First, so much for the Obama deepwater offshore drilling moratorium.

A federal judge halted President Obama’s deep-water oil-drilling moratorium on Tuesday, telling the government its justification for the ban was “rather overbearing” and misled the public in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Judge Martin L.C. Feldman issued an injunction, describing the president’s decision as rushed and ruling that the government had jumped to the conclusion that all deep-water drilling rigs are dangerous despite the lack of any evidence.

The White House said it will immediately appeal, but in the meantime it is yet another setback as Mr. Obama seeks to show he has gained control of the environmental disaster in the region two months after the BP well first began gushing. Eleven workers were killed when the rig exploded on April 20.

The moratorium has come under fire from lawmakers of both parties in the region, who said the halt could hurt the already struggling economy’s chances of rebounding.

Judge Feldman said the Interior Department misstated the opinion of the experts it consulted. In his report to Mr. Obama, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the recommendations, including the six-month moratorium, were reviewed by experts from the National Academy of Engineering but the engineers said they never saw the final recommendations and don’t support a blanket ban.

Oh, well, Mr. President, there’s one attempted sabotage on our fledgling (if existing at all) economic recovery that looks to have bitten the dust.

Next, returning to the subject of Obama’s overtures toward a “boiling frog” style takeover of the Internet, Bob Livingston has a spot on essay on the subject that casts a pall of reality over the dubious reassurances of one Senator Joe Lieberman.

Relax!
It’s always a comforting feeling when the fascists tell you to relax. And that’s what Senator Joe Leiberman (I-Conn.) told everyone to do Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union with Candy Crowley.

Crowley asked about the Kill Switch bill Leiberman co-sponsors with Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) that would allow the President to shut down the Internet in a time of emergency.

The President will never take over the Internet, Leiberman—with a warm smile—assured the audience. The government shouldn’t take over the internet. The president would only do that in catastrophic times. Not going to do it every day. It’s only for national security. Relax.

“Right now China—the government—can disconnect parts of its Internet in a case of war. We need to have the ability to do that, too,” Leiberman said.

Of course, in China the government runs over its people with tanks. It drags them off to prisons without trial for practicing Christianity or saying something government doesn’t like, where they disappear forever—probably with a bullet in the brain. I wonder if Lieberman thinks our government should have those abilities as well.

China also censors the Internet—every day—to stifle the free flow of information… because it can.

The worry for Leiberman and his fascist buddies—the elected elitists who march to the orders of the New World Order—is not what would happen to America if some outside entity launched a cyber attack on the United States.

The worry is that the Internet has opened up a treasure trove of information and an ability to share ideas with freedom-loving people all over the world. No longer is the main stream media the sole purveyor of information….

The rest is here.

Now, in the interests of displaying a group of people who are really easy to laugh at, we give you… “progressives!”

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a liberal consumer advocacy organization, has announced it will sue McDonald’s unless the fast-food franchise stops using toys to market its “Happy Meals” to children.

“This morning, CSPI notified McDonald’s that we will file a lawsuit against the company unless it stops using toys to beguile young children,” said Executive Director Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D., at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

“We contend that tempting kids with toys is unfair and deceptive both to kids who don’t understand the concept of advertising and to their parents who have to put up with their nagging children,” he said.

unfair and deceptive both to kids who don’t understand the concept of advertising and to their parents who have to put up with their nagging children…

And these are people who expect to be taken seriously.

Sports-wise, the United States is moving ahead in the World Cup…

Landon Donovan scored a stunning goal in the first minute of injury time, advancing the United States to the second round at the World Cup with a 1-0 win over Algeria.

With the U.S. perhaps three minutes from elimination Wednesday, Donovan brought the ball upfield on a counterattack and Jozy Altidore’s shot on the breakaway was tipped by Clint Dempsey into goalkeeper Rais Bolihi. The rebound went to Donovan, who kicked it in from about 8 yards for one of the biggest goals in U.S. soccer history.

…while the French… display their Frenchness.

French soccer chiefs were so certain their failing team would crash out of the World Cup that they had a bus ready to take them straight to the airport for a coach-class flight back home. Sure enough, the most arrogant, disjointed, fractured and embarrassing squad in the tournament was happy to oblige.

For the third match in a row, France, a 2006 World Cup finalist in Germany, showed a complete lack of class on and off the field in South Africa. A 2-1 defeat to the host nation sent the French home with just a single point, and coach Raymond Domenech provided a new low point by gracelessly refusing to shake the hand of South Africa coach Carlos Alberto Parreira.

Two days after a player mutiny in which the team refused to show up for one of Domenech’s official training sessions, France was on its way back to Paris, stripped of its superstar privileges.

Instead of flying in first-class luxury on an Airbus A380, like how it arrived to South Africa two weeks ago, the squad was ushered out of the country on a no-frills charter flight booked by its fuming national federation.

And it was nothing less than the team deserved.

So much for France…