Not every magician is David Copperfield. For every Copperfield, David Blaine, or Penn and Teller their are dozens of lesser known (to be kind) magicians working comedy clubs and kids birthday parties. Beyond that group is your uncle who pulled a quarter from your ear (you may know how he did it, but you want the quarter anyway) and your little brother who thinks he’s a magician because he says, “Ta Da!”

A key to being a good illusionist is mastering misdirection. The greats pull it off and you’re none the wiser. Little Billy thinks that misdirection consists of, “look over there!”

President Obama’s skills fall somewhere between your Uncle Joe and your baby brother. His latest act is his new found interest in offshore drilling. Sarah Palin isn’t fooled.

Many Americans fear that President Obama’s new energy proposal is once again “all talk and no real action,” this time in an effort to shore up fading support for the Democrats’ job-killing cap-and-trade (a.k.a. cap-and-tax) proposals. Behind the rhetoric lie new drilling bans and leasing delays; soon to follow are burdensome new environmental regulations. Instead of “drill, baby, drill,” the more you look into this the more you realize it’s “stall, baby, stall.”

As a former mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut probably never said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

Sorry, Uncle Barry. It’s not going to be us.

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Gov. Sarah Palin has an excellent article in the Washington Post looking at the President’s “Cap And Tax” legislation.

I am deeply concerned about President Obama’s cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage.

[...]

There is no denying that as the world becomes more industrialized, we need to reform our energy policy and become less dependent on foreign energy sources. But the answer doesn’t lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive! Those who understand the issue know we can meet our energy needs and environmental challenges without destroying America’s economy.

In the article Gov. Palin clearly lays out the problems in the plan passed by the house, and now before the Senate.

Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.

In addition to immediately increasing unemployment in the energy sector, even more American jobs will be threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan. For example, the cost of farming will certainly increase, driving down farm incomes while driving up grocery prices. The costs of manufacturing, warehousing and transportation will also increase.

She doesn’t just point out the negative consequences of this bill, but also makes the case for a responsible energy policy.

We must move in a new direction. We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today.

We have a choice, which she describes very well.

Do we want to control our energy supply and its environmental impact? Or, do we want to outsource it to China, Russia and Saudi Arabia? Make no mistake: President Obama’s plan will result in the latter.

The article is well worth reading. I particularly enjoyed this humorous observation:

The ironic beauty in this plan? Soon, even the most ardent liberal will understand supply-side economics.

If this becomes law, we all will.

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Via Michelle Malkin, AFP has a list of undecided and leaning representatives along with their contact information.

Here are the Republicans you should call:

Lean Yes
Castle, Michael – Delaware
Ehlers, Vernon – Michigan
Lance, Leonard – New Jersey
McHugh, John – New York
Reichert, Dave – Washington

Undecided
Buchanan, Vern – Florida
Kirk, Mark – Illinois
Lobiondo, Frank – New Jersey
Petri, Thomas – Wisconsin
Smith, Chris – New Jersey

Lean No
Fortenberry, Jeffrey – Nebraska
Frelinghuysen, Rod – New Jersey
Gerlach, Jim – Pennsylvania
Johnson, Timothy – Illinois

My rep is Adam Putnam. I am sure he is a no, but I’ll be calling his offices at 9:00 urging him to try to persuade others.

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This is important. Please contact your representative. Now. Today! The Dems are still scrambling to find enough votes to pass this massive job killing, tax raising, homage to junk science and bad policy.

From the White House lawn to the bowels of the Capitol to the hills just east of Nashville, Democrats pulled out all the stops and employed their biggest guns to whip dozens of still-undecided members.

Although supporters of the bill to lower carbon emissions expressed confidence that the universe of undecided votes was shrinking in favor of an expanding pool of yeses, their actions throughout the day suggested they were in a frenzy to secure a critical mass of supporters.

Where does your Representative stand? You can’t be sure unless you contact them. It looks like very few Republicans will vote for this mess, but there are a few still undecided.

Former Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), who has been courting centrist Republicans to support the bill and attended Pelosi’s recent meetings with those Republicans — was lingering just outside the Speaker’s Lobby on Thursday afternoon.

Boehlert now works for the Alliance for Climate Protection, where Gore is chairman of the board.

The president’s energy and climate change point person, Carol Browner, also spent Thursday wooing GOP centrists, according to leadership aides.

It’s unclear whether she changed the minds of fence-sitting GOP Reps. Dave Reichert (Wash.), Mike Castle (Del.) or Mark Kirk (Ill.).

If any of those three are yours, burn up their email and their phones!

The President and Dem leadership are trying to sell this as a jobs bill. What?!? This bill will make us nostalgic for 10% unemployment (and for semi-affordable power bills).

“Make no mistake,” Obama added, “this is a jobs bill.”

The “green jobs” message is one Democrats have had difficulty selling, in part because of GOP attacks on the bill and in part because their messaging ability was co-opted by weeks’ worth of delicate negotiations with Democrats from agricultural areas, and that dominated their focus.

Don’t let them implement this mythical jobs bill. Take action.

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I did have to agree with one thing that was said.

President Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, delivering a stern warning on Thursday to members attending the Democratic whip meeting.

“If this goes down, it shows we can’t govern,” Axelrod­­­ said, according to one person in attendance.

Yeah, but we already knew that.

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