Making Peace inside the Democratic Primary

The time has come for the DEM candidates to live up to the Rhetoric they have spewed over the last many years as it relates to negotiating with our enemies. They are uniquely placed to do just such a thing, to negotiate with our enemies. For nearly the entire Bush Presidency, the DEMS have bemoaned the fact that this administration has been unwilling to negotiate with likes of North Korea, Iran, and other nefarious fellows. Today, they have the unique and sole possibility to live up to their own demands, their own rhetoric.

Currently Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton are nearly tied in the race to the Democratic nomination for President. Neither can win the coveted prize without the others help, or the most unheard and unlikely slide in one or the others favor in the waning days of the primary by nearly a 10 to 1 margin. This is not going to happen!

So, as we look to the potential options left on the table for Barrack and Hillary, we find a fight for Super Delegates as option one. But this option has a very ugly downside for both candidates. They can conceivably break the party in two and ensure a McCain Presidency.

Option two is a negotiated Peace.
The willingness of either or both to negotiate with the enemy of America, the other candidate.

This could be a test to see if the rhetoric spewed by the DEMS and these two candidates is worth its weight in pudding. Can either show the willingness to negotiate from a place of moderate to no advantage and bring abut a settlement that benefits both, or do they continue to blow smoke up the collective buttocks of America.

Obama, in particular, believes it is important to negotiate with the likes of Iran to secure our peace. Does he also see the import to negotiate with Hillary to save his party?

Can either swallow the arrogance of their campaign and begin the negotiating to bring this War of Words to an end without anymore bloodshed of fellow Democrats? Can either find it within themselves to sacrifice for the common good as Mrs. Obama and Mr. Clinton have long argued as it relates to the rest of the country?

Today, looking out upon the landscape of Democratic Politics you see the likelihood of stronger and deeper attacks, particularly from Hillary. While Obama has the long view to stay above the fray, can he seriously believe that he can?

Is the collective egos of Obama and Clinton so entrenched that they cannot see the damage awaiting the bloody battle ahead? The senior Senator of Florida has cautioned about a "Train wreck" ahead should this not be resolved soon.

All the puff media and favorable media received by both candidates between Mid-December and Mid-February will begin to decline and the media will be forced to deal with reality should the two begin the final campaign towards nomination. During the Dec through Feb period, Obama received 83% favorable coverage from network news while Hillary received 53% favorable. These numbers are likely to reverse themselves should they begin the trench warfare that is likely to occur should the negotiated peace not begin soon.

No longer will the biased media coverage be able to steer the reports on the candidates and the result will be bloody. The loss of control of the message beaming out from Network headquarters will be followed by a rapid decline in the favorable appeal of both candidates and it will result in an increase for McCain.

Thus, the only conclusion that can be made is one of a Negotiated Peace Settlement. Luck are we, that we have heard just last week that Hillary was instrumental in bringing Peace to Northern Ireland. We now can sit and watch the grown ups in the room make the tough decisions the current Administration failed to do...Make peace with our Enemies...

The time has come for the rubber to meet the road. We need to see the rhetoric move to action and the Symbolism find its Substance. We need Hillary and Obama to bring themselves to the big Mahogany Table with Claw feet and negotiate the Peace to save the Democratic Party.

If they cannot do it for the Party, at least think of the Children!

Obama's politics of Change is more of the same...

Barrack Obama likes to talk about Change from the politics of usual...the same bitterness of partisanship. He likes to point out that we need a candidate and President who will not look at teh Party platform rather look at solutions to bring the Nation together. Often his rhetoric is that the CHANGE we need is to distance ourselves from the way the Dems and GOP have played partisan politics for there gain and the Nations loss...breaking us down rather than bringing us todgether. His best Rodney King impersonation.

However, he has, in his short time, been rated by both Liberal and Conservative think tanks and publications as either the most liberal or nearly the most liberal member of the Senate. He has not worked in non-partisan circles to advance solutions rather he has played the role of pure partisan as a member of the Senate.

Obama's record is replete with partisan stances in issues of importance and real need for bi-partisanship. A look at his short Senate records shows a man who has sat in the far left seat of the Senate while John McCain has taken all the arrows from his conservative base to find that middle ground on issues Barrack holds to his Liberal and Politics as Usual role.

In fact, McCain not Obama represents the REAL reformer from the Politics as Usual. McCain has a record of working across the aisle and working to form bi-partisan coalitions on Campaign Finance, Immigration, Evironmental and Budgetary issues.

The Media has yet to bring out the facts on Obama's past and purely partisan behavior during his brief stint in the Senate. Additionally, Obama also proved weak-kneed while in the Illionis Legislature by voting 'present' rather than taking serious stands on important issues.

So if you want a REFORMER, a person who is not going look at someone's voter ID card before beginning cordial discussions, and who will reach across the aisle to solve the issues of our day, look no further than John McCain. If you are looking for a Candidate who has experience dealing with issues that require serious and sound judgement, one who has been tested under fire and has worked with whomever is needed to solve an important problem, HIS name is John McCain.

Baseball---how to save the game

Baseball has suffered under the leadership of Bud Selig, despite the gross revenues of the sport.

From the strike in 93, to the use of steroids and other performance enhancers, to inequities in salaries the sport has continued to lose the favor with the growing population of Americans. Yes, they have experienced great increases in revenue and profits, but they have lost a great many more that they could have had otherwise.

But how to fix it...

First, Baseball should accept the role Management played in the quite endorsement of Cheating by the players, under the willing but delightfully blissful eyes of the owners...So to fix it, the Owners should finance a campaign, a 15 year campaign to enter High Schools and little leagues all over the nation to explain the consequences of using performace enhancing drugs of all kinds. Fund this program for a generation of children to ensure the double message, of realativism is not allowed to subsist in baseball at any level.

Second, re-align the division inside each league based upon the payroll average of the last few years. We can assign the two previous years or a rolling average. The goal would be to allow clubs to keep all profits, no more profit sharing, but in liu of this...these clubs would have to compete on more equitably apportioned playing field.
The Yanks, Red Sox and other first market teams would allign the top division while the likes of the Royals and Rays would populate the more modestly spending teams. Likewise the the two leagues would then be split along a balance that spending no longer becomes the path to the playoffs, and it allows for fans everywhere to begin the next season with a reasonable expectation that the season is not lost before it even begins.

Finally, the players who have chosen to take products to enduce enhancement of performance that is not would suffer from the all important Astrick...***. Major League Baseball should include the * for all records accumulated from 1992 through 2006. By qualifying these years the players will see the product of their efforts not totally excluded just qualified.
Ulitmately, mabe the players would be enduced to police themselves for the sake of the records they seek to make over there careers.
By pointing out that records during this era cannot be fully from scrutiny we must therefore qualify the era as the performance enhanced era...allow them to enter the Hall of Fame, but under the same umbrella.
This tainted image will be left for all to see in the future but not exclude them from what they may have truly acheived without outside help. It will leave the mark without tarnishing the record allocation in the books.
Future players may be served by discourageing and not condoning the actions of teammates for the sake of personal glory, for the risk of the game.

I propsoe these three elements and reforms to be added to preserve and protect the game I loved as a child. realativism has not only creaped into our lives in school, work, family but also sports., and I propose we slam that door shut!

Obama rising--Symbolism over Substance

The meteoric rise of Obama has coincided with the realities found inside the Democratic Party today. People all over the nation are beginning to realize they do not want the Clinton's in the White House. The hangover of the Clinton years is have a heavy price and it is being seen by the heavy rush towards Obama. He represents the anti-Clinton vote as much as the willingness to accept his candidacy. This is not to say his message is not exciting and grabbing his audiences, rather it is to say that it has more to do with the Symbol of his campaign-CHANGE over the Substance of the Hillary campaign.

The SYMBOLISM of the Barrack Obama is of an exciting, young, enthusiastic well spoken man, who plays upon the LIBERAL and HUMANISTIC willingness to qualify the hope of us all to move past the racism of our past. Liberals in particular want to be able to say I voted for a Black Man for President irrespective of whether he is the best candidate. Obama, however, has shown to be a very good candidate, but one yet to be challenged due to his blackness.

The historic moment we are experiencing is also replete with problems. One of which is that we are seeing a FEAR in the media to really scrutinize his record thus far. The KIT gloves approach has allowed for him to be protected, and the attacks from the Clinton machine has appeared to be and depicted as smears.

The Media has left him alone, allowing for him to rise unabated. But Why?

Because they love to see there principles attained through a candidate they like, and Barrack is everything the liberal media likes, he fulfills there best hopes for America. Hence their reluctance to scrutinize his campaign and past. The media loves the SYMBOLISM of what Barrack represents to them and liberal America.

Whereas, Hillary embodies the sparks that ignited the Republican Revolution and the Bush years. She and her husband embody the SUBSTANCE of the corruption and the decline of ethics in the recent past. The things that most Americans hate about Washington is what the Clinton's are.

The SUBSTANCE of corruption in D.C. is what Americans want to distance themselves from, all the infighting and investigations that pepper the last decade and half. This is the Clintons, and people are tired of it everywhere.

So the Symbolism of Liberalism as it is found in Barrack Obama is winning the day against the Substance of the Clinton years...and people everywhere are accepting it. The willingness to see all roses and candy in the light of Obama's eyes is blinding the media and democrats, if it is necessary to separate the two, and propelling him to the pinnacle of politics.

All this Messianic anointing of Obama as the cure for all the ills of our past has allowed him to move through this usual gauntlet without the slightest of bruises. Obama has enjoyed the easiest run for President in any one's memory, all because he is a black man.

I ask what has Barrack accomplished in his 46 years? It is not his impressive list of accomplishments that have vaulted him to the center of the political universe, because they are neither impressive nor extra ordinary but rather because he is the embodiment of the what Liberals hold dear--Symbolism over Substance.



So this primary has become a case of Symbolism over Substance

Steroids, baseball and children

Today the Mitchell Report on Steroids in Baseball was released, inlcuding names of many of the most accomplished players of the last two decades. McGuire, Bonds, Roger C, and countless others were cited as having taken advantage of the quick edge in the use of Steroids and Human Growth Hormones...SO WHAT? Why should we care, and what is wrong with this edge verse using contact lenses, or just lifting weights?
Consider the lunacy to compare Drug Use to gain an advantage, that is harmful to the person, but provides a competitive edge with the commonalities of lifting weights, contact lenses or sun glasses. Silly, stupid and hardly worth of a response, but they will come in droves. Suffice it to say, they are not comparable and are not harmfull to the individual.

Well, Integrity comes to mind, Fairness comes to mind and Health comes to mind, along with Right and Wrong...oh and the kids.

First, Ingrity is the key to long term success. Once lost it will be difficult to gain back. Baseball and statistics have been an inseparable element of joy to millions. Being able to compare Ruth, to Mays to Whomever has been the basis of a great amount of love for the game. Comparing Cy Young with Bob Gibson or Koufax with Carlton has been the fodder over beer and coffee tables for decades...today it is lost. Hopefully not for good.
The Intgrity of the game goes to the value of the records, but not this alone. It goes to the veracity of honesty of competition and the value of effort over drugs.
The Culture of Corruption and Relativity that lives by the creed--'Whatever it takes' diminishes not only the games we play and watch but the values we draw from it.
We have not grown up to beleive in the Americana belief of Baseball as the All-American Game to have it so carelessly and cavalierly maligned by those who seek only personal glory.

Second, Fairness is a consideration. We enter the field of play, whether in T-ball, High School or the Pro's with a basic belief that we come with our shoes, gloves, bats and balls, along with our natural and practiced ability. Today, we cannot be sure that is all that is brought to the playing fields.
The lessons of youth include competition and these have been a building block of our society, or why does it(baseball and sports) belong in our Public School System. If Fairness and Integrity are not cornerstones of our Character Education, why is that we allow for Public Education to use presious funds on Sports, and baseball in particular.

Third, Health is a consideration in this matter. Perhaps the most import issue legal-wise for the League. Consider for a moment if the role of pressure placed upon the player by Management surfaced. The Players would rightfully have the argument that 'undue influence and pressure' has been exerted by Management to use preformance enhancing drugs to acheive franchise goals, placing and putting the players at risk.
This may or may not have occured, but the league needs and needed to address the Steroid/HGH issue for no other reason than to protect the individual teams and league, as awhole, from removing this potential threat to the Health of the players, and the game.
The Health of the player is a crucial consideration by the employer. Consider a Steel Mill allowing employees to not wear helmuts so they can be more productive, it is crazy.
In Baseball, when we look at contracts of 10 years 275 million is some extreme circumstances, isn't it an important consideration to view the health of the player.
But also consider the impact on the Youth and the reality of idol worship. Kids will wear there uniform number, the type of shoes Jordan wore, and would likely include the type of preformance enhancing drugs they use to hit 700 plus homeruns or 5500 plus stikeouts.

Fouth, Right and Wrong...This may be too obvious to have to discuss, but listening to the cadre of journalists and apologists for the conduct of players and the import of the usage, it has to be stated.
Life is not about doing whatever it takes to win or succeed. It is to do whatever is rightful and just to do to succeed and win. This lesson has been lost in much of our Character Education. Whether it is Bill Billicek, Bill Romanoski or Barry Bonds, they do all of us as parents and intermural coaches a disservice by living the me-first and win at all costs mentality.
Competition teaches kids, youth and adults a valuable life lesson---you will win and you will lose, but what matters is doing your best, or as a friend of mine likes to say, "Finish Strong", in all that you do!
Lastly, Baseball is just as cupable as the players who took these enhancing drugs and hormones. Far more inportant than gambling, this is an issue that challenges the believality of the game as an institution. Gambling cannot change a players abilities, only his input to results.

Let us hope this begins the National Healing and Cleansing of the Great American Game. I understand that Apple Pie is under scrutiny for its fat content.

Global Warming vs. Global Terrorism

We stand at a crossroads...does the Manufactured Media convince enough Americans that Global Warming is more dangerous than Global Terrorism. Can Al Gore and his minions lead enough people astray from the real challenges we face or do we stand and fight to protect Christian values here and abroad. Does the United States slip further into Socialism and accept the failed model of Old Europe and Cananda or do we stand of advancement and acheivement in medical science?

November 2008 is the test by which our nation will be judged by future generations. Can the people withstand the Manufactured Media, Hollywood, and Cultural Elite's onslaught of lies, distortions and fear mongoring. Can this Nation hold onto our foundational principles and remain a country that places Liberty and the Constitution over ACLU and liberal political correctness.

These two concepts of Global Warming and Global Terrorism are being played out through a media that portrays one as a fact and the other as a fiction. Yet, the Manufactured media gives full aplomb to GW it rarely gives equal import to the realities of Islamo-facism. Ignoring on one hand the abundant evidence that places into doubt the anthropogenic causes of the slight increase of 1.5 degrees of tempeture, at the same time placing upon its front page shoulders the missteps and challenges facing our effort in Global Terrorism. Escueing the threat so much that in many quarters it is no longer acceptable to say Global War on Terror, or challenging the very import of Iraq and its past abuses of Human Dignity.

The MM is so lopsided in this accord of integrity of journalism that they ignore the very words spoken by the same Democrats who whole heartedly supported this effort a short 5 years ago. They ingore the impact of Iran inside Iraq and ask for the mainstreaming of lies about Presidential powers and credibility all in the effort to discredit the War.

So today, we stand on the edge of a deep generational gulf, one that will lead us for decades...do we accept flawed science and ignore a real threat to chirstendom, or do we stand and fight to preserve Liberty of Thought, Sovereignty, and Religion?

Time will tell, in fact, November 2008 will be that premier

Gore 'warming' up to a run for President

Al Gore is 'Globally Warming' to a run for the President. As his World Tour of Hotair Aid fizzled to poor attendence, weak star power and embarresing ratings, Gore realizes his religious cult of Anthropogenic Global Warming is beginning to leak out of his balloon.
Recent poll numbers show that Hillary still has ways to go, showing neg ratings at over 50% is some constituency groups. The new-kid-on-the-block Barrack Osoma has yet to be tested in the media but raises money like a tel-evangelist because the DEM donors realize the sand on which the Clinton White House hopes stand on, is loose. Edwards, the Cosmo Candidate, is possibly less equiped to be President than he is to be the host on America Has Talent.
So all this leaves the vast middle, the populist middle and the wacky fringe enviro-nuts open for the taking, enter the resounding refrain from the left...'Impeach Bush and Run Al, Run'.

You can almost hear the song being sung..."Divinity School Drop out"...can't you!
You shot your camera in Nam, you held the V.P in your Palm...You stood by the Commander-in-Chief waiting for your shot, took your case to the Court, but alas you were...A Divinity School Drop-out...but you found your religion...in the fears of all us swim'n...using Global Warm'n to scare the people to care.....telling them lies to convince that you were the prince....the only one who can take,....the Job from the Liar and Fake, Mr President, we want to impeach, the role you want always to reach....to be called Mr. President, instead of 'Divinity school Drop-out......

Gore has seen that the vacuum is ready for him to enter the fray, maybe October, or perhaps November...being able to raise money under the umbrella of Global Warming, he has amassed a fortune he can use to take the nominiation, and begin his fundraising in Feb or March.

Rest assure, his star power is at its height, he has never been more popular. His adoring fans and deep pocketed celebraty crowd want him to join the race, be the Man to save us from ourselves (the Sun, really).

If Al Gore doesn't enter the fray, I will be shocked and disapointed in the fact I was 100% wrong as it relates to his most desired goal...but we know his propensity to lie about anything, or is it ignorance?

This man will seek the Presidency, he cannot avoid being the star in his own thiller, his on documentary on the Man who save the world, no not Jesus, but Al Gore...Citizen Gore, the new Barnum, the purveyor of a sucker is born every minute personified.

Al Gore will run and it will end up being the Battle of Tennessee...GORE vs. Thompson...Senator vs. Senator, Hipocrite vs. Hipcrite (means actor too).

Who would have ever expected that Tennessee would become such an important place, vital, central to our future as a country...because the next President will preside presumably over the transformation of our Nation...the crash of Social Security, the looming Recession, the Global...(you thought I was going to say Warming, didn't you) War on Terrorism, the Medicare Crisis, the Possible Socialization of HealthCare and the dynamic changes that face our food supply while trying to rid ourselves of Middle Eastern oil...The Challenges that face the next President are possibly the most dounting challenges in the past 50 years...

Our country rests at the edge of a narrow ledge, in front lies a narrow gate that brings us to the promised land, while just below us, the wide gate is more easily reached, but the next leader of the Free World must choose....the Narrow gate or the Wide?

Does the next President face the challenges of Global Terrorism or Global Warming...you get to decide that course in November 2008!

Stay tuned to the Hot Air Channel...

On Scooter Libby, Gore 2008 and History

Scooter Libby is the victim of the ugliest form of politics, that which is played in the courts by motivated players. Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald prolonged an unnecessary investigation for reasons we can only characterize as political.
The net result is that the inside Baseball which was played out in the Courts resulted in Mr. I. Scooter Libby being punished beyond any reasonable sentence and adjudication. The story which leads us here is long, tediace and full of interesting turns and twists, but underlying all this is a vendetta against the VP office.
It begins with the creation of the
The President was 100%

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GORE will be the late addition in October 2007 and ulitmately be the nominee...GORE vs Thompson...stay tuned
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Civics and History is being lost to the newest generations...without our children understanding what the US is all about, how can we expect them to want to defend it?

Gasoline Economics 101 (part 1 of 5)

GASOLINE ECONOMICS 101

What opportunists on the left don’t know about economics could fill textbooks…in fact, it does. They should try learning and applying Market Based Economics and reading some texts.



As the above illustration shows, Government, via taxes, accounts for as much and often more than Refining Costs and Profits in a gallon of gasoline sold at the pump. Yet, possibly most interesting, is that while in the early 1980’s most of the nations 350 refineries were owned by Oil Companies like Exxon, Shell, Hess and Mobil, today’s 153 refineries are own mostly by independent Refiners, not the large Oil Companies.

The Supply and Demand of Gasoline is largely an independent variable, uncontrolled by Oil Companies and subject to international political situations, so says the US SENATE REPORT found here…http://www.senate.gov/~gov_affairs/042902gasreport/sectioni.pdf

So what goes into the Supply of gasoline, let us discuss that because you understand the demand (just look at India and China, or the interstate).

Of course, you understand that the largest supplies of Crude Oil are in the Middle East and Russia, so international politics play a heavy role. While we do get 60% of our Crude from our hemisphere, we are still dependant upon the Middle East and OPEC. While Canada and Mexico are our most prolific suppliers, Venzuala also is a bigger supplier adding to our woes.

Yet despite this, the flow of Crude has remained very consistent. Though is adds to the price fluctuation of Crude on the market, it is but the first step. Crude must be refined into Gasoline and this has been a variable of great concern since the mid 1980’s. It was during this time the Major Oil Companies divested their interest in Refineries and reduced the number of operational refineries from 350 to 153 domestically.

We can produce roughly 17 Million barrels a day in the US, while our consumption is about 22 million barrels putting about 5 million shy of production. This puts us at the flux of the market.

This reduction has had a major impact on supply mainly as a response to the associated costs to refiners when Windfall Profits Taxes were pushed into law by Jimmy Carter and a Democrat Congress. When it became less profitable to manage a refinery due to taxes and this was coupled with Environmental interference, the Major Oil Companies found there way out of the refinery business. Though most of these companies still own some of the most profitable facilities, a large number are operated by other than the so-called Big Oil.

Ultimately this constriction in refining capacity has placed pressures upon the industry that have been exploited by natural disasters and geo-politics in recent years. Regular maintenance, Specialty blends due to regional and state requirements and home heating oil also play significantly into the overall supply at various points during the year. These variables have placed the greatest pressure in recent years exacerbating the general tightening of supply in the US.

While we have allowed politics to add another ingredient into the supply side of this equation environmental concerns have remained steady. The most recent addition to variables has been the government requirement to move away from the chemical additive and more heavily to ethanol. The ethanol replacement has taken up valuable storage that the additive had not.

Finally, with all the factors involved in production and refining of gasoline, it remains rather interesting that while the overall cost has gone up what appears to be like a rocket, the reality of the price as adjusted for inflation is rather flat(see chart below).

What remains to be done is to convince the left that speaking about energy independence while at the same time preventing the utilization of known and likely reserves in ANWR and OCS is disingenuous. We must build independence by utilizing those reserves we have in our midst.

We must understand that allowing ourselves to be fooled by those who would rather play politics with the costs associated with Gasoline and blaming these costs on excessive profits are playing the very worst game imaginable. It does not require a PHD to see that Government at both the Federal and State levels earn via taxes, often twice as much as Oil Companies off the same gallon of gas, without any of the risk.

Floridians pay about 51 cents in taxes while New Yorkers pay over 60 cents. Taxes are levied on every gallon of gas, irrespective of whether the companies involved were successful enough to make a profit or not. In the 1980’s when refining took the profit out of a gallon of gas, these taxes continued, even while the companies lost money.
So I ask you, who is doing the gouging?
Government Taxes and political opposition to developing domestic production capacity via ANWR and the regional waters off our coasts are our biggest gougers. They tell us we cannot become independent but tax us and blame Oil Companies to boot.

The time has come for American’s to wake up to energy politics. Learn the process by which we drive the open road, travel to Grandma Annie’s, and visit the ball park.












Part 1 of 5…