out the census’s temporary jobs from the last couple of jobs numbers and the only sector growing in Obama’s economy is the government.Go back to Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech. He touted his stimulus package and the jobs it created. Every job he listed was either in government or so dependent on government it might as well have been a government job, e.g. green jobs and road infrastructure building.Tie Barack Obama’s handling of the economy together with his handing of the British Petroleum accident and we have the definitive reason Barack Obama cannot fix the economy. The man needs an enemy to act.Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Screw the Gulf Coast. White House Staff Plays Beer Pong & Water Guns

Had Bush administration staffers been caught out on the Sunday after Katrina playing beer pong, reporters would be demanding to know first why they weren’t in church and second how was it responsible to be out playing beer pong instead of bunkered down at the White House trying to solve the problem.Luckily for White House spokesman Tommy Vietor and Barack Obama’s speechwriter Jon Favreau, the press would never dare hold them to the same standard. We, however, can and we can ask why an impromptu game of Sunday beer pong instead of being at work.Now, we know they don’t care anyway. Every state affected by the BP oil spill voted for John McCain save Florida, so screw them. Besides, aren’t Obama staffers allowed impromptu games of beer pong? Answer: yes, they are not Bush staffers.But then there is the senior staff.Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Whoever takes Helen Thomas’ spot should show up to work wearing ruby slippers

Apparently, the flip camera was the metaphoric house that destroyed the anti-Semitic Wicked Witch of the White House press corps. Her “retirement” was announced by her employer, Hearst News Service, this morning following last week’s debacle resulting from Thomas telling the Jews in “Palestine” to “get the hell out” and “go back to Germany and Poland.”To any thinking person, this is not so much a retirement, but a way to fire the 274 year old reporter, who has been fading out of the print world for a while now.Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Remember Those Deficit Savings From Obamacare?

In case you missed it — because for some reason, the Washington media types didn’t find time to cover this story — Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Elmendorf offered an astounding rejection of the notion that the new health care regime, which President Obama frequently cited as a profound and necessary deficit-lowering measure, does anything to improve America’s deficit picture.This is less news to you, of course. But it’s newsworthy because of who’s saying it. As Keith Hennessey put it, “Never before have I seen a CBO Director so bluntly refute the policy claims of a President and his Budget Director.”Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. What Kind of MMS Did Obama Inherit?

President Obama and Interior Secretary Salazar have done their best to shift the blame of the Deepwater Horizon disaster to the Bush Administration and the supposed ‘cozy relationship’ it fostered between the Minerals Management Service and the oil and gas companies it regulates.The public consciousness perceives a corrupt and incompetent agency, turning a blind eye to the shenanigans of their industry buddies.In reality:

• Statistical measures of offshore safety performance improved significantly throughout the Bush years.
• Ditto the drilling well blowout incident rate.
• Bush-era internal investigations led to significant improvement in ethics throughout the organization.
• The Bush Administration increased royalty rates on new leases for the first time in recent memory.

Don’t take my word for it; here are the MMS documents.Please click here for the rest of the post.