All posts by Ross

Pensacola, Uncategorized, Venezuela

Why Is Citgo On Our Navy Bases?

2 Comments

Did you know that Citgo is on every Navy base in the United States? To me, there is just something wrong with doing business with a dictator like Chavez, who, with his new bud Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has all but declared war on us. So why should our Navy be doing business with Citgo U.S.?

According to an official at Pensacola NAS, it is because the Navy put that contract out for bid and Citgo was the only company to offer a bid. I find it hard to believe that no other ‘domestic’ oil company bid for the job but will allow for the possibility.

The good news is that the contracts, there are two, are going to expire in 2008 and 2010, according to the official I spoke to at Pensacola NAS. Unless we are prepared to invade Venezuela to insure Chavez performs on his contracts, I think the risk to our national security is not worth taking and we should look to another truly domestic supplier. Granted that Citgo U.S. employs U.S. citizens, but so does Exxon and the rest of them. I’d rather give the business to the company that I trust would perform on the contract under any and all circumstances than to trust Chavez to not shut off the supply.

A stronger case for being self-sufficient where our oil production is concerned cannot be made when you have to trust people like Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez. Trusting him is more like playing a game of Russian roulette with a fully loaded weapon.

The solution to this dilemma is to simply get another vendor to bid and find out why none of them bid on it the last time. Are our US owned oil companies not able to compete? Was the request for bids written in such a way that Citgo was the only company that could meet the criteria?

My sympathy goes out to all those dedicated U.S. employees who make a living working for Citgo U.S. because it isn’t their fault that Chavez is an untrustworthy idiot. My fondest wish is that all of them can find jobs in the industry with other oil companies and give Hugo Chavez a present on the next May Day celebration by walking out the door on May 1, 2008.

related links, Get Citgo out of our military bases

Media, Uncategorized

CNN Reports Of Meaningless Test

A CNN Headline news babe just spent about 15 seconds announcing the news of a successful test of a missile defense system. It included a video showing the hit. Then she sums up her story by saying that ‘critics’ of the system say the test was meaningless because the attack missile didn’t have any anti-missile or decoy tactics built in. OK, now we’re fully informed on this subject right? Well, according to the Missile Defense Agency . . .

The exercise was designed to evaluate the performance of several elements of the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). Mission objectives included demonstrating the ability of the Upgraded Early Warning Radar at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., to acquire, track and report on objects. The test also evaluated the performance of the interceptor missile’s rocket motor system and exoatmospheric kill vehicle, which is the component that collides directly with the target warhead in space to perform a “hit to kill” intercept using only the force of the collision to totally destroy the target warhead. Initial indications are that the rocket motor system and kill vehicle performed as designed. Program officials will evaluate system performance based upon telemetry and other data obtained during the test.

CNN needs to come up with a new slogan. How about ‘the least trusted name in news.’ Video link and pictures link.

2008 Election, Politics

Have A Child, Collect $5000

1 Comment

In typical Clinton style, social engineer and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has gone way beyond a chicken in every pot. She sees a need to have the government (you and I) pay people to have babies so they, ostensibly, can use it for education or buying a home. $5000 for every one you have. My first thought is that she must be jealous of Vladimir Putin and feels she has to 1-up him. Putin, you might recall, announced a day to have sex. And for couples who have babies as a result will win a refrigerator or a TV, or even a home.

Hillary’s idea:

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that every child born in the United States should get a $5,000 “baby bond” from the government to help pay for future costs of college or buying a home.

Putin’s idea:

President Vladimir Putin has introduced a scheme to encourage more children. Women who have a second or third child are eligible to receive $9,000, which can be used to pay for education or home purchases.

Only difference I see between them is that Putin’s is more like a 1-day contest sexathon whereas Hillary’s is a continuous open-ended entitlement program. “Every baby born in America” sounds like she includes illegal aliens. Regardless, it’s still a big government program that does not promote personal responsibility or financial independence. Neither does it help reduce the cost of education, or health care, or anything else. Can’t get much more short-sighted than that.

It’s a classic case of how liberals ‘fix’ problems by spending your money. It’s because of our lousy government schools that so many people feel that they can not succeed on their own and look to the government to save the day. When people are conditioned to look outside themselves (to the government) for the answers, they become a dependent class of people with a monolithic voting pattern. Like all their fixes, they don’t fix anything. They groom voting blocks with the taxpayers’ money to insure re-election again and again.

Pensacola, Politics, Uncategorized

Debt ceiling is rising again: What is Democrats’ answer?

Such was the headline on the local editorial page Sunday. Their answer is the same, raise taxes on the ‘rich’. Raise taxes by creating more of them and increasing those that already exist. Don’t renew the tax cuts that are bringing record revenues to the treasury. Create open-ended entitlement programs and include millions of border crashers and their extended families in these programs.The deficit is a topic that is ripe for the majority party to demagogue, but there are two undeniable truths that they would rather you not know about or understand in order for their demagoguery to work.

  1. When you are the biggest fish in the sea, any increase will always be the largest, record-breaking statistic. That is not bad, it is just a fact of arithmetic. Being the largest of anything doesn’t make you evil, it does however cause people like Hillary Clinton to call for seizing your property. Recall Exxon’s P&L every year. (I want to take those profits to use for ….) Likewise, every year, as spending programs are invented, and borrowing increases, the dollar amount of the spending reaches a record level.
  2. As a percentage of GDP, the current deficit isn’t out of line with the current or previous administrations. And that is including all the financial costs of waging war and the Gulf Coast hurricane recovery billions. Similarly, Exxon’s profit margin is not out of line with the industry or their own financial history. It remains around 9 to 10 percent of sales.

The unfortunate (and deliberate) outcome of our educational system today is that our children, from Workman Middle School to UWF (and the media’s editorial writers) can’t tell the difference between a profit and a profit margin or what makes capitalism work.

Don’t look for Democrats in Washington to be fiscally conservative anytime soon. As spendthrift as Bush has been already, they are complaining that it isn’t enough.

A favorite quote of mine on taxing and spending comes from Winston Churchill. “We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”

related: PNJ, Debt ceiling is rising again: What is Democrats’ answer? Breitbart, Federal Deficit Sharply Lower

Politics

Military Under Fire Again, In San Francisco

It just astounds me how rabid an American city can get over our military. The left-coast liberals in San Francisco continue to show their utter contempt for our military. Banning the Blue Angels from performing on Fleet Week was only one incident. Although still scheduled to happen, city officials have not changed their minds on that. Now, the city will not let Marines shoot a recruiting video in their city either.

The Bay Area’s ABC affiliate reports that San Francisco’s film commission Executive Director, Stefanie Coyote, denied permission for the drill team to film a recruiting commercial. She claimed that it would interrupt traffic.

The wacko politicians at the helm of that city seem to be laying out the welcome mat for the politically insane. Isn’t it time for the governor of California to speak up? I mean, where is the love?

Immigration

Immigration Enforcement Opens Doors For Americans

Contrary to the line that the pro-illegal immigration people tell us, that these illegals are doing jobs that Americans won’t do, what we see happening on the ground is just the opposite. Since cities across the nation have begun to line up on the side of America, many illegals are returning home. Contrary to the eminent collapse of our economy that some said would happen as a result of enforcement, Americans are lining up to take jobs that previously were taken by illegals, gang crime and crime rates overall are going down in measurable and noticeable amounts, and there is less pressure on health and social services.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told The Times that “there will be some unhappy consequences for the economy out of doing this.” While the enforcement climate is still too new to show results in government data one way or the other, Chertoff’s prediction doesn’t appear to be playing out. On the contrary, there is extensive anecdotal evidence that enforcement is actually having its desired effects: More illegal aliens are going home, leading to improved conditions for American workers and communities. The first consequence of stepped-up enforcement is attrition of the illegal population — a steady decrease in the total number of illegal aliens as more people give up and go home. Attrition is the real alternative to amnesty, and we’re seeing it work.

By pulling out the welcome mat for illegals, attrition is taking the place of deportation. Let the progress continue.

LA Times: Fewer migrants mean more benefits

Uncategorized, Venezuela

Venezuela Jails More Journalists

Did you know Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela made some ‘reforms’ to their criminal code a couple years ago. The result being they can now lock up journalists who print anything bad about them.

The Virginia-based World Press Freedom Committee says thatDavid Perez Hansen defamation of a public official remains a crime in dozens of countries, including in several democracies, “where legislators should know better than to allow such poor examples to exist.” The committee said countries where defamation laws are in effect include Russia, Ethiopia, Cambodia and Tajikistan.

The situation is particularly acute in Venezuela. The Virginia press group said in a report released in April that Venezuelan criminal code “reforms” that took effect in 2005 stiffened penalties for defamation of the country’s president, attorney general, National Assembly legislators and senior military leaders. Penalties for defamation increased from a maximum of 30 months in prison to a new maximum of four years’ imprisonment if the defamation is made in a document distributed to the public.

No word if the criminal code also covers lawyers.

link: Many Reporters Worldwide Face Prison

related link

Politics, Uncategorized, War On Terror

Ahmadinejad And Charlie Rose

2 Comments

Couldn’t help but notice on Charlie’s website that next week he will have Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad on his show. Or as Charlie puts it, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Anyone who gives that terrorist the time of day is giving too much. Anything he does on camera in this country will become his propaganda, which the left has no problem whatsoever in producing. They usually call that being patriotic. Especially when Charlie agrees with him that we shouldn’t be in Iraq, war for oil, Bush, Cheney, Halliburton, and of course, but not limited to, Abu Ghraib. The nutroots will be sure to watch and learn.

related link | Ahmadinejad And Ground Zero


Uncategorized, Whiners

Sorry Charlie

Charlie Rose interviews former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan tonight.  Was funny watching Charlie Rose spending 10 minutes trying to get Greenspan to say that Rumsfeld and Cheney were idiots.  No headlines on that one. Sorry Charlie!

He correctly explained the difference between the media’s slant on his words about oil and Iraq and his own.  Now Charlie understands it, as much as it appeared to hurt.

Politics, United Nations, War On Terror

Ahmadinejad And Ground Zero

1 Comment

Iranian President Mahmood Ahmadinejad is coming to the United States to pal around with the hemisphere’s idiot, Venezuelan President ahmadinejad_today_1979Hugo Chavez, and he also wants to visit ground zero. His request was denied, but he is apparently intending to go anyway with the Secret Service security detail normally assigned to visiting diplomats.

Nate Harris at Conservative Compendium has a novel idea.

I would like to be the first to suggest that Mahmoud be able to give a speech overlooking the pits where the WTC once stood, complete with holocaust denying, gloating, baiting, and admonishing of the USA. As soon as he’s done, give him the grand tour of american locales associated with terrorism and arrest him for questioning for his part in hostage taking in Iran in 1979.

To her credit, New York Senator Hillary Clinton doesn’t think he should be going there either. Am anxious to hear her remarks after he and Chavez get done with their Bash Bush tour at the United Nations, otherwise known as the Useless Nations . No need to question her patriotism, just listen to what she has to say about it after it occurs. That should suffice.