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When lies no longer matter

Obama's ponderous State of the Union lecture was the unofficial start of his re-election campaign. It was also chock full of rhetoric, lies, and divisiveness -- mimicking the previous three years of his first and only presidential term. His credibility tank is empty.

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It’s the lies, stupid

"Truth, but not the whole truth, must be the invariable principle of every man who hath either religion, honour, or prudence. Those who violate it, may be cunning, but they are not able. Lies and perfidy are the refuge of fools and cowards." -- Philip Dormer Stanhope Chesterfield

News Nuggets

• Mike Nugent’s 43-yard field goal attempt was good as time expired, lifting the Cincinnati Bengals to a 23-20 come-from-behind win over my beloved, bedraggled Buffalo Bills. The loss was the Bills' first of the season (3-1). I'm not complaining too much -- the memory of starting 0-8 last season is still bitterly fresh in my mind -- but this is a game Buffalo should have won. I will still take my pre-season prediction of an 8-8 season for the Bills, a respectable finish for a young club that is basically rebuilding from scratch. However, if they can somehow squeak out a 9-7 or 10-6 season, that wouldn't be too totally terrible. Up Next Week: Mike Vick and the Eagles at The Ralph. [comment]
• CHRIS CHRISTIE FOR PRESIDENT? Quin Hillyer offers some timely advice to those who are being swayed to support a presidential run by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. However, many of the governor's avid boosters don't live in New Jersey and generally are limited in the knowledge of what is really happening there. Regardless, enjoy: No to Chris Christie What is wrong with conservatives today? Why are they falling for a pig in a poke and trying, yet again, to talk Chris Christie into running for president? We still don't know Chris Christie. We've seen him for less than two years. We've seen him do some highly unconservative things. And we have him in hiw own words saying not just that he doesn't want to run for president this year, but that he "isn're ready" to be president. If he actually gets the nomination, those words will be hung around his neck like millstones. He didn't say them just once, either, but several times. Look, when a man says he isn't ready for the presidency, it means he isn't ready. he's not yet experienced enough. He's not knowledgeable enough. Why have conservatives abandoned the very conservative principle that experience is important? We learn to do by doing. Seasoning in any pursuit is an asset. Why is it that we value experience in an auto mechanic or a doctor, but not in a politician? It is a profoundly unconservative thing to fall prey to an American Idol mentality, always going gaga over the "new new thing." Get a grip people. Christie has a heck of a future. Let's let him earn that future by continued performance in office. The man says he isn't ready. Give him the respect he deserves by taking him at his word. (Quin Hillyer is a senior editor of The American Spectator and a senior fellow at the Center for Individual Freedom.) It has indeed become fashionable among Republicans nationwide to effusively embrace the governor as the “Conservative Savior” of New Jersey. But remember that his Democrat opposition is so radically leftist that it makes Christie's meanderings into RINO territory seem conservative by comparison. Not this time, Chris, and not at this stage of your ideological development - there are too many establishment Republicans in Washington as it is. [comment]
• The Empty Promise of Green Jobs -- Republican Representative Paul Ryan outlines The Costly Consequences of Crony Capitalism for all to see, and the graph he provides is the money shot. He nails Obama for the fraud he is and leaves him frying like one of his bogus and graft-riddled Solyndra solar shingles. Ryan writes: The Empty Promise of Green Jobs In the fall of 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama made a campaign promise to jumpstart the economy with an influx of green jobs. “We’ll invest $150 billion over the next decade and harness private efforts to build a clean-energy economy,” he said. This expenditure of taxpayer dollars, averaging $15 billion a year, would then “create 5 million new jobs that pay well, and can never be outsourced.” The President has kept his promise to spend billions of borrowed dollars on green energy, but his promises that such spending would create a new, self-sufficient industry capable of providing millions of jobs for Americans have proven empty. The President’s stimulus law alone included tens of billions in new government subsidies for politically favored renewable-energy interests: $6 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy investments; $17 billion for the Department of Energy’s energy efficiency and renewable energy programs; $2 billion for energy-efficient battery manufacturing; and billions more on other “clean-energy” programs for a total of $80 billion. Two years later, the President’s promise of millions of jobs stands in stark contrast with reality. As a recent report from a Bay-Area news organization made clear, green jobs predictions are “proving a pipe dream.” Read the rest [comment]
• Shell Gets Alaska Drilling Go-Ahead from EPA From El Rushbo: Here's a shocker for you. "Shell Gets Alaska Drilling Go-Ahead from EPA -- Shell Oil is set to tap Alaska's vast oil reserves now that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a final air quality permit to allow exploration development north of the Arctic Circle. The permit allows Shell to set up its Noble Discoverer drillship in the Chukchi Sea along with a fleet of support vessels including icebreakers and oil-spill response crafts. The company will be allowed to operate them no more than 120 days annually starting in 2012. The permit sets strict air pollution control limits on the drilling equipment." So for an entire four month period an unelected regulatory body is allowing a private business to work. You probably go, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what happened? Good news here." Yeah, but look at it a different way, the EPA, unelected regulatory bunch, "Yeah, we'll let you drill four months out of the year." Who are they? Well, they have immense power. But there's a sentence in this story: "Environmental groups are enraged at EPA's decision." Now, the hitch always has been pollution from their boats. That's what the EPA has used to shut this down up 'til now. Air pollution from their boats, not the oil, not the possibility of spills, air pollution from the boats. And the denial, the EPA's denial of the permit up to now was based on computer models. They had a bunch of computer models which predicted what the air pollution would be from the support vessels and the actual drilling rig. I don't know where they got the models. I have no idea. [comment]
• IN 2009, OBAMA AND HIS CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRAT entourage smugly lied to assured Americans that the "Recovery Summer" put an end to the worst recession in decades. The problem with their proclamation is that no one told the economy or the millions of jobless Americans. Isn't that just the way? You tell a perfectly good lie and then a pesky little thing like reality gets in the way: A low in jobs, mobility, marriage for young adults WASHINGTON (AP) -- Call it the recession's lost generation. In record-setting numbers, young adults struggling to find work are shunning long-distance moves to live with Mom and Dad, delaying marriage and buying fewer homes, often raising kids out of wedlock. They suffer from the highest unemployment since World War II and risk living in poverty more than others - nearly 1 in 5. New 2010 census data released Thursday show the wrenching impact of a recession that officially ended in mid-2009. It highlights the missed opportunities and dim prospects for a generation of mostly 20-somethings and 30-somethings coming of age in a prolonged slump with high unemployment ... read the rest [comment]