Despite my ability to shrug off other people’s nonsense (especially that coming from my liberal friends) and laugh at the enormous collection of bumper stickers many find the need to display on their cars, I was seriously shocked yesterday by a 20-something driving his huge, five-miles-to-the-gallon truck with a bumper sticker that read: When Bush Took Office, Gas Was $1.46. Incongruity? Emotional wisdom?

Call me ignorant…perhaps this instigating sticker has been around for a while, but these young people who cease to educate themselves on the issues before they proudly display messages such as this are like sheep just following the message of their flock (aka Obama disciples) and what is cool for the time.

I have always been without peer in making my own educated decisions based on researched facts, evaluating both sides of the issues, while staying as far away as possible from the liberal .org groups and the media trying to skew our views. But, people believe what they hear from those closest to them because, heck, why not? It’s much more trouble and much more time consuming to do what I do—research the issues, find the truth and make my own decisions, despite whether people think I’m right or wrong, left or right, cool or out of touch.

The bottom line is this: regardless of the issues as to why the gas price is what it is today, the majority of folks in America expect certain things in life to stay the same (as much as they tout change), such as trash pickup on Tuesdays, the cost of a haircut, a hotdog…and gas prices. 

But, in case people have forgotten (despite our Founding Fathers’ goals), that this is a free market. Inflation and global events affect just about everything in America and the world (let us not forget that the present cost for snacks, such as corn chips, that has skyrocketed much due to Al Gore and his melodramatic movie and push for ethanol, causing farmers to sell corn at a higher price for gas rather than selling it for the food it is and that it creates. 

The all-time peak in gas prices was in March 1981 following the start of the Iran-Iraq War the year before when gas prices rose to $2.50 per gallon. When adjusted for inflation, gas cost more in 1981 than it does today. And in 1973, following the OPEC Oil Embargo, gas prices averaged $1.81 per gallon. During those years, gas prices tripled, rising by almost 50 percent from 1973 to 1975, and by 80 percent in 1979 and 1980. People complain today because gas prices have doubled in a little more than three years. Take a look at the facts, the history. It’s been worse…much worse, and this administration has been through more, much more, than any other in history. 

Back to current times: The first six years of George Bush’s term were economically positive. Just over one year ago today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all-time high, and consumer confidence was soaring. The price per gallon of gasoline was approximately $2.20. But now, after two years of a Democratic-run Congress, consumer confidence has crashed and gas is now teetering between $3.50 and $4.00 per gallon.

It remains amazing to me how many people liken the gas prices to Bush and his low approval rating. Through the years of our many presidents, approval ratings have been low and high…some much lower than that for President Bush. But people see the here and now, the gas prices of today and not 30 years ago, and they even forget what happened last year—it’s in the past and it’s forgotten (literally).

October 15, 2008

While in the post office this week, I observed two young boys (nine years old at best) sporting black Obama T-shirts. The shirts were blinding with huge, florescent words and graphics, and the boys were obtrusive and rowdy, as if they had just come from a rock concert and wanted everyone there to know it. But, these were not concert T-shirts, and the boys, clearly too young for heavy metal. Rather, it was obvious they were showing off their “coolness” because they wore Obama T-shirts and the rest of the people there did not, and somehow, this gave them a special right…a power to act out. These are children who do not know the first thing about politics and this election. Yet they, along with many other young people, have somehow been taught it is hip to like Obama and passé if you do not. As far as presidential elections go, this is a first, but it wasn’t the first time I have seen this out in public and surely won’t be the last.

Another first: Has anyone in Atlanta noticed the massive amount of Obama signs and stickers around town and the measly handful out there promoting McCain? If you have wondered why that is so, let me tell you what people are saying. After asking around, the verdict:  many people (in cities especially) are afraid to put McCain signs in their yards and stickers on their cars. Why? They told me they don’t want to instigate a potential problem, in their words, a robbery, vandalism, carjacking, etc. That is certainly unjust —people should feel comfortable about supporting their candidate without worry of dire situations.

This is not written to promote one side or another, rather, to put something out there that should be talked about. We all know what this means, and if it isn’t a prime example of a racial race for president, I don’t know what is. And frankly, it isn’t fair to those who wish to proudly endorse their candidate, as the Obama voters are doing in an exceptional fashion without much worry of possible danger or repercussion from their actions.

In the end, I call this “unpresidented,” pun intended.

October 17, 2008

During these presidential debates, we constantly hear the following: “The American people have the right to know.” Well, I’m an American person who is going to share my thoughts on this straight: Don’t wait for the right to know.  In fact, don’t wait to know anything. Go out and read up on this stuff yourself. Become educated instead of becoming convinced on the issues and know for yourself instead of being told.

Take action. Take notes. Become politically involved. Start really listening and make your own opinion, not the opinion made for you by the media. Vote on the issues because you truly know and understand them. Seek out different opinions on both sides. Create your own fair and balanced stories, which are certain to be much different from the “fair and balanced” stories you see and hear on CNN, for example.

Today, while the pundits were discussing whether Obama or McCain was more effective in last night’s debate and other back seat political know-it-alls were asking one another who was the clear winner, housewives and savvy grocery shoppers throughout America should have been talking about something else—McCain’s brilliant and forward-thinking comment about ethanol and its effect on the cost of food today. 

First, know that McCain is again the maverick in making this statement, as Al Gore has, in the last few years since his epic and theatrical depiction of global warming, hypnotized the nation and Hollywood, gaining an Emmy, a Nobel Prize and the enduring support of a huge majority of Americans with the need to be a part of something bigger—a greater good, if you will—regardless of whether or not his followers have thoroughly examined the issues. And, because of this, McCain took a chance in talking about something that isn’t, as the general public calls, “P.C.,” yet, something that is a matter of critical importance to all of us…bulls and bears, disciples and vanguards alike. 

Al Gore’s campaign over a still highly-suspect, human-induced climate change has certainly driven something, but it’s not a hybrid—it’s driven up the cost of salty snacks, among other food items in this country, and caused an inflation your typical American, not looking into the real causes, is blaming on President Bush. And, why not? He’s the obvious and usual suspect for those who don’t educate themselves to know otherwise. 

I visited the grocery store to purchase potato and corn chips last night before the debate. At over $3.00 a bag, I declined. Could I afford the chips? Certainly. But, it was the principle…they used to be just $1.50 and now they are over $3 dollars?! Forget it. And, I’m not alone. We are facing the most severe food price inflation in history according to many experts, and our next president must be aware of the problem…must care about it enough to make something happen.  That’s John McCain.

According to Benjamin Senauer, an applied economics professor at Minnesota, "It takes around 400 pounds of corn to make 25 gallons of ethanol.  It's not going to be a very good diet, but that's roughly enough to keep an adult person alive for a year." So why are we talking about people struggling with food costs? Or, as the liberal media puts it, “…people worrying every day about how to buy groceries with a limited paycheck.” Well folks, you can blame a lot—a real lot—on Al Gore and the rest of the ethanol hawkers.

McCain talked about this issue in the final debate—an issue that has, thus far, been overlooked.  But, it is a critical matter affecting all of us, whether high or low income, Democrat or Republican, every day. And it’s time we grocery shoppers unite and accept the candidate who sees the ethanol crisis for what it is—a travesty that must be altered immediately. When the average American sees such prices and blames rising food costs on President Bush, the typical reaction is to think the other side can solve the problem, in this case, Obama. Wrong. Obama supports continued ethanol production as part of his alternative fuel rhetoric, and under that plan, farmers will continue to sell corn for ethanol, getting more money in their pockets, while the corn sold for snack foods will lower. It’s basic supply and demand economics.

The Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) is as corrupt as its outreach program is wide, preying on potential voters in America who know nothing about each presidential candidate’s values, issues, etc. The group is making peculiar and outlandish efforts to find every possible Obama voter…deep into the hills, the hollers, locations miles from civilization, places where some people don’t even know how to read and certainly don’t have the knowledge as to whether or not to vote for Obama, places where people will simply listen to a helpful hand and vote for whom ACORN feels should be the next president. In other words, scam! This drive makes efforts and spends money to go to such people who would have never made the effort on their own (personal responsibility….reminder to those who don’t get it) to register to vote as upstanding and responsible U.S. citizens do regularly.  Even when politically correct Americans move, as I have done many time, one of the first things they do is re-register to vote in a new district or state. 

Acorn’s efforts in this respect are ridiculous, intolerable and drastic—efforts that will dangerously skew this election. The standard system, where we, as loyal Americans, no matter the party, register to vote (and do vote) is somehow not acceptable in this particular election? Interesting, isn’t it? ACORN states our current system “was designed to disenfranchise voters.”  What??!!  Have we really come to this?  Where we need an organization, funded by other organizations and needy followers, etc., to go out and achieve and execute such a thing for people who would otherwise not do it for themselves?  We are not talking about delivering somebody’s groceries or helping a person cross the street—we are talking about adults leading other adults along as if they were children and unable to do for themselves, yet somehow giving them the will and the way to vote for Obama. Think of it this way: Your child has a homework project due the next morning. It’s the night before, and your child doesn’t want to do it. You do your best as a parent to be firm with him or her, but bottom line…he or she must do it or suffer the consequences, which, by the way, are well learned lessons in life. Do you let your child suffer those consequences and go into school the next morning without a finished project? Or, do you complete the project for him or her, thus, teaching your child no personal responsibility lesson whatsoever? One would hope most parents would do the first option, for the second is equivalent to what ACORN is doing; they are doing the homework (and the leg work) for these people…people who should otherwise not vote if they don’t make the effort themselves.

ACORN, as Bill Clinton did in the 90s via the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), also works to mandate that the government sell homes to people who are otherwise not able to buy one—in other words, people who have no income close to affording a home.  Well, that’s life. I was 40 years old with two children when I could finally buy a home, and that was just fine with me. These people shouldn’t have purchased homes, bottom line. And, because Bill Clinton pushed the CRA, this problem has now escalated, and Bush is being blamed for it.  Bush is handling the problem folks; he isn’t the reason for it. This started over a decade ago and is the reason why Charles Krauthammer, famously, calls Bill Clinton a “parenthesis” in the presidential chronology. Things were set in place for him by Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, but he, in turn, set in place what would become part of a monumental screw up for those to follow, in our case, George W. Bush as part of the cleanup crew, and the American people as the private, yet innocent, public investors. Interestingly enough, regulatory changes during the Clinton years allowed community groups better access to CRA information, enabling them to increase their activities. But, at the same time, economists believed the CRA would lower bank profitability…and were they right.

Simply put, it looks better in America if all people—blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics and any other minority, no matter what they can afford—own homes.  What a mammoth mistake has been made!  The Community Reinvestment Act is real, is not being talked about in mainstream America and has caused much of the momentum for what is happening today, but people are afraid to talk about it.  It, along with its instigators, are protected, as is Obama (which is why we can’t talk about Rezko, Bill Ayers, etc.).

We have all heard the phrase “responsible voter” for most of our adult lives. Let these people get out and register and vote themselves, with the exception of physical disability, handicap or the like, of course. Otherwise, people shouldn’t vote if they don’t make the grown-up effort to take steps in order to do so, just like our kids should do their own homework. Voters are responsible citizens. That is what makes this America…what makes us American. How could any conscientious and self-reliant American support this nonsense?!