Sounds like the U.S. Government needs to hire some competent lawyers.

Lucrative Gulf of Mexico drilling loophole survives challenge in U.S. House

On a mostly party-line vote, The House Friday night rejected a Democratic amendment that would have corrected a 1995 mistake in drilling rules [sic] that allowed oil and gas companies to drill in portions of the Gulf of Mexico without paying royalties.

The amendment would have saved $1.5 billion in 2011, and $53 billion over the next 25 years, according to the measure’s Democratic sponsors. The windfall is a result of a mistake made by the Clinton administration’s oil and gas regulators in 1995, which Congress has been unwilling to change, despite several attempts over the 16 years.

I hate to nit-pick, but the mistake was not made in “drilling rules”, but in the oil and gas lease form that was written by government attorneys, subject to competitive bid in two lease sales back in the 1990s.

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Promoted from the diaries by Ben Howe

Pro-life activists exposed systemic abuses at Planned Parenthood. The media was outraged.

In Planned Parenthood offices all over America, activists pretending to be a pimp and an underage girl taped employees giving them advice on obtaining illegal abortions so they could get back into the sex trade as quickly as possible without running afoul of the law.

This exposure of prohibited practices inevitably helped in the February 18 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to end federal funding of Planned Parenthood.

(Abortion prices will necessarily skyrocket)!

The lament of the media? How could conservatives want women and children to die?

Even though Planned Parenthood was the bad actor (and admitted as much by firing some of the employees caught on tape) the media’s pro-Roe bias had already begun.

One Huffington Post headline cried, “A War on Women.” (Oh no)!

The always objective Politico reported the defunding bill, “Mike Pence’s War on Planned Parenthood.” (Bombs away)!

Similarly, The Seattle Times proclaims, “Republicans Focus Attack on Planned Parenthood.”

Indeed, the American left holds few things in such high esteem as a women¹s “right” to “choose.” What is getting harder to defend is why taxpayers should foot the bill.

In fact, a 2009 Gallup Poll found that 51 percent of Americans self-identify themselves as pro-life. Again, it begs the question why more than half the country should have to subsidize a life-ending procedure they morally oppose and has already caused the deaths of 51 million unborn babies?

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Here’s a bit of press-critiquing weekend reading for you. I know it’s generally unwise to rely on The Economist for coverage of American domestic policy, simply because it’s not their focus. But I am far less likely to do so after reading this error-filled piece on the Florida court decision, unsigned (as all Economist pieces are) and published three weeks ago, which prompted the letter below from myself and an attorney friend. It also inspired Dan McLaughlin to send along this link to a quote from Michael Crichton about the foolishness of trusting mass media. It applies to a number of situations:

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

In the two issues since we sent it, The Economist has declined to print even an excerpt of our letter, and has retracted none of the errors we cited. Nonetheless, we hope you will find our critique entertaining.

—

Dear Sir,

Your article in the Feb. 3rd print edition concerning the health care ruling in Florida—“Health Care: Dead or Alive?”—was a disappointing read rife with error. Several statements are blatantly false based on the text of the law, and others are very debatable conjectures. The sheer number of factual inaccuracies is daunting, many of which could easily have been avoided had the author asked any legal expert or policy scholar a few questions prior to its publication.

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Promoted from the diaries by Bill

You can reduce funding for the military, cut subsidies for big bad oil companies, and you can institute a five-year freeze on discretionary spending, but if you even think about questioning the sacredness of public media outlets, you are in for a world of hurt.

Republicans learned this lesson the hard way after House Democrats brought the heat in a highly publicized press conference at the Capitol. There they unleashed a new secret weapon, the ultimate defense against all budget slashers, also known as Arthur the Aardvark.

Oh yes they did.

Nothing says “we are totally serious about our jobs” like giving a speech next to a life-size version of a cartoon aardvark. The gravitas is simply overpowering.

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As was noted earlier today, the American Conservative Union’s (ACU) board of directors chairman Al Cardenas has announced new rules and guidelines for participating organizations.  Specifically that “Groups supporting ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’[DADT] repeal or gay marriage will no longer be allowed to participate at CPAC.  This has caused some to conclude that the organization GoProud will not be allowed to attend next years conference.

As has been pointed out, part of the reason that GoProud received so much criticism leading up to CPAC was what was viewed by many as a “non-conservative” agenda.

In 2010, GoProud made clear their support for repeal of DADT as well as taking a view of gay marriage that is largely dependent on the state legislatures.  They’ve also been outspoken in their opposition to a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman.

All of these factors, as well as the controversies surrounding recent statements by Co-Founder Chris Barron, have lead some to believe that GoProud’s days as a participating organization ended when David Keene stepped down as ACU chairman.  As such, the comments by Cardenas have been viewed as potentially laying the groundwork for denying GoProud entrance next year.

I solicited a response from Barron on the matter and in his view, there’s no reason for GoProud to be concerned:

Considering we don’t support gay marriage and DADT isn’t part of our 2011 legislative agenda [I'm] not sure how this effects us at all.

A bill to repeal DADT was passed in 2010 and awaits certification from the President, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff & The Secretary of Defense.  As GoProud supported the bill, it remains to be seen whether this will disqualify them for participation in the 2012 conference.

The Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) has stepped up their protest efforts in Madison, WI in an attempt to stop Governor Scott Walker’s efforts to close his state’s projected $3.6 Billion budget shortfall over the next two years.

Gov Walker has proposed that public employee unions pay a larger portion of their health benefits & pension plans as well as limiting their collective bargaining rights to matters of basic wages.

Protests have been taking place all week with “sick out” strikes affecting major schools in Wisconsin.  The opposition to Walker’s plans have been categorized as volatile with violent underpinnings such as protestors walking the halls of the state capitol saying, “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”   With more protests planned over the coming days, WEAC has provided a list on their website of the home addresses for all legislators set to vote on the Governors plan.  The link which takes a user to this list only states that it has “Phone Numbers & Email Addresses” however a quick glance at the list proves otherwise.

This style of protest is not unprecedented, as in May of 2010 similar protests were held at the home of a Bank of America executive by SEIU protestors.

The recent shooting in Arizona had prompted much of the political spectrum to look towards a more reasonable tone when discussing issues of policy.  The Obama administration even went so far as to hand out t-shirts at the memorial service with the slogan “Together we thrive” printed on the front.

However, it has come to light that the Obama administration, the DNC, and their activist arm Organizing for America have had a guiding hand in the protests this week causing some to question the President’s commitment to a “new tone.”

I’m on tonight 7 to 10pm ET. You can listen live at http://wsbradio.com and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

It’s a free for all Friday night, so you can call in about anything you want.

We’ll be remembering the Alamo tonight in light of union goon comments that the war in Wisconsin is like the Alamo.

It puts me in the unusual position of rooting for Santa Ana.

Just moments ago, the House passed the Pence Amendment, which strips Planned Parenthood of all federal funding in the Continuing Resolution, by a vote of 240 to 185.

RedState readers already know that the final composition of the Continuing Resolution will be determined after a contentious showdown between the House, Senate, and White House.

Let me very clear: ending taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood in this bill is a non-negotiable. It must be a top priority in the Continuing Resolution battle.

Taxpayers have strongly rejected their complicity in the sex trafficking of underage girls. Our pro-life leaders in the Senate need to take up this fight and our House leadership must hold its ground.

Americans have spoken and the time to defund Planned Parenthood, a habitual and unapologetic ally of those who deal in the exploitation of minors, is now. This is a black and white issue and we must accept nothing less than the total defunding of Planned Parenthood in the Continuing Resolution.

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

- Rudyard Kipling The Jeffersonian

According to Hegel, life is all about the choices we make. In fact, he viewed history as an evolutionary process of decisions made athwart a crisis. Wisconsin has hit just such a crisis. It must decide if it will continue to grow its government beyond its means, or whether the state can reform how employees relate to the government in such a way as to provide for both governance and the continued commonweal of the non-government sector.

Hegel viewed these choices as a dialectical process. A status quo formed a thesis, an alternate, appositional choice formed an antithesis. A crisis then undermined the equilibrium state of the thesis, rendering it untenable as a way forward. However, those who benefitted from the status quo would not go down without an argument, and hence an accommodation called a synthesis resulted which involved whatever emerged still standing when thesis and antithesis collided.

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Five terms is apparently enough *.  Frankly, it’s more than enough for a lot of Senators out there, but that’s just my opinion.

Contra Chris Cizzilla , though, Obama’s 15 point victory in 2008 is not the only thing to consider about New Mexico: it’s that in 2010 the GOP took the governorship and lieutenant governorship, flipped a House seat, and came pretty close to getting another one (the state legislature was a wash).  New Mexico is a swing state, and if recent history is any predictor it’s busy swinging back the other way right now.

Mind you, this is good news for Tom Udall, who won’t be up for re-election until 2014; and by then the pendulum may have swung back yet again.  In the meantime, we’ll have to see who gets bitten by the Senatorial bug…

Moe Lane (crosspost )

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While the mass media’s attention is focused on the OFA-mobilized hordes storming the statehouse in Wisconsin to protect the unions, President Obama was slipping another one of his union contributors into a prime spot.

On Wednesday, the President announced the membership appointment of UAW President Bob King to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations:

Bob King, Appointee for Member, Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations Bob King was elected as President of the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) in 2010.  From 1998 until 2010, he served three four-year terms as a Vice President at UAW.  In his final term as Vice President, he directed the Ford, Severstal, and Competitive Shops/Independent Parts Suppliers Departments of the UAW.  Before this, Mr. King served nine years as the Union’s Director for most of Wayne, Monroe, and Washtenaw Counties in Michigan.  He also chaired the UAW-Ford Negotiating Committee twice.  Mr. King is a life member of the NAACP and a member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women.

The UAW, as most know, is a major shareholder (as is the federal government) in both General Motors and Chrsyler and is currently attempting to bully foreign auto-makers into unionizing their U.S. operations. Apparently, though, the President sees no conflict of interest in having a corporate partner who steers large sums of his members’ money into the President’s politics, serving as a trade advisor at a time when the UAW is trying to acquire more assets members from foreign automakers. 

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Melissa no longer has to make the coffee around here. I’m pleased to announce that Repair Man Jack and DHorowitz3 are our newest front page contributors. We’ll be ordering both of them around and Repair Man Jack is going to get to take out some trash I’m sure.

Consider this an open thread.