People waited for hours in the hot sun to see her; she drew somewhere between 30,000 and 60,00 people, depending upon which Fire Dept. official one speaks to.

Her roles, she tells us, would be (1) helping with political/economic reform; (2) working with Johnny Mac on energy issues, and (3) advocating for help with special needs children and other health-related issues (in particular, she mentioned the NIH, and continuing to seek cures for some of the diseases that still plague us).

Too bad Obama doesn't have someone who can go around and campaign on his behalf like that: really motivate large crowds to turn out the vote for him. Kind of a shame, that it all sort of falls to him. Oh, well. Guess Senator Gaffe seemed like a good idea at the time.

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"Astroturfing" by a huge PR firm—Winner & Associates, with ties to the Barack Obama campaign—might actually have been aided, financed, or encouraged by "The King of Astroturfing," Axlerod himself, who works for . . . um, who was that? Oh, yeah: Barack Obama.

The idea was to discredit McCain's VP pick with more than just her family's traumas.

At issue is a video clip about Sarah Palin that attempts to exaggerate her links to the Alaskan Independence Party, a week after the rumor that she'd been a member of that group had been debunked. (And, of course, there are still "grassroots" efforts to slime her on birth control/sex education, creationism, supposed ties to John Birchers and/or the Buchanan campaign, homophobia . . . her putative use of racial slurs—the list goes on and on . . .)

And here's the clip, going more viral than Winner & Associates necessarily intended:

See that clip of Sarah "welcoming" the AIP? She didn't attend as governor, but she instead sent them a good-will tape, telling them that "diaologue" is always good. (No: not all members of the AIP want to leave the Union. Yes: Todd Palin has been a member of the AIP.)

But here's Rusty for you:

Extensive research was conducted by the Jawa Report to determine the source of smears directed toward Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Those smears included false allegations that she belonged to a secessionist political party and that she has radical anti-American views.

Our research suggests that a subdivision of one of the largest public relations firms in the world most likely started and promulgated rumors about Sarah Palin that were known to be false. These rumors were spread in a surreptitious manner to avoid exposure.

It is also likely that the PR firm was paid by outside sources to run the smear campaign. While not conclusive, evidence suggests a link to the Barack Obama campaign. Namely:

• Evidence suggests that a YouTube video with false claims about Palin was uploaded and promoted by members of a professional PR firm.

• The family that runs the PR firm has extensive ties to the Democratic Party, the netroots, and are staunch Obama supporters.

• Evidence suggests that the firm engaged in a concerted effort to distribute the video in such a way that it would appear to have gone viral on its own. Yet this effort took place on company time.

• Evidence suggests that these distribution efforts included actions by at least one employee of the firm who is unconnected with the family running the company.

• The voice-over artist used in this supposedly amateur video is a professional.

• This same voice-over artist has worked extensively with David Axelrod's firm, which has a history of engaging in phony grassroots efforts, otherwise known as "astroturfing."

• David Axelrod is Barack Obama's chief media strategist.

• The same voice-over artist has worked directly for the Barack Obama campaign.

This suggests that false rumors and outright lies about Sarah Palin and John McCain being spread on the internet are being orchestrated by political partisans and are not an organic grassroots phenomenon led by the left wing fringe. Our findings follow.

At issue? Rusty again:

Our reading of FEC regulations suggests that political campaign and 527 groups, such as Moveon.org, are required to report money spent on advertising opposing a candidate for public office. We can find no exception for advertising intended for web only campaigns.

We assume that if some group paid for the production of the video, that it would be reported to the FEC. Not doing so, we believe, would constitute a breach of federal campaign law.

Ace adds:

I asked Rusty earlier, when I was teasing it, if they'd yanked the videos yet.

He scoffed at the idea they read this (or his) blog. I know for a fact they do.

Anyway, they're down now. Gee, that was fast.

Trouble is, boys, we got copies. Of everyfuckingthing.

You goddamned rats.

Tomorrow they will claim this was all inadvertent, etc. They'll say they did produce the ad, and sent it to Winner and Associates to, um, focus-group or something, then decided not to run it, but that dirty Winner family and its employees attempted to get it to go viral without their authorization.

Whatever.

If this is all so innocent, why are the videos being yanked even as we speak?

Silly. Because deleting You Tube vids they don't like any more is what the Winner family does on Sunday nights. The family that attempts to destroy evidence together . . . loses their livelihood together. I hope.

Implicated in what might turn out to be a plot odd series of coincidences surrounding the dissemination of untruths about Sarah Palin: The PR Firm Winner and Associates; multiple members of the Winner family (including Ethan S. Winner and his father, Charles "Chuck" N. Winner); at least one other empoyee of Winner & Associates; "A Group of Concerned Americans," which appears to be a proxy for W&A, as does You Tube user "gocamerica"; Publicis Groupe, which is one the world's top advertising/PR firms, and owns Winner & Associates; David Axelrod; and a few of his colleagues.

Rusty's account is an extensive post, but well worth reading as a case study in how the internet can be manipulated by corporate interests and sleazy campaigns.

Patterico, Jane Novak, Dan Riehl, and Ace of Spades have chipped in on this effort. (I also tried to help—along with another L.A.-area blogger with ties to the entertainment industry—but we were not able to contribute much, I'm afraid. The others did beautifully without us.)

Riehl on the Smear Story;
Ace's article (with a flaming skull, natch—and quoted above) on the Winner & Associates scandal.
Patterico (who assisted in the distillation of facts Rusty started with), calls the story "a potential bombshell."
Malkin is on the case.

[Bumped, so it'll stay at the top for another 12 hours after I originally wrote it; I got my post up by just after midnight, Pacific, because I was out during the evening.]

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From Charlie's masterful debunking of Palin rumors over at Observations, the truth about the "victims charged for rape kits" allegation:

No, she didnÂ’t try to charge rape victims personally for rape kits. This is one of those complicated ones with a tiny hint of truth behind it.

First, the Chief of Police in Wasilla (not Palin) did apparently have a policy of asking a victimÂ’s health insurance to pay for the rape kit as part of the ER visit. This, it turns out, is policy in a number of states, including Missouri and North Carolina.

Second, the way this became an issue was after the then-governor of Alaska signed a bill forbidding it; this law was signed before Palin was Governor and no one tried to reverse it while she was Governor.

Third, what the CoP in Wasilla wanted to do was charge the perpetrator as part of restitution.

Which actually sounds like a great idea; hope they take it all the way there at some point. But it sounds like Palin had little or nothing to do with any of this.

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Well, it's appalling. All she's done is:

• On the hugely important natural gas pipeline from Alaska to the Lower 48, Palin renegotiated a pipeline deal people had all but given up on—left in tatters by her predecessor: she played hardball with three big petroleum companies, and forced them to deal with her on Alaska's terms, rather than their own. (These are organizations whose GDPs are bigger than that of most of the world's countries.) Palin got concessions from them to benefit the people of her state.

&bull To get the natural gas pipeline going, she also had to negotiate among several governments, including: (1) others within the state government, (2) the federal government, (4) the Canadian federal government, (5) several Canadian provincial governments, and (6) several Native American nations (sovereign nations, mind you) in both the U.S. and Canada, as well as (7) other West Coast state governments within the U.S.

• Palin has also dealt with the Federal government in the operation of its missile defenses, which are located in Alaska. These are one of the most pivotal elements within our national defense; they remain on high alert 24 hours a day (unlike other missile-defense facilities), and her role in coordinating these forward defenses makes her privy to military briefings that are highly sensitive—probably more so than those received by any other state governor.

• Governor Palin is, furthermore, in charge of the Alaska National Guard—which means she has been responsible for deploying troops to Iraq. Furthermore, she was proactive enough to visit groups of Alaska's guardsmen and -women who were stationed in Kuwait, to keep morale up and to see first-hand what some of the conditions were that they were dealing with—as well as what kind of training they were getting as the bases there.

• Palin has served as President of the Alaska Conference of Mayors, Chair of the Alaska Gas and Conservation Commission, and Chair of the National Governors Association Natural Resources Committee. She is currently Chair of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, which is an intergovernmental body comprising the governments of Alaska and several other states.

To give credit where credit is due, Barack Obama had to walk a tightrope between pleasing Chicago's traditional Democratic party machine (to which his wife has close ties) and catering to the "community's" far-left extremists, of both the Black Supremacy stripe and the dyed-in-the-wool Marxist bent. True, there was no multi-billion-dollar natural-gas pipeline at stake, but I'm sure it affected a lot of votes among Chicago's residents and their pets/dearly departed/ancestors. So it isn't like the man can't practice diplomacy.

I guess it's more a question of which negotiations are tougher: the ones Obama conducted with grant writers and dead people, or the ones Sarah Palin accomplished with provincial, Federal, Canadian national, and state governments, and with huge petroleum/national gas companies.

Bit of a tough choice, huh? Six one way, half-dozen the other . . .

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I think Obama is the bee's knees:

I hope he follows up by hiding under the bed if the Russians, the Iranians, or any of the Islamo-Fascist Terrorists make any major moves once he's elected President, or if there's any further threat to the economy from destabilization caused by his friends and patrons at Freddie and Fannie . . .

Usually, just as a situation becomes more challenging, the best thing to do is to throw away any tools that might help to deal with them.

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self-hating Jews, self-hating goyim, woman-hating women, and racism. It's really quite a charming little world these hard-core Barack supporters live in.

No: Sandra Bernhard isn't wearing glasses as she makes fun of Sarah Palin's glasses. But she does have her hair up as she makes fun of Palin wearing her hair up. ('S okay: it's a Queen Bee thing. You wouldn't understand. Freedom for Bee, but not for Thee.) She should have made fun of Palin's having a vagina, though she came pretty close to doing just that.

Bernhard is not just a vehicle for stoking whatever latent tensions still exist between Jews and Christians in this country—and between Jews and non-Jews (furthermore, the tension between Jewish women and "shiksas," which of course parallels the tension between white women and black women, and amounts to the same charge: "you're stealing our men"). It also stokes fears of black men as inherently violent and rape-prone, and makes violent blacks the "enforcers" for some elite, politically correct Jews. Ick.

And, of course, it rests, as The Anchoress points out, on the racist supposition that it would be worse to be gang-raped by black men vs. white men. (Sure. Their blackness . . . might rub off or something. White women fear getting Negro molecules on their skin, or up their poontangs. Or something. It's not really clear, except in Bernhard's weird imagination. I mean, if she's going to go all ethnic on the "shiksa," shouldn't the Governor be raped by gangs of Jewish guys? Are they incompetent as rapists? Do they need to work on their raping skills?)

The imagery could well exacerbate the historical rift between blacks and Jews in certain regions of the country. (Yes, New York/Tri-State: I'm looking at you.)

All in one little "comedy" routine. That's quite an accomplishment, Sandra.

By the way:

Q: You know what the problem is with Jewish men?

A: They don't like Jewish women.

Isn't that funny? No, really: isn't that fucking hilarious?

Of course, one could dissect this silly monologue further, and ask Sandra politely when Sarah has "pointed her finger" at other women (as Sandra does at the moment she accuses Sarah of same), or when she has "referenced our [!] Old Testament" in public. Palin probably has done the latter; I doubt that she's done the former. Reference, please, Madame Bernhard?

Oh, sorry: it's all about the emotion. No scholarship. No intellect.

The fact that Bernhard is so in-touch with her emotions is probably at the same time what makes her such a great actress (her performance in The King of Comedy was truly amazing), and the reason she is such a poor comic: naked aggression without cleverness or wit is not funny. It is simply sad.

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Strictly speaking, it would be best if Franken didn't contribute material to SNL in the middle of a campaign.

On the other hand, the biggest scandal about Franken as a politician is that he is getting so much money from my very own state, which makes him look like a financial capetbagger.

The biggest scandal about Franken as a comedian is that he is not even remotely funny.

The biggest scandal about trying to out-McCain McCain in a comedy sketch is that it's going to be difficult to be funnier than he is on his own. Johnny Mac and I remain at odds on a handful of issues—but he's a smart dude. Tough to parody him, unless you go for his temper, which hasn't even manifested itself much in the past several years—at least not publicly. Or you can just do ageist material, which is likely where Franken "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big, Fat Idiot" took it. (See the humor there? Limbaugh is big and fat. And he's an idiot. Funny, huh? And John McCain is an old crippled guy with a little bit of a short fuse sometimes. I swear: I'm killing myself, here.)

h/t: Hot Air.

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Nor do I believe that he and Palin together are shooting for sixteen. The magic number, as I see it, is twelve.

I mean, aren't they telegraphing that? Why else would Sarah refer to "a Palin-McCain Administration"?

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The always-refreshing Dan Blatt, writing for PJ Media about why so many gays—even ones who don't like that "R" letter after a politician's name—are pleased with McCain's Veep pick:

Like many other Republicans, gay Republicans cite PalinÂ’s reform record and mainstream conservative views as the basis of their support. We like that she took on the corrupt Republican establishment in Alaska and hope she can help John McCain do something similar in Washington, DC. And we like her plucky nature. Sarah Palin is no ordinary politician. We were wowed by her speech at the Republican Convention.

To be sure, we have some concerns about her stands on gay issues. She supported her stateÂ’s 1998 constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, barring state recognition of same-sex nuptials.

She’s also said that “she’s not out to judge anyone and has good friends who are gay,” confirming Eric’s impressions. We do wish she would chastise her church, the Wasilla Bible Church, for promoting the notion that homosexuality is “curable.” I fear, alas, that is not going to happen.

While she is solid on most issues of concern to us as Republicans, she is not perfect on gay issues. But most gay Republicans, like most Republicans, understand that the solutions to social problems do not come from the state. And we know we need reform in Washington, the kind of reform Sarah Palin brought to Juneau.

While John McCain’s “selection of the Alaska governor has energized the GOP’s socially conservative wing,” it has also inspired a lot of gay and lesbian Republicans. It has brought together left-leaning lesbians and Hillary-supporting gay men concerned about Barack Obama’s qualifications with gay conservatives unhappy with McCain’s frequent departures from party orthodoxy.

We see in Sarah Palin John McCainÂ’s real commitment to reform. That is why, despite her mixed record on gay issues, we are excited by her nomination.

That's what a lot of people don't seem to get: the more libertarian the candidate is, the less his or her private convictions on matter of morality have any bearing. Yeah: Palin is "pro-life" enough to have brought Trig to term, but she isn't going out of her way to coerce other wome to take a similar course. Her church became too Fundamentalist for her (or she became not-Fundamentalist-enough for it), and she has apparently drifted from it doctrinally—but still retains strong bonds of affection for many of its members.

Above all, she gets that when men and women of conscience disagree on moral matters, it is generally best to err on the side of liberty.

Also, she knows how to veto legislation. Not a bad start.

Related: (1) James Kirchick's recent article in the Wall Street Journal about how it's time for the GOP to give up gay-bashing. Past time, I'd say.

(2) Kirchick himself notes that this past Republican convention was 99% gaybash-free, in marked contrast to past embarrassing moments in the past several Presidential GOP Conventions.

(3) The fact that (as reported in The Advocate, not only were the Log Cabin Republicans officially invited to the 2008 convention as a group, but multiple officials from the McCain campaign (including its top strategist, Steve Schmidt) stopped by LCR gatherings to pay their respects). And:

(4) The change in approach within the GOP from the past has led to a the LCRs actually endorsing McCain, even as they refused to so honor G.W., who had to parrot the party line once more in 2004. (As if anyone believes that Bush and Cheney and Secretary Rice are actually anti-gay in real life. But he made those pro forma statements, and the LCRs were right to decline endorsing him. I'll bet many still voted for W, though.)

Schmidt: "The day will come." Yes; it will.

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and Darrell had to remind me, too. I hang my head in shame.

"Not my will, but Thine, be done." Even if one doesn't agree, why is it so hard to understand?

And how much chutzpah does it take to misquote someone to her face, and then to keep hammering at your own misinterpretation of her words?

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Once someone works in Government, he or she has no right to privacy any more; not even in his/her private emails. Even if the punk who committed this Federal Crime says he found nothing incriminating.

Just like how "two for the price of one" was a good thing for the Clintons, but is not for the Palins—and any involvement in the government by Todd Palin was inappropriate.

I've solved the problem of people invading my privacy and committing possible identity theft by telling my Gmail accounts that they must never wear short skirts, or they are "just asking for it."

Oh, wait: those two premises depend on what letter the person has after his or her name, don't they?

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Over at Hot Air, the new McCain ads for Michigan and Ohio focus in on the dual-headed monster of the energy crisis and underemployment:

Michigan specifically mentions drilling (along with "clean vehicles," and a glimpse of a hybrid-car symbol):

Ohio's ad is similar, but more of a frontal assault on job-creation through small businesses and renewable energy:

It's a good move to mention securing our retirement in these spots, as well.

The McCain people seem to be cranking out one or political ads a day, and they know when to take an optimistic tone--as with the economics-minded, forward thinking spots linked above, with the jangly music--and when/how to go on the attack--as with the Raines ad about the Fannie Mae Crisis:

One of the cleverest features in that particular spot is McCain making his statement of responsibility at the beginning--so his name isn't linked to the "prosecuting attorney" tone at the end, nor the assertion "not ready to lead." Instead, that accusation is left to echo inside the viewer's head.

h/t: Ohio and Michigan ad via Ed at Hot Air. The Raines ad is also from Mr. Morrissey, and he's got some good background there on how little economic change Obama! would really bring.

(And, aye--it being Talk Like a Pirate Day, I'd just like to tell the Obama campaign that they need to get some grog, and prepare to be boarded . . . )

Cross-posted at Right Wing News

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The Wall Street Journal today:

With only two weeks remaining in the congressional session, the antidrilling Democratic leadership is under considerable pressure to allow increased offshore oil and gas exploration. They don't much like it--Speaker Nancy Pelosi believes that by stopping offshore drilling "I'm trying to save the planet," and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York wants Saudi Arabia to increase its production by a million barrels a day but opposes U.S. drilling on the OCS or ANWR--but it has become reality.

The bill that passed the House Tuesday would allow drilling 100 miles offshore anywhere, and 50 miles off any state that approved drilling. But more than 80% of known oil reserves are inside the 50-mile limit, and ANWR drilling is still not permitted, even though it involves only 2,000 of Alaska's 20 million acres of coastal plain. No royalties would be shared with the states under the House bill, and $18 billion in existing government subsidies for oil companies would be repealed.

The upcoming Senate version proposes to allow drilling off only four states--Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia--and to raise taxes on the oil industry by some $30 billion.

* * *

There is no question a great deal of oil and gas is on the Outer Continental Shelf, but the Democratic Party has been opposed to offshore drilling for a long while, and the Republicans have sometimes joined Democrats. Now it is time for a change. As Ronald Reagan said in his 1980 acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention: "Large amounts of oil and natural gas lay beneath our land and off our shores, untouched because the present administration seems to believe the American people would rather see more regulation, taxes, and controls than more energy."

He was talking about the Carter administration, but a quarter-century later the Democratic congressional majority would also like more energy regulation, taxes and controls.

We can buy some time to perfect the renewables, but to do it we need more drilling, more natural gas, more clean coal, and more nuclear power.

And as I discussed yesterday, there is plenty of space to move the rigs out of sight (12-20 miles) and still stay within 50 miles off-shore, so the platforms are near the actual petroleum deposits they are designed to extract.

Let the moratoria die.*

* What a funny way to put it: it sounds like "let death die." Presumably "death" is the root meaning for "moratorium."

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Who knew that the drilling platform I used to look at in Long Beach Harbor as a child—that exuberantly artificial island lit up with lights and featuring palm trees and fake waterfalls—is the third-most-productive set of oil rigs in the U.S.? It's only exceeded by one in East Texas, and the Prudhoe Bay facility in Alaska.

Gene Maddaus writes about Southern California's oil rigs for the Long Beach Press-Telegram:

We aren't being reminded that oil platforms can be anything but an eyesore, a repeat performance of the rigs off of Santa Barbara, or the Eureka platform south of Long Beach.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state's top Democrats remain opposed to new offshore drilling. But a poll last month by the Public Policy Institute of California showed a narrow majority of Californians—51 percent—in favor of offshore drilling, up from 41 percent last year.

Experts disagree on how quickly new offshore drilling could begin, and how much of an effect it would have on gas prices.

But oil industry veterans are adamant that allowing new drilling would help reduce dependence on the Middle East, and that the major oil companies could begin building new platforms almost immediately if the moratorium were lifted.

"They've got all the information in their files right now, and they could start the minute the Sierra Club shuts up," said Mel Wright, a geologist who has worked in the local oil business since the 1950s. "There'd be oil right straight off Venice for sure."

Um, like how far off shore? Visible from land? The article doesn't say, and of course it's a provocative little quote.

Because of the moratorium, such conflicts are dormant and controversies are relatively rare. Lifting the ban on offshore drilling would likely reignite them.

"I've been called everything from a son of a bitch to a liar," said John Carmichael, a retired oil man who has worked on getting approval for slant-drilling projects in Huntington Beach. "All that crap. You just have to smile. We got the permits, but it ain't pretty."

Still, where owners of beachfront property see scenic views and environmentalists see pristine natural habitats, oil geologists tend to see lost opportunities.

"I think we ought to exploit what we can," said Bill Garrison, a retired engineer. "Some people don't like to see a drilling rig operating out there, but it looks great to me."

Again: we are given to believe that new installations would be visible from the shore, which I rather doubt. Mostly, what I hear about are platforms that might be 11-12 miles out to sea. I'd like to know how they would affect surfing in Southern California—because that's a big industry here— and boating, as well. But those who write about this issue seem to want me to believe that the plans are to make them visible. And probably ugly.

Garrison and Wright are both veterans of the largest offshore operation in California - the THUMS oil islands in Long Beach Harbor.

Long Beach's THUMS

The THUMS islands (the acronym stands for Texaco, Humble, Union, Mobil and Shell) are a triumph both of engineering and politics. Long Beach voters approved the project in 1962, after years of controversy, on the condition that they add to the "natural beauty" of the harbor.

For that reason, they are decorated with palm trees and waterfalls and the drill rigs are disguised as condo towers. The operators proudly note they have not spilled a drop of oil since the facility opened in 1965.

The islands—named after Apollo 1 astronauts Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee and Ed White, who died in the Apollo fire, and fellow astronaut Theodore Freeman, killed in a jet crash—draw from the vast Wilmington oil field, which stretches from Seal Beach to Torrance.

Over the last 75 years, it has been the third-most productive field in the United States, behind only Alaska's Prudhoe Bay and [one in] East Texas.

At 10 acres each, the islands can accommodate many more wells than a free-standing platform. More than 1,200 holes have been drilled from the four islands—almost as many as there are under the 27 oil [other] platforms off California combined—and they spread underneath Long Beach Harbor like a vast root system, to a depth of up to 1.5 miles.

They generate about 30,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Though production is slowly declining, Occidental estimates that the islands will keep generating oil for the next 30 to 50 years.

The rising price of oil may extend the life of the islands further still, by making it economical to explore in more marginal areas.

"The economic environment enables you to take more risks," said Frank Komin, president and general manager of the operation. "Because the price of crude is up, the engineers and geologists have developed a backlog (of potential wells to drill)."

The city of Long Beach, which gets an 8 percent cut of the proceeds, has seen its take increase from $16.6 million last year to $38.9 million this year.

Not bad. Lucky Long Beach.

Occidental is reinvesting much of its share of the revenue in drilling more wells on the islands. There are two rigs on the islands now. In the fourth quarter, Occidental will bring in a third rig to drill even more holes.

Eureka Well Revived

The last offshore facility built in California before the moratorium kicked in was Platform Eureka, nine miles south of the THUMS islands.

The platform is one of four in the Beta Field, a collection of oil that has accumulated in folds along the Palos Verdes Fault, which runs between Torrance and the Palos Verdes Peninsula and runs south out to sea.

"Out to sea." So more platforms could potentially be placed beyond the horizon, out of sight . . . ? The article is illustrated with a photo of the platform, but we don't see it from the shore, so we don't know if it's half-shrouded in mist, like the ones off of Santa Barbara.

Though California's oil platforms were built by major companies with the resources to invest in big projects, almost all are now operated by independent firms that scavenge for profits in small market niches.

"These are tiny little projects inside huge companies, and they don't get the attention they deserve," said Darren Katic, president of Pacific Energy Resources, which now operates Platform Eureka. "We look at old, orphaned assets, and we redevelop them."

When Eureka was shut down, it was owned by Aera, a consortium between ExxonMobil and Shell. The leak was in one of three pipes that run between it and two sister platforms, Ellen and Elly.

Are these other platforms producing right now? The article doesn't say.

Pacific Energy Resources inspected the pipes and determined the other two were still usable, said Steve Liles, the company's operations manager.

"We came up with a phased approach of returning Eureka to production," Liles said. "Since it had been so long since it had been on, you had to show you could still produce it, and get some money flowing to pay for the other phases."

Pacific Energy Resources completed the purchase last year. In April, Eureka started producing oil again. Workers rotate on and off the platform every seven days. The platform is occupied 24 hours a day, and workers sleep in a dormitory.

Because the third pipe between Elly and Eureka is still broken, only eight of Eureka's 31 wells can be used. At 1,000 barrels a day, Eureka is producing just a quarter of what it did when it was shut down.

In the next phase, the company plans to put a sleeve inside the third pipeline, which is almost two miles long, and then restore Eureka to full production. A third phase would entail laying new pipelines in 700 feet of water.

Here, too, the high price of oil has had an impact.

"It's getting you payback quicker," Liles said. "What we thought would take four to five years to pay back, now we can get it paid back in two to three years."

What if we could get more oil off of the California Coast without compromising our pretty, pretty beaches?

I'd like to know.

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I think he got that line from that guy who wrote all-in-cliches.

But, yeah: I think Palin will argue for a reduced sentence on the bratty, troubled "man-child." And it will win her votes.

Somehow, everything the other side does is backfiring on 'em. I blame the Rovian mind-beams, which never stopped: even Rove himself role-switched with McCain over the issue of "attack ads" in this campaign. (You remember that, right? In 2004, surrogates for John Kerry and G.W. were each attacking the others' military records, and it was John McCain who told them to just cut it out. But this time, it just makes McCain look more aggressive—in a good way—to have Rove ragging on him. Such an evil genius, that man.)

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Robert Stacy:

Liberals annoy me enough already without having them get in my face about what a great guy Obama is.

Be on the lookout for headlines about obnoxious Obama supporters getting punched out by their friends and neighbors.

Is the election over yet?

Posted by: Attila Girl at 02:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It just wasn't worth it to Clinton to go to the rally and share a stage with Palin.

Because:

1) It would be stressful, for very little gain; she's on vacation now. Remember?
2) It could be used against her by her enemies.
3) She has to keep her jury out on Palin, who may be her Presidential rival in four years--or a future ally, as another centrist-feminist pol.
4) SNL jokes aside, the risks of making a gaffe while standing next to the second-most-famous female politician in the country today (or perhaps the first) would be too risky.

I agree that it's difficult to gauge the depth of support for Israel among a lot of leftist-liberals these days—unless they are Christians with evangelical/Charismatic leanings, or practicing Jews. (Non-practicing Jews tend to throw Israel under the bus, watch the bus get blown to pieces by a suicide bomber, and then go out for pizza at an American pizza parlor in NY, Chicago, L.A., or SF—where they feel secure that there won't be any bombs.)

I wish pro-Jewish people would wake up about this, and not just in Florida.

h/t: Insty.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 12:27 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Thank, Michelle.

I'll remember that; I was starting to wobble.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 11:44 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Washington Times:

Here's how it works. A message goes out over Barack Obama's Web site with the names, phone numbers and e-mails of editors and producers foolish enough to host Obama critics. With Mr. Obama's extensive digital following, and his extensive fund-raising and contact lists, shutting up the Democratic nominee's critics with a fraction of Mr. Obama's millions of supporters is relatively simple. The digital legions plug phone lines, crash servers and intimidate the advertisers of these media outlets. This must be another instance of the "new" politics that Mr. Obama frequently talks about.

. . . . . . . .

"The Action Wire serves as a means of arming our supporters with the facts to take on those who spread lies about Barack Obama and respond forcefully with the truth, whether it's an author passing off fiction as biography, a Web site spreading baseless conspiracy theories or a TV station airing an ad that makes demonstrably false claims," Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt told the Tribune.

How Orwellian. Mr. LaBolt defends the very actions that prevent WGN-AM and others from airing the facts, as though obstructionism is an "airing of facts."

Note to the Obama campaign: Informed observers don't get "the facts" only from a political campaign. They read and listen to the independent media outlets - the same outlets the thin-skinned Mr. Obama is currently trying to quash.

Slublog, over at Ace's digs:

McCain may not be perfect, but he's preferable to Obama, who has allowed his mask to slip a bit in the last few weeks. He's a typical machine politician who seems far too comfortable shutting down speech he doesn't like. Is encouraging such thuggery an example of the "community organizing" of which Obama is so proud?

One of the great ironies of this election is that liberals are worshipping a guy who embodies everything they claim to hate about the Bush administration.

Civil liberties for me, but not for thee. What's shocking is that these dirty tricks are being handled by the Obama Campaign, out in the open. Tactics that used to be hidden are now flagrant. Life imitates Monty Python:

It's crazy; how can anyone really consider voting for this guy?

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Big-L Libertarians do the darnedest things. (Although, in all fairness, I've got a lot of respect for Wayne Allen Root.)

And what, by the way, do you have to say for yourself now, Mr. Robert Stacy McCain? Still in the tank for Barr?

Meanwhile, I'll be knocking on doors in Nevada, and manning phone banks for your Crazy Cousin John--and had you told me eight months ago that I'd be doing such a thing for him, I would have slapped you.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:01 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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