Category: What’s Up!

Over the past several weeks, the American people have experience huge increases in gasoline prices.  Republican conservatives, including their presidential candidates, blame the gasoline increases on President Obama supposedly because of his so-called “anti-drilling policies.”  The fact is that oil prices soared despite both record drilling and the highest domestic oil production levels in almost a decade.  The U. S. Energy Information Administration continues to report that more drilling do not have any significant impact on oil prices.  Yet, under the Obama presidency, U. S. oil drilling is up nearly 60% in the past year and at its highest total since 1987.  The above chart illustrates this increase in oil production.

Republicans have consistently been lying to the American people by telling them, among other things, that President Obama is over regulating the energy and their presidential candidates want to abolish EPA.  However, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics and the Federal Reserve of St. Louis, employment in the oil and gas community has reached a 20-year high with 186,000 employees, the highest since 1992.  Even the coal industry has experienced a significant employment increase in 2011, with over 87,000 employees not seen since 1998.  In 2009, the Obama administration approved 4,487 oil drilling permits to drill on federal land; in 2010 there were 4,090 permits issued; and by the end of 2011, 4,244 permits issued, equaling President’s Bush’s oil record in his first term.

Fox News and the right-wing radical part of the Republican Party has engaged in an orchestrated effort to blame the Obama administration for high gasoline prices (a claimed that has consistently been debunked.)  However, during the summer of 2008 when gasoline prices hit an all time high of $4.11 per gallon, Fox said that, “no President has the power to increase or to lower gas prices.” Fox also said that, “expanding domestic oil drilling will not significantly lower prices, and the only way to reduce our vulnerability to gas price spikes is to use less oil.”

Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly also blames President Obama for his energy policy and increased gasoline prices; however, O’Reilly had a completely different position during the Bush administration and O’Reilly is now upset with Media Matters for calling him out. Media Matters used a verbatim clip from Bill O’Reilly to illustrate his claim that politicians (without regard to party) have very little control over gas prices, but supply and speculation are much larger factors.  O’Reilly does not deny what he said during a Republican administration but now claims that it is entirely Obama’s fault that gas prices have increased.  O’Reilly says that Media Matters was lying (although they quoted O’Reilly verbatim).  Here is why O’Reilly is upset with Media Matters and you be the judge:

O’REILLY: “As you know, I’ve been very critical of the oil companies jacking up gas prices when there is plenty of supply available in the USA. I’ve criticized President Obama for doing nothing about it when he could call the oil chieftains and get behind legislation to limit oil speculation.  Those would be the same oil chieftains that spoke to the President through their puppet, Petroleum Institute Jack Gerard, telling him to “approve Keystone XL pipeline or else?”

O’REILLY: Enter Media Matters, who calls me a hypocrite because they say I didn’t hammer President Bush when gas prices rose during his tenure.  

O’REILLY: When you hear a politician say he or she will bring down oil prices, understand its complete BS. If Americans want lower gas prices, cut back.

O’REILLY: Now Media Matters posted that clip nine days ago, but they dishonestly edited it. Here’s the full clip:

O’REILLY: The Republican Party pretty much lets big oil do whatever it wants and refuses to rein in corrupt speculators who drive up the price of oil. So the next time you hear a politician say he or she will bring down oil prices, understand it’s complete BS. If Americans want lower gas prices, cut back.

Unless it’s in O’Reilly’s mind, there are no contradictions in the Media Matters reporting and it continues to support the right-wing radical lies against this President.  In addition, O’Reilly may not have realized it, but his comments were a direct slam against Newt Gingrich who said that if elected President, he would ‘bring gas down to $2.50 a gallon.”  However, I wouldn’t place too much stock in Gingrich’s comments; after all, he wants to build a colony on the moon.

Although speculation contributes to high gasoline prices, the single biggest factor in the price of gasoline is the cost of crude oil. In recent years, the world’s appetite for gasoline and diesel fuel grew so quickly that suppliers of these fuels had a difficult time keeping up with demand.  This demand growth is a key reason why prices of both crude oil and gasoline reached record levels in mid-2008. By the fall of 2008, crude oil prices began to fall due to the weakening economy and collapse of global petroleum demand. These factors helped gasoline prices to drop below $2 per gallon of Regular gasoline in late 2008 and early 2009. The gradual improvement in the U.S. and world economies in 2010 and the political events in the Middle East and North Africa in early 2011, the source of about one third of world oil production, contributed to the increases in crude oil and gasoline prices in 2010 and 2011.  History informs us that gasoline prices rise and fall depending on a variety of factors usually not in the control of Republican or Democratic administrations. Let’s hope by summer they fall again.

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In a bizarre attempt to rescue Rush Limbaugh who recently made those hateful verbal attacks on Georgetown Law Center Student, Sandra Fluke, O’Reilly, along with Fox News host Eric Bolling, has invented a new conspiracy theory that Ms. Fluke was actually a White House and Democratic plant.  O’Reilly bases his odd premise on the fact that Ms. Fluke is being represented by former White House communications director Anita Dunn’s Public Relations agency.

O’Reilly: “As we reported last night (March 7, 2012), the (O’Reilly) Factor believes the Sandra Fluke contraception controversy was manufactured to divert attention away from the Obama administration’s disastrous decision to force Catholic non-profit organizations to provide insurance coverage for birth control and the morning after pill.”

O’Reilly: “Nancy Pelosi staged a mock hearing starring Sandra. After which Rush Limbaugh made derogatory comments elevating her to left-wing martyrdom. So it seems there is a powerful presence behind Sandra Fluke.”

Some in the radical right-wing component of the Republican Party applaud O’Reilly for coming up with such a “brilliant” theory attempting to prove that Limbaugh was “set up” by the Democratic Party.  Clearly Limbaugh had to be part of the conspiracy to make it work; otherwise, he would never have attacked Ms. Fluke which started the controversy in the first place.  Since Limbaugh willingly participated, he apparently considered loosing hundreds of sponsors on his radio program as mere “French fries” falling out of its box.  So let’s consider how the conspiracy theory probably came together to benefit President Obama as O’Reilly has observed through his prolific intelligence.

For the O’Reilly conspiracy theory to take root, the Obama administration had to know well in advance that Republican Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, would hold a hearing on February 16, 2012, about women’s reproductive health.  The Obama administration also had to know that Issa would only permit males to testify and refusing to tolerate any females proposed by Democrats to offer testimony.

Once the Obama administration obtained the Issa hearing plan through some kind of divine intervention, the administration apparently began to search diligently for a woman from the Georgetown Law Center who had a story to tell about a friend loosing an ovary because her insurance would not cover needed contraception medication.  As a result, Sandra Fluke was offered this delicate assignment.  In addition to agreeing to this unprecedented diabolical scheme, Ms. Fluke had to know that Issa would not let her testify and subsequently allow herself to be subjected to the appalling Limbaugh comments about her.  In addition, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi must also have known in advance that the Democrats would hold their own hearing since Ms. Fluke would not be permitted to share her story at the Issa hearing.

Based on the O’Reilly conspiracy theory, Ms. Fluke must also be a brilliant law student since she somehow invented a successful technique to pressure Issa in refusing to let her testify at the hearing so that she could trap Limbaugh into launching a verbal attack on her apparently using some kind of thought transference power.  After all, Ms. Fluke and Limbaugh didn’t know each other.  I don’t believe any of Limbaugh’s wives ever had this much power over him.  Way to go Ms. Fluke.

To further embellish his conspiracy theory, O’Reilly believes that there had to be some kind of collusion that existed between Ms. Fluke and the Obama White House since Ms. Fluke is now represented by the Public Relations firm of Anita Dunn, former White House Communications Director.  Even though Ms. Fluke’s PR relationship began only after the controversy started, that apparently didn’t matter to O’Reilly; why confuse the facts with his theory?  It is also interesting to note that Anita Dunn is not even involved in assisting Ms. Fluke.

O’Reilly continued his conspiracy theory that the Fluke controversy was “manufactured to divert attention away from the Obama administration’s disastrous decision to force Catholic non-profit organizations to provide insurance coverage for birth control and the morning-after pill.”  Of course, O’Reilly has yet to explain how the Obama Administration convinced Limbaugh to go on a 3-day negative rant about Ms. Flute.  O’Reilly also called it “very strange” that he was having trouble tracking down “just who is sending Sandra around to the media.”  O’Reilly also found it “very unusual” that Ms. Fluke would not respond to a telephone call inviting her on his show.  Her lack of response could have been characterized by the fact that O’Reilly implied that Ms. Fluke was a “slut” rather than calling her that outright.

Over the years, the radical right-wing element of the Republican Party including many of the Fox News commentators, have come up with a series of novel practices and fabricated rhetoric to blame democrats on everything from high employment to Limbaugh’s attempted defilement of Sandra Fluke.  To come up with such an asinine conspiracy theory, Bill O’Reilly is just plain stupid or he believes that the American people are, but that’s just my take.

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This is a follow-up to my article on Arpaio’s quest to de-legitimize President Obama.  In response to that article published today, one of my commenters said that I “make a lot of noise,” but “haven’t answered or disputed the facts that have been found.” The commenter went on to say that the “official long form posted on the White House website is said to be a forgery.”  That along “with the other evidence,” I “ignore it all and are just shouting louder instead of answering the question” where is a legal document that will pass scrutiny? The commenter said that my “article is very hollow.”

While each of us is entitled to our views and opinions, concerning the authenticity of President Obama‘s birth certificate, either some are naïve, misinformed or have bought into that ridiculous and debunked theory that President Obama’s birth certificate is a forgery.  Here are the facts for their benefit although the facts probably won’t matter:

On October 31, 2008, the director of Hawaii’s Department of Health, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, confirmed that Obama was born in Honolulu.  The Associated Press quoted Dr. Fukino as saying that both she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama’s original birth certificate.  According to the Honolulu Advertiser, Dr. Fukino was also quoted as saying that the agency had been bombarded by requests and the registrar of statistics had even been called at her home in the middle of the night.  Fukino also said that she has “personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has Senator Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.”

The White House released the long-form version of President Obama’s birth certificate confirming (yet again) that he was born in the United States.  The Hawaii Department of Health made an exception in Obama’s case and issued copies of the “Certificate of Live Birth.”  But speculation on his citizenship continued. Some claim that Obama posted a fake birth certificate on his Web page.

As part of its research, Fact Check representatives got a chance to spend some time with Obama’s birth certificate, they attest to the fact that it is real and three-dimensional and resides at the Obama headquarters in Chicago. They have assured readers that the certificate bears a raised seal and that it’s stamped on the back by Hawaii state registrar Alvin T. Onaka (who uses a signature stamp rather than signing individual birth certificates). According to Fact Check, the certificate has all the elements the State Department requires for proving citizenship to obtain a U.S. passport: “your full name, the full name of your parent(s), date and place of birth, sex, date the birth record was filed, and the seal or other certification of the official custodian of such records.” The names, date and place of birth, and filing date are all evident on the scanned version and you can see the seal above.  They went on to say that the document is a “certification of birth,” also known as a short-form birth certificate. The long form is drawn up by the hospital and includes additional information such as birth weight and parents’ hometowns. The short form is printed by the state and draws from a database with fewer details. The Hawaii Department of Health’s birth record request form does not give the option to request a photocopy of the long-form birth certificate, but their short form has enough information to be acceptable to the State Department. Fact Check tried to ask the Hawaii DOH why they only offer the short form, among other questions, but they have not given a response.  In case you were not aware, Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, a Republican organization.  Walter Annenberg’s served in Richard Nixon’s cabinet as Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and the Annenberg’s are personal friends of the Reagans.

Some of the conspiracy theories that have circulated about Obama’s birth certificate are very imaginative. One conservative blogger has suggested that the Obama campaign might have obtained a valid Hawaii birth certificate, soaked it in solvent, then reprinted it with Obama’s information. Of course, this anonymous blogger didn’t have access to the actual document and presents this as just one possible “scenario” without any evidence that such a thing actually happened or is even feasible. It should also be noted that none of those questioning the authenticity of the document have produced a shred of evidence that the information on it is incorrect.

PolitiFact.com also dug into some of the loopy theories and said, “It is possible that Obama conspired his way to the precipice of the world’s biggest job, involving a vast network of people and government agencies over decades of lies. Anything’s possible. But step back and look at the overwhelming evidence to the contrary and your sense of what’s reasonable has to take over.”  The conspiracy would need to be even deeper than realized. In fact in July 2008, a researcher looking to dig up dirt on Obama instead found a birth announcement that had been published in the Honolulu Advertiser on Sunday, August 13, 1961.  Of course, it’s distantly possible that Obama’s grandparents “may have planted the announcement just in case their grandson needed to prove his U.S. citizenship in order to run for president someday.” The evidence is clear: Barack Obama was born in the U.S.A.

On May 13, 2010, Hawaiian Governor Linda Lingle signed a law allowing state agencies to ignore requests for information if they determine the requests duplicate or are substantially similar to earlier ones. The law targets the birthers who contend Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. Hawaii officials tell requesters the same thing over and over: State law prohibits the release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who doesn’t have a tangible interest in the matter. Obama requested and obtained a copy of his own birth certificate and released it publicly in 2008. That document is legal proof of citizenship, and it’s the only type of birth record the state issues. Nevertheless, some wanted more.  So under the direction of Governor Lingle, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, the Hawaiian State Health Director, issued a statement on July 27, 2009, that she has seen the original vital records verifying that Obama was born in Hawaii and “is a natural-born American citizen.”  Governor Lingle is a Republican who stumped for John McCain in 2008, and she is a Republican senatorial candidate from Hawaii.

The Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a $20,000 sanction against Queen Birther, Orly Taitz, the most visible of those pressing the Obama-as-foreigner theory.  As the court wrote, a lower court judge imposed the fine to punish Taitz’ “misconduct” in filing “frivolous” legal claims on behalf of an Army officer who didn’t want to deploy to Iraq on the grounds that Obama’s presidency was illegitimate.  On October 13, 2009, Judge Clay D. Land wrote:  “While the Court derives no pleasure from its imposition of sanctions upon counsel Orly Taitz, it likewise has no reservations about the necessity of doing so. A clearer case could not exist; a weaker message would not suffice.”  Judge Land was named to the bench by former President George W. Bush.

Hawaiian officials continue to say that the certification is, in fact, only one piece of abundant evidence of Obama’s birth in Hawaii. Joshua Wisch, a spokesman for the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office, noted that a public index of vital records, available for inspection in a bound volume at the Health Department’s Office of Health Status Monitoring, lists a male child named “Obama II, Barack Hussein” as having been born in the state. In addition, as Factcheck.org and other media organizations have repeatedly pointed out, both of Honolulu’s newspapers, the Honolulu Advertiser on Aug. 13, 1961, and the Honolulu Star Bulletin, on Aug. 14, 1961, both ran birth announcements listing Obama’s birth on August 4, 1961.

Even Fukino accepts that her comments are not likely to end the matter for the die-hard birthers. Arpaio, Trump and other skeptics have questioned why the original birth certificate has not been released. But Wisch, the spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said state law does not in fact permit the release of “vital records,” including an original “record of live birth” — even to the individual whose birth it records.

“It’s a Department of Health record and it can’t be released to anybody,” he said. Nor do state laws have any provision that authorizes such records to be photocopied, Wisch said. If Obama wanted to personally visit the state health department, he would be permitted to inspect his birth record, Wisch said. But if he or anybody else wanted a copy of their birth records, they would be told to fill out the appropriate state form and receive back the same computer generated “certification of live birth” form that everybody else gets — which is exactly what Obama did four years ago.

The people who are saying that the President’s long form posted on the White House website is a forgery are the very people guilty of carrying on this bizarre theory.  No matter what Donald Trump, Joe Arpaio or other birthers say, President Obama was born in the United States.  Obviously, the right-wing radicals and birthers choose not to believe the Republican Governor of Hawaii that Obama’s birth certificate is authentic and will continue this charade of nonsensical idiosity.

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