Sarah Palin Pops Obama's Energy Balloon

When More Drama Obama announced his born again interest in drilling offshore for oil, my interest was piqued. It wasn't likely that the raging liberal who appointed Colorado's greatest hater of energy development as his Secretary of the Interior had any sincere desire to drill, baby, drill...but what exactly was he up to? It seemed more than likely his timing had to do with attempting to portray his administration as economy-friendly rather than the monster it has demonstrated itself to be, but specifically...what?

Fortunately, those of us who actually love our country have a warrior on our side who knows the energy score from the inside out. Yes, that would be Wasilla Warrior Sarah Palin, and I kept checking her Facebook page to see what her take on this head fake might be. It didn't take long. Her brief Facebook post on the topic pointed to a longer statement published in The Corner at NationalReview.com. Essentially, the former Governor of Alaska--who knows energy as well as any other politician in the country, if not better--points out that instead of "drill, baby, drill", the President's latest maneuver is more accurately summarized as "stall, baby, stall".

Wanna bet that stalling will extend right on through the November elections? That is, if we allow the Great OzBama to keep crouching behind his multicolored curtain, pulling levers and such?

Something the lamestream media avoids mentioning entirely (surprise!) but which should be of concern to all Americans is best summarized in Sarah's own words:

As an Alaskan, I’m especially disheartened by the new ban on drilling in parts of the 49th state and the cancellation of lease sales in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. These areas contain rich oil and gas reserves whose development is key to our country’s energy security. As I told Secretary Salazar last April, “Arctic exploration and development is a slow, demanding process. Delays or major restrictions in accessing these resources for environmentally responsible development are not in the national interest or the interests of the State of Alaska.”

It's a classic strategy and one at which the Obamanator excels: Make a big, super-visible flourish with one hand which draws all eyes in the audience while you move the other hand entirely unseen. Sure, if we actually go to work offshore in the southeastern portion of the U.S., that will help our energy situation. But not as much as locking down Alaskan energy production will hurt...and there's another point that needs to be made, this not from Sarah Palin's depth of experience but from my own.

Beginning in December of 2006 and ending in March of 2009, I worked as a big rig truck driver for a water hauling company in western Colorado. It was a tough job, one that a top working hand like Todd Palin could handle with ease but which a whole lot of individuals flat out cannot manage. Especially since I worked straight night shift--by preference, and because it paid an extra $2 an hour. We dragged water tankers, often filled to overweight capacity (which did not matter because we were traversing dirt roads in the mountains, not out there overburdening the asphalt highways). Up steep grades, through hairpin-tight curves, battling superslick mud, ice, and snow much of the year, we earned our pay.

Much of that earned pay came from work on the Roan Plateau, where it never got all that hot at any time of year and where midnight temperatures in midwinter could plunge to forty degrees below zero. And where Colorado Senator Ken Salazar worked tirelessly to shut us down. He'd back anything, anything at all, which worked to the detriment of the energy companies. Supposedly he did this in the name of conservation, but what he did was absolutely unnecessary and oppressive when it came to wildlife or water purity and produced nothing but headaches for those of us who worked in the energy industry to feed our families.

Not even the wild critters were impressed. Salazar pushed the viewpoint that animals were suffering on the Roan. We knew better--even wily old bull elk with antlers worthy of Boone & Crockett records watched us do our jobs with little concern, lifting their heads with mild interest as our trucks passed by, then resuming their grazing with no alarm whatsoever. Maximum speed limits were posted and were never more than 25 mph, in places much lower than that, and rigidly enforced by security personnel and the workers themselves.

Even before I saw all of this at close range, and long before John McCain introduced us to Sarah Palin, there was something about Ken Salazar's mere photograph that made me want to smack him upside the head. Maybe it's the slimy sheen of the professional politician--he certainly has the credentials for that, as noted in his official government listing:

SALAZAR, Kenneth Lee, (brother of John Salazar), a Senator from Colorado; born in Alamosa, Colorado, March 2, 1955; B.A., political science, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colo., 1977; J.D., University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1981; practiced law in Denver, Colo., 1981-1986, 1994-1998; chief legal counsel, Governor Roy Romer of Colorado, 1986-1990; executive director, Colorado Department of Natural Resources 1990-1994; Colorado State attorney general 1999-2005; elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2004, and served from January 3, 2005, until his resignation on January 20, 2009, to accept a Cabinet position; Secretary of the Interior in the Cabinet of President Barack Obama, 2009-.

Why do I go on at such length about Kenny Boy? Because his appointment as Secretary of the Interior by Oh Bummer was no accident. They both detest the energy companies, decrying "Big Oil" as if Exxon and Conoco Phillips were breeding grounds for the AntiChrist himself. Halliburton is, to both men, an epithet comparable even to George W. Bush.

Summary: With B.O. in the White House and Sleazar handling Interior, there will not be any effective drilling program in the United States of America.

Period.