My Wife and I were watching the President’s speech on 12/02/2009 and when he finished we both said, almost at the same time is this guy stupid or did we miss something.

I wouldn’t want the President to be my coach of the football team I was playing on because what he did was to give the Taliban and the al Qaeda our play book which we are going to use against them. There are many things wrong with this approach, which by the way was use before in Vietnam. The main purpose of  his so called surge is to train the Afghan’s national and local security forces so he can get the US forces out of there starting in 1011. Not once did he say that he wanted to WIN.

If I were one of the Taliban leaders, since Obama set a withdrawal date, I would pull back on any offensive actions and just wait for the US and Afghan forces to find us. Then I would put up enough of a fight to make it look like a real fight I would have some of the foreign insurgents try to overrun some US camps and be killed giving the impression of a US victory. In the mean time, over the eighteen months, I would build up our strength.

Obama said they would try to flip some of the Taliban fighters and have them join the Afghan forces. Believe me when I say the Taliban would readily take them up on that offer, there are most likely more Taliban in there than he wants, and who are understanding the Afghan forces strengths and weaknesses waiting for the right time to strike.

After the US forces leave the country, thinking they have won, the Taliban in-beds will turn on the Afghan forces and at the same time Taliban fighters will hit the Afghan Capital with everything they have.

Obama lays a lot of his success on the fact that Pakistani forces are going to employ a surge of their own against the Taliban and al Qaeda regrouping and training centers in Pakistan. So what is plan “B” if there is a radical coup, take over of the Pakistani Government? This is certainly very probable, since much of the Pakistani population sympathies and backs the Taliban with money and manpower. Obama’s short history shows that he does not consider the unintended consequences of his actions.

There are many, many things that could happen, which any commonsense person could conger up. The question here is there any commonsense in the Obama Admistration or are they just working and planning based on the political consequences?

Winning a war is based on true leadership and in our country the President must be willing to win if he decides to fight. Obama is not. He is worried about the cost, but will he pull the plug on Obama-care, or Cap & Trade. Will he relieve the taxes on business of all sizes and individuals of all pay grades and let the economy take hold creating jobs, which will provide the much needed funds?? We shall see. I hope this will not be the Obama Vietnam and that our troops will not get caught up in it. “God Bless Them.”          

At a time when our Country’s Taxpayers are facing a record $59.1 trillion in “unfunded liabilities” a 2.3% increase from 2006 and about a $4 trillion deficit, and unemployment is now 10.2%, is it the proper time to introduce a Cap and Trade policy, which will cause higher taxes, loss of jobs and consumer costs rising considerably?

It appears that our lets play nice S.C. Senator Lindsey Graham thinks it’s just the right time. His last letter to me on September 9, 2009 on this subject Senator Graham stated that “we have the opportunity to address climate change in a manner that benefits both the environment and the economy. I believe that the best solution to climate change is placing caps on emissions”.

Assuming man is the real cause of climate change, which I do not, why don’t we implement the “Nuclear Energy” option, which the Senator seems to support, now? That will drive down the carbon emissions and over time replace coal and other fossil fuels before capping and taxing. This can be done without major legislation.  

Senator Graham, in my book, is always backing liberal, big government, causes for the sake of making nice with the Democrats. He has been on the losing side on just about all them, Thank God. When his voters disagree with him he calls them names, such as “BIGOTS, or ANGRY WHITE MEN”.

He jumped on the Mc Cain/ Kennedy Immigration Reform bandwagon, which came close to allowing 13 million Illegal Aliens amnesty, stopped by the overwhelming response of the voters.   He voted for the TARP redirection of funds to automakers which led to the Government buying into two of them, now into the compromise Obama Health Care Bill which he may or not vote for. He appears to be “all in” on Cap and Trade.  In all cases these bills where or are opposed not only by his State’s voters but also the Country’s.

I would like him to explain to the South Carolina voters his reasoning. Senator Graham was reelected to a second term only because he was not opposed by any serious alternative candidates and if he can’t read and listen to his voters lets hope this will be his last.

OBAMA, THE SNAKE OIL SALES GUY

Remember the old western movies where you saw the guy roaming the west in a wagon that had painted on its side Dr. So and So wonder potions, a cure-all for everything even ingrown toenails. My Father used to call those guys, as well as the ones that came to our door to sell us something, “Snake Oil Salesmen”. I often wondered if he were alive what he would call President Obama.

Do you remember all the promises Obama made while on the campaign trail, far too many to mention in this BLOG. Well in my opinion he has broken 90% of those promises, which were enough to earn him the title of a “Snake Oil Salesman”.

Remember John McCain’s position on taxing employee’s healthcare benefits that Barack Obama was all over. Reporter Jim Geraght, a contributor to National Review On-Line and reported on The Patriot, said that during the 2008 campaign Obama spent $44 million on 16 different television ads hammering John McCain on this idea, according to research by Evan L. Tracey, founder and president of Campaign Media Analysis Group, a TNS Media Intelligence company. This message was a central theme and a significant percentage of the Obama campaign’s advertising in 2008,” Tracey said. His organization estimated last November that Obama’s campaign spent $250 million on television advertising, meaning that about 17 percent of all of Obama’s ads were denouncing McCain for this proposal. This is the advertisement that was all over TV:

John McCain: “I want to give every American a 5,000-dollar refundable tax credit.”

Announcer: Here’s the truth.

Barack Obama: “He says that he’s going to give you a 5,000-dollar tax credit. What he doesn’t tell you is that he is going to tax your employer-based health-care benefits for the first time ever. So what one hand giveth, the other hand taketh away.”

Announcer: John McCain. Instead of fixing health care, he wants to tax it.

Barack Obama: I’m Barack Obama, and I approve this message.

I see these people as the one’s who have nothing to sell but “grief” to the taxpayers and bottle it up in a container as big as the ones used on ships, then at the last hours before the shipment add a little package taped to it adding insult and 15% more injury. These add-ons are the requested amendments or earmarks from some of the dissenters who were going to vote NO and were used as bribes by the President and Speaker to get their YES vote.

But the real reason, and the reason the Speaker got out of Washington, was that she new there was a bullet from a smoking gun ready to find a target, that being an EPA report that was suppressed by the Obama administration and Congress this way she could claim she knew nothing about it.

A summary of that report follows:

Alan Carlin said “that the research that the EPA was relying on was at least three years out of date, and didn’t reflect the current data”.

Since when did liberals ever let facts get in the way of anything? It’s obvious the EPA suppressed this report because of pressure from the Obama administration and democrats on Capitol Hill.

Carlin’s report listed a number of recent developments he said the EPA did not consider, including that global temperatures have declined for 11 years; that new research predicts Atlantic hurricanes will be unaffected; that there’s “little evidence” that Greenland is shedding ice at expected levels; and that solar radiation has the largest single effect on the earth’s temperature. It appears that AL Gore is the Snake Oil Salesperson, making $100 Million. 

Alan Carlin of the EPA, the author of the 98 page report said this to of all places CBS News:

“It was his view that he would either have lost his job or working on something else,” Carlin said. “That was obviously coming from higher levels.”

Carlin was speaking of his boss, Al McGartland who told Carlin by email that the administration and the administrator have decided to move forward and that his [Carlin] comments didn’t help the legal or policy case for their decision to move forward.

Nancy Pelosi Snake Oil Salesperson like our “bunny friend” just kept on going, you know for Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, and more Jobs. In order to get this so called energy bill Aka. Cap and Trade, passed before her going on vacation, she started a campaign of bribery.

Pelosi does not usually meet with Republicans, but she met with at least seven GOP swingers. Five of them (Reps. Michael Castle (Del.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Leonard Lance (N.J.), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.) and Dave Reichert (Wash.) subsequently backed the bill. Three other Republicans – Reps. Mary Bono Mack (Calif.), John McHugh (N.Y.) and Chris Smith (N.J.) had already backed the bill while still in committee.

Living in Mary Bono Mack’s District for 6 years she most likely got another couple of million to continue the Salton Sea study, which has been a major money sink hole for the last 12 years but is her late husband Sonny’s only claim to political fame. 

The fact of the matter is nobody knew what they were voting for, 300 pages were added in the last hours, except the ones who were bribed. Not one of our elected Democrat Representatives, with the possible exception of Snake Oil Producer Rep. Waxman read the 1,200 pages in this energy” Cap and Trade or Cap N Tax” bill. When any of the Democrats, on the news shows were asked about any specifics or if they read the whole bill the answered was NO while the Republicans answered yes. The Democrats answered specifics using the talking point statement “Millions of Jobs are Going to be Created” after which the Republican countered with “why are there 40 pages in the bill that deals with displace manufacturing and other sector workers, mostly union, who do not have the skills for the so-called “Green Jobs. What about the Coal Miners who would lose their occupation? They are expendable.   

Auto workers who have been laid off or fired will not be rehired by the automakers because their positions will have been eliminated and or replaced by new automation technologies. The recent lower and middle management personnel firings will not be called back because there will be a lot less workers to manage.  

If the Obama-Care plan becomes a government plan and competes with private sector plans we will see a defection from private and employer health care plans to the tune of at least 60,000,000 people right out of the chute (not by choice) which will put the deficit much, much higher than stated by the CBO. (Refer to my Obama-Care posting) It will add about 600,000 union jobs to the Government sector and about 6 million to the ranks of the unemployed. The newly unemployed will drive the benefit unemployment payments up, again adding to the deficit as well.     

I have a prediction for my readers. I predict if the Cap and Tax bill and the Obama-Care bills are passed, with any government control, we will see unemployment of at least 15% and our country’s deficit, over the next 30 years, will be $14,000,000,000.

Start sending your members of Congress E-Mails, Faxes, Letters, call them on the phone and express your concerns with these bills.

We have to defeat these bills or at the least delay them until 2010 so we can vote some of these Socialists nuts out of office.

President Obama is now going door to door selling his Snake Oil Obama-Care plan whatever that is.             

Let us start out with the question who do you trust when it comes to our national security? I tend to lean toward the CIA away from Pelosi. According to her own words she was only brief once but there were 40 such briefings she did not attend.

Pelosi stated:

“Of the 40 CIA briefings to Congress reported recently in the press, I was only briefed once, on September 4, 2002, as I have previously stated”.

The one she did attend she said she had her mind on her most important job of trying to get more Democrats elected in the next election along with a Democrat President so we could get healthcare and the other things the people wanted. Our National Security she had put on the back burner. She also said although she did not attend the other 39 briefings but she had sent an aid (or aids) which she has never named and was not told that interrogation techniques were used or being discussed. This is what is called “plausible deniability” or “throwing the expendable Aid under the bus”. We can only wait until the Aid or Aids get fired or let go if Pelosi gets defeated.

The poor person most likely has a confidentially signed in triplicate. 

The only one she attended she said: (Pelosi’s website)

‘I was briefed on interrogation techniques the Administration was considering using in the future. The Administration advised that legal counsel for both the CIA and the Department of Justice had concluded that the techniques were legal. She said “I had no further briefings on techniques”.  

Next, she tries to validate her “memory fart”, or cover up by thinking the letter sent to Jane Harman on Feb. 23 2008 proves her position: (Pelosi’s website)

‘As we informed both you and the leadership of the Intelligence Committees last September, a number of Executive Branch lawyers including lawyers from the Department of Justice participated in the determination that, in the appropriate circumstances, the use of these techniques is fully consistent with U.S. law.’

Now she had to have the CIA Director tell the Press, I am sure at Obama’s insistence, which Pelosi used as proof the CIA may have not said what it said. 

“As reported in the press, a cover letter from CIA Director Panetta accompanying the briefings memo released this week concedes that the descriptions provided by the CIA may not be accurate”. Key word is “may”.

Now we have a CIA Director who “may” not believe his own people, so we are left with no answer to the question of “who said what to who”?

It appears we are not going find out, I say if in doubt throw her out.

There were other members of Congress at that briefing on Sept. 2, 2004. Guys like Porter Goss who gave their approval, encouragement, and even asked if they were, the CIA, doing enough.

Somebody is lying and I believe it is THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE 

I am sorry, this is unacceptable and something has to be done.

Letter to U.S.Rep.Brown, U.S. Senators Graham, DeMint;

Many mutual funds, 401(k) plans, pensions, and insurance companies contain some automaker’s debt, and will lose up to 90% of its value if Obama's Auto Task Force has its way.

The Administration's Auto Task Force has ignored small bondholders, senior citizens, and (current and future) retirees in discussions over the automaker solvency. With the Administration in the driver's seat, they have offered small bondholders only cents on the dollar, which would impact millions of American's pensions, savings, college funds, and retirement accounts.

Bonds are loans, not speculative stocks, but the Administration is proposing that holders of automaker’s debt will receive $0.10 on the dollar for their holdings while the United Auto Workers (UAW) union and the Federal Government will receive 89% of the equity in the restructuring.

This is just another unintended consequence, or intended, of the Obama Administration, just like the Credit Card bill. The Credit Companies will start charging interest from the day of purchase which will punish the people who pay in full and on time as well as the ones who think they are getting a break. It sounds like the whole Senate and House bought into this one.

Government intervention is getting way out of hand and you guys have to find a way of stopping it. I can only hope the voters across the country understand what is going on and vote accordingly in the mid-term elections.

Just about every economic expert agrees that government intervention causes ciaos in a free market capitalistic system.

They agree just about 100%, this particular down turn in our country’s economy was definitely caused by government intervention, starting back in the Carter Administration’s answer to the “Black Housing” problem with the birth of the “Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)”. Carter didn’t have the time to implement it and the next administration would not. However each President blames the previous administration including the Obama administration, for what they inherited. Let us not forget laws are passed by the congress and may not portray the policy of a President, depending on their makeup.

Have you ever heard a speech by President Obama which he was taking ownership of the problems he inherited? To the contrary all the moves he is making economically is so he can blame the Bush administration if any of it fails

Each administration always accuses the previous one of “lack of oversight” or “non transparency” when a situation such as this happens. Each administration reacts differently because the questions they ask are, “how can we get the most out of this politically”? Another question is “what did I (President) promise during my campaign”? The question that should be asked, after first getting an in-depth understanding of the problem, must be “what is best for the people of this country?” If this question is asked by every politician at every level of Government, we would not be prone to debacles such as we are experiencing now.

There are other inhibitors for government making the right decisions. The politicians usually answering the questions are ones who have never ran a business or had to meet a payroll in their life. Others have been collecting a paycheck from the Congress so long they have been involved in creating these messes and now want to cover their butts.

One root cause of our problems is the extortion of Congress by special interest groups such as the Auto Workers Union (UAW), Steel Workers Union, big financial and Wall Street intuitional lobbies. All of these and more have donated Billions of dollars to the Democrat party and along with the radical left wing PACs and media supporting their causes have the government tied up in knots. This is not to say the Republicans haven’t received some as well, however the amount is about 10 to 1 in favor of the Democrats.

Now that the Democrats have control of both houses of Congress these groups want pay back. By the way this Union thing started screwing things up in 1935 with the enactment of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) which made wages much higher causing a higher unit cost of business products and services which had to be passed on to the consumer. Manufactures were caught without the money to expand production and as a result consumers weren’t buying, unemployment rose, and the economic climate was drastically stifled. The NLRA, in my opinion was one of the major players in starting the “Great Depression”.     

I believe answers to the wrong questions, which are slanted because of the above, are disastrous and is what has caused, not only our current situation, but lead us here in the first place. Results of the answers years ago, such as the NLRA are still having affects on the economy and the answers to the wrong questions today will have much longer effects because of problems and associations both foreign and domestic.

Wrong answers leads to government pretending to solve problems by creating new bureaucracies, Government run or sponsored intuitions, and regulations which will over time screw up free market capitalism. Free market is the process based on competition and encourages people to do their best too beat the other guy. If regulations are introduced to provide “safe havens” such as insuring failure, competition will cease to exist. If interest rates are regulated, competition can only go so far. Regulations are usually put in place to level the playing field.

Every president thinks he has political capital which really means he thinks he can get away with political decisions that put him in good favor with particular groups of voters. When he tries to tweak the free market system by interjecting political favoring the country will get screwed up and usually the next president has to pick up the pieces.

This screwing around is not limited to the President. The Congress has too much to say about tweaking the system favoring their voters, in most cases more than the President. I have always said if Congress took off at least nine of the twelve months every year we would be in much better shape.                                 

One really wrong question was asked, by our “first black President Bill Clinton,” to the treasury department was, how can we help the poorest voters experience the “American Dream of owning their own home”? Wasn’t that the same question Carter asked?  

This was not only the wrong question but it was asked for the wrong reason which resulted in the wrong answer. Since the answer was “yes we can” the solutions use in making this happen, revival of the CRA, caused catastrophic results. You have to understand that at this time the housing values were starting to climb. Dot-Com companies started to pay outrages salaries which together put just about everything out of the reach of the lower income families. So the answer was to come up with some real creative lending schemes and have them backed by the Government’s “MAE and MAC” siblings which are essentially the taxpayers. 100% and even 110% mortgages were made available and the lending institutions were told by the Government, they would have to make these loans which would be guaranteed by the Federal Government.

The wrong reason was really not about the “American Dream” but to maintain a lock for the Democrats, on the low income voters. This reasoning also was backed by the notion that the housing market would just keep escalating and every body would make money when selling their home or by refinancing their mortgages.

An unintended consequence was that this became real popular with the people with very good incomes as well. They also got into this market and started buying homes that their dual incomes could cover the monthly payments with no down payments. Some even bought homes with the intent of “flipping” (selling) them in a year or two, and took out low cost 5 year balloon mortgages. Others took out variable rate mortgages at more than reasonable rates.

Contractors and national home builders started building houses as fast as they could and selling them at inflated prices. A large percentage of the houses were purchased by speculators, with 100% mortgages, with the intent of selling them in a few months and making a bundle. Believe me a lot of money was made in a relatively short time, but California and the Country as a whole started to see a housing “glut” around 2007 and all of a sudden people could not sell their house or in some cases houses.

When we sold our last house in California in 2002, the woman who bought it took out a 100% thirty year 1^st mortgage (interest rates we very low but I forget how low) as well as a five year balloon for another 10% to cover the closing costs and the down payment on the balloon. In 2007 her balloon came due but at that time housing prices were still going up, and she must have covered it because we were out there February 2009 and she was still in the house.  She most likely refinanced the whole house including the 10%.  However, the bottom dropped of the California housing market in late 2008 and her house is now worth only what we paid for it in 1996 leaving her with an upside down house.

People who had these “creative mortgages” were fore-closings at a staggering rate in 2008 and 2009 which started to affect the banks and the mortgage lenders. And now we all know the rest of the story of how just one stupid answer to a politically motivated wrong question caused the collapse of our entire “Financial System”, but not without help.

The Federal Reserve System is another Government intervention to the free market capitalist system. Adjusting the prime and lending interest rates results in an artificially reflected market. In free market system it is the consumer who determines the terms, conditions and prices. They look for the best prices, discounts and terms.

It seems that every day the “Feds” meet they would come up with new ways and rates to muck up our free market system. The stock market now makes decisions based on the Fed’s rates. By doing this the stock markets are reacting to something that, in the real world, is not happing but since the Fed is dictating the lending rates they have no choice

I guess low Fed rates spur corporations and banks to borrow and high Fed rates slow the borrowing. How novel is that?

What do you think would happen if there were no Federal Reserve? First of all we would save a lot of money by relieving the Government employee count, but my guess would be the free market would react to the consumer demands. The rates would go up until borrowing slowed or stopped then would come down until borrowing started to pick by consumers shopping around looking for the best deals and eventually the market would find a leveling point. Now isn’t that a novel idea?

Our crisis did now happen because the free market system doesn’t work, it happened because the Boneheaded Congress and the Federal Reserve screwed with it for political purposes and because they mucked up our free market system our financial systems are collapsing, and it’s for real. All the interjections of the Bonehead Congress broke the system which took away the power of the consumer. The stock market plunged taking away the savings of the nearly retired and everybody else, people are losing their jobs resulting in home foreclosures and what does our Bonehead Congress and President do?

They start spending money faster than they can print it, which means they have to borrow more. Doesn’t this sound like the 100% mortgage problem that started “The Mess We Are In”? They panic and now are totally asking the wrong questions, or in this case making wrong assumptions, spending based on political reasons and feeding money to organizations that should go into bankruptcy and or reorganize which they will have to anyway.

Their solution was again, to borrow and print more money, like $3.7 Trillion dollars. This will create an interest payment of well over $500 Billion a year which over ten years will be more than the original loan or around $5 Trillion. That leaves the total of the entire bailout worth almost $9 Trillion. We will then have an upside down federal treasury. We should get ready for a 50% income tax for every body starting in 2013.

The reasoning was that during the “Great Depression” not enough money was spent which allow it to go on for almost a decade. Again, the wrong answer to a wrong question!

First, most of the decision makers in the Obama administration have no, nada, association with the “Great Depression” other than hearsay. Most of them were not born until after WWII. I was born in 1938 and live thorough the resulting years and WWII. WWII did not cause the ending of the “Great Depression” which is contrary to what you hear from these “Baby Boomers” who went to liberal colleges and then went work in Government agencies with ideas of creating a new world order. They did not take the time to analyze our past history, in the financial sector, and the resulting effects it had on the economy in the 1930s, 1940s, and even the 1950 time frame.      

Anyway the “bailout” fever spread over the Bush administration and now Obama’s. The rush to save these intuitions in trouble was again the wrong answer to a politically motivated question. The question was how do now we save these financial and auto makers intuitions who in the boneheads mind “there too big to let go bankrupt”.  The politics is in the quote because both of these sectors have paid extortion money to the majority of the congress through campaign financing, again answering the wrong question for the wrong reason. I also should say they did not listen to the overwhelming response of the taxpayers who said to let these sectors go bankrupt with only 2% in favor of bailouts. We have already given GM $31million and they still will, in a short time, go bankrupt leaving the taxpayers holding the money bag.

The taxpayers are right, and usually are, because they are a larger cross section of experience with the free market system, many who are cutting paychecks and running successful enterprises, than what is in the U.S. Congress. By ignoring the taxpayers and giving out worthless paper backed by a bankrupt Government, means the Government will have to take equity shares or common stock, at some time, in all these companies and become voting shareholders. We will have the President with the majority of Congress, who by the way as I said before, never met a payroll or ran a business in their lives, in the position of directing these companies with their bonehead decisions. Does the term Nationalization mean anything to you?

WOW! I was just about to push the publish button when I got an alert from Stratfor.com that Chrysler filed for Chap.11. This post was getting to long so earlier I decided not to include a few lines about my opinion on the Automakers bail out.

I said above that the government would have to take equity shares for the taxpayer money given to the automakers. I was thinking of GM when I wrote that and never gave a thought about Chrysler. We, the taxpayers own 60% of Chrysler now even before the bankruptcy. The Government gave, as one of the conditions, that Fiat of Italy would take a 20% of the equity shares when the deal is signed and controlling ownership by 2016 with the U.S. and Canadian Governments owning another 10%.

Why didn’t the Government let Chrysler, and for that matter GM, go bankrupt when this thing started, instead of putting billions of our dollars up just to keep them afloat for a few months? Because the wrong question that was again asked was, “how do we save the Union voting block”.

I think there is something rotten with this arrangement because Fiat was suppose to buy into GM and that fell through, then Fiat wanted to by Saturn, and that fell through and it was GM that back out  in 2005 when a deal was proposed with Fiat, because Fiat had a major amount of dept in its car division. The Government thinks that Fiat has better small car technology than what is on the Chrysler drawing boards. The Government knows best.

There are many people who believe that Socialism and Democracy can exist with one another. They can, but that’s because Socialism is a threat to Capitalism, at least at first, not Democracy.          

Socialism to Democracy is not the issue in what is going on with our current crisis in the USA. However Socialism, in a democratic society, is now the method used by liberal left leaning elected societies intent on chipping away at individual freedoms and human rights and our free market capitalistic system, resulting in a collective form of Government. It is also the method by which supplying one’s “daily bread” will lead to the control of the people. What the Government gives they can also take away.

Those who think that the WWII era was the time socialism became prevalent in European democracies are dead wrong. In fact it was that time when Communism expanded its hold on Europe, when the powers at the Alta conference decided that most of the free people prior to WWII should fall slaves to the USSR. This didn’t end until the fall of the “Berlin Wall” 40 years later and their Communistic form of government crumbled under its own weight.  Most of the rest of Europe were already Socialistic Democratic States. 

One has to realize that European countries were ruled by Monarchies, Clan leaders, and Warlords, which were collective forms of Government, where nobody owned anything of their own. This is a pure form Socialism, or in today’s world Communism. Therefore Socialism was what they had to start from. Unfortunately the people had no idea what a “Capitalist Democracy” was and were scared because they had been always at the mercy of the Monarchy. Socialistic Democracies Started when the European people decided they had enough with being ruled by appointed Royalty and beheaded or diminished their powers to nothing more than figureheads. Even then Socialism started gaining control in areas of the business ownership, the workforce and religion. Hence the movement to America occurred. The people formed Parliaments and free elections were held. That was before WWII. (Of course this is an accelerated summation, a lot of other stuff happen before they got their freedom.)     

Socialism started in this country in the late 18^th century in the form of Unionism as the means to end the exploitation of woman, children, workers coming from the farms and the large influx immigrants. It was a good concept then. Now however, with their sometimes outrages wage demands and extreme lifetime worker benefits, layoff restrictions, no firing clauses, and restrictions on companies to utilize more modern and efficient methods of manufacturing and processing, has led to anti-competitiveness. Union demands have been the major factor in the reduction of jobs or job relocation in unionized companies. If you look at the areas or States in deep trouble you will find a large concentration of unions.

The Labor Unions now have a strangle hold on the SDP and forcing the insertion of Socialistic demands, such as “card check”, or “Employee Free Choice Act, and demanding that any project using Federal money must us Union workers in their policies.

Now from MoneyNews.com one of the largest labor unions, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), wants to centralize all retirement plans for under one new “retirement system” including 401(k) plans for the United States. In effect, every one will have a Government Retirement whether they like it or not. Also Union labor must be used on federally funded projects was just introduced in the new “Stimulus Bill.”  

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich explains Card Check:

"Under Card Check, union organizers and their enforcers will be able to go into any small business, hospital or construction site and coerce workers into signing cards. If they get 50 percent plus one, the deal's done, and the workers are forced into a union. And if management and the new union fail to reach a negotiated contract, the federal government will just impose one.

Other Socialistic mandates:

On top of that a Government mandated the Social Security System (SSS) that takes a percentage of the workers earned wages, which are taken off the top, or gross, of the workers and was suppose to be set aside in a fund for when workers became sixty five years old and retired.  People of that generation had no idea what was happening or understood that the workers not only had their money taken away for 30 or 40 years, were paid “NO interest” and then the Socialists Democrat Government made us pay income taxes on it when we were qualified to collect. However the Social Security fund money was to inviting and free, not in a locked account, for the Federal Government, and almost right away it started being used it for other things.

The only thing that stopped the spending and the abuse of the Government Treasury in the late 1930s up to the mid 40s was WWII. SSS was an entitlement and once started it could not be discontinued.

Today we have many entitlements and many restrictions that have been forced on or into our lives for the “good of the country”. In all cases, Capitalism and a free market driven society can handle these problems, only big government solutions will, without a doubt, cause recessions and then inflation especially one that favors Socialism. Having said that, many more are be proposed by our Socialist Democrat President and labor controlled Socialist Democrat Party, soon to known as the ”Socialist Democrat Labor Party”. There are three very dangerous ones:

Cap and Trade, or better known at “Cap and Tax”, which taxes everything we manufacture, touch and consume, and is being use to combat “Global Warming”. There is no scientific proof that it is even happening. There is however scientific proof that it is not.

Second, is a mandated “Healthcare system” which we know does not and will not work for this country. How do we know? Well in the European Union there are 27 countries all of which have a different government run Healthcare systems. All these countries are imploding because the amount of people using the systems, and the very high unemployment, are consuming more money than the Governments coffers can support. People in those countries are now paying 50 to 60 percent of their pay to their governments for all the entitlements. This is another entitlement which, if started, can not be discontinued.

From The GOPUSA Eagle:

Now, our dive toward socialism appears to be gaining steam and some elected officials around the country are considering another anti-capitalist move: price controls. That's right... in the good, old U.S.A. you could be the owner of a rental property where the government tells you how much you can charge. Own a grocery store? Better not raise the price of milk unless the government says it's OK.

Third, our new Socialist Democrat President is nationalizing our financial and insurance industries as well as handing the automakers tons of bailout money. These industries have made some bad business decisions and should be allowed to go bankrupt.              

Socialism is the belief that any of the various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods and services is owned collectively (includes labor unions) or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy. It is the stage in Marxist-Leninist theory intermediate between capitalism and communism, in which collective ownership of the economy under the dictatorship of the proletariat has not yet been successfully achieved.

Our Socialist Democrat President is planning on increasing the Government payroll by 600,000 workers. We currently have 33% of our workforce getting a paycheck from Federal, State and Local Governments. When that reaches 51% we will have become a European Socialist style State and we can officially call our country the “United Socialist States of America.

The Government is handing out more money than what is taking in, and our Government is becoming a “Giant Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme”, which is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to investors (in this case substitute Government employees)  from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors rather than from any actual profit earned.  

”Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned. Under capitalism the state is separated from economics (production and trade, just like the state is separated from religion. Capitalism is the system of political freedom”.

Communism is any system of government in which all property and wealth is owned by the state. This is where we could end up. 

On June 17^th 2008 I wrote a BLOG post titled Change, Change, Change. I would like the readers of this BLOG Post to read that one before reading this. One thing more, I would never call the Democrat Party, the Democratic Party. If anything I would label them the Socialists Democrat Party.

The Heritage Foundation has come up with the cumulative cost of $8,400,000,000,000.00 for this spending bill for the 8 years, 2010-2017. That is about $28,000 for every man, woman and child in the USA and a family of four, $112,000.

On top of this, since Obama came on board on January 20^th 2009 the stock market went plunging from 7949.09 to, on March 5^th 6594.44 which amounts to $2.5 trillion in market losses. Even prior to that when it was almost certain he would be the Domocrat nominee the market started heading down from 12,000.

We have lost over 50% of the savings in our 401K accounts leaving retirees relying on their own savings CDs and other out of stock market accounts. Even the Wall Street Journal has said that “the economy actually would be recovering were it not for the anti-growth policies being pursued by the Obama administration”.

Obama has managed to mismanage just about every financial and industrial sector in the nation with his new policies and the articles in his Stimulus Bill and his proposed budget or just by opening is inexperienced mouth.

Obama has talked about the need to nationalize our banking industry, government control over our insurance and a European socialistic universal health care plan.

The Government will mandate the rules of banks when lending money. He has said that even solvent banks have to accept the money so they can lend more. This is so he can get control of all banks. Many solvent banks have sent the money back regardless of his order, saying, they have plenty of loan available money and in fact have not turned down any qualified borrowers.

There goes the HMO, PPO, Blue Cross and God knows how many other Health Insurance Companies. The Government will expand to about 650,000 more employees for oversight, distribution of money, and administration of services. 

Obama’s talking about cutting back our spending on strategic defense systems, raising taxes on large corporations and even on money made off shore by multinational corporations.

Say so long to thousands of defense manufacturing jobs, and also will put the USA’s security at risk.

Just by putting a cap on executive salaries will cost the Government $11billion in tax revenue over a ten year period.  Letting the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010 from would cause large and multinational corporations to relocate their headquarters in other countries, which many companies already have. Obama is saying he supporting small business by cutting their Capitial Gains tax, but 95% of small businesses only pay income tax which will go up because they make above the $250.000 limit.  Remember Joe the Plummer?    

The Government is the taking away the tax deduction on high end home mortgage interest and just recently the Democrats are talking about using the money in our 401K plans to bolster up Social Security.

If you remember this whole downward cycle started with the subprime mortgage debacle. Fannie Mae finally became insolvent and could not take on any more of the bundled mortgages from conventional banks. Of course the Democrat war machine went to work on former President Bush and blamed his administration for lack of over sight. This was a good move by the Dems. who wanted to direct the attention away from their own lack of understanding of the problems that would occur in later years after the Clinton admistration in the 1990s forced banks to take on mortgages from people who could not meet the conventional mortgage terms.

This problem was well documented in a feature article in the New York Times on September 30^th 1999. .

This is a summation of the article:

''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

You should also know that Franklin Ranies left Fannie Mae just before the DoDo hit the fan, with millions of bonus dollars. Raines was also the lover of Barney Franks, Democrat and House Financial Services Committee Chairman.

Obama has also just about killed every energy sector with all this talk about Cap and Trade. He is not fully utilizing our own resources, and caving into the environmentalist’s lobby. This will result in a price hike and higher taxes on just about every product and service we consume and use.

Making automobiles more efficient and cheaper is just BS. The Department Of Transportation of the Federal and State’s Governments gets their income from gas tax. With the entrance of gasless motor vehicles how do you think they will come up with that money? They will mandate putting a GPS in all vehicles and tax us on our mileage at the same time they will know our exact location, like On-Star, except we won’t have the choice of purchasing it.   

In my opinion, I don’t think President Obama has the slightest idea what he is doing or how he is affecting our economy by what he is implementing or saying. If he keeps spending under his current plan, there will be less people paying into the tax pool, because of business closings and employee layoffs.  We will be, in effect be pulling a Bernie Madoff on ourselves. Obama might be a Harvard Graduate but he has no practical application in Business or working in the private sector. This is the problem when we elect Senators who have not run any prior form of government. Obama is using this office as his training ground and we will suffer for electing him.

President Obama will be drastically changing the model this country was founded on by converting our Capitalistic form of enterprise to a Socialistic Hugo Chaves Government model. This will never be tolerated in this country and a high tech Boston Tea Party will be waged. In the mean time all sectors of our country will be crippled for many decades.

Let me say, I believe, that Obama has created the deepening of this recession and it started when he was on the campaign trail. All of our business sectors and investors, listening to his proposeed policy statements, were laying the foundations for the time when, or if Obama, got elected. Investors and businesses, large and small, knew that they were his target. They prepared for the cataclysmic events that would occur if he got elected. As soon as they knew he would be President they started selling off. The banks stopped lending, small and large business started laying off employees, thousands even thought it was time close and take their money and run. This was their “Boston Tea Party”

Obama has to stop blaming the former President. All new Presidents inherit something from previous administrations. The sooner Obama takes ownership of these problems and stops acting in a panic mode the sooner this will be over. I am willing to bet though, the Democrats will keep on going until the 2010 Congressional elections and thereafter if they keep wining.

What more does Obama need to be convinced that we have a “supply side economy”. When the Stock market plunges, manufacturing cuts back or closes and the banks stop lending, money goes no where. I am convinced the solutions are sitting on his desk, however he has promised so many people, so many things, he has to spend, big time. His policies are all about politics while people are having some of the worst times in their lives he is serving $100.00 a pound KOBE Beef to guests in the White House and flying around on Air Force One everyday telling people his policies saved 25 jobs.

I am sure the majority of the people who read the thank-you note from Chrysler, in the Wall Street Journal and other papers, thought how nice it was of them to do so.

Well let me say they spent  around $600,000 is doing so when they are in dire financial straits. This is as bad as the AIG management taking their company paid outing at a resort at $3000.00 a night at the taxpayer’s expense. However; this is more than spending our money.

If you think about the last poll I saw the American people were not in favor of taxpayer’s (85%) money going to the automakers, therefore the Democrat Congress could not get a veto proofed vote, this is their (automakers) and the UAW’s way of putting a knife in our gut and then twisting it.

What they really meant by the statement from Bob Nardelli
Chairman and CEO , Chrysler LLC “The United States is home to 74% of our employees and over 3300 dealers in communities across this country. Of every dollar we spend, 78% is spent here at home. On behalf of the 1 million people who depend on Chrysler for their livelihoods, thank you for investing in Chrysler, and America”, that they are big enough and powerful enough, they can get what they want when they want it regardless of what the American people want.

It is time for the Taxpayer/Voters to take back our Country and we can do it by evaluating the type of elected officials we want and exercising our vote accordingly.

We elected our officials in South Carolina who were supposedly conservative Senators and Representatives to stand up for our South Carolina conservative principles. We now have a crisis, and they need to exercise these principles, by voting NO on this bridge/UAW bailout bill.

These loans, bailouts are not required to save the auto industry. What they would be doing by supporting them is give the UAW more time to spend the money on their outlandish benefits plan, and gain a stronger control, it will not change then status of the auto companies. The country can not afford these bailouts and more importantly the vast majority of the Americans do not want them approved.

Every time the liberal congress overrides the people we have gotten in deep trouble. In the last four years there has been a congress that seems to have put in place polices that are totally disconnected from what the people of our State and Country want. Why do you think this is happening? It can be said the Congress has and is being extorted. The Labor Unions are one of the major influencers along with Trial Lawyers Wall Street firms, and Environmentalist who control the way the Democrat party is ignoring the taxpayers. They are using their billions of dollars for campaign donations and demanding a return on their investment, they now have a strangle hold on the Congress.

This time it can not be said, if they vote for these massive bills, that they are doing it for the greater good of the country. This is for the greater good of the big money donor crowd. We, the taxpayers, have been taken out of the process altogether.  

Our forefathers did not come to this land to set up a government which was the same as the socialistic governments they left.

I don’t want any ownership in American Auto companies that can’t understand what to do when their tally sheets don’t look good and let themselves, over a ten year period, get into such a financial state that all of a sudden it’s either go to the taxpayers for money or go “Chapter 11”. I say let them go “Chapter 11”

What do the responsible taxpayers do when things get tough? They cut up credit cards, put off vacations and large purchases. Why aren’t the auto companies biting the bullet by laying- off workers, or cut back hours, or something novel like canceling those big bonuses, cut out the farm banks, and trim down the retirement and health benefits like other companies have done.

It appears to me that nobody, in Congress, has done the math on this and the other bailouts, that is the total they should be looking at. It will be in the Multi Trillions, and nobody alive today, will see these massive bills paid off. It will also be over 40% of our GNP, and my friends this is called Socialism. Hell, they even want an Auto Czar to dictate the use of the funds.

Dictatorship is now the next step for this Government if this bill does not get voted on or does not get passed if voted on. Even though some 78% of the taxpayers are against bailouts or government intervention of any kind the President, and treasury, will take some of the money already appropriated for the “financial sector”, (the $700 billion) which was voted and approved for that purpose, and bail the UAW out. This is an action that overrides the will of the people of a Democracy, and without a congressional vote of approval, which is specifically for this purpose, it constitutes a Dictatorship.

The Government of the United States of America, through the actions of the people that we elected, has committed monumental frauds right before our eyes. They did this by passing laws, approbation bills, and Earmarks favoring special interest groups that supported their reelection campaigns. They have imposed regulations without oversight on companies and institutions, then providing them with government guaranteed insurance covering their abuses.

We the people are the only ones that can put a stop to these types of abuses and the corruption we have been experiencing with this Congress and the last. The people have the power if you we want this to stop. Over the next two years we must evaluate our elected officials and the ones that have been holding this country back by accepting contributions from lobbing groups, special interest Political Action Committees (PAC) political fund raising organizations, or bundlers and earmarking funds for special interests in their State, vote them out of office.

Do you realize, there are elected officials in the Congress of the United States for 30, 40, and 50 years an have links and associations with all the groups mention above. They keep winning because they accumulate massive donations for their reelection campaigns, from all over, and turn loose the money power of the PACs, and other online political organizations, that spend money on radio and television advertising.

The Senators and the House Representatives only represent the people of their State or Congressional District and only the people of that State or District can vote for them. Donations for their campaigns should only come from individuals of the State and the District and not from local special interest groups such as Realtor organizations or local Labor and not from the parties national committees (DNC or RNC),or PACs of any type. These outside interests are what corrupt our election process. Just look at what happen in Alabama, if it weren’t for the determined people of that State ignoring the thousands of TV and Radio advertisings of these outside groups which spent Millions of dollars on, they wouldn’t have gotten the Senator elected that they wanted.    

We as taxpayers and voters should draw a line in the sand decide the number of terms an elected official should serve. In my opinion Senators should serve no more than three terms (18yrs) and the House Representatives no more than four terms (8yrs).

Terms limits for Congress will never become law because the Congress would have to approve a law requiring it.  So we the voters must do it when we vote. Remember, no matter how good you think the people are when you first elect them, the longer they stay in office, the more they will stink.         

I feel that the inaction of Congress yesterday (09/21/2008) was a good thing.

Yes, I know the stock market took a large hit, but think about it, does the stock market really reflect the state of the economy or for that matter the health of the companies the stock represents? I say NO.

In my opinion the stock market is not what it use to be in as much as the players are not looking at the companies health but only at the price of a piece PAPER  with a company’s name on it, and that is what they are trading, PAPER.

The traders will take advantage of the fall and then the rise based on the price of the PAPER without regards to the companies the PAPER represents. The market will start off in an UP situation this morning (it has of this writing) and will continue until the traders have made at least made enough money to make their clients think they regained some of their money (PAPER) back.

So, one of the good things is somebody will make money, and a lot of it. Don't forget, the traders will trade, because if they don't they won't have a job.

The other was that the bill, voted on yesterday, was not the best it could be or it would have passed, regardless of what the polls said.

I personally don’t know if it was or not. I do know we will get a better one and it will pass as long as the taxpayers understand it as not a bailout for wall-street. I said above the PAPER will fly with or without the bill. This bill is a massive loan, which in the long run will make some money and put it back in the government treasury.

The Government will buy the PAPER from these companies at a discounted rate and later, years later, sell it off at a profit. Sort of like Wall-street, only they will be buying and selling their own PAPER.

Don’t panic, remember buy LOW sell HIGH not the reverse.       

On 07.24.2008 this letter was sent to the following:

To Senators Lindsey Graham, Jim DeMint and House Representative Henry Brown:

Subject: Drilling for Oil

What in God’s name is it going to take to get congress to lift the ban of offshore drilling?

Speaker Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Reid must be exposed and force to debate this issue in a public forum. There can be no misunderstanding the feelings of the Citizens of United States on this issue

Recent polling suggests that more than 60 percent of the American public supports domestic offshore drilling for oil and natural gas.  The problem is that all the politicians see are the no-drilling extremists who lay siege to their offices and howl on the news outlets every night.  Congress must hear from the silent majority of Americans who support more domestic energy production to drive down costs and relieve our dependence on foreign oil!

Please support any bill or amendment that encourages increased domestic energy exploration and production today!

Dear Senator Graham;

Thank you for your Cap and Trade response of August 1, 2008.

I hope you will take time to read my position on this subject since, it seems that your “Big Government” methodology of a non-scientific consensus and the idea of “if the United States will do it others will follow” of yours, differs from my position. 30,000 real scientists have documented, individually, that warming or cooling of the Earth can not be caused by or constrained by our actions on Earth.  

If you have been watching the Olympics, in China, you should see what Government Control policies can do and the effects it can have on pollution. The pollution in China is having devastating effects on their land, air, and water, killing hundreds of thousands of people every year. What we see, watching the Olympics, is a complete disregard for the Chinese people whose only existence is to serve the greed of their Government.

China will do nothing about their environment except “talk” about their new laws constraining pollution. Their only show of enforcement is executing the heads of small polluters, or moving millions of people out into the tundra where they will take part in new industries, or farming that will continue to pollute and be moved again. The government supplies “their daily bread” and they do as they are told.

The United States may consume one third of the worlds energy but when we expel our so called pollutants, which are already regulated, it is nothing compared to China. If our Government thinks the answer to the worlds CO2 polluting problems, which you say is the reason we have or are going to have a “global warming” problem, is to have the United States take it on the chin and think the rest of the world will follow, is naive.

Our free market system is already reacting to the threat of this “global warming” hoax. they have seen the in-action of the 1970s, the recent increase in the oil barrel price and as a result we will produce more efficient clean energy and transportation products without any government tax and funding programs.

Senator Graham, you and the other Republicans in name only (RINOs) and the rest of the “Gang of 10” are attempting to promote Government intrusion with restricted energy policies, and by imposing arbitrary no drilling zones in the Gulf of Mexico. “Carbon Credits” under this “Cap and Trade” act and is just another form of taxing the American people and funding the world’s real polluters with controls on, and tax revenues from our industries.

GOP House members have spent nearly three weeks demanding that they be allowed an up or down vote on drilling for our oil, not only to lower prices but also get us off of foreign oil. You, on the other hand, are out all over the country clapping for Senator McCain every time he opens his mouth when you should be joining the GOP house members, in their fight for the security of the American people. 

This “New Era Compromise” is nothing more than an $84 million new spending bill which if tied to a simple up or down vote will turn out to be a disaster for America and the Republican Party. I guess you never learn, you are in office at the will of the people of the State of South Carolina and their interests should be considered before you step into this mine field. Just because we have the lowest gas prices in the country we also are first in everything we should be last in and last in everything we should be first in and our medium income is in that category.     

I know the House Republicans expected to fight Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats for the right to drill for American oil but I don’t think they realized they also had to fight members of their own party?

This is just like the “Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act” you tried to force down our throats. There is nothing new about new about this “New Era” legislation that supposedly represents a true compromise, incorporating common sense. You are pandering to the left wing special interest lobbies and the Democrat Party, just as you did on the immigration issue and we will not stand for it            . We will either get a simple UP or DOWN vote or we will delay anything from happing and let the current oil ban expire.

I see no reason for you to introduce any amendment or for that matter any legislation having any control on user or municipally owned rural electric power generators. The user owned utilities are managed more efficiently, producing better products at a much better cost. I hope you understand the most if not all of user owned utilities were formed because of these reasons. Let the private or investor owned utilities do their own thing and keep the Government out of their wallets as well.   

Let’s discuss “EARMARKS”, since you brought up Virginia and Montana Co-Ops receiving them. Earmarks in my opinion are unconstitutional in the way they are slipped into a bill after committee and not debated on individually or voted on up or down. Anyway, I don’t see any difference in the earmarks you slipped in for a State owned collage than the ones slipped in for the Virginia or Montana Co-Ops, both are unconstitutional and are owned by the taxpayers and exist for their benefit.

I lived in California for sixteen years before moving to South Carolina. In California for the first 10 years I lived in the San Francisco area with power supplied by an IOU, Clean Energy Group Lobby group, company which is supports Democrats as well as some Republicans. I lived through brown outs, black outs and the mismanagement of power contracts. The last 6 years we live in a municipal owned power generator, who bought power contracts years in advanced at the very low prices, and no brown-outs or black-outs. When we moved here we had only two requirements for where we lived. One being at least 7 miles away from the ocean and the other was that we would be in an area where power was supplied by a user-owned or municipal utility.

Needless to say I fine your response to my letter to the defeat of the “Cap and Trade” proposal and your participation in the “Gang of 10” very disturbing. I was one of the many 100,000 emails, letters, Faxes and letters to the Editors of South Carolina papers on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill when you called us, the majority of US citizens, “Bigots”. We are ready to do it again on this issue as well. You will see the start of this campaign in the Myrtle Beach Sun News this week and the State Paper the week after next. This letter will also be posted on the “governmentreform.townhall.com” BLOG after all the SC papers publish their letters.

Again, we want an up or down vote to drill for oil with out any restrictions or expiration dates, nothing else. If, as a compromise, you need an expiration date, that date should be 2030 when everybody says the new forms of energy will be ready.

We want our free market system of private enterprises to develop all other forms of energy.

We want the Government to get out the business of restricting nuclear and clean coal gasification development and usage. Safety standards and Security standards should be its’ only job.

We do not need a “Hydrogen Fuel Cell Caucus” which will put a bureaucracy in place coming up with ways to tax and control development and usage. There are already H20 fuel vehicles on the road. If the US car makers are not working on this technology then they will be out of business by 2030.

We don’t need the Government handing out $7.5 billion to US auto makers who have already gotten the message to make fuel efficient vehicles, if they haven’t, the Japanese have, and we will buy their vehicles. If you do give out incentives to the US automakers, the foreign automakers who manufacture fuel efficient vehicles in the US should also get them. 

We don’t want tax credits to consumers when they already are waiting in line to buy fuel efficient vehicles and hybrid cars. A one time customer rebate would serve the people more favorably which could be taken at time of purchase with dealers applying for the rebate money from the government. People have to be paying taxes to get tax credits.

It doesn’t make any sense to repeal the tax deduction from domestic oil producers to pay for any incentive plan when all that has to be done is to let them drill and build more refineries. Our free market system will take care of the rest.

Again thank you for taking the time and responding to my request for you not to vote for the “Cap and Trade legislation”.

To the Editor Myrtle Beach Sun News:            

The Congress of may be doing us a big favor with all this bickering about drilling for oil now, because the current congressional ban is set to expire on Oct. 1^st 2008 without restrictions on drilling.

To allow the up or down vote would still be a good thing. However; if Congress formulates legislation which includes, drilling location restrictions, taxes on the producers and allows special interest lobbing resulting in earmarks, it will become a political football and cost us the taxpayers more money. That’s not all, if they do formulate a bill it will have to go to the Senate to be voted on.    

The Senate has this new “Gang of Ten” which, includes our Senator Lindsey Graham, and they are chomping at the bit to impose restrictions by returning the “Cap and Trade” and the “Comprehensive Energy Bill” to floor debates, which ultimately will replace the House Bill. These bills have a life all of their own but the bottom line is that they would cost us dearly. Come to think of it the new Senate formulated bill will have to go back to the House and they probably will be out on recess.  

To the Editor of The State Paper: 

Senator Graham, and the other Republicans in name only (RINOs) and the rest of the “Gang of 10” are attempting to promote Government intrusion with restricted energy policies, and by imposing arbitrary no drilling zones in the Gulf of Mexico. “Carbon Credits” under this “Cap and Trade” act and is just another form of taxing the American people and funding the world’s real polluters with controls on, and tax revenues from our industries. GOP House members have spent nearly two weeks demanding that they be allowed an up or down vote on drilling for our oil.  You, on the other hand, are out all over the country clapping for Senator McCain every time he opens his mouth, when you should be joining the GOP house members, in their fight for the security of the American people. 

I know the House Republicans expected to fight Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats for the right to drill for American oil but I don’t think they realized they also had to fight members of their own party?

House Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) are holding the country hostage by not lifting the Congressional ban on drilling the Offshore Continental Shelf (OCS).

Oil Companies have stated they can have oil flowing from the OCS within two years of lifting the ban because the Government required “path to drill” has been started.

Much to the chagrin of the Speaker of the House and her Whip, in February, 2006, Bobby Jindal, then US Rep. (R-LA), Now Governor, introduced bill HR 4761. The bill repeals all Presidential and Congressional moratoria on drilling for oil & gas in federal waters. The bill gives sole power to states to decide on drilling within 100 miles off their coasts; the federal government has control after 100 miles. States already control the first 3 miles off their coasts. HR 4761 was needed because of the Aug. 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina destruction of the Gulf Coast.

HR 4761 passed the House of Representatives 232-187 (192 Republicans and 40 Democrats voting yes, 31 Republicans, 155 Democrats and 1 Independent voting no). Since the Presidential Ban was a Presidential Directive, President Bush did not want to repeal the Presidential Ban at that time, which in my opinion was a big, big mistake because if he had then the congressional ban would have had to be lifted.

HR 4761 was not heard of until recently when the President did lift the ban. This is what Jindal said when he heard the news which reflects the Republican strategy:

Jul 14, 2008
BATON ROUGE — Today, Governor Bobby Jindal released the following statement on President Bush's announcement that he has lifted the executive order moratorium on offshore drilling off the coast of the United States.

Governor Jindal said, "The President's announcement today is a positive signal for Louisiana and our nation. The reality is that we are in an energy crisis that has been in the works for years. We need a comprehensive, balanced energy policy from the federal government that pursues everything simultaneously, from more offshore drilling to exploring nuclear, solar and wind alternative energy sources, and increasing conservation efforts.

"This news today is especially encouraging to Louisiana as we continue to work toward being the energy technology capital of the world. We will pursue incentives and tax policies to position our state as a national leader in reducing our country's dependence on foreign sources of oil."

Bobby Jindal wants the drilling to start right now, off the coast of Louisiana, so he can start paying down the debt of rebuilding and pay their share of the levee repairs. Hold on Bobby, here comes Washington to help.

Now Pelosi and Clyburn decided drilling offshore was not the way to go and will not allow a new vote to be taken for drilling the OCS, they then proceeded to fabricate the talking points which you will hear most Democrats parrot in their statements:

• Oil companies do not need new areas to drill. They need to focus on areas that are already opened to them. Of the 42 million acres of Federal land currently leased by oil and gas companies, only about 12 million acres are actually being drilled to produce oil and natural gas. If the Republican claims about more drilling are correct, why aren’t they demanding Big Oil explore drilling on the 30 million acres of Federal land that are already open to them but that they refuse to explore?”

Clyburn’s Web Site reflects the Pelosi’s talking points statement and reflects his views that his South Carolina Congressional District, and the country will have to live with, at least until the November elections is:

 “Democrats want to take immediate steps to increase American oil production.  That’s why we are pushing oil companies to start drilling on the more than 80 million acres of American land that is available to them right now, 68 million in the lower 48 states and another 15 to 23 million acres in Alaska.   The oil companies have the potential to produce from those acres an additional 7.8 million barrels of oil and over 60 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day.  I can think of only one reason the oil companies aren't drilling on that land -- they want demand and prices to remain high.” (This is called stupid and Pelosi’s statement is 42 million and now all of a sudden Clyburn says we have 80 million). 

”While “a box of crayons and a picture of an oil derrick” may be some people’s vision of our nation’s future energy policies, I am more inclined to take a more enlighten and long range approach. Congressional Democrats are supporting an innovations agenda that seeks to make America energy independent by 2020.  We can achieve that goal, but only if we are willing to look forward and not backwards”. (Do both stupid).

This “Kiss My Butt” statement after the visit was also parroted on June 24, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama used this argument in a speech in Nevada: The oil companies already own drilling rights to 68 million acres of federal lands, onshore and offshore, that they haven't touched. 68 million acres that have the potential to nearly double America's total oil production. (Dumb statement and not true, now for some reason the 68 million acres includes off-shore leases which they don’t allow drilling).

The charge has been repeated by Nancy Pelosi and others in their party. However; One SC Democrat is for more drilling and clarified the talking points based on reality.

John Spratt (D-SC) press release of July 23, 2008 states: "I am for anything responsible that will bring down prices, whether it’s more drilling or less speculation. But everyone should know that we are drilling more now. The number of drilling permits grew by 360% between 1999 and 2007. Over the last four years, the government issued 28,776 permits to drill, roughly 10,000 of which remain unused. On-shore, 47.5 million acres of federal land are under lease, but only 13 million acres are producing oil or gas. Off-shore, 44 million acres are under lease, but only 10.5 million acres are in production.

"If the 68 million acres leased but not used were put in production, it would help close the gap. I voted to open 8.3 million acres to drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and more recently voted to tell the companies sitting on their leases, ‘use it or lose it.’ (We drill for oil not acres. There could be only enough oil for one rig under the 10,000 acres).

 Here is the real story of on-shore leases

”According to the U.S. Department of the Interior's Mineral Management Service (MMS), there are nearly 68 million acres of federal lands (onshore and off) that are part of non-producing leases as of fiscal year 2007. This is in contrast to 25.7 million acres of leased lands that are producing oil. So, there are 68 million acres of leased land on which companies aren't extracting oil, but Obama went too far when he said oil companies "haven't touched" them. As Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Petroleum Engineer Bill Gewecke, who manages the onshore sites, told us, he "wouldn't say untouched, [I] would say undeveloped."

”That's because these leased lands that don't contain productive drilling operations likely are not lying idle as Obama implies. There are a lot of steps and procedures involved in setting up a productive oil well on leased land, both onshore and off. The Bureau of Land Management's Web site lists the regulatory hurdles that need to be cleared as part of the larger five-step life cycle of a well. The path to setting up an offshore drilling operation is even longer, as shown in a large flow chart developed by the MMS”.

And there is a lot of activity occurring on leased lands that does not qualify as "production." For 2006, the BLM reported that there were 77,257 productive holes onshore in the U.S. Beyond that, there were 6,738 applications for drilling permits, 4,708 holes in which companies had begun drilling and 3,693 where drilling had ended among onshore lands. That's a total of more than 15,000 holes that were being proposed, started or finished that do not count as "productive" holes. And that doesn't even include holes that might have been continually drilled throughout the year for exploratory reasons.

It's not known how much of that drilling is taking place on leases currently classified as "non-producing" and how much is taking place on leases that are already producing oil. BLM's Gewecke told us that the agency does not track acreage that is being developed or explored. And Andy Radford, an analyst with the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade association, told us that the oil companies are "very secretive about announcing where they are testing, exploring and thinking of drilling because the industry is very competitive."

The Democrats are making this a political issue for the November elections and they are distorting facts, making it appear that the President is causing all this to happen. If you go to Pelosi’s Web Site you will see a graphic depicting the price of oil difference since President Bush took office. The real fact is the price made that jump only after Pelosi became Speaker of the house and Obama started running for President,  talking about taxing the oil company’s profits, taking away exploration and development subsidies, which would delay drilling and increase our dependency on the foreign oil market, and raising the capital-gains taxes.   

Of course Speculators took it to mean that the prices would rise dramatically and started buying which drove the per barrel price up. Big users such as, airlines, cruise and merchant marine lines, and other countries started buying to lock in the low price before the price went up as well. All this put undue pressure on the oil suppliers which is why we are in this mess of almost $5 per gallon gas. 

When the President lifted the Presidential ban, barrel prices dropped $9 the first day and are still going lower. This one action equated to about $.20 lower in our gas prices in SC.

If the Bush tax cuts were announced to be extended you would see the price of oil barrels drop dramatically as well.

In contrast to Clyburn, My Congressman Henry E. Brown, Jr. (SC), long-time supporter of offshore exploration and the Representative of more than 75% of the coast of South Carolina, joined fellow House Republicans at a press conference to unveil their American Energy Act.   After the event, Brown issued the following statement:

“Over the past months, I have heard an outcry from my coastal constituents as recreational and commercial fishermen, shrimpers and tour boat operators are being hurt with every increase in the price of diesel fuel. A large number of visitors that come to our beaches and historic sites travel by automobile.  The daily commute of our residents is growing more expensive.  Gas prices have become unaffordable and we must move to increase environmentally responsible domestic energy production”.

“We can no longer hope that the problem will go away.  Our country is blessed with abundant resources.  We must view our energy resources as an asset not as a liability.  We must take action immediately and vote on this legislation to allow more domestic energy to be produced by Americans, for Americans.”

Isn’t it funny that all the South Carolina Republicans and one Democrat Congressmen, our two Senators, hear their constituents and the country say DRILL NOW, any where, and only James Clyburn (D-SC) is hearing his constituents and the country saying DON’T drill the OCS AT ALL just tax the oil companies.

Clyburn’s 6^th District has a population of 668,670, 60% of them are minority, with a medium income of $28,967. I don’t no for sure but I bet at least 50% his constituents are receiving government checks for their “daily bread”. These people must be screaming about not only the gas prices, but also the price of food. So the poorest part of South Carolina is taking the brunt of Clyburn’s decision not to drill for oil and being held Hostage and they are letting him get away with it.

Here’s is a man who is pulling in a salary of $165,700, telling people making $29,000, I know what’s best for you and by the way, why don’t you go to the one of the non-profit offices that I support with government money, and collect your part of the “pie”.  Sounds like “BOSS HOSS”. But really he is only Pelosi’s whipping boy doing and saying what she tells him to do.

You tell me who is doing what to whom? Follow the money is the answer to that question: Democrats are split on a plan by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV., aimed at protecting them, the Democrats, not us, in the face of controversial oil drilling proposals.

A number of Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats, have sided with environmental groups, (one of the biggest contributors to the Democrats,) against Reid's plan to allow additional offshore areas to be opened to oil exploration and drilling. Reid had hoped the proposal would insulate Senate Democratic Party candidates from public anger over rising gas prices, The Hill, a Washington newspaper, reported Tuesday. (At least they know we are mad but to bad it’s all about them, not us.)

On Clyburn’s Web Site he uses a Dr. Patrick Moore, the former director of Greenpeace, as his source, for him not wanting to drill. Clyburn wants to use food and plants to produce Bio-fuel so we can become oil independent by 2020. The problem Bio-fuel cost more to produce and you need twice as much because of the BTU ratio and food crops are seasonal and there is not enough land to grow the crop source we need. Bio-fuel has a major impact on the price of food not only because of the demand for it but in getting it to market.

As I said on a previous BLOG post “Another Hoax, Energy Independence” oil, petroleum, is use in just about everything see and touch and even ware, the same way corn is used in just about everything we eat and drink. Even the nuclear power raw material, uranium, is imported from at least seven other countries. We will always have a foreign dependence on oil, ethanol, and uranium because the world’s growth rate will be between 7% and 27% by the year 2050. We better start using the word “interdependency” when we talk about energy. Independence only allows the Democrats a CYA, by pushing dates way out so you will forget about any real near term solutions.

Clyburn is just playing politics and keeping us more dependent on the 70% foreign oil we get currently and making us HOSTAGES for ever. It all boils down to the Democrats would rather let the Nation and its’ citizens go to HELL than to lose the elections.  We should explore, drill, and refine oil, mine our coal any where and any way we can, and continue to import, while finding or developing alternative energy sources. We should utilize nuclear energy to its’ fullest and yes import the uranium. We should not explore or depend on fuel sources, such as seasonal crops, which put out country’s food source at risk. It will be a big waste of time and money.

Now these two so called Lawmakers had the gall to walk out of the Capital and turn out the lights and CSPAN, go on vacation for 5 weeks, while the Republicans were still debating the oil issue on the floor. It is our money that pays for that building and we don’t want a Socialistic Dictator telling us what to do. In a Democracy we tell them what we want and 76% of us want to Drill Now, Pay Less and keep drilling, mining and nuking, until there are better solutions available.  

 It is time to vote the Socialistic big Government BUMS OUT of office. A blockade on the Capital building is needed, to not let them back in after their August recess.  Like we would notice any difference.