Mel Brooks Politics

Richard Cochrane’s newsletter this week contained quite a number of “How’s that again?” items, to wit:

Democrats are opining the primary results give them an edge because of the more “radical” agenda of their opponents.  Uh, yeah, the guys who want a return to constitutional government are the radicals now?  Okay, got it.

“Fathom the odd hypocrisy that Obama wants every citizen to prove they are insured, but people don’t have to prove they are citizens”.   –Ben Stein.  Have to understand our priorities, Ben!

According to a new report, 41 of President Obama’s staffers now owe the government more than $831,000 in back taxes. When asked if they could just keep avoiding taxes, they said, “Yes we can! Yes we can!” — Leno.  I always wondered what that nebulous slogan meant.

The yawning gap in independent interest group spending is alarming some Democratic officials, who argue that it amounts to an effort on the part of super-wealthy Republican donors, as well as corporate interests, newly emboldened by regulatory changes, to buy the election. Poor babies.
But illegal contributions by super-wealthy Democrats are welcome!

In 2009 the U.S. Export-Import Bank, one of those quasi independent federal agencies, lent with Congressional approval more than $1 billion to Mexico’s state oil company to fund Pemex’s drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Export-Import Bank has another $1 billion in loans on tap for Pemex in 2010. They are currently awaiting congressional approval, creating a DEPENDS moment especially for Democrats who OKd the 2009 loans.
While U. S.-based oil companies and workers are suffering because of Obama’s ban on offshore drilling, the Mexican projects are not affected. Pemex’s ventures are shallow-water projects that Obama has embargoed in addition to deep water projects like the ill-fated BP well.
There are question about whether Mexico is fulfilling its promise to buy U. S. technology and contract with U. S. companies. Mexico is the United States’ second largest source of foreign oil, after Canada, shipping 1.2 million barrels per day.
So in effect, the federal government is lending money to the Mexican government to produce oil so that Americans can pay to import it while American companies are locked out.  This sounds like the plot of a Mel Brooks movie!

When US Middle East envoy George Mitchell took to the podium to brief the press during the first day of direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations on Thursday the Jerusalem Post characterized the New U. S. Policy as “speak softly and carry and big check.”

Aaron David Miller, a former US Middle East peace negotiator and author of The Much Too Promised Land, referred to the current approach as “a variant of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’”  Well, at least one Post isn’t a toadie of the administration.