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Watching a little C-Span last week just showed me how lost these Democrats have been concerning the oil crisis. I was to the point of anger towards Pelosi, Reid, Hinchey, Markey, DeFazio, Hall, Rahall, Hoyer, Shea-Porter, Capps, and Blumenauer to name a few. They should all be taken out back behind the tool shed, roughed up then shown the difference between spit and Shinola, if you know what I mean. Chuck puts it in perspective.

Nancy Pelosi vs. Rush Limbaugh

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Editor’s note: Aug. 1 represents the 20th anniversary of the debut of Rush Limbaugh’s national radio show. WND has asked some of his colleagues and some of America’s most popular pundits to tell us what they think of the role he has played in American politics and media.

Despite that 3 to 1 Americans now believe gas prices are a bigger problem than global warming, the Washington Post noted that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., an avid opponent of offshore drilling, vows to block a drilling vote or even dialogue from occurring on the House floor. And Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., echoed a same sentiment when he eliminated energy amendments to his anti-speculation bill. At the same time, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., canceled committee consideration of spending bills for fear of Republican inclusions of drilling amendments.

Even though Newt Gingrich’s “American Solutions” delivered 1.3 million of our signatures to both the House and Senate and that now 73 percent of Americans concur to “drill here, drill now,” Congress refuses to lift the ban on offshore drilling, encourage shale development or even aggressively go after alternative energies. Are you tired enough of being held hostage at the pump that you’re ready for a second round of hounding your representatives?

When President Bush recently lifted the executive ban on offshore drilling, the ball was completely placed in Congress’ court to take the next move. But instead of Congress representing the majority of American’s wishes to drill for domestic oil, it once again favors a minority. Pelosi justified its inactivity by blaming the president, “What we’re saying is, ‘Exhaust other remedies, Mr. President.’ … It is the economic life of America’s families, and to suggest that drilling offshore is going to make a difference to them paycheck to paycheck now is a frivolous contention.”

My first reaction to Pelosi’s recent congressional energy rebellion was to say what an anti-American, anti-reality-based form of representation! To pass the buck back onto the president to “exhaust other remedies” when he took the first step in opening the way for drilling is not only a relinquishing of congressional duties but another deliberate political avoidance to help the majority of Americans. Two years ago before taking the congressional helm, Pelosi blamed the president for the energy crisis – now, instead of providing any solutions at all, she’s still blaming the president. Instead of spending her valuable time leading Congress in resolving our energy crisis, she’s kicking off a national tour with her new book, “Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters.” Is she in political la-la land?!

Dissenters can heckle that offshore oil production won’t make a practical difference for years, and Pelosi can call it a “frivolous contention,” but the fact is that even the lift of the congressional ban would immediately ease market tensions and again drop the costs of oil – just as it did recently after the president lifted the executive ban. Once speculators and oil conglomerates realize we mean business about drilling or energy independence, any investor knows the price of “Texas tea” will drop again.

So just when I was about to go hit the punching bag (again) to alleviate my congressional stress, Rush Limbaugh helped to relieve my tension on his national broadcast. He spoke (again) for me and the majority of Americans against Pelosi’s hypocrisy of even tapping the U.S. strategic oil reserve:

But that strategic reserve oil, a question, ladies and gentlemen, how do we get it? Maybe somebody should call the speaker of the House, send a note to her office: “Mrs. Pelosi, you want to release 700 million barrels from the strategic reserve. How did it get there? We had to drill for it, didn’t we?” I mean, if she wants the 700 million barrels released in order to help with the price, which is not going to do that much, it’s not that much oil, it’s a one-time thing you can do, the oil had to be drilled. So drilling will lead to relief. We can drill our way out of this. We drilled our way into the strategic reserve.There’s something soothing that happens when someone on such a national scale as Rush Limbaugh speaks for you – which is exactly what’s supposed to happen with our representatives and especially the leader of our representatives, but often doesn’t. Compare and contrast the inept inactivity of Nancy Pelosi alone on this gas crisis with the informed activity of conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh. Rush is practically savvy; Pelosi is politically cunning. Rush confronts government gridlock; Pelosi creates it. Rush gives solutions; Pelosi ground-n-pounds them. Rush says drill here, drill now; Pelosi says don’t drill now or later. Rush motivates Americans to action; Pelosi paralyzes even the House to inaction. I would bet Rush has had more positive influence on Congress through the years by his broadcasts than Pelosi ever will from her House throne. If only Rush would seriously consider a run for her seat!

While I’m not espousing we canonize Rush, and haven’t always agreed with him, I thank God for him and join with so many across the land in celebrating the 20th anniversary of his national broadcasts on Aug. 1. He truly is a father of modern conservative commentary. And he serves for us all as a model of intelligence, perseverance and might, despite personal and political setbacks. He is a leader of leaders among that league of extraordinary gentlemen and conservative cultural crusaders, who consist of people like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Dick Morris, Newt Gingrich, Ann Coulter, John Kasich, Frank Pastore, to name a few, and of course a host of other conservative columnists, blogs and websites. I had the good fortune this past year of being among just a few others in a small intimate dinner with Rush, and I found him to be every bit the gentlemen, political and cultural sage, and quick-witted commentator in person as on radio.

Congratulations Rush on 20 years of broadcasting excellence, and many blessings on your next 20! Together, with all of our conservative voices, I hope we all can turn around the waning passion of conservatives and liberal tides of our cultural war – before it’s too late. Most of all, I pray that we can ultimately inspire a new generation of patriots who will fight on-air, on the Internet and in congressional halls with a fire like Patrick Henry rather than Nancy Pelosi.

If you are like me you have reached a pinnacle of Obama burn-out. You turn on the news and all you hear is Obama. It’s a little more annoying than those “Head On” commercials. I only post this today as a chance to re-cap this latest “photo op” trip of the Junior Senator. Newsmax summed it up much better than I could have. The resentment I feel towards this cocky, clueless knucklehead makes it difficult to be thorough.

Obama: No Bounce, No Flags, No Wounded Souldiers

Sen. Barack Obama’s international globe-hopping to the Mideast and Europe was meant to burnish his credentials as a foreign policy and potential military leader – the strong suit of his Republican rival Sen. John McCain.

Despite the media love fest over the political junket, Obama has yet to pull away from McCain in the polls. His campaign had expected a minimum eight-point lead after Obama clinched the Democratic nomination back in June, with even more momentum moving his way as the campaign progressed.

Both the most recent Real Clear Politics rolling average and the Rasmussen tracking poll that coincided with the end of Obama’s trip this weekend show Obama with just a five-point lead over McCain — consistent with his numbers for the past two months. [Press reports this weekend have almost completely ignored the Rasmussen poll to only report on a Gallup poll, which showed Obama with a nine-point lead. Not as good as the Newsweek poll from June, which had Obama 15 points ahead of McCain.]

With President Bush suffering low approval ratings, the economy moving into a recession as gas prices surge above $4 a gallon, and growing resentment about the unending war in Iraq, Obama should be pulling away in the polls.

But he isn’t.

The Obama campaign has been quick to be out front on the bad news, claiming — at the end of the trip — it never expected a poll bounce from Obama’s trip anyway.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told Politico’s Mike Allen: “We wouldn’t expect any sort of — I guess the term people use is ‘bounce.’”

In fact, during Obama’s global meet-and-greet tour, McCain’s poll numbers have risen in key battleground states like Ohio.

As crowds cheered Obama globally, Americans here on the homefront were left wondering if the Illinois senator wants to be their president — or the president of some other country. [And whether the major U.S. media would at least offer the pretense of objectivity. An MSNBC poll from last week found that 47 percent of the public thought the coverage of Obama’s trip was “excessive.”]

After Obama’s speech to an estimated 200,000 Germans in Berlin, a columnist for Britain’s Guardian newspaper began his review this way: “Barack Obama has found his people. But, unfortunately for his election prospects, they’re German, not American.”

Obama’s speech to the Germans left much to be desired, from an American’s perspective.

For starters, the crowd’s size was beefed up by the fact that the event was billed as a free rock concert for German citizens, with popular musical performers helping to draw the big crowd. Scant U.S. media even noted the warm-up rock draws of reggae artist Patrice and rock band Reamonn.

Then there was the simple stage, with the podium surrounded by three potted plants. Missing was the American flag — nowhere to be seen. Perhaps Obama’s staff might consider the U.S. flag offensive.

And then there was his speech, in which he proudly proclaimed he was in Germany as a “a fellow citizen of the world.”

And there was the spectacle of the presidential wannabe going to a foreign land to apologize about the United States.

Obama told his German audience he was sorry about his country because “I know my country has not perfected itself.” [This comment was made in the former seat of Nazi power. A letter to editor published in Obama’s hometown Chicago Tribune noted the irony: “While America may not be perfect, there is no reason to apologize to the Germans, architects of the Holocaust.”]

As for America’s role in saving Germany from the onslaught of Stalinist communism and the subsequent Cold War, there was nothing.

There was a rhetorical flourish about the Berlin Wall coming down, but nothing about the great American sacrifice, not to mention how our military might made President Reagan’s call — “Tear down this wall, Mr. Gorbachev” — a reality.

There was a fleeting mention of the famous Berlin airlift of 1948 that President Truman ordered to thwart the Soviet blockade that sought to starve West Berlin.

As Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby wrote, “Obama seemed to go out of his way not to say plainly that what saved Berlin in that dark time was America’s military might.

“Save for a solitary reference to ‘the first American plane,’ he never described one of the greatest American operations of the postwar period as an American operation at all. He spoke only of ‘the airlift,’ ‘the planes,’ ‘those pilots.’ Perhaps their American identity wasn’t something he cared to stress amid all his ‘people of the world’ salutations and talk of ‘global citizenship.’”

The Hollywood-staged Obama event for a man who has yet to ascend to the presidency didn’t sit well with all the Germans. Germany’s Stern magazine carried the headline “Barack Kant Saves the World.”

One of their columnists, Florian Güssgen, wrote: “The man is perfect, impeccable, slick. Almost too slick … Obama’s speech was often vague, sometimes banal and more reminiscent of John Lennon’s feel good song ‘Imagine’ than of a foreign policy agenda.”

Slickness without substance seemed to be the enduring theme of his trip. Among the little hiccups covered up by the major media, there were several gaffes on the global coronation trip.

Perhaps the most notable — and reprehensible — was Obama’s decision to cancel a visit to wounded American soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in southern Germany.

Apparently, the Pentagon informed Obama that since his visit was a political one, the hospital visit would be only open to him and his official Senate staff. This excluded the press and campaign officials.

The Pentagon did offer to allow Obama’s campaign plane to land at the nearby U.S. air base at Ramstein. The media also was to be accommodated there.

Without the photo opportunity and his press entourage, Obama declined to meet the wounded soldiers. At first, Obama’s campaign claimed to the press he decided to cancel the trip to visit the troops because it was “a trip funded by the campaign,” and therefore somehow inappropriate. [What is inappropriate about a presidential candidate visiting wounded troops?]

But the Obama story belies the fact it was only after the Pentagon closed the event to his traveling press, that Obama’s campaign nixed the event.

Rightfully, McCain noted that it is never inappropriate for a candidate or official to visit U.S. troops.

“If I had been told by the Pentagon that I couldn’t visit those troops, and I was there and wanted to be there, I guarantee you, there would have been a seismic event,” McCain said.

McCain continued the attack on ABC News Sunday show “This Week”: “Those troops would have loved to see him, and I know of no Pentagon regulation that would’ve prevented him from going there” without the news media.

The McCain campaign has been quick to pounce on Obama’s obvious slight to the troops and double-talk, airing a new commercial this weekend.

“And now, he made time to go to the gym, but canceled a visit with wounded troops,” the ad says. “Seems the Pentagon wouldn’t allow him to bring cameras. John McCain is always there for our troops.”

McCain added that Obama “certainly found time to do other things.”

One of those other things Obama did was visit Paris and hold a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, typical of an American president visiting the French capital.

Interestingly, The New York Times quoted Elysee officials that “Obama aides insisted that an American flag not be displayed alongside the French flag because Mr. Obama is only a visiting senator and not the president.”

There is no protocol preventing an American official from having the flag displayed when abroad.

America snubbed once again by a lame excuse.

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