UNDER THE RADAR – AT 8:45 A.M. ET:  One of Obama's techniques is to appoint presidential panels rigged in advance to advance a certain ideological view.  Most Americans don't realize that the president has appointed a group to recommend policy for future offshore drilling.  The Detroit News notes, in an editorial, how rigged this panel really is:

Everyone wants the mess in the Gulf of Mexico to get cleaned up, fast, and just as important, to not be repeated. So the appointment of a high-level presidential panel to help set future drilling policy is welcome -- as long as that group is basing its work on solid science and not ideology.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a lot of technological expertise on the panel appointed by President Barack Obama. Instead, it is filled largely with members who come out of the environmental movement, many of whom have expressed opposition to offshore drilling. The panel includes no members from the oil industry, which could bring valuable expertise to the discussion as well as better insight into the economic impact of policy proposals.

It isn't realistic to think that the nation can abandon offshore drilling and still meet its energy needs. The question the panel should be concerned with is how to make such drilling as safe as possible.

Protecting the environment is a high priority, but so is making sure these valuable oil reserves can be harvested for the benefit of a nation that is still a long, long way from replacing fossil fuel with alternative energy sources.

COMMENT:  Very well stated.  The fact that the panel has no representative of the oil industry says it all.  The Obamans despise business.  They despise corporations.  I suspect many, including possibly the president, would prefer European socialism.

But the fact is that, despite its often bad image, the petroleum industry has provided this country with relatively cheap energy for a century.  Its products have allowed Americans of average or below-average means to travel as only the rich once traveled. 

Of course, that's what the current elitists hate.  Who are these vulgar proletarians to drive miles just to have a non-organic dinner?  How dare a secretary dream of visiting Japan, the way our crowd does?  Who are these people with their Fords and Chevies?  Have they not understood the wonders of Volvo?

They do want to take it away. They do want to make fuel so expensive that most Americans will cut way down, thus reducing their "carbon footprint."  I wonder how many of the energy elites have reduced theirs?  When I see Al Gore, between his social engagements, rigging windmills in the backyard of his huge mansion, I may start to be convinced.

June 28, 2010