Redistricting Trials and Tribulations

Published in the Lynchburg Ledger in the August 5, 2011 edition. 

We are currently in the once-a-decade practice of political redistricting.  The Justice Department pre-cleared the Virginia General Assembly redistricting plans in June, paving the way for the nominating process.

Before discussing one of those races, I want to quickly touch on what is not so obvious about redistricting. 

Over the past 30 years, Virginia has moved from a primarily rural state to a primarily urban state, with respect to political influence.  Rural areas such as Central Virginia have experienced low or moderate growth where urban areas such as Northern Virginia have had explosive growth, thanks primarily to the ever-expanding federal government.

For years rural districts held the political power in the General Assembly.  This has meant that when it came to the distribution of funds, rural areas benefited at the expense of urban areas.  Having lived in Northern Virginia for 38 years, I saw first hand how citizens of the urban jurisdictions were subsidizing the rural jurisdictions.

For example, Northern Virginia jurisdictions received less than fifty cents back on every tax dollar sent to Richmond where rural areas received up to $1.50 for every dollar sent to Richmond. 

Campbell County, which has one of the lowest tax rates in Virginia, currently receives approximately $1.10 for every dollar sent to Richmond in taxes.

All that is about to change with the latest redistricting.  Rural cities and counties which for years have been heavily subsidized by the Virginia’s wealth redistribution system will likely be seeing much less in state funding for things like schools, law enforcement, courts and social services.  When that happens, local governments are going to be looking at drastically cutting services or raising taxes.

But right now, the political activity is focused on selecting candidates for the various General Assembly districts. 

The 59^th Delegate District was expanded westward to include a major portion of Campbell County with only the western portion of the county remaining in the 22^nd Delegate District.

With 59^th District Delegate Watkins Abbitt retiring, that district became an open seat.  On the Democrat side, Connie Brennan (who ran against Abbitt two years ago) and Jasper Hendricks (an open homosexual) will compete for the Democrat nomination.

On the Republican side, Appomattox attorney and long-time Republican Evans Thomas announced his candidacy as did Ron Ferrin from Campbell County.  However, it would appear neither was acceptable to Republican power brokers and they went looking for another candidate.  Ferrin withdrew and endorsed Evans Thomas.

They approached Campbell County businessman and farmer Matt Farris, who reportedly turned them down numerous times.  They were finally able to convince Farris to run after assuring him he would not have to show up on Mondays. With the help of the local farm community, Farris appears to have the support needed to win the nomination at the convention to be held in Appomattox on August 13^th.

Democrats appear absolutely ecstatic over the possibility of Farris winning the Republican nomination.  They consider him to be the easiest candidate to defeat.  Blogger “pattyvirginia” wrote on Bluevirginia.us, “With a joker like this on the GOP side, our candidate…will certainly be able to run a very good race and likely turn this seat blue.”  She concluded, “We should root for Matt to win the GOP nomination because in the general election, our candidate will clean his clock.”

What they discovered is that Farris has a blemished past.  He has been charged with numerous misdemeanors over the past ten years.  The record shows:

·        On November 30, 2000, he was charged with conspiracy to sell a wild animal.  He was found guilty and received a $50.00 fine

·        On December 19, 2001, he was changed with four offenses.  Improper stopping, hunting from a vehicle, expired registration and carrying a concealed weapon.  He was found not guilty on the stopping and hunting charges and guilty on the expired registration and concealed weapon changes.  He received a 10 day jail sentence which was suspended on the concealed weapon charge and paid a $25.00 fine on the expired registration.

·        On July 31, 2002, he was charged with failure to keep right of highway and was convicted in absentia.  The fine was $50.00

·        On May 27, 2010, he was charged with unlawful possession of a wild animal.  He was found guilty and received a fine of $100.00.

Farris calls himself as a “Common Sense Conservative” yet the record shows he has received $199,593.00 in federal farm subsidies from 1995 through 2010.  From a business and farming standpoint, there is absolutely nothing wrong with receiving federal farm subsidies, but from a true conservative standpoint, there is. 

Just recently, Farris lost a civil case in Circuit Court where an employee was awarded $500,000.00 for injuries sustained on the job.

Finally, Farris has let it be known that he intended to serve only one term in office.  That is indeed troubling as it takes a full two-year term to learn the procedures and develop the relationships necessary to be an effective legislator.  One has to wonder what kind of backroom deal has been struck and with who.

Delegates attending the August 13^th convention just might want to take a closer look at Evans Thomas, a true conservative with the political experience we need as a Delegate.  Evans Thomas worked for two years for Delegate Vance Wilkins and one year for Senator Wylie Mitchell in Richmond.  He can hit the ground running.

Matt Farris is a nice enough guy but he carries a great deal of baggage and lacks the political skills and experience needed in the General Assembly to fight for our issues such as the funding rural counties have come to depend on.. 

We can not afford to send the wrong person to Richmond.  Farris delegates just might want to switch their vote and elect the candidate who can run effectively against the Democrat, will show up for all the sessions and hearings and one who intends to stay as our representative for many years to come.

Budget and Debt Showdown Looming

Published in the Lynchburg Ledger on July 22, 2011 

With the debt limit approaching the August 2nd deadline, which may not be a real deadline, Republicans and Barack Hussein Obama seem to be at an impasse.

When Obama was first elected and met with Republicans who offered suggestions, his response was “We won!”  He felt he had a mandate to govern and he could care less what the Republicans said or thought.

Two years later, the voters had a severe case of buyer’s remorse and sent a message by electing conservatives to Congress.  Their marching orders were simple, cut spending and don’t raise taxes.  House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are sending the same message back to Obama, “We won!”

Obama wants to raise taxes, continue to increase spending and raise the debt ceiling so we can borrow even more money future generations will have to repay.

Our nation is currently on the brink of financial collapse.  We are heading for a cliff and Obama wants to accelerate rather than putting on the brakes.  In just two and a half years, Obama has increased the national debt by 3.8 trillion dollars, or 25 percent.

According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank, the federal government will receive $172 billion in revenues between Aug. 3 and Aug. 31, but it is obligated to spend $306 billion, leaving a shortfall of $134 billion.

 

No state, no business and certainly no household could survive when the outflow exceeds the income by a whopping 44 percent.  Our problem is not one of income, it is one of spending.

We need to remember how we got to where we are.  It was the sub-prime home loan market collapse that tanked the economy.  Republicans tried in vain to rein in out-of -control Fannie Mae but were blocked by Democrats like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank.

 

In the recent best seller, “Reckless Endangerment,” author Gretchen Morgenson goes into great detail how the financial collapse occurred.  Morgenson is a Pulitzer Prize winning business reporter for the New York Times.  I usually distrust the New York Times, but this reporter tells it like it is.

The American people are already over taxed which accounts in part for the high unemployment rate.  Currently, the official number of unemployed is 14 million, but the actual amount is 24.8 million.  Private industry is not about to even think about expanding in the current hostile Obama economy.  In fact, more and more companies are looking offshore for locations.

One of the most recent is Cessna, which is reportedly in preliminary talks with Chinese conglomerate AVIC to build and distribute business aircraft in mainland China.  It is Barack Obama who wants to remove tax breaks buyers of corporate jets presently now enjoy.

Some may recall some years back Congress eliminated tax breaks on luxury yachts, which resulted on the loss of many jobs in the yacht building industry.

Business people I have talked to say the business climate is worse than is currently being reported.  We feel it at the Lynchburg Ledger.  When the economy sours, one of the first things a business person will do is cut back on their advertising budget.

Obama is insisting on raising taxes and has resorted to despicable scare tactics to pressure Republicans.  He has frightened senior citizens by suggesting that Social Security checks may not go out.  That is a bold face lie and Obama has reached a new low in his presidential term.  Current law requires the Social Security checks to go out and he certainly knows that.

This week, the House Republicans began to debate a bill they call “Cut, Cap and Balance.”

The cut portion would require $111 billion to be cut from the budget.  The cuts would be up front, not in out years.  Ronald Reagan was stung badly by Congress when he agreed to a tax increase with accompanying cuts in spending.  The spending cuts were in later years and never happened.  Republicans remember that and must insist on spending cuts now.

The first place I would cut is ObamaCare.

The cap would cap spending at 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) within 10 years.  It is currently at 24 percent.

 

The balance portion is the passing of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution which would require the government to live within its means, like states, businesses and American households do.

Democrats are already lining up their forces to oppose it.  It can pass the House but passing the Democrat controlled Senate is another issue.

Even if it did, would Obama sign it?  My guess is likely not.  Barack Obama does not live in the real world.  He has never had a meaningful job in the private sector and has no idea how business works.  He has not run as much as a lemonade stand. He believes businesses exist to hire people and provide health care coverage.  Less than 10 percent of his inner circle has any business experience whatsoever.  They are mostly from left-wing academia.

Rather than listening to the American people and cutting spending, they are digging in their heels on tax increases.  They will continue to employ their scare tactics about default on the debt, which will not happen unless Obama specifically makes it happen.

Our bond rating my go down a bit which will mean we will pay a higher interest on what we borrow.  However, if the Republicans continue to oppose Obama’s reckless spending and taxes, I think the credit market will react positively to that.  Right now, they see us heading for a financial cliff with Obama’s foot firmly placed on the accelerator.  With Obama’s “pedal to the metal” approach, we are doomed.

Potential 2012 GOP Candidates

Published in the Lynchburg Ledger on June 10, 2011

While the Obama Administration tries to convince the American people we are in an economic recovery, the rest of us know better.   A visit to the gas station or the supermarket is all you need to see we are far from a recovery.

It was the housing market, with all of those sub-prime mortgages the liberals forced banks to make and Fannie Mae to buy, that tanked the economy in 2008.  The housing market is still in the doldrums and if and when it turns around, only then can we say we are in a period of recovery.

Meanwhile, the liberals keep spending money we don’t have and doing everything they possibly can to hinder the economy.  It is almost as if that is exactly what they want to happen, as many believe.

One of the latest outrages is the shutdown of the 1300-mile long Keystone pipeline delivering oil from Alberta, Canada, to US refineries in Illinois and Oklahoma.  This 11-month old pipeline system handles about 591,000 barrels a day.

Since beginning operation, there have been eleven small leaks, with two in May. The first leak in May was about 400 barrels and the second of about 10 barrels.  The leaks came from failures at two different pumping stations. 

In an unprecedented action, the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration ordered the shut-down of the entire pipeline, indefinitely.  They are requiring TransCanada to perform metallurgical testing and root-cause failure analysis, and review other parts of the 1,300-mile pipeline system for similar conditions that led to the two small leaks, depriving us of the much needed 591,000 barrels of crude per day. 

Meanwhile the price at the pump is still north of $3.50 a gallon.

I recently had the opportunity to tour the Williams Pipeline facility in Appomattox, which pumps 2 million cubic feet of natural gas northward per day at 800 pounds per square feet.  It is quite an impressive facility with massive 5,000 horsepower engines (gas fed) driving a number of pumps.

But it is moves like these by the Obama Administration that are strangling the economy.  That is why our attention is being directed to the list of potential GOP hopefuls who will be seeking the Republican nomination in a year from now.  Let us take a quick look at the list so far.

Mitt Romney, the former Governor of Massachusetts made it official last week when he made his formal announcement in New Hampshire.  Romney had extensive executive experience but had flip flopped on key social issues, and RomneyCare in Massachusetts hangs like a mill stone around his neck.

Tim Pawlenty, former Governor of Minnesota has also announced.  He has solid conservative credentials as far as I can see and I like what I am hearing so far.

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House is in the race.  I used to be a big admirer of Newt as an astute political operative.  However, his messy personal life and the suspected liberal influences of his third wife Callista give me great concern.

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Ron Paul, Congressman from Texas has announced once again.  His libertarian and isolationist views will attract a small number of extremists but he is not a serious contender.

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Rick Santorum, former Senator from Pennsylvania has solid conservative credentials.  His book, “It Takes a Family” is the counter to Hillary Clinton’s book, “It Takes a Village.”

Herman Cain, is the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, is a talk show host in Atlanta and fills in occasionally for Neil Boortz on his syndicated show.  Herman is a solid conservative and is black.  He is the only candidate the liberal media cannot call a racist for criticizing Obama.

Jon Huntsman, former Utah governor and U.S. Ambassador to China, is someone I had never heard of before until the liberal media started talking about him.  The Associated Press particularly had run a number of stories on his.  They are trying to convince some of us he would be the strongest candidate against Obama.  I think that is reason enough to write him off right now.

Then, there are the gals.  Neither Sarah Palin nor Michele Bachmann,

Congresswoman from Minnesota, has formally announced.

Sarah Palin is conducting a bus tour of the U.S. to draw attention to our nation’s heritage.  She ended up garnering the New Hampshire headlines the day Romney announced in New Hampshire.  She told Chris Wallace on Fox News last Sunday she was 50/50 on running.

 

Michele Bachmann is expected to announce some time in June.  She has strong Tea Party support and is a solid conservative.  I told Robert Hurt’s office he needs to listen more to her and less to Eric Cantor.

The liberal media is terrified of both Palin and Bachmann and that is why they will continue to personally attack both of them.

Also mentioned as potential candidates are Charles Elson "Buddy" Roemer III, former Governor of Louisiana, and John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Bowing out early were Mitch Daniels, Governor of Indiana; Donald Trump,

real estate mogul and reality TV show host; and  Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas and Fox News Network program host, although Huckabee has left the door slightly ajar.

There are a number of very talented people running  and it is going to be a long campaign.  I plan to watch, listen and keep my powder dry for now; keeping in mind that if we do not defeat Obama in 2012, our nation as we know it is lost.

Working the Lynchburg Air Show

Published in the Lynchburg Ledger on May 27, 2011 

The Lynchburg Regional Air Show of last weekend drew thousands of people to the city, pumping outside money into the local economy while promoting aviation.  The show from my standpoint was a tremendous success but it did have its problems, which you would expect from an undertaking of this size.

My involvement was as one of the many hundreds of volunteers.  I was with a group of ham radio operators from the Lynchburg Amateur Radio Club which provided internal communications for the air show directors and spotters for problems and issues.

The area used at the General Aviation side of the airport is very spread out and as such, the air show directors used golf carts to get around to the various venues on the field.  We assigned a ham radio operator to accompany or “shadow” each key person plus had operators stationed at key locations. 

My assignment was to be liaison to the “air boss” and the event announcers located announcer’s platform.  I had the best seat in the house albeit one of the hottest.

When an air show of this size is conducted, they bring in a special air traffic controller (air boss) experienced with air shows.  Our air boss was George Cline.  When the show begins, the air boss takes control of the field from the control tower and returns control after the show.  If a commercial flight is landing or departing, the tower takes back control for that operation.

On Friday afternoon, we set up operations and tested equipment.  The air boss’s radio equipment was not working properly and we had to replace the coaxial cable to the antenna. 

I had equipment problems where my speaker-microphone was keying my transmitter all on its own.  I operated without that little accessory.

Performing at the air show was the Flying Circus from Bealton, Virginia, the U.S. Army Black Dagger parachute team, “Firecat” L-39 , and of course the Navy Blue Angels.

Because of the logistics and Transportation Security Administration considerations, there was no possibility of parking at the airport so except for those who bought VIP tickers at $75.00.  The regular patrons had to use satellite parking at Liberty University (which just ended the spring semester) and be bused to and from the airport.

This worked well in bringing in people on Saturday and Sunday as they arrived over a three hour period of time.  The gates opened at 9:00 am and the air show started at noon. 

The first performance on Saturday went off well, but with a few problems.  The announcing stand all of a sudden developed electrical problems just before the show began.  We discovered that the VIP tent which was nearby had plugged their ice machine into our power, which was supplied by a small generator.  It was quickly unplugged.

We had the usual things like lost children to deal with.  The announcers learned long ago that you do not announce the names of lost children.  They discovered some will get lost on purpose just to hear their names on the public address system.  There was a designated location for lost children to be taken to and the public was so notified. 

Saturday was the first really hot day of the year and an airport, which is a hear island, is always about 10 degrees hotter than the surrounding area.  Consequently, some were developing heat related problems.  We seemed to be having particular problems with people with special needs.  Many came out unprepared to tend to their own needs.  One deputy told me that he had a case with a diabetic who was ill because they had not eaten.  As it turns out, the deputy had brought his lunch and gave it to them going hungry himself.

The air show on Saturday ended sooner than planned because the Blue Angels C-130 “Fat Albert” experienced mechanical troubles and did not fly. They had not yet begun to stage the buses for transport when the throngs of people made a dash for the exits.  Because of the heat, even more people were experiencing heat related problems and area rescue squads responded to tend to them.

However, the ambulances were parked on the roadway blocking the busses from arriving.  The location where the busses were to go to, which was at Virginia Aviation, is difficult to get to, requiring a buss to make a very sharp right turn. 

The rush for the buses began at 4:00 pm and the last person to be taken out was after 7:30. and we were busy providing communications assistance the entire time.  When you do the math, you can see why it would take so long.  If you have 20,000 people to transport on a 40 seat bus, you need 500 bus trips.

The air show organizers changed drop-off and pick-up locations for the Sunday show and it worked much better. Still, it took over two hours to transport all the people out.

After an air show, the Blue Angels require the airport to observe a 20 minute quiet time when no aircraft are flying to allow the air turbulence they create to subside.

I got the opportunity to meet two of the Blue Angel team members, Lieutenants David Tickle and Todd Royals.  I asked them if they had the opportunity to visit any local attractions such as the D-Day Memorial or Appomattox Courthouse and they said no, they didn’t have any down or free time.

The Blue Angels were scheduled to perform at the United States Navel Academy last Tuesday and Wednesday and do a flyover on graduation day, May 27^th.   However, during the Sunday air show, an in-flight safety violation occurred during a barrel-roll break from a diamond formation prompting the commanding officer to call a “knock-it-off,” terminating the air show early and bringing the planes down.

  

They already had their ATC clearance to Andrews Air Force Base right after the show, but that was cancelled and they remained one more night.  There was a last minute scramble for motel rooms and rental cars.  On Monday, they returned to Pensacola for additional training canceling the Tuesday and Wednesday performances.  The flyover at the Friday graduation is still uncertain at this time.

Each F/A-18 Hornet the Blue Angels fly consumes 8,000 pounds of fuel per performance.   That equated to 1,333 gallons each.  Combined, all six consume 8,000 gallons per performance.

For the environmental whacko’s, that equals 160,000 pounds of plant food (carbon dioxide) per performance.  The local trees and grass should do very well this year.

Obama – King of Class Warfare

 Published in the Lynchburg Ledger on May 13, 2011


We have never had a president as divisive as Barack Hussein Obama, never!  Class warfare is his specialty where he pits the entire nation against the “rich,” be it individuals or corporations.

All the while, he has no problem living like royalty at taxpayer’s expense.  He has been the most extravagant living president ever, treating himself to luxury living while the normal taxpayer struggles to put gas in their car.
On the day Obama took office, gasoline was $1.83 a gallon. Now,  according to the American Automobile Association's Daily Fuel Gauge Report, the national average is $3.96 and every action the Obama administration takes makes it worse.  If the present conditions continue, we may just look back on $3.96 gas as a bargain.

In Europe, they are paying $8 per gallon and Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu, appears to think that would be fine for us also. 

The White House would rather the public remain ignorant of its own role in driving prices higher, so cynically it has announced probes of investors and oil industry executives that will turn up absolutely nothing, but will further demonize the “rich” in this country.

Naturally, the liberal media will continue to cover for Obama, praising him for the killing of Osama Bin Laden, while keeping the American public ignorant and uninformed in the energy issue.
Not only is the Obama administration actively preventing domestic oil exploration and production but it is also losing revenues from production and leases.

Following the April 20, 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, the administration issued a moratorium on May 6, 2010, suspending work on 33 wells in various stages of construction.  Many of those rigs have packed up and moved, never to return which means lost domestic production.

The Obama administration also halted new lease sales in the Gulf, and suspended permitting for leases already offered.

As a result there will be a projected decline in Gulf oil production of 240,000 barrels a day.  That equated to billions of dollars lost in potential revenue to the federal government as oil companies pay the federal government an 18.75 percent royalty on the oil produced.

The offshore oil industry paid $8.3 billion in royalties to the federal coffers in 2008 and an additional $9.4 billion for bids on new leases. In 2010, those bids brought in just $979 million.

Although the  moratorium was lifted on October 12, 2010, oil companies are complaining of a deliberate slowdown in the permitting process.

The Shell Oil Company announced it must scrap efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska because the Obama administration EPA is withholding necessary air permits  because drilling would somehow be hazardous for the people who live in the area. 

The closest village to the proposed drill site is Kaktovik, Alaska, one of the most remote places in the United States.  The village, which is 1 square mile and has a population of 245, sits right along the shores of the Beaufort Sea, 70 miles away from the proposed off-shore drill site.

The EPA  ruled that Shell had not taken into consideration emissions from an ice-breaking vessel when calculating overall greenhouse gas emissions from the project.

Shell has spent five years and nearly $4 billion dollars on plans to explore for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The leases alone cost $2.2 billion.

That loss is going to be passed right along to us at the pumps and the Obama administration either doesn’t know that or they do not care.

Obama loves to rip into the oil companies accusing them of excessive profits and announcing he wanted to remove current tax subsidies.

While the oil company’s profits are high in dollars, they are low in terms of percentage of sales.  For example, in 2010, ExxonMobil had a profit of 6.8 percent where companies like Microsoft and Google showed returns of 20 percent or more.

The tax subsidies Obama wants to eliminate fall into three categories, which are:  oil depletion allowance, expensing indirect drilling costs, and  a tax credit for taxes paid to foreign nations during foreign operations.  

The oil depletion is similar to that for all mineral extraction and timber producers.   The second category (expensing indirect drilling costs) permits writing off indirect drilling costs in the year incurred rather than capitalizing them and writing them off over several years.. The third category (foreign tax credits) is available for all international companies. Closing this "loophole" would discriminate against oil and gas companies in favor of other international companies such as General Electric, which contributed heavily to Obama.

The removal of these tax subsidies will also end up being reflected at the pumps in terms of higher prices. Again, either Obama does not understand this basic economic principle, or he just does not care.

Barack Obama continues to drive wedges between those who produce and those who do not.  Obama believes it is the federal government which makes the country great. Last week in San Francisco, Obama told a Democrat audience that America’s greatness comes from government spending, not from a free market which has produced the highest standard of living the world has ever known or the God-given liberty which has allowed our fellow countrymen to pursue their dreams.

Obama has no problem living the life of the rich and famous for himself (at taxpayers expense), but detests it when those who actually take the risks and succeed do likewise

When a Republican Party Turns Extreme

Published in the Lynchburg Ledger on April 29, 2011

The U.S. is the envy of the world the way we transfer political power.  In many other countries, power transfer is at the point of a gun as we see going on in Libya or with massive uprisings as we saw in Egypt.

When we have an election, the winner takes office and power is transferred in an orderly fashion.  Now we may not like the results of the election, but we in most cases go back to business as normal.  We may speak out against the winner and plan to defeat them at the polls the next time around, but as a rule, we react in an extreme manner.

We do have exceptions however, both on the left and on the right.  In Wisconsin, the voters elected a Republican governor and legislature which promised reform.  But when the reform was brought up for a vote, namely the restructuring of labor union bargaining powers, the leftists rose up and essentially took over the state house in Madison, doing $7 million in damage in the process.  They attempted to thwart the will of the electorate.

The last chapter on the Wisconsin situation has not been written.

On the right, we have situations where the losers attempt to exact revenge on those who beat them, even when they are from the same party.

This happened right here in Campbell County in last fall’s election.  You may recall, we had two candidates vying for the Republican nomination for Clerk of the Court.  One was eminently qualified but had no political experience and the other was unqualified and had plenty of political experience. 

The one with the political experience, Rick Boyer, won the nomination by approximately 30 votes.  He succeeded in turning out more people, many from his church, to support him.

The qualified candidate, Sheila Bosiger, lost the Republican nomination and ran as an independent.  Nearly all the current and former elected officials from Campbell County, both Republican and Democrat supported Sheila on the basis in qualifications. 

The Republican Party in the county recently chose Will Kirk as its chairman.  Kirk as it turns out takes advice and direction from Rick Boyer much in the same way that Barack Obama takes direction from George Soros.

Right from the very beginning, Will Kirk set out to take dictatorial control of the county Republican unit.  He ignored the bylaws usurping the duties of the secretary whose duty it was to issue the official notice of meetings (referred to as the call) to the members and to maintain the membership list.  He even went as far as prohibiting the secretary from letting members know about the meetings.

I know, because I was a member. 

The Republican Party had two candidates to support in the election.  Robert Hurt for Congress and Rick Boyer for Clerk of the Court.  

On Election Day, the Republican effort at the polls was mainly in support of Rick Boyer.  Hardly a Robert Hurt lapel sticker was in sight.  I worked three different polling places that day and personally observed how little they supported Hurt and how much they pushed Boyer.

In the end, Robert Hurt received the highest percentage vote than in any other county.  The Campbell County Republicans are now trying to take credit for what they are not responsible for.  The Republican congressional candidate always does well in the county.

One out of every two Hurt voters voted for someone other than Rick Boyer for Clerk of the Court, handing the county Republicans a humiliating defeat.  Independent Bosiger beat Boyer by a 55.3 percent to 33.4 percent margin, a landslide any way you look at it.

This is not the first time a split like this has occurred in the Republican Party. It happens every now and then.  Usually, when it is over, they all come back together and get ready for the next fight.  However, in Campbell County, revenge seemed to the order of the day.

Under the Republican State Party Plan, if a party member openly opposes a Republican candidate, they are “deemed to have resigned” from the party.  In our case, there were a number of people who supported Sheila Bosiger, including three of the four Republican members of the Board of Supervisors (which includes the current chairman), the Republican Commonwealth’s Attorney and the Republican Treasurer.  The sheriff, who was elected as a Republican, declined to rejoin the party when Will Kirk was elected chairman.

Under normal circumstances, at the next regular meeting, a motion is made to readmit all those who were “deemed to have resigned.”  However, at the first meeting, there was only one issue on the agenda, the election of five new members.  Will Kirk and Rick Boyer, who were obviously planning their revenge, probably from election night, were making sure they had enough votes to deny readmission.

At the second meeting, the motion to readmit was made.  Chairman Will Kirk once again usurped the duties of the secretary and tallied the vote personally.  Rick Boyer openly encouraged members to vote in opposition to reinstating the members.  By will Kirk’s tally, the motion to readmit lost by three votes.

This type of extreme  heavy handed tactics is something you would expect to see in a liberal labor union or in the Chicago Democrat Party. 

The Muslim faith is based on revenge where the Christian faith is based on forgiveness.  It appears that Boyer, a recent graduate from a Christian law school, has chosen revenge over forgiveness.

Sheriff Terry Gaddy and Commonwealth’s Attorney Neil Vener have announced they will be retiring and their seconds in command have announced their intention to run.  Steve Hutcheson will run for sheriff and Paul McAndrews will run for Commonwealth’s Attorney.

Both are members of the Campbell County Republican party but both have chosen to reject the Republican Party and run as Independents, at least for now.  This is significant because under its current extremist and dictatorial leadership, the Republican Party is now a liability, not an asset in Campbell County.

Boehner Blinked

 Published April 15, 2011 in the Lynchburg Ledger

In the first real confrontation between the Republican House and the Democrat-held Senate and White House since the 2010 election, the Republicans lost.

Republicans went toe to toe with the Democrats over the remainder of the 2011 budget.  The Democrat-controlled Congress failed to even consider a budget last year because it was an election year.  They opted instead to pass ObamaCare and further expand the size of government. 

The task of producing the budget fell to the Republicans with their newly elected majority in the House.  In the campaign, they promised to cut $100 billion from the current spending of $3.7 trillion for the fiscal year.  That equated to about $61 billion for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends the last day of September.  That is only 1.6 percent of the proposed spending

In their budget proposal, they cut spending for programs that the government has no business funding.  There is no constitutional authority for the federal government to fund Planned Parenthood (which performed 332,278 abortions in the United States in 2009) and Public Broadcasting.

The threat, of course, was that if a budget was not passed, the government would run out of money and be forced to “shut down.”  Now in a government shut down, the government really does not shut down.  Essential services continue to be funded.  Social Security checks continue to go out, the military continues to function (but their pay is withheld), law enforcement continues to function, and except for the closure of some national parks, the average citizen would be hard pressed to find an effect of a government shut down.

As the deadline drew near, the Republicans offered another temporary extension, but it would have also funded the Department of Defense for the rest of the year.  Barack Obama indicated he would veto such a bill, holding our military hostage.  What a despicable act.

At the 11th hour, it was the Republicans who blinked.  They settled for only a $38.5 billion reduction, and gave up all the demands the conservatives were insisting on.  The concessions John Boehner made to Harry Reid and Barack Obama was to drop:

•           De-funding of ObamaCare.

•           Blocking EPA funding for regulating carbon.

•           The National Labor Relations Board will not be stopped from forcing an end to secret ballots in union contests.

•           Medicaid will not be block granted and turned over to the states.

•           Welfare spending will not be cut nor work requirements imposed.

•           The FCC will not be stopped from regulating talk radio

Some Republicans, such as Eric Canter, are praising the agreement where many others, such as Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rand Paul and Dick Morris see it for the sell out that it is.

Sarah Palin tweeted, "GOP: don’t retreat! The country is going broke. We can’t AFFORD cowboy poetry & subsidizing abortion. If we can’t fight to defund this nonsense now when we have the chance, do you think we’ll win the big fight on entitlement reform later on?"

Bachmann called the deal a disappointment saying, "Sadly, we're missing the mandate given us by voters last November.”

Rand Paul said the budget compromise, “Does not set us on a path to fixing the spending and debt problems our country is facing. There is not much of a difference between a $1.5 trillion deficit and a $1.6 trillion deficit-both will lead us to a debt crisis that we may not recover from.”

Dick Morris wrote, “John Boehner has just given away the Republican victory of 2010 at the bargaining table...he has unilaterally disarmed the Republican Party by showing that he will not shut down the government and will, instead, willingly give way on even the most modest of cuts in order to avoid it.”

The Democrats now know that when push comes to shove, the Republicans will cave in.  This does not bode well for two important upcoming issues.

The first will be a vote in Congress to raise the debt limit so we can continue to borrow at an astounding rate.  Republicans need to dig their heels in and oppose raising the debt limit without a realistic deficit elimination plan that relies on spending cuts and not tax increases, which will only cripple and enslave.

The Democrats will howl and scream and say the financial credibility of the nation is at stake.  They don’t seem to realize that our massive borrowing has already destroyed our credibility.  The value of the dollar continues to drop, which accounts, in part, for the increase in oil prices.  The world petroleum market uses the U.S. dollar as its trading currency.

The Democrats can expect the Republicans to cave once again.  They may throw them a bone or two in exchange for raising the debt limit.  We need to tell the Republicans in Congress to oppose any increase in the debt limit.

Finally, there is the 2012 budget being proposed by Congressman Paul Ryan.  This is a very aggressive budget designed to get government spending under control.  It makes cuts everywhere, including entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare.  If we are ever to bring spending under control, the proposed cuts are necessary.

Look for the Democrats to attack the Ryan budget just like they did the 2011 budget compromise.  Harry Reid accused Republicans of wanting to hurt and even kill women because of the attempt to defund Planned Parenthood.  The Republicans need to learn how to take it to the Democrats and dish it out to them they way they attack Republicans.

Rising in the presidential polls is an unlikely potential candidate, Donald Trump.  He is attracting attention because he isn’t afraid to take it right to Obama and the Democrats.  Republicans are going to have to learn from Trump and have the intestinal fortitude to stand up to the Democrat lies and distortions.

Alternative Energy Pipe Dreams

 Published April 8, 2011 in the Lynchburg Ledger

When the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, the cost of gas at the pump was around $2.15 a gallon.  By August of 2009, the cost had climbed to around $4.00 a gallon.  Then along came the financial collapse brought on by the sub-prime home loan market meltdown and the price at the pump took a nose dive.  When Barack Obama took the oath of office on January 20, 2009, the cost of gas at the pump was about $1.60 a gallon.  

Since then, the cost has steadily climbed to today’s $3.59 a gallon, more than doubling in cost.  The liberal media is totally silent and seems to be ignoring this economy-crushing increase.  If a Republican was in the White House, they would have plenty to say.

With the continuing unrest in the Middle East, the petroleum futures market has bid the price of a barrel of crude to $108.00.

The U.S. is still importing over 50 percent of our daily oil consumption.  We get 70 percent of our petroleum imports from five countries, which are:  Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Venezuela.

Barack Obama recently visited Brazil and gave them $2 billion to explore deep water oil reserves, stating the U.S. would be a big customer.  Brazil currently is our 10^th biggest supplier of crude oil.

When Obama returned from his jaunt to South and Central America, he spoke at Georgetown University stating his goal was to reduce oil imports by one third by 2025.  

Just how does he plan to do this?  By increasing domestic production like drilling offshore and in ANWAR?  No, it is by consuming less and relying on alternate energy sources.

I believe Obama is privately thrilled with the current increases at the pump as the economy will limit gas use.  He also expects new vehicles to get better gas mileage.

One way to increase mileage is to make vehicles smaller.  A friend of mine just returned from Vietnam where he says everyone rides around on motor scooters.  Even entire families are loaded onto one motor scooter.

Obama would love that, but the rest of us would not.  We are used to the freedom a comfortable car provides.  For safety reasons, I will not buy a car that weighs less than 3,000 pounds.  In an accident, anything lighter will result in injury or death.

Obama is also looking to “alternative energy” sources to solve the problem.  However in many cases, they made the problem worse or prove to be totally impractical.

Today’s gas contains 10 percent ethanol.  This mixture and small engines like lawnmowers don’t get along very well.  The ethanol dissolves the gaskets in carburetors and the engines won’t run.  This year millions are going to break out their mowers and lawn tractors and discover they won’t start.  A trip to the small engine repair shop is going to cost big bucks.

Many boaters have already learned this lesson as ethanol and outboard engines don’t get along either.

Have you noticed the cost increases in food lately?  Much of that increase is caused by corn being diverted from animal feed and food production to ethanol production.

A gallon of ethanol has only two thirds the energy as a gallon of gasoline so with 10 percent ethanol in your gas, your mileage is decreased by 3 percent.

Then there is wind energy.  In a Letter to the Editor in the Roanoke Times on March 28, 2011, my friend Dr. Charles Battig wrote about “wind turbine syndrome.”  He wrote, “’Wind-turbine Syndrome’ was coined by Dr. Nina Pierpont in describing the medical impacts on captive neighbors. Ringing in the ears (tinnitus), headaches, insomnia and nausea are health complaints she documented. Citizens in Canada, Britain, Denmark and France have registered similar complaints to their authorities about nearby wind-turbine installations.  The low-frequency thump, thump, thump is relentless and inescapable, save by moving away.”
A lesson learned all too well by the people of Falmouth, Massachusetts. 

Looking to save money on the town’s electric bill, this liberal Cape Cod town installed a 1.65 megawatt wind turbine at a cost of $5.1 million.  But as soon as it was turned on, the sound it emitted was described as that of “an old Soviet helicopter.” 

One person who lives a quarter mile from the turbine says, “It is dangerous,” he told a Boston TV channel, “Headaches.  Loss of sleep.  And the ringing in my ears never goes away.”

It didn’t take long for the residents to file a lawsuit.  The town agreed to shut off the turbine when the wind exceeded 23 miles per hour.  Its maximum efficiency is in winds of 30 miles per hour.  Instead of saving $400,000 per year in electric costs as they anticipated, they will save only about half that.  At that rate, it will take the Town of Falmouth over 25 years just to break even on the cost of the turbine.

Then there are the various community colleges of Los Angeles which spends a little under $8 million annually on electricity.  

One “green thinking” individual came up with a plan to save money.   For only $975 million, he could take them “off the grid” using solar photovoltaic panels.  When you do the math, it takes 121 years to break even and since solar cells are only guaranteed for 20 to 30 years.  An engineering consultant estimated it at 1.9 billion, giving a break even time of 237 years. 

The City of Los Angeles actually signed off on the project but reality set in and it was scrapped, but not before spending $10 million on the project.

There are no practical alternate energy sources to replace the carbon-based fuels we have become dependent on.  Perhaps, some day hydrogen will be a practical fuel, but until that day arrives, it is “Drill Baby, Drill.”

Comparing Obama to Carter

 Published april 1, 2011 in the Lynchburg Ledger

I suspect that one of the people most excited about Barack Obama’s presidency is former president Jimmy Carter.  Up to now, Jimmy Carter has been considered the most incompetent president in history.  Now, in a race to the bottom, Barack Obama seems to be on track to take the title from Carter.

Carter in turn, has described the Bush (43) administration as the “worst in history.”  Historically, former presidents have refrained from commenting on their successors, but Democrats like Carter and Clinton seem to think they are above that.

Jimmy Carter was the 39th President and served from 1977 to 1981, when he was defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1980, perhaps the best president of the century.

We are still suffering from the incompetence of the Carter administration some 30 years later, both internationally and domestically.

Under Carter, Iran went from a friendly dictatorship to an Islamic nation dominated by Islamic fundamentalists. 

On taking office, Carter announced that "human rights" was among the highest of his priorities. Carter immediately made America’s ally, the Shah of Iran, one of his first targets.  Carter publicly chastised the Shah for his human rights record, claiming he had been torturing about 3,000 prisoners, many of them accused of being Soviet agents. Carter sent a clear message to the Islamic fundamentalists that America would not come to the Shah's aid.  His anti-Shah speeches were actually played from public address systems in downtown Tehran.

When it comes to foreign relations, we can not think in terms of good and bad, but rather in terms of tolerable and intolerable.  When you depose an ally, you better be sure what you get in their place. 

Carter didn’t and Iran became a fundamentalist Islamic state.  The regime of Ayatollah Khomeini, which took power, executed more people in its first year in power than the Shah's government had allegedly killed in the previous 25 years.  Khomeini's regime was a human rights nightmare and continues to be even today.  Two American hikers who possibly strayed into Iran have been held for over two years charged with spying.  A third was released on a massive amount of bail. 

We had a similar situation in Egypt where Obama abandoned our long-time ally Hosni Mubarak.  Mubarak was a tolerable dictator and a stabilizing influence in the Middle East.

Obama has also decided it was time to oust Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, in spite of Gaddafi’s much less militant stands in recent years.  Gadaffi voluntarily surrendered his growing nuclear capability after we invaded Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein.

Is history about to repeat itself?  Speculation is that the Muslim Brotherhood is poised to take political control of Egypt.  If they do, Egypt will be turned into another Iran.

It was Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini who introduced the idea of suicide bombers to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and who paid $35,000 to PLO families who would offer up their children as human bombs to kill as many Israelis as possible. 

Khomeini gave the world Hezbollah to make war on Israel and destroy the multicultural

democracy that was once Lebanon.  They are responsible for the deaths of 241 U.S. Marines in their Beirut barracks in 1982.

Jimmy Carter is responsible for the chain of events that gave us not only Hezbollah, but al-Qaida and the 9-11 attack, the Taliban and a nuclear Iran and North Korea.

It was Jimmy Carter who negotiated the flawed agreement with North Korea (at Bill Clinton’s request) that resulted in their nuclear weapons capability today.

When the Soviet Union saw us so willingly abandon a staunch ally such as the Shah of Iran, they invaded Afghanistan, and it was the resistance to the Soviet invasion that helped give birth to the Taliban. We actually supported the Taliban back then by providing arms and instructors from the CIA. 

The Iranian revolution also led to the Iraq-Iran War that took a million lives and encouraged Hussein to invade Kuwait to strengthen his position.  This brought us Desert Storm where we had to evict Iraq from Kuwait.

Economically, Carter adopted the Keynesian economics of the time, buying into the theory that there was a reverse "trade-off" between inflation and unemployment — an idea that proved spectacularly wrong but one Barack Obama subscribes to.  Under Carter, the U.S. became mired in "stagflation," with both inflation and unemployment rising sharply. 

Under Obama, we have high unemployment and his policies are keeping them high by restricting small business.  The rate of inflation has been held artificially low by the Federal Reserve but with rising gas prices, the costs of every thing else, such as food, is on the rise.

Carter was famous for embracing dictators.  He kissed Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev on each cheek.  Carter also kissed Fidel Castro when he visited that communist despot.

Obama took another approach.  Obama greeted the king of Saudi Arabia with a full bow from the waist.  He also bowed to Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at the Imperial Palace.

During the Carter administration, the Housing and Community Development Act of 1977 was passed and set in motion the events which led to the housing meltdown and financial collapse of 2008, which helped elect Obama.

Carter established the Departments of Energy and Education.  Ever since, our supply of domestic energy has steadily decreased as we become increasingly dependent of foreign oil.  Our students, who once scored at the top of international scholastic tests, now score at or near the bottom.

Unless we repeal ObamaCare, our health care system, now the finest in the world, will revert to a second class system such as we see in Europe.

Jimmy Carter was a one-term president.  Let us hope and pray Barack Obama will be also.