Big Oil's "Excessive" Profits

Glenn Beck makes an enlightening observation in his show today:

Big oil is getting hammered right now by Congress over their profits. But guess who profits more from the oil industry than even the oil industry? Yes, your government. According to the Tax Foundation, from 1977-2004, big oil made $643 billion in profits. Nice. During that same span, Federal and State governments made $1.343 TRILLION in tax revenues from big oil. Nicer. I think your liberal friends might be mad at the wrong people here.

Last time I looked those obscene profits were going to retired teachers, firefighters and a lot of average Joe Citizens like you and I who happen to have IRAs and 401Ks. Seems like the gov't has managed to grab $2 of our money for every dollar we got! What's wrong with THAT picture?

Then the Democratic Messiah, Barack Obama, has the gall to suggest adding MORE "windfall profits" taxes to their already high taxes. I'm convinced most Democrats won't be happy until all money earned by everyone goes to the government, letting them decide how we live.

Al Franken: Another Bad Joke from Minnesota

Having been born in Minnesota, and spending much of my adult life here, I continue to be embarrassed by some of the candidates we manage to scrape up to run for public office.

Granted, most of the buffoons come from the ranks of Democrats and Independents (who can forget Jesse "The Body" Ventura), but the Republicans have not been completely immune (Sen. Coleman comes to mind, but keep in mind he's really just a Democrat in remission.)

The most recent Bad Joke brought to us by the DFL is comedian Al Franken.

He was never all that funny as a comedian, and he's even less impressive as a politican.

His most recent stroke of brillance is his idea for addressing the high cost of gas by selling 50 million barrels of oil from the strategic oil reserves.

Hmmm....let's see. We use 20 million barrels a day here in the U.S.A., so this is about 2.5 days worth of gas.

Of course, like all good Democrats, he's against actually getting more oil through drilling off-shore or in ANWR, claiming it will take 20 years to see the benefits.

For some reason, the pay-off time on oil exploration continues to grow among Democrats. Ten years ago Clinton opposed drilling for more oil because it would take ten years to see any oil.

Gee...seems like we'd be realizing those benefits right about now! Way to go, Clinton! (That's alright, Bill. We know you had your mind on other things back then. How's Monica doing, by the way?)

What don't these idiots understand about "speculation"? It's not based on what the oil supplies are today! It's based on what they "speculate" they'll be in the future! If we're aggressively going after MORE oil for the future, the speculators will bid down the price TODAY!!

None of them were bright enough notice the immediate drop in oil prices as soon as Bush rescinded the executive order banning off-shore drilling. That drop occurred without ONE new well being drilled!

If a largely symbolic gesture by the President gets that kind of immediate result, just imagine what actual congressional action to open up more oil exploration would do?

Unfortunately, the inmates are running the asylum these days, and are effectively blocking any and all rational attempts to work our way out of this energy crisis.

Al Franken wants to join them to bring us more of the same. I'm not laughing, Al.

True American Immigrants

The following is an excellent Letter-to-the-Editor that was refused publication for being politically-incorrect. I think it's worth sharing and preserving. Thank you, Rosemary, for saying it so eloquently:

Dear Editor:

So many letter writers have based their arguments on how this land is made up of immigrants. Ernie Lujan for one, suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the people now in question aren't being treated the same as those who passed through Ellis Island and other ports of entry.

Maybe we should turn to our history books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today's American is not willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1892 when there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented . Some would even get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names to blend in with their new home.

They had waved good bye to their birth place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to help their children assimilate into one culture. Nothing was handed to them. No free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of prosperity.

Most of their children came of age when World War II broke out. My father fought along side men whose parents had come straight over from Germany , Italy , France and Japan . None of these 1st generation Americans ever gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan . They were defending the United States of America as one people.

When we liberated France , no one in those villages were looking for the French-American or the German American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons would have thought about picking up another country's flag and waving it to represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.

And here we are in 2008 with a new kind of immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges, only they want to achieve it by playing with a different set of rules, one that includes the entitlement card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country. I'm sorry, that's not what being an American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island in 1892 -1924 deserve better than that for all the toil , hard work and sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a beacon for those legally searching for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as an example by those waving foreign country flags.

And for that suggestion about taking down the Statue of Liberty, it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn't start talking about dismantling the UNITED STATES just yet.

(Signed) Rosemary LaBonte

Green Movement Causing Global Warming

No, I am not referring to all the hot air they produce.

I'm referring to a new article appearing in NewScientist.com which says that three decades of cleaning up the air in Europe has allowed more sunshine in, leading to higher than expected warming:

Christian Ruckstuhl of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Switzerland and colleagues took aerosol concentrations from six locations in northern Europe, measured between 1986 and 2005, and compared them with solar-radiation measurements over the same period. Aerosol concentrations dropped by up to 60 per cent over the 29-year period, while solar radiation rose by around 1 watt per square metre.

I for one am highly supportive of all efforts towards cleaner air. But why can't the global warming alarmists honest enough to admit ALL the causes for the small amount of warming we've seen?