GOVERNOR JEB BUSH CHANGES ANTI-OFF SHORE DRILLING STANCE

I have posted twice (HERE and HERE) on how the recent category 5 hurricanes PROVE that off shore oil drilling is environmentally safe, and that therefore JEB BUSH should stop pandering to his local enviro-nuts and allow the huge reserves off of Florida's coast to be exploited.

I guess he reads this blog, because he has JUST opened his eyes and pulled a 180! YUP: Jeb now supports off shore oil drilling of the coast of Florida! I GET RESULTS! NOW: somebody PLEASE send Governator AHNOLD a link so we can start drilling more off the coast of California, too!

POLL: HOW DO YOU THINK HARRIET MIERS WILL DO IN THE SENATE?

Free polls from Pollhost.com

HOW WILL HARRIET MIERS DO IN THE SENATE?

BETTER than Roberts - more than 78 votes THE SAME as Roberts - 78 votes LESS THAN Roberts - less than 78 votes, but she will be confirmed She will not be confirmed - and will get less than half of the GOP Senators She will not be confirmed, but will get most of the GOP Senators She will not get the endorsement of a majority Senate Judiciary Committee and will withdraw her name from nomination

IS MILITARY ACTION AGAINST SYRIA LOOMING?

Assad supports the jihadist control of the Sunni land on the Iraqi side of the Syrian-Iraqi border because this turns it into a BUFER AREA for him. That's why we GAIN TWICE when we take down the jiahdists and take over the border area. As we are doing now.

Expect this to be complete on or around 10/25/05, when the UN/DetlevMehlis investigation on the Hariri Assassination will be presented to the UNSC.

The report will directly implicate Assad, and he may even be indicted for murder. Sanctions will be imposed on Syria, and (if he's indicted) if Assad fails to turn himself into the ICC in The Hague, expect military action by the US against the Syrian forces just over the Iraq-Syria border, and expect the US and the UK - and YES FRANCE - to foment a military coup inside of Syria. Assad will likely attempt to start a war with Israel to deflect attention. A successful coup againsty Assad will mip this war in the bud, and end Syrian support for the jihadists in Iraq and also in Lebanon. As a result, the entire region is helped.

And it will clear the way to put maximum pressure on Iran - which was the ultimate game-plan as soon as the Taliban fell in 2001. Iraq was just a table setter. Stay tuned...

(More HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE - a MUST read in the IHT.)

KATRINA AND RITA PROVE - as in "P-R-O-V-E" -- THAT DRILLING FOR OIL IN THE GULF IS SAFE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT!

AFP/BREITBART/(hat tip DRUDGE):

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed 109 oil platforms and five drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, but only a small portion of production will be lost for good, the US government said. Rita accounted for most of the damage in a region that ordinarily produces nearly one-third of US crude oil imports, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in presenting a preliminary assessment report. Rita destroyed 63 platforms and one drilling rig when it tore through the region on September 24, she said. Katrina destroyed 46 platforms and four drilling rigs when it hit the Gulf at the end of August. Katrina also caused extensive damage to another 20 platforms and nine drilling rigs. Rita seriously damaged 30 platforms and 10 drilling rigs. "The two hurricanes coming so close together really illustrate how much of our offshore production was affected," Norton told the CNBC network. "We had altogether, with both of the hurricanes, about 2,900 platforms that were in the path of the hurricanes," she said. ... But Norton also stressed that only one of the damaged platforms was built after federal construction standards were tightened in 1988. ... The ones that were destroyed were nearing the end of their lives. "As a result, only a very small percentage of production is expected to be permanently lost," she said in a statement. "Despite such intense winds and powerful waves offshore, we experienced no loss of life or significant spills from any offshore well on the outer continental shelf," Norton added.

It's time that ALL politicians stopped using "environmentalism" as an excuse to prevent MORE drilling in the Gulf (and more drilling off-shore in other areas of the USA, too - like California!) - and "ALL POLITICIANS" INCLUDES Governor's Jeb Bush and Arnold Schwarzeneggar! If we want to produce more of the energy we use then we MUST drill for more oil in the USA, and off our coast. Since there was NOT A SINGLE MAJOR SPILL after these CATEGORY 5 hurricanes, there is NO LONGER ANY EXCUSE. Neither the environment or tourism based on the environment can be reasonably threatened by drilling. PERIOD. END OF STORY. (More HERE.)

KATRINA CANAL FAILURE DUE TO BAD CONSTRUCTION AND NEGLIGENCE DURING CLINTON ERA

NBCNews/MSNBC/(hat tip WIZBANG):

NBC News has obtained what may be a key clue, hidden in long forgotten legal documents. They reveal that when the floodwall on the 17th Street Canal was built a decade ago, there were major construction problems — problems brought to the attention of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A 1998 ruling, by an administrative judge for the Corps' Board of Contract Appeals, shows that the contractor, Pittman Construction, told the Corps that the soil and the foundation for the walls were “not of sufficient strength, rigidity and stability” to build on. ... Pittman won the contract in 1993. There already was an earthen levee made of soil. Embedded in that was a thin metal wall called sheet piling. The contractor was hired to pour concrete on top of all that to form the flood wall. ... the 1998 documents — filed as part of a legal dispute over costs — indicate the contractor complained about “weakness” of the soil and “the lack of structural integrity of the existing sheet pile around which the concrete was poured.” The ruling also referenced the “flimsiness” of the sheet piling. ... The construction company said as a result of these problems the walls were shifting and “out of tolerance,” meaning they did not meet some design specifications. Nevertheless, the Army Corps of Engineers accepted the work.

So, er um: the CANAL which broke was made badly DURING THE CLINTON ERA.

Seems to me, that the Clinton Adminstration was asleep at the wheel on this - as they were on jihadoterrorism.

Clinton turns out to have been nothing more than a philandering perjurer who - like a charlatan snake oil salesman, was too busy pumping up the "NEW ECONOMY BUBBLES" and lobbying for socialized medicine to do anything proactive when it came to our nations defenses - against the jihadists or the weather. THANKS A MILLION, BJ CLINTON!

GAZA CIVIL WAR FLARE UP

"Reuters": "Two Palestinians killed in Gaza infighting"

GAZA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Two Palestinians were killed on Sunday in the worst outbreak of factional fighting in Gaza since Israel's withdrawal from the territory last month, medics said. Medics said a local police commander and a civilian had died in gunbattles between Palestinian police and Hamas gunmen in the vicinity of Gaza City. More than 40 people had been wounded, they said, among them three policemen. Police and militants each accused the other of sparking the confrontation, which spread to two strongholds of the Hamas Islamic militant group in and near Gaza City. Police sources said the policeman had been killed when militants fired rocket-propelled grenades and tried to storm a police station in the Shati refugee camp.

Don't you love how "Reuters" calls it "infighting!" I think they used that word in order to try to diminish the brutality of GAZAN CIVIL WAR, but MAYBE just MAYBE, this time REUTERS IS RIGHT: after all - unlike in Iraq, where Sunni jihadofascists are killing Shia democrats - IN GAZA, IT IS ONE JIHADIST GROUP KILLING JIHADISTS FROM ANOTHER JIHADIST GROUP (HAMAS versus FATAH). And in this sense, IT IS INFIGHTING.

As Kissinger said about the Iran-Iraq War: "TOO BAD BOTH SIDES CAN'T LOSE!" Ditto Gaza. (More HERE.)