Pay to Play

What's that you say, Bunkie? Gas prices got you down? Is it pinching you a little to fill up the SUV and the bass boat at $4 a gallon?

Well, cheer up! $4 gas isn't here to stay ... $5 or $6 may be coming soon! That's all right, though, it's all in a wonderful cause:

President Obama ratcheted up the pressure on Iran Friday, deciding to implement previously announced sanctions that will be the toughest to date.

The decision declares that world oil markets can be adequately supplied even if a significant portion of Iran's 2.2 million barrels a day in oil exports is taken off the table.

"There is a sufficient supply of petroleum and petroleum products from countries other than Iran to permit a significant reduction in the volume of petroleum and petroleum products purchased from Iran by or through foreign financial institutions," Obama said in a statement.

The sanctions, announced late last year, are aimed at getting Iran to give up its nuclear program -- a program Iran says is for peaceful purposes but many suspect is intended to produce a bomb.

The decision was widely expected.

"It's hard to imagine the White House would have invited the political ramifications of stalling on Iran," said Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners. That could have been "devastating for key voter blocs in battleground states."

Yes, folks, President O'Bomber is not about to devastate any key voter blocs in any battleground states, as he gets the Likud Party solidified behind him. It's almost surprising that he doesn't replace Joe Biden in the Veep slot with Bibi Netanyahu ... except that it isn't surprising at all -- for Bibi, that would be a big step downward. Besides, it would be like replacing a puppet with its operator. It just isn't done.

So, the "expectation" was more sanctions against Iran. Worked great with Iraq, didn't it -- always assuming that's what you want: another glorious ten years' sand war, ending in a destroyed country and another half-million or so dead wogs, many of them women and children. Another giant murder spree, with American "progressives" excusing their semi-beige figurehead at every turn ... amazingly, it's enough to make me nostalgic for Idiot Bush, under whom the lefties were sort-of kind-of antiwar. And the "expectation" got us to $4 on gas prices. Now, the expectation has to be changing to frank, out-and-out, Straits-of-Hormuz-closing war ... gee, I wonder where prices might be going?

Sorry about that, peace-loving Americans ... but when you're determined to murder a million Persians because you've got the biblical King David confused with yarmulke-wearing pols on both sides of the ocean, you've got to pay the price. Hope the Chinese don't decline your VISA card this time. Good luck!

Murder Squirrel

So there's Senator McCain, popping up like a tree-dwelling rodent with cheek pouches chock-full of acorns, or maybe cluster sub-munitions. And, as surprising as this will no doubt be, he wants another war! This time, dispensing the dubious blessings of duh-mocracy from 15,000 feet onto the Syrians.

You have to wonder, when foreigners see the bright-eyed face of this particular senile clown, knowing that he was the presidential nominee of one of the two major branches of the War/Corporate Party as recently as '08, what they must think of you and I? No, World, I did not, in fact chew lead paint chips by the pound as a child. But I can surely understand why you might feel like asking. I do kind of wish that some of you were powerful enough to bring us a little bit of Regime Change here in the States. (And if any of you Asian bankers are reading ... maybe you can.) "Operation American Freedom." It's an idea whose time has come!