U.S. is a suicidal superpower

"What country that cares about its future would do what the U.S. has to its food and fuel supply, two of the most critical things that any civilization needs to survive?
" --Glenn Beck Read More......

Europe's New Pro-American Direction

American Enterprise Institute, May 7, 2008 by John R. Bolton

Excerpt: But look today at Europe's political leadership: Nicolas Sarkozy in France has replaced the bitterly anti-American Jacques Chirac. In Germany, Angela Merkel has replaced the dyspeptic and anti-Iraq war Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Britain now once again speaks about the US-UK "special relationship." And now, Berlusconi will soon return to the Chigi Palace. How times change. Read full article at AEI...

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4th of July: BCRW Patriotic Quilt Drawing

The Benton County Republican Women are offering a beautiful red, white & blue patriotic handcrafted quilt as a prize for a drawing which will be held at the Benton County Republican Central Committee's Annual 4th of July Pancake Breakfast and Yard Sale, 12 Noon, at Republican Headquarters. Accomplished quilter, Dr. Juanita Lamley heads the quilting project. Tickets are $2 each or 3 for $5. Please contact Maureen Russian, (541) 752-8244, to purchase tickets or download a mail-in Order Form (MSWord.doc)-- winner need not be present.

Photo shows quilt in progress.

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Oil Prices: Who's to Blame?

U.S. Senate Floor Journal, Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), posted June 6, 2008

An email has been circulating that contains some of the floor charts Sen. Craig has used in his addresss to congress. Sen. Craig aggressively opposes the Climate Security Act. He champions drilling in ANWAR and the outer-continental shelf while supporting 'responsible' conservation efforts, realistic forest management and so forth until new technologies ease our energy needs for oil. He blasts Congress for caving to the pressures of environmentalists and their unrealistic demands for the past 30 years. Watch Sen. Craig’s floor speech (four-part streaming video):

• Part 1: Who Should You Blame? (2:36)
• Part 2: Blame Your Congressman (1:05). Transcript: America, blame your congress. Blame your friendly congressman or friendly senator. Ask them how they voted. Ask them how they’re going to vote on ANWAR, on outer continental shelf, on new development or on new refinery capacity. Oil is not the answer for 50 years from now but oil is the bridge that gets us from where we are to where we need to be with new technology. But our lack of foresightedness, our rush to be green, our rush to deny the realities of the marketplace have produced the problems we have today. And there are people to blame. And we ought to start right here with a congress that would not listen year after year, year after year while I and others brought ANWAR to the floor for a vote, while we tried to get into the outer continental shelf and politically, it was simply an unpopular th... [end of stream]
  
• Part 3: The China-India Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 (2:27)
  
• Part 4: The Second Largest Emitter of Carbon (2:30)

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Ben Stein on oil & gas (2 years ago)

(A good understanding of the oil and gas markets)Who's to Blame for High Oil and Gas Prices?Yahoo FINANCE, Posted March 17, 2006 - by Ben Stein

Executives of the big oil companies have been hauled before the U.S. Senate recently to defend their industry's recent mergers and record profits as American consumers face high oil and gasoline prices. I'm going to defend the big energy companies in this case, since I think they're not the reason for high prices.

Before you write me angry e-mails, dear reader, let me first lay down some street credibility. Yes, I'm a gray-haired guy now. But I've spent a lot of time in my life as an antipoverty lawyer in New Haven, Conn., and in Washington, D.C., helping very poor people with their legal woes. I also spent years as a lawyer working on prosecuting false and deceptive advertising.

Probably the lion's share of my adult life was spent writing about financial fraud for financial publication Barron's, and I helped put a number of fraudulent entities out of business. I also testified against a number of fraudulent managements in lawsuits, both state and federal, and I still often write about injustice in the boardroom.

That being said, I also know how a lynch mob operates. After all, if there's a problem, some cause has to be found. And it's really lovely if the cause can be someone rich and powerful so that we can work off our envy and also take the intoxicating drug of anger. Anger organizes our emotions, lines them up, removes ambiguity, and feels good.

Urge to Crack Down
So, the mob goes after someone to lynch, even if that person is innocent. After all, as the immortal Bob Dylan sang long ago, "A lot of people have knives and forks, and they don't have nothing on their plates, and they have to cut something."

This comes to mind because of the recent actions in the U.S. Senate that attempt to "crack down" on energy companies because the price of oil is so much higher than it used to be and because one large oil concern, Exxon (XOM), is reporting very large profits (after many years of modest earnings).

The crackdown takes the form of preventing oil companies from merging or at least making it much harder for them to merge. The idea is that the energy companies have been fixing prices at artificially high levels, and if they merge, they'll just do it more.

This idea is apparently backed even by someone as wise as Senator Arlen Specter (Rep.-Pa.), Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a fellow graduate of Yale Law School.

No Conspiracy
The only problem with this idea is that it's based on a totally false premise. The energy companies don't set the price of oil or of gasoline. The prices you pay for heating oil or gasoline aren't set in boardrooms in Texas but in trading rooms at commodities markets all over the world.

Gas prices aren't set in shadowy conferences in shooting lodges, but in rooms of people shouting or punching computer keys in London, New York, and Tokyo. Oil is a world commodity like tin or copper or rubber or coffee. The price is set by traders anticipating supply and demand.

Rumors of war in the Mideast, terrorism against oil platforms in Nigeria, warmer weather in New England, bitter cold in London -- these are what set energy prices. Even the biggest U.S. energy companies are tiny pawns in the game compared with the world market, flotsam and jetsam in the ocean of world oil trading.

So, when prices go up or down, it's not a conspiracy. It's panic or confidence in the market. It's just like what happens on the stock markets every trading day -- greed or fear at work, not at the companies being traded but on the exchanges. The oil companies can either lose or gain from this trading.

Hobbling the Oil Companies
I know this is hard news to digest because who do we hate then? Well, some think we solve the problem by just hating and blaming the innocent -- in this case, the oil companies, dragging them from their beds, and lynching them. So what if they're innocent? Someone's got to pay.

The only problem is that if we keep punishing the companies that in good faith give us the energy we need to power our lives at market prices -- which sometimes give them a big profit and sometimes give them a small one -- eventually, they'll go away. Or they won't have the ability to do their jobs as well because of all the restrictions we've put on them.

Never mind, some think. A lot of people have knives and forks, and they don't have nothing on their plates, and they have to cut something.

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An issue for the immigration reform debate

Watch testimony on the unpaid costs to a hospital in Martin County Florida for care given to undocumented immigrants. The area is known to be fairly affluent and includes extensive property dedicated to agriculture. See video at Immigration Watchdog. Read More......

RFK: 1948 dispatches from Palestine

Robert Kennedy's 1948 Reports from Palestine, JCPA U.S. Policy, June 2008 by Lenny Ben-David - In April 1948, one month before Israel declared independence, Robert Kennedy, then 22, traveled to Palestine to report on the conflict for the Boston Post. His four dispatches from the scene were published in June 1948. The newspaper closed in 1956, and for decades the reports were virtually forgotten. Read the dispatches... Read More......

A ghastly figure

Just heard on the radio: The cost estimate for reducing the effects of Global Warming worldwide by 50% is... $45 trillion. Read More......

Fast Forward To Obama's America In 2012

National Review Online, May 15, 2008 - by Michael Novak

One of the wisest American former officials I know asked me a few nights ago: “Michael, put on your thinking cap, and tell me where the United States will be four years from now, if Barack Obama is president.” Continued...

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Senate to raise energy prices?

Update: NO VOTE TAKEN
Freedom's Watch, June 5, 2008 - By Joe Eule, Chief of Staff

At $4 a gallon, Americans are hurting at the gas pump. Higher gas prices are affecting every part of our life. We’re paying more for food, milk, clothes, and cooling our homes. Even summer vacations are in jeopardy.

Yet the Senate is about to vote on a bill (S. 2191) that would make things worse by raising gas prices, increasing home energy bills, and slowing the economy, and we need your help to stop it. Send an email to your Senators and sign our petition today!

Sponsors say their bill will reduce the greenhouse gases that cause climate change. They call their plan "cap and trade," but it is really a huge hidden carbon tax on our economy that will have devastating consequences.

This bill could not come at a worse time. Last week General Motors announced it was closing four plants, putting nearly 5,000 Americans out of work. Thousands more in supporting industries will also lose their jobs.

Meanwhile, United Airlines announced it was slashing 1,600 jobs, idling older planes, and cutting routes - all because of skyrocketing gas prices.

Is your job next?
Incredibly, the bill before the Senate is estimated to raise the price of gasoline $1.10 a gallon, raise taxes, and increase your home energy bills (to find out what these higher costs will be where you live, click here).

This bill is so bad the Wall Street Journal called it “the largest income redistribution scheme since the income tax.” That’s saying something.

So please help us stop this bill from becoming law. First, click here to send your senators an email opposing S. 2191. Second, sign our petition opposing this bill that we can deliver to the Senate on your behalf.

With your help, we can stop this liberal assault on the paycheck you work so hard to earn. Please act NOW!

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Why did America Abandon Its Constitutional Republic?

Posted by Richard Owl at Gathering - This is a good article but the authors' remark in the comments section is surprising. See what you think. Read More......

Don Young Embodies What's Wrong With the GOP

Opinion Journal, Page A13, June 6, 2008 - By Pat Toomey

Today, the Club for Growth Political Action Committee endorses Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell in his bid to unseat Republican Rep. Don Young in the state's August primary.

The reason for the endorsement is simple. Mr. Parnell is a solid conservative who led the fight for lower taxes and spending in the state legislature, and joined Gov. Sarah Palin in pushing for reform in the state. The man he is hoping to replace isn't economically conservative in the least. Mr. Young is actually a poster child for what has gone wrong with the Republican Party in Washington.

Over his 35 years in Congress, Mr. Young made himself into the most powerful Republican on the House Transportation Committee. But instead of using his power to steer Republicans down a principled, conservative track, he helped derail the GOP train in 2006.

Mr. Young spends taxpayer money so wastefully he could make a liberal Democrat blush. As chairman of the Transportation Committee (from 2001 to 2007), Mr. Young was directly responsible for one of the biggest boondoggles of the Republican majority – the 2005 highway bill. With a price tag of $296 billion, the highway bill contained a record 6,371 pork projects.
One of those projects was the $223 million Bridge to Nowhere, inserted by Mr. Young. The notorious bridge was meant to connect the city of Ketchikan, Alaska – population 8,000 – to an airport on Gravina Island – population 50. Instead, it came to symbolize Republican excess, and helped cost the GOP its majority.

But the bridge isn't Mr. Young's only earmark to draw negative attention. It seems the veteran lawmaker inserted a $10 million earmark into the 2006 transportation bill for a road project in Florida.

Of course, Florida is not exactly next door to Alaska, so more than a few people have wondered why Mr. Young pushed to fund the pork-barrel project. Among those inquiring into the matter is the Justice Department, which is looking at the fact that a Florida real estate developer, Daniel J. Aronoff, who stands to benefit from the federal earmark, has raised some $40,000 for Mr. Young's campaign coffers.

It's not just on spending that Mr. Young abandons Republican principles. Recently, he has joined with Democrats in voting to increase the minimum wage, increase income taxes on top earners, and to pass a bloated farm bill. Mr. Young also voted for "card check," which would allow unions to organize without holding secret ballot elections.

He has a history of voting against important free-trade agreements and, just a couple of weeks ago, proposed a $1 per-gallon tax increase on gasoline. He must not have had to fill up at the pump lately.

During his time in Congress, Mr. Young has come to represent the worst of a Republican Party that became too comfortable in power. In 1995, a Republican majority passed a budget that actually cut spending. Today, only 40 Republicans out of 248 GOP senators and representatives have sworn off earmarks, despite overwhelming support for earmark reform among the party's base and the general public.

Just 12 years ago, the Republican Caucus, including Mr. Young, voted for a bill to phase out farm subsidies. Three weeks ago, Mr. Young and many of those same members voted for a farm bill that exemplifies everything the GOP once stood against. Somewhere between then and now, many congressional Republicans abandoned their former commitment to limited government, fiscal discipline and economic freedom.

There is no question that the Republican Party is in trouble. Faced with staggering losses in 2006 and what might be an even worse election cycle this year, GOP congressmen are finally acknowledging the dismal state of the Republican brand. What are they doing about it?
Not much. The reason is that Mr. Young and many other members are not willing to change. They don't want to give up their pork projects, their subsidies and their favorite big-government programs. And those members with the temerity to challenge the broken system are berated as disloyal and threatened.

"Those who bite me will be bitten back," Mr. Young warned New Jersey's Republican Rep. Scott Garrett last July. Mr. Garrett had tried to remove a $34 million earmark inserted into an appropriations bill by Mr. Young.

The Alaska primary represents a crossroads for Republicans. Will party leaders line up behind Mr. Young, even as the Justice Department is looking into his earmarks? Or will they tell him they cannot support a member who has flagrantly disrespected taxpayers and abandoned Republican principles?

If Republicans want to start winning again they need to return to the principles of fiscal responsibility and limited government that won them control of Congress in 1994. This is no easy task. But the GOP can start by showing Mr. Young the door.

Mr. Toomey, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, is the president of the Club for Growth.

See all of today's editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary, on Opinion Journal.

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Sportsmanship and Character

A home run, adversity, and a moment like no other -- when Central Washington met Western Oregon on the softball field in early May 2008.

Touching Them All

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Words of warning to the West

Hat tip: ACT for America, June 3, 2008
World Net Daily, May 19, 2008 - By Joel Richardson

The United States is about to be tried. At stake are the very freedoms that we all hold so dear. On March 27, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted to adopt resolution 7/19 on "Combating defamation of religions." In one of the most Orwellian resolutions ever passed, this so-called "Human Rights Council" condemns "Islamophobia," which includes any, "attempts to identify Islam with terrorism, violence and human rights violations."

Think about this for a moment. Suppose that I tell you Continued...
© 2008

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When Oregon unions flex, candidates win races

The Oregonian, June 1, 2008 - by Harry Esteve

Labor muscle scored a total victory May 20, when all of its endorsements won. Organized labor -- public employee unions in particular -- spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and uncounted volunteer hours on Oregon's May 20 primary elections. It all paid off. Most candidates with union backing won. Candidates in union doghouses lost.

The net result was a monster victory for labor groups that helped solidify their role as one of the state's top power brokers.

Unions played key roles in statewide victories for secretary of state candidate Kate Brown, attorney general candidate John Kroger and U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley. But they also got involved locally, helping Sam Adams win the Portland mayoral contest, Democrat Michael Dembrow win the House District 45 primary in Northeast Portland, and Dennis Doyle oust Beaverton Mayor Rob Drake.

The outcome left Republicans grumbling about the increasing influence of unions in state government. And it left little doubt that labor's agenda will get red-carpet treatment when the 2009 Legislature meets in January. Continued here.

Also, talk radio host, Todd Feinburg refers to this article in an interesting blog titled How much has America changed?.

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Petitions

American Solutions Petition: Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less
According to American Solutions' tri-partisan research, 73% of the American people agree that with appropriate safeguards to protect the environment, we should drill for oil off America's coasts to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Online Initiative Petition #112: Respect for the Law Act
Circulated by Oregonians for Immigration Reform (OFIR), this initiative requires specified documentation to: 1) get an Oregon Driver license; 2) register to vote in Oregon and; 3) eliminates statutes/regulations that prohibit law enforcement from cooperating with immigration authorities. Read More......

Primary Election Results

Find Oregon's May 20, 2008 results:
Benton County Elections Office
Oregon Secretary of State Read More......

31,000 Signatures Prove ‘No Consensus’ About Global Warming

AIM Briefing May 22, 2008 - By Melinda Zosh

“Half the world will be hungry.”

Presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Monday that “we have to get used to the idea that we can’t keep our houses at 72, drive our SUVs and eat all we want.” Arthur B. Robinson, president and professor of chemistry at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, has a different response.

“I don’t want to give up eating all I want because of a failed hypothesis,” said Robinson at the National Press Club here on May 19. Robinson said global warming is not a threat to America. He said that the global temperature increased by just .5 degrees in the last century.

Robinson spoke about his petition signed by 31,000 U.S. scientists who reject the claims that “human release of greenhouse gases is damaging our climate.”

“World temperatures fluctuate all the time,” said Robinson. “The temperature of the Earth has risen many times, far more times than carbon dioxide could drive it. There is no experimental evidence that humans are changing the environment…”

Robinson said that in recent years the U.N. and a group of 600 scientists, representing less than one percent of the scientific population, reached a “consensus” that global warming is happening. This has never been done before, Robinson insists.

Dennis Avery, Director for the Center of Global Food Issues at the Hudson Institute, agrees with Robinson. “Nobody can do science by a committee. You do science by testing,” said Avery. “To me it is appalling that an international organization of the stature of the U.N. would ignore the evidence of past climate changing.”
The signers of Robinson’s petition, including 9,000 Ph.Ds, all have one thing in common. They believe that human rights are being taken away. Continued...

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McCain Veepstakes: Bobby Jindal

Human Events, May 22, 2008 - by John Gizzi

Here’s an important pointer for anyone planning on interviewing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal: Before sitting down with the 36-year-old Republican, clear your schedule all around the time of the interview, because you ask Jindal something, he will always get a detailed answer -- and then some.

When we spoke recently, I reminded Jindal of how I last heard him when he was a U.S. House member two years ago, telling a luncheon audience about how people volunteering their services on relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina found they were thwarted by federal regulations. What particularly moved me, I told him, was his story of how a doctor from Pennsylvania was not permitted to treat patients in parts of Louisiana ravaged by the worst natural disaster in American history until he filled out several forms.

“They told him he literally had to mop floors, if you remember, at an airport that he was in where there were people dying.” Jindal told me, “There are thousands of these stories. I talked to a sheriff in an area where they had people with boats that were ready to go in the water and rescue people and they were turned away because they didn’t have proof of registration and insurance, they didn’t bring the right paperwork. The bureaucracy was just awful.”

The 36-year-old governor then proceeded to tell more sad sagas of Americans from other states who were trying to help Louisianans in their worst hour and kept running into a bureaucratic brick wall. Barely stopping for a breath, Jindal vividly contrasted the horror stories of dealing with government bureaucracy in attempts to help Katrina victims to successful relief efforts by non-governmental sources -- Wal-Mart, Ford Motor and churches. Continued...

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Mandates costly? Who knew?

Want To Reduce Health Insurance Costs? Eliminate Mandates
Say Anything (Blog), May 20, 2008, posted by Rob

Or, in other words, make the health insurance market truly free. Or freer, at least.

A 2005 study by the Commonwealth Fund illustrates how insurance rates for young people are far higher in states with guaranteed issue and community rating than in states that do not have them. For instance:

• A healthy 25-year-old male could purchase a policy for $960 a year in Kentucky but would pay about $5,880 in New Jersey.
• A similar policy, available for about $1,548 in Kansas, costs $5,172 in New York.
• A policy priced at $1,692 in Iowa costs $2,664 in Washington and $4,032 in Massachusetts. . . .

Forcing insurers to cover benefits that many consumers may not want (or need) also drives up premiums. For instance, New Jersey is one of only four states to mandate coverage for chiropody. And it is one of only 13 states that mandate coverage for in vitro fertilization — adding 3 percent to 5 percent to the cost of premiums. Proponents often argue that their particular mandate costs little; but when all 42 of New Jersey’s mandated benefits are added together the costs are significant. Nationwide, as many as one-quarter of the uninsured may have been priced out of the market by costly mandates.

What’s troubling is how many politicians want to solve this problem which was created by too much government interference with more government interference in the form of expanded government-provided health care.

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It's official... Polar Bears are Endangered...

May 15, 2008 - Heard on the radio today that polar bears have been put on the endangered species list... well... sort of... kind of. They may not be exactly endangered since there were reported to be 5,000 polar bears in the 1970's and there are 25,000 today... but... the AGW proponents' applied enough pressure so here we are. The door is open... stay tuned for more and beware! Read More......

Jobs pay for our quality of life

Corvallis Gazette-Times, LETTERS, May 13, 2008

When I read about the choices for Corvallis City Council Ward 7, my humble opinion is that Jeannie Raymond couldn't be more wrong for Corvallis.

Her idea that we need to worry about Corvallis' "carbon footprint" seems entirely irrelevant given Hewlett Packard Co.'s pending layoff of 300 people.

We're all concerned about our "carbon footprint," but we need to put first things first.

The bottom line, at least to me, is that a high quality of life is not possible unless people have jobs.

In order to have a thriving arts community, a tax base that supports sustainability initiatives, clean water, paved roads, bridges that dont fall into the river, and so forth, people first have to be employed.

I appreciate Rick Schroffs more balanced approach. As a service-oriented businessman who is conscious about sustainability, I think hes going to be able to make the necessary intelligent tradeoffs that can help us retain the high quality of life that perhaps too many of us take for granted, while helping Corvallis keep and attract high-quality jobs.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
Jeff Limon, Corvallis

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