President Barack Obama stands opposed to U.S. oil corporations conducting off-shore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but he's more than happy to handover this operation to Russian gas companies.

The Washington Times reports that, "the Obama administration is poised to ban offshore oil drilling on the outer continental shelf until 2012 or beyond. Meanwhile, Russia is making a bold strategic leap to begin drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. While the United States attempts to shift gears to alternative fuels to battle the purported evils of carbon emissions, Russia will erect oil derricks off the Cuban coast."

Vice President Joe Biden should rely more upon his trusty teleprompter just as his boss, President Barack Obama does. Apparently, he becomes a serious threat to national security or a shameful embarrasment to American prestige whenever he speaks off-the-cuff.

According to Fox News, "Biden slips, honors memory of Irish PM's mother - while she's alive. Vice president added to his lengthy list of gaffes Wednesday when he took a moment to honor the memory of the Irish prime minister's mother - a woman who's very much alive."

The government of North Korea could be deemed as one of the most brutal in the world today. Yet, even this regime is showing signs of imminent collapse, which may unalterably transform the geopolitical dynamics of the Asia-Pacific region in the near future.

Fox News reports that, "(North) Korea executes former finance chief. In November, North Korea redominated its currency as part of efforts to lower inflation and reassert control over the country's nascent market economy."

Former Houston Mayor Bill White serves on the board of an oil field services corporation that is currently contending with a congressional inquiry. This is not illegal, but highly unusual.

A Houston Chronicle investigation of the personal financial disclosure statements for more than a dozen state and local officials discovered that half of them list service on company boards, yet most of them were family-run businesses, mostly involving real estate or ranching.

Prime Minister Recep Taypip Erdogan of Turkey has threatened to expel thousands of illegal immigrant Armenian laborers amidst tensions over allegations that their people were victimized by genocide under the Ottoman Empire.

AlJazeera reports that, "resolutions voted recently in the United States and Sweden to brand the Worl War I killings as genocide undermined peace efforts with Armenia, Erdogan told the BBC Turkish service."

Recently, Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary, appeared on "Fox News Sunday," and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner showed up on Fox Business yesterday. It seems evident that top administration officials have willingly engaged the much-maligned network a lot more often these days.

"Now Tonight," according to Politico, "President Obama sits down for an exclusive interview on 'Special Report' as the health care debate wages and a vote's expected. The upcoming Fox interview was a topic of discussion on - you guessed it - Fox."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been widely-viewed as a woman with an out-of-control anger problem. Stories abound of her legendary temper-tantrums. Perhaps, her volatile-emotional-state makes her ill-suited for the role of America's top diplomat.

On Tuesday, Gov. Rick Perry moved to increase Texas' law enforcement presence along the Mexico border to deal with the threat of spillover violence from escalating drug cartel warfare in cities such as Juarez and Matamores.

According to the Houston Chronicle, "the governor also continued his call for additional federal assistance, saying he was activating the state violence contingency plan in the meantime because 'with the safety of Texans on the line, we can't afford to wait.'"

Former Houston Mayor Bill White, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, received more than $2.6 million to serve on the board of a gas well servicing corporation that currently is part of a congressional investigation into possible groundwater contamination.

The Houston Chronicle reports that, "White, who made cleaning Houston's polluted air as a hallmark of his tenure as Houston's mayor, has been on the board of BJ Services Co. since 2003, the year he was elected, earning more than $627,000."