Change

I am reposting this article now that I have a political blog. It is the same article I posted earlier on my other blog. So if you read it there...no need to re-read!


The thought of Obama as president scares the bejeebers out of me! Writing about it makes me feel a little better.

So, why am I terrified of an Obama presidency? Where to start…

I recently finished the book “The Hunt for Red October” by Tom Clancy (Good book…a bit too much submarine/naval technical detail, but good overall). In the book there are a group of Soviet officers defecting to the United States, and you really get a look at what life is like in a socialist country. The captain's motivation for defecting is to punish the Socialist system over the death of his wife, who died from appendicitis. She received inadequate treatment from the state-run health care system.

Oh…but don’t we want state run health care in the US? No! In Canada, the average patient waited more than 18 weeks in 2007 between seeing their family doctor and receiving the surgery or treatment they required. They waited 22 months for a hip replacement. The median wait for an MRI across Canada was 10.1 weeks. Aaron needed an MRI a few months ago. He had it done immediately.

The book discusses in detail the control that the government has over the lives of it’s citizens. It’s truly frightening.

Not as frightening as the fact that one of the men running for president wants more government regulation of the economy, more redistribution of wealth, more superiority of international institutions, more nationalization of medicine…more and more control over our lives.

As I read the book, I just kept thinking over and over…this is where Obama wants to lead our country. Obviously, not to the same extreme that existed in the Soviet Union…well, not in 4 years anyway.

Here’s an example. Obama wants to take the profits from oil companies and give them to “working class families”. That sounds good, doesn’t it?

If Obama is elected, and follows through with taking oil profits, do you think it will STOP with oil profits? Their profit margin is only 7-11%. There are tons companies and industries that make WAY more than that. Wal-Mart and Microsoft make a significantly higher margin. Glen Beck puts it this way “As for whether or not states and/or "working families" have the right to take the profits oil companies have made, I guess that depends on whether you adhere to the U.S. Constitution or the Communist Manifesto.”

Obama made a statement during the primaries that people in small towns that fall on hard times “cling to guns or religion …as a way to explain their frustrations.”

I remember enough from college to know how much this sounds like Karl Marx’s line about religion being the opiate of the masses.

Let’s look at a few of his wife’s ideas:

"And Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism, that you put down your division, that you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones, that you push yourselves to be better, and that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual - uninvolved, uninformed..." (Speech in February, 2008)

"Barack knows that we are going to have to make sacrifices, that we are going to have to change our conversation, we're gonna have to change our traditions, our history, we're gonna have to move into a different place as a nation." (Campaign speech in Puerto Rico)

Let’s see…”require you”, “demand that you”, “will never allow you to”, “have to make sacrifices”. Hmmm…lots of freedom there…

You know what? I like my traditions, my history and my nation. I am proud of all three. I’m sorry Barack Obama; your change is not for me.

In her speech at the DNC she said that her husband is running “to make health care available for every American, and to make sure every child in this nation gets a world class education all the way from preschool to college”. But what if you don’t want to send your child to preschool? You don’t think you should actually get the choice, do you? What if you want to be a plumber, and have no desire to go to college? It’s a good thing the government knows what’s best for you.

I know this is insanely long, but I have to talk about taxes.

Obama has proposed creating a slew of government spending programs that are disguised as tax credits.

Here’s the deal:
The bottom 40% of income earners already pays no income taxes (data from the Congressional Budget Office). Actually, they receive a payment from the federal income tax system (meaning from the taxpayers). This amounts to them paying negative 3.8%. Seriously. Currently, this is in the form of the Earned Income Credit (EIC), but Obama wants to significantly expand these credits so that many are “refundable”. So the people that pay NO taxes will be getting huge checks.

That’s what he means when he talks about tax cuts…redistribution of wealth! Not really the kind of tax cuts that I had in mind.

He would like us to believe that the “wealthy” aren’t paying taxes, while the “middle class” foots the bill.

Actually, let’s look at the numbers…the middle 20% of income earners, the true middle class, pays 4.4% of federal all income taxes. Did you catch that? That means the wealthiest 40% of the nation is paying 99.4% of the income taxes! (Yes, I know that equals more than 100%...remember, we have to make up for the negative 3.8% that is going to the people who don’t pay ANY taxes)

Hitler and Stalin both promised hope and change. Let’s think about the kind of change we want.

Reminder

Monday, October 6th is the deadline to register to vote in Arkansas. Most states have a deadline sometime in October. So if you have recently moved, or have never voted, it's time to get moving!

For Arkansas voters, here is a link to the registration form from the Arkansas Secretary of State's office:

http://www.sos.arkansas.gov/elections/elections_pdfs/voter/voter_reg_ap_ar.pdf

You can mail it in, or take it to the County Clerk's Office or Revenue Office.

This only applies if you plan to vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin. If you plan to vote for Obama, there is no deadline. Also, the election has been postponed to Wednesday, November 5th.

Trivia:
Did you know that we hold our election in November so that it won't interfere with planting and harvesting? The harvest is over, but the weather is still mild enough to allow traveling long distances.

The election is Tuesday so Monday can be used as a travel day to the polls. People can't be expected to travel on Sunday, that's the Sabbath. Man, times have changed!

Gas Prices

Who should we blame for the high gas prices? Let’s see…do we blame “big oil”? That’s who the media would like us to blame. With all of their “windfall profits” that Barak Obama is going to tax the bejeebers out of.

I know that everyone has heard the “windfall profit” buzz word, so I want to take just a minute to explain a little history on it.

In 1980, the United States enacted the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act. It wasn’t actually a tax on profits, it was an excise tax. An excise tax is a tax that is imposed on goods produced domestically. Congress felt like US oil producers weren’t paying their fair share, so they passed this law.

Well…turns out they were dead wrong. In 1988 they repealed the act because they were totally off in their estimates on oil prices. Also, Congress realized that the tax had increased the nation's dependence on imported oil. Being an excise tax, it was only imposed on oil produced domestically in the United States; it was not imposed on imported oil.

Brilliant.

A few months ago a bill was introduced that would impose a 25% windfall tax on an oil company whose profits grew by more than 10%. It came really close to passing.

Well, are the profits “windfall”?

In the second quarter of 2008 (the one that recently ended), Exxon made $11.68 billion in profit. That does seem a little excessive. Unless you also look at this tiny piece of information: they paid $32 billion in taxes. $10.5 billion just in income taxes. (CNNmoney.com)

Seriously. I would think paying 49% in income tax should cover it.

So Congress must have their feathers ruffled because the oil companies’ profits are way out of line with other industries, right?

Exxon's profit margin was 10% for 2007. If that is the standard for “windfall profits”, most of corporate America would also qualify. For example: aerospace and machinery made 8.2% profit in 2007. Chemicals had an average margin of 12.7%. Computers: 13.7%. Electronics and appliances: 14.5%. Pharmaceuticals: 18.4% and beverages and tobacco: 19.1%. (Wall Street Journal)

It is very clear to me that Congress is using “big oil” as a scapegoat.

Well if we can’t blame big oil, who do we blame?

We need more refineries. Everyone knows that our current gas price spike is due to hurricane Ike. Texas has shut down 14 of its 26 refineries, which amounts to 3.8 million barrels of fuel a day, or 25% of the nation’s gasoline. Even after the storm is passed, the refineries could stay shut down due to power outages.

We need more refineries. And we need them located across the nation so a natural disaster doesn’t cause such upheaval.

There has not been a new refinery built in the US since 1976…that’s over 30 years! Existing refineries have been expanded and patched up, but it is impossible for oil companies to build new refineries because of the ridiculous, unnecessary, and costly Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. The price consumers pay at the pump reflects not only high oil prices due to tight supplies, but also high refining costs due to tight refining capacity.

The environmentalists have made sure that no new refineries have been built. They have enough red tape and lawsuits to block them. You see, they are concerned with the “carbon emissions” that the refineries produce. So you are paying $4 at the pump to reduce theoretical global warming.

(Ok, this post is already really long, so I will save my rant about the global warming theory for another day…it’s killing me, but I can do it…deep breaths…)

So the first reason gas prices are so high is the lack of refineries. The second reason is that we can’t get to the oil that is right here in the US. There are so many bans, we are only able to drill in a teeny tiny portion of the areas with oil. Despite the bans, we are able to domestically produce 30% of our own oil…more than we import from any other country.

Think of the amazing possibilities if more areas were opened to drilling. There was recently a bill that was introduced in Congress (actually it didn’t even make it out of committee) to open up the Continental Shelf. The democrats killed it. (Remember, they have better ideas, like taxing those “windfall profits”.) The day after the bill was killed, this is what Glenn Beck had to say:

“The Government estimates that the outer continental shelf, the one they said no to yesterday, has 76 billion barrels of oil in it that are recoverable and that's with today's technology. Let me put that into perspective. 76 billion barrels is enough to replace every single barrel of oil that we import from everywhere outside of North America for the next 34 years at our current pace. That's in the one place, one, that congress said we couldn't go into yesterday.”

There are many, many other areas that are rich with oil, right here in the US. Oil companies are banned from exploring these areas because of the potential impact on the environment. One of these areas is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska that Sarah Palin favors drilling.

“The United States Department of Energy estimates that ANWR oil production between 2018 and 2030 would reduce the cumulative net expenditures on imported crude oil and liquid fuels by an estimated $135 to $327 billion (2006 dollars), between 2018 and 2030, reducing the foreign trade deficit” (Wikipedia)

This refuge is 20 million acres, and they want to drill in like 2000 acres. The biggest reason against drilling: Porcupine Caribou. It might cut the heard off from calving areas.

And many environmentalists also tack on the risk of oil spills as part of their argument against drilling. In fact, The National Academy of Sciences found that Outer continental shelf operations are more than five times less likely to cause a spill than oil tankers who are importing oil.

We are purposely limiting our own supplies.

That is why you are paying $4 at the pump.

Is Sarah Palin Qualified?

I am excited to start my very own political blog. I didn’t really think anyone cared about my opinions, but apparently I was wrong. I was quite surprised and flattered by all of the compliments and encouragement that I received to continue writing political posts.

So here I go! For my first post, I first thought I would write about some of the Obama thoughts that are swimming around in my head. But I changed my mind. There is something that I just have to get out.

I was on facebook, writing on the wall of one of my friends. Of course, I had to read the previous posts (come on…I know I am not the only wall stalker out there!) My jaw seriously dropped as I read the post directly before mine. I do not know the girl who posted it, and I’m sure she is a perfectly nice person. Perfectly nice, but not necessarily perfectly smart. Did I just say that? OK, here is the actual post:

What's up with the Palin invites? I know I should be in love but I have my own issues playing into this. Doesn't anyone else think that maybe the role of VP is alittle much for a mother of five with an infant at home and a grandbaby on the way? Or that perhaps someone with alittle more experience might have been a better choice in case he kicks the bucket? Ah well, I'm still voting for them, don't worry, but I'm not joining the fan club.

Seriously!?!?

I believe that this girl is just a victim of blindly repeating things she hears on the news. Here are a few recent quotes from the oh-so-“unbiased” media:

“Is she prepared for the all-consuming nature of the job? She is the mother of five children, one of them a four-month-old with Down Syndrome. Her first priority has to be her children. When the phone rings at three in the morning and one of her children is really sick what choice will she make?” Sally Quinn, Washington Post

“There’s also this issue that on April 18th, she gave birth to a baby with Down’s Syndrome…. Children with Down’s syndrome require an awful lot of attention. The role of Vice President, it seems to me, would take up an awful lot of her time, and it raises the issue of how much time will she have to dedicate to her newborn child?” John Roberts CNN

Did you know that Kohn F. Kennedy’s son, John Jr., was born just weeks after his father was elected? Caroline was only three. Man, I just don’t see how he’s going to be able to perform his duties as president with a newborn around. Do you think that question was raised? Of course not! His wife also suffered a miscarriage just months before he was assassinated. Certainly he isn’t fit to be president. His family needed him.

This kind of question would never be raised of a man. The thing is, Sarah Palin has a wonderful, caring husband. I think it is great that the men of our generation share the responsibility of raising children. It’s even better that they do it willingly and happily. Men are capable of rearing children. End of story.

If the Palin family has decided that this family dynamic works for them; who the heck are we to question their decision? These children have two parents that love them very much. If reversing the traditional roles works best for their family…great!

The thing that kills me is that it’s the “feminists” that are yelling the loudest. I read a story about a feminist woman who bragged about returning to work less than a week after giving birth, saying that was all she needed. This same woman is vocal about her opinion that Sarah Palin should spend more time at home with her baby with Downs Syndrome.

These are the same women who have argued that women can “have it all” and “do it all”. I looked up the definition of feminism is “the belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes”.

Equality.

Sarah Palin chose to have a family, and then she chose to enter the political arena. She is a smart and capable woman, and I think she can balance her career and family as well as any man.

I would also like to address the second part of the comment left by my friend’s friend (who will remain nameless).

“…perhaps someone with alittle more experience might have been a better choice in case he kicks the bucket?”

Again, she is just regurgitating what she was fed by the liberal media. First and foremost:

As the chief executive of her state, she is better prepared, and has more experience to bring to the presidency than the man who heads the democratic ticket, who had only a year in the U.S. Senate before he started running for president (these are Glen Beck’s words…he just said it so perfectly I decided to quote him)

At the time that Obama announced that he was running for president, he had been a U.S. Senator for 767 days. When Sarah Palin was announced as a vice presidential candidate, she had been the governor of Alaska for 634 days. Hmmm.

Also, oil and gas prices are a top issue in this election. She has unique energy experience as the governor of oil-rich Alaska where 85 percent of the budget comes from oil revenue. She's also the previous head of the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Did you catch that she was the head of the commission? Let’s see…head of a city, head of an important commission, head of a STATE!

As Governor, Palin operates a $9 billion budget, and manages $13 billion in revenue. Furthermore, she runs a government that employs 25,000 people.

I guess Obama is the head of his campaign…