The news surge of the week has obscured another huge increase in offshore oil reserves discovered by Brazil:

Estimated Reserves

``Given the discovery, recoverable reserves on block BM-S- 11 could increase to 10 billion barrels from currently 5 billion to 8 billion barrels,'' Kapadia said.

Iara is in Brazil's ``pre-salt'' offshore region, a new oil province that may contain about 50 billion barrels of oil according to Peter Wells, a director at U.K. research company Neftex Petroleum Consultants Ltd. The Iara well, which has yet to be declared commercially viable, is still being drilled in the hope of finding more oil at greater depths....

BG Chief Executive Office Frank Chapman today described Iara as a ``material discovery.'' The well ``is the sixth consecutive drilling success in the deep water pre-salt Santos Basin since BG and its partners began their drilling program in 2005,'' Reading, England-based BG said today in a statement.

Some oil industry analysts, including David Thomas from Citigroup Global Markets Inc., have said that Tupi, Tupi Sul and Iara may be linked as part of a larger offshore deposit.

Petrobras in January said that a gas and oil discovery known as Jupiter, in the Santos Basin's BM-S-24 block, could be as big as Tupi. Petrobras owns 80 percent of Jupiter and operates the well. Galp has 20 percent of Jupiter.

Amazing what you can find --when you look for it.  Imagine what is over the horizon off California's beaches --far beyond what anyone can see from the shore-- where no serious exploration using new technology has been done for more than 30 years.

The incredible reserves off the coast of Brazil also underscore the absurdity of the Gang of 10's "compromise," one which if adopted will continue the crippling impact on gas prices of the drilling ban on most of the U.S. coastline.  After Rush tore into the five Senate GOPers involved in the proposed compromise, the vast, bipartisan coalition of voters in favor of ending the exploration ban on the outer continental shelf began to make its voice heard.  The GOP senators should quickly realize that their proposed compromise was at best ill-timed and at worst poorly thought through, and announce publicly and quickly that they are withdrawing from the deal in light of new developments.  (More background here from Kimberley Strassel in the WSJ.)

And as we head into the Obama vacation season, take a moment to order a copy of Letter To A Young Obama Supporter for the son or daughter, nephew or neice or sibling in your life who is under 25 and leaning Obama.  After two weeks of pratfalls and broken promises, inflated tires and deflating rhetoric about America --the subject of my new column-- Obama was already losing a great deal of his novelty.  Now with a serious conflict breaking out in Georgia, even the starry-eyed may be reachable. (And if you need three copies, you can get them for free with a subscription to Townhall Magazine.)

Obama's just not a serious candidate for the presidency.  The world is a dangerous place, and coherent energy and economic policies can't be invented from wishes and dreams.  

Will inflating their tires help push the Russians back?

Seriously, this is the sort of conflict that could go very big very fast --a phone in the White House ringing at 3 AM.  It is a good moment for Obama to show us his grasp of world geopolitics.

UPDATE: Geraghty Does The Math On Inflating Our Tires:

Anyway, I went back and re-ran my numbers in the process of looking over that missive, and found something fascinating. Under my exceptionally generous assessment that full national tire inflation compliance would save each currently underinflated commuter an extra three miles per gallon, and thus 6.6 million gallons of gasoline per day, Americans would have to have 100 percent tire efficiency for every day for 664 years in order to save the equivalent of the 1.6 trillion gallons of gasoline in the Outer Continental Shelf. (This isn't even including ANWR.)

Or oil shale in Colorado and Utah.

UPDATE 2:  John McCain's statement on the conflict in Georgia:

"Today, news reports indicate that Russian military forces crossed an internationally-recognized border into the sovereign territory of Georgia. Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations and withdraw all forces from sovereign Georgian territory. What is most critical now is to avoid further confrontation between Russian and Georgian military forces. The consequences for Euro-Atlantic stability and security are grave.

"The government of Georgia has called for a cease-fire and for a resumption of direct talks on South Ossetia with international mediators. The U.S. should immediately convene an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to call on Russia to reverse course. The U.S. should immediately work with the EU and the OSCE to put diplomatic pressure on Russia to reverse this perilous course it has chosen. We should immediately call a meeting of the North Atlantic Council to assess Georgia's security and review measures NATO can take to contribute to stabilizing this very dangerous situation. Finally, the international community needs to establish a truly independent and neutral peacekeeping force in South Ossetia."

The world will be very surprised to learn that a war is close to breaking out as the quadrennial party gets underway in Beijing.

Better inflate those tires asap. From the New York Times:

Georgian officials said their military had fired on Russian planes and that their aircraft had bombed a convoy of Russian tanks that moved into South Ossetia, the pro-Russian enclave that has enjoyed de facto autonomy from Georgia since 2004. A local Russian official said the convoy was humanitarian.

As Georgian forces besieged Tskhinvali, the capital of the enclave, President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia promised to "punish" those responsible for what he called "a deep violation of international law" by Georgia that he said had led to the deaths of Russian citizens and Russian peacekeepers stationed in Tskhinvali.
Read More...

That's Lopez Lomong, and the headline quote is from the American Olympian, courtesy of the Times of London:

IF things do not go according to plan, Lopez Lomong will run just 1500 metres in these Olympic Games. If the moon is made of cheese, he will win gold. Either way, tomorrow night, when he will carry the US flag in the opening ceremony in Beijing, the world will know exactly how far the 23-year-old has travelled in his young life.

Joseph Lopepe (Lopez) Lomong is one of the Lost Boys of the Sudan. He was kidnapped from his village in Kimotong at the age of six, escaped by tunnelling under the wire fence of his compound and spent three days on the run. Having fled across the border into Kenya, his home for ten years was the Kakuma refugee camp.

(HT: Powder Tracks).  Perhaps Barack "America is no longer what it could be, what it once was" Obama could schedule a meeting with Lomong on the nature of the country the senator seeks to lead.

Obama might also want to read Charles Krauthammer's latest before asserting again that inflating our tires will produce all the new oil available to us from drilling:

Barack Obama remains opposed to new offshore drilling (although he now says he would accept a highly restricted version as part of a comprehensive package). Just last week, he claimed that if only Americans would inflate their tires properly and get regular tune-ups, "we could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling."

This is bizarre. By any reasonable calculation of annual tire-inflation and tune-up savings, the Outer Continental Shelf holds nearly a hundred times as much oil. As for oil shale, also under federal moratorium, after a thousand years of driving with Obama-inflated tires and Obama-tuned engines, we would still have saved only one-fifth the oil shale available in the United States.

But forget the math. Why is this issue either/or? Who's against properly inflated tires? Let's start a national campaign, Cuban-style, with giant venceremos posters lining the highways. ("Inflate your tires. Victory or death!") Why must there be a choice between encouraging conservation and increasing supply? The logical answer is obvious: Do both.

As the Olympics opens, most of us will be taking pride in athletes who grew up in a free society powered by a free economy fueled by abundant energy.  They will of course not all win medals, but each of them represents a decades of free choices and individual decisions reached independently of government command and pursued without government interference.  The pride deficit the Democratic nominee feels about our country may get a much needed repair, and then he can begin to retool his absurd energy plans.

Open Water Swimming Connection by  Mark Warkentin.  Example:

On the trip to Singapore I did a bit of reading. I’m currently reading two books (there’s a point to why I’m sharing this information with everyone). The first is “Disciplines of a Godly Man” by R. Kent Hughes. As one could imagine, the concept of the book is to use biblical teaching for modern application, and even if you’re not a Christian, it’s a good read. (I’m not preaching – there’s a reason I’m reading the book). The second book is “The CEO of the Sofa” by P.J. O’Rourke. The author pontificates on pop culture and politics from the comfort of his living room couch all while sipping a martini. The perspectives are essentially polar opposites.

Unbelievable.  Simply unbelievable.

Will this exchange be featured on the MSM tonight?

So Obama will be jetting off to Geneva, Switzerland to hob nob with the expats and raise a bundle of cash with the help of George Clooney.

I guess that's what citizens of the world do.

But what about Al Gore's 10-years-to-get-off-oil command?  If global warming really is a crisis and the transition to clean energy the most urgent of all issues, does continent-hopping really responsible behavior? 

Over and over again we see behaviors from proponents of massive regulation to stave off global warming that undercut their claims of urgency.  (See Powerline's report on Al Gore's houseboat for another example.)

The Obama-Clooney-Pelosi-Marie Antoinette Democrats intend to maintain their lifestyles even as ordinary voters forfeit theirs at the pump and via massive government regulation.

Obama-Clooney '08:  Substitute campaign slogan here.  For background, click here.  But here's some ideas for the bumper stickers at the DNC.
 
Because it's better to look good than to sound smart.

The experience of Chicago street politics, with all the morals of Hollywood.

Our George is cuter than their George.

White House of the Stars.

This is the moment the Ocean's 11 began to rise.

Because sometimes, experience is overrated.

If you have suggestions, send them to generalissimo@hughhewitt.com, and we'll add them to the list.

Entries:

O Policy, Where Art Thou

Three Kings Of The World.

Bringing Good Looks To Bad Policies

Don't Hate Us Because We're Beautiful

Because sometimes, inexperience is not enough.

Because 'Crockett and Tubbs' is soooo '80's

Blatherheads 

Intolerable Cruelty

Two towers of energy by wind

Elect us and we'll totally make out on camera

An Empty Suit - An Empty Head

Building bridges between all 58 states

Where common sense ends and arrogance begins

Two empty suits for the price of one

Germany will love us for it

They have a Clooney but no Clue!

You Really Like Them

Experience, we don’t need no stinkin experience!

I’m looney, He’s Clooney

Do as we say, not as we do!

The Audacity of Neutrality

A Ticket Europe can be Proud of

Tire Inflation and Hot Air

Because one expensive empty suit is never enough

We're sure we know better than you

You will love us as much as we do

Because . . . Line Please

Teleprompting our way to the White House

Let's be honest.  We just look better

We’re the airheads we’ve been waiting for

Vanity and Inanity

Unleash the gravitas!

Have Teleprompter, Will Campaign 

At least one of us can ACT like we know what we are doing

Even If We Can't Govern, We Look Fabulous

Fixing the world's problem one charming smile at a time

You simply have to because we're that "tingly."

“We don’t care…we don’t have to.  We’re elitists!”

Malignant Narcissism you can believe in

We complete you.

The Audacity of Dope

Absolutely Fatuous

Bristling at questions doesn't exactly show the American people how qualified you are to be president and commander-in-chief. 



If this is how Barack Obama handles a tough questioner, how is he going to respond the first time something tough comes his way in the White House?   You can't lead by teleprompter.

Online acrtivists are encouraging the House GOP to stay the course.

Here's a related Kithbridge.com aggregator.

Courtesy of Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, we've just learned that His Obamaness and his entourage will be spending part of the GOP Convention in early September raising money...in Geneva, Switzerland...at a $1,000 a plate dinner (dollars, not Euros)...hosted by George Clooney.  Yes, that is our guy, Barack Obama, a man of the people, running a campaign funded almost entirely of Grandma's last $10. 

But you know that once the news goes viral that the event is taking place, in spite of Michelle Obama's pleas to go, the PR nightmare of leaving the country again to go hobnob and fleece international elites in Switzerland right before the election is going to cause Team Obama to cancel the event.  Yes, Switzerland is going under the bus.  It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. 

Hugh thinks three days.  I give it a week until we hear it's canceled.  Leave your guesses in the comment section. 

Switzerland?  I guess this is one of the other 58 states Obama missed during his last trip to Europe, and he wanted every world citizen to be represented.

If you’ve seen Austin Bay’s column today, he gives us a a small portion from his exclusive interview with General David Petraeus conducted yesterday. The full multi media program will be available on Austin’s ArenaUSA.com channel.  That an in-depth interview with the general behind the turn-around in Iraq was granted to a new convergence media network is one more sign that MSM is no longer the exclusive or preferable conduit to the news and news makers.  MSM is not covering the unfolding victory in Iraq so it is crucial that interviews like Austin's get wide exposure.

If you follow this link and register on Col. Bay’s Arena channel, you can get the interview prior to it’s public release Thursday, just by entering the passcode “hugh”.

The Los Angeles Times runs a front-page story on Corporal Garrett Jones, back in the fight in Afghanistan after losing a leg last year:

On July 23, 2007, Jones was on foot patrol near the Iraqi city of Fallouja when he was injured by a roadside bomb. After the attack, his left leg was amputated above the knee. He developed infections and fevers. His weight dropped from 175 pounds to 125. At 21, Jones faced months of painful rehabilitation and a likely end to his service in the Marine Corps.

One year later, Jones is walking smoothly on a prosthetic leg. He not only continues to serve on active duty, but he has worked his way back to a war zone, serving with his Marine battle buddies in Afghanistan.

(Note the story is sourced from "Camp Barber," which I suspect is named for my old friend Colonel Bill Barber, Medal of Honor recipient, who would have been so honored and also proud of Corporal Jones.)

More from Jones:

"I want to be someone an injured Marine can talk to," Jones said. "And I can tell them: 'Times will be rough and not always easy as an amputee, but you can still make great things out of an unfortunate situation.' That's what I want to do."

and

Jones didn't get his first prosthesis until November. By the end of December, he had learned how to snowboard again, a sport he had enjoyed for years. He plans to compete in freestyle snowboarding in the 2010 Paralympics in Vancouver, Canada.

Read the whole thing. Twice.  And consider a donation to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

China has revoked the visa of Olympic Gold Medalist Joey Cheek.  The speedskater was headed to the Beijing Games when the PRC  slammed the door, no doubt because of Cheeks activism on Darfur.

Cheek's statement:

I am saddened not to be able to attend the Games. The Olympic Games represent something powerful: that people can come together from around the world and do things that no one thought were possible. However, the denial of my visa is a part of a systemic effort by the Chinese government to coerce and threaten athletes who are speaking out on behalf of the innocent people of Darfur.

The IOC should make this an issue as should the president and every other world leader trooping to Beijing.  If the PRC doesn't get blasted in the media for each of its suppressions, more will follow. 

Powerline's John Hinderaker is a litigator, and so he pays close attention to assertions and the evidence --or lack thereof-- behind them.

He's also careful to keep focused on the original assertions made by Obama concerning tire inflation and its impact.  

His first post on Obama's first "inflated tires" assertion is here.  It notes that Obama's first assertion was that if we all had properly inflated tires we could save "all the oil that they are talking about getting off drilling."

John followed up with this post on the continuing attempt by Obama and his MSM allies to recover from this pratfall.  John notes that the maximum savings of oil from tires and tune-ups (and this generously assumes all cars have underinflated tires and need tune-ups) is 420 million barrels of oil a year.  (Not only does this number overestimate the need for the remedial actions it also assumes perfect compliance in a country of people for whom non-compliance is a creed.)

The beauty of the second post is that John dug into Time Magazine's defense of Obama and dissected the assertion by reporter Michael Grunwald that the outer continental shelf could only produce 200,000 barrels a day despite reserves there of at least 18 billion barrels.  John discovers that the 200,000 estimate was based on oil priced by the market at $60 a barrel, not $120 or higher. 

The price of a commodity greatly impacts the lengths to which industry will go to retrieve it, which is why we are having this debate.  Even as the oil bubble --hopefully-- begins to break, we know that we are living in an age of increasing demand and declining supply.  We have to get the infrastructure in place to utilize our own resources, and we have to start now.  The Obama-Pelosi-Reid Democrats want to do nothing but pump up your tires. 

They were wrong about the surge and the war.  They are wrong about energy.  Dismay with the GOP is high, but the willingness of the Democrats to continually display their collective disdain for facts, common sense, and the economic and national security well being of the country gives John McCain and the Republicans some hope provided they keep hitting on these big issues:  There's a war going on that we have to win, and there is energy available that we have to go and get.