Sarah Palin on Rusty Humphries Show

By Shane Vander Hart, Caffeinated Thoughts 

Governor Sarah Palin was on the Rusty Humphries Show yesterday in between book signings.  This was a different interview, as he didn’t want to ask her the same questions that she had been asked numerous times already (listeners also submitted questions).  So they discussed ANWR, economy, illegal immigration, Climategate (which she did a Facebook post on yesterday), Obama’s birth certificate and past associations, and much more.

She received some criticism over her answer to Obama’s birth certificate, so she responded via Facebook:

Voters have every right to ask candidates for information if they so choose. I’ve pointed out that it was seemingly fair game during the 2008 election for many on the left to badger my doctor and lawyer for proof that Trig is in fact my child. Conspiracy-minded reporters and voters had a right to ask... which they have repeatedly. But at no point – not during the campaign, and not during recent interviews – have I asked the president to produce his birth certificate or suggested that he was not born in the United States.

HT: Josh Painter for the heads up on the interview.

Shane Vander Hart is the editor of Caffeinated Thoughts.  He loves connecting with fellow Palin supporters.  Feel free to follow him on Twitter or friend him on Facebook.

To Drill or Not to Drill? That is Palin’s Question

By Shane Vander Hart, Caffeinated Thoughts

Sarah Palin has piece that was published this morning for National Review, and she opens by stating, “Petroleum is a major part of America’s energy picture.  Shall we get it here or abroad?”  This follows a Facebook post regarding the desire of Gulf oil producers to replace the dollar in pricing oil with a different currency.

The answer, she writes at National Review, is to drill:

Given that we’re spending billions of stimulus dollars to rebuild our highways, it makes sense to think about what we’ll be driving on them. For years to come, most of what we drive will be powered, at least in part, by diesel fuel or gasoline. To fuel that driving, we need access to oil. The less use we make of our own reserves, the more we will have to import, which leads to a number of harmful consequences. That means we need to drill here and drill now.

We rely on petroleum for much more than just powering our vehicles: It is essential in everything from jet fuel to petrochemicals, plastics to fertilizers, pesticides to pharmaceuticals. Ac­cord­ing to the Energy Information Ad­min­is­tra­tion, our total domestic petroleum consumption last year was 19.5 million barrels per day (bpd). Motor gasoline and diesel fuel accounted for less than 13 million bpd of that. Meanwhile, we produced only 4.95 million bpd of domestic crude. In other words, even if we ran all our vehicles on something else (which won’t happen anytime soon), we would still have to depend on imported oil. And we’ll continue that dependence until we develop our own oil resources to their fullest extent.

Those who oppose domestic drilling are motivated primarily by environmental considerations, but many of the countries we’re forced to import from have few if any environmental-protection laws, and those that do exist often go unenforced. In effect, American environmentalists are preventing responsible development here at home while supporting irresponsible development overseas. (read the rest)

Palin is right.  For the sake of our economic and national security we need to unshackle our ability to develop the God-given natural resources that we have here at home.  We can develop and access these resources in environmentally friendly ways providing a transition to a cleaner fuel alternative.  So my answer to her question is, “drill, baby, drill.”  Let’s get it from within our own borders.

It would be the common sense approach, which is why Washington won’t likely go for it.

Shane Vander Hart is the editor of Caffeinated Thoughts.  Feel free to friend him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.

Sarah Palin: Your Tax Dollars Hard at Work...

Today's Wall Street Journal contains some puzzling news for all Americans who are impacted by high energy prices and who share the goal of moving us toward energy independence (Palin, 2009, ¶1).

For years, states rich with an abundance of oil and natural gas have been begging Washington, DC politicians for the right to develop their own natural resources on federal lands and off shore. Such development would mean good paying jobs here in the United States (with health benefits) and the resulting royalties and taxes would provide money for federal coffers that would potentially off-set the need for higher income taxes, reduce the federal debt and deficits, or even help fund a trillion dollar health care plan if one were so inclined to support such a plan (Palin, 2009, ¶2).

So why is it that during these tough times, when we have great needs at home, the Obama White House is prepared to send more than two billion of your hard-earned tax dollars to Brazil so that the nation's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, can drill off shore and create jobs developing its own resources? That's all Americans want; but such rational energy development has been continually thwarted by rabid environmentalists, faceless bureaucrats and a seemingly endless parade of lawsuits aimed at shutting down new energy projects (Palin, 2009, ¶3).

I'll speak for the talent I have personally witnessed on the oil fields in Alaska when I say no other country in the world has a stronger workforce than America, no other country in the world has better safety standards than America, and no other country in the world has stricter environmental standards than America. Come to Alaska to witness how oil and gas can be developed simultaneously with the preservation of our eco-system. America has the resources. We deserve the opportunity to develop our resources no less than the Brazilians. Millions of Americans know it is true: "Drill, baby, drill." Alaska is proof you can drill and develop, and preserve nature, with its magnificent caribou herds passing by the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), completely unaffected. One has to wonder if Obama is playing politics and perhaps refusing a "win" for some states just to play to the left with our money (Palin, 2009, ¶4).

The new Gulf of Mexico lease sales tomorrow sound promising and perhaps will move some states in the right direction, but we all know that the extreme environmentalists who serve to block progress elsewhere, including in Alaska, continue to block opportunities. These environmentalists are putting our nation in peril and forcing us to rely on unstable and hostile foreign countries. Mr. Obama can stop the extreme tactics and exert proper government authority to encourage resource development and create jobs and health benefits in the U.S.; instead, he chooses to use American dollars in Brazil that will help to pay the salaries and benefits for Brazilians to drill for resources when the need and desire is great in America (Palin, 2009, ¶5).

Buy American is a wonderful slogan, but you can't say in one breath that you want to strengthen our economy and stimulate it, and then in another ship our much-needed dollars to a nation desperate to drill while depriving us of the same opportunity (Palin, 2009, ¶6).

- Sarah Palin

Commentary

Unlike most politicians today, Governor Palin practices the politics of progress. Her statement really should be painfully obvious. It is simple common sense and does not require a rocket scientist to analyze.

Very simply put, the Obama administration should be investing taxpayer dollars in domestic energy production, which means drilling in our waters and on our lands. We have the technology to do this in an environmentally responsible manner. We need to dispel the myth that oil drilling in the United States is synonymous with environmental destruction. It is not.

We import over 60% of our oil. A significant amount of that originates from nations which do not have our best interests at heart. This is not just an economic issue; it is a national security issue. Domestic energy production will bring greater peace, because it will extricate us from being involved with enemy nations.

The Obama administration very clearly has its priorities in the wrong place. The United States' priority for energy production should be the United States, not Brazil -- or anywhere else.

In addition to the uses Governor Palin suggested, $2 billion is money that can be spent on building refineries on land which held closed military bases. We have not built a refinery in 30 years.

Governor Palin is spot dead on with this. Just as she was with health care -- despite protestations to the contrary from some. She is thinking about what is in this country's best interests and delineated her thought process very succinctly and cogently.

Obama and his entire administration are bent on leading us down the road to being a dependent, mediocre socialist state. His "thought processes" -- for lack of a better term -- are the problem and mirror nearly 40 years of the same miserably failed ideologies pertaining to energy that got us into this predicament in the first instance. He promised "hope and change," but what he is giving instead is really more of the same.

Governor Palin absolutely is the one who offers true hope and change.

References

Palin, S.L.H. (2009, August 19). "Your tax dollars hard at work: First cars, now foreign oil." FaceBook, Sarah Palin. Retrieved August 19, 2009 from: http://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin#/sarahpalin?v=app_2347471856&viewas=1574531555