Health care: Rationing required

President Obama now admits that his healthcare plan will require service rationing.

That is, only x number of y services can be performed in z period of time. That means that when you can now just go into your doctor and get, say, a mammogram done, you will instead need to sign up on a list.

In Canada, you generally have to wait 6-12 months for a mammogram, even if you have a lump. This person (second Google result for "canada mammogram wait") was 34 and had a lump; she could not get approved for a mammogram until she had an ultrasound, which itself a had 6-month wait. That's the difference between easy treatment with little or no side effects and go home and wait to die.

Regulatory reform: unnecessary and doesn't even do what it intends

Two major bills are currently being proposed. One is finance oversight regulation, the other is health care reform.

1: Finance oversight.

The major financial problems we've had over the last year was, and most people know this, due largely to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They encouraged, financed, and in many cases even required, lenders to make home loans to "underqualified buyers".

"Underqualified" means that the people couldn't afford them, like someone who makes $20k/year getting a $200k house. How could they even work that? Simple. Give them a low-interest, interest-only loan for the first five years. They don't have to pay on the $200k at all, only the 3% interest. They know that in five years they'll have to start paying principal too, and the interest will go to 9%. They pay $500/month for now. But in five years, that will go to $2028. Why would they even do that? They probably plan to either sell the house at a profit in five years, with a side thought of refinancing into a 30-year fixed at 6% ($1200/month) on an increased income. Problem is that housing values went down. They couldn't sell at a profit. They are "upside-down" in a house they couldn't afford. The bank should never have even lent to them. But Fannie Mae required that they make a certain number of these loans, or else risk losing access to financing sources.

The problem with the proposed legislation?

The new regulation DOES NOT APPLY TO FANNIE MAE OR FREDDIE MAC! AT ALL! The area that actually needs oversight doesn't get it!

2: Health care reform.

President Obama has pushed for this reform, in large part using General Motors as an example. The union "legacy costs", primarily health insurance, is too high, and has greatly contributed to their bankruptcy.

The problem with the proposed legislation? (Ignoring many other issues, like estimated costs of $1 trillion with no funding, and expectations that many employers will dump their current better insurance since the new stuff won't cost them anything...)

The new regulation grandfathers in the union plans! If you have a union, YOU CAN'T GET INTO THE NEW PLAN EVEN IF YOU WANT TO! The industries that need the reform most aren't allowed to use it!

Transparent and Ethical Government as promised?

AmeriCorps is a public service organization under the Federal Government.

President Obama just fired the Inspector General of AmeriCorps. Why? He was "confused and disoriented". What's that mean? Is that like Joe Biden is everytime he speaks publicly? Or like Obama is everytime he doesn't have his teleprompter?

Obama sent notification to the Senate seven days after the firing. Part of the problem is that a law THAT OBAMA SIGNED requires 30-days advance notice is to be given to the Senate before starting procedures to fire any Inspector General. In other words, President Obama expressly broke the law, and a law he himself approved.

Why was Inspector General Walpin fired? Because the board of directors wanted him fired. Why did they want him fired? Because he had just investigated an organization for misuse of taxpayer funds provided by AmeriCorps. That organization, the St. HOPE Academy of Sacramento, was founded by an Obama supporter who used the $850,000 he got from AmeriCorp (for arts programs) for things like increasing salaries for his organization and personal car washes. After the investigation, While St. HOPE was not charged criminally, they agreed to repay half the grants.

In other words, Inspector General Walpin was doing his job, investigating misuse of taxpayer funds. But it turned out that those he was investigating supported Obama. And he was fired, without valid reason and directly contrary to the law.

Reference: http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/06/16/obama-accuses-fired-inspector-general-of-americorps-of-being-confused-disoriented

Moon / Space missions

OK, it's a toss-up, regular blog or political...

NASA has regular space missions. Some say they are useless. There's also the point that they're expensive in a time that we're having economic problems.

My thoughts?

First, on the economy, that's a valid point. My first thought was that we could delay missions for now until we can better afford them. Then I realized that large economies are built around these industries; if we shut them down, that would just cause more economic problems, albeit in specialized sectors. If it were planned properly, maybe, but we now have people and companies relying on these missions for their incomes and salaries.

Second, on the missions themselves:
Step it up! We should have manned stations on the moon by now. And civilian colonies on the moon. We've been visiting for FORTY YEARS! Why are we just playing with it? Most of the missions we're doing are with obsolete equipment. The only good these missions do is to enable scientific labs on the space station. Why have we not developed better propulsion systems? Better defensive systems? Antigravity systems?

It seems like our space administration is, like most in government, more interested in saving their own jobs than actually developing new tech and making new discoveries. How else can you explain our more advanced space tech being 20-year-old shuttles? If the problem is that they don't have sufficient funding, maybe they need to use the money more wisely. They're not getting anything done as it is. Maybe they, like many government agencies, are paying too much in too many salaries, and not on the research and equipment.

Bill for a specific purpose is only 80% for that purpose, and that's fine?!?

A bill to fund military operations includes $5 billion in lending to the International Monetary Fund, money that some expect will be lent to countries like Iran and North Korea. Money that will be borrowed (by us) largely from China, since we don't have it.

But the Democrat House Majority Leader, says that it's not a problem since 80% of the bill is still going to the military.

That's part of the problem. As long as over half of the funds of a bill go to the EXPRESS PURPOSE OF A BILL go to that purpose, the bill is "close enough" on target. That's why they have no problem with "pork". They are including in a bill $5 BILLION that is for something entirely different? I'm not even getting into the wrongness (or whatever) of what that money is for. If they want the money for IMF, put a bill through for that; don't tack it onto something else.

Ahmadinejad Reelected?!?

So, Iran's "president" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the man often referred to as "Hitler in a head scarf", was reelected in a landslide, despite polling that showed him tied with the other candidate.

Who'd have thunk it?

On another note, there are people protesting the election results. If I were them, I'd stop - now. And either get out of Iran or distance myself from the protests, and quickly. Especially if they have families to think of. Because, one way or another, there probably won't be any of these protesters left in another month or so.

Pay controls for everyone

The President's office has just announced pay "guidelines" that apply to all employees at all public companies. Not just financial companies, not just companies that accepted bailout funds. Everyone.

Do you expect executives for companies that have been growing and making lots of money will keep working hard when their pay is cut? Do you think they will work hard to keep as many jobs as they can? Will they work to keep costs down so they can keep wages high?

Why should they try to keep employee wages up if the government will mandate lower wages?

Do you work at a fast-food restaurant or big box store? Any job that could be considered entry-level? Do you want to have your pay changed to minimum wage?

This is un-Constitutional. There is no provision in the Constitution for government to get involved in regulating business. At all.

If the Federal government wants to tie wages to performance, let them start at home. Cut Congressional pay rates. Tie the President's pay to performance - as the economy dries up, let his pay dry up. Drop the excuses blaming everything on a guy who left office in January when you've effectively been in charge since last November. Try pay for performance there first before you mandate it on everyone else in the country and kill off what economy we still have.

Global Warming: Winds - a quick comment

It has just been noticed, with preliminary study results, that global wind speeds seem to be slowing.

This is inconsistent with "warming". It is also inconsistent with the dire warnings some have been screaming.

But it is consistent with a global "greenhouse" environment. The idea is not warming, but moderating. That means that while winters may be warmer, summers will be cooler. Winds will be lower because the temperature extremes are not as extreme. Weather storms, one of the major threats of global warming extremists, will actually reduce, because they are created by temperature extremes, both locally and globally.

Of course, all this is theory since no studies along these lines have been done. Studies of global warming have been done, and the earth has been seen to be cooling instead of warming over the last decade. But I suggest that the earth is moderating in true "global greenhouse" style. Think "global Hawaii". Moderate temperatures year-round. Weather storms will get milder and milder in general, though there will be exceptions. As long as politicians do not do anything extreme, since our interference in this natural process could cause problems.

The earth is generating large amounts of carbon dioxide. Not man, but natural processes. And the plants love it.

Definitions: Racism and Sexism

Racism: The belief that one race/ethnicity is inherently superior to another.

Sexism: The belief that one gender is inherently superior to the other.

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said that she believes a woman would make better decisions than a man, and that a Latina (a woman from a Spanish-heritage country) would make better decisions than a white man.

President Obama said he would hope that she would restate it given the chance. She did. She said effectively the same thing repeatedly over a number of years in a variety of situations.

So, you decide. Are these racist or sexist comments?

Do these statements have any place whatsoever coming from someone nominated to a position which is supposed to be "blind" and completely impartial to all circumstances in all decisions?

Reference

The President seeks to appease a religion?!?

Why does our President feel it necessary to appease a religion, to meet with leaders of that religion, fly to nations with majorities of that religion, and have long, extended speeches specifically to speak to members of that religion?

He flew to Egypt to speak to "the Muslim world". Not the Arab world, not the middle eastern world. The Muslim world. Did he fly to Italy to speak to "the Catholic world"? Did he fly to Israel to speak to "the Orthodox Jewish world"? Did he fly to Germany to speak to "the Lutheran world"? Did he fly to Japan to speak to "the Buddhist world"?

Then why select one specific religion to speak to? Repeatedly? And specifically to apologize to them? On two separate world tours?

GM Bankruptcy, review

I just saw in my post from April 30 that I thought GM's bankruptcy would get the government out of their management at last.

WRONG!

The US government now owns 60% of General Motors. (Or Government Motors, whatever.) And Canada gets 12.5%. The UAW (United Auto Workers union) gets 17.5%.

And the bondholders, the people who were originally guaranteed by bankruptcy law to get at least their principal back, those who didn't take risk, those who needed stable investments, like school, fire department and police department pension funds, will get the remaining 10%, mere pennies on the dollar.

Stockholders get zip. Preferred stockholders (retirees living on a fixed income from dividends) get zip. Common stockholders (holding them as they split and increase value over time) get zip.

GM Being Run by Inexperienced Dropout

GM is now being run by Brian Deese, a 31-year-old Yale drop-out.

He got his undergrad degree in Political Science from a small private school in Vermont, and has had no formal econonomics education. His only previous experience with the auto industry was sleeping in his car in a Pontiac plant parking lot.

He worked with several Democratic-financed think-tanks, and after the stint at Yale, went to Hilary Clinton's Presidential campaign as her economic advisor. When that folded, he went to the Obama campaign as deputy economic policy director, then with the transition team as an economic advisor. Then, despite having neither any economic or business education, nor any private-sector experience, he was the only full-time member of the auto task force between the election and mid-February.

He is now managing the government investment of $458,000 per day in GM. And that plant at which he slept in the parking lot? The entire brand is being closed under his management.

Reference for much of this, though I found it elsewhere citing this article.

Abortion is murder. But murder is also murder.

Some over-zealous individual (or nutjob, or psycopath - I don't know his story) killed an abortion doctor Sunday morning.

Yes, I believe abortion is wrong. But murder is also wrong. Two wrongs don't make a right. And a wrong done for the right reasons is still wrong.

How should this have been handled? Since elective abortion is murder, the laws should reflect such and those who do elective abortions under such law should be found by the courts to be guilty of murder. (No, the law should not be retroactive, as no laws should be.) The law should then act and serve justice. If a murder is, for some reason, not legally considered such (whether unborn children as now, or members of unfavored ethnicities as in the past), then the law should be changed, not the enforcement of laws.

However, this individual who murdered the doctor finds himself in the same place he wished the doctor. The doctor is legally not guilty and the individual guilty. When these persons come before God for judgment, they will both be deemed guilty of the same crime.

Wasteful spending

The US National Institutes of Health is spending $2.6M to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job. You can't make this stuff up!

A union that supports itself, not its members

The Service Employees International Union, SEIU, self-noted as the second-largest union of government employees, gave $33M to President Obama's campaign.

California is out of money. They are losing residents who are fleeing increasing state taxes. They are being forced to close offices, lay off people, and reduce hours of those who stay. The White House has just informed the State of California that if they proceed in their plan to trim $74M in worker pay they will lose $6.8B in stimulus.

The SEIU may have a legitimate mission; I'm not arguing that. They are free to support political candidates that best reflect their members. My problem is with the politicians. Rather than doing what is best for all the people, they would rather pay back their supporters. This is not even in the best long-term interests of the members of the union; if California is not allowed to trim costs now, the problems will just get bigger. This rewards the union leaders at the expense of the union members. We can't afford the paybacks anymore.

GM Restructuring

GM's restructuring plan includes more jobs manufacturing cars. But those jobs will be in Mexico and China, because they are moving some of the manufacturing there.

But...I thought this bailout was to save the "American auto industry"? So we are now bailing out the Mexican and Chinese auto industry, while those who really make cars here, like Honda and Toyota, are on their own?

More government "savings"?

It turns out more of those budget cuts that the President just found include cancelling the extension of the fence on the Mexico border, and cutting funding to detect nuclear bombs at our seaports, an area reports have repeatedly warned is our weakest point.

We want our rights back!

Wow! We've got some REALLY positive news for a change!

Several states are putting together similar laws. The law is that guns made, sold, and remaining within that state are not subject to any federal gun laws, but will only be subject to state laws. The federal gun laws are under the authority of the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, and since these items do not have anything to do with interstate commerce, those laws do not apply.

And a major factor is that 20 states are working on these laws; the Court strongly considers societal trends in its decisions. They could easily decide that a strong federal government was the way people wanted it fifty years ago, but now people want decisions to be more local. It's the same idea as with gay marriage; the courts decide, not based on law, but on what most people want. If you are in state government and reading this, push for state laws matching the Montana Firearms Freedom Act. The more states that have this law, the more ground the court will have to expand on it.

They are gearing this to go quickly to the courts, and then to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has been leaning this way, as shown in recent decisions, but those cases were too small to bother with.

This involves guns, so everybody will be watching. The government knows that gun and ammo sales are a direct indicator of trust in the government. When people trust the government, sales are flat; but when people don't trust the government, sales go through the roof.

If this goes well, it can lead to overturning all regulatory laws that affect anything other than interstate commerce. After all, the laws were based on interstate commerce; they've just gotten WAY out of control. Minimum wage laws are based on interstate commerce. Maximum hours per week are based on interstate commerce. The entire EPA is based on interstate commerce!

Mind you, these regulations may continue for businesses that deal across state lines, but small businesses, those that are only in one state, those that are currently getting regulated TO DEATH since they can't afford to hire hundreds of people just to deal with the regulations, may find some relief in the next few years. The ultimate solution may take two or three years to come, but it's heading that way.

Government running our businesses

The government is insistent on taking over the banks. They started by loaning the TARP/bailout money to the banks. They they changed that to preferred stocks - some more risk than bonded loans, but still higher in the food chain. Now the government wants to change it to common stock. You know, the stuff that becomes worthless in bankruptcy? Why? Because common stock is VOTING stock! The government wants to tell the banks exactly what to do! (They also get four of nine directors of Chrysler. with the UAW getting one and Canada getting one, totalling six of the nine directors.)

Since when has the government been any good at running a business? Just look at the Postal Service. They keep raising rates all the time. They are slow, and they lose a lot of mail. They don't guarantee their service unless you get the highest (most expensive) options. The major competitors at least guarantee they won't lose your stuff - and they offer tracking included at no extra charge. But they AREN'T ALLOWED to handle non-priority letters! The government knows it's doing such a bad job that it won't let others compete!

Keep the government's hands off of businesses!

FYI on a label I used.

Fascism: One of the major components is the government telling businesses what to do even while those businesses maintain the fascade of being private. Communism includes when those businesses are directly government-owned. Look it up.

Banking "stress test"

We've just gotten results from a "stress test" done on banks by the FDIC. The FDIC does these regularly anyway! It's just more politics.

And the bad news took the Dow Jones down another 102.43 points. Thanks - my 401K (what's left of it) needed that.

Government "savings"?

The President has announced he has found ways to cut 1/2 of 1% of the budget. how has he done it?

A big chunk came from cutting the death benefit for police officers killed in the line of duty to less than half what it was.

ACORN

You might have already heard that the White House is taking control of the census, which used to be an independent organization to keep it out of politics. You might have also heard that in some areas, they will be allowed to "estimate" the populations rather than actually counting people. You know, like the word "census" means, "to count"?

Well, much of actually taking the census is being handed to ACORN. You know, the group President Obama used to work with and got his experience as a "community organizer"? And they are being investigated in 14 states for voter fraud, under charges brought by Democrats. They registered thousands of voters under duplicate names, fake names (like - and I'm not making this up - "Mickey Mouse"), forged applications, and busing people from other states to register and vote the same day.

And there are eight ex-executives of ACORN who have quit and are pursuing corruption charges against them. But these are "racists" and "black-haters"? Sorry - ALL EIGHT of these are African-Americans.

Stimulus oversight?

We were promised close oversight of the stimulus, right? The Congressional oversight committee just had their second meeting.

Only three of the ten members bothered to show up for the meeting!

Transparency?

You may wonder, where's all the "transparency" we were promised? We just found out with Chrysler that we lost $4.3 billion from TARP. Wasn't "every last dime" supposed to be accounted for?

It turns out that they aren't going to give us any information on this until next year.

Chrysler bankruptcy

The company Cerberus owned 81% of the company, was owed $500M, and owned the Chrysler Building. They lose everything in the bankruptcy. They get repaid zero. They even lose the building.

The company Daimler that used to own Chrysler is owed another $1.5B. They get repaid zero.

Banks are owed $6.9B. They get $2B, 29 cents on the dollar.

The US government has put in $4.3B from the TARP bailout. They are also owed $300M in fees. This was supposed to be a great investment Chrysler would repay with interest. What do we get on our investment? Zero. No, worse than zero. We will give them another $3.2B in the restructuring and another $4.7B later.

The United Auto Workers has $10.6B in Chrysler debt. Remember from my last note that this is unsecured debt; they are only supposed to get what's left over after the secured debt is FULLY repaid. So, what do they get? A note for $4.6B (at 9% interest!), or 43 cents on the dollar, more than anybody else. Plus - and a big plus - they get 55% of the equity of the company. They went from not actually owning anything, and being last in line for repayment, to owning 55% of the company. Oh, and they also get $600M in "legacy costs", for stuff like pension and healthcare benefits, from Daimler.

Guess what? The "Car Czar", Steve Rattner, was Finance Chair for the Democratic National Committee. And guess what else? The UAW gives 99% of their political contributions to the DNC. Makes things clearer, doesn't it?

Unions vs The Law

For some reason, the Obama administration seems to really like the unions. Two situations that seem to show this:

The "Employee Free Choice Act", also known as "Card Check".

This act, which Obama sponsored last year in the Senate, will eliminate the secret ballot for unionizing a business. Whether a business will be unionized used to be determined by secret ballot. The "Employee Free Choice Act" will remove this, instead requiring employees to sign a card while being observed by a union official.

In the past, the pressure step, signing while being watched, was only a petition of intent; it only allowed the organization to proceed with the secret ballot. With the "Employee Free Choice Act", unions can return to early 1900's tactics of pressuring a person to vote for the union or else suffer some kind of punishment.

The Chrysler bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy law requires that secured lenders, those who have some kind of collateral with the company, like a home loan that has the house for collateral, or a car loan which has the house for collateral, get their money before those who have unsecured debt, those who lent the money just on the credit of the company, like a credit card.

In this case, the main secured debt is corporate bonds. The biggest investors in bonds are the fund companies; these in turn wind up with our retirement accounts and such. The main unsecured debt is common stock. The major unsecured investor is the union. According to the law, the bond holders should get all their money before the stock holders get anything.

Well, Obama doesn't like that idea. He, and those who work for him, call the investment funds things like "greedy", "speculators", and "refusing to sacrifice like everyone else". Instead, he wants the unions to get all their money, and the bond holders to settle for 35% of theirs. Excuse me, but it's not just "greed" or "speculation". It's called "the law".

Government waste, on both sides

That Air Force One photo op that probably cost $200,000? Turns out it cost $328,000. And they don't even want to give us the pictures we paid for! But we will get them - Fox News has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get them.

Another proof that it's BOTH parties that are causing problems. The National Institutes of Health, under a plan created under Bush, is spending $400,000 to study the link between drinking and risky sexual behavior... but only among homosexuals... and only in Argentina. That seems to be wise use of taxpayer dollars. As a reminder, this is dollars of US taxpayers, not Argentinian taxpayers.

Green jobs

The current administration wants to expand our economy using Spain's example of producing "green jobs".

One problem. No, make that two problems.

First, these jobs in Spain cost them the equivalent of over $750,000 per job. And these are low-paying, mostly manual-labor jobs.

Second, Spain has unemployment of 17.8%!

Do we want to follow their example on job creation?!? Our unemployment has gone from 6% last September to 9% in March. Do we really want to double that again to match their 18%?

Understand this: You are not "creating" jobs when you actually reduce jobs.

Don't get me wrong. I love the idea of cheap/free energy. But this is not free energy if it doubles unemployment.

Besides, whatever happened to fusion? Huge amounts of energy created from readily-available materials like hydrogen? It's not practical? We've had SIXTY YEARS using fission to get it working! And we can't even use widespread solar or wind energy because environmental types say they harm the local environment!

Auto industry bankruptcy

Well, Bush said that the "US auto industry" was too big to fail. (Never mind that Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, BMW, and others make their stuff here, and frequently with more US-made parts than the "US" manufacturers...) We, meaning the taxpayers, have put billions into them.

Well, now Chrysler is failing anyway. YAY! We've been putting "good money after bad" for far too long, and I don't want the government running businesses anyway. And Fiat will get a good deal, because the tax payers and debtors (mostly small businesses) are covering the rest.

Now we just need to push GM over, so they go bankrupt too and get the government out of their management. And the unions too, while they're at it. Unions can be useful, but they've gotten to just be huge, political, and expensive bureaucracies of their own.

The Federal Governmemnt Is Clueless

OK, the Air Force One flight that served to terrify people in NYC cost closer to $350,000. And the trip to Missouri yesterday was about $20 million. Your tax dollars at work.

Our government over the past year - yes, with both parties and both administrations - are using crisis after crisis to get more power. The government and the unions now control GM and the major banks (and a large portion of Chrysler). They have pushed through cabinet secretaries without proper review, and any objections were overruled in the name of the crisis. We got a tax cheat AS THE HEAD OF THE IRS because we had a crisis. He has since proven worthless; CitiBank and Bank of America are now (based on the "stress test") seen as less stable and more likely to fail AFTER the bailout than before. Now we have someone with a strongly racist beliefs as head of Health and Human Services because of a crisis. It's just a bad flu, at least for now, and all they really need to do is close the border from Mexico to keep sick illegals out.

When I say HHS secretary Sebelius is racist, I mean as in wanting to eliminate all black people. She's scary - check it out, just not with the major news sources since they love everything Obama does. Oh, and as a reminder, Obama's only 1/16 black. With 7/16 Arab and 1/2 white. This is common knowledge, but generally ignored. I don't care what race/heritage someone is, but don't try to convince me of something that's not true. Planned Parenthood was started by Margaret Sanger explicitly to eliminate blacks by aborting all black babies. They try to play that down now, but it's still true.

They just don't get it!

More evidence that politicians, on either side, do not get it.

- Arlin Specter, Senator from PA, switches parties to increase his chances of reelection.

Proof that there is little difference between the two parties to most people in office.

- Air Force One flies at low altitude over NYC for some pictures. Near where 9/1/1 happened. Without even telling NYC officials about it.

Obama says he's outraged? You really expect us to believe somebody can take Air Force One for a flight without his permission? With fighter escort? At a TAX PAYER COST of at least $200,000? Maybe a lot more?

- "Swine Flu", uh, "H1N1".

It's Mexican Flu. That's what other countries call it. There is also a real swine flu, and this is not it. We call other flus based on where they're from. Remember "Asian flu"? "Spanish flu?" This is Mexican flu. But our politician won't call it that, because they don't want to offend Mexico or their illegal aliens who are bringing the disease into this country. If they'd just OFFEND Mexico a bit by ENFORCING THE LAW and CLOSING THE BORDER we wouldn't have to worry about it. Instead, they let people walk across to get free healthcare here. Well, free to them - we pay for it for them through higher costs and higher insurance rates. If the disease was in Canada, they'd close the border in a heartbeat.

- "Cap and Trade" to reduce "Global Warming"

First, the science is NOT "settled". Many scientists say the planet is cooling, not warming. But our government will not allow debate on the issue. When they host conferences, they do not allow those who are known to disagree to attend.

I think it's moderating - getting warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. In VA, we haven't had much snow in years and no temperatures below 0, but we've also had no summer temperatures over 100 in a while and not much over 90. Which I like, by the way - it saves money on heat and A/C, and just feels better. Maybe we're heading to Hawaii temperatures of 75 year-round? One can hope... (By the way, even if all polar ice completely melts, "real scientists", as opposed to those with an agenda to push, estimate the oceans MAY rise by 1 to 4 inches, and likely not even that much...)

Back to the point. Cap and Trade is a TAX. A big one. One which non-partisan estimates say will at least double the cost of all energy in this country. Car gas? Doubled. Natural gas? Doubled. Coal? Doubled. (Obama said during the election he was going to put coal companies out of business, so no surprise there.) Electricity? Doubled. When we're in recession? Most costs of business are doubled.

But man-made CO2 is only 3% of the CO2 produced each year. They don't care - they want power.

And they will not allow real progress. Nuclear energy causes ZERO pollution of any kind, including CO2, but they won't allow that. They use fear tactics of forty-year-old technology. Solar and wind power supposedly endanger the environment, so production is extremely limited. We could already be completely off any fossil fuels, if the government would just get out of the way.

The Specter Spectacle

So, Senator Arlen Specter just changed parties, from Republican to Democrat. That just exemplifies the problem in politics these days - there's not much difference between the two. Neither one supports the people. Some in the parties do, but not the parties themselves.

Can we start a "Beckian Party" - the party of those who say what they mean and mean what they say? Or is that a 9-12 Party?

Our politicians are getting irritating...

- They go on about how "water boarding" is horrible and abusive. But Nancy Pelosi, current Speaker of the House, KNEW since 2002 that it was permitted and legally not torture. Neither she nor anyone else objected about any of the procedures until now, and in fact, two actually asked if it was going far enough. There are minutes of the meeting as proof.

- Obama blames Bush for his inherited debt. Yes, Bush doubled the national debt during his two terms. I didn't like most of what Bush did. But that doesn't explain Obama quadrupling the debt (based on Federal budget forecasts) during his first term.

- Republicans blame Democrats for poor control of the Mexico border. Bush created a highway through the middle of the country that is considered international territory; any truck from an approved company gets through with little if any inspection, and McCain tried to reduce control of illegal crossing even further.

- Dems blame our banking problems on lack of regulation that allowed them to make unwise loans. Sorry, but Barney Frank's House Financial Services Committee required banks make high-risk loans, and if they refused, they'd lose access to Federal borrowing sources.

- Everybody was up at arms about AIG bonuses. The bonuses were not to those who were part of the problems, but to those who took over from them. Further, these people had agreed to a salary of only $1 a year; the bonus was to be their only pay for the work, and then only if they exceeded the goals that had been set by the regulators. Since they did exceed the goals, they were supposed to get the bonus. Now the bonus, the only pay they get, will be taxed at 90%. Which is illegal, by the way, according to the Constitution, that forbids punitive taxes or taxes that are targeted to specific groups.

- Speaking of bonuses, did you know that members of Chris Dodd's Senate Finance Committee got bonuses from Fannie Mae, which is also getting bailout money? And the Fannie Mae bonuses were not protected by the bailout wording; AIG's bonuses were specifically allowed in the bailout, because they were appropriate, as explained above. And both Chris Dodd and Barack Obama got hundreds of thousands from AIG.

- The government says they want to keep the "auto industry" from failing. So they are now requiring Chrysler and GM to file bankruptcy, when they say they don't need to? (Besides, don't Honda, Toyota, BMW, etc, who make their vehicles here count as auto industry? Honda uses more US-made parts in their cars than Ford does...)

- Obama went to the opening of a wind farm? Fine. I like cheaper energy. But he took Air Force One to get there and used 9000 gallons of jet fuel to do so? And probably (he usually does) took a second one as backup, and a cargo jet with the limos, at least tripling the gas to closer to 30,000 gallons of jet fuel. And the gas used by the processional limos, which are not hybrids.

- Boston requires all taxi companies buy new hybrids by 2015. They can't get used ones; they have to be new ones.

- And by the way, research shows that hybrid cars create a lot more environmental damage when they are made than they can ever offset by being more efficient. (And they aren't usually that much more efficient...)