The Ethanol Game

Moonbeams and stardust . . .

Barack Obama: Leader or Celebrity?

Barack Obama’s Race-card Celebrity

Congressional Culture of Corruption Continues 5

Congressional Culture of Corruption Continues 4

Congressional Culture of Corruption Continues 3

Hypocrisy on Parade

America’s Fifth Column

Congressional Culture of Corruption Continues 2

Federal Media Shield Bill

The Mudslinging Begins

Obama’s Economy

Who Is Barack Obama (Part 2)

General Election 2008

Habeas Corpus for Terrorists

Congressional Culture of Corruption Continues

Who Is Barack Obama (Part 1)

Drill Here

Democrat Party

In 2004, before the ethanol crisis materialized, corn sold a $2.00 per bushel. In 2005, our Congress imposed a renewable fuel standard (RFS) mandating the gasoline industry to blend ethanol into our fuel supply.  In 2007, Congress doubled the mandate, requiring upward of nine billion gallons of ethanol be blended into our gas supply in 2008.

The mandated use of “food for fuel” has caused food prices to escalate, hurting the poorer of us the most. This year, corn prices approach $8.00 per bushel, or a 300% increase since 2004. As a result, more land is devoted to corn with less land devoted to other crops, e.g., wheat. Food prices are sky-rocketing: cattle fed with corn; corn based products such as tortillas. Small companies based on corn are disappearing.

The World Bank analysis stated that bio-fuels have forced global food prices up by 75%, which contradicts the U.S. Government’s claims that bio-fuels contribute less than 3% to food price increases. Food price increases have placed 100 million more people below the poverty line, according to the World Bank, just as many liberals and socialists are demanding that America feed the World’s poor.

Ethanol supporters in Congress, primarily Democrats (Don’t Drill Here, Don’t Drill More, Pay More) are imposing a nationalistic program that is destroying segments of America’s economy. Establishing a stranglehold on America’s energy sector reflects what the Mussolinis, Hitlers, and Stalins of the world have done to control the masses and make people more dependent on the government for survival.  Already, the liberal-socialist faction of the Democrat Party has been able to create a two-class America: the 50% of Americans who pay income taxes versus the 50% of Americans who do not and are dependent on government largesse to live.

Already, countries around the world are beginning to ask serious questions about the bio-fuel industry and its impact on food prices. Ethanol was expanded as a renewable resource to off-set damage from so-called global warming. However, global warming, now called climate change, has been discredited by respected scientists and former global warming enthusiasts.

At the lead of serious scientists, Dr. Roy Spencer has published a required read for anyone interested in the facts of climate change (Climate Confusion – How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians, and Misguided Policies That Hurt the Poor). Even former advocates of global warming like David Evans admits that since 1999 through 2007, the evidence shows that carbon plays only a minor role and it is not the cause of global warming.

Arthur Herman, noted historian, observed that, “It has been a tough year for the high priests of global warming in the US. First, NASA had to correct its earlier claim that the hottest year on record in the contiguous US had been 1998, which seemed to prove that global warming was on the march. It was actually 1934. Then it turned out the world’s oceans have been growing steadily cooler, not hotter, since 2003. Meanwhile, the winter of 2007 was the coldest in the US in decades.

Roland Clift, Professor of Environmental Technology at Surrey University, believes the use of biofuels is likely to increase greenhouse emissions. Further, he stated, “Biodiesel is a complete scam because in the tropics the growing demand is causing forests to be burnt to make way for palm oil and similar crops.”  This deforestation is already occurring in Brazil, where rainforests are being destroyed to make way for sugar cane, the basis for Brazil’s primary biofuel.

It appears that bio-fuels such as ethanol, while lining the pockets of people like Al Gore with his carbon off-set scam, may be worse for our earth than oil.

Presumptive Presidential Celebrity Barack Obama is to the United States as Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown was to the State of California. Senator Obama’s scripted speeches are nothing less than moonbeams and stardust. Once you inhale the stardust you’ll believe anything he says, no matter how outrageous.

At the heart of Obama’s recently presented “New Energy Program” is a proposal to “Tackle Climate Change,” a euphemism for the discredited “global warming” scam promoted by the Socialist-Marxist faction of the Democrat Party. At the lead of serious scientists, Dr. Roy Spencer has published a required read for anyone interested in the facts of climate change (Climate Confusion – How Global Warming Hysteria Leads to Bad Science, Pandering Politicians, and Misguided Policies That Hurt the Poor). Even former advocates of global warming like David Evans admits that since 1999 through 2007, the evidence shows that carbon plays only a minor role and it is not the cause of global warming.

Arthur Herman, noted historian, observed that, “It has been a tough year for the high priests of global warming in the US. First, NASA had to correct its earlier claim that the hottest year on record in the contiguous US had been 1998, which seemed to prove that global warming was on the march. It was actually 1934. Then it turned out the world’s oceans have been growing steadily cooler, not hotter, since 2003. Meanwhile, the winter of 2007 was the coldest in the US in decades, after Al Gore warned us that we were about to see the end of winter as we know it . . . Politicians everywhere should be forced to take an oath similar to the Hippocratic oath taken by doctors: above all else, do no harm.”

Obama proposes to install a cap and trade program (another hidden tax) to reduce carbon emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Obama proposes to take $15 billion per year, ostensibly generated by auction allowances, to apply to research and development of clean energy.  Understand that only the private sector invents, creates, builds, and distributes. Government does not. The $15 billion a year is a rip-off of tax dollars, much like Bill Clinton’s “Peace Dividend.”

Obama’s scheme to take $15 billion a year will generate $615 billion through 2050.

He states he will invest $150 billion over ten years to help create five million “green” jobs. What kind of jobs are “green” jobs? No one knows. This is the type of program that Mussolini, Hitler, and Roosevelt implemented during the depression . . . and we are not even in a recession let alone a depression. In addition, he wants to invest in job training programs for clean technologies even though no one really knows what the jobs will be.

Barack Obama wants to implement a strategy that, in ten years, reduces our consumption of by more than we currently import from abroad. This is a rip-off of President Kennedy’s goal to place a man on the moon within ten years.  Obama’s Energy program is not President Kennedy’s moon program and Obama is no President Kennedy.

Obama proposes to put one million plug-in electric cars on the road by 2015 and provide a $7,000 tax credit for the purchase of such vehicles.  The cost of the tax credit for one million vehicles: $700 billion. The cost of the tax credit to replace the approximately 144 million registered vehicles on the road today: Over one trillion dollars. Obama can only accomplish this proposal by raising taxes to a draconian level.

The hypocrisy of Obama’s energy plan is his proposal to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (oil our military may need in defense of our country) and replace it “later.”  But Obama says no to drilling now. If he’s willing to drill later, why not drill now? 

Further, the maximum drawdown of our Strategic Reserve is 4.4 million barrels a day. We have approximately 707 million barrels in the Reserve. Obama will use the entire Reserve in 161 days and leave the United States virtually defenseless. If Obama draws only 10% of the Reserve, it will provide 16 days of oil, not enough to cushion the energy crisis but certainly enough to cripple our military in an emergency.

Moonbeams and stardust . . .

What other presumptive candidate for President actually campaigned in foreign countries instead of his own country?

What other presumptive candidate for President made it a point to give a speech in front of a symbol of Prussian triumphs over Austria, Denmark and France?

What other presumptive candidate for President stood in front of a symbol of war, while the German crowd, estimated at 200,000, chanted “Obama, Obama, Obama?”

The scene was disturbingly close to Adolph Hitler’s rallies. The only thing missing were search lights, pointing skywards, representing a Cathedral of Lights, in honor of the false Messiah.

Barack Obama’s arrogance and cockiness are palpable and painful. The presumptive Democrat candidate has become a butt of jokes. Even his fellow Democrats are derisively commenting: 

·         Maureen Dowd revealed Obama’s moniker used by the McCain campaign: “The One.” 

·         David Letterman listed the “Top Ten” indicators of Obama’s over-confidence, a clear indicator that American citizens have identified a character flaw.

·         Jon Stewart mockingly “reported” that the presumptive Democratic candidate traveled to Israel to visit his birthplace in Bethlehem.

·         After days of media mockery, Barack Obama has decided to stop using a presidential-looking seal that his campaign designed and affixed to his podium. Journalists said the seal smacked of arrogance.

As a result, Obama’s street credibility is eroding. The proof: McCain has caught up to Obama in the polls. It appears voters prefer a proven leader who demonstrates humilty.

The Obama campaign’s over-reaction to a McCain campaign’s advertisement comparing Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, empty-headed celebrities, was amusing. Obama’s campaign condescendingly dismissed the advertisement, reinforcing the image of Obama as arrogant.

Obama cannot outrun his “celebrity” label. Additionally,  Obama’s inability to speak coherently without a script reinforces the notion of being “empty-headed.”

Barack Obama, on July 30^th, in Missouri, declared:

“Nobody thinks that Bush and McCain have real answers to the challenges we face. So what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know, he’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name, you know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”[1]

Robert Gibbs, spokesman for the Obama campaign said Obama was not referring to race.[2]  The next day, August 1^st, Senator Obama’s chief strategist conceded that Obama was referring to his race when Obama stated, “he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”[3]  OOPS! Caught in another contradiction?

In February 2008, Sean Wilentz, Princeton Professor and Hillary Clinton supporter, authored an article entitled “Race Man.” Wilentz exposed Obama’s campaign strategy of subtle “race-baiting” during the primary.

“ . . . Rather, the Obama campaign and its supporters, well prepared to play the “race-baiter card” before the primaries began, launched it with a vengeance when Obama ran into dire straits after his losses in New Hampshire and Nevada - - and thereby created a campaign myth that has turned into an incontrovertible truth among political pundits, reporters, and various Obama supporters. This development is the latest sad commentary of the malign power of the press . . . it is also a commentary on how race can make American politics go haywire. Above all, it is a commentary on the cutthroat fraudulent politics that lie at the foundation of Obama’s supposedly uplifting campaign.”[4]

Further, Professor Wilentz opined:

            “It may strike some as ironic that the racializing should be coming from a black candidate’s campaign and its supporters. But this is an American presidential campaign - - and there is a long history of candidates who are willing to inflame the most deadly passions in our national life in order to get elected. Sadly, it is what Barack Obama and his campaign gurus have been doing for months - -  with the aid of their media helpers on the news and op-ed pages and on cable television, mocked by ‘SNL’ as in the tank for Obama. They promise to continue until they win the nomination, by any means necessary.”[5]

Apparently, Obama’s campaign uses the race-card, highly sensitizing his white opponents into paralysis as atonement for America’s history of slavery. The Democrat primary was filled with race-baiting on both sides: Clinton’s and Obama’s.

Tony Blankley said it well in January 2008:

“ . . . by playing the race-card, Obama undercuts his best chance of winning in November. He had made a strong and admirable case until then that he was a man running for president who happened to be black. Now his campaign has taken on the attribute of a black man running for president . . .”[6]

Obama’s wish to transcend race has been destroyed by his own arrogance (“We are the ones we have been waiting for”), his sense of entitlement (“the President-in-waiting), and his “race-card” strategy.  Obama does not have gravitas . . . but he is a celebrity.

Congressman Robert Wexler, Democrat, Florida, has been caught in violation of .  .  .  residency and citizenship requirements? And that’s for starters!

It appears that the perpetually strident and indignant Representative Wexler neither owns a residence nor rents a residence in his Florida district.  The Florida address he uses belongs to his in-laws, who live in a 55 year-old plus development. As a result he does not pay any property taxes in Florida. Additionally, Florida does not have an income tax, so Wexler does not pay Florida income taxes.

Robert Wexler does own a home in Rockville, Maryland. The only house he owns. He has paid property taxes on this property.  Maryland law states that individuals become a resident of Maryland if a citizen owns, rents, or leases a primary residence for more than six months. As Wexler and family have owned the residence since 1997 and own no other residence, according to Maryland law Wexler is a resident of Maryland not Florida. Wexler listed the Maryland residence as his primary residence from1997 to 2004, when he listed his in-law’s residence as his primary residence.

Further, Maryland law states that a resident must obtain a Maryland drivers license within 60 days of becoming a resident.  Wexler retains his Florida drivers’ license, violating Maryland law.

If Wexler is claiming Florida citizenship, is he evading Maryland income taxes? And for how many years?  Has Wexler voted in Maryland, in addition to Florida?

Pursuant to Maryland law it appears Wexler is a resident of Maryland. If so, Wexler cannot be a Congressman representing Florida. The U.S. Constitution requires Representatives to be a citizen of the United States for seven years and a resident of his State at time of election. Other than Wexler’s first election to the House, Wexler has violated the Constitutional requirements on subsequent elections.

It is clear that Congress cannot police itself. In the eyes of many, Congress is nothing less than an organized criminal cartel working out of Washington.

There is only one answer: establish an Independent Ethics Panel. This panel can neither be made up of current or past members of Congress nor can the current Congress be involved in its creation and staffing.  The Panel cannot consist of Washington insiders or lawyers (this is an ethics panel dealing in right wrong, not a legal proceeding subject to the chicanery of lawyers).

Only a truly Independent Ethics Panel can work. Congress is broken. It needs to reform.

Whether a Democrat or Republican, you can bet that the “Congressional Culture of Corruption Continues,” thanks, this time, to Senator Ted Stevens, Republican, Alaska. Senator Stevens was indicted on seven counts of failing to disclose having received more than $250,000 in gifts and services from VECO, Corporation, in exchange for funding, to include federal grants, and other aid.

Some may view the timing of the indictments as “curious,” since Senator Stevens must face a GOP primary on August 26. However, the number of indictments and nature of the crimes committed far outweigh the timing of the indictments.

 It is clear that Congress cannot police itself. In the eyes of many, Congress is nothing less than an organized criminal cartel working out of Washington.

There is only one answer: establish an Independent Ethics Panel. This panel can neither be made up of current or past members of Congress nor can the current Congress be involved in its creation and staffing.  The Panel cannot consist of Washington insiders or lawyers (this is an ethics panel dealing in right wrong, not a legal proceeding subject to the chicanery of lawyers).

Only a truly Independent Ethics Panel can work. Congress is broken. It needs to reform. This is a workable path to eliminating a 9% approval rating.

With Congressional approval ratings in at 9%, Representative Charles Rangel, Democrat, New York, has revealed himself to be the Gordon Gekko of the House.

“Mr. Rangel has faced intense scrutiny since The New York Times reported last week that a developer had allowed him to lease rent-stabilized apartments in the Lenox Terrace luxury apartment complex at a time when some tenants are being evicted from such apartments around the city.

One of the units — a one-bedroom apartment that he paid for with money from his re-election fund and from a political action committee — had been used as a campaign office, despite city and state guidelines that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used solely as a primary residence. Because that apartment is rent-stabilized, Mr. Rangel paid $630 per month, while similar market-rate units in the building rent for $1,700 a month and higher [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/nyregion/15rangel.html].

Representative Rangel, aka Representative Gekko, declined to answer questions during a telephone interview, saying that his housing was a private matter that did not affect his representation of his constituents. “Greed is good!”

On September 11, 2001, the Unites States endured a surprise attack using commercial airliners as primary weapons. The attacks were underwritten and executed by a terrorist network named Al Qaeda, led by an Islamic religious extremist. Al Qaeda is not a criminal organization. As President Bush stated in his address to Congress following the attack, “Al Qaeda is to terror what the mafia is to crime.”[1]

Just under 3000 innocent citizens dies in multiple attacks the same day. As a result of the attacks, the United States moved to a war footing. Focusing first on the South Asia Theater of Operations (where Afghanistan was freed from Taliban terrorism with less than 200 American operatives on the ground), then focusing on the Middle East Theater of Operations (primarily Iraq).

President Bush knew what was ahead and stated in his address to Congress, “I ask for your patience, with the delays and inconveniences that may accompany tighter security; and for your patience in what will be a long struggle.”[2] President Bush took the war of terror to the enemy, in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a result, we don’t have an American Theater of Operations.

From the beginning, the political party that created the Vietnam War and, when the going got tough, turned its back on America and her military, once again has turned its back on America and her military during the war on terror:

Congressmen Jim McDermott, David Bonior, and Mike Thompson, all Democrats, accepted an expense paid trip to Iraq in October 2002, paid for by Sadam Hussein. McDermott urged that Hussein be given the benefit of the doubt. He also said Americans should mistrust President Bush. About a month after the trip, McDermott accepted $5,000 from a Hussein intermediary.[3]

Senator Harry Reid called Marine general Peter Pace, outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, “incompetent” during an interview with liberal bloggers.[4]

Senator Ted Kennedy slammed President Bush on the war, calling it a war of choice, not necessity.[5]

John Murtha accused Marines in Iraq of murdering innocent civilians, in cold blood.[6]

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid held up work on a revised FISA bill for months, endangering our national security.[7]

Harry Reid declared the war on terror lost and the surge failing. Through their acts and omissions, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have endangered the lives of our young men and women in both theaters of war.[8]

            Senator Chuck Schumer accused the military of ineffectiveness during the surge, resulting in angry and offended Americans.[9]

            Prior to General Petraeus testifying to the effectiveness of the seven month surge, Nancy Pelosi accused General Petraeus of dishonesty.  “I don't think General Petraeus has an independent view", Pelsosi commented, in an obvious attempt to discredit his testimony.[10]

            Senator Jay Rockefeller attacked Senator McCain: "McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground? He doesn’t know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues."[11]

            Democrat Senator John Kerry accused our soldiers of “terrorizing women and children” in Iraq.[12]

            Democrat Dick Durbin, the senior senator from Illinois, compared our military police at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis and Soviet gulag guards.[13]

            And Ted Kennedy once said that, “Saddam’s torture chambers reopened under new management, U.S. management.” [14]

            A federal appeals court ruled that Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., violated federal law by turning over an illegally taped telephone call to reporters nearly a decade ago. In a 2-1 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that McDermott violated the rights of House Majority Leader John Boehner. The court ordered McDermott to pay Boehner more than $700,000 for leaking the taped conversation. The figure includes $60,000 in damages and more than $600,000 in legal costs.[15] McDermott

            Hillary Clinton  attacked General Petraeus' honesty: "The reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief."  This slur on an honorable soldier from a woman who was almost indicted by a grand jury, from a woman who “accidentally” found the Rose law firm billing records two years after the records were subpoenaed, and from a woman who habitually lied about her role in the Whitewater River Development Corporation.

Hypocrisy has no limits in Congress. Core ethical values are nowhere to be seen. Let’s take the ethical value of trustworthiness, which embraces four separate values: honesty, integrity, promise-keeping, and loyalty. Let’s discuss the first two values.

There are two dimensions to honesty: honesty in communications and honesty in conduct. The ethical standard of truthfulness mandates the good faith intent to tell the truth. Honesty in conduct proscribes cheating, stealing, fraud, etc.

Integrity is the essence of ethics. Integrity requires all of us to view our beliefs about right and wrong as a framework for how we make decisions. There are two dimensions to integrity: principled and moral courage. Integrity is the adherence of rule over self-interest, which requires a constant balance between words and action.  To do what is right, even when it may cost us more than we want to pay, is the essence of moral courage.

So far, every name listed in this commentary has failed in one or more ethical values. Moreover, these people feel no shame for their unethical behaviors.  Yet, they hold themselves out as role models:  Hypocrisy on parade.

We are a government of the people, for the people and by the people. We all grew up with this axiom.  If we really believe this truism, then we must also believe a tax cut is a savings to the people, not a cost to government. However, the socialist-Marxist bloc in Congress always raises the same question whenever the subject of tax reduction is raised: how do we pay for it? 

My first observation is if “we” have to pay for a tax cut, how can it really be a tax cut?  It’s nothing less than another tax on the people.

My second observation is the socialist-Marxist bloc in Congress does not believe in a government of, for, and by the people, simply because this bloc views a tax cut as a takeaway from the government not a savings to the people. Consequently, for a socialist-Marxist, the government is a separate entity from the people. 

My third observation is the socialist-Marxist elitist bloc in Congress views the government as superior to the people. How can this be? Doesn’t government derive its powers by the consent of the people?

My fourth observation is the socialist-Marxist political elite represent the antitheses to    “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

My fifth observation is the socialist-Marxist elitist bloc (which includes the main stream media) may well be America’s “fifth column.”

Nancy Pelosi was elected the first female speaker of the House with a promise. As part of her 100 hour agenda, Pelosi declared she will start by cleaning up Congress, breaking the link between lobbyists and legislation, and commit to pay-as-you-go and no new deficit spending. As a result of the Abramoff lobbyist debacle, Pelosi passed internal guidance on member and lobbyist behavior.:

Well, lo and behold! Two years later The Wall Street Journal  (Elizabeth Williamson, Friday, July 18, 2008, page A2) article, “Congress Relaxes New Rules on Lobbyist Disclosures,” revealed that Nancy Pelosi not only failed in strengthening and enforcing ethical guidelines regarding lobbyist relationships but also took a giant step backward.

“Congress has relaxed rules that would have required public disclosure of contributions and parties paid for by lobbyists, narrowing the scope of new ethics rules intended to draw back a veil on Washington’s influence game.

New guidance released by Congress late Wednesday exempts lobbyists from reporting their financing an array of political and charitablecontributions, events and parties at political conventions”

The Congressional Culture of Corruption thrives. It is clear that Congress cannot police themselves. In the eyes of many, Congress is nothing less than an organized criminal cartel working out of Washington.

There is only one answer: establish an Independent Ethics Panel. This panel can neither be made up of current or past members of Congress nor can the current Congress be involved in its creation and staffing.  The Panel cannot consist of Washington insiders or lawyers (this is an ethics panel dealing in right wrong, not a legal proceeding subject to the chicanery of lawyers).

The new Independent Ethics Panel should consist of five people: all registered Independent voters.  Panel members term shall range from one to five years. This Independent Ethics Panel will cover both Houses of Congress and be empowered to investgate ethics violations, real or imagined. This panel shall create and distribute ethical guidelines to every member of Congress annually. There should be an effort to rotate Panel members from among the States.

Only a truly Independent Ethics Panel can work. Congress is broken. It needs to reform. This is a workable path to eliminating a 9% approval rating.