The Yucca Mountain Blues ... Alan Caruba

The Yucca Mountain Blues

By Alan Caruba

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Are you worried about your “carbon footprint”?

Still think “global warming” is real despite the fact that one of its leading advocates, a climatologist, recently said that there’s no significant data to demonstrate any warming since 1995?

Can’t figure out why the White House is still trying desperately to pass the “Cap-and-Trade” bill based on the totally discredited claim that carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere are “causing” the non-existent “global warming”?

Do you increasingly think that you are Alice in Wonderland and now living in a nation where the White House and Congress keep telling you things that are totally absurd?

Let’s put aside the claim that we have to borrow and borrow in order to keep on spending and spending to save the economy when common sense says that is the worst way to end the economic death spiral they have created.

The latest ploy by the White House was a move in the direction of nuclear power to generate the electricity the nation needs for its current and future needs. Since the 1970s, for reasons that defy understanding, several administrations, Democrat and Republican, have done little to encourage nuclear power despite the fact that a nation like France derives most of its electricity from it.

Even so, nuclear provides about twenty percent of the electricity we use while coal provides just over fifty percent. In both cases, neither has anything to do with “greenhouse gases” because the gases play no role in climate change. Indeed, more carbon dioxide, being plant food, would greatly enhance the growth of crops and forests.

“Cap-and-Trade” is nothing more than a tax on energy use. Simply put, it has been cheap, abundant energy that has fueled the economy of the United States since it was founded. The discovery of oil in 1859 also played a major role and, despite the lies, the U.S. has an abundance of oil.

Like nuclear power, however, successive administrations since the 1970s have ensured that U.S. oil companies were kept from exploring for it, extracting it, refining it and selling it to us at affordable prices.

This is in sharp contrast to the endless babble about the need to be “energy independent.”

The talk about support for the nuclear energy industry is welcome, but what the White House is not saying is that his proposed budget has no funding for the nuclear waste facility in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.

Congress passed a Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982 and amended it in 1987. Yucca Mountain is the only permanent nuclear waste repository in the nation. I repeat, the only one. Why isn’t it in operation? Glad you asked. Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, has blocked its completion and use.

So we could build two or a dozen new nuclear plants—a very good idea—but there would still be no place to put the waste despite the fact that the U.S. has spent $9 billion on the first phase to build the Yucca Mountain site. A $13 million tunnel boring machine sits idle at the site.

That has not stopped the White House from wanting to put U.S. taxpayers on the hook for $8 billion in loan guarantees for two new reactors in Georgia.

The purpose of all this is to get a few senators to sign on to the passage of Cap-and-Trade, a bill based on a non-existent threat from “greenhouse gases” in order to avoid a non-existent “global warming.” There are two fears; one that the Senate might pass the bill and, two, that the White House might impose it by executive order.

What we are witnessing is yet another really big, really bad idea out of the White House that continues to lie to everyone and anyone who thinks the problem is “global warming” when the problem really is a mad desire to destroy of the nation’s economy.

This has always been the single goal of the environmental movement when the global warming fraud began in the late 1980s. It accelerated with the UN Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The U.S. has never accepted the Protocol and those nations that did have since discovered that it’s been a very costly fraud.

Cap-and-Trade is a fraud. Let your senators know you oppose their vote for it. Any senator that does vote for it should be replaced if they are running for reelection in the November midterm elections.

Alan Caruba

America’s Tough Times Haven’t Arrived Yet!

America’s Tough Times Haven’t Arrived Yet!
Much worse to come for America
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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I have the uneasiest feeling that the American citizenry is being led down the “Primrose Path” -- a path, I’m afraid, that leads to destruction. I am beginning to think it may very well be time for all of us to ask ourselves if we are prepared to survive in a post apocalyptic America?

I have mentioned before that I foresee a complete collapse of the American economic system. Something, I feel, that will be much, much, worse than the Dot-Com Crash back in 2000, or even the Sub Prime Credit Crash in 2008. No, what I feel is coming will be worse than both these two former crashes added together. In fact, it has, I believe, already begun.

We Americans, indeed, all the citizens of the world, may well be facing a period of lawlessness the likes of which, the world has never experienced before. We are talking worldwide anarchy.

Look at what is happening in Washington, DC, today. There is a breakdown of our form of democracy – a constitutional republic. Our leaders in Congress have chosen to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the constituents they are sworn to represent. Our US government has never in its history been as separated from the people as this congress is. Not only that, but the Congress has become expendable. It is no longer necessary.

Laws are being made and enforced from the Oval Office of the White House completely by-passing Congress. The President’s use of Executive Orders and Czars, answerable only to him, is, effectively, a dictatorship. The US Constitution is viewed by those in power in America today as “an outdated list of suggestions” that needs to be trashed.

That American Dream, we Americans grew up hearing about, is no longer a dream but a nightmare. America’s capitalism is being tossed aside in favor of nation killing socialism. Our children and grandchildren are now carrying a debt load, imposed on them by the government, which they will never be able to pay off. We are headed toward, some say, to a global debt bomb which, when it explodes, will bring worldwide anarchy. Our civilized infrastructure will simply collapse. Here in America the dreaded Great Depression of the last century will be replayed in this century. Some are referring to it as “The Great Depression II.”

Once again, American will be forced to look to themselves for answers on survival. As did our famous Pilgrims and Frontiersmen ancestors we will be called upon to provide for our families as best we can. Preparation is called for. Those preparations should be made NOW!

Each of us should be stockpiling food and necessities for many months of anarchy. If you do not have a firearm, get one, learn how to use it, and be sure to stockpile plenty of ammunition. We are talking self-defense here. If you have food and others do not, you may be called upon to defend your family and your family’s foodstuff.

Hide your guns! The current US Presidential administration has made known its desire to join with the United Nations in an effort to strip you of your constitutional right to own and bear arms. (The 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution.) Remember, we warned that many in our current government view the constitution as outdated suggestions? They WILL come after our guns, so hide them. You may need them later.

When the collapse comes you will be forced to act in your own self-interest and that of your family FIRST – IF you intend to survive.

Americans have been asleep for the past few generations. We have allowed our government to be overtaken by socialist, and Marxists, and Progressives and today we are reaping what we have sown. We find ourselves on the brink of total collapse. And all this while -- we thought it couldn’t happen here. But it can – it has!

Will there be a Second American Revolution as some are predicting? Frankly, I do not know. I sincerely hope it does not come to that. Many American voices are calling out that if we wish to reestablish a new capitalist society after the collapse, we must consider every avenue. One can only prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Rest assured, there will be no renewal as long as our government remains in the hands of the socialists and Marxists. We can begin the process of removing them from office in the Mid-Term Election in November of 2010.

As Thomas Paine said in “The American Crisis” these are, indeed, “the times which try men’s souls.” These times will also try our determination to survive and our determination to ensure the survival of our country. But FIRST – WE MUST SURVIVE.

J. D. Longstreet

The Mount Vernon Statement

The Mount Vernon Statement
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The Mount Vernon Statement is a MUST READ for Conservatives. Below is the text of the statement:

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Constitutional Conservatism: A Statement for the 21st Century

We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding. Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government.

These principles define us as a country and inspire us as a people. They are responsible for a prosperous, just nation unlike any other in the world. They are our highest achievements, serving not only as powerful beacons to all who strive for freedom and seek self-government, but as warnings to tyrants and despots everywhere.

Each one of these founding ideas is presently under sustained attack. In recent decades, America’s principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics. The selfevident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.

Some insist that America must change, cast off the old and put on the new. But where would this lead — forward or backward, up or down? Isn’t this idea of change an empty promise or even a dangerous deception?

The change we urgently need, a change consistent with the American ideal, is not movement away from but toward our founding principles. At this important time, we need a restatement of Constitutional conservatism grounded in the priceless principle of ordered liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

The conservatism of the Declaration asserts self-evident truths based on the laws of nature and nature’s God. It defends life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It traces authority to the consent of the governed. It recognizes man’s self-interest but also his capacity for virtue.

The conservatism of the Constitution limits government’s powers but ensures that government performs its proper job effectively. It refines popular will through the filter of representation. It provides checks and balances through the several branches of government and a federal republic.

A Constitutional conservatism unites all conservatives through the natural fusion provided by American principles. It reminds economic conservatives that morality is essential to limited government, social conservatives that unlimited government is a threat to moral self-government, and national security conservatives that energetic but responsible government is the key to America’s safety and leadership role in the world.

A Constitutional conservatism based on first principles provides the framework for a consistent and meaningful policy agenda.

It applies the principle of limited government based on the rule of law to every proposal.

It honors the central place of individual liberty in American politics and life.

It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and economic reforms grounded in market solutions.

It supports America’s national interest in advancing freedom and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that end.

It informs conservatism’s firm defense of family, neighborhood, community, and faith.

If we are to succeed in the critical political and policy battles ahead, we must be certain of our purpose.

We must begin by retaking and resolutely defending the high ground of America’s founding principles.

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The link to the website is below. You may also sign the statement if you so desire.

http://www.themountvernonstatement.com/

Obama’s Invisible Homeless and Hungry

Obama’s Invisible Homeless and Hungry
By Alan Caruba

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The most enduring images of the Great Depression from 1929 through to the beginning of World War II for America in 1941 were those of homeless people, hobo camps, and of soup kitchens to feed the hungry.

During the Reagan years, the media was filled with stories of the homeless as if to refute any improvement in the economy under a conservative president. These days, however, as America’s national debt and deficit continues to spiral out of control, the poor and the hungry remain largely unseen and, most significantly, largely unreported.

About the only thing one can find on the White House website with regard to homelessness are statements about the way “green jobs” will solve the problem. The first stimulus package, however, increased the amount of money that the nation’s food banks received in 2009 so someone involved understood America has a problem.

The New York Times reported “a $100 million windfall of extra food…” Also reported was that “requests for emergency food assistance were up by 30 percent in 2008 over the previous year”, but the financial crisis did not occur until late into the last year of the second Bush term.

As the recession took hold one food pantry organizer noted that “the next layer of people” were showing up; “a rapidly expanding group of child-care workers, nurse’s aides, real estate agents and secretaries who are facing a financial crisis for the first time.”

A recent study by Mathematica Policy Research revealed that in 2009 more than 37 million low-income people were receiving emergency food assistance through a network of pantries, kitchens, and shelters. Recipients represented “a broad cross-section of America, including 14 million children and three million elderly.”

“Approximately 40 percent white, 34 percent were Afro-American, and 20 percent were Hispanic.” Though 36 percent of recipient households had one working adult, ten percent were homeless.”

“Most of the organizations providing assistance in the network were faith-based” and I can recall the outcry when the Bush administration undertook to provide funding to these organizations.

While the media reporting seems limited to official government statistics, currently citing unemployment at 9.4 percent, most observers believe that it is far closer to 17 percent and that figure would actually exceed the Depression era.

There were no safety nets in the 1930s. Ironically, the programs put in place, Social Security, and later Medicare, are now all but bankrupt or soon will be. At the time they were instituted there were approximately sixteen workers paying into the system for every recipient, but now it is down to two workers per recipient and these programs represent both a high level of taxation and an increasing drain on the nation’s economy as demographic changes increase the numbers eligible for them.

Entitlement programs, along with defense, represent half of the nation’s annual budget. The proposed Obama budget is widely regarded as bizarre for the amount of spending it proposes.

In its first year, the Obama administration largely ignored joblessness in order to pursue a vastly expanded Medicare “reform” whose details, whenever they became known, generated a massive backlash from Americans who rightly saw the program as an effort to take over one sixth of the nation’s economy, putting it under federal control.

Political observers all say that the Obama administration will now “pivot” and concentrate on jobs as the major issue this year. The Democrat controlled Congress, however, is doing little to adopt the factors that contribute to job creation.

Virtually all economists recommend a reduction in the tax on U.S. corporations, currently among the highest in the world, rendering them less competitive and unable to expand their workforce.

Beyond that, the great economic engine of small businesses have seen minimum wage requirements increase and a host of other regulations that punish all businesses when they are forced to lay off or fire employees; both discourage hiring. Meanwhile, huge pension and other benefits for unionized government related jobs are bankrupting the states.

The “solutions” of the FDR years did nothing to relieve the Great Depression and are widely seen as having extended it. These same “solutions” are being pushed by the Obama administration, particularly in regard to increased taxation at the worst possible time.

For now the homeless and hungry will remain invisible to most Americans, but the media will be able to ignore it for only so long and then it will have to be addressed.

Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com. An author, business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

Why I Did Not Celebrate President's Day

Why I Did Not Celebrate President's Day
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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First, my regular readers must have noticed that yesterday on INSIGHT on Freedom the so-called holiday referred to as President's Day was not mentioned. Rest assured -- there was a reason.

First of all, President's Day is an invention of the commercial community. Congress made it plain, when they instituted President's Day; the holiday was to memorialize President George Washington, our first President. But Washington WAS NOT OUR FIRST President! He was, in fact, or fifteenth President!

There were fourteen presidents BEFORE George Washington! Washington actually led the county's seventeenth administration. George Washington was the first President of the US under the current US Constitution.

Below is a list of the Presidents of this country serving before George Washington:

Peyton Randolph of Virginia (1723-1775)

Henry Middleton (1717-1784)

John Hancock (1737-1793)

Henry Laurens (1724-1792)

John Jay (1745-1829)

Samuel Huntington (1732-1796)

Thomas McKean (1734-1817)

John Hanson (1715-1783)

Elias Boudinot (1741-1802)

Thomas Mifflin (1744-1800)

Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794)

Nathaniel Gorham (1738-1796)

Arthur St. Clair (1734-1818)

Cyrus Griffin (1736-1796)

If you'd like a bit of a synopsis on each of these men then we suggest you go HERE .

President Cyrus Griffin was a reluctant supporter of the Constitutional ratifying process. It was during Griffin's term in the office of the Presidency—the last before the new national compact (the current US Constitution) went into effect—that ratification was formalized and finalized. Griffin served as the nation's chief executive from January 22, 1788 until George Washington's inauguration on April 30, 1789.

Now, I'm OK with celebrating George Washington's birthday. No problem at all. Washington was a Southern gentleman. It was under Washington's guidance that this country had its first economic boom.

But, when they dragged Lincoln into President's Day, I lost interest in the holiday.

Look, I am a Southerner. I am no lover of Abraham Lincoln. I dare say that if Americans knew the real story of Abraham Lincoln they'd have no more love for the man than I do.

Lincoln was a duplicitous politician... at BEST! He said the following on the floor of the Congress on January 13th, 1848: "Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and to form one that suits them better. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may make their own of such territory as they inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority intermingling with or near them who oppose their movement."

I didn't make that up. It is a matter of official record. Lincoln said it. Yet when a portion of the people of the US decided they wanted to do exactly what Lincoln said they could do, he sent an army of aggression into their new country to kill and destroy and drag them back into the very government they had just rejected -- and he did it at the point of a government bayonet.

We ALL know that Lincoln was anti-slavery, right? After all he was The Great Emancipator, right? Well, read the following statement Lincoln made in a speech in Peoria Illinois and then decide: "We know that some Southern men do free their slaves, go north and become tip-top abolitionists, while some Northern Men go south and become most cruel masters.When Southern people tell us that they are no more responsible for the origin of slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said the institution exists, and it is very difficult to get rid of in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know what to do as to the existing institution. My first impulse would possibly be to free all slaves and send them to Liberia to their own native land. But a moment's reflection would convince me that this would not be best for them. If they were all landed there in a day they would all perish in the next ten days, and there is not surplus money enough to carry them there in many times ten days. What then? Free them all and keep them among us as underlings. Is it quite certain that this would alter their conditions? Free them and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this, and if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of whites will not. We cannot make them our equals. A system of gradual emancipation might well be adopted, and I will not undertake to judge our Southern friends for tardiness in this matter."

Lincoln also said: "I acknowledge the constitutional rights of the States — not grudgingly, but fairly and fully, and I will give them any legislation for reclaiming their fugitive slaves."

In his Inaugural Address Lincoln said: "I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."

In a letter to Alexander H. Stephens, Lincoln said the following: "Do the people of the South really entertain fear that a Republican administration would directly or indirectly interfere with their slaves, or with them about their slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears. The South would be in no more danger in this respect than it was in the days of Washington." You'll find it on page 150 of "Public and Private Letters of Alexander Stephens." (By the way Alexander Stephens was Vice-President of the Confederate States of America.)

In a letter to Horace Greeley (editor of the New York Tribune at the time) dated August 22nd, 1862, Lincoln said this: “My paramount object, is to save the Union, and not either destroy or save slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing the slaves, I would do it. If I could save the Union by freeing some and leaving others in slavery, I would do it. If I could save it by freeing all, I would do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because it helps save the Union.”

Do you begin to understand why I cannot celebrate the birth of a man who found it necessary to drag the American people into the bloodiest war this nation has ever seen, or is likely to see? Of all the nations involved in the slave trade, the US was the only one to decide to end that horrible traffic with a war between brothers resulting in a patched-up a nation scarred for all eternity.

If you want to celebrate the birthday of George Washington, I’m all for it. But celebrate the birth of Abraham Lincoln? NEVER!

J. D. Longstreet