Vast Majority of US Favours Keystone XL Pipeline

Demonstrating again that Obama is out of touch with the American electorate, Rasmussen reports an overwhelming majority of likely voters are in favour of the Keystone XL oil pipeline that will stretch from Canada to Texas.

Sixty percent (60%) of Likely U.S. Voters at least somewhat favor building the pipeline which President Obama has delayed until at least 2013 because of environmental concerns. Just 24% are opposed. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure.

This is after Obama declared that he will punt on a decision about building the pipeline until after the election in 2012, caving into the environmental wing of the Left.  These same environmentalists claim safety concerns, lest there be a leak that could damage what they claim to be sensitive areas.  This is in spite of the fact that there are tens of thousands of miles of oil pipelines already in existance. 

There are those who say that this comes at the cost of support from the labour unions who would be involved in the construction of the pipeline, but this belies the fact that traditional unions of workers who are actually productive – those involved in the trades or construction – have the smallest population of such workers and thus the smallest impact (in numbers and money funneled to the Democrats) than they have ever had in history.  Unions now are dominated by government and service employees.

Obama is perfectly happy to keep America’s energy capability in a penurious state, refusing to allow any moves to help achieve energy independence.  The Democrat position is that we should continue to rely on oil shipped in from overseas, from countries that do not have our best interests at heart.  Or we should send funding to Brasil to improve their industry and exploration so that we can spend even more money to buy their oil.

Canada is left with the choice of waiting for the Americans to possibly come to their senses someday, or instead selling their oil to China, at a far greater impact on the environment.

Dr Charles Krauthammer always explains it well:

Obama’s decision was meant to appease his environmentalists. It’s already working. The president of the National Wildlife Federation told [The Washington Post] that thousands of environmentalists who were galvanized to protest the pipeline would now support Obama in 2012. Moreover, a source told The Post, Obama campaign officials had concluded that “they do not pick up one vote from approving this project.”

Sure, the pipeline would have produced thousands of truly shovel-ready jobs. Sure, delay could forfeit to China a supremely important strategic asset — a nearby, highly reliable source of energy. But approval was calculated to be a political loss for the president. Easy choice.

It’s hard to think of a more clear-cut case of putting politics over nation. This from a president whose central campaign theme is that Republicans put party over nation, sacrificing country to crass political ends.

At a time when jobs in America is the most important item on the public's political checklist, Obama and the Democrats are intent on ensuring that thousands of potential construction jobs are left lingering.

The Public Reacts (Or Not) to the Occupation

USA Today reports on the latest survey about the Occupy Wall Street movement, which shows that our patience (assuming that many of us had any to start with) with the self-indulgent clueless is wearing thinner still.

The poll finds that 56% of Americans surveyed are neither supporters nor opponents and 59% say they don't know enough to have an opinion about the movement's goals.

The survey, however, does show an increase from 20% to 31% in disapproval of the way the protests are being conducted.

This shows that the public is still well within the annoyance phase (which brings to my mind one of Bill Murray's better shticks), though drifting steadily into a darker mood.  This contends with the mood of the public during the Viet Nam war protests, which I believe actually prolonged the war because of the backlash against the riots.

The OWS crowd is still waiting for their Kent State moment to galvanise the movement.

Occupy Berkeley: No Cameras, No Occupation

Pajamas Media carries the latest posting by contributor Zombie with before-and-after photos of the Occupy Berkeley site in Sproul Plaza (and draws reference to a series of earlier photos).  This centers around the site that the occupiers declared to occupy “permanently” or until free tuition is re-instated.

California stupidly banned tuition payments in the 1960s for California residents, feeling that education – including college education – should be ‘free’, except of course for tax-payers.  By 1978 and Proposition 13, the Copybook-Headings Gods prevailed upon California voters to install ‘per-unit enrollment fees’ as a euphemism for tuition payments, since the system was already bleeding money.  Since 2004, payments have hovered around the $20-$26 mark for each unit as the state budget shortfall approached hemorrhage status, and they are projected to increase to $42 by January 2012.  There is even a move to actually call the payments ‘tuition’, which is sure to bruise the feelings of the crowd that insists that America – or at least the 53% who still pay taxes – owes them a living.

Examine the difference between the first photo, taken during the ‘day of rage’ or whatever, when the media was in full force to report on the “young, spontaneous” demonstrators.

Contrast this to the site only two days later, after the campus police removed the ten remaining tents in the plaza:

As Zombie annotates: “So, just in case it isn’t completely clear to these people: Hanging around congratulating yourselves for a few hours and then going home to your dorm rooms does not count as “occupying” anything.” [emphasis in original]

The report goes on to link to Ezra Levant’s posting about Occupy Toronto which he found to be a Potemkin Village, and references the same to the Occupy London crowd (as I did).  Zombie concludes:

My growing suspicion is that the majority of “occupations” around the country are just like this: full of protesters during the afternoons or when the media is around, but mostly empty at night when the going gets tough and there is no public relations payoff for roughing it.

You can backtrack my postings on the ludicrous musings and actions of the Occupation with this post.

Business in California is Dying

A recent op-ed in the Los Angeles Times spells out a bleak picture indeed for business in California, calling it “one of the country’s most toxic business environments”.

Economists usually see business start-ups as the most important long-term source of job growth, and California has long had a reputation for nurturing new companies. Indeed, from 1992 to 2000, California added 777,000 more jobs from start-ups than it lost to closures. But this dynamism vanished in the 2000s. Between 2000 and 2008, California lost 262,000 more jobs from closures than it gained from start-ups.

Between 2000 and 2008, some 80,000 more jobs left California for other states than came here from other states. The leading destination of the job migration was Texas, with Oregon and North Carolina running second and third. California managed to add jobs only through the expansion of existing businesses, and even that was at a considerably lower rate than a decade earlier.

Another dark sign has been that economic growth in California's major cities stalled after 2000. Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area had been the engines of California's economic growth for at least a century. But between 2000 and 2008, California's two big metropolitan areas produced fewer than 70,000 new jobs — a nearly 95% drop from the 1990s and a mere 6% of job creation in the state. This was a collapse of historic proportions. . . .

California's suffocating regulations have a lot to do with this discontent. A 2009 study . . . estimated that regulation cost the state's businesses $493 billion annually, or nearly $135,000 per company. Additionally, dense and complex land-use regulations have driven up housing construction costs in the state, giving residents a double whammy: a stagnant economy and unaffordable home prices, even since the real estate bubble burst.

Taxes are another burden. According to the Tax Foundation, California imposes the nation's second-heaviest tax burden on businesses, and finance officers of major companies recently rated the state's overall tax environment the worst in the country, according to a poll in CFO magazine.

On top of taxes and regulation, the state can also claim what may be America's most expensive litigation environment for firms. The American Tort Reform Foundation recently named California one of the country's five worst "judicial hellholes," in part because state law allows trial lawyers to sue firms for minor violations of California's complex labor and environmental regulations.

Is it possible to turn California around?  And if so, how long will it take?  I see nothing on the horizon that even resembles an effort to save the state.  Pity.

The Marines and Justin Timberlake – One of the Good Guys

You typically will not find stories here that have a Hollywood air about them.  I will not post one, since I have better, more productive and worthwhile topics to write about.  The media are dominated so by the Sophisticati; it is a pity that our limited time is not dedicated to news of better import.

But here is a story that touches on the social glitter of Entertainment Tonight, and Hollywood comes off the better for it.

It starts when actress Mila Kunis received a shot-in-the-dark invitation to the US Marine Corps Birthday Ball from Sgt Scott Moore.  Kunis at the time was on the set of the movie “Friends with Benefits” with her co-star Justin Timberlake.  Timberlake thought it was a great idea to accept and encouraged her to do so.  (Kunis’ date is set for 18 November.)  Encouraged by the story and Timberlake’s positive reaction on behalf of Kunis, Cpl Kelsey De Santis also made a Youtube invitation to Timberlake to escort her to her unit’s ball on the 12th.

What could have been another human interest/glamour story turned into something entirely better.  Timberlake, already predisposed to be a fairly straight-arrow kind of nice guy (all the more remarkable in Hollywood), attended the event with De Santis and was awed by what unfolded.  The Marine Corps Birthday Ball is the foremost of the US services’ celebrations, and invitations for non-Marines are sought after and appreciated.  (Full disclosure: as a Marine, I attend whenever I have the opportunity, even here in Oregon which has divested itself of as much military presence as possible.)

Several news reports cited his reaction to the event, but none better than what Timberlake himself wrote in his own web log, partially excerpted here:

I’ve always been very vocal about my support of our Armed Forces.  I’ve always felt like the offered us the opportunity to live our lives freely without fear that so many other nations have to endure still to this day.  And, they do it without asking for anything in return.  I had this very feeling walking into this dinner.  So, to say I was stoked to be there would be more than accurate. . . .

[De Santis] seemed to me to be so humble and honest…. Very cool.  She also simultaneously seemed like she was nervous about the whole evening and if I was going to enjoy myself.  “Are you ok?” she asked 2 or 3 times.  “I hope you are having fun.  I know you will once my crew of friends get here to the table.”  I have to tell you, it’s not every day that I meet a 23 year old girl and she’s more worried about if I’m having fun or if I’m comfortable!  [a true rarity in Hollywood, I’m sure]  It hit me all of a sudden that these were the type of people that look after us and our freedom…. Humble, concerned for others before themselves… This was the type of person our Marine Corps was building.  I was really blown away. . . .

What happened then took me by such surprise that I was almost brought to tears.  In fact, our whole table was….

They started the ceremony.  And, the next thing I knew I was watching a video about Pearl Harbor/WW2 and the September 11 terrorist attacks…. It was a video with some first-hand accounts from some Marines who were there…. Telling their stories of the sights and sounds of war and rescue.  So vivid and real.  So honest but, so filled with a sense of compassion and adoration for this wonderful country.  They spoke with a pride that only they could have acquired through their experience as a US Marine.  There was a common theme that I began to notice as well…. No matter what the situation.  No matter how dire…

They were there FIRST.

There on the front lines.

No questions… Just reaction.

While this tribute was playing, you could hear a pin drop.  It was a surreal moment to be in that room with so many of our great Marines who have such a different type of connection to those stories.  One that we who don’t serve will NEVER understand.  It was familial.  It was like they were listening to their own blood brothers.  I glanced around the room at young men and women, spouses and soldiers… At kids way beyond their years, really… All so deeply entwined.  Not just by battle, even though we who have never endured anything remotely close to those experiences and have NO position to comment on… But by having such life changing experiences through them and to not ever waver in their love and respect for our homeland.  That’s what I saw.  A faith in us that has been tested time and time again.  And, through it all, NEVER a drop of doubt.

I was truly moved. . . .

To all of you who serve every day for us… Ensuring our freedom, I say: My deepest gratitude to you.  I’ve met so many of my heroes… From Michael Jordan to Michael Jackson.  And, nothing makes me feel more honor and pride than when I get to meet one of you.  Last night changed my life and I will never forget it.

To people like me who get to benefit from this type of person… One with character and courage.  With strength and bravery.  With humility and honor… I say: Send your thanks.  Do it however you can.  Write a letter, type an email… Hell, buy ‘em a beer next time you run into someone from our Armed Forces in a bar.  When they say thank you for that drink that cost you 3 bucks, they’ll mean it.  They won’t take it for granted and, they won’t forget it.

Thank you Corporal Kelsey DeSantis.  Thank you for inviting me.  And, thank you for being my hero.

The video that is being shown to all the Marine Corps Balls can be viewed here, and it is well worth your while, as are the full comments Timberlake's web log posting.

Thank you, Mr Timberlake, for your thoughtful and sincere comments about not only an event, but a special breed of people that many never really see.  You are a class act.

The Poppy and Veterans Day

On Veterans Day (here in the US, otherwise known as Remembrance Day for those of you elsewhere), I wore a red poppy facsimile in the lapel of my coat.  As many of you undoubtedly know, this is a tradition going back to shortly after World War I, taking its meaning from the poem In Flanders Fields by LtCol John McCrae of the Royal Canadian Army, in commemoration of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country in time of war.

This particular poppy that I wore is one that I have had for several years, and which I carefully secure after wearing it on Veterans Day and Memorial Day each year.  It holds no unique sentimental value, other than the obvious, but I make sure that it is secured each time for future use because it is so difficult to find one in this area, since this state of Oregon, bluer than blue politically, is not what one would call enamoured of veterans or the military.

The historic local county courthouse is conspicuously (some locals have said proudly) bare of a memorial to the war dead of the area’s history (there is one relegated to the National Guard armory instead).  In its place, there are weekly demonstrations of war protestors (perhaps a dozen or so now) who were more numerous and conspicuous until Obama was elected.  Other than the necessary county business that I need to do on occasion, the place is anathema to me.  There are those amongst the local inhabitants who feel as I do (some recognised the poppy and thanked me, and asked where I had found one), and thus we melancholy few are not with those who feel that they should be paid for existing, and mustn’t pay for their sins.  (Not surprisingly or coincidentally, Oregon has the largest unchurched per capita population in the US.)

Traditional commemoration of a nation’s war dead is under attack elsewhere.  John Hinderaker of Powerline reports on an exhibition soccer game between England and the world champion team from Spain that was scheduled for Remembrance Day, at Wembley Stadium.  The English were steeled for an uphill battle against the superior-ranked Spanish team, but the contest became all the more contentious over England’s plan to wear embroidered poppies on their uniforms.  The world governing body for soccer – FIFA (“the corrupt international soccer bureaucracy that hates England for (at a minimum) blowing the whistle on its corruption”) – declared that the poppy should be banned from display because it is a “political statement”.

From whence does this deplorable nonsense stem?  Naturally, from the political sensitivities of the Left.  There is a move from them to have their adherents wear a white poppy rather than a red one.  “They view the former as a symbol of peace and the latter as a symbol of war.”  A century of non-adversarial sentiment of honouring a nation’s war dead is now added to the targets of the socialist vanguard.  Fortunately, the English held tough, and FIFA allowed them to wear poppies on an armband as a compromise, aided by the very real threat that England would cancel the match over the issue.  England’s stand-in team captain, Frank Lampard, explained:

As players we do a lot of work with the military boys and, if we were to be running out and not showing our respects, we would be letting them down.  It is something the players felt very strongly about.  I’m very proud of the freedoms we have and why we have got them.  To live the life we live is due to the people who fought and died in wars.  We should never forget that.  I went to my daughters’ school assembly earlier this week and the headmaster was telling all the kids, at a very diverse school with kids from all over the world, what it means to wear a poppy.  I came away feeling quite proud that is what we teach our kids.

The entire stadium was decked out in poppies, including on the jacket of England’s Italian coach, Fabio Capello.

England won the match, 1-0.

Occupy London – Tedious

‘There is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.’  So said the wonderful Edmund Burke, and he would be appalled by gazing on the throngs of indolent wastrels (as he would undoubtedly call them) tying up the traffic and patience of the population in London, trying to make some point about the economy that seems beyond their understanding.

The Occupy London crowd is trying the patience of even the liberal London political establishment.  An effort to spread to more commodious surroundings in Trafalgar Square was stopped cold by the police, as reported in the Daily Mail:

Abandoning the ‘softly softly’ approach that allowed demonstrators to close St Paul’s for the first time since the Blitz, police cleared the makeshift campsite in just 90 minutes.

The protesters, who attempted to occupy Trafalgar Square, were demonstrating against tuition fees and government cuts.

But the no-nonsense tactics meant there was no repeat of the St Paul’s occupation – or of the violence that erupted at last year’s student protests.

Instead, police came close to outnumbering demonstrators by two to one as more than 4,000 officers patrolled the capital, while demonstrator numbers were estimated at around 2,500. Many were thought to have stayed away after senior officers warned they would use plastic bullets if violence escalated.

Two web logs are doing yeoman’s work in keeping up with the squalor, inanity, crime, and blatant appeals to revolution (violent and otherwise) in the variety of Occupation sites populated by some who are truly frustrated with the dismal economic situation (though their efforts are misdirected), but by a large majority of others who apparently have nothing better to do while they wait for their government checks.  Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit is cataloguing the many stories by the Tweet hatch #occupyfail, and John Hinderacker at Powerline recommends OWS exposed, for continuing coverage.

My previous efforts (and those of others) with London and other cities can be found here and here and here as well as here.