Yet another reason to make sure that Donald Trump loses this election.

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

President Obama’s climate change policies would be undone. Regulations on greenhouse gas emissions would be eliminated. The Keystone XL pipeline would be built. There would be no international agreement to prevent catastrophic climate change. 

That is what Donald Trump’s energy policy would look like should he be elected president, the presumptive Republican nominee promised on Thursday before a pro-fossil fuel development crowd in Bismarck, North Dakota. 

In a speech laying out his energy agenda for the United States, Trump promised to undo essentially every major policy developed in the last decade intended to slow human-caused global warming.

“We’re going to cancel the Paris climate agreement,” Trump said, referring to the landmark agreement between nearly 200 nations to keep the world from warming more than 2°C above average preindustrial levels. Climate scientists largely consider 2°C to be the limit for acceptable global warming before irreversible catastrophic impacts begin to occur.

This bloviating POS does not care one little bit about protecting this planet for future generations.

Undoubtedly he would invest in air conditioner manufacturing, water filtration companies, and personal breathing apparatus outlets in order to profit off the increased heat, lack of potable water, and air pollution that would surely occur in the wake of his presidency.

The man is a monster of almost comic book villain proportions and if the American people do not awaken to that reality they may finally see the death of America that has been predicted for so many decades, and perhaps even substantial damage done to the planet in general.

I know that sounds like hyperbole but if you are paying attention I imagine that you would agree with my assessment.

Just as predicted President Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline. Update!

Courtesy of CNN: 

President Barack Obama on Friday rejected the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, ending the political fight over the Canada-to-Texas project that has gone on for much of his presidency. 

Secretary of State John Kerry concluded the controversial project is not in the country's national security interest, and Obama announced from the White House that he agreed. 

"America is now a global leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change, and frankly approving this project would have undercut that leadership," Obama said.

Damn, now THAT'S my President!

Man you just KNOW this is going to drive the conservatives off the deep end.

Who am I kidding? Nowadays they have taken residence off the deep end.

Update: Well speaking of off the deep end, we all knew this was coming:  

ANOTHER OBAMA SCREW UP 

President Obama is stoked to kill the Keystone Pipeline to transport needed clean, safe, friendly energy to hungry markets. This dumps his promise of "working toward energy independence" and his supposed support for an "all of the above energy plan" into the crapper. Be prepared for actions like this in his final months in office - the expeditious transformation of America via nonsensical acts such as this, for it will be attempts at a rapid decline until and unless this Administration's equal branch of government - our elected legislative branch - doesn't start fighting back to protect America's economic opportunities leading to security and solvency. Step it up, politicians. Concerned voters - you, too. Remember, we can survive this President and his baffling blunders, but can we survive the people who voted for him - twice - and still believe he walks on water? 

- Sarah Palin

"Expeditious?"  Well it looks like SOMEBODY finally cracked open that thesaurus they received in the tenth grade.

And fess up, which one of you thinks the President walks on water?

State Department rejects Transcanada's request to pause review of Keystone XL pipeline. It seems likely the President wants to kill the deal himself before leaving office.

Courtesy of Reuters:  

The United States formally denied a request on Wednesday to pause the review of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, a decision expected to lead to the project's rejection by the Obama administration. 

TransCanada Corp's request to the State Department for a delay was seen by many as an attempt to postpone the decision until after President Barack Obama left office and a new president more friendly to the plan took over in 2017. 

The White House declined to comment on the State Department's decision.

There was a lot of hand wringing after news broke about  Transcanada's request, with many fearing it was a strategic move to keep the deal alive until a Republican won the White House.

However it appears that most of that concern was for naught.

I think that much like that drilling project by Shell in the Arctic, that President Obama has had a plan all along, and as usual played it close to the vest.

I have every confidence that he is going to going to kill this pipeline deal, and therefore relieve Hillary of the responsibility, and secure his legacy as a warrior against climate change.

Keystone XL pipeline suspended. Huge victory for environmentalists.

Courtesy of The New York Times:  

The company seeking to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline asked the Obama administration on Monday to suspend its review of the project, potentially bringing an abrupt halt to the politically charged debate over a proposal that had become part of a broader fight over President Obama’s environmental policies. 

TransCanada, the Calgary-based company seeking to build the 1,179-mile pipeline, announced the move in a letter to the State Department, which must approve cross-border projects and had been reviewing its application for a presidential permit. The pipeline would carry 800,000 barrels a day of carbon-heavy petroleum from the Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast, and the question of its approval has weighed heavily over Mr. Obama as he sought to build an ambitious legacy on climate change. 

A delay would be almost certain to put off a final decision on the pipeline until Mr. Obama left office, making it likely that the pipeline would be a hotly debated topic in the 2016 presidential race. 

Environmental advocates and liberal activists, many of whom are convinced that the Obama administration will ultimately reject the pipeline, called TransCanada’s request a ploy to avoid having its proposal killed.

That last part may in fact be true, but since Hillary has already said she would reject the pipeline deal that means Transcanada may have to wait many many more years before revisiting this project which essentially means that yes it is dead.

Unless of course by some miracle the Republicans actually choose a candidate with the ability to win.

Nah, it's dead.

Of course Transcanada can still take solace in the fact that they still have that 500 million dollars that former governor Sarah Palin gave them in the ignorant attempt to convince them to build a gas pipeline in Alaska that most of us knew all along would never be built.

Fucking moron. 

Hillary Clinton finally talks about the Keystone XL pipeline. She's against it.

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton declared opposition to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline on Tuesday, ending a long and politically uncomfortable silence on an issue that has become a touchstone for environmentalists and liberal voters. 

“I think it is imperative that we look at the Keystone pipeline as what I believe it is – a distraction from the important work we have to do to combat climate change,” Clinton said at a community forum here. The debate over Keystone “interferes with our ability to move forward,” Clinton said. “Therefore I oppose it.”

Well that is certainly going to help Hillary with the liberals in this country.

Clearly Hillary realizes that our future energy concerns do not lie in fossil fuels, and is going to continue President Obama's emphasis on renewable energy resources.

In other positive Hillary Clinton news she has laid out a plan to strengthen Obamacare and do something significant about the high cost of prescription medications: 

"As president I want to go further," she said Tuesday. "I want to strengthen the Affordable Care Act." 

Her drug plan would start by capping the amount of out-of-pocket expenses consumers can be charged under insurance plans at $250 per month. Of course, transferring the extra costs onto the insurance companies wouldn't solve the all of the problems, since insurers would likely make up for their expenses through higher premiums. 

She said earlier this week that her goal is to implement policies that would reduce spending on prescription medications by $100 billion over the next 10 years and proposed a number of strategies reach that goal. For example: 

• Speeding up approval of generic drugs to clear any backlog. 
• Allowing consumers to buy their medications from countries where American pharma companies sell them at cheaper rates. (This would require the FDA to ensure that the drugs being sold in other countries are the same medications as the ones sold here.) 
• Grant Medicare the power to negotiate with drug companies on the prices they charge. This has long been a standard proposal pushed by Democrats who argue that the 40 million Medicare recipients would have a system-wide effect on the price of drugs. 
• Add requirements to drug companies who receive federal support, forcing them to redirect more of their profits back into R&D.

Now THAT kind of talk is what is going to move the needle in her direction and bring her poll numbers back up.

That is good stuff and demonstrates that Hillary is well aware of where the base of the Democratic party has moved, and what they are looking for in a leader.

Bernie Sanders is pretty sure he can beat Hillary.

Courtesy of CBS News:

 Bernie Sanders, Vermont's independent senator and a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist, says he can beat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2016. 

On CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Sanders said he thinks he can oust the former secretary of state because, "there is, in my view, massive dissatisfaction in this country today with corporate establishment and the greed of corporate America and the incredibly unequal distribution of wealth and income, which currently exists." 

And Sanders said his record on that issue over the past 25 years shows that he has led the way in standing up for working families and taking on "the billionaire class," Wall Street, private insurance companies and drug companies. 

Sanders is hesitant to criticize Clinton, saying that he respects and admires her. But pressed on the question of why he would make a better Democratic nominee, he points to three things: his opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership, a massive Asia-Pacific trade agreement being negotiated, his vote against the war in Iraq and leadership fighting against it, and the work he has done opposing the Keystone XL pipeline. 

"I'm not quite sure Hillary Clinton has come out with a position on that," he said.

Well he's not wrong about that last part.

Sanders also had this to say:

“We won’t outspend Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush, but we will raise the kind of money needed to run a strong campaign,” he predicted. Sanders promised on Sunday that he would not have a super PAC to raise money for his campaign. 

According to Sanders, he has received nearly 90,000 contributions, averaging about $43, since announcing his candidacy a week and a half ago. Sanders, who described himself as “the most progressive member of the U.S. Senate,” vowed that if elected, he would work to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and rein in campaign spending allowances. 

There he goes again with that sweet talk.

And God it's working.

Still, I think it is unrealistic to suggest that a little known liberal socialist Senator from Vermont could really take on the Clinton machine and emerge victorious.

I mean that's as crazy as suggesting that a first term black Senator from Illinois, whose middle name was Hussein, would have a chance against Clinton.

Crazy I tell you.

President vetoes Republican bill to build Keystone XL project.

Nice try GOP.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

President Obama vetoed a bill authorizing the controversial Keystone XL pipeline Tuesday, carrying out a threat to reject one of the first measures the Republican-led Congress sent to the president's desk. 

"Because this act of Congress conflicts with established executive branch procedures and cuts short thorough consideration of issues that could bear on our national interest -- including our security, safety, and environment -- it has earned my veto," Obama wrote in a message to the Senate. 

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said earlier Tuesday that Obama planned to veto the bill because the State Department is still conducting a review of whether the massive pipeline — which would transport roughly 800,000 barrels of heavy crude from Hardisty, Alberta, to refineries in Port Arthur, Tex. — would serve the national interest. 

"Through this bill, the United States Congress attempts to circumvent longstanding and proven processes for determining whether or not building and operating a cross-border pipeline serves the national interest," Obama wrote.

Well this is going to piss off a whole lot of Republican lawmakers.

Not that they did not see this coming of course. 

I keep hearing some pundits suggesting that the President might ultimately allow the pipeline to be built, once the State Department review is complete, but I have a hard time believing he would do that.

Anybody of a different opinion?

Robert Reich explains why we should urge President Obama to veto the Keystone XL pipeline for good.

Courtesy of MoveOn.org:  

President Obama says he’ll veto the latest attempt by Congress to push through the Keystone XL pipeline, but he hasn’t yet committed to rejecting this dangerous proposal outright. 

That’s where we come in. Tell President Obama that he should stop Keystone XL for good—and do it now.

As usual Robert Reich explains something complicated in a way that makes it simple for even those a little slow on the uptake to understand. 

Probably helps that he was a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

I hope the President is listening and takes his advice.

Have you wondered why so many Senators are still pushing to build the Keystone Pipeline? Well wonder no more.

Courtesy of International Business Times: 

The oil and gas industry gave nearly $250,000 to each of the 62 senators who voted in favor of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project late last month, according to MapLight, a nonpartisan research organization that tracks the influence of money in politics. The revelations come as the House of Representatives is set to vote on and expected to pass the Senate legislation Wednesday that would approve the pipeline and start transferring oil in western Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast. President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the project on a number of grounds, including environmental concerns. 

The oil and gas industry, which stands to benefit from the Keystone XL pipeline, gave $236,544 on average to the senators who voted yes on Keystone, or about 10 times more than the senators who voted no. The 36 senators against the pipeline received about $22,882 apiece in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry. There was no data on contributions to House members. 

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., the sponsor of the Keystone Senate bill, received about $275,000 from the industry, according to MapLight, but he wasn’t the biggest beneficiary of oil and gas industry money in the Senate. That distinction goes to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who has received more than $1 million from the industry, which is important to Texas. The Democratic co-sponsor of the Keystone bill, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, received about $200,000 from the industry -- the biggest beneficiary of oil and gas money among Democrats. But there were 24 Republicans who got larger contributions from the industry than him.

You see it doesn't matter that building the pipeline will do NOTHING to help America with its energy independence, or that it will only create about 35 permanent jobs, the important thing is that these politicians are getting fat and happy off of energy company largesse. And as long as that continues efforts to build this monstrosity will continue with only President Obama to stand in its way.

Hmm, now I'm beginning to wonder which other folks have been paid off by big oil. Such as radio talk show hosts, Fox News contributors, and former politicians turned reality show failures?

President will veto bill for Keystone XL pipeline if it comes across his desk. Now we're talking.

Courtesy of CNN:  

President Barack Obama will veto the Keystone XL bill if Congress passes a measure green-lighting the oil pipeline, White House press secretary Josh Earnest announced on Tuesday. 

The pipeline is currently in a final phase of review from the State Department, which has already concluded that it would have a minimal impact on the environment. But the State Department also assessed that the pipeline would create about 42,000 jobs directly and indirectly during the construction period -- but just 50 permanent jobs. 

The White House reviewed the text of the bill to authorize the pipeline on Monday, Earnest said. 

Obama's objection to the legislation, Earnest said, is not based on the merits of the project so much as the idea Congress was trying to take the decision out of the hands of the executive branch. 

"The President has been pretty clear that he does not think that circumventing a well-established process for evaluating these projects is the right thing for Congress to do," Earnest said.

Can I just tell you how much I am enjoying this second half of his second term President Obama?

Kind of like to vote for him again if I could.

Senate vote on Keystone XL oil pipeline fails to pass.

I just watched this thing crash and burn on MSNBC.

It would not have made any difference anyway, as it is almost a certainty that the President would have vetoed it once it came to his desk.

You don't get the Chinese to buy into reducing fossil fuel emissions and then immediately sign off on a big oil pipeline project designed to transport some of the nastiest dirtiest oil on the planet across the country.

Here is more from the New York Times: 

The battle over approving the pipeline, which will carry petroleum from the oil sands of Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas, ultimately became a proxy war for the Louisiana Senate seat, where Ms. Landrieu and Republican Representative Bill Cassidy are locked in fight for votes in their oil-rich state ahead of the Dec. 6 runoff election. 

Ms. Landrieu — who, if re-elected, will lose her coveted position as chairwoman of the energy committee when Republicans take the Senate majority next year — spent the past few days working furiously to round up Democratic support for her bill, which she had hoped would be her last, best chance of holding on to her Senate seat. 

On Tuesday morning, she was at least one vote short of the filibuster-proof 60 votes she needed. And despite cajoling, persuading, browbeating, and making an impassioned plea to her colleagues during a closed-door lunch — which one attendee described as “civilized but pretty contentious” — Ms. Landrieu, who has so often bulldozed her way to success through sheer force of will, came up just short.

I feel badly for Senator Landrieu, I really do. However I really do not think the passage of this bill would have made one bit of difference in her runoff with Cassidy.

And to be honest I would rather lose another Senate seat than see this project go forward.

Well great now we are on the cusp of starting another war with the Native American people. Over a stupid pipeline yet.

Courtesy of Lakota Voice:  

In response to today’s vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to authorize the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, the Rosebud Sioux Tribal President announced that the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota Oyate) recognizes the authorization of this pipeline as an act of war. 

The Tribe has done its part to remain peaceful in its dealings with the United States in this matter, in spite of the fact that the Rosebud Sioux Tribe has yet to be properly consulted on the project, which would cross through Tribal land, and the concerns brought to the Department of Interior and to the Department of State have yet to be addressed. 

“The House has now signed our death warrants and the death warrants of our children and grandchildren. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe will not allow this pipeline through our lands,” said President Scott of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. “We are outraged at the lack of intergovernmental cooperation. We are a sovereign nation and we are not being treated as such. We will close our reservation borders to Keystone XL. Authorizing Keystone XL is an act of war against our people.” 

In February of this year, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and other members of the Great Sioux Nation adopted Tribal resolutions opposing the Keystone XL project. 

“The Lakota people have always been stewards of this land,” added President Scott. “We feel it is imperative that we provide safe and responsible alternative energy resources not only to Tribal members but to non-Tribal members as well. We need to stop focusing and investing in risky fossil fuel projects like TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline. We need to start remembering that the earth is our mother and stop polluting her and start taking steps to preserve the land, water, and our grandchildren’s future.” 

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe, along with several other South Dakota Tribes, stand together in opposition to risky and dangerous fossil fuel projects like TransCanada’s Keystone XL. The proposed route of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline crosses directly through Great Sioux Nation (Oceti Sakowin) Treaty lands as defined by both the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties and within the current exterior boundaries of the Rosebud Sioux Reservation and Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.

Well that could not be any more disturbing to read.

And the Lakota tribe is completely in the right on this issue.  Something that usually I would expect the Democrats to recognize.

Look I understand why Mary Landrieu sponsored the bill to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline, and I understand why some Democrats feel they must support it.

But ultimately it will not help Landrieu hang onto her Senate seat, and it WILL anger not only the native American people but also the environmentalist who have usually been a reliable demographic for Democrats.

Personally I would rather lose a Senate seat, than to lose the support of voters that we are desperately going to need in the next two years.

Dazed and Confused Sarah Palin on Hannity: "People are looking at Putin as one who wrestles bears and drills for oil." Suggests that the President "wears mom jeans and equivocates and bloviates." Clearly somebody got a new vocabulary word a day calendar for Christmas.

Before I start with the transcript I want you to just take a moment and look at this image.

THAT is the expression that Palin wore throughout almost the entire interview. I swear it is the same look that my daughter's dog had on its face after she recently came out of surgery.

Methinks somebody might have taken a little something for their nerves before the camera started rolling.

Hannity starts it off by showing the tape of Palin reading off of a teleprompter her "prediction" that Russia would invade the Ukraine.

He then asks her what she saw that the President failed to see. (You know, besides whatever hallucinations are currently dancing before her eyes.)

Here was her catatonic response:

"Well anyone who carries the common sense gene would know that Putin does not change his stripes. (Because he is a tiger.) He harkens back to the era of the czars, and he wants that Russian empire to grow again. He wants to exert huge power and dominance, so he has to get to those border areas, and he has to capture them. But you know what Sean? More importantly...we were right on that, I'm right when I talk about that inherent link between energy and security. Energy and prosperity. And when we don't develop our resources, and when we are not able to feed others with our resources, and so many others are reliant upon Russia, who does develop their resources, and with that wealth are able to strengthen their military and their influence and power on the globe, then other nations are in trouble." (For the record 2013 saw the United States breaking records with its domestic oil production. Which of course proves that Palin has no damn idea what she is talking about.)


I like the fact that after vomiting forth this chunk of clearly pre-written mooseshit that Palin looked almost pleased with herself as if she thought she had knocked it out of the park, while instead she had been chewing on her bat the entire time. 

Hannity then follows the predetermined talking point of suggesting that the solution to all of the planet's problems is more fracking. Also making the point that the Ukraine is crisscrossed with various pipelines.

Palin: "Right, see that building of pipelines is an example of developing natural resources and what they can provide to a region, and here today...was it in Washington D.C.? We had all these protestors against the Keystone Pipeline. Look, America needs pipelines! Just like the other parts of the globe we were just talking about need their pipelines, we need ours. And those protestors griping about..oh I don't know...perhaps an earthworm will be displaced when a pipeline in built in America. That earthworm, it can take one for the team." (I am not exactly sure why an earthworm would care to take one for a team of creatures that routinely destroys it habitat, but putting that aside the fear of what having heavy tar sands flowing through the Keystone Pipeline in the U.S. could do to our environment is about far more than a displaced worm.)

Hannity then asks Palin for her predictions as to what Putin might do next, and if it is possible he will invade more countries. (Because as we all know she used to spy on him from her house.)

Palin: "Well yes, especially under the Commander-in-Chief that we have today, because Obama's...the perception of him, and his potency...across the world is one of such weakness, you know and I...lookit people are looking at Putin as one who wrestles bears and drills for oil. They look at our President as one who wears mom jeans and equivocates and bloviates."

Did somebody mention "mom jeans?"

"We are not exercising that peace through strength that can only be brought to you courtesy of the red, white, and blue. That only a strengthened United States military can do."

Okay is crazy eyes literally suggesting that Obama should threaten Russia with military force? Surely even SHE is not that out to lunch. Or is she?

And speaking of the President, why was she talking about his "potency?" That did not seem like an appropriate word for what she was talking about.

Hannity then goes on to mock the President for his "reset" of relations with Russia, most of which took place during the term of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, who appeared to be much more interested in negotiating with the west than has been demonstrated by Putin.

Palin greedily takes the bait: "Yeah that reset button thing that was just more um...more political speak, and double speak, that is so prevalent in the Obama administration. No...um...Obama instead has chosen to adopt this MO of leading from behind, whatever the heck that means, I mean because the rest of the world...looking for that shining city on a hill, looking for that country in which...that they can emulate. Um they're not seeing that anymore in America because of Obama's weak leadership, leading from behind, which makes absolutely no sense. Um what...what's going on...in a greater sense here is other countries finally taking advantage of that weakness in America at this point. Because our Commander-in-Chief does not understand the peace through strength that so many of us want to get back to. That is the only way that our world will be safer, more secure." 

Okay first off that "leading from behind" thing is an invention of Fox News and Right Wing talking points. So if Madame Mooseshit here does not understand what it means she needs to talk to her script writers.

Secondly it sounds to me like this lunatic is suggesting that the only way to control Russia is to beef up our military and return to a cold war mentality. Because you know, THAT would be making progress.

Hannity makes some comments about Russia and China giving each other a reach around, and then Palin chimes in with her final point.

Palin: "My last point is...when Putin now is being accused by critics of violating law, in his actions today, well I'm loathe to give any advice to a tyrant like Putin, but you know what he could do is what liberals adopt here in America as acceptable, and that is when our President decides which laws, picking and choosing, that he will follow, he can just call it an executive order and nobody says boo."

Yes because not wanting to support DOMA is just like invading another country, right you moron?

By the way perhaps somebody needs to remind this idiot that so far President Obama has only used the Executive Order 168 times to George W. Bush's 291. (Clinton chocked up 364.)

And speaking of George W, Bush, most pundits agree that it was HIS actions while invading Iraq that have helped to embolden Putin. NOT the policies of the current resident of the White House.

Here is the interview for you to watch on your own. (If you so desire.)

While watching it, my very first thought was that she looked like she was tranquilized, and that thought was immediately followed by "What the fuck in on her head?"

As for her delivery, it was clear she had been coached, and a script written for her, but in her medicated state she clearly had a difficult time sticking to it.

Here is what the Obama Diary tweeted after her appearance.

MT @SarahPalinUSA On @seanhannity tonight to talk about Russia and Ukraine // Palin aides school her first --> pic.twitter.com/24DeZOcMuK
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) March 3, 2014

Too funny, and too true.

The video the Exxon oil company, and the Republican party, DON'T want you to see. Update!

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

An Exxon-Mobil oil pipeline ruptured Friday afternoon in the town of Mayflower, Arkansas, forcing the evacuation of 20 homes and shutting down sections of interstate highway. According to Little Rock’s KATV, a hazardous materials team from the Office of Emergency Management has contained the spill and is currently attempting a cleanup. 

The burst pipe is part of the Pegasus pipeline network, which connects tar sands along the Gulf coast to refineries in Houston. Thousands of gallons of crude oil erupted from the breach around 3:00 p.m. on Friday, spilling through a housing subdivision and into the town’s storm drainage system, fouling drainage ditches and shutting down Highway 365 and Interstate 40. 

Residents were evacuated to avoid health hazards from crude oil fumes and to keep stray sparks from igniting the standing oil. Emergency workers contained the spill by hastily constructing earthen dams.

According to the YouTube link over 84,000 gallons have spilled into the town so far.

You know it is bad enough to have an oil pipeline burst in a remote parts of Alaska but so much worse when the spill is right next door and forces the evacuation of your entire neighborhood.

Perhaps THIS will be enough to get certain politicians to reconsider the idea of building the Keystone XL project.

What am I saying? After all you can bet the pipeline won't be built next to any of the homes of powerful Republican Senators now will it?

Update: This is somebody's backyard in Mayflower, Arkansas.

That is NOT water.

Actually Palin DID invent a word on yesterday's Sean Hannity radio show, "McGinniss'd." What a "dumbarse!"

Click photo to play interview.

After Hannity brings up the new information coming out about Gingrich's second wife and Romney's Cayman Island offshore accounts Palin refers to it thusly:  "I refer to it as being Joe McGinniss'd, and I think that the American public really could care less right now about being Joe McGinniss'd. Not when there are real issues." (1:31 mark.)

Somewhere Joe has a big smile on his face knowing that he did a great job. Cause he did!

So in Palin's world, REAL information about a political figure should NOT be investigated?  Somehow I doubt she feels that same way about the investigations into Bill Clinton's or John Edward's affairs.

Later Palin brings up the troops, and suggests that since they are dying for a free press (?) that journalists have an obligation to ignore information about a person's character. Oh and she also mentions that she understands the "cornerstones" of journalism, ("I having a degree in it.") even though there is no actual proof that she received this much phantom degree of which she speaks.

Sarah Palin using her journalist degree, to find dates. Oh did she just get "Joe McGinniss'd" again?

And I swear literally in the next breath Palin then complains that the media did NOT investigate John Edwards properly until it, and she is careful not to mention the National Enquirer here, "came out."

So to sum up, investigating Republicans demonstrates poor journalism, and not investigating Democrats ALSO demonstrates poor journalism. Just so we're clear.

This "energy expert" then goes on to completely misrepresent the impact that the Keystone XL pipeline project would have had on gas prices in this country if it had gone forward. (It would not have impacted domestic gasoline prices at all, and in fact the oil would have been transported overseas to be refined.)

The rest of the interview is a relative orgy of attacks against Obama for everything under the sun (She even manages to work in a reference to Tony Rezko), but it is toward the 11:52 mark, after Hannity brings up the criticism that Newt received for suggesting that high school kids clean bathrooms to learn a work ethic, where Palin gets to add a little more to her personal mythology.

"You know how I made it through college? I was a janitor through my high school days. Every Sunday night I would walk over to a local business office, and I would clean that office, by myself, Sunday nights. And I made enough money, socked it away, in order to pay tuition bills, and I got through college."

WTF?

Hadn't she claimed earlier that she had earned a college scholarship for placing second (Sorry that should read "placed as second place RUNNER UP." Which would of course be third.) in the Miss Alaska contest?  This information about working as a janitor, once a week through high school for college tuition is new to me. (I stand corrected it says in her book "Going Rogue," page 32: "In between sports and school we worked. I cleaned a small local office building by myself, every Sunday night, through four years of high school, for $30.a weekend. I babysat....." She did not call herself a "janitor," but she apparently DID clean the Menard Dental office.)

And how much did this business pay their janitors? I worked for an entire year after high school, just to earn money for one year of college, and STILL had to take out a student loan.

President Obama rejects Keystone pipeline deal.

DENIED!

Courtesy of ABC News:

The Obama administration today formally rejected a bid by Canadian energy company TransCanada to build a $7 billion oil pipeline linking the tar sands of Alberta to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. 

The Keystone XL project, which was estimated to create thousands of U.S. jobs, became an election-year lightning rod, embroiling President Obama, congressional Republicans, labor unions and interest groups in a heated debate over jobs and the environment. 

The State Department, which holds the authority to approve or reject pipelines that cross an international boundary, said in November that it would delay a decision on Keystone to allow for further study of the environmental impact along its 1,700-mile route. 

Then in December, Congress tried to force the president to make a decision proposal within two months, tucking the mandate into the payroll tax cut bill that Obama ultimately signed into law. 

But the president said today in a statement that the congressionally imposed deadline did not provide adequate time for the State Department to finish a customary review of the pipeline's route through six states. 

"The rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline's impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment," Obama said. 

"As a result, the secretary of state has recommended that the application be denied. And after reviewing the State Department's report, I agree." 

Sources say the administration's decision effectively hits the reset button on a review process that has been underway for several years, but does not preclude TransCanada from resubmitting a proposal for reconsideration. 

Cynics will of course assume this is political posturing in deference to the coming election year.

But I would be very surprised if this deal is resurrected after being slapped down this hard by the President himself. And I kind of think in his second term we are going to see a MUCH more progressive Obama than we have seen thus far.

Hopefully this will calm a few fears amongst the environmentalists who were quite angry with Obama for not speaking out earlier. But I have my doubts.