Daily Rant – September 14, 2009
September 14, 2009
The President says the legislation is budget neutral. It’s a lie and saying it over and over will not make it true. The health care plan will cost trillions of additional dollars to insure every American, and Obama knows it. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are all broke because they cost more and more every year. So why continue to push the program and even lie in order to get people to support it? There are several reasons I can think of and have written about before in this column.
One reason is that by taking over one-sixth of our nation’s economy, it gives government much more power over our lives. Why would anyone in America want to do that? Why do people have this utopian idea that someday if we implement socialism completely and let the government take over everything all will be well. I guesss that’s what they really think. But it is not American. Freedom is what we are all about.
Another reason, and I think this is one that is never talked about, is that by nationalizing health care, all the workers in the private sector will then become government workers. Right now government unions, and unions in general, support Democrats. With new unions on board to support them, Democrats will be in power forever, or at least increase their chances to do so. To make my point, unions who have negotiated great benefits packages for their members are supporting Obamacare. Now why would they do that?
One of the reasons why we can’t do this is because we don’t have the money. Fortunately or unfortunately, the bad economy has opened people’s eyes that government is WAY over budget with no hopes of balancing it in the near future. We are broke, as a nation. The government is either borrowing or printing money at an alarming rate. Our politicians are like thieves who have stolen someone’s wallet and have been charging goods and services on the victim’s credit card with no regard to what will happen when the bill comes.
Another reason is that we are the United States of America. We are the beacon of freedom around the world. People have come here from other countries to get away from tyranny. So how does being FORCED into a government health care system fit into that? It doesn’t.
I was told by a fellow who runs a drug and alcohol treatment center something I will never forget. I asked him why he didn’t work with the government programs and only took patients who had private health insurance or could pay for treatment themselves. His response was that he had in the past. But he cautioned by saying, “you never want to do business with the government. Once you do, they are your partners and your ability to run the business the way you want is gone.” So it will be true with health care.
As I’ve pointed out before, what is to keep government from denying treatment to people who are now or ever have practiced bad health behavior by smoking or over-eating? Nothing. Once they run health care, it is the bureaucrats who will be making those decisions. If you don’t believe me, look at the IRS and how it is run.
- FedUpEditor
High Gas Prices Drive Down Traffic Fatalities
August 25, 2008
You may have noticed gas prices coming down all on their own without the help of congress. Don’t be fooled. Nothig has been solved. This is the natural effect of high gas prices causing people to drive less, thus increasing the supply that’s on hand and, in return, lowering the price per gallon.
Here is a related story from the AP – Joan Lowery [clueless] about a side benefit of high gas prices. She’s trying to put the spin on that high gas prices are good because they lower the number of highway fatalities.
Roll back the clock to 1961: John F. Kennedy was inaugurated president. The Peace Corps was founded. The Dow Jones industrials hit 734. Gasoline reached 31 cents a gallon.
And the number of people killed in U.S. traffic accidents that year topped 36,200.
This year, gasoline climbed over $4 a gallon, and the traffic death toll — according to one study — appears headed to the lowest levels since Kennedy moved into the White House.
The number is being pulled down by a change in Americans’ driving habits, which is fueled largely by record high gasoline prices, according to the Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan.
The institute’s study — which covers 12 months ending in April — found that as gas prices rose, driving and fatalities declined. The surprise, said Professor Michael Sivak, author of the study, was the huge decline in fatalities in March and April as gasoline prices surged above $3.20 a gallon.
Over the previous 10 months, monthly fatalities declined an average of 4.2 percent compared to the previous year. Then, Sivak’s data shows, fatalities dropped 22.1 percent in March and 17.9 percent in April of this year — numbers that did not show up in a recent federal report that tracked a drop in traffic deaths through the end of 2007.
The declines found by Sivak suggest that motorists reached what he calls a “tipping point” and have begun significantly changing their behavior — altering not only how much they drive, but where, when and how they drive. Sivak said early data for May and June show similar trends.
“There is something more than just the reduction in driving that has to be brought in as an explanation for the huge drop in fatalities,” Sivak said.
If the pattern continues for the rest of this year, it would lead to “an unheard of improvement” in motor vehicle fatalities, said Sivak, who used data from the National Safety Council, National Center for Health Statistics and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
So why not start charging us $10 a gallon? We’d all be that much safer. Of course, we wouldn’t be able to drive anywhere, but what the heck? Read the rest of this inane story here.
MORE On the Sierra Club Commercial
July 31, 2008
We recently posted an article about the Sierra Club commercial supporting McNerney of Pleasanton, CA and asking you to call to support his position on not drilling offshore.
Politicker.com reported on July 27, 2008
The environmental group Sierra Club is launching a radio advertisement Monday praising several freshmen congressional Democrats who are engaged in competitive re-election races this fall for what the organization says has been their aggressive stance against oil companies. Amongst those members the Sierra Club is defending is U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Stockton).
They continue:
“All this week, you’ll be hearing about the billions of dollars in record high profits the big oil companies are making,” an announcer says in the 60-second Sierra Club spot entitled “Rolling in It.” “They’re raking it in while we’re feeling the pain of four dollar a gallon gas. Let’s face it — big oil has our economy, our energy policies and our politics in a strangle-hold. But Congress still has a chance to break that hold, to pass legislation that provides price relief and helps hard working families instead of the oil industry.
“Call Congressman Jerry McNerney… Thank him for standing up to the oil companies. Ask him to keep voting to end the billions in government giveaways to big oil, to crack down on the price gouging that’s keeping gas prices so high, and to invest in renewable energy and give consumers more, cleaner energy choices.”
The last 2 paragraphs sum it up nicely:
“I don’t know what’s more remarkable – that the Sierra Club is actually defending high gas prices, or that the politicians responsible for today’s record gas prices have finally found a constituency happy about it,” Freedom’s Watch spokesman Ed Patru [hero] said in response to the ad. “The fact is, every member of Congress who votes against more domestic production is out of touch, and Sierra Club is defending the indefensible.”
McNerney, a first-term incumbent, is facing a battle for re-election against former state Assemblyman Dean Andal.
Salazar [clueless] and Limbaugh [hero] Face Off
July 26, 2008
From the Rush Limbaugh radio show on July 23, 2008:
Senator Ken Salazar Stands in the Way of Lower Gas Prices
Rush Limbaugh: I wanted to alert you to the latest blowup between myself and the esteemed Democrat senator from Colorado, one Ken Salazar. I have here in my formerly nicotine stained fingers, ladies and gentlemen, a copy of the story at the Denver Post by Anne C. Mulkern: “Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh attacked Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado today on the oil shale issue, while Democrat Salazar said the debate is not about lowering gas prices but about helping oil companies.
The story continues:
“In the 2004 election cycle, Ken Salazar ran as a new kind of Democrat: a guy not beholden to liberal ideology, who would do what’s right for the country. That rhetoric proved effective in Colorado, and Salazar won his Senate seat. This week, the Interior Department will unveil new regulations to allow the sale of oil shale leases on federal land. In the Western states, those leases could eventually unlock up to 800 billion barrels of oil. Last month, President Bush spelled out what that would mean for America, saying that one major deposit in the Rocky Mountain West alone would equal current annual oil imports for more than one hundred years! But guess who’s blocking the way? Yep. Ken Salazar (Democrat-Colorado). Last year Senator Salazar slipped language into a bill to bar the federal government from issuing final regulations for commercial oil-shale development.
“Even with $4-a-gallon gasoline, Ken Salazar (Democrat-Colorado) and his fellow Democrats are still preventing America from using our own resources to lower gas prices and create new jobs. In fact, Democrats — having killed off any chance of a gas-tax holiday — reportedly now want to raise the federal tax that you pay on each gallon of gas by ten cents, up to 28-plus cents per gallon! The moral, ladies and gentlemen (in case you haven’t figured it out) is that ‘new’ Democrats don’t exist. Running on change, running as a ‘new’ Democrat, running on being a moderate, only happens while running for office. In office, Salazar and his ilk revert to the same old liberals that they have always been — which means they don’t give a rat’s rear end about you or your gasoline price. That comes second, third or fourth, their own, the election,” and, of course, party loyalty.
Read the rest of the transcript here.
Essentially, Mr. Salazar said in an interview in an effort to set the record straight, “‘[Limbaugh is] spreading falsehoods along with many of the people who want us to essentially give away the public lands of Colorado.’” He also said that this is a giant trick to enrich the oil companies. As Rush pointed out, who is at fault here? Speculators or the oil companies? And if the oil companies are not going to bring in the oil, then who is? McDonalds? Wal-Mart? Of course it will enrich oil companies, their investors and the rest of the country by lowering gasoline prices! So what? – Editor
Pickens Plan – Reducing our Dependence on Foreign Oil?
July 10, 2008
We should put this in the humor section. Windmills for cars? We saw a piece Sunday Morning with an interview on ex-oil man, T. Boone Pickens [clueless]. Apparently he thinks we are stupid. Does he think Katie Couric is stupid? His proposal is to have windmills replace oil imports… Our respose: Huh?
Windmills create electricity and so far no cars run on electricity only. Hybrids generate their own electricity so they wouldn’t use energy from his product anyway. In fact, the ones that do use only a battery can travel a very short distance. Imagine how much produce would cost for truckers to get across country with an electric engine that only gets 30-50 miles per charge! Besides, the food would spoil. But the blurb on his website reads, “How can we reduce our dependence on foreign oil?” The answer is DOMESTIC DRILLING, not wind turbines!
While we support alternative sources like wind and solar, it will not help lower gas prices or reduce our dependence on foreign oil as his promo promises. Right now coal and hydroelectric produce most of our electricity, not oil! And did you know that wind power is subsidized by the government because it costs more to produce than it earns in the market place? That’s our money, folks. Our taxes go to subsidize his business. How many of you get government grants to run your business? Look, if he’s a rich Texas oil man, let him use his own money, not money paid in taxes by POOR people!
Drive 55 Conservation Project
July 6, 2008
Started by Tim Castleman of Sacramento, the video says a lot that sounds good, unless you examine the facts. He wants everyone to drive 55 to save gas do we can cut our dependence on foreign oil… HOW? We will not be getting our oil from the Middle East (actually we get most of it from Canada anyway, but let’s continue for the sake of argument) whether we drive 55 or 75 or 85? YES. So it’s simply not true that it will change where we get our oil no matter what the speed limit is.
Apparently Tim has never heard the saying, “time is money”. If we all have to drive 55, there will be less time to do things we enjoy because it will take longer to get where we are going. And it adds up over time. Think of the road rage it will cause for people (like us) who are stuck behind these morons because they refuse to buy into this nonsense.
Driving 55 is patriotic? HOW? I see no correlation. I guess they are harkening back to the days of WWII where rationing was considered patriotic. But then we were short on resources. Today we are not… except that we refuse to allow oil companies to go get the oil. But we’re going to make sure that changes.
One of his first comments on the YouTube video is, “That’s the spirit of America you hear out there…” What, the 5 or so car horns of people who probably are honking at the American Flag and the Uncle Sam outfit?… They probably can’t read the message! He should have beefed up the sounds of support!
“Uncle Sam” claims driving 55 will improve the environment… Again, HOW? Are we not still burning fossil fuels? And isn’t the output still carbon dioxide from our catalytic converters? HOW does that improve the environment one iota? And don’t plants need carbon dioxide? So how is that a pollutant anyway?
Finally he wraps up by saying it will help the troops… How did they get in there? We are all for conserving energy when it makes sense, but we do not need a federal speed limit to take us back to the 70’s any more than we need disco to make a comeback.
Visit the Drive 55 website and give them an earfull!
This will solve our gas problem? Another rocket scientist!
July 6, 2008
Democrats stand to lose big on the oil issue
June 20, 2008
Chris Kelly has an OLD fetish… extreme environmentalism.
If you take what they are saying at the Huffington Post to heart, this oil run up is Bush’s fault. Chris Kelly (CLUELESS MEDIA TYPE) has just written a piece that says essentially that. It has been a Democratic talking point for over 4 years now. Enough is enough. We need to work together and solve this problem. Even liberals are tired of ever-increasing gas prices!
This article makes the dubious assertion that Senator David Vitter’s (HERO) new plan E.N.O.U.G.H, which stands for Energy Needed Offshore Under Gas Hikes, proposes to drill in the Gulf without consideration for the environment. Hogwash. US Oil companies are some of the cleanest, most environmentally conscious corporations, moreso than Venezuela, China or the Middle East. His points are ludicrous and ridiculous, but appropriate considering the audience he is writing for… a liberal left wing blog, not a place where there is a lot of real discussion. He says:
Here’s how Vitter says it works:
The ENOUGH Act would trigger increased energy exploration off a state’s own coast once the price of regular gasoline reaches $5 a gallon. Once the ENOUGH Act’s trigger is reached, it allows a governor, with the concurrence of the state legislature, to petition for increased energy exploration on the Outer Continental Shelf.
It makes a kind of brutish sense if you don’t think about it too hard. He’s not saying that the Gulf of Mexico isn’t a fragile ecosystem, or that we shouldn’t honor the earth and water, and guard them as a holy trust. He’s just saying once gas gets to five bucks, screw it. It’s every plant and animal for himself.
What a twit. We hate to start the name calling, but Mr. Kelly is obiously in the tank for those who would harm our country and our economy. How could it be anything else? This is a serious issue and he’s making jokes and throwing insults at the people who are trying to solve it!
One comment made the point that if Democrats don’t start to look for solutions, Republicans will own this issue in the fall and turn the election on its head. People will not stand for much more, not Republicans, Democrats or Independents. Mark our words.
Blogger Chairman Mao spanks O’Reilly
June 17, 2008
I have not heard Bill O’Reilly and do not know where he stands on the oil situation. However, the column by Chairman Mao leads me to believe O’Reilly is wrong on the issue:
Comrade (Bill) O’Reilly is mad at “Big Oil” . He warns that Republicans are on the “wrong side” of the issue and would be soaked come November. Comrade O’Reilly has his numbers all wrong.
Out of every dollar you pay at the pump for gasoline; fourteen cents go to “big oil.” Twenty Seven cents go to taxes. Very simple math: “Big Government” makes twice as much as “big oil” out of every gallon.
Can Comrade O’Reilly mention any other industry were government makes twice as much as the industry? Is very easy to calculate; if the oil industry made $280 million dollars in profits that means they paid almost $600 billion dollars in Taxes.
Our Socialist government, and apparently Bill O’Reilly, will want to keep the discussion of gasoline prices and “Global Warming” separate. So they blame “big oil.” The truth is that gasoline prices and Al Gore’s Global Warming are intimately related.
Read the rest of the blog post here.
MSNBC contributor, John W. Schoen, joins the list of dunderheads who don’t get it!
June 13, 2008
To begin with, the report is erroneous in the fact at it UNDER estimates the price per gallon in the US. Here in California, at $4.89.9 a gallon, the price is fast approaching $5.00 a gallon with no end in sight! What’s MSNBC contributor, John Schoen’s, solution? Drive less! How does that bring prices DOWN? Once again, politicians and media types shifting the blame back to us… because we drive too much! How does that LOWER gas prices???
Baloney! Try walking to San Francisco from Mill Valley everyday for work, Mr. Schoen. Take public transit you say? It’s hard to get my clients to ride the bus when other people in my line of work are driving them around in a luxurious Lexus or Mercedes sedans!
Read more of his stupid suggestion as well as the video (after a brief commercial) here.
