I recently wrote: “When word comes of drilling domestically, watch the price of oil drop.”

President Bush recently pulled the EO banning domestic drilling. Today, Tuesday, the price of oil dropped to $139.

Larry Kudlow wrote on NationalReviewOnline:

In a dramatic move yesterday President Bush removed the executive-branch moratorium on offshore drilling. Today, at a news conference, Bush repeated his new position, and slammed the Democratic Congress for not removing the congressional moratorium on the Outer Continental Shelf and elsewhere. Crude-oil futures for August delivery plunged $9.26, or 6.3 percent, almost immediately as Bush was speaking, bringing the barrel price down to $136.

Now isn’t this interesting?

Democrats keep saying that it will take 10 years or longer to produce oil from the offshore areas. And they say that oil prices won’t decline for at least that long. And they, along with Obama and McCain, bash so-called oil speculators. And today we had a real-world example as to why they are wrong. All of them. Reid, Pelosi, Obama, McCain — all of them.

Knee-jerk, or prophetic?

BZ

The Chrysler Building in New York City was recently sold to Dubai.

Anheuser-Busch was purchased by Belgian brewer InBev SA, a company essentially controlled from Brazil.

Properties in America, commercial and otherwise, are being sold left and right.

However, if you recall in the mid-to-late 80’s, everyone was concerned when Japan apparently went on a buying spree of properties in the U.S. Yes, Japan made many purchases and then Japan’s economy tanked and those purchases became later sales themselves.

Much of this movement is opportunistic. Property is cheap, and not just at the level of the individual home. The dollar is weak and those able to do so are taking complete advantage of this fact but on a larger commercial basis.

What is truly starting to become frightening is the portent of all of this: the rumbling roll of growing fear with regard to the weak dollar, the stock market, the price of a barrel of oil — and now banks:

Unfortunately, in the markets, perception and NOT truth is everything.

If people perceive banks are falling like a house of cards, they will. “Self-fulfilling prophecy” comes directly to mind.

There’s a significant amount of grave concern about the banking sector,” said T.J. Marta, a fixed-income strategist at RBC Capital Markets in New York, the investment-banking arm of Canada’s biggest lender. “Now what we’re having is solvency concerns.”

Self-fulfilling prophecy? More:

July 14 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Treasury Department’s plan to shore up FannieMae and Freddie Mac is an “unmitigated disaster” and the largest U.S. mortgage lenders are “basically insolvent,” according to investor Jim Rogers.

Taxpayers will be saddled with debt if Congress approves U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson‘s request for the authority to buy unlimited stakes in and lend to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Rogers said in a Bloomberg Television interview. Rogers is betting that Fannie Mae shares will keep tumbling.

Self-fulfilling prophecy? More:

PASADENA, California (Reuters) – Hundreds of worried IndyMac Bancorp Inc customers descended on the company’s branches on Monday to withdraw their money, after regulators seized what was once one of the largest mortgage lenders in the United States.

Regulators took over the Pasadena-based lender on Friday after a bank run in which customers — panicked over IndyMac’s survival prospects — withdrew $1.3 billion over 11 business days, regulators said.

We are on the potential cusp of a remarkable crash, not unlike 1929. And should this occur, it won’t be because of reality — it will be because of perception. In my opinion, this isn’t anything we cannot resolve — unless we choose not to.

New: Dollar drops to new low.

On the other hand, when I write that now might be a great time to buy ammunition, do you wager I am kidding?

Wordsmith has an excellent post on the nature of Barack Hussein Obama, specifically targeting the cover and concomitant story by the New Yorker magazine. I’ll not reproduce the cover here, you can find it if you wish.

But the point is: even a Left Wing organ like the New Yorker is beginning to peel the layers off the eatable BHO object, thinking it’s a sweet apple and finding it might be an onion.

As I wrote in comments:

There is nothing new about Obama, except his ability to say there is something new — in a way that those desperate to find a new Savior have FOUND their Savior. A Savior who speaks much but says little. He is no “change;” he is but more of the “same.”

And the GOP and Conservatives should take careful note:
1. “Democrats don’t win elections; Republicans lose them.”
2. Though being in power, the Demorats couldn’t stop FISA.
3. If McCain and the GOP and Conservatism are so “yesterday” then Obama should be miles and miles ahead of McCain, as he clearly has the DEM working entirely FOR him.

And still, it is no walkaway race.

Conservatives, GOP, are you listening? Are you hearing? Are you paying attention?

The power is the GOP’s to LOSE.

Most visitors to a popular beauty spot would welcome overgrown bushes being cut back. But a council had to tread carefully after being told that to some members of the gay community, the dense undergrowth was something to be protected.

Removing it would discriminate against the gay men who use the area for outdoor sex, campaigners claimed.

Visitors to the Downs near Bristol’s spectacular Avon Gorge have complained about the ‘inappropriate sexual activity’, which can be punishable by up to six months in prison.

Despite this, the city council was forced to consult gay rights groups about their concerns over its plan to clear away the bushes to improve the scenery and protect rare wildlife.

Oh, but wait, it gets better. Note this paragraph buried in the article at the very bottom:

Last year four firefighters were disciplined for allegedly disturbing a group of men at night by shining their torches into the bushes on the Downs.

After complaints that their actions were homophobic, the four senior officers from Avon Fire Service were fined and transferred to other stations.

With that in mind, I decided to check. Could it be true that firefighters were considered homophobic when they came across some kind of activity and checked to see what it was? And further, were disciplined for doing so? The sad answer:

Yes, it occurred. Check the links noted. The firefighters were disciplined. Forced to be brainwashed with PC propaganda. And further, transferred. From this article:

However, one of the firefighter’s colleagues told the Daily Mail that they were not happy with the punishment.

“This is a complete farce. All four officers have been let down by their senior officers when they needed their support the most,” he said.

“They have been treated as the criminals in this case and it has been completely forgotten that they witnessed criminal activity occurring in a public place.

“There are a lot of firefighters in Avon who feel that the four involved have been treated very unfairly so the service can be seen as being politically correct.” he added.

The money from the fines is to be donated to a gay-rights charity and the four firefighters have been transferred to other stations.

The once mighty, once proud United Kingdom has been turned into a nation of politically-correct, Gay-Advocating, Islamic-Advocating capitulists — just a bit of a conundrum. I shake my head in wonder. . .

Hello? Looking for the very last complete set of balls in the UK? Anyone? Hmm. Must be hanging on a woman now.