Ken Salazar needs another ass-kicking
All hat, no cattle
Ken Salazar needs another ass-kicking
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
When President Obama picked former Democrat Sen. Ken Salazar as his
Interior Secretary last year, the Coloradan donned a 10-gallon hat and
dubbed himself the “new sheriff in town.” But Cowboy Ken is the one
who needs to be run out on a rail. In his continued quest to shut down
offshore drilling, Salazar has run roughshod over scientific
integrity, transparency, and the Gulf Coast economy.
Two federal courts have batted down the White House-approved,
Salazar-directed drilling moratorium. Outraged scientists — appointed
by the Obama administration, mind you — blasted Salazar for
doctoring their work and contradicting their conclusions to bolster
his manufactured case for the sweeping six-month ban. Undaunted,
Salazar conjured up a “revised” moratorium rubber-stamped by oil spill
czar Michael Bromwich, who sheepishly admitted that the new ban was
“roughly congruent with the original moratorium.”
The sham changes would permit some drilling rigs to re-start
operations – but only under onerous, fantasyland testing conditions
that industry leaders say would be virtually impossible to meet. In
short, Salazar’s “new” moratorium is a lot like Salazar himself: All
hat, no cattle.
The Interior Secretary then strode into the first hearing of the
presidential oil spill commission this week to tell the panelists that
he wanted their work to “inform” his book-cooked deepwater drilling
ban. It was, essentially, Salazar guiding the dog-and-pony show
participants to bark and neigh on command. The panelists were
“stunned” by Salazar’s explicit expectation of policy support,
according to hearing observers, because weighing in on the moratorium
had not been a part of their original mandate.
None of the panelists, conveniently enough, has actual technical
expertise in deepwater drilling. So on what, exactly, can they
“inform” Salazar? No doubt Salazar and his superiors at 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue have soaked up the online anti-drilling rants of
prominent oil spill panelist Frances Beinecke. She’s a leading
official at the rabidly anti-corporate Natural Resources Defense
Council, where she publicly called for offshore drilling bans five
times over the past two months before snagging a seat on Obama’s
“expert” panel. NRDC was one of the leading environmental lobbying
voices pushing for the commission in the first placde. The eco-tail is
wagging Team Obama’s dog.
The good news is that not all the panelists are rolling over.
Co-chairs William Reilly and Bob Graham absorbed an earful from local
residents, small business owners, and public officials from the Gulf
region this week. Louisiana Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu decried the
economic devastation Salazar is overseeing: “Even the revised
moratorium will force thousands of hardworking Louisianans and others
along the Gulf Coast into the unemployment lines.” Lafourche Parish
(La.) President Charlotte Randolph blasted the zero-risk tolerance
mentality of Salazar and Beinecke, illustrating the folly behind the
offshore drilling moratorium: If “safety” demands a blanket halt to
deepwater drilling, she said, then all oil tanker traffic in the Gulf
of Mexico should be halted, too. “An oil tanker is a four times
greater risk of spilling its cargo than an oil well blowing out,”
Randolph pointed out. “Tankers carrying 3 million barrels of oil
traverse the Gulf daily en route to Houston.” That’s roughly the
amount of oil BP spilled over the last three months.
After the first hearing this week, Reilly openly challenged the White
House foot-dragging on 33 oil rig safety assessments, wondering “why
it’s going to take so long to convince people the existing rigs are
safe.” For his part, Graham blasted the “disconnect between Washington
and the Gulf region about the sense of urgency needed.”
In Washington, at least one watchdog has pegged Salazar as a crooked
shooter. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Ranking
Member Darrell Issa exposed the Interior Secretary’s serial
obstructionism in a letter released Thursday on Salazar’s failure to
comply with 45 document requests related to the feds’ post-spill
response. “The lack of cooperation is appalling for an Administration
that prides itself on transparency and openness with the American
people,” Issa noted. “Indeed, it appears that the Administration is
more concerned with hiding from the tough questions than answering
them.”
While Salazar ducks and dithers, deepwater oil drillers are canceling
contracts or moving their rigs overseas – and American jobs along with
them. Diamond Offshore moved one of its rigs to Egypt. Murphy Oil
Company is also moving operations to the Congo. And Bloomberg News
reported that “the number of offshore rigs operating in U.S. waters
has plunged 71 percent to 16 from 56 before the blowout, according to
surveys by Baker Hughes Inc.”
The new sheriff’s in town alright — and he’s shooting the Gulf Coast
economy in the foot, head, and heart. Heckuva job, Kenny.
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These Bat Chain Pullers in the Obama will continue and continue and continue. They do not care, there is their agenda and they will stick with that agenda until this country wises up and not only throws them out but demand investigations and prosecutions to the fullest extent of the law. And if there is not a law, make one and get em.
Salazar obviously has no intention of following the law or paying any attention to people who actually know they’re talking about. So why is he even bothering with the charade?
Heck, why is the Obama administration bothering to pretend they’re obeying the Constitution? We’ve already seen the “man behind the curtain”.
P.S. Those extra returns in this post are distracting.
Since the Obama and his administration believes in ignoring FEDERAL LAW in the name of economic justice for the workers (illegal immigration) then why don’t the oil companies ignore the moratorium on the same grounds and just continue drilling? Maybe if they imported mexican roughnecks onto the rigs…….
Hey, no problemo. Make it up as you go. Isn’t that the Obowmao way? Doesn’t matter if it’s right or wrong. Just so the sheeple buy into it.
Why does the tune “I shot the Sheriff” keep running through my head?
And has anyone else noticed Obama’s transition today on the oil spill? Up to now, this was all about BP and Bush. Now the well is capped, Obama took ownership of the credit for capping it at his press conference today. It’s all about me, we, us, my administration,…. So is today the day that Bush steps down and Obama becomes prez?
Salazar’s best accomplishment to date is creating GOP voters for November.
In 108 days and a wakeup we go to the polls. Instead of trying to mitigate the damage they will receive, Obama has floored the acceleerator.
Not a winning strategy.
Well in order to succeed in this administration one has to be anti-American. Spreading the wealth around means being uncompetitive and dependent. I imagine Obama wants to make sure Salazar gets some graft to line his pockets.
“Obama has floored the acceleerator.”
Yep. We can only hold on tight and get prepared to do some hard work to turn this thing around after Jan 2011.
There is a consortium of idiots in DC who make law and regulation respecting an industry they don’t know anything about, in reality.
Kwik Kenny, The Faux Paneling King, is just one.
I noticed it yesterday. What a fake?
When it comes to job losses, it’s not a but, it’s a feature.
Every time a productive worker becomes dependent on the government, a lifetime Democrat is born anew.
The conditions are that drillers must guarantee that no future blowouts will occur. This is tantamount to grounding all aircraft until airlines can guarantee there will never be another crash. Any engineer will tell you the concept of “fail safe” is a myth. Aircraft have redundant backup systems to backup systems – five layers deep, yet systems still fail – still, you have only about .001% chance of dying on any given flight. The safety record for offshore drilling is similar.
Yes. Yes, you do. If you have two functioning brain cells, that is EXACTLY what you understand. Which, apparently, leaves out the Deemocrat Ed Markey, incredibly the number two man on the House Energy and Commerce Committee;
No, not really…not at all. See, Mr. Markey doesn’t know his ass from a cypress stump in the area in which he writes law. Or he is intentionally lying. (h/t Redstate)
Meaning that the Gulf drilling fleet is being used at a 27% rate, thanks to the actions of the Obami. Note that this is the lowest in the world. That hell-hole of environmental destruction over in Europe (including the Mediterranean) has its fleet drilling at about 88% of capacity. We all know how cavalier the Euroweenies are about safety.
http://hindenblog1.blogspot.com/2010/07/burn-kwik-kenny-salazars-new-gulf-jobs.html
This is very sad because prior his current post and the US Senate, Salazar was considered a decent public servant here in Colorado.
La.has voted mostly for Republicans the last few years.The black vote got displaced by Katrina and can’t be counted on.La.voted for McCain in large numbers.They could care less about La.or the Gulf coast.They are stealing their money from BP since they won’t be getting much from the Gulf area.The way they play, it is payback time for La.
While I agree for the most part, as an avionics engineer, I know that no reputable engineer would build wells so deep that they had no way to stop a leak. That is insane.
But I believe the environmentalists and ignorant companies like BP are both to blame for pushing the drilling that deep.
O-BOZO and his crew are batting a thousand all around… 65% agree with the AZ SB1070, DOJ sues AZ… 70% do not want a hold on GULF drilling, O-BOZO and SALAZAR have challenged the courts twice, and lost… My question is why they are not in JAIL, or at least found in CONTEMPT OF COURT over this behavior???
You are only found in contempt for violating a court’s order, as a general rule. Salazar is doing this within his area of responsibility, and no court told him he could not (nor would one, prior to this).
As I said the other day in my piece, I doubt very much this new moratorium will withstand a court challenge.
One of the biggest problems the Obami face is the record of their first panel, several of whom held that cessation of drilling operations is actually MORE dangerous than continuing.
Here’s some tough questions:
Why did the Obama campaign disable security features for online donations?
How many times has he waived his own rule about not hiring lobbiests?
Why has he always seemed to associate with and hire Socialists/Marxists?
Why did his “Justice” Department drop the NBPP case?
Why is he no releasing his college records?
How did he travel to Pakistan in the 1980s?
Why does he have a Connecticut Social Security Number?
Where’s the Birth Certificate?!
This drilling ban in the gulf isn’t the only problem. Here in TX we have gobs of refineries. It seems now the epa has come here to find any little thing they can to put huge fines and could shut them down entirely. It is going to be really serious because no new refineries are ‘allowed’ to be built. More jobs are on the line as with the gulf drilling ban.
L
If they are going to ban oil production, then they should also ban a corresponding amount of oil consumption. Maybe Obama could show leadership by parking the 747 until the moritorium is lifted.
All just part of the “fundamental transformation” of America.
More of the Unicorn engineering mandate.
How Salazar imagines himself:
http://www.themastercrayonartist.com/images/Marshall%20Dillion.jpg
How Salazar appears to others:
http://weblogs.wpix.com/news/lionel/barney_fife.jpg
Salazar and the Obama administration is accomplishing what it set out to do.
1. Force the drillers overseas and away from the USA shores – i.e. to Brazil where Soros friend has interests.
2. Placate the environmentalists by banning off shore drilling and helping to drive oil prices sky high.
3. Get a 20 billion dollar slush fund to fund their socialist programs.
4. Retribution to the southern states for not voting for him.
BTW, how many vacations does this make the Obama’s this year? Maine?
I looked up the word hubris and saw a picture of the Obama’s next to the definition.
iamsaved#24,
Drudge has this bho has had 7 vacations!It is just precious the outfit mo has on leaving the wh to get on the plane. I can not imagine any other first lady ever getting on Air Force 1 looking like that!
The Obama administration and Salazar have not just stopped drilling in the Gulf. Ask the people of Utah about the leases Salazar pulled just after he was installed as Energy Secretary and several other Western states about leasing for the oil shale. The dems, and some repubs, do not want domestic energy production while they harp on our dependence on foreign oil.
http://tinyurl.com/2g2d3m8
As this usurper destroys our freedom loving country with his Marxist, elitist friends just when is enough, ENOUGH?
Will they not enforce a scorched earth policy after Nov. 2nd?
Com on America, wake up before there is nothing left.
“The conditions are that drillers must guarantee that no future blowouts will occur. This is tantamount to grounding all aircraft until airlines can guarantee there will never be another crash.”
Given the rarity of a blow out and what would actually happen if you promised never to have one and would structure your business so you were isolated from the actually well drilling I’d say that is a promise I’d be willing to make.
“wake up”
Have you not seen the latest polls? America is awake.
This admin really has to push its agenda fast to get as much done as possible before November.
There will be so much to be undone IF the GOP gains control of the House, IF it has the will to act….about which I’m not particularly confident. My guess is, if half or less of what the Dems put into place is undone the GOP may be self satisfied and TEH WON still wins.
There can’t be a successful tinkering with the piles of crap Obama has put on us.
There has to be a reformation…a restoration of constitutional governance in the U.S.
We have to be activists.
I saw one poll today with Harry Reid up about 4 to 7 points over Angle. Sure hope that’s wrong. If an extreme liberal like Reid wins re-election, then this country is doomed.
Ken Salazar was no great shakes when the “useful idiots” in Colorado elected him to the Senate, and has not improved since. As the Obama administration’s lap dog he will continue to bark on the owner’s demand. All we can hope for is that there are enough “good sense” judges out there to keep slapping him down.
Its only one poll and its still early. Don’t know much about Angle, but if this lead still holds up or increases by the end of Sept. its troubling.
Suggested photo caption:
“Who looks great in a goofy cowboy hat??? THIS GUY!!!“
Well, if he HAD improved, he wouldn’t be part of this admninistration. He has to remain an idiot, willingly so, to continue to be useful.
They could put a cigar store indian up against Harry Reid and hopefully it would win as bad as dirty Harry is.
In Missouri they voted for a dead man who won the Senate race against Ashcroft. I know, I know, it was Democrats that did it but one can hope can’t they?
No he f***g well wasnt. Neither nor his brother!
Next step is to get them alert. Krauthammer’s latest is a sober-upperer.
“For Obama, 2010 matters little. If Democrats lose control of one or both houses, Obama will probably have an easier time in 2012, just as Bill Clinton used Newt Gingrich and the Republicans as the foil for his 1996 reelection campaign.”
In other words, 0 will get himself another “target” to “personalize” (Alinsky-style). It’s gonna be a long battle.
We should not rest till he and his co-conspirators are in prison.
Hey Mary Landrieu, how ya like your bribe NOW? You got your money and now you’re getting the business from all sides and have the audacity to complain about it.
When you act like a prostitute, you should expect to get treated like one, Mary.
Ken (Pepper) Salazar: If it’s got hair, I can ride it. If it’s got a beat, I can dance to it.
Yup. TEH WON can dump the “blame Bush” mantra and use the “blame the GOP controlled congress” mantra.
He won’t run.
Several states, including Arizona, are working on legislation to require candidates to provide proof of eligibility for office to get on the ballot.
Somehow I could see that provision being a key to the moratorium.
The wheels on the bus go round and round…
Since BP is having to pay for the damage they caused in the Gulf, is the Obama administration going to pay for the economic damage their drilling moratorium is causing?
You know why they are doing this. I mean COME ON is so obvious, but let me point it out for those not as observant as me.
This is a gift to the oil rich Muslim nations. Obama wants the price of oil high and so he’s got an agreement to increase the prices for his Muslim buddies through this moratorium.
this administration has dragged its feet since the beginning. There is no excuse for not having skimmers all over the gulf unless you didn’t really want a solution. If Obama wanted to protect Americans he would have acted entirely differently with this oil spill.
Yeah, we get it, BP is awful. Now are we just going to cry over spilt milk or are we going to clean it up?
by the way, high oil is the only thing that is keeping us from being in full blown deflation area. Oil is a lot higher than it should be. There is plenty of oil for the demand. I expect 20 dollar a barrel oil within 5 years.
Those words must sting for Stupak and the AMA also…
They are politicians and bureaucrats, ergo they have no conscience and thus there will be no sting.
Just wait, folks, until all this starts to cost real $$$.
No just MUCH higher energy costs, but costs for EVERYTHING energy moves.
AND HEALTH CARE…
while trying to pay for it with unemployment…
Hell is coming…
Nope, they’re making BP pay for that too.
Errah, like they say in Texas; 10 gallons covers a whole lot of stupid . . . . .
Errah,
Was he talking about Hon. Barbara Mikulski? I wish someone would spray some disperants on this walking oil slick.
Meanwhile, TPers score another huge victory – for Harry Reid.
Nice job, douchebags. Congratulations on losing yet another Republican seat.
Past time to start files on “grounds for impeachment” on Salazar, Holder, et al.
One could argue for impeaching all of Obama’s “czars”, just on the ground that he’s end-running around Article II, section 2, ¶ 2:
And, of course, this is a strike against Obama himself.
Any word on what’s happening with that bill in Arizona? I heard that it passed one house, but that was a while ago. Is it getting any traction in the Senate?
Actually, it looks more like a 5 gallon hat which doesn’t cover near enough stupid. And in Salazar’s case never will.
Here’s a nifty thought I had. I wondered about Ken S’s brother, John Salazar, who is a US Representative from western Colorado, and what his stand was on oil drilling. You see, oil and gas drilling is going on right now in Western Colorado and is providing (for now) jobs and income to quite a few people. The jobs come and go, but it is helping Western Slope people hang on to what they have.
Well, surprise, surprise, John Salazar’s website mentions NOTHING about oil and gas drilling and the US government’s stand on it.
Funny, you’d think he might have been the type of person to represent his district faithfully by fighting for jobs in the oil and gas business.
Hah. He just doesn’t take a stand on it at all.
Just my opinion.
Like a good globalist, he is making sure jobs are moved overseas.
Angle hasn’t been helping herself much. Rasmussen still has her up, but her lead has pretty much disappeared. The inevitable difficulties of running a relatively inexperienced candidate.
The media is going to find some way to make it look like every Democrat is winning their elections come November. Get used to it.
Just curious. It wasn’t long ago when leftists were making a show of taking reduced heating oil from Chavez supposedly to give to poor people who couldn’t afford it.
What will happen to the cost of any petroleum product when oil produced from the Gulf will be effectively removed from the market?
How much will heating oil rise because of this?
Will any leftist care?
Oh Ken, you sly dog. You’re bucking for a pay raise aren’t you? Keep this up and, why, maybe the big O will let you ride in AF-1 and fetch him coffee.
You nailed it. These people are not incompetent, they are criminal by nature and philosophy. Jail. Now.
FIFY
Check you calendar. One CNN poll and you freak out. Get a grip, grow a pair, and get back into the fight.l
Good. That means the average Democrat moron will be even less inclined to vote. Just so long as we keep the illegal Mexican vote out of the polls.
Another reason why abortion is so popular with the Marxists, it keeps down the free-born American vote.
Now is the time for “ground and pound”, and don’t stop until the statists are a bloody immobile pulp. Then when the dawn rises, we have a Constitutional convention reaffirming market freedom, personal liberty, private property, and the Founding Documents. No compromise on those principles, ever.
“ground and pound”
That’s right. And we don’t get to “ground and pound” by being alarmist and Chicken Little’s. We get there by standing tall on what we believe and know to be true, educate other folks at this most perfect storm for teaching conserviative ideals and we VOTE VOTE VOTE.
Of course folks don’t sell books or get face time on news shows that way. But that is just the way it works I guess. We need to move forward and offer this country the positive alternative conservative ideals are. What a great time to have a contrast in place on which to bounce off of!
Socialism vs. conservatism right in front of our very eyes. Its not just a concept any more. Its life playing out across the country.
What a great time to be a conservative and help others learn and see the difference.
If you are following much in the right blogosphere, you’ve seen several pieces in some of the “bigs” referring to the “F” word…fascist.
It’s a point I’ve been making for a long time.
The Obamic mode is not socialism. It is a lot more dangerous, because most Americans don’t even understand it, and because it seems less threatening.
An ass kicking would be a “two fer”, inasmuch as his head is so far up his backside, it might knock some sense into him too.
But Democrats are pretty resistant to that, aren’t they? Thick skulls I guess.
Have you noticed that the Obama regime is content to let us all whine about its injustice? See, they know that us talking about this stuff makes no difference. We need some leaders to step forward with the will and a plan to shut this mess down.
Off topic, but most people missed Sheila Jackson-Lee’s immigration rant to the NAACP…
The National Disgrace Of Texas