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Showing posts with label George W. Bush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label George W. Bush. Show all posts

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Obama, McCain, even (dare I say it) Hillary: Does it really even Matter who the next President is?


Stay with me, reader! This is a long piece, and I'm going to jump around a bit, but it all comes together in the end.

The point is does it REALLY matter anymore which candidate does ultimately win the 2008 Presidential election?

I've been a political junkie since I was 13 years old. My Grandmother (God rest her soul) lived in Miami and our family went to visit her, coincidentally during the the 1972 Republican Convention.

While my parents and assorted other relatives were poolside, I was handing out Re-Elect President Nixon campaign buttons; a self-proclaimed middle-school conservative Republican. I hope those buttons become valuable some day because I have a box left.

That wasn't a popular stance in those days, and I didn't walk around in a little suit: I was a child of the times, but fiercely loved America, what it stood for, and what it represented.

As I got older, I stayed focused on National politics, joined the Air Force right out of high school because serving my country was the thing to do. I lived through the Carter years (fortunately overseas for half of it) but saw how he decimated the military budget.

I came home to a depressed America, double-digit inflation and a country still reeling from losing the Vietnam War. I will never forget or forgive President Carter's going on television blaming the American people for the morose attitude of the nation.

But then came Ronald Reagan and his "shining city on a hill". Suddenly it was OK to be an American again. Suddenly, people were proud to be Americans again. It was the age of Rocky and Rambo and America is number one! The 1980's were a good time psychologically for the American people and a welcome break from the turmoil, anger, failure and confusion of the 1960's and 70's.

I'm speaking high level of that time: there were scandals, there were mistakes, and the racial uprisings in the 1960's were just the boiling over of America never really overcoming it's prejudice's post civil-war. It was bound to happen, it should have happened, and I am ashamed for America that we were the last "civilized" country to outlaw slavery.

But we also put a man on the moon and while the nuclear-freeze crowd hid under their desks, Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union for what it was and said it would not stand.

And in what history will judge as the greatest bluff of all time, Reagan bankrupted the Soviet Union out of existence with the then (and barely now) technologically impossible SDI program. In derisively naming it after the fictional "Star Wars", the press almost let the cat out of the bag.

Many took Reagan's open, optimistic and positive attitude for stupidity. But he was far from stupid; he was shrewd. He had too many advisers and experts not to know that SDI was impossible to achieve during the 20th century, but he poured billions into it and kept repeating that we would have an invincible shield against nuclear weapons.

The Soviets knew it was impossible too, but between Reagan's rhetoric, the vast money spent, and their own paranoia, just couldn't ignore it: they had to compete. They couldn't afford it and it bankrupted them into the scrap-pile of history. I'm glad I never played poker against Ronald Reagan. And because of his courage, we are the only remaining superpower today. Today.

But there is a big lesson for America to learn from the breakup of the Soviet Union. Like us, they considered themselves the "worlds policeman" but from the communist side. They had an enormous defense budget, a world-wide military presence, and poured billions into the proxy wars they fought against us in Asia and Africa.

They spent billions more propping up "friendly" governments, billions more to bring "communist enlightenment" to other countries, and billions more to ensure a comparable or superior military machine vs the United States. And one American President used that against them and quickly destroyed them.

Lets fast-forward to 2008. The United States spends more on military spending than the entire world combined and then some. We have to, because we are still stuck in the Cold War mindset of being the "world's policeman", spreading our form of "democractic enlightenment" to other countries, and still operating under the WWII vision of America's role in the world, not today's.

And it will bankrupt us. It already has. The only unknown is whether it will bankrupt us out of existence, as we did the Soviets. But the enemy now is not another country, but our own mainstream media.

The media has always had a slant: conservative or liberal, but they would apply that to the News as it happened. What they learned in the 1960's and actively, blatantly, and openly are applying today is that, instead of reporting the News with their slant, they are CREATING the News to suit their slant and agenda.

The 2008 President Primaries was their first true open flexing of that muscle.

It didn't help that both on the Republican and Democrat sides, we probably had the worst group of candidates in recent history. That made it a lot easier for the media to shape the election.

For the first time in American history, the ENTIRE major mainstream press IN CONCERT predecided who the candidates would be. They acted together in not giving any coverage to certain candidates, marginalizing and trivializing others, and giving too much coverage to other candidates.

When they finally eliminated most of them, they started swinging their reporting from positive to negative on the few remaining candidates to keep, especially on the Democrat side, the race close enough to they could draw it out and milk coverage and ratings that the truth wouldn't have justified.

But not to to give them complete credit, they were aided by two critical factors: the ego's of the States who were tired of New Hampshire always being talked about and so began moving up their primary dates so they could get some press too.

This resulted in the election race starting over a year before the 2008 general election. That's a lot of air-time to fill and a lot of opportunity for "creative reporting".

And as I stated earlier, the 2008 Presidential Primary candidates from both sides were an embarrassment to the Office of the President. This made the presses job even easier.

Let's not talk candidates to start with: lets talk ideas and facts.

Mike Huckabee, pushed by the press until his usefulness ran out, proposed eliminating the Federal income tax and replacing it with a 35% National Sales Tax. That concept was given a lot of credible positive attention by the press. I

t will bring in hundreds of billions in tax from "under the table" cash transactions and from illegal aliens who purchase primarily with cash. And no more Federal Income Tax! Notice he never said "no more IRS"; just no more Federal Income Tax.

Lets look at history first. Very similar arguments were made when the Constitution was amended creating the Federal Income Tax. And remember, it was sold and started because it was "only a 1% tax which would effect primarily the wealthy" One Percent.

And when the Federal Income Tax climbed to 90%, for top earners, the Government noticed there were so many loopholes that the rich could afford to slip through, they actually paid less than they do today.

So the "Tax Over-Haul" which promised lower rates but eliminated the loop-holes. But Big Government spent more, so the rates went up again; this time without the loop-holes.

You don't think the major reason George W. Bush was elected and re-elected President was because he promised and brought the rates down again...and continues to this day to keep fighting to make his reductions permanent?

And as his popularity drops to historic lows, the Big Government activists fighting even harder to eliminate the Bush tax reductions?

If not for the fact that Congress's approval rating was worse than the President's, this would already have happened. Instead they're trying to wait out the clock, stalling every attempt to make the tax rate cuts permanent until they expire.

A 35% National Sales Tax would affect the wealthiest Americans Discretionary spending, but would SAVAGE the middle class in paying taxes on Essentials. As history shows us, what starts at 35% will not remain 35% for long. And as history also shows us, "loop-holes" will be created for the wealthiest Americans so, along with their highly paid accountants, will pay much less.

Huckabee's National Sales Tax plan was given credibility and pushed because it enhanced the Big Government concept: the average citizen having to rely on the Federal Government to survive from cradle to grave.

And Big Government is popular with Big Media which is now owned by Big Business because they and their lobbyists literally control the Federal Government. They write the legislation, the campaign checks, create and support the PACs, receive the huge, often wasteful and unnecessary Big Government contracts, and provide lucrative jobs for "the right people" who leave Big Government but have influence and connections.

Now lets get back to history and look at a 21st century solution proposed by Ron Paul (and I don't blame you if you said either "who" or "that wacko!" Because that's how the mainstream press universally portrayed him.

His idea was to eliminate the Federal income tax for EVERYONE AND eliminate the Entire Budget Deficit COMPLETELY by simply STOP being the world's policeman. End the Cold War mentality and close the 160 US military bases abroad. Bring the troops home. Get back to what the Founding Fathers envisioned which was a military to Protect and Defend the United States. Period. It would save the United States $1 TRILLION a YEAR, and that's only the financial value.

Imagine if China had military bases on US soil. How would that affect public opinion about the Chinese? It would affect it negatively. And our military presence around the world, especially among the Arab nations, is the major cause of their hatred for the USA and their attacks against us. And who can blame them? We wouldn't tolerate foreign troop and bases on our soil either.

We have to accept that NOT every nation wants American-style "Democracy". Not every nation's culture will ACCEPT, or if forced upon them, be able to understand and function under American-style "Democracy".

In hindsight, the United States would have been more secure with Saddam Hussein, a Sunni Dictator, running Iraq then a "liberated" Iraq will ever be. His Iraq was a buffer between Syria and Iran. His Iraq was a threat to and major focus of Iran (hence our support of Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war).

Yes, he was a Dictator, a mass-murderer, and ran an iron-fisted regime completely contrary to American-style "Democracy". But look at Iraq today: are the people any happier? People who lived as neighbors for years (because they had to) are now killing each other and burning each other's Mosque's down.

The infrastructure is a mess, corruption is rampant, because corruption was a way of life in Iraq.
Soldiers and Insurgents change sides every day: a concept inconceivable to us but a way of life for them.

Iraq was a "created" country. Family, Clan and Tribal loyalties centuries old trump any mandated 20th century re-drawing of the map by the "Western Powers" after WWI and WWII.

Now in fairness to George W. Bush, in a post 9/11 world, when a Dictator like Hussein keeps asserting over and over that he is creating chemical, and more importantly, biological weapons and would continue to not only do so, but subtly hints that some of these could one day end up in the hands of terrorists, could Bush have afforded to risk that he wasn't telling the truth?

What Hussein WANTED was the same level of respect and treatment that we give North Korea. He tried to ACHIEVE it by doing a "Reagan Bluff", and during the Clinton years it might have worked. But not post 9/11.

Back to Ron Paul, his advocacy of ending "Pax America", and returning the Federal Government to the Founding Father's vision and The Constitution being strictly interpreted. That policy was COMPLETEY the opposite of what Big Business, and thus Big Media wanted.

And frankly, some of Ron Paul's other policies are not practical in the 21st century. But there are three branches of Government in America (although that line; especially between Congress and Activist Judges) is blurring.

Ron Paul could propose, but Congress would have to approve. But as Commander in Chief, he could have accomplished that ONE REALLY GOOD policy of bringing the American Military home and let it fulfill it's Constitutionally mandated mission.

Big Media, Big Business, and the infamous Military/Industrial complex crushed him in short order. Dr. Paul had the largest grass roots support base via the internet then any candidate in history. His Official Campaign Team failed miserably to capitalize on that: if they hadn't, he would have been untouchable.

But Paul and his Campaign Team didn't understand the depth, size or power of that movement any more than the mainstream press did. The mainstream press paid attention to Dr. Paul for one week, asking "where is all of this coming from?" And when he repeatedly answered "I don't know." The mainstream media then had full license to twist the truth, later giving credit to Barack Obama for having an amazing internet base.

Without direction from the Paul Campaign and with the constant, organized, and intentional negative portrayal of Paul by the press, his grass-roots movement became discouraged and fell apart while the average big-media informed Americans just wrote him off as a kook; as planned.

The one opportunity to REALLY change America and open a SERIOUS dialogue on our place in the world today wasted, and then crushed.

So what do we have forward to look to in November? John McCain, a third rate politician-as-usual Republican candidate, who is so in the middle of the road on most issues, he's in danger of getting run over.

Hillary Clinton: the poster child for not big, but HUGE government. And we really don't know how HUGE or what else she will try to accomplish since she has a largely secret 30 year old agenda for America, unless she is elected.

And finally, Barack Obama, flag lapel pin on one day, off the next, on the next day. We really don't know what he will propose as President except bigger Government since we don't know if his campaign platform is real or not, and we don't know if he's up to or can grow into the role of President of the United States.

And what does that mean for America? A continued slide into Second-World status. A bi-lingual, balkanized, "diversified" country where your personal heritage is more important than your American heritage.

A bigger and bigger divide between the poor and the rich, with the middle-class being all but eliminated.

And with oil prices skyrocketing, the dollar sliding to new lows constantly against the Euro and other currencies, China and Europe owning most of our debt and our dependence on them to keep buying our Bonds for us to survive.

Our accelerating transformation into a service-based economy, we are destined to be the county others will outsource their call centers and cheap labor needs to. And if we try to flex our muscles again, the before mentioned will stop buying our bonds and we'll go bankrupt almost immediately, considering a half trillion dollar deficit that keeps growing.

If they can clean up their history of corruption and get their act together, look to China as being the Superpower of the 22nd century and the focus for new technology and ideas shifting from America to Japan and South Korea.

But we'll still have over a thousand rusting but hopefully function nuclear weapons which should give us some security. And our Grand-children, if not our children, will be able to say "Would you like fries with that?" in Spanish and English.

Won't we all be proud to be Americans? Will there be a 2nd American Revolution? I doubt it. We don't teach history anymore, not unless it's been re-written to portray our ancestors as the bad guys, so by then, few will even factually remember the 1st American Revolution.

I wonder what derogatory names they will call the illegal American aliens slipping over the border into Canada?

So Obama, Clinton, or McCain: will it make any real difference? All the really important decisions will be made in Corporate Board Rooms and Editorial Staff Meetings.



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Friday, May 2, 2008

Defection Of Longtime Superdelegate Jolts Clinton

Despite the Wright controversy, Clinton's lead continues to shrink among the superdelegates...I'm really enjoying this but am not relaxing until the election is over and ANYONE but Hillary (and George Bush) is President.

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Friday, December 14, 2007

Alternatives to Hillary: If We Don't Vote for Hillary, who SHOULD we Vote For?


This blog is named Anyone But Hillary in 2008. It's named that for a reason: I am absolutely convinced that Hillary Clinton is motivated purely by personal ambition; that she has an agenda going back to the 1960's that would end America as we know it. She can sound tough, but if (when) another 9/11 hits, she is not the one I want nor do I feel is capable of calling the shots. And that's just one issue. Here being for, and then against, most major issues makes her had to quantify and reinforces my position that she will say and do anything to become President. In a nutshell, I think she's a liberal, globalist, ideologue who will say anything and do anything to become President. I just don't trust her and her record has given me no reason to start trusting her now.

That being said, "Anyone" But Hillary in 2008 is a little simplistic. The American people are going to elect "Someone" President of the United States in 2008. Other than Hillary we have a mixed bag to choose from and some new themes to look at.

The candidates range from professional, business as usual politicians to some more unique characters. In terms of themes, the most blatant is Big Government versus Small Government, because the candidate's position on this theme will reflect in their position on every other issue before us.

At the one end you have Hillary Clinton: Big Government, more government interference in your everyday lives, redistribution of wealth, subordinating our Nation Interests to the United Nations.........

On the other end you have Ron Paul (DON'T make the mistake of writing him off). He is for substantially smaller Government, less government involvement in our lives, an end to America being the policeman of the planet.........

And in between, we have a plethora of candidates who lean one way or the other to varying degrees on one issue here, another issue there.

SOMEWHERE in this group there must be someone worth voting FOR, not simply against Hillary (as vital as that is). My next series of posts is going to compare different candidates against Hillary to try and determine, Republican or Democrat, who is the best Presidential choice for 2008.

I freely admit it is VERY early to be doing this and so-called "front-runner" status is not going to come into play that much for obvious reasons. You need only look to the Republicans where Rudy Guiliani was "destined" to be the GOP candidate.....and suddenly is ranked number three behind Mitt Romney and New Front runner Mike Huckabee. At least until next week.

On the Democrat side, Hillary Clinton was the "clear" front runner by 20 to 30% and more over everyone. Now the pollsters are saying it's neck and neck between Hillary and Barack Obama in New Hampshire. At least until next week.

Not all issues will be covered in each post; as with all my blogs, it's what interests me that's important. I will be relying primarily on what each candidate has had to say versus what editorial writers extrapolate from that. These posts will be fact based as much as it's possible to be fact based when discussing politicians in general. The only editorializing will come from me and I will try to keep that to a minimum.....but knowing myself, it will be impossible NOT to comment on some of the candidates positions, Republican and Democrat alike.

In the interests of perspective and full disclosure, I will tell you that I'm a political agnostic now. I used to be a Republican, but if the scandals, missteps, and outright mismanagement of the Republican Congress starting 1n 1993 were the nails in the coffin, George W. Bush has been the hammer that banged them in. In fact, I wrote an article on my other blog, The Unloading Zone, entitled "A (until recently) Republican is forced to ask "When did George W. Bush Go Insane?"

The George W. Bush I knew as the Great Uniter of Texas is no where to be seen and hasn't been since 9/11. I honestly think the man may have lost his mind.

So I go into this inherently distrusting ALL the candidates....there will be no party favoritism here. As the weeks go by, I hope you find these articles informative and insightful. If you do or don't, please feel free to comment. For the purposes of this series, I will lift my ban on pro-Hillary posts (although I may comment back to you). All comments will be approved.

I'll be alternating between Democrat and Republican candidates. Because he interests me the most at this point, the first article in this series will be a comparison of Hillary to Barack Obama. Stay tuned................


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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

So Ron Paul got a mention on MSNBC. Yada, Yada, Yada

Ron Paul supporters are ecstatic that he actually got mentioned on MSNBC. I find the following quote ironic:

"Joe Trippi, a 25-year veteran of Iowa caucus politics who served as Howard Dean’s campaign manager in 2003 and who’s now a top aide to Edwards, said, “From what I see, Ron Paul is doing much better than his better-known opponents think he is doing. He is at that stage of the Dean campaign when all the other campaigns are laughing at him and have no idea of how strong he really is.”

We all remember how Howard Dean's run for the White House ended up. While I am confident that Dr. Paul is much more mentally stable than Howard Dean, I'm equally as confident that he will be, at best, a footnote to the 2008 Presidential Election, or at worst, the spoiler who siphons off enough conservative votes to put Hillary Clinton into the White House.

It's not the Dr. Paul's policy statements are necessarily wrong. They are just naive. He may say what a lot of people are thinking, but a lot of that is wishful thinking. I agree 100% with Dr. Paul on the income tax issue, for example. But in the real world of Washington, no Congress; Democrat or Republican, is going to support his plan. And since the President is not a dictator and Congress writes the laws, it's a no-starter. As for "the people" forcing their elected representatives to follow a Paul agenda, we can't even get Congress to enforce, let alone enhance, the existing laws on illegal immigration. And polls show a majority of the American public are anti-illegal immigration!

Most of Dr Paul's supporters are young, idealistic college students. And the truth is, as much as they rally and cheer, they just don't vote.

The rest of America has had it's idealism burned out of it by Bill Clinton and his scandals, Newt and his "revolution" that went no where, and the Republicans who demonstrated that, once in the majority, they are as corrupt morally, sexually, and as full of hot air as the Democrats ever were. We conservatives thought we had finally won in the 1990's and instead were left with dust in our mouths. And as weak a President as Bill Clinton was, George W. Bush has proven to be a loose cannon with policies impossible to justify; who, like the Captain of the Titanic, refuses to change course or even slow down.

The only thing that has mattered in Washington for the last 30 years was who had enough power to stack the courts with activist judges to their liking. These judges, especially the 5th Circuit, routinely make up there own laws and impose injunctions against laws passed by the will of the people. Again, illegal immigration is a prime example.

We, the over 40 crowd who do (or used to) vote are coming to grips with that and while Dr. Paul may be a pleasant fantasy for all of us, come election day, we're either going to stay home, vote against someone (like Hillary), or waste our vote on the "flavor of the day"; in this case, Dr. Paul so we can "feel better".

We're tired of trying to change an entrenched bureaucracy and political quid-pro-quo that has existed since.....probably the early 20th century. Something happens to idealists who go to Washington: they become politicians. Then it's all about the next election and the election after that. Career politicians. The desire overtakes all of them sooner or later.

Every 20 or 30 years, the people get riled up and make a lot of noise, but nothing changes except the people we elect: they become Politicians bent on becoming Career Politicians. And every so often, someone dangerous shows up. This time its Hillary Clinton. Stopping her is my only agenda, because in the end, Rudy or Fred or John or the whole list of Presidential want-to-be's will be no different than their predecessors.

The status quo marches on and America continues it's slide from greatness to 2nd-world status. We can bluster and yell and demand change, but the handwriting is already on the wall. China will be the premier Superpower of the 22nd century and America will be a balkanized, politically correct, low income parody of itself.

The dollar is sliding towards worthless against the Euro and even the Canadian dollar, oil will be over $100 a barrel any day now, and we're not drilling for more because it would upset the caribou in Alaska.

So kids, don't waste your time. Excel in school. Get your Masters and your PhD. Work to be in the future elite because the middle class is already collapsing and that just leaves being poor. Or do all the preceding and learn Mandarin Chinese so you can be an immigrant looking for a better life.



Enter the House of Dreams Charity Raffle


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Thursday, October 25, 2007

When did George W. Bush Go Insane?

I originally voted for George W. Bush based on his credentials and the way he worked with both Democrats and Republicans as Texas Governor. After 8 polarizing years of Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress, he seemed exactly what we needed.

I didn't like what he did to the bankruptcy laws or his attempt to get into bed with Ted Kennedy on Health care. Predictably, Kennedy later stabbed Bush in the back. Maybe that's where the insanity began.

I liked the way Bush handled 9/11. He conducted himself the way an American President should. This may have started his slide to insanity too, though.

We can Monday morning quarterback attacking Iraq and if I knew today what I knew then, I would not have supported the attack. What scares me is that if George W. Bush knew today what he knew then, I think he would have done the exact same thing.

In my post Mr. Obama, Wake up and Smell the Gunpowder, I outlined the probable scenario which played out at the White House prior to our going into Iraq. Based on that scenario, I would have supported going in as did (gulp!) Hillary and most Americans.

In Monday morning quarterbacking it, our best move would have been to actually treat Iraq more like Korea; even support Saddam a little bit. The sad fact is that, take away the oil, most Middle East nations are living in the Middle Ages. Clans, tribes, family honor: these all mean more than a created nation like "Iraq". They needed a strong (he could have been a little bit more benevolent) dictator like Saddam to hold the country together. Iraq was a Sunni-controlled, strategically located area in the midst of Shiite insanity. Saddam stood between Syria and Iran and kept either one from getting too out of line. Despite his bluster, Saddam knew we kicked his army to pieces in Gulf War I and were even better positioned today to steamroll over them if he got too out of line again.

Where Saddam miscalculated was how far he could go in his rhetoric before a post-9/11 America would jump the gun and attack.

George Bush completely blew the peace with too few military in place, disbanding the Iraqi army, and firing any (which means most) bureaucrats who were Sunni, thus allowing the entire Iraqi infrastructure to collapse.

Today we're between a rock and a hard place: we can't stay and we can't leave. The solutions floated involving a partition of Iraq into Sunni, Shiite, and Kurd regions with assurances of equitable oil distribution is probably the best we can do at this point.

And in walks George W. Bush again. "Give me $48BB more for the war!", he cries. And now, out of nowhere, we have all but declared war on Iran! We can't even sustain the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq: how, short of going nuclear, are we going to fight a war with Iran too?

And to what point? Install Democracy in yet another country not ready for it? Unify the rest of the Shiite world against, not only us, but Saudi Arabia, the rest of the moderate Middle Eastern nations and, of course, Israel. WHERE DID THIS IDEA COME FROM??????????

A month ago there was American rhetoric. Today, we declared unilateral sanctions against the entire Iranian armed forces???!!!!!! What is THAT going to accomplish except unite the Iranians against us? We are seriously looking at all-out war with Iran within the next 60 days if not sooner at the rate Bush keeps ratcheting up the stakes. TO WHAT POINT?

There are only two logical conclusions one can draw from these actions: the United States Government has serious, verified intelligence that Iran represents an IMMINENT threat........or George W. Bush has gone insane.

The field of political candidates now have an issue other than Illegal Immigration they are going to have to own up to. My advise for everyone but Hillary is to STRONGLY oppose a US/Iran war. Iran is going to have to be dealt with some day, and with Iraq gone as an obstacle to the Iranians, one which is going to be very difficult to resolve.

But when the time comes, Iran needs to be dealt with in concert with a number of other nations, not unilaterally by Pax America. And (unless Bush knows something critical I don't) it should NOT be dealt with NOW. We have more than enough on our military plate. Maintaining the status quo until the next President comes into office is going to be difficult enough. And only the NEXT President will be in a position to actually bring all this to some kind of close. WHO the next President is will determine what kind of close that is.

If Hillary is the next President, then we'll just pack up and leave, giving Iraq to Iran and Syria. Soon after that, we will have a REAL problem in the Middle East.

What can George Bush do in the meantime and Congress as well? Wean us off of Middle Eastern Oil! Open up Alaska: the Alaskan people want it. The caribou will get over it. Open up off-shore drilling. Not doing it is a luxury we can't afford anymore. I'm sorry if it ruins some of the Hollywood elite's view of the ocean.

Build refineries! Take the $43BB you want to increase war spending and build refineries! All the oil in the world won't do us any good without refineries and we haven't built new ones in decades. Also on that subject, why do we have 40 different grades of gasoline and heating oil? Come up with three and let the States pick the version they want. The price of gas will fall, the speed of gas to market will increase, the whole process will be so much more efficient!

Build Nuclear Power plants! It's not the 1970's anymore: the Europeans and Japanese have developed cookie-cutter designs which are safe, easy and quick to assemble. Cut all the red tape! Even the hated (by me) French are 80% nuclear now. The US is barely 10%.

The less dependent we are on Middle Eastern oil (currently at an all-time high), the less relevant they are, the less we have to worry about them, and the less power they will wield. Then we can leave them to themselves to figure out which is the "correct" version of Islam and other issues we have absolutely no interest in.

But for God's sake, Mr President, DON'T GET US INTO ANOTHER WAR!!!!! I wouldn't even wish THAT on Hillary.

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