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The Land of Obama Make-Believe
The president kills jobs and undermines our security, all in a day.

By Michelle Malkin


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The president speaks from Main Street in the Magic Kingdom, Jan. 19, 2012.


Where did President Obama go after killing off thousands of Keystone XL pipeline-construction and manufacturing jobs? Why, Disney World, of course. Sabotaging work is hard work for Goofy and his pals.

And where’d he head after that? Why, up to Manhattan for more high-priced campaign fundraisers charging up to $38,500 per partier. The business of wining and dining politically connected donors ain’t child’s play, you know.

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Obama touted a White House foreign-tourism initiative on Thursday with Cinderella’s castle as his backdrop. “America is open for business,” he proclaimed chirpily to the rest of the globe.

Tell that to the Keystone managers in Canada whom Obama and his State Department rebuffed — after years of planning and review — in order to appease militant environmentalists and Hollywood celebs. The Animatronic Divider robotically lambasted Republicans for pushing him to make a decision this week. But Senate and House Democrats issued the sharpest rebukes to White House obstructionism:

“President Obama’s decision on the Keystone XL pipeline is a major setback for the American economy, American workers, and America’s energy independence,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.V.) said.

“The rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline permit is a missed opportunity to drastically turn this economy around. This pipeline would have created thousands of new jobs and helped to ensure our energy independence,” Rep. Jason Altmire (D., Pa.) lamented.

“This delay is just playing politics with American jobs and American energy security,” Rep. Jim Matheson (D., Utah) pointed out.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle scratched their heads as the job-snuffer-in-chief bolted to Orlando’s fantasyland to promote economic growth. But there’s no more fitting place on earth for the man whose escapist administration occupies the land of make-believe and no consequences. (Bonus moment: Obama got to shake hands with Mickey Mouse, who infamously turned up on a Florida ACORN voter-registration form in 2008. Constituent outreach at its most surreal.)

On the very same day he quashed Keystone, Obama released his first campaign ad of 2012 — hyping his stellar record on energy jobs. It’s Opposite Day at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, 365 days a year. Even more comically, the ad touted his exemplary ethics record by quoting a moldy three-year-old endorsement from left-leaning Politifact. And as bipartisan Capitol Hill outrage over the half-billion-dollar Solyndra solar-stimulus bust mounts, Obama had the nerve to sprinkle his inaugural campaign spot with — wait for it — solar panels.

Instead of supporting new infrastructure jobs in America through an energy-independence-enhancing project that has bipartisan legislative support on Capitol Hill, the president flew to Disney World to peddle looser visa restrictions in China and Brazil by executive order. He also will expand the Visa Waiver Program (a security-loophole-ridden program that was suspended temporarily after the 9/11 terrorist attacks) to speed foreign travel.

In case anyone needs reminding, it was the relentless drive of the tourism industry and kowtowing State Department bureaucrats that led to the Bush-era Visa Express Program, which relaxed visa policies, eliminated in-person consulate interviews, and opened the door to the 9/11 hijackers. Brazil is just the latest base for al-Qaeda and other Islamic jihadi groups. It does not consider Hezbollah or Hamas terrorist groups, and it disbanded its anti-terrorism force in 2009.

The Visa Waiver Program and other efforts to expedite the tourist-visa process also pose continuing security risks because — as the Government Accountability Office itself admitted last year — there is still no comprehensive, systematic way to track the 70 million–plus foreign visitors who enter the country on tourist and other short-term visas. Indeed, half of the nation’s estimated 20 million illegal aliens are visa overstayers.

How many of the new Disney foreign tourists whom Obama is touting as America’s economic salvation will fail to return to their home countries after their Obama World visas expire? We’ll likely never know. And Team Obama doesn’t care.

In his opening campaign-ad salvo, Obama accuses his opponents of being “untethered to facts.” But this is an administration that believes lowering visa standards and risking homeland security to pump up Disney foreign tourism is a better path to economic recovery than supporting direct American job creation and enhancing energy security. Like the Disney characters he posed with this week, our cartoonish president is wholly untethered to reality.

— Michelle Malkin is the author of Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies. © 2012 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

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COMMENTS   15

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   01/20/12 06:43

Let's see if I have this straight: The road to economic prosperity is through increased tourism, so we'll see job growth in the high-paying, prosperity-enhancing employees at theme parks and taco stands off the Bee Line?

Another clear demonstration that a law perfessor should stick to the things he knows - which aren't economics, finance, or seeking a cure to his catastrophic tone-deafness. He's truly wandering out amongst the weeds, if he can actually fail to notice the full-on face slap a solar panel in a campaign ad is to himself, and to the country.

I've worked at a college. Barry is the perfect distillation of what results from living in that cocoon of lunacy.

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   01/20/12 19:19

Eureka! A voice of reason and serious thought from a state that ranks first in the loony-bin sweepstakes. I know a bit about Vermont, as my sister and her family call Burlington their home. More to the point, Obama's Keystone decision is the latest handiwork of an America-despising former college professor (teaching Alinsky, for heaven's sake!) who, incapable of creating a real job for himself or his wife, pursued the only remaining road to riches: Chicago politics. And he ended up with quite a nice gig sure to leave him and his family stunningly wealthy. Unfortunately, he has managed in three short years to condemn the rest of America to mountains of new debt, economic stagnation, chronically high unemployment, and deepening anxiety about the very future of a once great nation. Thanks, Messiah. Your work here is done.

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   01/20/12 08:04

Heh. That would be quite the GOP ad. "You've just completed your goal of raising energy prices that injure the poor most of all and for no reason, removed thousands of jobs directly and hundreds of thousands of jobs indirectly, and undermined the energy security of your country. What are you going to do to celebrate?" Assuming the GOP gets it.

Tourism is the reason Greece is doing so well. Right? "Come see our ruins" could work for us too.

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   01/20/12 09:54

All continues to go according to plan in President O's campaign to destroy America. How much more obvious does it need to be?

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   01/21/12 15:46

Robert, unfortunately it's not obvious enough (read some of the responses here). I want for our presidential nominee, whoever he may be, to drum these truths every time he has a microphone or a camera in front of him. No, I'm not holding my breath... but that would be a good start.

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   01/20/12 09:59

What Obama lacks is vision to create a rallying point for voters. Keystone might have become that project/vision.
Altho differently funded Keystone has become almost a Hoover Dam for alot of people. Maybe it is a positive that will demonstrate optimism, an answer to the doom and gloom we all see daily.
Yet Obama seems to rely on an economic policy that I call Zorg Economics.
Zorg is the character from Fifth Element that observed after a glass is shattered..." Look at all these little things! So busy now! Notice how each one is useful. A lovely ballet ensues, so full of form and color. Now, think about all those people that created them. Technicians, engineers, hundreds of people, who will be able to feed their children tonight"
The point is..Obama finds it necessary to break something that works and replace it with what he imagines is superior....or at the least...more politically acceptable.

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   01/26/12 08:25

The Hoover dam from start to finish,completed 2 years before scheduled date,under cost.
Not fair to compare keystone. Hover Dam wasn't plagued by the EPA,or Union Corruption' When efforts to build large scale projects fall into the political graft, the amount of time and money will grow exponentially More money for unions means more kickbacks to elected officials.

Back in the day,when something was needed ,we just built it. We didn't have the Employment Prevention Agency. with their hands out for bribes and kick backs,If you want some thing built now, you have got to pay,and pay. Those permits will cost you 10 times what they were intended to cost, If we did what most countries do to corrupt inspectors when they are caught,or get too greedy. the land scape would be littered with unmarked graves,lumpy concrete slabs and higher turn over in the agencies.

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Daneel Law
   01/20/12 11:18

The thing I love most about Michelle Malkin is how she spouts out unsubstantiated hyperbole and rampant sarcasm as a means of misdirecting readers into believing she is actually a journalist reporting on facts.

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   01/20/12 21:15

If you're going to dispute what she said, then go ahead and dispute it. Obama did kill the Keystone project for no good reason, and he does make grandiose yet unsupported claims about job creation.

By dismissing her arguments without providing reasons why, you've engaged in exactly what you're accusing her of, and you've done nothing to rebuke the claims made in the article.

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   01/22/12 15:26

You claim she has her facts wrong but fail to offer a single example. Lame.

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   01/20/12 17:32

Can anyone explain how Keystone would have done anything to help us achieve "energy independence?" The oil would flow from Canada to refineries and then be immediately exported to foreign countries and would increase gas prices in the midwest (which would reduce employment). Also independent studies show the jobs created would realistically be under 5,000 which I'm not sure would be worth the environmental and economic risks.

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   01/21/12 11:06

Please tell me you're being sarcastic. Partnering with Canada to safely transport crude to US refineries would "increase" energy prices in the US? And China buying Canada's oil and ferrying it across the Pacific would have less impact on the environment? I see.

So, what's your solution? Ah, yes. More wind. Which is all we got from the Occupy the White House crowd.

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Insearchofaleader
   01/22/12 13:10

Great response Voltaire!!! Take the cost of fuel a step further - I live in California and a head of lettuce is $1.99 (that is each)!!!! These people are really nuts!!! How do they expect us to take care of the environment when we can't feed our families? I just worked at a homeless shelter in Santa Ana where we feed 1000 homeless and poor every Saturday morning!!! It is the only hot meal they get in a week. They don't have any jobs and not ONE family could speak English !!

How do they expect people to keep doing this if we can't source and control our fuel!!! which is at the root of all of our product costs (transportation to work, food on the table, clothes on our backs, etc) do these people get "relationship" pricing at all????

And on another note - where is the list of all of these people who keep giving to Obama at these lavish dinners ???? We need to see their names, occupations, locations and amount given, These Marxists need to be exposed for everyone to see who is propping him up!! Not just company names but the individuals!!!

We just got a glimpse of the Hollywood donors thanks to SOPO. Looks a lot like buying influence at the expense of the "little guy" that they profess to care so much about!!!

It would be nice to see a list that is ongoing and added to as the ONE and his first Entitled ONE go on these never ending fund raising binges!!

Thanks to the thousands of jobs lost with the Keystone pipeline cancellation we know Obama just got the most sought after praise from Robert Redford. Perhaps Mr. Redford can hire the thousands of UNION workers (that they care so much about) to work for him!! At least until we get a new president who REALLY cares about American and all of it's people. Not just the wealthy who keep giving him money!!!

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Insearchofaleader
   01/22/12 13:10

Great response Voltaire!!! Take the cost of fuel a step further - I live in California and a head of lettuce is $1.99 (that is each)!!!! These people are really nuts!!! How do they expect us to take care of the environment when we can't feed our families? I just worked at a homeless shelter in Santa Ana where we feed 1000 homeless and poor every Saturday morning!!! It is the only hot meal they get in a week. They don't have any jobs and not ONE family could speak English !!

How do they expect people to keep doing this if we can't source and control our fuel!!! which is at the root of all of our product costs (transportation to work, food on the table, clothes on our backs, etc) do these people get "relationship" pricing at all????

And on another note - where is the list of all of these people who keep giving to Obama at these lavish dinners ???? We need to see their names, occupations, locations and amount given, These Marxists need to be exposed for everyone to see who is propping him up!! Not just company names but the individuals!!!

We just got a glimpse of the Hollywood donors thanks to SOPO. Looks a lot like buying influence at the expense of the "little guy" that they profess to care so much about!!!

It would be nice to see a list that is ongoing and added to as the ONE and his first Entitled ONE go on these never ending fund raising binges!!

Thanks to the thousands of jobs lost with the Keystone pipeline cancellation we know Obama just got the most sought after praise from Robert Redford. Perhaps Mr. Redford can hire the thousands of UNION workers (that they care so much about) to work for him!! At least until we get a new president who REALLY cares about American and all of it's people. Not just the wealthy who keep giving him money!!!

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rulierose
   01/21/12 00:50

the greenies are missing the point. the pipeline WILL GET BUILT. it just won't help America. after being insulted by Obama, Canada decided to partner with China, which cares less about environmentalism than just about anybody else. good job, greenies!

so the "damage" to the environment, whatever that might be, will still happen. and sorry, "only" 5,000 jobs? that's 5,000 more than Obama's given us so far.

it's inexplicable to me why Obama would can this, unless he's trying to make sure the oil revenue dollars keep flowing to his Islamic buddies in the Middle East. knowing what we know about him, I would not be at all surprised if that was the case.

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