Happy birthday America

To citizens of the USA, and those who dream of joining us, I say,

Happy Independence Day!

God bless America!  …and its allies.

Celebrating a rare win

Americans should be celebrating today.  Yesterday a crucial part of our Constitution was upheld by our Supreme Court. A majority of our SC Justices finally admitted what most of us (who’ve read our Constitution) already knew: that you, as an individual, have the right to bear arms.

This right was deemed so important by our Founders that it was put into the original Bill of Rights second only to the 1st Amendment (the right to free speech, religion, and association).

Point to ponder: why is the 2nd Amendment so controversial within the judiciary?

Obviously some in the SC think parts of our Bill of Rights are so great they apply them even to non-US citizen, enemy combatants, on foreign soil (detainees in Gitmo, etc. per last week’s SC ruling).  They thought our awesome rights (well…some of  them) are so great they should apply internationally!

Get this: 4 of the 5 who decided to extend our Constitution’s rights to captured foreigner enemies were the same Justices who ruled AGAINST U.S. citizens having 2nd Amendment rights!!! What a bunch of subversives – they should be impeached.

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Just imagine if Gore or Kerry had won?  How do you think yesterday’s SC ruling would have gone then???  You would have been kissing goodbye your right to bear arms – it would have been a 6-3 LOSS for the United States Constitution and you know it.

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We still have our other rights BECAUSE of the 2nd Amendment!

Pain at the pump . . . Who to blame?

Ouch . . . regular unleaded is posted at $4.02 just down the street.  We Americans are used to low cost fuel and are angered that it is no longer so.  After a bit of reading online today, I’ve found some info that has me seething.

So why the huge price spike in the last year and a half?  Supply constraints and price speculation are the biggest culprits for the shortterm.  Long term the problems lie in not expanding the supply.  Thank you Congress!

In 2006 the Democrats took back the majority in the House and Senate.  In Nov 2006, Nancy Pelosi – soon to be Speaker of the House – claimed the Dems had a “common-sense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices”, a plan for energy independence, and claimed oil companies were “price gouging”. When the Democrats took power in Congress in 2006, the price of gas was under $2.30.

Congressional approval ratings are at record lows – 18%; and who can blame the voters for being disenchanted?  The Democrats’ big plan to reduce gas prices has somehow seen the price increase 75%!!!

A 2007 Dem amendment to an appropriations bill blocked establishment of regulations for leasing land for drilling for oil shale within the U.S.  You can thank Sen. Udall (D) from Colorado, for this amendment. Estimates are that there is three times the amount of oil in the Western U.S. shale than in Saudi Arabian reserves. In 2008 Republicans added an amendment to allow oil shale drilling – thank Sen. Allard (R) of Colorado for this attempt – but it was shot down 15-14 by Democrats in the Senate Appropriations Committee.  But, oh sorry, we can’t touch it that shale oil because . . . uh . . . ummm . . . because the Democrats know what’s best for America and they said so.

Pelosi and other tree-huggers are determined to keep the United States from expanding domestic drilling and thus, making us even more dependent on foreign oil.  Prudhoe Bay, Alaska has supplied some 15 million barrels of oil to this point and, less than 70 miles to the east, another 10+ million barrels of untapped oil sit and we can’t touch it.  The Democrats won’t let you and I have the oil because it sits under a deserted area of land that is frozen 8 months of the year – ANWR. Why can’t we drill there?  Dems are afraid we will harm the wildlife.  Screw you humans. . .we’re for the carabou!

Pelosi and crew are also not allowing the U.S. to drill in areas off our coasts (California and Florida especially) – a whopping 85% of U.S coastline has been voted “off limits” to drilling.  Estimates are that we are barred from billions of barrels of oil there – yep, that’s billions – with a B. Why can’t we drill there?  They are afraid of possible negative impact on sea life!!!  They don’t give a crap about you and I and our lives but just love those fish!

Oh, and for you who actually give a crap – Cuba and China both operate oil rigs within 60 miles of some areas of our “off limits to oil drilling because of the fish” coastlines.  And, oh yeah, some fishing excursions chartered out of Lousiana, Mississippi, and Texas take their customers right out near the oil rigs in the Gulf because the sealife is thriving there.

I not singing the praises of the Republicans on this either but the Democrats are complete morons on energy policy issues! America, please fire Pelosi and her ilk.

Oil: our lifeblood . . . and possibly our demise

Oil makes our world work.  Oil is in every aspect of manufacturing, agriculture, mining, transportation, power generation, construction . . . you name it.   Oil is the lifeblood of industry.

No matter your ideological stance on the oil industry, the fact remains that we all need it in larger and larger amounts and the oil industry will supply it for as long as it is available.  We will not wean ourselves completely off petroleum anytime in the next few centuries – but we can start.

To face the problem of our addiction to, increasing need of, and the “non-renewable” nature of this resource we have to address it in a multi-prong attack.  To limit ourselves to focusing on only a few options is asinine, illogical, and self-defeating.  A narrow view will only ensure the continued and increasing need for oil – and the corresponding increase in costs to the consumer.

Let me state that I am NOT a petroleum market/industry expert in any way and I don’t have lots of stock in any petroleum/power industry companies.  I’m posting this as a consumer who has spent a substantial amount of time reading what I can on this subject, who is sick of watching costs rise, and mad at our Congress who makes things worse.

I do not know the whole answer but do know how we should be working toward that answer:

1) Do not penalize oil industry companies because they are making a profit. This knee-jerk, liberal, feel-good idea is moronic.  What other companies do we create new taxes for if they make a 10-12% profit?  From 2007 and 2008 financial statements we find that Walmart had a 28% profit margin, Google had around 25%, Planned Parenthood had 11.3%, and Texaco had around 11%.  Yep, that’s right . . . a “not-for-profit” organization that kills unborn babies for money had a larger profit margin (revenue after expenses) than the “evil” oil giant.

2) Provide tax incentives for companies researching promising new energy sources. It costs lots of upfront money to do this research and our government needs to encourage this by offsetting at least some of the cost.

3) Congress must stop trying to kill our economy through asinine, power-grab bills. The Climate Security Act (in the Senate NOW) would give Congress more power and raise the cost of EVERYTHING that uses energy . . . and that means EVERYTHING! Our domestic industries would have additional costs added to their services and products while overseas competition (India, China, etc) will NOT.  Incredibly stupid idea.  We all need to call our Senators and tell them we’ll kick them out if they support this crap.  They don’t live paycheck-to-paycheck like most of us, so a cost increase for just about everything won’t really affect their standard of living.

4) We must allow our oil companies to expand the supply. Enviro-whackos cannot be allowed to block drilling in ANWR any longer.  There is a vast supply of petroleum on the northern coast of Alaska that was cannot use because someone in Seattle or San Fran worries about some carribou grazing areas!?!?!

5) Stop the NIMBY (not-in-my-back-yard) attitude. If new power generating system needs to be built in your area, don’t oppose it . . . we need it.  So many scream for new wind farms, nuclear power plants, solar arrays but are the first to fight the projects if they come anywhere near them or their precious view of the hills/desert. If you are the NIMBY type, then you should at least be a huge proponent of ANWR drilling!

Petroleum is here to stay but it doesn’t have to be our only power source.  Whether our power/fuels come from petroleum, biomass, coal, solar, nuclear, wind, water . . . we must force our government to help make it happen – not restrict it further.

Donkey vs. Elephant . . . what differences are left in reality?

It appears that B.Hussein Obama has all but wrapped up the Democrat nomination for President. However, that doesn’t seem to have fazed Hillary Clinton as she’s out making a multi-state campaign trip this week.  I hope she sticks it out to the end.  The more chaos in the Donkey party now, the less chance we are shackled with another Dem President next year.

I will not attempt to claim objectivity like so many dishonest bloggers do. I cannot stand either Democrat candidate and will trumpet that to anyone and everyone who’ll listen. I believe either would be a disastrous choice to lead our country at any time . . . and much more so during wartime. Unlike many others, I won’t make a choice for President based on how I view the current President. My vote will be based on who I believe will be the best of the viable candidates.

Now for the “other side of the story” . . .

I believe John McCain to be weak on 1st Amendment issues (remember McCain-Feingold?), soft on our illegal immigration problem (“McAmnesty” might be a fitting nickname), and much too chummy with very leftist politicians in D.C. (Kennedy, Pelosi, etc.). The GOP had many candidates when the primary started and only a couple were lower on my list than McCain. That said, McCain is far and away a better choice of the remaining options to lead this country in wartime.

In 1968, the Democrats abandoned their core voters and handed over party control to the super-leftists. Over time, Dem voters followed the trend and have become much more liberal. Case in point: If JFK was alive and ran for national office, he’d would probably be right of McCain. JFK wouldn’t have a prayer as a Dem today – they wouldn’t have him.

The scary part of this is that the GOP has moved left also. “Compassionate conservatism” dropped the conservatism part from the beginning. It is NOT conservative to expand social welfare programs (prescription drug program, etc.), ignore the Constitution on issues such as private gun ownership, stomp on free speech exercised through political contributions (McCain-Feingold bill), and buy into race-based entitlement/quota programs . . . but much of the GOP marches to those drumbeats now.

Other than the issues of support for our troops during wartime and murdering unborn babies, what main party-platform issues differentiate the Dem and the GOP now? Both are critical issues but are those the only ones now? Please tell me I’m missing some because I’m not seeing them in practice.

I have to wonder if JFK would be considered too “divisive” (read: conservative) and not enough of a “big tent” kind of guy for even the Republicans today.

The wrap-up . . . or not

Ah, back from a long vacation . . . from blogging that is. My “long” vacations from work don’t usually span more than 4 or 5 days at most.

Happenings and non-happenings include:

We have the beginnings of a possible siege of Warren Jeff’s polygamist-sect compound in west TX. If the feds are involved, let’s pray that Attorney General Mukasey doesn’t allow this situation to turn into a huge debacle like the Branch Davidian disaster under Janet Reno’s incompetence.

Now we have another deserter/AWOL story and I hope that these Marines haven’t disappeared due to another person’s foul play. However, if the Reid couple voluntarily went AWOL during wartime, I hope a platoon of REAL Marines gets to beat the tar out of them for being spineless and witless wimps.

Kansas and Memphis make the NCAA basketball finals. Not surprising as I had both in the final four and have Memphis picked for the title. Yeah, I used to care more about basketball but really haven’t followed it much in the past few years and trying to make up for that a bit this time around.

In the bizarre-whacko-freaky news category we have some mentally-deficient woman who wanted to become a man who is now pregnant. Though news outlets refer to this person as a “man”, a woman who goes through cosmetic surgery and takes male hormones is still a woman . . . screwed up and very creepy, but still a woman. Now the real tragedy; this pregnant woman is taking male hormones which could very well physically harm this baby but hopefully not. This child’s mental and psychological wellbeing will be undoubtedly warped having a mother like this. Poor, poor child.

The movie “Fitna” was released by the Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders over protests by his own government and, of course, screaming muslims around the world. I’ve watched in and, though not islam-friendly by any means, I really don’t see where the vicious reactions are justified. (I didn’t call for someone to kill Dan Brown when he attempted to rewrite the history of Jesus’ life with his Da Vinci Code.)  Some Dutch consulates were attacked in various islamic nations and, of course, multiple fatwahs were pronounced that called for “good” muslims to kill Wilders. Hmmm . . . am I supposed to believe murder makes you a “good” muslim and freedom of speech is non-existant if you follow the koran? Though I’ll support your right to be any religion you choose, I’m so thankful I don’t have religious leaders telling me to forcibly convert or kill my neighbors. Christianity has had its very dark days in history but we’ve been through our Reformation . . . time for islam to do the same.

In closing, the real news of the day is that we have lost a true patriot and a man among men – Charlton Heston has died at the age of 83. Yes, the leftists out there are probably cheering and toking-up to celebrate this day. As an actor, Heston played Ben-Hur, Moses (Ten Commandments), Detective Thorne (Soylent Green), Colonel Taylor (Planet of the Apes), and Dr. Nevile (Omega Man). Heston was also an outspoken civil rights proponent and friend of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Heston also headed the NRA for five years. A champion for 1st and 2nd Amendment and civil rights and a larger-than-life actor – Charlton Heston will be greatly missed.

Another interesting and somewhat sad week . . . again.

The week in politics . . . typical mess

Yep, another week in politics that just gives us more of the same . . . ugh.

Barack Hussein beat Hillery in a couple more states but the Dem primary picture is still uncertain. Nothing new here. I just had a wonderful thought . . . maybe both Dems and McCain will all decide to just quit the race! Let’s pit Thompson against Kucinich!

Dr. “Death” Jack Kevorkian plans to run against Rep. Knollenberg (R) for the Michigan 9th District (US House of Representatives) seat. Nothing new here either folks. He’s just a convicted felon trying to go hang out with his ilk in D.C – like Rep. “Icebox” Jefferson (D). I wonder what happened to that $90,000 the FBI found in Rep. Jefferson’s freezer anyway???

New York Gov. Eliot “the john” Spitzer (D) is ‘outta there’ on Monday. Running for election on a platform of “cleaning up corruption” and the promise of the most “ethical administration” is a great thing. Unless of course you are Spitzer and you follow that up by getting caught using the services of high-priced hookers (possibly with tax or campaign funds too). Hey, what’s a man to do anyway??? We can’t actually expect our leaders to be faithful to their spouses, the law, and their constituents can we?

Arkansas State Rep. Roosevelt “fingers” Dobbins (D) is back too. In 2005, Dobbins resigned after he plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge after it was reduced from a felony sexual assault charge. Layman’s terms: he was caught fondling a teenager. Now he’s running for his old House seat again . . . unopposed. It may be too late for any Repub. or any other Dem. to file papers to run for the seat now. The funny thing is Dobbins’ wife won the seat when he first resigned; now she isn’t running for reelection and he’s aiming to get the seat back. What jolly, corrupt fun politics can be!

Though the GOP has no shortage of crooks, it appears that the Democrat Party has easily won the last couple of week’s corrupt-politician-in-the-news award. Let’s give them all a big round of applause for enabling crooks, liars, and sexual predators and deviants to represent us and spend our tax dollars. Hooray!

Top the corruption, lying, infidelity, and graft with a big dose of “duh” . . . Just a few years from the largest, most deadly terrorist attack on the US (that also cost the US trillions of dollars in market value) – by men who were following what they believed were the teachings of the koran – Indiana voters have elected another muslim to the US House of Representatives. Strange to say the least.

Don’t get me wrong here – I believe everyone has the right to practice the religion of their choice in the USA (as long as that religion isn’t stomping on everyone else). That said, in October 2001, would anyone have imagined the Dem frontrunner for President would be a muslim-raised man named Barack Hussein Obama and we’d have two muslims in Congress??? All I can say is WOW.

What a week!

California edu-nazis

A California appeals court ruled last week that the CA state law required children from 6 to 18 to be in school – “public full-time day school” with exemptions being allowed for those in “private full-time day school” or tutor-led school if the tutor “holds a valid state teaching credential for the grade being taught”. The court also stated that religious beliefs are not a factor and that forcing parents to send their kids to a public or private school despite their religious beliefs doesn’t violate their First Amendment rights. Homeschooling in California is now a crime.

Let me state that I am NOT a lawyer or a certified teacher (despite the wasted college semester of student teaching and observation while a Secondary Ed. major). With that disclaimer . . . these judges are nazis! (that’s with a small “n”)

No, I do NOT use the “nazi” term lightly as so many anti-Bush/anti-war whackos do. I was also a History major in college (though that didn’t pan out either) and know that governmental directives forcing parents to send their children to government approved schools was exactly a National Socialist (Nazi) tactic.

Homeschooling has been outlawed in Germany since 1938. Adolf Hitler just wanted the best for Germany’s kids right? Only a proponent of an uber-government would believe that lie. Hitler wanted the state to control the minds of its youth. The policy was actually very effective as a generation of German children were not only chanting National Socialist dogma but many ended up in the Nazi Youth programs and dying as underage soldiers – as Hitler sat in his final bunker and Berlin fell.

Wake up America! The government is NOT your father and mother and you do have First Amendment rights in this country! Californians, do not allow this ruling to stand. Start a recall petition and yank these socialist judges off the bench.

The attacks begin . . .

It appears that our jolly fun political primaries are now complete for one side at least. Though B.O and H.C are still battling it out for the Dems, the GOP has chosen Senator John McCain as their standard bearer. Now come the flying mud clods . . .

While the Republican nomination was still in question, the NY Times obviously had to support either McCain or Giuliani as the other candidates were much more conservative and at odds with most everything the NYT champions.

As soon as McCain became the presumptive GOP nominee, the rounds started flying – McCain is now the most conservative of the three people left with a chance to be President in 2009. Compared to both Hillery and Obama who are super-liberals, McCain is seen as a right-wing nutjob. The NYT published an article (they had sat on until McCain became the nominee) citing unnamed former employees of McCain who suspected he was having an affair with a staffer.

Wow. Absolutely amazing fact and story vetting by the “Grey Lady” once again. This definitely isn’t the first time but a mainstream news source printing uncorroborated innuendos about a Presidential candidate that came from former (meaning disgruntled) employees of that person. This smacks of Dan Rather’s b.s. about President Bush’s past that was based on forged documents that two of his own “experts” said they could not validate as authentic.

If I submitted written work of this caliber research (and lacking any supporting documentation) for any of my Master’s courses, I’d receive an F for b.s.!

I guess the only question is: Why in hades does anyone even pretend to believe the mainstream media is even remotely objective? If you agree with the liberal slant of a news source, fine. But it’s intellectually dishonest to tell yourself that they are fair, balanced, or even trying.

Lack of excitement in candidate options . . .

This election cycle is the first in a long time where no sitting President or Vice President is running for election/reelection. We’re at war with terrorism. Our social security program is on life-support and we’re blindly allowing illegals to receive welfare services. Our promised “double fence” on the southern border is non-existent so far. The Iranian wacko-in-chief is still testing missiles and attempting to build nukes to put in them – just began construction on their 2nd nuke plant. President Bush’s approval ratings are at 30% and the Democrat-lead Congress is at 22%. The Bush tax cuts of a few years ago will revert back and our taxes will go back up if they aren’t made permanent.

There are a lot of very important issues the next President will have to tackle yet what do the Dems give us?

Hillery – a vindictive, has-been, “Monica’s boyfriend’s wife” with a mountain of baggage and an army of closet skeletons. Barack Hussein – an ultra-leftist (more liberal Senate voting record than Kennedy and Kerry!) who believes in higher taxes and a federal program for every issue – because those D.C. dolts know what’s best for us of course.

On the GOP side we’re offered who?

McCain – a war hero who would probably prosecute the War on Terror overseas well but leave our southern border ignored, provide amnesty for millions of illegals, and push through more anti-1st Amendment crap like the McCain-Feingold bill. Ron Paul – a libertarian in the GOP who will attempt to pull our troops home allowing the war to move back to our borders instead of the enemy’s turf. Huckabee – a social conservative (a good thing) that believes the federal government can fund the end of all problems (a very bad thing).

This election may just turn out to be a vote for the lesser “evil”. I’ll never vote for a true leftist so the two Dem candidates are off the list. Paul doesn’t have a chance at the GOP nomination so he’s off. That leaves me with McCain and Huckabee.

It looks like I’ll be downing some Maalox before voting this November. Or maybe I’ll just write in my own name.