DennisPillion.com

Dear President Obama: Looking for an ass to kick? Start with your own

Barack Obama came out with his strongest public statements yet regarding the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, venting on the Today Show that he was looking for an "ass to kick" over the spill.

Well, here's a tip for you, Barry, free of charge. In your quest for hides that need a good tanning, start with a good, long look in the mirror.

You are the one who spear-headed an expanded push for offshore drilling just weeks before the Deepwater Horizon blew up in your face. You took in more political contribution dollars from BP than any other candidate in the past 20 years, and you are authorizing more off-shore drilling before the leaking well is even capped.

This sports journalist found his swagger covering the Gulf of Mexico oil spill

It's been more than a month now since my first trip to the Gulf of Mexico to report on the Deepwater Horizon/BP/Transocean oil spill/leak/explosion/debacle. Covering this ongoing story has been the highlight of my journalistic career (eclipsing even a college football national championship game), yet it has only come as a result of a national tragedy, the scope of which is barely being realized.

It was easy, even a pleasure to tell the story of people like Mike Reynolds, Alabama's Turtle Tsar. The Gulf Shores real estate broker has given countless hours of his time over the past six years organizing an army of volunteers to identify and protect sea turtle nests.

Reynolds' regiment of retirees marches over 47 miles of Alabama coast line every morning before most tourists get out of bed, marking new nests with protective barricades and signs warning the frolicking masses of the $100,000 fine imposed on those who disturb the nests. It's a purely volunteer organization, run with a precision that would make Nicholas II proud.

City Stages conceived, corrupted and killed by George McMillan

Earlier this week, I wrote about what City Stages meant to me but it's becoming painfully evident that while City Stages started out as a great cultural event, the festival devolved into nothing more than a confidence scam the likes of which Bernie Madoff or Tony Soprano would be proud.

Organizers (accountable to no one but themselves) released a statement Thursday that the festival would not continue, blaming factors like the poor economy, the weather, nearly everything and everyone but themselves for City Stages' demise.

Not only did the organizers declare their Foundation no longer exists and ride off into the sunset with their bags of cash, they gave everybody the finger on their way out the door.

City Stages bounced checks to some vendors, stiffed others like the Bottletree Cafe and cleaned out the festival offices before this year's festival even started. I have a sneaking suspicion though that founder/chairman George McMillan got every penny of the exorbitant sum he paid himself every year to run the event.

'Pitbulls make poor diplomats'

That's one of my favorite signs from today's Alaska women reject Palin rally in Anchorage.

Other notables include: "McCain/Palin = unstable/unable" or "McCain/Palin, Incontinence/Incompetence" "Drill, baby, drill is not an energy policy" "We can't bear Palin" "Real leaders don't have to cram for the interviews" "Blink before going to war" "Bush in a skirt."

Most of all, though, it's the pitbull sign that got me. Probably because "diplomat" isn't a word you hear tossed around very much in this campaign, from either side. You don't hear it from the McCain campaign because McCain would just as soon go to war as negotiate with growing threats like Iran or North Korea and Palin seems ready to invade Russia because that's what her handlers have told her to say.

You don't hear Obama saying it because... well, I don't really know why. After all, Obama's actual ideas on foreign affairs have been right on, and two steps ahead of Bush or McCain since his first day in the Senate. The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan sums it up better than I could:

Backwards to the Future: An ongoing saga of politics and energy (but mostly politics)

FADE IN: EXT. THE STEPS OF THE U.S. CAPITOL BUILDING REP. ROY BLUNT addresses a crowd full of eager REPORTERS who would rather regurgitate what BLUNT is doing than do any actual research or break a story.

REP. ROY BLUNT

We must vote on offshore drilling, we must vote now, we must vote yes and we must vote yesterday. Anyone who does not do these things hates America and laughs all the way back to his terrorist camp as real, average Americans sweat at the pump.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER

I agree with everything this man says, but I'm waiting for someone to be indicted in a sex scandal, as that seems to be the only time I can advance my political career.

HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI

Seriously, offshore drilling? That's what this is about? Your own people say that offshore drilling won't have any impact for 10-15 years at the earliest, and that it probably won't do much then. You can't wait five weeks for a regular session?

ROY BLUNT

No, we can't, because people are in favor of drilling now. Five weeks from now, people might figure out that the oil companies are the only ones who stand to benefit from the swill we're proposing.

NANCY PELOSI

Ha! So you admit that offshore drilling alone won't affect prices at the pump!

ROY BLUNT

Please, we admitted that months ago. Go look at YouTube for God's sake.

BARACK OBAMA enters, fresh from his Hawaiian vacation, wearing khaki shorts, sandals and six leis.