On The Right Side

by Tom Sears

  You come up with your cute little chants like “Bush lied, people died” (which isn’t even true) and ignore the atrocities going on in Iran, Cuba, North Korea, China, Syria and others of the same ilk. You actually enjoy living in the state of depression, envy, gloom-and-doom misery and get upset when others don’t want to come down to your level.

  Now you have another spokesperson in Michelle Obama. She’s got some great quotes; “America is downright mean,” and “for the first time in my adult life I am really proud of my country.”

  It makes you wonder what kind of indoctrination she went through in those elite, Ivy League colleges she went to. How about a last one: “America is more a source of shame than pride.” Makes you feel comfortable knowing people like this actually have a chance to reside in the White House, doesn’t it?

  Maybe you should listen to the likes of Dan Maloney, NYS Coordinator of the Gathering of Eagles, when he talks about a book called “Moment of Truth in Iraq” by Michael Yon.

  Maloney says the author “as an independent journalist, confirms that the counter insurgency program is working better than many had hoped. The beauty of his report is that he tells you how we are doing it and why it is working at the boots on the ground level.”

  Let’s see if your own great leader, Bill Clinton, can shake you up. In a speech given to the graduating class at Michigan State University in 1995, he said, “How dare you suggest that we, in the freest nation on earth, live in tyranny? How dare you call yourselves patriots and heroes? I say to you, all of you, there is nothing patriotic about hating your country or pretending that you can love your country but despise your government. There is nothing heroic about turning your back on America or ignoring your own responsibilities. If you want to preserve your own freedom, you must stand up for the freedom of others with whom you disagree, but you also must stand up for the rule of law. You cannot have one without the other.”

  Does the shoe fit? If so why are you still here? Oh, I see, you want to greedily take all the good things and opportunities America offers you every day, refuse to recognize that fact and not bother to give anything back.

  Doubts about McCain Just Don’t Go Away

  I’m beginning to wonder why the liberal media is providing unprecedented exposure to the Democrats and the continuing Barack/Hillary debacle and not giving equal time to John McCain. The Democrat opponents are saying nothing of substance and are merely trashing each others’ character. Meanwhile, McCain is out on the campaign trail making speeches and explaining his stance on issues, and we conservative Republicans hear very little of it.

  For me, hearing more of what John McCain really stands for is absolutely essential. He’s going to have to go a lot further to convince me that he is actually sensitive to the party’s conservative base. His 20-plus years in the Senate have shown that he is a Republican in name only and not the Reagan conservative that he now professes to be.

  Why does the Republican Party want to distance itself from its conservative foundation and instead pander to the independents and the soft Democrats? Reagan twice proved that a conservative agenda and an inspiring leader will win overwhelmingly. It was proven in 1984 with the Republican “Contract With America” and in 1994 when the party took over both houses while running on conservative values and beliefs. We also saw the disastrous results in 2006 when we strayed from those same principles.

  Convince me Senator McCain of who you really are. I know you’re a patriot and a man of courage and personal integrity. I know you know the importance of a strong military that is the best-trained, best-equipped, and with the best military leaders in the world. I know you want to win in Iraq and leave with honor, turning the fight over to the Iraqi army only when it is ready. Much to the Democrats disgust, that is exactly what is happening when we see the most recent and frequent successes over there.

  I think you want conservative justices at all levels of the courts rather than activist judges who desire to legislate from the bench. However, Robert Novak once pointed out that you dissed Samuel Alito as being too conservative or as “wearing his conservatism on his sleeve.” Which one is the real John McCain? You have never flip- flopped in your pro-life belief.

  But at the same time, I have my concerns about who is the real John McCain. Is he the one who now says he supports the Bush tax cuts that caused unprecedented growth or the one who originally campaigned and voted against them? Is he the one who says he wants to secure the border or the one who supports giving amnesty to some 20 million illegals? To quote you, “By the way, I think the fence is least effective, but I’ll build the &*%#$@*& fence if they want it.”

  Are you the one who wants strong national security and an aggressive in fight against terrorism? Or, is the real you the one who wants to dilute the Patriot Act, close Gitmo, eliminate interrogation techniques (that are mild compared to our enemies’ methods) that could save thousands of American lives? I think you are also in favor of giving terrorists caught on the battlefield the same rights as our own citizens have to our non-military justice system. Convince me this isn’t true.

  You say you want a smaller, more limited government; but you then turn around and sign on with the global warming wackos and their propaganda. There is lots of credible disagreement in the scientific community that deserves to be listened to.

  For now, I’m going to sit back and watch the campaign unfold. Obama will be exposed eventually as a good orator with no experience and nothing of any substance to offer.

  Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate, and a true conservative, is beginning to interest me and it would be wise to pick a running mate of his caliber. I want a vice president who carries the conservative banner proudly and is an inspiring leader, one who has a good chance of winning after your one term is up. Twelve years of a Republican president would finally put Hillary’s power trip to bed. She would be 73, even older than you are now.

  So be very careful Senator McCain. Don’t take my vote or those of other conservatives for granted. The only reason you have my vote right now is because I can’t conceive the damage that would be caused to the country by the other side’s candidate and not because of your track record.

  If the Republican Party, led by you, begins to distance itself from conservative

  values, I’ll have to look elsewhere for a party that I can believe in.

  Don’t Fault Companies for Oil Crisis

  It is unbelievable how blind these environmental radicals are, along with their leftist liberals in Congress and the anti-capitalism crowd, and how willing they all are to place the blame for the current energy crisis on everyone else when the real responsibility and resulting consequences rest squarely on their shoulders.

  Let me see if I can pull you, kicking and screaming, into the world of reality for just a short time while I address rational people, and you can then go put your heads back in the sand.

  Unless you can offer rational, workable solutions rather than just complain and unless you can talk about the salient issues in an intelligent fashion, then you don’t deserve to be part of the discussion.

  Like it or not, our economy is fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, of which there are immense reserves available for extraction. It has been this way for the last 150 years. You can’t simply wave a magic wand and make this fact disappear.

  Therefore, the only rational solution is to provide a steady and stable domestic supply of these resources until other alternative energy sources and technologies are available as economical substitutes.

  First of all, the problem is not the oil companies’ fault. Their return on investment to stockholders is totally in line or less than the returns of other industries, and over 30 government agency reports verify that the pricing of gasoline is caused by legitimate market forces.

  It is you obstructionists who have prevented the necessary drilling in onshore and offshore areas abundant with oil and gas. You have also prevented the building of refineries so that an adequate supply of gasoline and
other energy products can bring prices down rather than having to import supplies at much higher prices.

  The last refinery built in the U.S. was in 1976. We have gone from 324 refineries processing 18.6 million barrels a day down to 155 refineries with a maximum capacity of 16.6 million barrels a day, for a difference of 2 million barrels daily.

  Remember when Chuck Schumer said a million additional barrels a day (he demands this from the Saudi’s naturally) would drop prices by over 50 cents a gallon?

  The cost to build a refinery is huge. There is one being built in Arizona at a cost of $3.5 BILLION and is to open in 2011.

  It costs $100 million to set up drilling operations at a particular site, and it is not certain that the well will be a producer. There are tremendous risks involved in locating new reserves. No one, you and me included, takes risks unless the potential rewards are greater.

  We can’t expect the oil companies to behave any differently. Their responsibility is to their shareholders, not to you environmentalists. Hence the necessary government tax credits.

  Also, the oil companies are not simply hoarding all the profits or returning them to their shareholders. They have spent $89 billion since 1993 (as of 2006) to strengthen environmental performance.

  As reported by Facts on Fuel, “the average new car on the road today runs 97 percent cleaner than the average car built in 1970 thanks to a combination of cleaner gasoline and more efficient engines.”

  Also, auto-related emissions are down more than 41 percent even though there are a greater number of cars on the road today than in 1970.

  The oil companies have also spent close to $4 billion in alternative energy projects, including wind, solar and biofuels.

  But of course, none of this matters to the eco-nuts. It’s never enough when it isn’t their money being spent. Their purpose is to control other people’s lives and they don’t care whether their impositions destroy the American economy.

  There’s a lot more ground to cover and a lot of liberal “untruths” to uncover so I’ll have to extend this topic into the next column unless something more important comes up in the meantime.

  By the way, I wonder if Ted Kennedy is still for nationalized health care. Instead of getting an MRI the day after his seizure, he would have waited in line to see a neurologist and another three months for an MRI to be scheduled.

  Think he would have been able to hand-pick his surgical team and have available the latest experimental drugs to fight the cancer?

  Yes, he would, since he has the wealth to afford the best care possible. Maybe he will now realize the importance of all of us common folk having the same access.

  Bush’s Plan to Fix Crisis Makes Sense

  My last column took big oil off the list of those possible groups responsible for the present oil crisis. Excessive profits made by them is simply propaganda spewed by the liberal Democrat leadership.

  The facts (yes liberals, an inconvenient truth) show that their return on investment is right in line or less than that of other industries.

  In fact, between federal, state and local governments, the revenues produced for them exceed the net profits of the oil companies several times over. The liberal Dems certainly don’t see this return as excessive and have no intention of reducing these taxes. Remember, they did absolutely nothing for these dollars.

  So now the Democrats and their special-interest lobbyists turn to the president and claim he is also the problem. They claim he has no energy plan. What are they, deaf as well as dumb? Since 2003 he has repeatedly brought sound plans before Congress, and these were voted down every time.

  His plans make total sense. No 1, he wanted to build refineries at former military bases. Because of our lack of refineries, we have to import refined product that costs twice as much as if it were refined domestically.

  No. 2, he proposed lifting the present ban on leasing federal lands and offshore drilling sites where abundant supplies exist.

  The Democrats refuse to allow this, claiming the danger of oil spills and negative environmental impact. Valid, except there hasn’t been a major oil spill since 1969.

  Also, there are thousands of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and hundreds were either destroyed or severely damaged during the hurricane season that included Hurricane Katrina.

  Guess what? No oil spills. Stop living in the ‘60s Dems. There have been very impressive gains made in extraction technologies and safety measures.

  A February 2006 study done by the Interior Department’s Mineral Management Service estimated potential offshore resources of approximately 85.9 billion barrels and 419.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

  Also, the Bureau of Land Management estimated between 18 billion and 53 billion barrels of onshore resources. While on the topic of onshore resources, has anyone questioned the “pristine” area of ANWR?

  You can be certain that there have been no congressional fact-finding trips to the area. They prefer the warmer climes when they take their families along on such treks.

  You can also assume that less than 1 percent of the environmental loudmouths have been there, either. No one goes there. In the summer, there are constant plagues of mosquitoes and other filthy pests, and as one columnist pointed out, during the winter “it reached 70 degrees below zero (not counting wind chill, which brings it to 120 below) and is in round-the-clock darkness.”

  There are approximately 20 million acres making up the ANWR region ( which I’m sure 90 percent of environmentalists couldn’t find on a map if unlabeled), and we are talking about a drilling footprint of an area 1/7th the area of Manhattan.

  Third, Bush has proposed that the Department of Energy reduce the length of time and the risks involved in the licensing process associated with the development of new nuclear power plants. Potential investors are scared away by the length of time involved, upward of 20 years, due to repeated fake environmental studies and frivolous lawsuits. Finally, the last major proposal is to remove the prohibitions for oil shale exploration on federal lands. In a 2005 Rand study it was estimated there existed up to 800 billion barrels of oil in the Green River Formation covering areas including Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

  All very practical solutions to use while we are developing alternative energy sources and conserving. Let’s let American ingenuity and entrepreneurial activity solve the problem while we are pumping. We are second to none in these areas.

  The typical liberal response? It will take years to develop these resources. Five years ago, 2003, when Bush started pointing out the potential problem, gas was $1.43 a gallon. We would have been well on our way if we acted then. As a matter of fact, we would already be processing 1 to 2 million barrels per day if Clinton hadn’t vetoed a congressional bill opening up federal lands for exploration and development. Oil was $19 a barrel back then.

  Another problem, libs. A Gallup poll showed more than 60 percent of people favored drilling in currently restricted areas. This percent will surely rise over the next few months. So even if you don’t care about American families, the U.S. economy and national security, vote drilling through even if only for simply shallow political reasons.

  Once again, I’m out of room for this column. The next column will point out the real culprits causing all this pain for normal, average, hard working families. I’m really looking forward to this.

  Democrats to Blame For Energy Crisis

  The last two columns, using facts, reasoning and common sense, removed the oil companies and the administration from culpability involving high energy prices. Who’s left then? Congress and its environmental radicals, of course.

  Nancy, Harry and now Obama simply say, like trained parrots, “We can’t drill ourselves out of the problem.” You can expect to hear this phrase over and over right up to election time, even though it is blatantly false. After stating this, one might wonder what their plan is.

  First, their strategy has been to blame, in addition to the oil companies and Bush, those individuals specul
ating in oil futures.

  What is wrong with this? People speculate in all kinds of commodities. Some win big and some novices lose big (except for Hillary and her earlier cattle futures bonanza).

  Don’t the Democrats understand that when demand goes up and supply remains constant, prices rise? This is especially true with necessities. People “speculate” in all kinds of investment opportunities. Stocks, bonds, art, and real estate; the list goes on and on.

  If you want to prevent speculators from profiting, show them you’re serious about increasing supplies through on-and-off-shore drilling and extracting oil from shale in the Bakkan region of the Midwest, where there exists an estimated supply that would dwarf all of Saudi Arabia’s known reserves.

  As Newt Gingrich said recently, if the government stated today that we would be releasing the oil in our strategic reserves and showed the world we had a serious drilling strategy, prices would drop immediately, taking the lucrativeness out of oil speculation.

  I guess I have to say it once more. The strategy should be to implement rational conservation plans, increase the supply of oil as a bridge until we unleash our entrepreneurial spirit, and provide incentives and come up with alternative energy sources so that we may maintain our present standard of living.

  Pretty much common sense. I would ride a scooter for transportation, but only because it would be fun and it would save me money. I wouldn’t be doing it because of some global warming hoax.

  The same is true with wind turbines. They seem to be making great strides in this area, and as soon as they become cost-effective, and for no other reason, you’ll see one in my back yard.