14 July 2008

Bush Finally Lifting Executive Ban on Offshore Oil Drilling

President Bush will announce today that he is lifting the executive order banning offshore oil drlling.
Unfortunately for us stuck paying $4.00+ per gallon for Gas, Congress still needs to repeal the Moratorium on Offshore Oil drilling as well. Unlikely to happen with the Democrats in Control of Congress. They are still beholden to the Sierra Club and other environmental groups vehemently opposed to offshore oil drilling, even though they can't point to a single instance of an Oil rig destroying a beach or the other nonsense that they spout about environmental damage.

"There is no excuse for delay," the president said in a last month in a Rose Garden statement.

"In the short run, the American economy will continue to rely largely on oil, and that means we need to increase supply here at home," Bush said, adding that there is no more pressing issue for many Americans than gas prices.

Bush's father, concerned about the effects of falling Oil prices on the Mexican Economy, President George H.W. Bush, signed the executive order in 1990 banning offshore drilling.

Experts have gone from saying it would take 10 years to 3 years before we see any oil, once all the Moratoriums are lifted, but only time will tell who will be proven correct. One thing is for sure, if we do nothing, prices will continue to spiral upwards. Doubts on Global Warming, shouldn't stop us from sourcing our Oil from the Middle East to sourcing it from ourselves.

One thing is for sure, unless someone puts pressure on Congressman David Obey to re-open the Appropriations Process, we definitely won't see any progress on this issue.

Maybe now is the time to start a fresh round of Operation Drill Bit, to remind Congress that we're still overpaying for Gas.

WalMart - Of The Morons, By The Morons, For The Morons

I was looking over a few forums the other day when people were talking about how terrible Wal-Mart was. Personally I hadn't shopped there in a while because since Sam Walton died, I've felt that the employees there simply don't care any more so I stopped shopping there. I figured I'd stop by a local 'supercenter' and check out what all the Hubbub was about.
What a mess! I went to a Super Center near me and food in the Grocery section just looked, unappetizing, a lot of the surrounding areas were very dirty. I thought to myself, "No... definitely wouldn't buy any food from this place". So I looked around in Electronics, and saw entire bins of old crappy movies for $5.00, movies that I've long since either rented and thought, OK that was a waste of 2 hours, or simply thought to myself, "I'm not going to waste 2 hours on that". What I found astonishing is that most of the employees that I ran into, didn't speak English (or just barely - or maybe they were just pretending?), and seemed very annoyed with me for even bothering to ask them questions.


I thought OK, they must be selling things here that people
actually want for decent prices, but everything that I saw was either the same price, or maybe 1 or 2% lower than where I normally buy these things. Places that usually keep their stores clean, well stocked and filled with employees that are only too happy to help you. Like Whole Foods, Publix, Ace Hardware, Target, Game Stop and Brandsmart.

So I started thinking, OK, I can see the Morons who work here, people who mostly are unemployable in every other sector of the economy, maybe that's why Wal-Mart's cases of theft have gone up so dramatically.

What about those who shop here? What kind of Moron puts himself through the harrowing experience of shopping at Wal-Mart, then waiting in line for a half hour, just to save a few pennies? So let's say you save 5%. The average shopper spends $50.00, is the $2.50 worth your dignity, and the dignity of those that Wal-mart employs?

I used to work at Home Depot when Home Depot actually cared about their employees. There were no caps on Overtime, there were no caps on Salaries, and we would get a raise every 6 months (at least those of us who deserved a raise for hard work). After about 8 years, the company decided to invest a half billion dollars in the Olympics, and take it out of the employees hides. First to go was the overtime, then the raises were cut back to every year, then they put caps on Salaries. Keep in mind that up until they instituted these changes, the company had double digit increases in sales and more importantly profitability the entire time that I worked there. When the changes started coming through, I was in management, so I wasn't as affected by the changes, but all my best people were leaving. After 2 years of these shenanigans, I cashed in my chips and left. I didn't feel that I could be part of a company that no longer believed their employees were their greatest asset. My wife couldn't believe that I sold my stock in the company after I had seen the incredible rises in value over the previous 10 years. I told her, if the company continues to treat employees this way, short term, they may see a rise in profits, but eventually the company will fall. That was back in January of 1999, and while the stock did continue to go up by about 20% over the next year, by January of 2000, Home Depot Started a decline that led to the stock falling to less than half what I had sold it for. Home Depot has now announced that they will be closing stores. Big difference from the days me and my crew were the "Big Dogs" over there. Sure some of it has to do with the housing crisis, by their decline started, well before the housing slump hit.

I see the same things going on with Wal-Mart. It is a company perpetually in decline since the death of Sam Walton. Their stock peaked in January of 2000, eight years after Sam Walton died and over 8 years ago
and has been in decline since. How many stores have they opened in the past 8 years? Yet, their market share has fallen considerably in the Retail Sector. Wal-Mart is a company running on borrowed time and running on the Ghost of Sam Walton. Sam actually cared about his employees, he didn't have salary caps, he gave them health benefits, he made them feel like they were part of the team, the current management just sees them as just another cost to be controlled, tells them to get Government assistance for Health Care and limits growth in employee earnings with Salary Caps along with a Zero overtime policy.

I find it amusing though, all these websites out there that pushing:

  • We need to regulate Wal-Mart.
  • Chicago won't let them build, because they want Wal-Mart to pay a higher Minimum wage than every other business.
  • People want Wal-Mart to stop using cheap Chinese Labor.
  • People say Wal-Mart destroys their Towns (As if small towns haven't been disappearing for decades)
I'm not for any sort of regulation of Wal-Mart or any government intervention what so ever. All I'm saying is we should do like we did with Sears when they cut out all the full time employees and replaced them with kids that didn't care. Stop going there. that's what drove them into Bankruptcy. Sure at Sears it was easy, because they had high prices, and we figured Wal Mart had better prices AND better service. Well they don't have the better services anymore, but there are plenty of other choices out there that do. Sure you might pay a buck or two more, but isn't that worth the headache of dealing with Wal-Mart's shoddy enterprise? Maybe it's just me, but I've been to at least 5 Wal-Marts around Delray Beach, Florida and found every single one of them to be dirty, unwelcoming, filled with people who don't speak English, and filled with people who don't want to help you. So why go there?

Overall, I feel that Wal-Mart has been good for the economy in that it has greatly helped to keep prices low, but Wal-Mart sacrificed customer service to continue to lower prices, while trying to increase profitably. This one catastrophic decision, has left Wal-Mart losing market share, the only reason their sales are up, is because they continue to open new stores, but their percentage of the overall pie in Retail is slipping. A few more years of this will not be sustainable for them and they'll end up going the way of Sears, until a new contender rises up to over power them with the right combination of Better service and decent prices. There's a reason why Wal-Mart is the only company on Fortunes list of the 20 most profitable companies that doesn't offer all it's employees great pay and benefits. It's because it's a model that is unsustainable. Sure, just like Home Depot, you can have short term gains, but they all eventually come back to haunt you. What's ashame is that Sam Walton left David Glass a perfectly decent company that everyone from Wall Street to Main Street loved, and today it's a company that neither feels very comfortable with.

The greatest thing about Capitalism is that we have choices, and we can choose not to patronize businesses who we don't feel are good for the community, so here's one for all you Wal-Mart Morons out there. Just Say No!

Sources for this story:
Wal-Mart Tries Again to Salvage it's Declining Public Image.
Wal-Mart Chart
Wal-Mart Declining Morals
Wal-Mart Movie

Bush Administration Puts Off Greenhouse Gas Regulation


Now that Global Warming has ended, gas prices have gone insane and Nasa has backtracked on 1998 being the warmest year ever, Bush has decided to leave Climate change to his successor. I think it's a good move considering the direction the economy is going. Bush figures he doesn't want to go down as the President who destroyed the Economy, but boy oh boy, are the Enironuts going to go crazy!

Here's the text:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Environmentalists are seething after the administration of US President George W. Bush delayed any decision on regulating greenhouse gases, likely leaving any substantive action to his successor.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a 588-page report Friday that cites "the complexity and magnitude" of the issue and calls for 120 days of public comment.

The decision follows a Supreme Court ruling ordering the EPA last year to devise ways to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act.

"The Bush administration's refusal to respond to the Supreme Court and do something about global warming is not just illegal, it is grossly immoral," said Danielle Fugere of Friends of the Earth, an environmental group.

"President Bush's inaction in the face of this crisis is one of the greatest failures of leadership in presidential history," she said in a statement.

The EPA said there were doubts whether "greenhouse gases could be effectively controlled under the Clean Air Act."

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson wrote that regulating greenhouse gases under any portion of the act "could result in an unprecedented expansion of EPA authority that would have a profound effect on virtually every sector of the economy and touch every household in the land."

David Bookbinder, the climate counsel for the Sierra Club environmental group, said the EPA's decision underscores Johnson's "utter lack of credibility."

"The American public, Congress, world leaders, and even career government officials are counting down the days until this administration leaves town and a new president undoes the damage done by President Bush and makes up for nearly a decade of lost time -- time we didn't have to waste in the first place," Bookbinder said in a statement.

The EPA decision came after Bush agreed during the Group of Eight industrialized nations meeting in Japan this week to cut carbon emissions blamed for global warming by at least half by 2050. It was the strongest language yet signed by the US leader.

The Bush administration has fiercely opposed any imposition of binding emissions limits on the nation's industry and has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas blamed for global warming. (Though in all honesty Clinton signed it, but never presented it to congress).

But the Supreme Court ruled in April 2007 that the EPA must consider greenhouse gases as pollutants and deal with them.

The ruling came in response to legal action undertaken by Massachusetts and a dozen other states and environmental groups that went to court to determine whether the agency had the authority to regulate greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide emissions.


Environmentalists have alleged that since Bush came to office in 2001 his administration has ignored and tried to hide looming evidence of global warming and the key role of human activity in climate change.

At a hearing in November 2006, Massachusetts argued that it risked losing more than 4.5 meters (15 feet) of land all along its coastline if the sea level should rise by 30 centimeters (one foot).

But the Bush administration, backed by nine states and several auto manufacturers, urged the court not to intervene, arguing that if the situation was so dire it could not be solved by a simple legal decision.

It further argued that reducing emissions from new US motor vehicles would have only a minor effect on global climate change.

While the court's decision is unlikely to change US policy, it has ramifications on several other ongoing issues, such as the agency's refusal to regulate emissions from electricity plants which produce some 40 percent of US carbon dioxide emissions. Motor vehicles are responsible for just 20 percent.


12 July 2008

Global Warming Has Officially Ended

The Space and Science Research Center Issues A Formal Declaration:

Global Warming Has Ended – The Next Climate Change to A Pronounced Cold Era Has Begun.

In a news conference held in Orlando, Florida, Mr. John L. Casey, Director of the Space and Science Research Center, issued a landmark declaration on climate change.

“After an exhaustive review of a substantial body of climate research, and in conjunction with the obvious and compelling new evidence that exists, it is time that the world community acknowledges that the Earth has begun its next climate change. In an opinion echoed by many scientists around the world, the Space and Science Research Center (SSRC), today declares that the world’s climate warming of the past decades has now come to an end. A new climate era has already started that is bringing predominantly colder global temperatures for many years into the future. In some years this new climate will create dangerously cold weather with significant ill-effects world wide. Global warming is over – a new cold climate has begun.”

According to Mr. Casey, who spoke to print and TV media representatives today, this next cold era is coming about as a result of the reversal of the 206 year cycle of the sun which he independently discovered and announced in May of 2007.

Casey amplified the declaration by adding, “Though the SSRC first announced a prediction of the coming new climate era to the US government and media in early 2007, the formal declaration has been held off pending actual events that validate the previously forecast new cold period. We now have unmistakable signs of accelerating decline in global temperatures and growing glacial ice, coupled with the dramatic if not startling changes in the sun’s surface including unusually low and slow sunspot activity. These signs, in conjunction with the research center’s ‘relational cycle theory ” or “RC Theory” of climate change which predicted these changes, now leaves no doubt that the process has already been initiated. It is also unstoppable. Our world is rapidly cooling. Even though we still may have isolated warm temperature records, the global trend to a colder era is now irreversible.”

As to whether others agree with his declaration, Casey congratulated the many other scientists around the world who had done “many years of outstanding research” which he used to corroborate his own research after he first found these climate-driving solar cycles and formulated the RC Theory. In the news conference he listed and praised more than a dozen other scientists, most in foreign countries, who had come to the same prediction on the Earth’s climate shift to a cold era.



He said, “I have consulted with colleagues world wide who have reached a similar conclusion. They have likewise been attempting to advise their own governments and media of the impending cold era and the difficult times that the extreme cold weather may bring. They are to be commended for their bold public stances and publication of their research which of course has been in direct opposition to past conventional thought on the nature and causes of the last twenty years of global warming. These last one or two decades of increased global warming were essentially the peak heating phase of the 206 year cycle.”

In the one hour presentation, Casey detailed the solar activity cycles that have been driving the Earth’s climate for the past 1,200 years. He condemned the climate change confusion and alarmism which has accompanied seven separate periods over the past 100 years, where scientists and the media flip-flopped on reporting that the Earth was either entering a new ‘ice age’ or headed for a global meltdown where melting glacial ice would swamp the planet’s coastal cities.

Much of the presentation focused on the positive and negative effects the next climate change will have on the State of Florida, the nation and the world.

Some effects of the coming cold climate on NASA’s space program were highlighted including an extended “quiet period’ produced by reduced solar activity. Casey believes this cold climate era will be the best time since the space program began to conduct human spaceflight. Advises Casey, “With the sun going into what I call “solar hibernation,” the harmful effects of solar radiation on astronauts in space will be minimized.”

Regarding the impacts of the next cold climate period on hurricanes, Casey summarized by saying “I would not be surprised to see the lowest number and least intense storms ever recorded in the US during this cold epoch, for obvious reasons. We should not forget however, the buildup along coastlines and an ever increasing population may continue to make Florida’s hurricanes potentially more destructive in the future, regardless of the number we have.”

On the subject of cold climate effects on agriculture, Casey was not optimistic. “I can see,” he added, “just like the last time this 206 year cycle brought cold, that there will be substantial damage to the world’s agricultural systems. This time however we will have eight billion mouths to feed during the worst years around 2031 compared to previously when we had only one billion. Yet even then, many died from the combined effects of bitter cold and lack of food.”

In his concluding remarks, Casey called on all leaders to immediately move from the past global warming planning to prepare for the already started change to a cold climate.

He ended with, “Now that the new cold climate has begun to arrive, we must immediately start the preparation, the adaptation process. At least because of the RC Theory we now have some advance warning. No longer do we need to wonder what the Earth’s next climate changes will be two or three generations out. But we must nonetheless be ready to adjust with our now more predictable solar cycles that are the primary determinants of climate on Earth.”

11 July 2008

The Competing Plans to Destroy America


I was reading the Huffington Post today when I saw this article about how McCain's list of 300 Economists are filled with Skeptics. They were talking about how most of these guys didn't even like McCain, but the truth is, and what they didn't say was that they probably liked Obama even less.

In an era where Congress gets an approval rating of just 9%, the lowest ever recorded people are realizing more and more that Congress, our Candidates and everyone in between in Washington is just in it for themselves.

While the Presidential Candidates might not be in this for themselves, both of them have clearly forgotten that Capitalism has made this country great. Both of them clearly need to read "How Capitalism Saved America" by Thomas Dilorenzo, and "The Myth of Robber Baron" by Burton W. Folsom. Maybe then, they can gain a clear understanding of why America is greater than Europe, and more economically and militarily powerful than any other nation on this planet.

In the mean time, let's take a look at just how each one of these guys is competing to destroy America shall we.

McCain:
John McCain's Cap & Trade system is like a Millstone around the neck of a drowning man. This is a system that would absolutely devastate the U.S. economy by imposing a 3.2 Trillion dollar taxing aparatus that would reduce GDP by anywhere from 1 to 2.8 Trillion by 2050. What that means is if you divide the median figure by our population, you're looking at over $6000.00 for every man woman and child in this country in lost wages and, or extra fees paid to energy producers. The worst part of this is that the whole Global Warming theory is based upon faulty data that is only now seeing the light of day. Most won't bother to tell you that the current warming cycle actually started back in the 1600's at the end of the "Little Ice Age". There are even those saying that Global Warming has ended. Think gas and electric bills are high now? Just wait for Cap & Trade!

But wait, there's MORE:
McCain's immigration policy is something that leaves much to be desired. While I agree that we should do something about the Millions who live here illegally, the very first thing we need to do is to secure our borders and then, only then will we be able to go ahead and provide some sort of integration program for the people living here illegally, otherwise, you're just encouraging this problem to continue. The truth is, we can't solve problems with Health Care, Education and other issues without first addressing one of the biggest drains on those resources.

Just ONE other thing that bothers me:
I wonder what McCain would say if someone told his Wife, that her Beer company had to come up with a non-alcoholic Wine alternative to beer? He would probably say, "It's her company, she's in the business of producing Beer, not Wine. In that same vein, why is he chastising Oil companies for not producing alternatives to hydrocarbons? Also, why is he chastising them for earning a mere 8% return on investments, when Banks are earning 18%, Software 25% and many other industries earning much more? Government taxes actually take up much higher percentages of what we pay for Gas than anything else, and I'm sure Regulations add quite a bit to that figure as well. What bothers me is that again, he shows that he doesn't have a clue as to how this country runs and what makes it great. Comments like these don't show leadership, they show pandering to the left and pandering to those who don't understand the issues.
Continued After Our Sponsor...


Barrack Obama:

Where do I even start. When it comes to everything I've just said, his plans are equally as devastating to the economy as McCain's, and even worse. To top it off, his repeal of the Bush Tax cuts will raise the average tax paying families taxes by at least 10%. To many people, they don't quite understand this because they have the Government withhold say $5,000.00 from their income, owe $4500.00 in taxes, and get back $500.00 at the end of the year, so they think they're ahead. Those guys don't realize that they can now forget about that $500.00, it now belongs to Obama and company.

To top it off, most people don't realize that the Bottom 50% in America only pay just over 3% of all income taxes collected, the top 50% pay almost 97%, so this claim on his website that he will "completely eliminate Income Taxes for 10 Million Americans" is a farce, they already pay either nothing or next to nothing. In addition, why should Senior citizens making $49,000.00 a year not have to pay any taxes, when a single Mom with children to feed and cloth, she does have to pay taxes under the Obama plan. I'll tell you why, because since Seniors vote in much larger groups then younger people, this is an outright attempt by Obama to buy their vote. Back to the same old Class Warfare that Democrats are so good at.
It only gets worse, the top 2% that Obama is talking about already pay about half of all income taxes collected. While you may not wish to cry a tear for them, since hell, they are the top 2% right? Well, most of those same top 2% own the small businesses that provide 65% of all the jobs in the U.S. It only stands to reason that the more cash you take away from these guys, the less cash they will have to provide new jobs, and small business is the engine that drives the U.S. Economy, thanks for throwing a wrench in there Obama.

Oh and here's the Good part:
In addition to higher taxes on the top 2%, Obama's also promoting the elimination of the caps on Social Security. This means that a small employer will have to substantially increase what he's now paying to Social Security, especially if that small business has some professionals on his staff who earn more than the Social Security cap, which again means less incentives to hire more.

Stance on Energy & Trade:
Up until 2005, the U.S. was the worlds largest exporter, and the only reason we've fallen behind to 3rd place, was because of the fall in the value of the U.S. dollar in 2005, that continued through 2006, 2007 and 2008. The biggest reason for the fall in the Dollar started with the Dollar sell off in Europe because of the new Euro Currency displacing dollars, but more recently, the dollar has been more and more affected by our imports of Oil, which are projected to be at over a HALF TRILLION a year at current prices or just under half of all our exports. We are literally giving away America's wealth to the Oil producers of the world. What's Obama's stance on more Oil production? Dr. No! Relying on the fantasy of Solar Power and Wind is not a viable solution, these technologies currently cost up to ten times more than hydrocarbons (Oil & Gas), and while yes, they will become less expensive in the future, the goal seems to be to make hydrocarbons cost more, instead of getting alternatives to cost less. Which means we can expect even higher electric bills and gas prices.

What's Obama's stance on trade, more protectionists policies, even though we've had a net gain in Jobs from NAFTA and our other trade agreements, Obama instead chooses to pander to fears instead of facts, that somehow we're getting the short end of the stick. Yes, some people do lose jobs with some of these agreements, but for the most part, more new jobs are created than the ones that are lost. Free trade is one of the reasons the U.S. has some of the lowest levels of unemployment in the world. In the EU, they celebrate that their unemployment is "only 7.1%, here that would be a disaster!

Big Government Spender
Obama is all about investments, and his website is chock full of "We will invest in this and invest in that" so of course, where the heck is all this cash going to come from? The government budget is already almost 2.8 Trillion Dollars, a 13 fold increase since 1970, so how much more do we have to pay in taxes? There's only so much you can take away from the private sector before all the cash starts to disappear. Just like in the 70's when the top rate was 75%, people just won't bother to make the money, if they know they just have to hand it all over to Uncle Sam. That will leave me and you with the bill.

Bob Barr:
Sure Bob Barr the Libertarian candidate is running for president, but they've got the whole thing ass backwards. When the Republicans wanted to take on the Democrats and the Wigs back in the 1800's, they didn't say "Hey, we're going to run Abe Lincoln here for prez. No, they built up a solid grassroots support network, got support from others who wanted to end slavery and give non-landowners the right to vote, along with support for land for the Poor programs. One they had their platform in place, they got congressmen elected, took over a good deal of seats in the house, and then, only then did they field their presidential candidate. The rest is history, the Wigs ended up joining the Republicans and ceased to be a party. However, the Libertarians seem to want change from the top down, instead of from the bottom up.

It doesn't matter that I support almost every issue that the Libertarians have, even if Bob Barr were to win the election, no one in congress or the senate will work with him, so what's the point. He'll have zero political capital to spend and won't get anything done.

So that's it folks, that's our choices:
Which candidate will do his best to destroy America and ruin the foundations on which she was built upon? Do we take:
Dumb or Dumber?

09 July 2008

Those Silly Republicans - It's Gas Prices Stupid!

I just filled up the tank on my Toyota Sequoia today, and since I had let it almost get to empty, that sucker cost me $91.30 to fill up! Can you believe that. An I'm told that In California, the price is around 10% higher, so over there it would have cost me over $100.00 to 'filerup'. Thank God I'm in Florida.

So why doesn't the GOP take advantage of this? What the heck is up with those slow Republicans, can't they do a bit of Grand Standing? Put on a bit of a show and crank up the criticism of Pelosi and her insane policies? Don't they know that Americans are sick and tired of paying through the nose for Gas? Pelosi is talking about how Gas prices are higher since Bush took office, but of course, she doesn't say out 75% of that increase has come since she took over as speaker of the house. Here we are with the greatest issue that they've ever been on the right side of, and you don't see them exploiting it. Where's the Press Conferences, the Advertisements, the hoopla over the fact that the Democrats keep on putting up more and more barriers to Drilling. Where's the Energy plan that Pelosi promised us when the Democrats took over congress 2 years ago. Instead of gas prices going down, they've nearly doubled!

Sure Oil has taken a bit of a beating, but Inventories are down, and the EU might start to raise Interest rates, which will put renewed pressure on the Dollar, forcing it back down to it's pre-rally levels. That in turn will cause Oil prices to start rising again, since we import the vast majority of our oil. The only way to resolve this particular issue is to produce more of our own oil. Look at how strong the Canadian Dollar has become because of Oil. Of course, expanding drilling isn't something that is going to help the price at the pump next week, but the sooner we get started on this, the sooner we'll start to see some relief.
Continued after our sponsor...



Here's the kicker. As soon as the speculators see that Congress is actually doing something about Oil inventories and this artificial shortage that they've created, most will stop buying new contracts, and you'll see quite a few of hem take their profits and run. Once the Stampede heads for the exits, we could see prices at a third to half their current levels.

So what's going on? Well, I've reported to you how the Democrats in Congress were blocking all the Republicans led attempts at expanding Oil drilling. In addition, Appropriations chief, David Obey actually shut down the Appropriations process to actually come to a vote, mostly because he wanted to shield Democrats from the embarrassment of voting against Oil drilling when most Americans want Drilling to proceed. Obey actually said that he would bring the bill back up, after the Fourth of July Holiday, and include the "Use it or Lose it" legislation (which I'm opposed to) that Democrats feel will increase drilling. Well it hasn't happened. They know that the Republicans now finally have enough votes, since some Democrats are finally starting to feel the heat from voters wanting something done about ultra high gas prices. Instead of doing the right thing for the American People, they've chosen to scuttle all energy related legislation for now, so the the bill won't even come up for a vote.

The worst part about this is that the Chinese will soon be drilling off the coast of Florida, but American Companies can't do the same! This is absolute insanity, we're on the verge of a Half Trillion Dollar Giveaway, because we would rather buy our oil from outsiders than get the stuff ourselves.

Where's the outrage? Where are the press conferences? Where's the drama?

Even if you believe in the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming, (man made over natural) shifting where we buy our oil from makes absolutely no difference on the world stage on that issue.

Sure they put out nifty little videos like this one on YouTube, but they need to go a lot further:
  • Buy some Air Time.
  • Have some Republicans Chain themselves to Gas Pumps.
  • Jump out of Air Planes with "Pelosi Premium" on the Parachutes.
  • Do some outrageous things to get some attention.
  • GET THE MESSAGE OUT!
The worst part about this is that the only thing Obama is saying about the high gas prices is that he had hoped that Gas prices did as quickly as the did. The fact that gas went up did bother him, the fact that it went up so fast bothered him!

Republicans have the one issue that the vast majority of Americans side with them on, and instead of exploiting it to win back the seats they've lost in congress, they're acting like the skinny little kid in the school yard cowering under the table to keep the big bully from beating him up. Grow a backbone and let's go get 'em.




07 July 2008

Nasa Backtracks on 1998 Warmest Year Claim

I remember during the 1970's there was a consensus among scientists that stress and spicy foods caused Ulcers. Then came along Australian Pathologist Robin Warren and Dr. Barry Marshall, who claimed in a medical conference that they've discovered that it was actually caused by a bacteria, H. Pylori. They were laughed at and ostracize by the Medical Community, the broad consensus at the time was that Bacterium couldn't possibly survive, much less thrive, in the acidic nature of the stomach.
T
oday, there are even articles like this one, claiming that it's not true, they were never Ostracized, but I know what I remember, and I remember seeing a conference on TV with Dr. Marshall speaking and the Audience erupting in Laughter. I remember my Doctor La
ughing about it, when I pointed out the research on this, and him saying, that's just foolishness.

W
arren and Marshall first wrote about this in 1981, and it wasn't until 17 years later that their conclusions finally became main stream. In 2005, they won a Nobel in Medicine for their discovery. Today we have Prilosec to help us combat this problem, thanks to their pioneering work.

I
tell you about this to show you the lengths that the Scientific Community takes on defending the "
Status Quo". Just like any other human organization, no one wants to admit that they are mistaken and no one wants to admit that someone else might be right.

N
ow we have the great consensus of Global Warming and NASA backtracking on claims that
1998 was the warmest year on record.
First let me tell you what I find disturbing on this.
This story has been out since August of 2007,Continued after our sponsor almost a year, and you don't hear a peep from CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, the Weather Channel or the granddaddy of News Monopolies, the Associated Press. The second thing that I find disturbing is how the Global Warming Alarmists are always talking about the fact that the studies on Anthropogenic Global Warming have all been peer reviewed for errors and if there was a problem, one of the thousands upon thousands of scientists would find and catch any errors. .. Continued after our Sponsor...


It took a School Boy to catch the Errors. After he found the errors in NASA's data, they were forced to restate their claims. And what did they have to restate?

  1. The hottest year on record is 1934, not 1998
  2. The third hottest year on record was 1921, not 2006
  3. Three of the five hottest years on record occurred before 1940
  4. 6 of the top 10 hottest years occurred in the first half of the last century.
So it's any wonder that there are so many skeptics out there? When is The Independent going to backtrack on all the stories they've done. Or ABC news, or CNN, why are they not out there telling this story as fervently as they were telling us about Global Warming? When are charts like these,
going to be revised? These charts have been rendered meaningless without the new data, yet every single Global Warming Alarmist site, still has these, as if they're still relevant!

The biggest problem with the media in general is that they think we're stupid. They think we don't know about the Medieval Warming Period and how it was actually warmer back then then it is today, or so says Harvard, but hey, who the heck are those right wing wackos right?

The big networks think that we don't know about the Little Ice age, and how the earth started warming, naturally, without any interference from us, so that by the end of the 1700's it was pretty much over. But it didn't stop warming there.

The Thames River used to freeze over every few years. It froze in 1408, 1435, 1506, 1514, 1537, 1565, 1595, 1608, 1621, 1635, 1649, 1655, 1663, 1666, 1677, 1684, 1695, 1709, 1716, 1740, 1768, 1776, 1785, 1788, 1795, and finally, the very last time was in 1814. Obviously, the earth started warming too much for it to freeze over after 1814. We also know that the earth still didn't stop warming then either, because the Hudson in N.Y. continued to Freeze up every year from 1855 all the way through to 1875 obviously, it's too warm today for that to happen, so the Hudson no longer freezes, yet our industrial revolution didn't start in earnest until the 1930's.

The whole point of this story that we have a story of Global Warming that is based on supposed facts that
no longer exist. Will the scientific community wait 17 years to act on this new data, just as the Medical community waited because they didn't want to believe in the data at hand? Has Man Made Global Warming become such a "Religion" that no amount of facts can dislodge it from our media outlets? When will we start seeing the new "Revised" charts on all the Networks Blogs and so on?

With our policies on Food, Oil, Energy and a myriad of other decisions being based upon Global Warming, we should be looking at every aspect of this issue very carefully and very closely before we act.

This video seems even more relevant now that NASA has revised it's data.




05 July 2008

We're the Government - and You're Not

Time for another Comedy break here. I was browsing around Digg, and found this post. Absolutely Hilarious, while at the same time a bit sad in how True it is.
What if the U.S. government released an "educational video" to teach today's Americans how to be good citizens?




read more | digg story

04 July 2008

Sad Forth of July??

Happy 4th of July to everyone out there, it rained a lot here in South Florida, so I took the time to do several posts today that I've been wanting to put up for a while.

Something I noticed though, is that it actually turned out to be a kind of sad 4th. My wife and I have several friends that we usually visit every 4th of July, because each one is doing some sort of huge party and a massive fireworks display and so we end up carefully planning how we're going to make "the rounds" without ticking anyone off.

Well it turns out this year, that no one and I mean no one had a big party this year. To top it off, usually when we come home at night every year, it's hard to park our car, because our neighbor at the end of the street has all of her friends over, literally lining up the entire block. This year, it was still hard to park the car, but only because the Neighbors Dog was in our driveway. When I took him over to her house, it only then hit me that her house was empty. I asked, "Where's the big party you guys usually have?" She replied, "Well, with Gas, Food and everything else going up and away, we just didn't have the money to do anything this year."

It's pretty sad to see my friends and family this way. Everyone basically canceling trips, canceling parties, not being able to enjoy themselves, because their taxes are going through the roof, their food prices and of course, the biggest problem of all, their Gas prices.

What sickens me the most about this, is the apparent lack of concern that Congress has over this whole issue. When Nancy Pelosi came riding into Congress 2 years ago, she promised to do something about Gas prices that have gone up over 35% in the previous 6 years. Well instead of doing something to make things better, her and the Democrats fought to take lands away from Oil Drilling, and do everything possible to stop all use of Fossil Fuels and Nuclear energy. Instead of fixing the problem, over the past 2 years, we've seen prices just about double, or three times the rate of the previous 6 years. To top it off, because of Ethanol, we now see food prices higher than they've ever been, and if Obama wins, just to add icing to the cake, we can look forward to having our taxes increased. Yay!!

I guess this is one of the reasons why I keep writing about this issue, because only if we stick together, only if we make enough noise together, will we see any kind of results.

Good Night, and I hope you've had a GREAT 4th of July.

Operation Drill Bit Showing Success!!

I'd like to give a BIG thanks to everyone who participated in the Schnitt Show's Operation Drill Bit that we've been promoting here at No Socialism! Apparently, our efforts have not gone in vain and congress is starting to take notice.

Rep Ginny Brown-Waite, gave a speech to Congress in which she talked bout receiving Drill Bits from Constituents as their way of letting Congress know that the time has come for America to Drill and provide for it's own resources.

Again, we need to remember that's this is not just about drilling for oil, it's also about building more Nuclear Power Plants as Europe has done is is continuing to do. It's also about doing more about alternatives that we have the technology to take advantage of now, like Coal to Oil Gasification and Shale to Oil technologies. It's about ending the diversion of our food supply that's driving up our food prices. It's about ending the Stonewalling that's going on with the Democrats blocking every attempt to expand drilling and expand energy here in America.

I think we all need to go another round with these guys to let them know we're still watching them. If possible, "Adopt" a Democrat to send an extra set of Drill Bits to, perhaps I don't know, maybe someone like Congressman David Obey. Let him know that a policy of "No", just won't cut it. Let him know that Bills like "Use it or lose it" are not any kind of solution, but yet another roadblock. If you need his address, it's:

Congressman Dave Obey
First Star Plaza
401 5th Street,
Suite 406A
Wausau, Wisconsin 54403-5468

Please remember to help out by signing Newt's Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less initiative, and participate in Operation Drill Bit, to Flood Washington with Drill Bits. These initiatives will help remind Congress that they are in Washington to represent "We The People" and should follow our directives.

Geologist Say "Use It Or Lose It" Bill Will Increase Prices

After writing my article about how David Obey (D-Wis) was Shielding Democrats From Embarrassment by shutting down the appropriations process so they wouldn't have to vote on provisions to increase drilling here in the U.S. (since most Democrats would vote against more drilling), I was challenged by one of my readers about the facts that the Oil industry already has thousands of leases that they're not using. Other than the obvious, which is, who in their right mind doesn't want to make money, I did a bit of research to find more specifics on this subject.

There's an article written by Nick Snow in the Washington Editor that has an interesting story on this, and on how the American Association of Petroleum Geologist (AAPG) is cautioning congress on the actions they're about to take. Here are some highlights on the letter they wrote:

"As Congress considers measures to deal with high crude oil prices, I urge caution. Policies that increase exploration costs, decrease the available time to properly evaluate leases, and restrict access to federal lands and the Outer Continental Shelf do not provide the American people with short-term relief from high prices and undermine the goal of increasing stable long-term supplies," he said in a June 23 letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), and Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).

The letter is significant because AAPG and its leaders rarely take public positions on political issues. It is an apparent response to H.R. 6251, which House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-W.Va.) introduced on June 12. Formally called the Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act of 2008, the legislation has become known as the "Use it or lose it" bill because it would require federal oil and gas leaseholders to promptly develop or relinquish their leases. Republicans are concerned that it could reach the House floor this week without hearings or a markup.

H.R. 6251's assumption is flawed, Green suggested in his letter. "The process of leasing, evaluating, drilling and developing an oil or natural gas field typically takes 5-10 years. Some fields come online sooner. Others are delayed by permitting or regulatory delays or constraints in the availability of data acquisition and drilling equipment and crews. Large projects and those in deep water may require a decade or more to ramp up to full production,"

'Intensive assessment'
Geologists begin an intensive assessment once a lease is awarded, he continued. They collect new geological, geophysical, and geochemical data to better understand the lease area's geology. If they see no evidence of a suitable trap, the producer will relinquish the lease. But if they see a trap that looks interesting, the lessee will hire a drilling rig to find out if the geologists are right.

"Drilling is the true test of the geologists' model, and it isn't a decision to be made lightly. Drilling costs for a single well can range from $500,000 for shallow onshore wells to over $25 million for tests in deep water offshore," Green noted.

Access required
"As you can see, oil and natural gas exploration is not simple and it is not easy," Green told the House leaders. "It requires geological ingenuity, advanced technologies, and the time to do the job right. It also requires access to areas where exploration areas can be tested—the greater the number of areas available for exploration, the higher the chance of finding oil and gas traps."


If you want to see the entire article, follow this link. If you really want to learn more about how Oil Drilling works, you should check out Black Gold on TruTV:


You can also help out by signing Newt's Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less initiative, and participate in Operation Drill Bit, to Flood Washington with Drill Bits. These initiatives will help remind Congress that they are in Washington to represent "We The People" and should follow our directives.

02 July 2008

Obey (D-Wis) Shields Democrats From Embarrassment

On June 26th. 2008, with Oil prices approaching $140.00 a Barrel, the lead Congressional Appropriations Committee Chairman, Congressman David Obey, D-Wis, shut down the Appropriations process in a move designed to shield Democrats from the embarrassment of voting against expanded Oil & Gas Drilling.

Jerry Lewis, the panels ranking Republican tried to add an energy amendment to the Interior-Environment appropriations bill designed to ease prices at the pump. Apparently, the move infuriated Obey, commenting: "We can spend time on real things, or in a playpen with Jerry Lewis. The latter doesn't interest me" Lewis later responded by saying, “I believe that it would be unconscionable for Congress to leave for the Fourth of July recess without doing anything substantive to address the difficulties facing all of our constituents due to the skyrocketing rise in gas prices”.

Earlier in the week, Obey ridiculed the idea that holding a markup of the Interior bill before recess would lead to lower prices at the pump, but regardless of when it's done, the Democrats seem to have an obsession with saying things like, "Well that's not going to help prices right now" While true that prices won't go down immediately, many of these provisions will help to lower prices in the future, and since most commodities are traded on "Futures Contracts", even things that will help in a year, would have shorter term benefits. The point is, the faster we get these provisions passed, the faster we will start to see some relief.


I've written previously on how Republicans face an uphill battle when it comes to trying to get congress to vote on expanded Oil drilling, Coal Gasification and Shale to Oil development, which most Democrats have been opposed to. You would think with new polls out, showing many more Americans are giving higher priority to more energy exploration, rather than more conservation, this would have changed the Democrats minds, but no they are still blocking all efforts to expand our nations energy supply.

Democrats insist that Oil companies already have leases on Millions of Acres, that they're not currently exploiting, but that doesn't really make any sense. Exxon, the largest energy company in the U.S. for example only pumps 2.5 Million of the 5.6 Million a day (as of 2007) that it refines. That means that Exxon must pay full market price for the 3.1 Million Barrels a day that it refines, but doesn't pump itself, or $434,000,000.00 a day. The most expensive oil out there, on Federal Public Lands, would only cost Mobile a third of that or less, so I seriously doubt that Exxon would be willing to leave over $100 Billion a year on the table. If they could drill it themselves, a 100 Billion Dollar a year incentive is all that they would need. My suspicion is that the Oil that Congress is talking about either doesn't exist, or is not economically recoverable, since these guys usually obtain the leases first, then drill to see if there's anything there afterwards.

The truth is that despite the Publics outrage over Gas prices, Democrats feel that the high prices at the pump will be good for them in November, because they feel that the public will blame this on the Administration, and by proxy on John McCain. They're counting on the fact that most Americans are informed via the Liberal Media, that doesn't report things like why there have been 31 Republican introduces bills from Jan, 2005 through then end of 2007 that have been killed by the Democrats, each one seeking to expand energy development. They also don't report things like how during that same time period, Democrats have introduces 18 pieces of legislation, with most passing that have effectively increased the regulations on the Oil and Gas industry, along with Moratoriums on Shale and Coal Gasification.

Another problem is that many Democrats read Articles like Time's "10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas" and think that most Americans agree with them on keeping fossil fuel prices high. So they're thinking we actually like high gas prices! We want Starbucks closing 600 stores, we want the Airlines eliminating flights, we want truckers losing their jobs. Is it just me, or are the Democrats sorely out of touch?

2008 has been no different with the Democrats in congress blocking all attempts at expanding production, Shale to Oil has been stopped, and so has Coal Gasification, all while Americans are suffering more than ever.

Some of my readers have accused me of writing "Partisan Tripe", giving preference to Republicans over Democrats, but the truth is, that Democrats are Opposed to drilling, they are opposed to Shale to Oil, they are opposed to Coal Gasification. They instead want us to rely on some future, yet undiscovered energy source that we can't yet afford to power our future, and I'm afraid that we're going to end up like California did a few years ago with Rolling Blackouts, and like the 70's with long lines at the gas stations.

I, like most Americans just don't have the $50,000.00 that it would take to convert HALF my home to Solar, I just don't have the $60,000.00 that it would take to get an all electric Sedan to replace my VW W8, or hell, even just the $25,000.00 it would take to trade it in for a Hybrid Camry. I also don't have the $50,000.00 that it would take to replace my Sequoia with a Hybrid Tahoe. So I, like most Americans have to reduce what I'm spending on everything else, costing jobs all across the economy.

If you want lower gas prices and plenty of energy available for you and your children, then I encourage you to contact Congressman David Obey and ask him why is he blocking votes on lifting moratoriums on Oil and Gas explorations, and why he's opposed to Coal to Oil Gasification, and why he's opposed to Shale to Oil development. You can also call him at (715) 842-5606, or send him a nice little fax at (715) 842-4488. If you want to write him a letter, you can contact him at:
Congressman Dave Obey
First Star Plaza
401 5th Street,
Suite 406A

Wausau, Wisconsin 54403-5468


You can also help out by signing Newt's Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less initiative, and participate in Operation Drill Bit, to Flood Washington with Drill Bits. These initiatives will help remind Congress that they are in Washington to represent "We The People" and should follow our directives.

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