Terence Corcoran,
Financial Post
The guidance system on Barack Obama’s presidential spaceship, supposedly tracking toward the corporate and political centre, went haywire Tuesday night. In the middle of his State of the Union speech, the U.S. President flicked a switch that called for an Apollo-like mission to a green planet far, far away, triggering a malfunction that puts the United States back on course to nowhere.
After weeks of hype about how Mr. Obama was moving away from the radical left that scared voters and on to a more nuanced pro-business and less interventionist path, the Presidential rocket jolted back to its old trajectory. More and bigger government, high-speed trains from coast to coast, green energy subsidies, G4 Internet across the nation, R&D in every backyard.
“We’re not just handing out money,” he said. No, he’s handing out money with strings attached, part of a campaign to “fund the Apollo projects of our time.” Recalling the Cold War battle with the Soviet Union after it launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957 — an event vast numbers of Americans have little connection to — Mr. Obama said “this is our generation’s Sputnik moment.” But instead of flying to the moon, as the Apollo mission promised, Mr. Obama refuelled the old interventionist policies and the old leftist themes, attacking the oil industry and health-insurance companies, and leaving no hope that the U.S. government will cut spending or balance its books any time soon.
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Climate change: Barack Obama less interested than Bush, analysis reveals
By Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent, UK
Guardian
Obama made no mention of climate change in his state of the union speech, appearing to signal a shift by White House
Barack Obama has paid less attention to climate change in his State of the Union addresses than any other president in the past 20 years, an analysis by a British researcher has found.
Obama made no mention of the words climate change, global warming or environment in his hour-long speech on Tuesday night – when presidents typically employ the pomp and ceremony of the annual occasion to put forward their priorities before an American television audience in the tens of millions.
The Labour Party calls for shale gas drilling halt
BBC News
The Labour Party has called for a temporary halt to drilling for shale gas while its safety is checked.
Shadow energy minister Huw Irranca-Davies has called on the government to put it on hold in England and Wales.
Shale gas exploitation is beginning in Lancashire but campaigners have raised concerns that the extraction process can contaminate local ground water.
