One Month of Chaos

At the end of the week, Congress will adjourn for the month during this recession-like period where we need an active government the most. Yet, the oil crisis still remains unsolved with not even a simple action. At the same time, there has been so much deadlock within Congress that it seems like they've been on vacation since last year's elections. Nancy Pelosi continues to put the economic life of the country in check in order to further her extreme liberal agenda. The oil crisis is probably the lead cause in the current economic downturn and there is still nothing even on the table to fix it. President Bush and Senate Republicans are rightly calling for an emergency session during the scheduled vacation period in order to deal with this dire issue. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) said that Congress should not be taking a vacation in this situation while Americans are struggling to make their own vacation plans. We should reduce our dependence on foreign oil, which both parties agree on. The Democrats think that cutting down on speculation is simply the way to fix the situation. In reality, our dependence on other nations' oil is virtually making the U.S. a world hostage. I think both parties would like to see oil retired as our biggest source of energy, but as of now there is no alternative. The only thing we can do now is to get our own oil off of our shores, on our mainland, and in Alaska. We must acquire as much of our own resources in order to have more funding for new fuels and to allow for more Americans to be able to go on vacations again.

Flip-Flops We Can Believe In...

The Obama campaign has long tied McCain to the "usual Washington politics" because he was connected to and has former lobbyists in his campaign. Barack Obama, however, claimed that he would not take money or be swayed by Washington lobbyists. He promised all of us that he wants to bring a "change" to Washington and that he would act in the people's best interest. This is the same candidate who was swayed so much this year that he wanted up to $300 million worth of pork-barrel spending so that our tax-payer dollars could fund projects in Illinois that we may never personally see. What a waste of money. Shouldn't states use their state citizens' money instead of hundreds of millions of others who don't reside in that state? It's sad that pork-barrel lobbying can make a politician's judgment, such as Obama's, so confused and irrational. Obama's pledge was to never accept lobbyist funding but being swayed by them to fund ridiculous projects sounds basically the same to me. To show how convoluted Obama's message is on lobbying, here is an example of funds donated by lobbyists to both parties: $3.3 million for McCain and $4.7 million for Obama. So before Obama makes attacks on McCain's lobbyist money, Obama should look at his own amount which is much higher than the amount McCain received. Just like his acceptance of money he said he would never accept, Obama has created a long list of flip-flops between running for the party and now running for president.

Here is just a glimpse into his top 5 favorite flip-flops:

(1) His reversals on "special interest" money. He pointed out, during the primary season, that both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards accepted the donations of union money. Now, Obama is happy to accept money from the "working people" of America (notice the change in language).

(2) Remaining on the money topic, in 2007, Obama said he would accept public financing during his presidential bid. However, after he won the Democratic nomination, he said he wouldn't accept this financing, which limits the amount of money you can get from the public.

(3) In 2004, Obama wanted to end the U.S. embargo on Cuba because he said it failed to overthrow the communist regime there. Now, however, while speaking to Cuban Americans in Miami in 2007, Obama said that we should keep the embargo because it will lead to "change".

(4) In 2004, Obama opposed the idea of the government cracking down on businesses that hire illegal immigrants. Earlier this year, Obama said that we should crack down on businesses that are taking advantage of the situation.

(5) Finally, there is the case of marijuana. In early 2004, Obama told college students in Illinois that he supported eliminating penalties for marijuana uses. At a presidential debate in 2007, Obama and his other Democrat counterparts agreed that the use of marijuana is illegal and should be punishable offenses.

Oil, The Final Frontier

Oil is to cigarettes as domestic drilling is to the nicotine patch. While oil has been at a slow decrease in price over the past 2 weeks, it is still at an astronomical rate and will need much more action to get it even lower. There are motions in the Senate, which pauses for a month long break in August, that are trying many things to try and curb foreign energy demands. There is, however, gridlock in the sense of how to go about reducing the price at the pump. On the Republican side, the motion is to increase domestic oil production (whether offshore or onshore), something which nearly 75% of Americans approve. The Democrats, on the other side, want to create laws restricting speculation in our markets, which many believe is also increasing oil prices. How are we going to curb speculation if a move like this will only create more speculation. Sure we can "illegalize" speculation in this country but that will only increase speculation in all other nations causing more increases in oil prices. With the relatively weak dollar, we cannot afford to take risky chances just because one party has a different idea. The Democrat held Congress/Senate has showed that they can only operate on a partisan basis, even at the cost of all Americans suffering from everything from oil prices to failing housing markets. The last thing we need to do is increase speculation as to our oil addiction. Still, other Democrats are saying that we should avoid oil altogether. That's fine, but what do we have to replace it? Although T. Boone Pickens has his own plan for domestic energy, these new technologies are still 15 to 20 years away from cost effectiveness and practicality. I think we all stand united in the fact that we will ultimately need to switch to alternative and domestic energies especially for the sake of our future economy and the environment. However, we need to make sure the energy available is the most cost effective possible in order to be finished with the "nicotine patch" part of our energy crisis. Then we can move on to the "free of smoke" phase and live happily ever after.

The Pickens Plan

Today, Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens went to Capitol Hill to discuss his multi-billion dollar plan to reduce America's dependence on foreign energy. The Texas billionaire shows that he and his company are prepared to invest in solar, natural gas, and especially wind energy. Our country has a vast "wind corridor" stretching from Texas to the Canadian border where wind turbines could be placed which could increase the domestic energy supply by 20% or more. Along with his money, Pickens said that private investors will also help foot the bill on this great conservative project. Pickens is so confident in this that he is also investing a personal $2 billion in this great project to become less energy dependent.

When asked about the offshore drilling question (which McCain approves of and Obama does not), Pickens says we should not just focus on the Southeastern Coast and the West Coast but our deposits on our own homeland, especially in ANWR which can reduce our dependence considerably. Pickens predicts that our country will be entirely energy/oil independent by 2050. The quest for energy independence will also create thousands of more jobs which will benefit this nation altogether. It's sad that an oilman/investor has to tell Congress how to do their job. The Democrats in Congress are trying to hold out for 20 more years until we develop altogether new sources of energy and that is 20 years we don't have to fix this country. We have Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to thank for this. No wonder why their approval ratings are even lower than President Bush.

German media for Obama?

It appears Germany's left-wing media machine is trying to ensure an Obama victory by spreading complete lies about Iraq. A German magazine reported Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki as saying "U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months...That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes." al-Maliki says that this quote is not what he said at all. Ali al-Dabbagh, a government spokesman, said that "the possibility of troop withdrawal was based on the continuance of security improvements, echoing statements that the White House made Friday after a meeting between al-Maliki and U.S. President Bush." (CNN) So, clearly Obama is the German media's (and no doubt all liberal medias') guy. I would just like to point out that no one, not even the president, want to see our troops in any combat situation for long periods of time. When John McCain says that we could see troops in Iraq for 100 years, he means (and has said time and time again) that we could see a military presence there. This is just like the presence of troops we still have in Germany, Japan, and South Korea. To think that we can simply leave Iraq in what General Petraeus has called "fragile stability" is just plain idiotic. So what happens after we leave (before both Iraqi leadership and our generals on the ground tell us to) and Iraq falls back into terrorist hands? We have to go back to save the innocent people of Iraq from a genocide. This means more civilian deaths and more of our brave soldiers' deaths. We can all point fingers as to why the whole thing began in the first place but the reality is that we are in the situation we see today. There is no doubt that the McCain troop surge strategy has worked and is working so that one day we could voluntarily leave a fully functional democratic republic in Iraq. This process will take time and I think we owe it to the future of Iraq and the future of a terrorism free Middle East to pursue this fight until the end.

A Trap for Obama

Next week the Illinois senator and presumptive democratic nominee Barack Obama will be overseas instead of campaigning in his own country. Obama's trip includes Jordan, Israel, meeting with the terrorist organization running Palestine, Germany, France, and the UK. Obama has also been pressured to go to Afghanistan for the first time ever and Iraq for only the second time, but the first time since the successful troop surge. It will be up to the Obama campaign to decide how to minimize the damage of visiting or not visiting Iraq and Afghanistan. The McCain campaign has painted Obama into a corner on this one. On one hand, Obama not visiting Iraq/Afghanistan means that he will continue to show his ignorance with foreign policy by making judgments about the situation in these countries without going to the theaters or listening to the commanders on the ground. If Obama does go, however, people will be eying a possible change in strategy for Obama when it comes to our wars on terror. If Obama does not change his mind, he will be viewed as having learned nothing and ignoring the recommendations of the commanders on the ground. This lose-lose situation is up to the Obama campaign to make as less painful as possible. Obama's "World Tour" was decided based on polls such as the Washington Post/ABC News Poll which found that 72% of registered voters thought that McCain had sufficient foreign policy abilities where only 48% said the same of Barack Obama. Clearly, Senator McCain has the upper hand with "Commander and Chief" qualities.

Offshore Drilling

Today I watched an interview on CNN's "The Situation Room" between Wolf Blitzer and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. The first part of the interview was about America's growing support for offshore drilling as a way to reduce demand for foreign oil and thus reducing the overall cost for gas. A CNN/Opinion Research Poll taken between June 26-29 revealed that 73% of Americans approve of offshore drilling while only 27% disapprove. Despite this fact, Pelosi is still very much opposed claiming that it won't help. This is where President Bush comes in. Three days ago, President Bush told America that he would lift his ban on offshore drilling. In the past 3 days, the price of crude oil has dropped $6, $4, and today $5. Over the past week, the price of oil has dropped from $147 a barrel to $129, a drop of nearly $20!!! While this trend seems great, stock market speculation will probably regain control until we see the effects of adding more offshore drills. In addition to the thousands of offshore drilling acres available, there are even more acres available on our own soil in Montana, North Dakota, and in ANWR in Alaska. We also have a national oil reserve that is about 97% full. From all of these sources we can reduce our oil prices significantly, create more jobs, and reboot the economy. Many people are calling for the immediate implementation of new biofuels, however, while they help the environment, they are still much more expensive than the record prices we are currently paying for oil. Therefore, it makes sense to increase our own oil supply immediately to lessen the power overseas dictatorships have with our economy.

MLB All Star Game

The best way to start off this new blog is to talk about the most American thing of the day, the MLB All Star Game. Tonight the best of the majors gather at Yankee Stadium in New York to watch the exciting match-up between the seemingly always dominant American League and the National League. As a Braves fan living with Red Sox fans, it is a tough decision for me to make. Right now, the Braves are in a dire spot in their standings sitting at 6.5 games behind the division leading Philadelphia Phillies and an equally upsetting 7.5 games back in the Wild Card. Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox are at the top of everything. I have grown accustom to seeing a rather dominant Red Sox organization and admire their abilities to win. This is where my dilemma begins. If the Braves do not make the playoffs, there is no other team in the National League that I could follow. My fall-back position is always with the dominant force of Red Sox Nation. Therefore, I am not quite sure who to root for since the Braves situation seems dire at best. No matter what the outcome of this game is, it promises to be an exciting game between baseball's best.

Here are the lineups for starters:
AMERICAN LEAGUE
DH Milton Bradley Texas Rangers
C Joe Mauer Minnesota Twins
*1B Kevin Youkilis Boston Red Sox
*2B Dustin Pedroia Boston Red Sox
SS Derek Jeter New York Yankees
3B Alex Rodriguez New York Yankees
OF Ichiro Suzuki Seattle Mariners
OF Josh Hamilton Texas Rangers
*OF Manny Ramirez Boston Red Sox
P Cliff Lee Cleveland Indians

NATIONAL LEAGUE
DH Albert Pujols St. Louis Cardinals
C Geovany Soto Chicago Cubs
1B Lance Berkman Houston Astros
2B Chase Utley Philadelphia Phillies
SS Hanley Ramirez Florida Marlins
*3B Chipper Jones Atlanta Braves
OF Matt Holliday Colorado Rockies
OF Kosuke Fukudome Chicago Cubs
OF Ryan Braun Milwaukee Brewers
P Ben Sheets Milwaukee Brewers