What America Needs - re: Energy

Do those of you who were alive while Kennedy was in office remember what he did that got America to the moon? He stood up before the American people and got us all on the same team.

What the next President needs to do with our energy issues is the following:


Get in front of the American people and tell them we are in a fight for our sovereignty. We need to get off of foreign oil and we are going to do everything in our power to do that within the next 10 years. That is right 10 years - 100% off foreign oil. I do not want to hear that we cannot do that - this is the country that created the atomic bomb in a short time and put a man on the moon in the 1960's. We can do anything we set our minds to.
Then this President needs to engender in us the feeling that we are on a team with the same goal - no "damn democrats" or "raunchy republicans" just "Americans".

The approach needs to include:

• Drilling in the ANWR - and ANY place in the US that we have readily available oil reserves.
• No pussy footing around by the environmentalists - this is short term "pain" for long term gain. Shut them up for 10 years.
• Use our coal reserves to create clean coal to liquid fuel (yes, it can be done cleanly)
• Build more wind plants
• Build solar plants
• Build new nuclear plants
• Research and develop new RENEWABLE energy sources for our cars.
• Build better more fuel efficient cars
• Stop ethanol - it is a waste of time
• Do not export or sell energy outside the US.

If we did this and encouraged (with tax cuts and rebates) Americans to retrofit their homes with solar panels and (if they are in rural locales) wind turbines, we could be more green and free of foreign oil in less than 10 years. Fuel for cars would be cheap and our economy would boom. There is no need to drive a sardine can - our scientists can develop a fuel that can power whatever vehicle we want - cleanly and with a renewable fuel.

Radical Islam could kiss our butts and keep their damn oil. Our oil executives - who are smart - would diversify and build into the new technologies to retrain and keep their employees.

I want to see a President do this - and say to Hell with the naysayers. We CAN do it - and we need to before we are all sitting inthe dark because the Iranian President "I'm-a-nut-job" shut off the spigot.

You pick your option.

Close the borders - then we will talk!

While I understand the desire of our leaders for comprehensive immigration reform, I do not think that many in Washington clearly understand the issue.

If we allow 12 – 20 million illegal aliens to gain legal status and the right to work in the US legally, they will indeed drive down wages for many Americans who work hard for a living. I know many in the Senate say this will not happen. But, that is unrealistic. Given the opportunity to apply for legal jobs with some benefits, those workers who were previously working illegally for less, will still be able to #1 - secure a better paying job while # -still undercutting the wage earned by the current American worker.

This is not good for the economy. Why? Because that job has now been unrealistically depressed in wage and will now ONLY be filled by those who are willing to work – and live on less. What about the former American worker? They are now unemployed and on assistance and will not be able to get a job in their field – unless they are willing to work for less wages. This will mean a downward shift in the worker’s lifestyle, family situation – and most likely, home ownership. In turn, as this worker struggles to provide for his family, that family may slide towards bankruptcy, financial ruin and ultimately welfare. His hard earned paycheck will no longer be spent in the US economy.

On the other hand, the illegal alien is now making more than they were when they were illegal. They can send more money home to Mexico – money that will not be spent in the US economy. He is very happy now as a legal worker – and has no intention of assimilating into US society or culture. His children go to US schools – and make demands for Spanish speaking courses. The US culture is weakened, society is fractured, and this worker continues to support family back home in his country of origin. He is now able to apply to bring more of his family over to the US. They will need aid when first here – and maybe forever.

Tell me – where is the benefit to the United States? The only benefit is to the big corporation CEO’s and leaders who stand to make millions more in profit off the backs of these illicit workers.

The sttement by a Texas Senator; “For example, we must make certain that convicted criminals are not eligible for any legalization, and if these individuals attempt to stay here, that they are arrested and promptly deported. … We must ensure that only those who have played by the rules – and not those engaged in identity theft – receive Social Security benefits. This proposal would enable illegal immigrants to collect Social Security benefits for the time they were unlawfully in our country,” worries me. Because the point is that NONE of the 12 – 20 million illegal aliens who are here have played by the rules. Why should we consider rewarding them for their undocumented entry into the US? Would I or any other American citizen be rewarded for an “undocumented withdrawal” from our bank? I think not. None of them need to be given anything but a bus ticket back to their country of origin.

I also do not appreciate the President echoing Mr. Kennedy’s words that “deporting them is not the American way”. I have supported our President since his election, and I do still in many other ways. In this area he is flat wrong. His stubborn denial of the crisis this would cause in America may be the very undoing of the RNC in 2008. And let me tell you this – Hilary Clinton scares the heck out of me.

Stop this bill. We do not need one sweeping comprehensive bill to “change everything”. Start by passing a bill to close the borders. We do not want a North American Union like the EU. We want to be a sovereign nation with the ability to control who is in our country – and why. Close the borders – without amnesty. Then, once that is COMPLETED, I will talk to you about the status of the 12 - 20 million illegal aliens that are here.

Gas Prices and Truth

I would like to know what our Senators, Congressmen and other leaders are doing for the American public with regard to the price of gas at the pump.

I have to tell you that I feel as though the oil companies think we are just stupid as dirt when I hear baloney like “there were refinery problems”. That might explain things a little if it were not for the fact that:

• The oil companies control the refineries too – so it is to their advantage to have a “refinery problem” when fuel prices are falling to a point when Exxon Mobil will not make ridiculous record profits in a given quarter.

Given the ridiculous record profits, the oil companies should be spending SOME money to maintain the refineries – or – God forbid – build a new one someplace – or – drill for oil in the US!

So, I no longer buy the story from the oil companies. Neither do most Americans. Because we are not as stupid as Oil Company CEO’s and some politicians think we are. We simply must buy fuel to get to work and home again each day.

So, let me tell you a few things that are factors for Americans. We are not ignoring the calls to conserve fuel as the idiots in the media seem to think and report, “Americans are not cutting fuel use”. We are driving to work and home again. There are more of us driving to work and home again because the unemployment rates are down, there are new 16 year olds getting licenses every day and Americans are living (and driving) longer than ever before. So, we are not each using more, there are simply more of us.

The American people cannot continue to survive and fund our great economy with more and more of our income going to pay to get us to work and home again. Cuts will have to happen some place. Let me tell you where our family’s cuts are coming from. We were going to take a trip to the Grand Canyon this summer. We were going to drive there and take our horses with us for a family vacation. This would have been the first family vacation we have taken – ever. That is to say in the past 15 years that I have been working, I have never taken a vacation. We as a family were budgeting $2,500 plus another $500 for fuel to go on this trip. We are not taking that trip this summer. We are using that money to pay for the increase in our fuel and electric bills this summer. What does that do to the economy? We will still spend the money – right? Well, it will go to Exxon-Mobil or Chevron rather than tourism and entertainment. Rather than small businesses where we would have eaten, bought gifts, or spent the night, it will go to line the pockets of some of the most corrupt businessmen in the country; businessmen who are already multi-millionaires. Not small business owners who help to grow and fund our country by creating jobs.

How else is the economy hurting? The price of food and clothes is going up. We are spending the same on food, but we are getting less and less. Our budget does not allow for a vast increase in food expenses. So, we are buying cheaper cuts of meat and fish and cutting back on items. We are buying less clothing and shoes too. We will continue to do this until we either go bankrupt or things get better. Since I do not see the big Oil Companies suddenly getting a sense of decency and morality, I guess we will fail as a family and go the way of the rest of the average American….we will simply cease to hope for a vacation, get a second job and wither away and die.

May God help us all.

Ban "Cops & Robbers"? No, bring God back in!

I have been reading the news and am struck by how many people just have it wrong. There are calls for banning "violent children's playing like cops and robbers".

Please, give me a break with the "ooh, don't let them play good guys and bad guys". When we were growing up in the 60's, 70's and 80's kids played cops and robbers and Cowboys & Indians. Both boys and girls played.

Guess what?

There were no school shootings at that time. Why you ask?

Because our parents and role models, leaders and mentors have the grace and good sense to keep morality and God in our lives. There is no harm in children's pretend gun play - if there was, this would have exploded decades ago.

There is harm in locking our spiritual lives out of our communities.

It stuns me that the first thing we do in a National tragedy is to band together and pray. Candlelight vigils, convocations, memorial services - we always pray and ask God's blessing. Yet, when it is all over, we push and kick God out of the community.

We need to wake up and smell the coffee. Without a Spiritual life, we are denying 1/3 of ourselves. That leaves us empty inside and allows evil to fill the space.

There is a good reason our Founding Fathers based this great nation on Judeo-Christian principals. Without morals and values, this country will cease to exist - and I for one do not look longingly to Europe for a "new way of life".

America needs to rediscover her roots and embrace them!

God Bless us all

My heartfelt prayers to all those affected and grieving in Virginia and across this country.

I guess what I find so frustrating in all of this senseless violence is that over 90% of the messages, blogs and speeches made about this crime have said "Our prayers are with you; God Bless your community" or some such blessing. Why would God continue to bless us when we have pushed and kicked Him out of our lives, our schools, our communities?

If we really want to bless our friends and fellow citizens, ask God back into our daily lives and our towns. He will bless and keep us and forgive our lack of faith.

This has NOTHING to do with a criminal intent to get a weapon - the criminals ALWAYS have weapons - and EVERYTHING to do with the decline of morality in our society. Children would not kill if they had more regard for themselves and others.

Gun control is not the answer - and I will NOT give my guns up because of a Godless lunatic. Teach your children values, bring God back into our lives and leave the guns alone.

For God's sake would you like to become like Europe? An aside - to those who tout the UK and their lack of guns - violent crime has RISEN not lessened. Read the statistics. If ONE student or teacher on that campus had been armed, this would not be 33 dead. Some of those blessed people acted heroically - they would have been doubly so with a concealed carry permit.