Commentary

This is a rambling commentary and any subject is fair game (so long as you could discuss it in front of your mother, your pastor, and your kids without disgrace.) We'll be glad to publish your thoughts about what we've said, too. Just email them to us.

Page Contents (1/29/2009) $825 Billion Bailout? Let's Do A Little Math (11/19/2008) A Thought About And For The UK (10/15/2008) A Thought About The Democratic Congress (12/8/2008) Ah...It's Just A Coincidence (10/29/2008) Amendment 1 On Your Ballot This Year--What About It (2/28/2009) Be Careful Not To Believe Everything In The Press (5/14/2010) Congratulations to North Georgia Community Foundation (1/21/2009) Dutch Legislator Made A Movie--Now He's Under Arrest (12/22/2008) Georgia Dispute Continues (10/10/2008) Hannity Upset The Liberals...So Let Them PROVE His Report Was False (11/15/2008) Hey Congress--Try This (2/16/2009) Leahy--It's Sad (3/12/2009) Let's Congratulate the Alabama House Of Representatives...It's Great Political Theater (12/4/2008) Let's Let Our Justice System Play Out On LaLa (1/24/2009) Obama's First Big Far-Left Liberal Move--Stem Cells And Abortion (2/18/2009) Sauce For The Goose Is Also... (11/11/2008) Should Our Government Bailout Our Car Makers? (3/8/2009) Unemployment Up With Lower Demand Equals Lowered Wages (12/9/2008) Volcker Is Back (11/14/2008) Wait For It To Get Here (1/21/2009) Work To Protect Your Children

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Congratulations to North Georgia Community Foundation

(5/14/2010)  Twenty-five years! That's how long the North Georgia Community Foundation has been at work and they're celebrating that with a series of events highlighted by a major celebration Saturday, June 19, called Earth, Wind, Water, Fire and Human Kindness--Igniting the Foundation of a Growing North Georgia. This celebration will be held on a hilltop at Glades Farm near Lula, Georgia.

The Foundation was founded in 1985 by Lou Fockete and other business leaders. It is dedicated to enhancing the spirit and quality of life in the community and by building, managing, and awarding charitable grants from community funds currently in excess of $31 million. As part of this charge, the foundation has awarded over $35 million in grants to deserving organizations throughout the US.

The Foundation also promotes training and networking among the area's 300 nonprofit organizations. You can get more information about the foundation at www.ngcf.org.

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Let's Congratulate the Alabama House Of Representatives...It's Great Political Theater

(3/12/2009)  Could it be? The Alabama House of Representatives finally got something right? Never you mind how many years it took them to do it. Never even mention the person who has been injured because they didn't do it sooner. Never even mention how many times Alabamians were endangered because they didn't do it sooner. And finally, never even dare mention how many millions in taxpayer dollars were lost because they didn't do it sooner. We're never supposed to question our super team on Goat Hill.

So, let's just be thankful the House has finally, by a unanimous vote, passed a bill to deal with the steal-coil haulers who frequent Alabama interstates. The bill they passed will make fines for drivers and companies that fail to secure their coils higher. And it requires training for the drivers who are going to carry these 40,000-pound coils of steel. The Alabama Department of Public Safety will have to train them.

But is it a serious effort to protect the citizens of our fair state? Or is it a bit of political slight-of-hand? To answer that, you have only to look for teeth. Under the bill, if a carrier drops one of these rolls on the interstate they'll pay a fine--if the coil was loaded in a way that violated federal safety regulations, of course. So far so good. But look for the teeth. How big is the fine? It will be $5,000 - $10,000. A company employing an uncertified driver to drive one of these loads (and caught at it) will pay a fine of that same amount. The uncertified driver will pay a fine of $250 to $1,000 and face up to a year in jail.

Now we know why it passed without opposition. For a large trucking outfit, the amount they'll pay is chump change. No teeth. Political smoke and mirrors. Better than nothing...but just barely. It will probably make it through the Senate and Governor Riley will sign it because it is just that: better than nothing.

But here's the truth for all of us who live in or travel in our fair state. Once more the trucking lobby has won out over the needs and, indeed, the safety of us all. The amount of fine should be 10 times what it is plus the trucking company should be required to pay for the repairs to our highways if they don't secure their load. Then, if anyone is injured or killed by the coil they drop--and we've been very lucky so far that no one has been killed--the people responsible at the trucking company should go to jail. That would be teeth and that's what we needed.

So once again, when they come around and tell you how great it is that they got this bill passed at last, ask them about why they didn't put teeth in it and let them know how you're going to feel if your family is killed--are they worth $5,000-$10,000?

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Unemployment Up With Lower Demand Equals Lowered Wages

(3/8/2009)  Supply and demand applies to labor as well as to materials. That's why the ever-rising unemployment rate will go hand-in-glove with falling wages. Supply (of labor) is up...demand (for labor) is down. That makes labor prices go down.

Some of the news wires are carrying this bad news as if it were a great revelation, but it's just simple, very-basic economics. Get ready to see it, even if you're fortunate enough to keep your job.

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Be Careful Not To Believe Everything In The Press

(2/28/2009)  It's amazing! In Kenya (Africa) they've found some "footprints" they believe are about 1.5 million years old. They allege that these are human footprints, but frankly, having seen photos of their best example, you couldn't prove to me they weren't some animal's prints.

Well, they claim the prints show signs of a pronounced arch and short, aligned toes--something that's different from earlier discoveries of older footprints they also say are human...you couldn't prove it by me because when I look at either set I have what the law calls reasonable doubt as to whether it is human.

Anyway, the thing that struck me when I saw an article about the prints show up in today's liberal press was that rather than the impossible-to-positively-identify footprint pictures, their article showed a humanoid skull. The implication is that these prints belong to the owner of the skull--a quantum leap that would have made Albert Einstein jealous. (No skull was found in the site where the 1.5 million-year-old prints were located and the scientists working the dig site made no such representations.)

There are two things this misrepresentation represents. First, the absolute acceptance by some people that Darwin was absolutely correct in all that he said. Second, it's very poor reporting. Hey, why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

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Sauce For The Goose Is Also...

(2/18/2009)  There's an old cliché'/adage/saying that says sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.

Leading Christian clergy are asking Pope Benedict XVI to postpone his visit to Israel in May. That would be a protest against an Israeli TV show where they did a spoof on Jesus and the Virgin Mary. In the skit Mary says she slept with many men and was anything but a virgin. Apparently many in Israel believe it is OK to put on such a "spoof" against Christianity, even though they have to know it is an insult and a slap in the face to all Christians.

Sauce for the goose?

At the same time, many of those Israelis are on fire because of a YouTube spoof that shows Adolf Hitler searching for a parking space in Tel Aviv. He's ranting about the lack of parking spaces and the number of Jews. They say it's a jab at Holocaust survivors.

There's that nasty old gander.

So there's the gist of it...neither of these parodies was done by people with taste anywhere but in their mouths, and we don't want to be like either of them.

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Leahy--It's Sad

(2/16/2009)  Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) wants, I have no doubt, criminal indictments against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and any other GOP leaders he can possible get them on. If he can't get the indictments, he'll settle for denigrating these people, sullying their reputations as much as he can and doing all he can to drag any conservatives he can through the mud.

Leahy and his Democratic comrades in Congress need to listen to their new President when he talks about how the American people are in trouble and want change. I say this on a day when Delphi, Corporation, a major automotive parts supplier, announced thousands of new job cuts. If truth were known and the true unemployment numbers were known, we're pushing a Great Depression level of unemployment right now. (To those who say, "Where are the soup lines," I respond, "Wait until the unemployment checks and the retirement savings all run out.")

I sat with an elderly, retired man for a few minutes this weekend. I was struck by the fear and negativism that practically oozed from him even before he opened his mouth. He's worried because he's on what amounts to a fixed income supplemented only by what he has managed to put into savings. He talked about how groceries went up with fuel prices over the summer, but they haven't come back down. Homeowners insurance went up. Property taxes on his home went up. His power bill went up. His phone bill went up. He talked about how the his retirement funds--mutual funds he thought would help support him and his wife through retirement--have lost almost half their value and they're still falling. He talked about how his car is getting old and he can't possibly afford a new one, even a gas guzzler. And his car insurance went up, even thought his car is older and worth much less. And he talked about how the Obama stimulus package isn't going to help people like him for more than a few days--if that.

I know a man, a pipe fitter, who has 4 children. He's been laid off for weeks and the end of his unemployment is coming up. He can't find a job. Four children and a wife--what's he going to do? I know another fellow who's only been laid off for about a month. His wife is retired from the state, so they should keep an income, but it's not enough to pay their bills. He's not badly worried yet. He's hoping the industry he works in will rebound soon, but all economists say it won't. If it doesn't, he's may well lose his home before the end of 2009. And I know several white-collar workers in their fifties and sixties who, through no fault of their own, are out of work. If you believe there's no such thing as age discrimination in this country, you qualify as a complete idiot. It's rampant. Lay that atop high unemployment and these people--the most capable and competent people you could possibly hire--cannot find work.

I could go on, but here's the point: Leahy and his ilk are a large part of this country's problems. They're so busy living on those nice, fat Congressional pay checks and letting the venom of their hatred waste all their time that they've completely forgotten they're supposed to be working for the American taxpayers. The people of America don't need or, I believe, want to parade the very bottom of our dirty laundry basket out for all the world to see. Not right now. We don't need more partisan hatred and bickering in Washington. What we need is for people like Leahy to meet with people like Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions (our Alabama Senators who are not without blame either) and we need all of them to actually work--yes, I said work--together to find ways to help the American worker and the American taxpayer. There's a long list of problems they can choose to work on if they would just work for a change instead of trying to hurt each other.

Tomorrow the car makers are due to return to Washington to tell how they're going to restructure to stay alive. Bills to help keep the car workers in business while moving away from our dependence on foreign oil could be a starting point for these Washingtonians. They could work on that.

There's health care and how to help the people. Millions of Americans couldn't afford health care insurance before the economic collapse hit. Health care costs were the main cause of bankruptcy in the nation--again, before the economic collapse. So where do you think the American citizen is now on health care? Do you think we, the people, are better off than before? Perhaps Leahy and his ilk could try to actually work on that?

There's the problem of securing our borders to prevent drug smugglers, terrorists, and just plain old illegal immigrants from coming into our country. Lets don't forget that ports are part of our problem, either. A terrorist nation could sail a ship carrying a nuke into any of our major ports and kill hundreds of thousands of people. Perhaps Leahy et al could work on that?

I could go on, but I think that's enough to make the point. We need to lock these ne'er-do-wells in a room together and force them to actually do their jobs. But we can't. So we're presented with a view of an old man desperately trying to get camera time and photo ops, not because of the good work he's doing for us all, but for his hate-filled, venomous attacks on anyone that doesn't agree with his ideology. It's sad. He's sad. The results will be sad for us all.

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$825 Billion Bailout? Let's Do A Little Math

(1/29/2009)  The Democrats in Congress, led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, are promoting a spending bill--$825 billion of spending--where much of it goes not to stimulate the economy or create jobs, but to support programs the Dems have wanted passed for years.

Many here in Alabama are listening to our big out-of-state-owned news media outlets and they're hearing how great it is that the bill includes about $3 billion for the State of Alabama. Ah, they say, that will keep us from having to lay off state employees or cut back on services at all levels. What a joy that will be.

What a ruse it is!

Let's do a little simple math. If we divide $825 billion by 50 states, that means you should expect that an even split among all 50 states would send $16.5 billion dollars to each state--not $3 billion. If you're a math person, you automatically know that means $16.5 billion would be about 2% of the total.

Now about that $3 billion. If we were talking about only $100 billion of "stimulus" bill spending, $3 billion would be 3%...obvious, right? But let's see what happens if we divide 3 by 825 and then multiply by 100%. That tell us that the State of Alabama is not about to get 2% of the total. We're not about to get 1% of the total. No...we're about to get a whopping 0.36% of the $825B total.

As my favorite mouse cartoon character would say, "Whoopie!"

Let's consider one more thing. Sooner or later, one way or another, that $825 billion is going to have to be repaid. I betcha we'll get to pay a full 2% when that time rolls around. What do you think?

No wonder they didn't get full non-partisan support for the bill in the House of Representative. No GOP members favored it and 11 Democrats voted against it. Let's hope the atrocity gets stopped in the Senate and they force a lot of the Democratic pork spending out of it.

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Obama's First Big Far-Left Liberal Move--Stem Cells And Abortion

(1/24/2009)  The new Obama administration has done away with the prohibitions on embryonic stem cell research put in place under President Bush. It's one of his first actions as our new far-left, liberal president.

Since 2001 there were limits on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Progress had been made on using other stem cells--from adults--but now that science will be ditched in favor of the abortion-loving liberals' agenda...not to mention the fact that as long as they can push abortion that will make embryonic stem cells cheaper to use in the research and provide big reasons for more work toward unlimited abortion-on-demand. [Watch the liberal press praise the move and give it a positive spin--"progress," "not holding back scientific research", etc.]

The research groups who are seeking to use your tax dollars to do this work will tell you how you're going to the hospital with a heart attack or spinal-cord paralysis, get a shot of stem cells, and come out all cured. They won't mention how speculative and tenuous the research really is and they won't mention that it's all just pie in the sky. But they'll be quick to take your tax dollars and spend them. Meanwhile, free, federally-paid-for abortion-on-demand will be among Obama's next moves.

America voted for it.

Now I'd like to suggest to our congressional representatives that they put in a bill that will force the companies who use our tax dollars to develop these wonder treatments to make them available at no cost to the taxpayer. That should show you what they're after and it's not "pure science."

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Work To Protect Your Children

(1/21/2009)  A friend works for the FBI. His comment is that his children have "no expectation of privacy whatsoever in his home." That's because he has worked too many cases that dealt with children.

So there's what he calls a clue...know what your children are doing and who they're doing it with all the time. Know who they're talking with and what they're talking about. That includes all forms of electronic communications.

Here's the next thing to do. Start early and tell your kids to understand that no matter what someone says about themselves, and even if they send a photo that purports to be them, there's no guarantee they really are who and what they say they are.

One of the most common things the child molester wants to do is convince the child he (or she) is about the age of their target and has lots of things in common with them. That helps them convince a child to come out and meet them and that's when the really bad stuff happens.

Now combine these two things. Watch your child's email, text messages, etc. Know who they're "talking" to. Watch for things that don't make sense or raise red flags of doubt with you and then ask to meet the kids involved--the ones on the other end of the conversation. If they're not produced and it sounds strange, go to the school and express your worries to the staff. Ask them to verify that the stuff looks valid. They can't breech privacy on the other person involved, but they can tell you if it looks reasonable. If it doesn't, ask the police to verify it. Even if it proves to be a false alarm, they'll respect you for your concern and they'll be happy to help because they've worked those missing-child cases too.

Here're two final tips. If you have the cute little decal showing, say, a soccer ball or a football or whatever and the child's name... If you have the cute little decal that says, "My child is an honor student at XYX High... If you have anything that gives away your child's names, school, etc... Rip that thing off your car and dispose of it in a way that makes it impossible to read.

Imagine what a predator gets if you have a soccer ball with the child's name on it and they simply follow you from the school one day when you pick up the child. Now they know the child's name, what sport the child is playing, where the child goes to school, and where they live. They're on their way.

Finally, most people never watch to see if someone is following or watching them. They are oblivious and that works in favor of the predator. You don't have to become paranoid. Just be attentive to your surroundings. For example, when you pick your child up at school or the school bus stops to let the children off notice the cars in the area. If you see a car you don't recognize, with one or two men in it, more than once, begin paying real attention. See it again? Be openly visible about getting their license number and then ask the police to check out what's going on.

If you ever feel you're being followed by such a vehicle, don't go home and don't slow down as you go by your home or even look at the house. Try to confuse the enemy. Go to a friend's home or some other nearby place where you know there are people present and pull into their driveway. Once the car goes by, pull out and follow it just far enough and just long enough to get their license plate number. If you're not sure they're suspicious or you have doubts, begin watching for the vehicle and tell your friends to watch for it. See it again? Talk to the police. Don't make unfounded accusations. Simply express your concerns and ask them to check it out.

The odds against a predator going after your child are high, but it does happen and these people work at coming up with ways they think will let them kidnap the child and get him/her out where they can do whatever they want without being caught. Above all, remember this: if you think something funny may be going on the police are your best friends. Ask them to help.

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Dutch Legislator Made A Movie--Now He's Under Arrest

(1/21/2009)  Last year a Dutch legislator exercised what any democracy should recognize as his free speech rights. He made a film by piecing together real, stock footage, and in so doing he had the audacity to compare some of the actions of Islamists like Hamas to the actions of Adolf Hitler. He also had the nerve to say things that linked the Quran and Islam to violence and murder.

Perhaps you had to see the film to understand. It was made up of footage of Muslims giving hate-sermons and showed repeated calls by Islamists to kill Jews. Among its most moving sites, a 3-year-old girl who quotes the Quran, and Allah as saying Jews are "apes and swine." Oh, and it showed protestors praising Adolf Hitler and promising there will be "another Holocaust."

Understand, the footage wasn't made up...it was real footage. What Wilder did was bring it together and present it.

In America, we say, "I may hate every word you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." That, as much as anything else is what makes America great. It ensures that dissenting voices can always be heard even if the majority of people don't like what they say. That's "free speech."

Apparently, even though the Dutch contend that they have a free and open democracy, they don't. They've arrested Geert Wilder for "inciting hatred, discrimination, and insulting language" in his 14-minute-long film, "Fitna." He says he's trying to warn the Dutch people about the "Islamization of the Netherlands"--about what they can expect in their futures. He is a dissenting voice in a nation where many are already too afraid of reprisals, even murder, to dissent.

So...cling to free speech and take notice of why we must maintain it. Even if you don't like what someone is saying, they have the right to say it and that's America at its best.

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Georgia Dispute Continues

(12/22/2008)  Russia isn't backing down on independence for Abkhazia and South Ossetia--the two areas claimed by Georgia. You'll remember that Georgia's claim on the two regions was the original cause of the Russian incursion there this year. Russia says the two regions should be allowed to enjoy their independence and because they won't back down, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says they're pulling out of Georgia in early 2009. Ah...high drama.

Meanwhile, the US and NATO have not recognized South Ossetia as an independent state.

[Now, let's be honest about it...the mandate for the OSCE to keep its 200 or so people in the area expires December 31 and they've been trying to get an extension on that date. So this withdrawal isn't entirely an unexpected, dramatic, spur-of-the-moment thing after all. And is independence good only when we like it or are the people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia entitled to be just as free as anyone else if they want to...and they do.

By the way, have you ever heard of the OSCE before? If you're not a news junkie, or even if you are, the odds are the answer is "no."

The only real question here is whether Russia will really allow these people to be independent if we recognize them. For example, should either of the two states choose to ask for NATO membership, would Russia bite their tongue and allow it, or would they invade to stop it? That's what we should be talking about...not dramatizing the OSCE's pullout as the liberal press and the hawks in Washington are want to do. We should be talking to Russia about it in frank, open conversations that could lead to stability and world peace.

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Volcker Is Back

(12/9/2008)  Do you remember 1980 and 1981? We had double-digit inflation then. If you had money to invest, you were ecstatic. But many people struggled to put food on the table and get by as the price of staples climbed to new highs almost each week. That's when Paul A. Volcker became the head of the Federal Reserve. Volcker didn't worry about hurting the American people...he put the financial brakes on the economy in 1981 and we went into a recession that hurt millions of Americans. If you ignore all that pain, you have to say it worked. Five years later we didn't have double-digit inflation. We also didn't have a lot of small businesses and a lot of people suffered through the thing.

Volcker is back. Obama has picked him as a special economic advisor.

And Volcker, now 81 years old, has already made it clear that we wants the American people to suffer again. He wants tough new regulation of securities markets...so far so good. But he also wants an end to what he believes is runaway US consumption. That strikes not only at government spending, but at household spending. And he says, "It's going to be a tough period...But when we dealt with inflation, it laid the groundwork for 20 years of growth. I'd like to see that happen this time."

Volcker doesn't have direct control over the Federal Reserve or any other US agencies. He's head of the new Economic Recovery Adisory Board and he'll no doubt be held in check by some of the other outsized egos Obama has pulled into economic power positions.

Let's all hope that some of the people in Obama's group will have more compassion for the American people than Paul Volcker.

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Ah...It's Just A Coincidence

(12/8/2008)  Have you noticed how the Bush administration seems to have given away the farm to get passage of the Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA)? Clearly the president didn't want to lose face by having the SOFA rejected. It would have looked really bad for Bush and the GOP if the Iraqis booted us out of there.

Now comes the coincidence of indictments that could have--should have--been returned months ago against Blackwater personnel who allegedly killed 17 people in a crowded square in Baghdad months ago. Strangely these hit the fan shortly after the SOFA passed...hmmmm.

Watch too--there will be more demands for financial remuneration if guilty verdicts ensue for these security people. We'll hand off a lot of money to Iraq as a result.

If the guys shot down people who had their hands up and were running away--that's what's alleged--they deserve to be put away forever. No question. Period.

And the FBI said as early as July that they did it. So I would tend to believe the charges are true...that's just my feelings, nothing more.

But through it all, it's hard to ignore the coincidence of getting the SOFA through the Iraqi parliament being followed so quickly by the indictments. Would we have ever seen these indictments otherwise?

Ain't politics grand?

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Let's Let Our Justice System Play Out On LaLa

(12/4/2008)  How many really, really, good friends do you have? Do you have any who would buy you a new Rolex or two? How about paying off your home loan when you default on it? Or $60,000 worth of clothing? Or $69,000 worth of fancy electronics equipment? Do you have a friend who would pay your $30,000 back-tax bill? Can you field two friends--not relatives, mind you, just friends--who would do all that for you?

I didn't think so.

He has the race card...you know, it's all because he's black. The SCLC is already playing that one on his behalf.

He has the politico card...he did nothing wrong and the entire thing is a pack of lies based on political expediency. (Never mind that he's on the local city stage and the charges are coming from the nation's highly respected Federal Bureau of Investigation. Pay that difference no mind.)

And finally, he says these guys did it all because they were his friends and they--must surely have--loved him.

Oh, and the fact that the same 2 guys who gave him all this stuff just happened to be the best people in the world for taxpayers to employ for jobs he had sway over was just a happy coincidence.

Ah...butterflies and rainbows all 'round. What a happy world that would be!

If you live in the Birmingham, Alabama, metropolitan area, you probably heard about how B'ham Mayor Larry Langford was arrested and indicted on over one hundred counts. So here's my single thought on it. If you or I were arrested and indicted we'd go to trial. And, we'd probably go with much less expensive attorneys than LaLa will have. So let's let our justice system play this out. Forget the race card. Forget the politico card. If you believe the "friends" defense, I have a some ocean-front property in South Dakota I'd like to sell you...cheap! Me? I said I thought the deal was crooked back when LaLa was in the Jefferson County Commission's lead chair and the jobs were being let without bids. I said that if the FBI would investigate they'd throw the lot of them in jail. You'll excuse me if I relish thoughts of those who cheated taxpayers being thrown in jail. They deserve it and the worst of the lot is anyone who swears in to serve the people, then steals from us. So let's let the justice system play it out and see who's found guilty of what. My bet is on the FBI, but if a jury finds LaLa and friends innocent I'll be happy to say I was wrong and they just really, really, loved him...an awful lot. (If the terrible trio gets off on a technicality, I'll conclude I was right all along and so was the FBI and that there's a crooked judge to be investigated...but that's just my opinion and I'm entitled to that.)

While we're at it, let's hope the FBI and the SEC will work together to investigate the Jefferson County sewer debt deals...there's that same odor coming from the mess surrounding the lending deals there and my bet is that if they can get past the legalize there are some people involved in that mess who should be appearing before a judge in shackles.

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A Thought About And For The UK

(11/19/2008)  Here's a thought about and for the UK.

The Brits have these laws with a 100%-no-tolerance law against any form of hate-speak or racism. The BBC fired a news reported just the other day because she wanted her 14-year-old daughter to have a non-turbaned taxi driver. That dismissal was based on their no-tolerance policy against racism.

What did they do to the hecklers and protestors who came out to shout down Israeli President Shimon Peres at Oxford University. After all, what's good for the goose should be good for the gander. "Zionist pigs" and the like certainly seem to qualify if protecting your daughter from the presence of a turbaned driver does.

So, where was the enforcement at Oxford?I say, there, old man...could it be you're talking out of both sides of your mouth there in England?

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Hey Congress--Try This

(11/15/2008)  Fair warning...I agree with those who say we must float a bailout for GM, Ford, and, if necessary Chrysler. There's the fact that 10% of all US jobs depend directly on the auto industry. There's the fact that even throwing one of the big-3 into bankruptcy is going to send the wrong message where consumer confidence is concerned. But while our government leaders don't seem to want to mention it, there's also the need for such massive manufacturing capacity should this nation ever become embroiled in a real, wide-spread, war using conventional weapons. In the end, that was a large part of what defeated Germany and Japan--our ability to convert auto manufacturing lines to make tanks and war materiel is a huge advantage. We can't let all that go down the tubes.

So what are we to do? Here's an idea...we give them the bailout and we require the car makers to produce hydrogen-powered cars at a rate such that in 10 years no gas-powered car rolls off their assembly lines...not one. Period. Then, we give a tax credit to every service station owner who installs hydrogen-dispensing infrastructure. That will create lots of jobs as people jump to put in the new equipment, build new hydrogen-production infrastructure, and get it into their service stations. Oh, and did we mention that it will wean us away from sending all our money to the very people who hate us and want to kill us? Or did we mention that it will have a huge positive effect on global environmental protection? Or did we mention that it will put us out ahead of the Japanese and German companies that are already bringing hydrogen technology to the US auto anyway.

Oh, and before you say it's not workable, better talk to the people at Honda and BMW about their vehicles. By the way, GM has it in testing, too...but they probably won't sell it until the market absolutely forces them to--or we the people tell them if they want our money they have to move ahead. [Do you think maybe some of their top people own petro-stocks?]

And while I'm at it...as part of the deal, put a heavier tax on gas during each of the 10 years while we convert and then, just to make the point that we're serious about it, let's put a really prohibitive gas-guzzler tax on and make it worse each year. If we do that, people won't want to keep buying the old gas guzzler.

The one thing we don't need to do is hand them all this money just so they can keep building those huge gas-guzzling SUVs and other such vehicles.

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Wait For It To Get Here

(11/14/2008)  It happened on Wednesday but word of it it is just getting out to the world. The Taliban learned that girls were planning on attending a school in Khandahar and that's against what these Islamics push. So they got on their motorcycles and, being the big, brave guys they are, they rode out and squirted acid on 15 girls and teachers. They aimed for the girls' faces and eyes.

According to the Taliban, under strict Islamic law women are only to leave the house wearing a burqa and only if accompanied by a male family member.

The Afghan government condemned the attack and called it "un-Islamic." But they've not arrested anyone and they probably never will.

No wonder girls don't go to school in Afghanistan.

But wait...FOX News is carrying stories about an English news person who was fired by the BBC. It seems that in her off hours she asked a taxi company to send her a driver who wasn't in a turban because her 14-year-old daughter would be upset by the man's presence. In fact, at one point, she said a woman driver would be preferable so that her daughter wouldn't be upset.

The announcer was on her own time, not representing the BBC, but the taxi company recorded her comments, called her a racist, and sent the tape to the press. The BBC fired the announcer for that?

Now consider that Sharia (Islamic) Law is being used in lieu of English law in many cases.

Then remember that our liberal elite always wants to give us what's on the other side of the Atlantic. Just wait for it..

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Should Our Government Bailout Our Car Makers?

(11/11/2008)  While the government was debating over its celebrated $700 billion bailout, er..."rescue," of the financial sector, most people failed to notice a $25 billion package passed into law to help the big-3 US car makers. That was to help them survive the high gas prices and retool to build more fuel-efficient cars.

But now we have calls for another $25 billion--maybe more--to bail them out because of the way the current economic crisis has hit car sales.

Should we do it? That's the question.

Here's the answer...we have no choice but to keep certain manufacturing companies alive, well, and on US soil. That's not if we want to exist as a free, democratic nation--forget about capitalist because that's already forfeited.

Just suppose for a minute that we were suddenly involved in a real war using conventional weapons. I'm not talking about a police action akin to what we saw in Vietnam or a smaller war like we've seen in Afghanistan and Iraq. Suppose the US was suddenly involved in a major war against, say, China or Russia. We would need the best, most modern equivalent of the Jeep, along with lots of other war materials, in numbers not seen since WWII. Where would we have the pre-built capacity for that production to take place?

Just like in WWII, we would need factories and assembly lines that could be quickly changed over to the production of war materials. A large part of that effort would be, just like in WWII, the big-3 car makers' lines. If our government leaders forget that, we need to boot them out and put in new people who have brains.

Should we give them their bailout? We have no choice about that. We have to do it.

Should we insist on better management and new directions? Oh, yeah!

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Amendment 1 On Your Ballot This Year--What About It

(10/29/2008)  If you live in Alabama, you're about to have the chance to vote on a new amendment for the state constitution. It's a complex thing and even after you understand it, you won't know for certain what's best in the long term. Anyone who says they do is either trying to take your tax dollars for their own benefit and agenda or they're just plain lying.

The State of Alabama receives money from off-shore oil drilling. This money--and right now we have about $3 billion--goes to the Alabama Trust Fund. There it grows not only by having more money come in but also from drawing interest and capital gains. The money thus generated is used in the General Fund budget, and it benefits cities, counties, and the Forever Wild land trust.

The proposed amendment will expand the cap on the education rainy-day fund from $248 million to 6.5% of the previous year's budget--$437 million this year. It would create a General Fund rainy-day fund of 10% of the yearly budget for state agencies--$183 million this year. To do this, they'd take the extra money from the Alabama Trust Fund...the only place our ne'er do-well Montgomery politicians haven't been able to get to where anything like that amount of money can still be found in our state's coffers.

On the vote-for-it side, our schools are facing proration (cut backs) in programs our kids and grandkids should not be without and this amendment would help alleviate the budget shortfalls. Also, there are a number of state-rendered services for our needy and elderly folks that could be preserved if the money is properly used. Without it, these services will face cutbacks because the money isn't there in our economic downturn. Notice that both of these are short-term needs.

On the negative side, have you ever seen our politicians in Montgomery do what's right about such a windfall. Oh, sure, this year they'll let it go where it should. Maybe even for two years in a row. But with nothing to keep them from raiding our Alabama Trust Fund, they'll keep on taking money from it until it's as dry as a Jefferson County Sewer checking account.

So here's the problem. We have $3 billion. We have Alabamians who desperately need state service that part of that money could pay for until state income is back up. We need to find a short-term way to deliver that money (services) to those people. We need to give the schools a temporary boost until the economy picks back up a bit. We also have a teacher's union and a group of crazed politicians who smell money and they won't stop until they spend every dime. Hey, they might even give themselves another huge pay increase and slap themselves on the back for having done it to us again.

Our local out-of-state-owned newspaper says vote for Amendment 1. They also use it and the other amendments that will appear on our ballot as arguing points against maintaining our 1901 state constitution. As always, that constitution is protecting us and our taxpayer dollars. Without it, the state congress would already have voted that money out and it would be long gone as pork spending or congressional pay raises.

I'll have to vote against Amendment 1 on Tuesday. I just can't bring myself to give them the right to spend that money until it's all gone. My take is that people we send to our state capital should be able to find a legitimate way to borrow from (and repay) the Alabama Trust Fund so that we have a short-term "bridge" to get us through the lean times. I think it's time they went to work in Montgomery and did what they were sent there to do...serve the people of Alabama.

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A Thought About The Democratic Congress

(10/15/2008)  Not too many months in the past, we were treated with pictures of Nancy Pelosi and Senator Byrd standing side by side as they said the American people were dissatisfied with Congress because they had failed to force retreat from Iraq. At the time they had the lowest public confidence ratings we'd seen in years.

But...those confidence ratings were high compared to what they get today. Which makes you wonder if they still think that's because we didn't retreat from Iraq when they wanted to do so. What do you think?

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Hannity Upset The Liberals...So Let Them PROVE His Report Was False

(10/10/2008)  FOX News has upset the liberals. They did a documentary showing the connections between Barack Hussein Obama and the far-left liberals, not to mention the really radical people he's been associated with. The piece was called "Obama and Friends: The History of Radicalism" and it appeared on Sean Hannity's program.

The far-left liberals absolutely love Obama--he's has the most liberal voting record in the US Senate and he's always been out there. His friends, when they come to light, are like the radical Ayres or the so-called "reverend" Wright.

So here's the challenge to the far-left. Disprove the connections' truth. Show us proof that Obama didn't sit for 20 years under old "God d____ America" Wright, for instance. Prove to us that what Hannity's report said is false.

Oops...there's a problem. Hannity told the truth. His facts are correct.

That's why we see the left saying things like, "[Hannity is] relying on innuendo and guilt by association to paint the Illinois senator as a dupe of the shadowy forces of the left." Sounds good, but...let's not allow the facts to get set aside just so the liberals will be happy. Obama was associated with these people. And it does matter when we're talking about the Oval Office. It matters a lot.

So there it is. Liberals should either put up their proof that Hannity was wrong, or they should just plain shut up about it and try to get people to forget it all really did happen.

As for the "radical overthrow" many of us are concerned about. Perhaps you should have seen the Wisconsin speaking engagement of John McCain. You might have noticed when a man in the audience received a standing ovation for saying we're mad about the socialists trying to take over the country. At the risk of joining Hannity, I will say that I believe the guy was talking about Barack Hussein Obama...and Nancy Pelosi and all the other far-left liberals.

My money's on Hannity's reporting as accurate...even if it's not "fair and balanced."

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