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"The limit of production in this country (the United States) is being reached, and although new fields undoubtedly await discovery, the yearly (oil) output must inevitably decline, because the maintenance of output each year necessitates the drilling of an increasing number of wells. "Such an increase becomes impossible after a certain point is reached, not only because of a lack of acreage to be drilled, but because of the great number of wells that will ultimately have to be drilled." This assessment could have been written recently about the outlook for oil production from North Dakota's Bakken formation or by...

Many educated, middle-class Syrians who had embraced the opposition now feel alienated by its drift toward extremism — and are aligned with neither side.

The Rev. Louie Giglio, designated to give the benediction at this year’s presidential inauguration, has withdrawn, under apparent pressure, after the surfacing of remarks he made, some 25 years ago, about the sinfulness of homosexuality. Note that the pastor of the evangelical Passion City Church in Atlanta has been pushed off the stage not because of a deed, but because of words he said -- words expressing a widely held Christian belief that homosexuality is a sin. Let’s recall that freedom of religion appears in the First Amendment of our constitution, alongside the protection of freedom of speech. So what...

The Algerian military operation brings to mind the Russian modus operandi against the Chechens barricaded with hundreds of hostages in the Moscow Dubrovka Theater. According to most media outlets, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb brigade, led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, is responsible for the hostage taking in the Algerian BP oil facilities in In Amenas. According to the spokesman of Belmokhtar’s brigade quoted by Sahara Media, the kidnapping of the foreigners is in revenge for Algeria’s consent to French use of its airspace for flights headed to Mali. In the opinion of this author the kidnapping has only indirect connection with...

Imagine if the 'New York Times' adequately held Palestinian leaders to account, as it did with the Egyptians. Would it be a problem if a society, following the encouragement its leaders, nursed millions of children on hatred for a religious group? Would it matter if a people was taught that bigotry is a form of worshiping God? Few would deny that such incitement does matter, as it would have a dangerous impact on both those encouraged to hate and on the targets of that hatred. So it is important that The New York Times reported Tuesday on Mohammed Morsi’s chilling...

Before jumping to conclusions regarding Israelis’ ability to recognize their own interests, Israel’s friends and critics should at the very least appreciate their legitimate concerns. Perhaps the leak was not calculated to weaken Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his right-wing allies. Perhaps it was by chance that just one week before Israelis go to the polls, US President Barack Obama was quoted by Bloomberg columnist Jeffrey Goldberg as saying that Netanyahu was “moving his country down a path toward near-total isolation” and that Israel under Netanyahu “does not know what its best interests are.” True, if Obama did indeed criticize...

A prominent global warming scientist, Peter Gleick, who was chairman of the ethics committee at the American Geophysical Union, admitted last year that he stole some documents- and he may have forged others- from the conservative think-tank the Heartland Institute. But that’s all in a day’s work for a work-a-day climate warrior. The important thing isn’t the quest for the truth in global climate research, but, as Charlie Sheen would say, winning. With winning comes cash.    Because for some time it’s been clear, that in the climate debate, instead of actually accomplishing something worthwhile, all the attention will be...

President Obama is beginning his second term today, and while Democrats are celebrating, there are some Republicans and conservatives who are viewing the festivities with more than the usual regret. Until just after the November election, they were among the 300 Washington-based members of Mitt Romney’s transition team, known internally as the “Readiness Project.” No, hiring such a large staff to prepare plans for a Romney presidency didn’t represent an egotistical measuring of the drapes by the candidate. It was mandated by a new federal law, the Presidential Transition Act, which a Democratic Congress passed in 2010 to ensure that...

<p>The "legacy thing" may be harder than Barack Obama imagines. Beginning his second term, Obama has a focused, though unstated, agenda: to achieve presidential greatness in the eyes of historians and Americans. In this, he will almost certainly fail. He is already a historic president as the first African-American to be elected, but there is a chasm between being historic and being great.</p>

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - It’s Not the Message, It’s Not the Messenger, It’s the VoterPosted By Bruce Thornton On January 21, 2013 @ 12:53 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 13 Comments Nearly 3 months after the presidential election the Republicans are still trying to fix what they think went wrong. A popular culprit is the Republicans’ alleged failure to communicate forcefully or persuasively a message that would move voters presumably receptive to conservative policies and principles. Just in the last week Jonah Goldberg, Daniel Henninger, Ari Fleischer, Ross Douthat, and Karl Rove have worked variations on this theme....

Once upon a time, it was common for an American child to be packed off to school with a rifle on his back and for him to come home smiling and safe in the evening. Shooting clubs, now quietly withering away, were once such a mainstay of American high-school life that in the first half of the 20th century they were regularly installed in the basements of new educational buildings. Now, they are in their death throes, victims of political correctness, a willful misunderstanding of what constitutes “gun safety,� and our deplorable tendency toward litigiousness.In 1975, New York state...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Algerian Killers: “We’ve Come In the Name of Islam, To Teach the Americans What Islam Is�Posted By Daniel Greenfield On January 20, 2013 @ 8:52 pm In The Point | 13 Comments But the trouble is that no one seems to learn the lesson no matter how often it’s taught. The 9/11 attackers came in the name of Islam to teach Americans what Islam is. The Benghazi attackers came in the in the name of Islam to teach Americans what Islam is.  And the lesson is still unlearned. The four-day hostage crisis in the...

During the past week, whenever I found myself alone in the car during good drive-time talk radio (i.e., Rush), I did something unusual: I didn’t listen. Instead, I turned to mindless pop music. I was thinking about this peculiar behavior on my part, because I truly love Rush. I think he’s a radio genius, someone who understands perfectly the lines between entertainment, news, and analysis. He’s also one of the sharpest political thinkers out there. No wonder the Left hates him. But still…. I didn’t want to listen. Analyzing my bizarre retreat from Rush, I realized that my problem is...

I’ve spent a better part of my day today answering media queries about Louisiana Gov. Jindal’s new tax plan, which is detailed here. His goal is to eliminate the corporate income tax, the individual income tax, and the franchise tax. Details are still a bit scant, but according to initial reports and some conversations I’ve had with people on the ground in Louisiana over the past few weeks, the plan is to pay for this tax elimination by expanding the sales tax base to services and raising the rate on that tax. We’ll be issuing more analysis on this...

A perplexed Andrea Mitchell on Thursday highlighted a new NBC poll finding high favorability numbers for the National Rifle Association, results she deemed "surprising." The veteran journalist proclaimed: "The NRA brand has been fairly toxic in many of the debates, the gun debates especially since Newtown, but their membership base is broad and deep." One reason the brand has been "toxic" is because of relentlessly negative coverage from reporters. Yet, NBC political editor Mark Murray explained, "Despite a lot of the criticism the NRA has received in the month after the Newtown shootings, the NRA has a 41 percent favorable...

Byron York Chief Political Correspondent The Washington Examiner @ByronYork Popular in PoliticsUtah sheriffs warn Obama of deadly war over guns Newsweek: Obama is 'The Second Coming' Top Dem promises to pass budget — but only to raise taxes Lupe Fiasco gets booted from inaugural event after rapping anti-Obama song Chuck Schumer: GOP has to back tax increases to get a budget In recent days Republicans have had some success pointing out that it will soon be four years since Senate Democrats have allowed Congress to pass a budget — something the Congressional Budget Act requires lawmakers to do each year....

I’m getting sick and tired of the Obama administration using children selectively in order to help the president advocate his public policy positions. As I sat and watched his recent press conference, I finally understood his opposition to the Iraq War. It seems he and the late President Hussein are kindred spirits who share more than just a name. They share a sick penchant for using children as human shields in the middle of war. And make no mistake about it; America is currently at war with itself on many different fronts. As I sat and watched Obama surrounded by...

Word is, Phil Mickelson is mad as hell about rising tax rates, and he’s not going to take it anymore. What follows is a brief portion of an interview Mickelson gave earlier today after carding a final-round 66 at the Palmer Course at PGA West in La Quinta – which I assure you, is not associated with the La Quinta next door to your local Denny’s – in which the golfer hinted that he is considering drastic career changes because of a combined tax rate nearing “62, 63 percent:”

At the Associated Press today, Darlene "Supine" Superville filed a report on Barack and Michelle Obama's church attendance "at the historic Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church." Ms. Superville told readers that "The Old Testament reading during the service came from the book of Exodus, Chapter 14, in which the Israelites cross the Red Sea as Moses leads them out of Egypt." That's nice, but she failed to report how church pastor Ronald E. Braxton used that passage in his sermon.

As part of President Barack Obama’s 23-point gun control plan, he nominated Minnesota U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones–who currently doubles right now as the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives–to be the ATF director. Jones was personally a part of the high-ranking Department of Justice unit that first met on October 26, 2009, to create the new DOJ policy that was used to justify “gunwalking” in Operation Fast and Furious. In Fast and Furious, the ATF “walked” roughly 2,000 firearms into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels. That means through straw purchasers the agency...

:52 in, the president tells his daughter, "I did it". Did what? Recite the oath without giggling, burping, fainting? Or did the narcissist in chief just say he alone is responsible for being re-elected?

“Downturns in the Dutch and French housing markets appear to be accelerating. We forecast nominal price declines of nearly 6pc and 5pc respectively this year as rising unemployment, decelerating wages, and the prospect of austerity measures frightens off buyers,” said Jean-Michel Six, the agency’s chief Europe economist. France’s house market has been a bastion of stability through most of the global crisis but prices began to slip last year as President François Hollande embarks on a draconian fiscal squeeze to meet EU deficit targets, mostly by raising taxes. Home sales collapsed by 24pc in September from a year ago, the...

It was a night of mayhem and bravery that central Michigan will not soon forget. A young woman who was abducted at gunpoint made a daring escape Wednesday night from her rapist into a house full of kids that was later set on fire by her attacker, police said. The suspect, identified as Eric Lee Ramsey, 30, of Mt. Pleasant, Mich., was later fatally shot by police after he got into a series of hit and runs with police vehicles in a sanitation truck he had stolen. But before he died, he apparently tweeted that he was going to be...

In response to criticism from both the oil industry and environmentalists, the Obama administration is scrapping a 2012 plan to impose tough new mandates governing drilling on public lands. The decision to replace last year’s proposal with an entirely new draft rule — and take public comment on the initiative — forces a major delay in the final regulations, which are set to be the first major federal rules governing the hydraulic fracturing process key to unlocking oil and gas nationwide. Interior Department spokesman Blake Androff confirmed the Bureau of Land Management would propose the new draft by the end...

Nearly 3 months after the presidential election the Republicans are still trying to fix what they think went wrong. A popular culprit is the Republicans’ alleged failure to communicate forcefully or persuasively a message that would move voters presumably receptive to conservative policies and principles. Just in the last week Jonah Goldberg, Daniel Henninger, Ari Fleischer, Ross Douthat, and Karl Rove have worked variations on this theme. Yet we should remember that any act of communication comprises not just a sender and a message, but also a receiver. We need to focus on the nature of America’s political “receivers,” the...

Nearly 3 months after the presidential election the Republicans are still trying to fix what they think went wrong. A popular culprit is the Republicans’ alleged failure to communicate forcefully or persuasively a message that would move voters presumably receptive to conservative policies and principles. Just in the last week Jonah Goldberg, Daniel Henninger, Ari Fleischer, Ross Douthat, and Karl Rove have worked variations on this theme. Yet we should remember that any act of communication comprises not just a sender and a message, but also a receiver. We need to focus on the nature of America’s political “receivers,” the...

Listen to the Quinn & Rose Morning Show from 6:00 to 9:00 Eastern on: www.wpgb.com (104.7 Pittsburgh, Pa) http://wysl1040.com/ (Rochester, NY) http://www.talkradio560.com/ (Frostburg, MD) http://wicofm.com/ (Salisbury/Ocean City, MD WOBX - Outer banks NC httphttp://www.wncoam.com/main.html (Ashland, OH) ://tunein.com/radio/The-War-Room-with-Quinn--Rose-p34761/ for archived shows And now on 166 XM

Two Bedouin Arabs and two Jewish accomplices have been charged with planning a terror rocket strike on Israel. The Shin Bet and the Negev Central Unit of the Israel Police arrested two Bedouin brothers, Mahmoud Abu Quidar, 25, and Sameh Abu Quidar, 22, in recent weeks. The two have admitted to being in contact with terror elements in Gaza and abroad, preparing explosive charges and attempting to build rockets for launching at Israel. Two additional suspects in the case are Jewish Israeli citizens, one of them an IDF soldier, who supplied the main suspects with weapons stolen from the IDF,...

To think that twenty young children massacred in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14 would become catalysts to accelerate the continuing disintegration of American society was unconscionable on December 14th - and it remains unconscionable. While the nation fell into shock followed by grief, many wrote on the web, "Obama's gonna take away guns!" The narcissism of "2nd Amen" cultists is without boundaries it appears; to wit: the NRA rallies. The goal to divert attention away from those child victims of guns in order to refocus it on themselves (the firearms industry and their plebian Constitutionalists), to protecting gun-owner "rights" and...

The Rev. Louie Giglio, designated to give the benediction at this year's presidential inauguration, has withdrawn, under apparent pressure, after the surfacing of remarks he made, some 25 years ago, about the sinfulness of homosexuality. Note that the pastor of the evangelical Passion City Church in Atlanta has been pushed off the stage not because of a deed, but because of words he said -- words expressing a widely held Christian belief that homosexuality is a sin. Let's recall that freedom of religion appears in the First Amendment of our constitution, alongside the protection of freedom of speech. So what...

Since shortly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia has been struggling with a major demographic crisis. High infant mortality, low childbirth rates, and fleeing emigres have seen the population shrinking by more than half a million citizens every year, at a time when most countries are growing. The shrinking population weakens the Russian economy and imperils the country’s future. It’s bad. But could Russia’s demographic crisis finally be nearing an end? Forbes’ Russia-watcher Mark Adomanis digs into the latest official data and finds that Russia’s natural population decline appears to have so far leveled off for 2012:

Russia is to become Europe's leading economy by 2030, surpassing Germany, and pushing the UK out of the top 10 by 2050, according to a new report titled Brics and Beyond released by PricewaterhouseCoopers. But should we believe them? It's not to say that Russia isn't able to become a leader. The largest oil producer in the world, and with its 2011 GDP (PPP) ranking just below Germany, Russia does seem like a candidate to become Europe's leading economy by 2030 and stay that way well into 2050. But that's only if you make a prognosis based on the utopia...

The world’s seemingly relentless march toward overpopulation achieved a notable milestone in 2012: Somewhere on the planet, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the 7 billionth living person came into existence. Lucky No. 7,000,000,000 probably celebrated his or her birthday sometime in March and added to a population that’s already stressing the planet’s limited supplies of food, energy, and clean water. Should this trend continue, as the Los Angeles Times noted in a five-part series marking the occasion, by midcentury, “living conditions are likely to be bleak for much of humanity.” A somewhat more arcane milestone, meanwhile, generated no media...

Let’s pretend that in the spring of 2012 Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, John Engler of the Business Roundtable, Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity, and Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association began to organize an assembly of right-leaning groups. Let’s pretend that in the months since there had been not one but two meetings where these luminaries joined with representatives of Christians United For Israel, the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Tea Party Express, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, and the American Petroleum Institute to discuss strategy and promote a series of “structural...

Former Ukrainan Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a galvanizing figure in the Orange Revolution of 2004, has been named a suspect in the murder of a powerful businessman and lawmaker and three others in 1996. Supporters of Tymoshenko, who is serving a seven-year sentence in a separate case, say the accusations are just the latest in an attempt by President Viktor Yanukovich to keep his rival behind bars. Tymoshenko's political party said the latest allegations represented a "shameful day in the history of the Ukrainian law enforcement system," The Associated Press reported.

The Miami gun-show line stretched 200 people long. Many blamed President Barack Obama. This is what the president’s gun-control talk has wrought: long waits to get into gun shows, higher firearm and ammunition prices and more paranoia. The word “Obama” was frequently mumbled, muttered, hissed, cursed at Saturday’s Southern Classic Gun and Knife Show. “Obama” was a catch-all word, a gun-rights shibboleth of sorts, a no-longer-shocking swear, a conversation starter. To Calvin Hudson, a Miami Gardens resident bargain-hunting at the Miami-Dade fairgrounds firearms bazaar, the Obama-blaming was a sign people were being fooled into paying more in a firearms market...

Have House Republicans come up with a winning strategy on the debt ceiling and spending cuts? Or at least a viable one? Maybe so.They certainly need the latter, if not the former. Barack Obama is up in the polls since the election, as most reelected presidents have been. The most recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows him with 52 percent approval and 44 percent disapproval. Other polls have similar results.In contrast, the NBC/WSJ poll reports that only 26 percent have positive feelings about the Republican party and 51 percent have negative feelings. Toward Speaker John Boehner only 18 percent...

The history of the last thirty years of American policy in the Middle East and North Africa can be summed up in two words: unintended consequences.  The US has found itself pressured by outside events into interventions that have ended up backfiring in substantial ways.In most cases, one can argue with good reason that the US advanced other policies that more than compensated for the complications.  In Afghanistan, we armed the rebels in order to help bring down the Soviet Union.  We initially invaded Iraq to repel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait and to protect Saudi Arabian oil fields, which led...

Some of terrorists 'given short-term contracts by the oil and gas giant' Five of Al Qaeda operatives were 'taken alive' by Algerian army todayWitness describes one terrorist speaking with a 'perfect English accent' Some of the terrorists involved in the Algeria hostage crisis in which up to five Britons died had been working at the BP plant where the atrocity took place, it was claimed today.They had been given short-term contracts by the oil and gas giant, allowing them to plan their attack with lethal precision. Five of the Al Qaeda operatives were ‘taken alive’ by the Algerian army today,...

This is the heartbreaking video of the survivors of the Sandy Hook shooting as they sing Over The Rainbow in memory of the friends and teachers they lost. The 21 elementary school children, aged between six and nine, gathered together to sing the Judy Garland classic for charity and mark the one-month anniversary on Monday. Some of the children had been inside the school in Newtown, Connecticut when a gunman opened fire, killing 20 children and six teaching staff on December 14. The students appeared with singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson on Good Morning America today. They recorded the song at the...

This is a Navy Times article, and as of such, cannot be posted, merely linked to.

This matters in a political battle and the NRA can take advantage of there popularity relative to Obama with any wavering members. Newsbusters: Despite constant hammering by the national news media, the National Rifle Association has a favorability rating of 54 percent in the latest Gallup survey, slightly higher than President Obama's rating of 53 percent. While those figures are within the poll's margin of error, they show that the NRA's popularity is in the same range as that of the Democratic president who issued 23 executive orders to accomplish goals the gun-rights group has promised to combat in "the...

Consultant hired to examine Sandy spending says his report led to dismissal. An independent consultant who examined New York's spending for Superstorm Sandy found what he believes are questionable transactions and practices, including poor oversight of the use of state credit cards, orders for a fleet of SUVs and the purchase of iPads that did not seem necessary for recovery efforts. The consultant, who was expelled by the state after issuing a series of recommendations to improve procurement practices, said it appeared from his examination that government officials bought and rented equipment that should have been stockpiled or lined up...

President Obama and lawmakers of both parties have begun laying the groundwork for something that is supposed to be unachievable in Washington today: a bipartisan deal to solve a bitterly contentious, complicated problem in a big way. The talk is of immigration reform, a once-in-a-generation overhaul of an outdated system that turns away too many skilled and eager workers, separates too many families and keeps too many millions of undocumented people at the edges of society, unable to get right with the law. The outlines of reform have long been clear: more visas, a more secure border, better-regulated workplaces, more...

The Emir of Qatar, an absolute ruler, and Al Jazeera, have not covered the "Arab Spring" to advance democracy, but to support the Muslim Brotherhood, which is aligned with the Qatari regime. Al Jazeera has as its chief goal Muslim Brotherhood domination. Many Arab liberals and reformers were shocked by the sale of former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore's Current TV to Al Jazeera, a pan-Arab broadcasting system charged with sympathy for terrorists. In 2009, even the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which can hardly be suspected of anti-Arab attitudes, accused Al Jazeera of negative, biased, and unbalanced reporting, and...

“Half of all mass killings in the United States have occurred since the assault weapons ban expired in 2005, half of all of them in the history of the country.”- Bill Clinton’s over-the-top ‘fact’ on mass shootings SOURCE: WaPo (1-11-13)The Fact Checker:Bill Clinton’s Over-The-Top ‘Fact’ on Mass Shootings “Half of all mass killings in the United States have occurred since the assault weapons ban expired in 2005, half of all of them in the history of the country.” — Former President Bill Clinton, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Jan. 9, 2013 Bill Clinton on gun control: 'This...

Much digital ink has been spilled about the oil and gas boom in the US, the result of ever improving fracking technologies, and whether or not it will lead to energy independence, or even turn the US into an oil exporter. Now a “confidential” report by the German version of the CIA, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), seeped to the surface. It sketched out the boom’s geopolitical consequences. Biggest loser? China.

In recognition of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, indelible contributions to America and the world, let us honor him this week with recognition and reverence of his most memorable admonition; “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Perhaps no more pure, noble or aspirational words were ever spoken during the civil rights movement in our country. It would do every citizen good to read Dr. King’s entire 1963 “I Have a...

In this video, NY Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin is asked to keep quiet a proposal by Democrats to confiscate guns:

http://youtu.be/miEmIfhfxuc