Where Is the Outrage?

Published in the Lynchburg Ledger on March 11, 2011 

When Barack H. Obama took office in 2009, the price of gas at the pump was $1.95 a gallon.  As of last Tuesday, the national average is $3.52, an increase of 81 percent.  With the price of crude oil on the rise due to the unrest in the Middle East, we could easily see $4.00 gas by Easter and $5.00 gas by Memorial Day.

So where is the outrage from the mainstream media?  You know if this happened during a Republican administration, the media would be on the warpath and demanding the government do something.

Well, it is the government doing something, that is partially responsible for the high prices.  What they are doing is preventing our vast domestic sources of oil to be tapped.  We need to revive “Drill Baby, Drill” but because of all the hype over the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, we are drilling less, not more.

Obama still has a hold on drilling in the Gulf in spite of a court ruling against him. The administration late last Friday appealed a judge’s orders directing the Interior Department to act on several pending Gulf Coast deep-water drilling permits.  Meanwhile, many of the drilling rigs have departed for more friendly locations, costing Louisiana some 30,000 jobs.

It is not as if we haven’t had a warning.  As far back as 1973 when the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) proclaimed an oil embargo against the U.S in response to our support for Israel, we knew we were vulnerable.

For 38 years, we have heard talk about becoming energy independent, all the while becoming more and more dependent on foreign sources of oil.  The problem is not technical, it is political, specifically the left-wing, environmental wacko type of political opposition.

On Feb 16, 2011, President Obama declared oil was the “fuel of the past “without really being specific as to what the “fuel of the future” might be.  Sure, he talked about alternate sources, but they will never meet our needs and he knows it.  I believe he actually wants $5.00 per gallon gas because it is not energy independence he wants, but behavior modification.

When it comes to energy, there are only three sources on earth: solar, lunar and nuclear.  All energy can be put into one of the three categories.

The least obvious is lunar power, the gravitational pull the moon has on the seas causing tides.  I see some TV commercials talking about harnessing the tides to generate electricity.  You would need specific areas where tides are abnormally high, such as in the Bay of Fundy.  Each day 100 billion tons of seawater flows in and out of the Bay of Fundy during one tide cycle.  That would be fine as long as you didn’t need any power during the two low and high tides in every day. 

That is the problem, having energy available in the quantities you need, when you need it.

The second in nuclear power which produces about 13-14 percent of the world’s energy needs.  Where France derives over 75% of its electricity from nuclear energy, the US derives only 20 percent of our total electric power from nuclear.  We currently have 104 nuclear reactors on line producing 799 billion kilowatt hours of power.

The US has not built a new nuclear power plant for the past 30 years.  The accident at Three Mile Island, which injured nobody, gave the environmental wacko’s all the ammunition they needed to pull the plug on nuclear.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy currently operated approximately 150 nuclear powered ships and has done so safely for years.

One of the problems with nuclear is the storage of spent fuel rods.  Again, this is not a technical problem but a political one.  A depository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada is all ready to accept spent fuel rods but Democrat Harry Reid has blocked that for years.

Finally there is solar energy, by far the biggest source. 

Usually when we hear the term solar, we think of a bank of photovoltaic cells that generate electricity when exposed to sunlight.  However, every other form of energy we use is part of the solar family.

Wind energy is solar.  The sun is the only cause of our climate.  It created areas of high and low pressure and winds are generated as the high pressure winds flow towards low pressure areas.

Hydroelectric power is also solar.  The sun evaporated the water from the seas and it falls back to earth in the form of precipitation at higher elevations.  Power is generated as this water attempts to flow back to the sea under the force of gravity.  This is called a “renewable” form of energy and we get about 10 percent of our power from hydroelectric.  All the potential dam sights have been developed so there will be no expansion in this form of energy generation.

Bio-fuels are also solar, without the sun, nothing will grow.

Finally, oil, gas, wood and coal are forms of stored solar energy.  They were all living organisms at one time, dependent on the sun.

We get about 50 percent of our electric power from coal and 20 percent from natural gas.

Oil produces the fuel we need for transportation because it is easily stored, converted and transported.  The US has sufficient reserves to last for at least 100 more years.  I remember back in the ‘70’s, the predictions were we would run out of oil by 2000.

In 1995, Congress passed legislation to open ANWR to drilling, but “William the Impeached” veto’s it.  Since then, the Democrats have blocked just about every attempt to develop domestic sources of oil.

Petroleum is the fuel of the past, but it is also the fuel of the present and the future.  If we don’t kick these liberal Democrats out of office in 2012 and begin developing our own oil and gas reserves as well as opening up more coal mining, in a very short period of time $5 gas will seem like a bargain.

Will We See a Repeat of 1995?

Published in the Lynchburg Ledger on March 4, 2011 

Congress has just kicked the can down the road, postponing a potential government shutdown by two weeks.  In the continuing resolution which passed by the House by a 335 to 91 vote, the government will be funded from March 4^th until March 18^th and cut spending by $4 billion.  Senate Democrats have indicated they will pass the extension and Barack Obama has indicated he would sign it although he favored a 4-week extension. 

By way of a review, we are at this stage because the last Congress failed to pass a budget for the fiscal year which began October 1, 2010.  The Democrat-dominated House, led by frequent-flyer Nancy Pelosi, did not even attempt to produce a budget because last year was an election year.  The voters noticed and fired her for non-performance of duty.  Since October 1^st, the government has been running on “continuing resolutions” which keeps the government running at current spending levels.

The U.S. House has passed a budget to fund the federal government to the end of the fiscal year, September 30, 2011, but removed funding for many of the Democrat’s pet projects for a total savings for the remainder of the year of $61 Billion.  All the Senate has to do is pass the House budget bill and send it to President Obama for his signature, but the Democrats are stalling. 

Some of the cuts in spending that infuriate the Democrats are the de-funding of Planned Parenthood, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, $14 million for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and certain EPA and Department of Energy programs.  The Republicans cut the EPA budget by about 29% and included prohibitions to fund programs implementing carbon dioxide regulations and regulation of cement plants, which is the Obama Administration’s way of implementing Cap and Trade, which failed in Congress.

The Republican House, the Democrat Senate and White House are playing the old game of chicken.  None wants to be the first to blink.  Democrats must think the two-week extension will give them time to sway public opinion to their side.  I don’t see that happening.

It was the Democrats in the last Congress that rushed legislation like ObamaCare though Congress without giving legislators and the public time to read them.  Now those the shoes is on the other foot, Democrats seem more than willing to slow things down.

Failure to reach a settlement by March 18th will result in a shutdown of the non-essential functions of the federal government. Would that be a good or bad thing?

The last time the federal government shut down was in 1995 under similar circumstances.  Back then, we had a Republican House and Senate and “William the Impeached” in the White House.  Once again, it was the Republicans trying to rein in spending and the tax-and spend Democrats in opposition.

In 1995, the Republicans took a short-term public relations hit and were the first to blink.  In the long-term, they suffered little ill effects at the polls.  They lost only nine House seats in 1996, easily retaining their majority.  In the Senate, they gained two seats.

Where they did suffer was in the personal attacks lunched against them by Democrats.  Their philosophy has always been if you can’t beat them at the polls, smear their reputation.  Then - Speaker Newt Gingrich was targeted by the Democrats on a phony ethics issue.  Democrats are already trying the same tactic this year.

The entire political climate has changed in the 16 years since the last government shutdown.  In 1995, about the only well known conservative talk show host was Rush Limbaugh; there was no blogosphere, no Fox News Network, no Tea Party movement and no Lynchburg Ledger.

Today, all that has changed.  Much more unbiased information is available today than ever before.  In 1995, the three major TV networks, the New York Times and the Washington Post dominated the news with their liberal bias and spin.  The Fox News Network, now available in 102 million households across the country, was launched on October 7, 1996 and quickly grew to be the top TV news provider in the nation.

The Internet has also had a major impact and provided a much needed alternate source for news.  Outlets such as The Drudge Report, Real Clear Politics and Townhall.com are just a couple of excellent sources of information.

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey reported last Monday that fifty-eight percent (58%) of the respondents say it’s better to have a partial shutdown until Democrats and Republicans can agree on what spending to cut.  The Democrats have lost the argument in the public square and they are beginning to step out of denial.

With a possible government shutdown looming, bureaucrats in federal agencies will be scrambling to determine how many “essential” workers will stay on the job.  They will decide just who qualifies as essential personnel, earning the right to continue working even as the rest of the government gets furloughed.

With the rebellion of unionized government workers in Wisconsin and other states, I think it is about time the nation had the debate over rights of the taxpayers and the unionized public employees.  Today, the percentage of unionized workers is approximately 11 percent and half of those are government workers.  Government workers now make on average more than the taxpayers who pay their salaries and benefits.

The federal government needs to trim its spending as the various states do.  In some cases, cuts will hurt, but for the long-term economic health of the nation, they must be made.

Let us hope the Republicans won’t be the first ones to blink this time as the public is solidly in their corner this time.

Republicans Keeping Their Promises

 Published  in the Lynchburg Ledger on February 25, 2011

Republicans elected last November are keeping their promises, and the Democrats are going ballistic.

Republicans took control of the House of Representatives with a landslide that has not been seen in decades.  They made significant gains in the Senate but failed to win a majority, which will now make for interesting political debates and standoffs.

Republicans also took 10 governorships from Democrats, adding to the two they took from Democrats in 2009; one being Bob McDonnell here in Virginia.  Republicans also made significant gains in state legislatures.

One of the biggest Republican campaign promises was to cut spending and that they are doing.  But the Democrats, who apparently were tone deaf last November, are doing everything they can to preserve their tax-and-spend ways.

The U.S. House passed a repeal of ObamaCare only to be shunned by the still Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate.  Senator Harry Reid simply refuses to deal with the House passed bill, for now anyway.

Last weekend, the House passed a budget bill for the remainder of FY 2011, which began October 1, 2010.  The Democrats under the leadership of Nancy Pelosi simply refused to do their job.  Budget bills are to originate in the House, and Pelosi never bothered to address the budget, opting instead to spend their time on ObamaCare, Cap and Trade and repealing “Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell.”  The government was kept running on continuing resolutions.

In the budget for the remainder of this fiscal year, Republicans slashed $61 billion from current spending, just as they promised to do.  They cut funding drastically and in some cases de-funded programs completely. 

They cut funding for implementing ObamaCare, de-funded Planned Parenthood and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) which I was thrilled to see.

Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in America, while CPB has outlived its usefulness and become a liberal propaganda outlet.

Senate Democrats have vowed to block the budget, and Obama has promised to veto it, setting up the possibility of a government shutdown.

The last time the government was shut down over spending was in 1995 when the Republicans instituted similar spending reforms, and President William (the Impeached) Clinton vetoed it. 

It was the Republicans who took the public relations hit after the liberal media spun the issue to favor Clinton and the Democrats.  However, today, the climate is a bit different.  With the Internet, blogs, talk radio, Fox News Network (fair and balanced) and the Tea Party movement which has educated many, the liberal media will not have it so easy pinning it on Republicans this time around.

With Jim Webb announcing he will not run in 2012, we will see just how much of a liberal he is when the House budget bill arrives.  We know Mark Warner is a liberal, but we may be able to apply pressure on him to heed the will of the people.

Financial reform is also being felt in the individual states; the most notable being Wisconsin.  The outgoing Democrat governor left Republican Governor Scott Walker a $3.6 Billion deficit to deal with.  Wisconsin, like most of the states, must balance their budget every year.  To deal with the looming financial disaster, the state House passed a bill requested by Walker which included some much needed financial reforms. 

Much of the reforms addressed the out-of-control costs of the state’s public employees, who are all unionized.  They responded by calling Walker a Nazi (and a dictator generally); signs calling him a rapist; and signs calling for his death.  The liberal media has also chimed in with similar rhetoric.  I guess they didn’t get the Obama memo on “civility.”

Union members are being asked to increase their contribution to their health care from 5 to 12.4 percent.  They are also being asked to contribute 5.8 percent of their own retirement, which is currently totally taxpayer-funded.  Other reforms include limiting collective bargaining to base pay only, stopping the state from collecting union dues, requiring an annual secret ballot to keep unions certified, and for union dues to be voluntary and not required as a condition of employment.  Walker’s proposed union bargaining reforms will exempt police and firemen.

Walker, a former county executive, says that for local governments to balance their budgets, they must have these reforms.

The teacher’s unions are the largest unions in the state and have reacted the most violently.  Teachers have called in sick en masse, only to show up at the state capitol in Madison to protest.  With Wisconsin scoring 44^th out of all the states in standardized testing, right at the bottom, perhaps the state needs a massive turnover in the teacher ranks.

The average pay and benefits package for a Wisconsin public employee is $89,500 where the average for workers in the private sector in only $67,000.  Is it any wonder that Republicans promising financial reform were swept in all over the country?

The Democrats in the Wisconsin Senate fled the state so there would be no quorum in the Senate to vote on the bill.  Republicans hold the majority in the Wisconsin Senate so not one Democrat vote is needed.  These Democrats are blocking the democratic process from following the will of the people.

Wisconsin is just the beginning   Financial reform is on tap for many states such as Ohio, Florida, New York and even California, and the public employee unions in each state will undoubtedly react just like as in Wisconsin.  That is why Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Republicans must stand their ground. 

We should be very thankful Virginia is a “Right to Work” state and the unions can not bankrupt us as they have so many other states.

Webb Drops Out After Allen Announces Run

Published February 18, 2011 in The Lynchburg Ledger

On January 24th, former Governor and Senator George Allen announced that he was a candidate to regain the Senate seat he lost to Jim Webb in 2006.  In a video announcement he said, “Today, I’m announcing my candidacy for the U.S. Senate.  You know me as someone willing to fight for the people of Virginia, and I’d like the responsibility to fight for you again. Hire me on for six years, and I pledge to work hard restoring freedom, personal responsibility and opportunity for all.”

George Allen lost his seat in 2006 to Jim Webb, who is actually now the senior Senator from Virginia.  In a close race, Webb won by a mere 9,329 votes thanks to a lopsided vote in Northern Virginia.  While Allen took most of the state, he lost Northern Virginia by a whopping 103,430 votes after The Washington Post set out to destroy him as he was instrumental in defeating Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle two years earlier.

It was the Post which hammered Allen mercilessly over his “Macaca” statement.  Since then, the circulation of the Post has dropped significantly and their influence and diminished accordingly.  However, they still influence the Northern Virginia voters. 

Just over two weeks after the Allen announcement, Jim Webb made an announcement of his own.  He announced on February 9th he would not seek re-election.  In his statement, Webb said, “After much thought and consideration, I have decided to return to the private sector, where I have spent most of my professional life, and will not seek re-election in 2012,”

After the 2009 election when Bob McDonnell easily beat Democrat Creigh Deeds and the 2010 election seeing three of Virginia’s Congressmen defeated, he obviously saw the handwriting on the wall.

The Washington Times reported, “Mr. Webb’s announcement was not entirely unexpected, given that the decorated Marine and former Navy secretary has never been fond of the glad-handing and fundraising involved in running a statewide campaign, and because he supported some of his party’s more controversial policies, which haunted them in the 2010 election.”

The Washington Post’s Lee Hockstader wrote “Jim Webb's announcement that he's quitting the Senate after his terms finished in 2012 confirms his refreshing reputation as a maverick unwed to the perks of office.”

Hockstader went on to say about George Allen, “ Then there's George Allen, whom Webb beat -- strike that -- who beat himself in his race for reelection to the Senate in 2006. Allen will never live down his Macaca notoriety; I'll lay bets that it will feature in the lead -- probably the headline -- of most of his obituaries. But he retains some good will among Republicans who prefer to remember him as a conservative governor who notched some achievements in office than as a do-nothing senator whose swagger, arrogance and, many believe, oblique racism contributed to his party's loss of control of the U.S. Senate.”

The Post is too modest, they need to take the full credit for Allen’s defeat.

Now comes the question of who the Democrat nominee will be.  Former Governor Tim Kaine would be the logical choice but so far, no announcement.  He was one of the first governors in 2008 to support Obama and that will now hang as a millstone around his neck now that the bloom is off the Obama presidency.

Also being mentioned is recently defeated Congressman Tom Perriello. In fact, there are a total of three recently unemployed Democrat congressmen from Virginia who might want to run.

We will let the Democrats hash that one out and there is still plenty of time for the volatile political climate to change.

George Allen will not be unopposed.  Already announced is Richmond Tea Party candidate Jamie Radke.  In her web site, she states, “I am the mother of three young children, and my first priority is both to protect them today and protect their future. I truly worry about what the next five years holds for our children and the nation, given this climate of reckless and immoral spending. Someone must step into the gap so that our children and America are not crushed in the coming years under the weight of insurmountable debt and debilitating taxes.

“As a US Senator uncorrupted by inside-the-Beltway politics, I will put our nation’s future first and serve the interests of our families and children, rather than perpetuating the perverse system created by big-government politicians.”

George Allen has his work cut out for him and I’m sure he is up to the task.  He will have a lot of minds to change.  He was not supported by the extreme conservative wing when he was in office.  They took note that his chief of staff, Jay Timmons, was a homosexual.  George Allen shipped him over to the National Republican Senatorial Committee where he worked in opposition to homosexual marriage.  He was outed by the DC homosexual publication, The Washington Blade.

While it was troubling for me that a political savvy homosexual had the confidence of Allen (I had actually met Timmons at an Independence Day function), it was not a deal-breaker for me as it was for others.

As a result, we ended up with Webb who voted for the Obama agenda, right down to repealing “Don’t Ask – Don’t Tell,” something George Allen would never had done.

If there is one lesson I have learned in politics over these past 25 years, is that when you take an all or nothing position, you end up with nothing every time.

Census Results Helps Nationally, Hurts Locally

Published February 11, 2011 in The Lynchburg Ledger 

It was about a year ago that the 2010 Census forms began showing up in our mail boxes.  Many of us were skeptical of the Obama Administration and answered only the questions required by the Constitution.  Other questions, such as the one about the home having a mortgage, were left unanswered.  As a result, I did have a census worker show up at my house.  I still refused to answer the questions I had left blank and have yet to be locked up.

Now, a year later, the data has been tabulated.  Political boundaries, from congressional districts to local precincts are about to be redrawn. 

The population of the U.S. was found to be 308,745,538, an increase of 9.7 percent over the 2000 census.   Apportionment is the process of dividing the 435 memberships, or seats, in the House of Representatives among the 50 states based on the population figures collected during the census.
When I do the calculation, I come up with 709,760 people per district.  The Census Bureau comes up with a slightly larger number of 710,767 people per district.  Either they are using a correction factor or the Obama administration is cooking the numbers.
When we look at it on a state-by-state basis, we see something very interesting.  We see a migration from typically blue states to typically red states.  This means that Democrat-dominated states lost House seats and Republican-dominated states gained them.  A total of 12 seats will be transferred
Not only are House seats in play, but so are electoral seats.  Each House seat represents one vote in the Electoral College.
States losing House seats are:

·        Illinois (-1)

·        Iowa (-1)

·        Louisiana (-1)

·        Massachusetts (-1)

·        Michigan (-1)

·        Missouri (-1)

·        New Jersey (-1)

·        New York (-2)

·        Ohio (-2)

·        Pennsylvania (-1)

States gaining House seats are:

·        Arizona (+1)

·        Florida (+2)

·        Georgia (+1)

·        Nevada (+1)

·        South Carolina (+1)

·        Texas (+4)

·        Utah (+1)

·        Washington (+1)

Although Virginia gained 13 percent in population over the past decade to 8,001,024, it was not enough to warrant another House district.  The average population of a Virginia House district will be 730,703, up from 645,518 a decade ago.  Virginia last gained a House seat in 1990.
The fastest growing region of the Virginia continues to be Northern Virginia where three counties accounted for 40 percent of the population increase.  Fairfax County grew 11.5 percent to 1.08 million, Prince William County grew 43.2 percent to 402,000 and Loudoun County grew a staggering 84.1 percent to 312,311.
Over the years, Fairfax County has led the growth, but now just about all the buildable land in the county has been developed. 
Locally, Campbell County saw a 7.4 percent growth, and I contributed to that statistic.  The City of Lynchburg saw a 15.8 percent growth rate, much of which I suspect is due to Liberty University.
Bedford County saw a 13.8 percent growth, Appomattox County a 9.3 percent growth rate and Amherst County a 1.4 percent increase.
Henry County lost 6.1 percent of its population, Halifax County lost 3 percent, Grayson County lost 13.3 percent, and Smyth County lost 2.6 percent. 
Franklin County gained 18.8 percent and was the fastest growing county in the region.
With this population shift, we can expect to lose at least one, possibly two or three, House of Delegate seats and at least one Senate seat.  The geographic area of the 5^th Congressional District, already the biggest district geographically, will expand even more to pick up population.  Two districts in Northern Virginia (10^th and 11^th) will shrink geographically.  The 8^th District (Arlington and Alexandria) will expand slightly because these Democrat-controlled areas experienced the slowest rate of growth
The end result will be a shift of political power in the state from more conservative areas of the state to traditionally more liberal areas of the state.  This will make it even more difficult for Republicans to win the two state Senate seats they would need to win control of the Senate, which is currently split 22 to 18.  The Republican Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling would be the tie breaker.
So the bottom line is, nationally conservatives will benefit from the results of the census, but locally, it may hurt.  Political power in the state is continuing to flow from traditionally conservative rural to traditionally liberal urban areas.
Now the work begins, redrawing all the boundary lines, from congressional districts to state House and Senate districts to county supervisor districts and city ward districts, right down to the precincts themselves.  Since 2011 is an election year with the Virginia House and Senate up for election as well as many county positions, the new district lines will become most important.
In 1991, with Democrats in full control of Virginia, they gerrymandered the districts to favor Democrats.  However, in the end, it backfired.  They redistricted freshman Congressman George Allen out of his district so Allen ran for governor beating heavily favored Mary Sue Terry. 
This year, with the General Assembly split between parties and a Republican in the Governor’s mansion, we can expect to see a fair and bi-partisan redistricting.

Egypt Situation Critical for Global Economy

Published February 4, 2011 in the Lynchburg Ledger

Barack Obama, often compared to Jimmy Carter, may be about to make the same mistake Carter did.  Carter lost Iran to Islamic fundamentalists and Obama may about to do the same with Egypt.

Hosni Mubarak (Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak) is currently the fourth president of the Arab Republic of Egypt.  He was appointed Vice President in 1975, and assumed the Presidency on October 14, 1981, following the assassination of President Anwar El-Sadat.

However, Egypt is far from a republic and Mubarak is far from a popularly elected president.  Mubarak is a dictator, but he is our dictator.  He has been a stabilizing force in the Middle East for years.

Mubarak is a secular Muslim, meaning he does not seek to impose Islam on the world as does Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Mubarak has been a moderating influence in the Middle East for many years continuing the policies of Anwar El-Sadat, who was assassinated by Islamic fundamentalists after agreeing to a peace treaty with Israel.

In 1979, Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, was overthrown by Islamic fundamentalists.  The Carter administration was taken by surprise by the move and was paralyzed.  They could have given support to the Shah and worked towards reform with a peaceful transition of power, but Carter failed to act.

As a result, the U.S. was perceived to be weak and indecisive which led to the Iran hostage crisis.  Sixty-six Americans were taken captive when Iranian fundamentalists seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, including three who were at the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Six more Americans escaped and of the 66, who were taken hostage, 13 were released on Nov. 19 and 20, 1979; one was released on July 11, 1980, and the remaining 52 were held captives for 444 days.

The Carter administration failed to negotiate a release of the hostages, so they attempted a rescue operation, Operation Eagle Claw, on April 24, 1980, which was a disaster.  It resulted in the destruction of two helicopters and the deaths of eight American servicemen and one Iranian civilian.

It was not until Ronald Reagan was inaugurated President on January 20, 1981 that the hostages were released.  The Islamic militants didn’t fear Carter, but they surely feared Reagan.

I doubt there is anyone in the Islamic world that fears Barack Obama.  His Cairo speech where he apologized for our nation gave aid and comfort to the Islamic terrorists who have vowed to kill us.  It is likely that Obama’s perceived weakness is a contributing factor in the current Egyptian unrest. 

Dictators are all alike; over time, they become more and more dictatorial.  In this respect, Mubarak was following in the footsteps of the Shah.  The Shah and Mubarak are seen as close allies of the U.S., something radical Islam despises.

 

The Shah was also accused of oppression, brutality, corruption, and extravagance, some of the same accusations leveled at Mubarak.  With a high unemployment rate, particularly among the literate population, Mubarak is being blamed.

Although he has fired his cabinet, appointed Omar Suleiman, his intelligence chief and confidant as vice-president and appointed e new cabinet, the protesters have not been appeased.

Standing in the wings just waiting for a right opportunity is the radical organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in 1928 to promote implementing of traditional Islamic sharia law.  Today it is illegal but tolerated as Egypt's most popular and powerful non-governmental organization.

The fear is that if the Mubarak government should collapse and the military turn against him, a vacuum would be created and be quickly filled by the Muslim Brotherhood.  Nobel Peace laureate and Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer Mohamed ElBaradei, who is also the former head of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), appears to be positioning himself to succeed Mubarak.  He had been under house arrest but made his first public appearance last Sunday encouraging the demonstrators.

ElBaradei is considered to be close to Iran and if he should succeed to the presidency of Egypt, we would have the two most populous Islamic nations in the Middle East ruled by Islamic fundamentalists.  That would be bad news for Israel, the U.S. and the entire world.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claims the U.S. desires an “orderly transition to democracy” in Egypt.  That would be the best solution but the probability is low as the Muslim Brotherhood surely knows how to exploit the unrest for their advantage.

Mubarak, who was grooming his son Gamal Mubarak to be his successor, announced he would not run again for president but would continue to govern until the next election this fall.  This is not likely to satisfy many of the demonstrators and certainly not the Muslim Brotherhood. 

Mubarak finally realized the gig was up, but he is clinging to power for a little while longer.  Rather, he should transfer power to his newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman until the regularly scheduled Egyptian elections this fall.  This will allow for an orderly transition of power and may just keep the Muslim Brotherhood from turning Egypt into an Islamic state.

If Mubarak is forced out prior to the elections, Egypt will likely end up in the hands of Islamic extremists.  Some speculate that is exactly what Obama wants as he has been playing both sides since the unrest began.

 

Iraq was able to hold successful elections under even more extreme conditions.  The fledgling Iraqi government is still learning how to function in a democratic manner and I suspect Egypt will undergo similar growing pains.

If the worst should happen and Egypt falls into the hands of radical Islam, they will control the Suez Canal and disrupt the world economy.  Gasoline will climb back over $4 a gallon and any hope for an economic recovery here at home will be lost.  Obama will have lost Egypt just as Carter lost Iran.

Keeping an Eye On the General Assembly

Published in the January 21st edition of the Lynchburg Ledger 

While our national attention has been focused on Tucson, the Virginia General Assembly began what is called their “short” session, lasting 45 days.  This session is shorter than the 60-day session because the state budget is prepared for a two-year period.  This year, they will tweak the budget passed last year.

But before I begin discussing the session, I want to make two final comments regarding the Tucson shooting.

In last week’s column, I mentioned that Dorwan Stoddard, the father of Dale Stoddard of Lynchburg and a member of Thomas Terrace Baptist Church, was one of those who died.  Dale’s father tied protecting his wife Mavy, taking the bullets meant for her.  She suffered only a leg wound.

It takes an extraordinary amount of love to sacrifice one’s self as he did.  It is sad that the media has not seen fit to focus on this act of self-sacrifice.

My pastor and an assistant pastor from church traveled to Tucson to minister to the family and attend the funeral last Sunday for Mr. Stoddard.  I am blessed to be attending such a loving and caring church.

Also in my last column, I was critical of the rush-to-judgment of the local sheriff and the liberal left.  After more of the facts about the shooter became known, it was abundantly clear the shooting was not in anyway associated with political rhetoric.  The liberals very quickly backed away from this accusation, but it didn’t stop Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist, from using it in a fundraising letter.

President Barack Obama, in what was supposed to be a memorial service but seemed more like a liberal pep-rally, called for “civility” in public discord.  What he was really saying was conservatives should be quiet and liberals, who lead the pack in incivility, should keep on keeping on.

Returning to the General Assembly, known for its civility, we can be sure of at least one thing.  Since 2011 is an election year when all 100 Delegates and 40 Senators are up for election, there will be no tax increase.  At least, not on the state level.

But that is not because one isn’t trying.   Delegate Joe Morrissey (D, Henrico) wants to add a plastic bag tax to our grocery bills, which are already on the rise due to the production of ethanol for use in fuels and unusually cold weather in Florida.  Morrissey is proposing a 20 cent tax on the bags. He says Virginians consume over 2.3 billion plastic bags per year and what he really wants is a ban on using them because he believes they have a negative impact on the environment.

This is not necessarily true as they can be recycled and people find other uses for them.  For example, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality suggests we dispose of fluorescent bulbs by wrapping them in plastic bags before putting them into a landfill.

Morrissey obviously doesn’t remember why we have plastic bags in the first place instead of those big paper bags of 20 years ago.  It was because the environmentalists wanted to save trees.  You get 75 plastic bags per pound as opposed to only 11 paper bags per pound.

Morrissey’s bill will go nowhere as most of the legislators who want to be re-elected will oppose any tax increase bill.  Only those in heavily Democrat districts would dare vote for a tax increase.

That does not mean that our taxes won’t increase.  The local city and county governments are heavily dependent state funding for schools, law enforcement, social services and other branches of local government.  As state tax revenues shrink, the amount of funds flowing to the city and counties will also shrink as the state must balance its budget.

Localities which have become dependent on state funds are going to scrambling to balance their own budgets.  That means they will either cut services, raise taxes, or a combination of both.

One other way the state balances their budget is by “unfunded mandates.”  They require a local government to provide some service but don’t provide the funding for it.

One such example is storm water regulations.  Since we in Central Virginia are in the watershed for the Chesapeake Bay, we need to contend with Erosion & Control (E&S) programs and a new mandate called the total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). To implement these programs local governments will be required to expend local funds.

In Campbell County, the cost estimate for first year startup of the program includes:

•           $77,000 for GIS land cover mapping

•           $18,000 for a vehicle

•           $28,000 to fill a vacant E&S/Storm water position

•           $75,000 for consulting engineering.

The total comes to $198,000, which will have to be factored into the next budget. 

State tax revenues seem to be improving so there is a possibility that the projected cuts to local governments won’t be as severe as some estimates indicate.

I would encourage all of us to stay in touch with our state legislators; we all have one Delegate and Senator.  You can phone them, email them, and even visit them.  If you have never been to Richmond for a day when the General Assembly is in session, I would recommend it. 

The Family Foundation hosts an annual lobbying day each hear.  This year, it is on Thursday, February 10th from 8:30 to noon.  Call Roger Pogge at 804-343-0010 for more details.

Concerned Women for America also hosts a day at the Virginia Capitol.  This year, it is on Monday, February 14^th.  Call Janet Robey at 434-401-8852 for more information.