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America's Vast Margin of Error
Townhall ^ | June 13, 2013 | Victor Davis Hanson

Posted on 06/12/2013 10:37:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The Obama administration is facing scandals everywhere -- using the IRS to punish political enemies, seizing the phone records of Associated Press and Fox News reporters, monitoring phone and email accounts of millions, and making up stories about what happened in Benghazi.

In other words, the sort of government overreach that hardly raises eyebrows in Russia, China and most of Africa and Latin America is felonious here in the most free society in the world. Because of America's unique Constitution, and especially the Bill of Rights, for over two centuries Americans have taken as their birthright privacy and free expression, so that even the slightest infringement becomes cause for outrage -- and correction.

We have wide margins of error in energy. President Obama still keeps the Keystone Pipeline on hold. He's frozen almost all new gas and oil leasing on America's vast public lands. Yet throughout the 2012 campaign, the president boasted that gas and oil drilling in the United States had reached all-time highs.

Despite, not because of, the president's efforts, production rose due to a long history of protecting private property rights and ownership of subterranean resources. This country also inherited a can-do tradition of private enterprise by using innovative new technology to cut costs and increase efficiency.

In contrast, much of Europe has outlawed fracking. Elsewhere there is not the expertise to use sophisticated recovery techniques. Only the United States allows the private oil and gas sector enough power so it's not easily shut down. So, the president has the luxury of lauding record production while doing his utmost to stop it.

With the Obama administration's scheduled Pentagon cuts on top of the sequester reductions, about $1 trillion over the next decade will be slashed from the military budget....

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: economy; energy; military; obama

1 posted on 06/12/2013 10:37:23 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

FUB0.


2 posted on 06/12/2013 10:46:16 PM PDT by Paladin2 (;-))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I got to go to the Hoover Institute and meet him.

A couple of friends are friends of him and I’m sure I could get a minute or two with him.


3 posted on 06/12/2013 11:18:14 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

In other words, the sort of government overreach that hardly raises eyebrows in... most of Africa...”

Or, in simpler language, the United States is inexorably being transformed into some sort of Third World, Africa-style sh*t hole.


4 posted on 06/12/2013 11:38:50 PM PDT by Jack Hammer (American)
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: 2ndDivisionVet

The NSA scandal is bigger than that - they have all the content too, and I’ve read accounts from 3-4 congressmen that they’ve been gagged from talking about it, but they have all banking transactions too (under a law passed, they count as public information); so all credit records too.

I’m not sure getting away from the IRS scandal is a good thing. The IRS scandal shows that they’ll do with the NSA stuff.


6 posted on 06/13/2013 2:41:02 AM PDT by maxbible
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