One of the many unsolicited e-mails I get, one of the few I open:

Dear Friend,

My name is Ms. Mabel Franklin, female, working with Global Symposium of Peaceful Nations (GSPN). EUROPEAN UNION Greece, We are organizing a global World Conference, Global Peace Index (GPI). Taking place from 2nd August to 15 August 2010 at Athens, . A 7-days summer tour to Historic tourist attraction cities around and Rome in from 16th – 22nd August 2010. In our request to invit people from various countries around the world, I went in search of your e-mails on the web site as a means of contacting people and organizations As a result, I picked your email from an N.G.O`s website.
If you are interested to participate or want to represent your country, and/or office you may contact the secretariat of the organizing committee for details and information’s. Email: globalsymposiumathens@europe.com

you should also inform them that you were invited to participate by friend of yours (Ms. Mabel Franklin) who is a member of the European Union All Nation for Peace and a staff of Global Symposium of Peaceful Nations. The benevolent donors from across the global and the Organizing Committee is responsible for the arrangements of all traveling documents and European Union traveling visa, Registered participants are only responsible for their own Hotel accommodation.


You may get back to me with my email address below.

Email: frasmabel@hotmail.com

Sincerely,
Ms Mabel Franklin

Look, Mabel, I know you mean well, but I just can’t count you as a friend. And frankly, I don’t recall putting any of my e-mails on an NGO site.

Just last month, President Obama reminded Americas that “America’s small businesses . . . create two out of three new jobs“.  Unfortunately, the Dodd-Frank banking bill he’s pushing will hurt small businesses and the community banks they rely on.

Here in the Golden State, Roger Hart, a former community banker who has helped small businesses in the past, has castigated the state’s junior Senator for supporting the bill as it will make it increasingly difficult for small businesses to gain access to capital:

Reasonable access to capital is the primary issue for small business.  Currently, small businesses are unable to obtain financing as their community banks continue to struggle.   As seen by the increase in unemployment since the plan’s passage, it’s clear government programs have been ineffective in supporting the small businesses that actually create jobs.   And last month, Senator Boxer voted for a financial reform bill that would have subjected community banks to many of the same restrictions imposed on large Wall Street banks-despite the fact that community banks were neither to blame for our financial crisis, nor can they afford the cost of compliance with these massive new regulations.

I share the same concerns with the banking bill as does Mr. Hart.  It seems to add a new layer of regulation to all segments of the banking industry, even those not responsible for the market meltdown of 2008.  Fortunately, with Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., who supported the Senate version of the bill, opposing the reconciled version which includes “$19 billion in bank fees added [in]  . . . at the last minute“, the bill’s passage seems less likely.

With yet another Boxer initiative stalled, this begs the question:  with unemployment at record levels in the Golden State, what policies has Barbara Boxer proposed, pushed or passed to make it easier for entrepreneurs to create jobs in her jurisdiction?

This president continues to pursue big-government schemes and propose ever-higher levels of federal spending as the American people increasingly warm to his campaign rhetoric that we’ve been living “beyond our means” and want to reduce the size of government and slash government spending.

His policies toward Israel effect a “tectonic rift” in our relationships with that Middle Eastern democracy while the American people increasingly favor the cause of the Jewish State — and become increasingly skeptical about the concerns of her enemies.

Now, he’s chewing a Republican Senator out for echoing a Democratic colleague and saying we should “prioritize fixing the oil spill“!

In the wake of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama today summoned a bipartisan group of over 20 senators to the White House to push for energy and climate change legislation.

But one thing the President did not want to talk about at the meeting was the BP disaster, a Republican source told ABC News. And that, the source said, led to a pointed exchange with GOP senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee.

“The priority should be fixing the oil spill,” Alexander told the President, according to the source. “That’s what any meeting about energy should be about.”

But when Alexander tried to interject the BP leak into the meeting, the source said, the President told the senator, “That’s just your talking point.”

Retorted Alexander, “No, it’s my opinion.”

(H/t:  Washington Examiner).  That Democratic colleague mentioned above is my own Senator, no, not the one running for reelection this year, but the one who actually tries to do her job while showing respect for her partisan adversaries:

Many Democrats don’t want to vote in this election year on whether to cap the greenhouse-gas emissions linked to climate change, saying they prefer to work in the coming months on legislation directly responding to the spill.

“The climate bill isn’t going to stop the oil leak,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat. “The first thing you have to do is stop the oil leak.”

Guess, by Obama’s standard, Democrat Dianne Feinstein and her Republican counterpart from Tennessee are pushing the same talking point.  Can someone tell me what kind of leader pushes the same policies he’s been pushing all along while failing to focus on a crisis which emerged during his tenure in office?

The American people aren’t as concerned about his energy policy as they are about fixing the leak.  I’m with Democrat Feinstein.  The first thing we do is fix the leak.