Free Republic

Our lesson for today comes from George and Ira Gershwin:       They all laughed at Christopher Columbus        When he said the world was round        They all laughed when Edison recorded sound        They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother        When they said that man could fly        They told Marconi wireless was a phony . . . Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers sang it in the film Shall We Dance? (1937). Seventy-five years on, the president revived it to tap dance around his rising gas prices and falling approval numbers. Delivering his big speech on energy at...

March 15, 2012 RutherfordGate part of a pattern for Obama Zombie By now you’ve probably already heard about RutherfordGate — in which President Obama thoughtlessly repeated a bogus quote falsely attributed to President Rutherford B. Hayes in order to slander his opponents and (almost as an afterthought) Hayes himself: “One of my predecessors, President Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone: ‘It’s a great invention but who would ever want to use one?’” Obama said. “That’s why he’s not on Mt. Rushmore.” A quick bit of fact-checking uncovered that the quote — as has been long known to anyone...

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2012 – In remarks to reporters this afternoon, API’s Group Director for Upstream and Industry Operations Erik Milito said that administration policies were obstructing U.S. oil and natural gas development and contributing to today’s higher gasoline prices“ “Gasoline prices are higher today at least in part because government has neglected to pay sufficient attention to the importance of producing more of our own oil and natural gas. Adding supplies to markets is critical to keeping downward pressure on prices. And government policy has prevented and continues to prevent that. “The administration says its policies have supported more...

Factoid the Santa Maria, Pinto, and the Nina was pulled not by sails but by Algae.

While excoriating his Republican rivals for not having sufficient faith in alternative energy earlier today, President Obama threw a historically inaccurate elbow at a presidential predecessor. (snip) The president decried the “naysayers” who “don’t believe in the future, and don’t believe in trying to do things differently.” He then cited President Rutherford B. Hayes whom, he said, “reportedly said about the telephone, ‘It’s a great invention, but who would ever want to use one?’” (snip) Those students need to run back to history class, because Mr. Obama’s lesson about the 19th president seems wrong, at least according to

So sad. Barack plays comedian and cracks jokes about gas prices. He told an audience today that there’s “a few places” we’re not drilling… the National Mall… at your house.” HapBlog reported: Of course, like most everything Obama says, a quick Google search paints a totally different picture of the truth. Investor’s reported: Obama has chosen almost always to limit production. He canceled leases on federal lands in Utah, suspended them in Montana, delayed them in Colorado and Utah, and canceled lease sales off the Virginia coast. His administration also has been slow-walking permits in the Gulf of Mexico, approving...

Countering President Obama’s claim that he’s doing everything he can to increase domestic oil production, a top House Republican Thursday released data from the Energy Department showing that fossil fuel production on federal lands has fallen since Mr. Obama took office. The information compiled by the Energy Information Administration shows that total fossil fuel production on federal lands has dropped 7 percent since 2009 and 13 percent since 2003. From 2010 to 2011, total oil production on federal lands is down 14 percent and gas production dropped 11 percent. House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings, Washington Republican, said the new...

It's not unusual for President Obama to criticize his Republican predecessors from time to time, but this morning, he targeted his scorn not at George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan, but ... Rutherford B. Hayes. As Politico reported: Speaking about the need to develop new sources of American energy in Largo, Md., Obama used our 19th president as a failure of forward-thinking leadership. "One of my predecessors, President Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone: 'It’s a great invention but who would ever want to use one?'" Obama said. "That's why he's not on Mt. Rushmore."

President Obama took a shot at his opponents over their criticism of his energy policy during a speech at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Maryland. “Now, here’s the sad thing. Lately, we have heard a lot of professional politicians, a lot of the folks who were running for a certain office, who shall go unnamed, they’ve been talking down new sources of energy. They dismiss wind power. They dismiss solar power. They make jokes about biofuels. They were against raising fuel standards. I guess they like gas guzzlers. They think that’s good for our future. We’re trying to move...