There is probably not a person that owns a vehicle that has not felt the pain at the pump. Has had second thoughts about a trip to the store, and decided that they really don't need to go, because they didn't want to burn up the gold in their tank. Personal home budgets are being revised to try to figure out where they are going to shift money to cover the rising fuel prices. Like most families, conserving gas with less trips, and eliminating the non-essentials in their budget, entertainment, movies, dinners out, trips to the hair and nail salons, anything they can absolutely live without.

I don't think Obama understands this concept. Families are further conserving because of rising food and fuel prices, and are not spending on the non-essentials that are going to improve and grow our economy.

Our Presidents answer is to buy a more fuel efficient car. I don't know too many families that are conserving to extremes to feed their families and keep gas in their cars are going to be running out to buy the latest hybrid.

When the President nominates people like Steven Chu as Energy Secretary. Mr. Chu in September 2008 when interviewed by the Wall Street Journal:  read more »

A regular reader of Skip’s articles, Bill Hallbert, commented that the use of the term ‘Lame Stream Media’ is too polite… that ‘Pravda West’ would be more appropriate. A good point, Bill… one that, along with some events the last couple of days, has inspired me to write this article while sitting in for Skip.

It was my misfortune to catch Bill Maher in conversation with Letterman last night. Naturally, it descended to the depths of old, worn-out attacks on anything right-of-center in a feeble attempt at humor. Donald Trump’s hair, Sarah Palin’s mind, George W. Bush’s presidency and the Tea Party were all precursors to the stage-prompted bouts of applause and laughter.

Letterman was in his element… he could let his guest gush with spiel that reflected his own views and not even have to think about asking any questions… probably a good thing, given the question put to Cote de Pablo (Ziva David) later in the show… “Is there a real NCIS?” Yes, Dave, there’s a real FBI too. And a real US government… or what’s left of it!

After mocking The Donald and Sarah Palin’s brief tenure in a state where “no one lives” (I’m sure that endeared them to the folks in Alaska!), blaming Bush (what’s new?) for the debt crisis (while conveniently omitting the fact that Obama is racking up more debt than all of his 43 predecessors combined), they turned their attention to the Tea Party.  read more »

In the latest Rasmussen poll that came out yesterday, 70% of Americans believe that United States is on the wrong track.

Is this a sign that Americans have lost their spirit? And why wouldn't they?

With unemployment over 8% nationally, when economists estimate that it is more realistically around 19%. That only one out of every two home mortgages, the homeowner actually has equity in their home. Rising prices on food and fuel, and now instead of $5 per gallon by Memorial Day, don't be surprised at $6, because it has already reached the $5 mark in many US cities. A President that is more worried about being on the campaign trail, then leading this country. I could keep going, but I think that is depressing enough.

I believe that this is a sign that the American Spirit is stronger than ever. America is saying it is sick and tired of the lack of leadership from the White House. That Americans are realizing that they were duped in the 2008 election.

That this is a sign that Americans are resilient, hard working, survivors and still believe that the American Dream is possible. A clear message for a change of course, and a one term presidency.

As Ronald Reagan said on March 2, 1984:

“The difference between the path toward greater freedom or bigger government is the difference between success and failure; between opportunity and coercion; between faith in a glorious future and fear of mediocrity and despair; between respecting people as adults, each with a spark of greatness, and treating them as helpless children to be forever dependent; between a drab, materialistic world where Big Brother rules by promises to special interest groups, and a world of adventure where everyday people set their sights on impossible dreams, distant stars, and the Kingdom of God. We have the true message of hope for America”.  read more »

In honor of Tax Day 2011 and Democrats’ impeccably timed renewed push to raise taxes on high income earners, behold the following lessons we’ve learned about economics from liberals in recent times:

•    The most innovative and wealth-generating company in the history of the world, Apple Inc., destroys jobs.  So sayeth Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr., an iPad owner, who blamed Steve Jobs for taking away jobs from textbook manufacturers and paper mills.  In other news, a Democratic Representative from West Virginia excoriated the “automobile” for killing off the horse-and-buggy industry.

•    Cutting $352 million from a proposed $3.7 trillion budget is “the functional equivalent of bombing innocent civilians.”  This according to D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who was fuming over the possibility of a government shutdown two weeks ago.  Given liberals’ complaints about the size of the military industrial complex and the expense of war, this is quite a bargain.  How can we harness this technology of “Miniscule Republican Budget Cuts” to defeat Moammar Kaddafi’s forces in Libya?

•    Constraining teachers’ unions’ ability to award themselves extravagant pensions and health care packages no one in the private sector has, thereby continuing to bankrupt states by keeping entitlement spending astronomically high, is good for union members.  In contrast, making slight cuts to bloated benefits programs in order to prevent massive layoffs hurts the little guy.  This bit of wisdom comes courtesy of the delusional, demonic mobs who swarmed outside the Wisconsin State Capitol trying to undermine Governor Scott Walker’s implementation of his nefarious campaign promise to balance the state budget.  read more »

The useful idiots and the government educated have forgotten or flat out refuse to recognize their role in their own economic destruction. How many times in the course of just recent history have they been the unwitting pawns of the socialist/communist ideologue ruling class elite wannabe’s who have manipulated them “like a harp from hell” to paraphrase. The ruling class elite’s have done their best to obscure the facts on their core belief systems flaws, but anyone who has a modicum of intellect and the willingness to remove the blinders can see the TRUTH!

THEY ARE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY!

Throughout the history of the “OLD WORLD”  there has always been a hierarchical or monarchial form of governing not government. The populace was ruled by a single leader that either accepted the council of an elite group usually of elders who were considered wise because they managed to survive into their 30’s, or a council chosen by the ruler to assist him with usually waging war to acquire wealth. This was and still is the predominate form of rule of law for 10,000 plus years. The “communist” and “socialist” countries despite their propaganda to the contrary have a singular “party head” who’s last word is final. The list of these “leaders” of the people is also the history of the greatest mass murderers in this planets history:  read more »

Watching the news over the weekend, with the devastating storms that ripped through several states, the tragic loss. Our thoughts and prayers.

Today is Patriot's Day in Maine. The “new” Tax Day. Patriot's day is not the reason for the change in our annual Tax Day this year. It was changed for a holiday that actually fell last Saturday in Washington, DC. Still don't quite understand the logic of changing the filing deadline of our tax dollars, that our government needs, for a holiday that falls the day after the eagle has landed.

There was a very quiet victory this week for our nation. Not much media coverage, no debates that I saw on the news or cable news networks, that National Prayer Day, is constitutional. A day that has been set aside since the Second Continental Congress, on July 20, 1775, “a day of public humiliation, fasting and prayer, asking guidance and wisdom for the troubled times ahead”. A day that was chosen annually by the President, until 1988 when it was set to the first Thursday in May by Congress.

Congratulations America, one of your rights has been returned. Choice. Nowhere does it say that you have to pray on National Prayer Day, you have the choice to partake or decline.

America, we need all the help we can get. National Prayer Day is going to closely coincide with the vote to raise the debt ceiling. I hope each and every member of Congress is “asking for guidance and wisdom for the troubled times ahead”, and votes NO to raising the debt ceiling and accumulating additional debt.

This morning the S & P has down graded the long term outlook of our nations debt to negative from stable, although we still have a “AAA” credit rating, because the bills are still being paid, but the stock market is dropping like a rock this morning. The world is taking notice that the American financial house is in serious trouble, and our Federal Government is doing very little about it to reverse the direction that is leading straight to bankruptcy.  read more »

Is there anyone out there that has yet to understand that Barack Hussein Obama, and his radical twisted ideology, is the figurehead of the planned destruction of America? Obama’s speech was one long demagogic rant in which he trotted out all the Marxist saws… it was Saul Alinsky, William Ayers, Frank Marshall Davis and Jeremiah Wright… all over the place. It was communism’s ugly face exposed for all to see.

But that wasn’t the really sleazy sickening part. That came later in the speech when he went down the Marxist wish-list of dependent entitlement recipients, from seniors to autistic and developmentally disabled kids, and everything and everybody in between. It was low… very low.

Watching the news cycles, and reading as many of your comments on the subject as I could get to, has me convinced that the vast majority of Americans haven’t bought it and are not buying it now. His attacks on Paul Ryan and other conservatives was not at all well received out here in the hinterland, and was highly reminiscent of Obama’s excoriation of members of the Supreme Court at his first State of the Union blather. I’d love to see Hizzoner try to debate Paul Ryan.

For the life of me, I never did understand this BS about Hussein the First being some great orator… I think he sucks. He’s got the cadence of a high school cheerleader… must come from having to spend all that time swiveling that lying neck of his back and forth between teleprompters. The problem with that technique is it forces you to deliver in what are stanza-like sentences, and after you’ve heard one you’ve heard them all. That’s why Biden can’t stay awake during one of his glorious leader’s agitprop spiels… and didn’t ol’ ‘Jumpin’ Joe’ do it once before during an Obama slumberfest?  read more »

By: Alan Levesque

First Published at: The Daily Pamphlet

Often you will hear people in the present administration and in Washington talk about reducing our dependence on oil. At first this sounds fantastic until you realize that they didn't say they wanted to reduce our dependence on foreign oil but simply oil. That's it in a nutshell. They want oil gone. Period. This is why calls to exploit our own God given resources are met with new regulations, denial of drilling permits and mocking derision. While the politicos in Washington have enough faith in science and technology to call for minimum mileage standards that may not even be possible to achieve given current technology, and call for the development of "alternative fuels" and other things that may still be fifty years off in the future, they see no irony in also believing that science can not harness the power of coal or our own oil reserves safely and in an environmentally conscious manner. When the government wants the scientific community to develop unicorn snot as an alternate fuel source, scientists are geniuses but if it is suggested that we could use clean coal technology, or drill for our own oil, scientists are not smart enough to pull it off in the governments view.

I don't have a problem with ending our dependence on oil, domestic or otherwise. As long as there is an immediate and suitable replacement, most thinking people would be on board for this. You see, this is America. We love our cars and trucks. It's a cultural thing. Most of us love the sound of a throaty V8 engine. When you hear the word Mustang do you think of horses or horsepower? A train or two isn't going to cut it for most of us. We require personal transportation in the United States. Much of the country is not set up for mass transit and in most cases the economies of scale are not in place to make it profitable. Like I said, we require personal transportation in the United States. That being the case, we require fuel for our vehicles. Presently, we use mostly gasoline, which of course is derived from that dreaded oil. Getting off of oil would likely produce some beneficial side effects. We would no longer need to be as actively involved in the Middle East for one thing. Might this make us safer and more secure? Quite possibly as unfriendly oil producing nations would have less of our money to fund terrorist groups and other actions against us. If we had a homegrown substitute for gasoline it would boost our GDP and our deficit would be a lower percentage of the GDP. It would create jobs. How many jobs would be created is hard to say as some people would simply transition over to a new industry but it would certainly create some jobs. What if the replacement for gasoline was cheaper than gas or at least stable in price? This would have the net result of allowing people to keep more money in their pockets as their energy costs went down. This would create a ripple effect as the money was spent elsewhere in the economy. This would also calm the markets and remove some of the uncertainty that is holding back the American economy.

So what do we do about this? I'm calling for a "moonshot" type program to get the United States off of foreign and or domestic oil. I'm calling for the federal budget to be stripped clean of all unnecessary spending and the savings allocated towards this undertaking. The benefits of replacing gasoline and diesel with a homegrown equivalent liquid fuel would be enormous for our country. There may be some unintended consequences, but overall I believe it would be a good thing. It would also be far less expensive than you are probably thinking. Why is that you ask? I'll tell you why. It is because we already have this miracle fuel and we have quite a bit of it at that. We presently have two quadrillion cubic feet of known reserves. Put in perspective, this is more energy than all of Saudi Arabia's known oil reserves. It is estimated that we have enough of this fuel right now to last nearly 200 years. That's right, 200 years. Plus we're finding more of this fuel every day. Your car won't go as far on a gallon of this fuel but it only costs about $2.50 per gallon ( about $1.50 per gallon with a home fill unit) and the price is stable and would likely come down once fully exploited.

What is this miracle fuel? Natural gas. The United States has been called the "Saudi Arabia of natural gas." That's how much of it we have. At present about 22% of the electricity generated in the United States already comes from natural gas. Natural gas is clean burning and costs about 70% less than foreign oil. Millions of cars in Europe already run on natural gas and many fleet vehicles within the U.S. do as well. Why do we need a "moonshot" to make this happen? Simple. While the technology exists and is proven, and we have the gas, there doesn't appear to be a recognition on the part of government of the need to do this or the political will to do it. There are some hurdles to overcome. Some are regulatory hurdles and some are infrastructure related. While any internal combustion engine can be converted to run on natural gas, kits are only available for a select few models of vehicles utilizing a select few engine families. Presently, converting your existing car or truck is an expensive undertaking and there are few places that are certified to do it. There are only about 1500 fueling stations nationwide making the act of "getting gas" more difficult. There are home fueling stations available but we need more public fueling stations.

To make this work we need to fast track the certification of more repair facilities to perform conversions on existing vehicles. This would lower the price considerably and there is legislation pending in Congress that would allow for tax credits for converting an existing vehicle. There are tax credits already available for purchasing a new natural gas powered vehicle. Conversion kits need to be made available for many more engine families. Getting a kit certified costs as much as $200,000.00 right now. This really is an insignificant amount when you realize that this would likely be done by large auto makers who could amortize the expenditures over a number of years. Also there is a finite number of engines which would cap their costs. The benefits of getting in front of this could be huge for an automaker and well worth the expense. Perhaps the government could back off on some of their more egregious regulations and mandates to the automakers in exchange for the automakers footing the bill for this? More pumps need to be installed across the country. This is a case where the government needs to get involved. People will not convert unless and until they see the natural gas pump right next to the regular unleaded. Station owners will not install the pumps until people start pulling into their filling stations demanding it. It's a catch 22 and it appears that some incentive will need to be put forward to get the station owners to act.

There needs to be a coordinated effort on the part of business and government to educate people and make this happen. Natural gas is our best hope to become truly energy independent and it is only a matter of time before attitudes and the free market catches up to this fact. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can start reaping the benefits. Or we could simply do nothing and wait for the scientists to capture the power of unicorn snot.

The definition of thriftness is “not letting myself or others spend that which is not necessary”. Quite a profound thought.

A very important lesson to remember on this day, a message that we need to continue to voice and be heard in Washington, DC.

There is no perfect solution. If life was perfect, then America would not be withstanding the financial crisis before us.

President Obama says we need to dig a little deeper, act like grown-ups, excuse me he changed that to “act like adults”. I think we need to teach him the thriftness and value of a dollar, because he obviously doesn't know what that means.

It means freedom and liberty, people worked hard to earn it. They are the individuals that are going to have to make the choice of how they are going to utilize that dollar to best take care of their family, and maintain some sense of semblance of normalcy.

In the President's “re-do budget” speech, which, by the way I am still not over the tone he used and speaking to the American people like we are the ones that need to be reprimanded.

In one part of his monologue he mentioned, “ And as most families understand, a little credit card debt isn’t going to hurt if it’s temporary”. WRONG! How does he expect the average American to pay that back? Are we supposed to learn our lessons from the Federal Government, and not being able to pay “our” credit card debt, and asking to raise the debt ceiling, because they have maxed out Americas credit card?

When the majority of American families have been forced to conserve, because of the recession, unemployment, illness, or just hoping that the ends meet at the end of the month because of rising prices of food, gas, and necessities. We the people value each and every single dollar, there is no waste or fraud in our budgets, and there is no extra. It's called discipline. This is obviously a word that very few in our nations capital know, or if they do, its a moral value they choose to ignore.  read more »