Barack Obama gave another flowery speech, this time on patriotism. As usual, I had to read the transcript, because A) I have a job and B) his speeches really annoy me.

He starts out by reminding us that a revolution was fought against the tyranny of an Empire for the sake of liberty. It’s too bad he doesn’t really understand the definition of liberty. I doubt the founders of our great nation were fighting to create a government to be the great Robin Hood of the world. He said we need to think about our commitments not just to our nation, but to each other. Hmm….can you say “collectivist” anyone?

He asks how in this global economy we will ensure “the winners maintain allegiance to the less fortunate”. I’d like to know his definition of “winner”. Are “winners” the people who work hard, pay their bills and save for their retirement? Who is the “less fortunate”. The person who doesn’t hold a steady job, buys a home he cannot afford, runs up his credit cards and skips out on his kids? Whose job is it to define “winner” and “less fortunate”. Will he set up a committee?

Obama then reminisces about the culture wars of the 1960’s and the “so-called counter-culture” who were “burning flags” and “blaming America for all that was wrong with the world”. Who is he talking about? His good buddies William Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn? He left out the part about bombing American institutions.

Of course he had to include “America’s imperfections”. Has he given a speech where he doesn’t bring up our “imperfections?” He said we have an obligation to help our fellow citizens pursue their dreams. His choice of words is notable - rather than allowing our fellow citizens to pursue their dreams, he believes we must help them pursue their dreams.

As usual, he denigrated the Iraqis and bashed rich people. I agree with him on one point, that our government has put off much needed changes to our energy policy. He just seems to forget that it is his party keeping us from realizing energy independence.

American Solutions now has over 1.27 million signatures on its Drill Here, Drill Now petition. If you haven’t signed on yet you can do so now.

It is incredible that a petition such as this one is even necessary. The latest predictions are that the price of crude oil will shoot up to $170 per barrel, just today it topped $143 per barrel. The crazies in Iran are threatening to shut down the Straight of Hormuz, an essential oil supply bottleneck. As the price at the pump goes up, so does the price of nearly everything else.

Yet here we are, pleading with our so called representatives to do the right thing and lift the unconstitutional moratoriums on drilling and exploration on our own soil. These “representatives” of ours blame President Bush, Republicans, oil companies and speculators while offering no truly feasible energy policies of their own.

Tell them you’ve had enough and sign the petition today.

Why do we continue to be surprised by the left and the environmentalists? With each right they take from us, with each costly law they pass, some of us just shake our heads in disbelief. That’s what I did when I read that Hawaii passed a law requiring solar water heaters for new homes. Solar water heaters cost about $6000 as compared to $700 for electric or gas.

Using a compound interest calculator I learned that if a home buyer invests $5300 (the difference in price between solar and conventional water heaters) at 9% interest over thirty years that individual would have saved$70,318.70. The State of Hawaii is literally robbing their citizens’ retirement funds. This was done by a Republican governor, and the RNC wonders why they’re having problems with their “brand”.

Everyone’s attention is on the Presidential campaigns. Nobody’s paying much attention to Congressional campaigns. Who we send to Congress is just as important as who we elect to be our next President. As we have seen, the current Congress is worse than useless.

Even if McCain is elected, with a Democratic majority we won’t see any new refineries, nuclear power plants or domestic oil drilling. I keep hearing that Republicans are going to lose House and Senate seats this fall. Maybe that’s correct, but I would argue it’s too soon to tell.

Let’s support conservative Congressional candidates. I have a link for Dale Sweetland who is running for the open House seat in my district. Dale is in favor of drilling domestically.

I was contacted by a backer of Hazelton, PA Mayor Lou Barletta who is running for Congress against 12 term Democratic incumbent Paul Kanjorski. I remember hearing about Lou Barletta because he’s the mayor who cracked down on illegal immigration. He is also for a sensible energy policy.

Neither of these candidates is a “Washington Insider”. These are the sort of people we need to send to Congress this fall. If you know of any others please let me know and I will post links to their websites as well.

Links: Lou Barletta-Congress 2008, Sweetland 08

Collectivists have been around since Carl Marx and they never seem to give up. Upon defeat they simply try a new argument, a new tactic and are back in business.

The economic policies of the Soviet Union were an utter disaster. The tactics employed to enforce those policies were barbaric. Individuals do not wish to labor for the benefit of the collective. Individuals labor for their own benefit, that’s natural law. Do tigers kill their prey to feed the entire animal kingdom? Of course not. Why would they? They do so to feed themselves. That’s their nature. To require a person to work against his own nature requires force, either at the end of a gun or by threat of penalties and imprisonment.

The collectivists didn’t learn from the example of the Soviet Union. They choose to forget it, they don’t want it taught. They don’t want to hear that Hitler came to power through a populist, collective message, as all fascists do.

The Great Depression was a great time for the collectivists. The ills of the world were blamed on capitalism and greed. Through FDR many of their dreams became reality, with enormouse expansion of the federal government and government control over the lives of American citizens. They were able to sell it to the people because times were tough. Americans would have survived the Depression and gone on to flourish without all of FDR’s programs. Those programs may have actually prolonged the depression, but the feel good message of “hope and change” was too much for many Americans to resist.

Then came the “war on poverty”. More money taken from the pockets of hard working Americans to create a new class of citizens, those dependent on their fellow Americans. Billions of tax payer dollars have gone into the “war on poverty” yet they tell us it hasn’t been enough. Billions of dollars go into failing schools, yet they don’t want us to be able to choose which schools to send our children. Rather than teach the virtues of self reliance, hard work and determination, a message is sent to the poor that nothing they can do will make a difference, that they are helpless and hopeless without the government’s help.

When is the last time you turned on the news to hear about hard working Americans who simply raise their families, pay their bills on time and plan for the future? Isn’t that what millions of Americans do? Why aren’t those people celebrated? Because, the collectivists don’t want to send messages of individual achievement. They want those of us that work hard to see pictures of the poor, of suffering and illness. They want people who achieved success through hard work to feel guilty. As if someone cannot achieve success without causing misery to another.

A fairly recent tactic they’re using is global warming. They scare people. They predict terrible things. They convince people to stop thinking about what is in their own, individual interests in favor of what is best for the world. Lawmakers enact legislation producing unintended consequences such as global starvation, sky rocketing gas prices, economic slow down and job losses. Then they blame it on capitalists.

The collectivists will never go away. They have gotten their way slowly through the years. They hope people won’t notice as their rights and freedoms are eroded. They try to silence those who understand their goals and tactics. There will come a day when they have gone too far.

Barack Hussein Obama has picked up the endorsement of North Korea and Kim Jong Il!

The newspaper expressed hope of better ties between North Korea and the United States under an Obama administration, saying that even if McCain won the election, he could not reverse U.S.-North Korea ties.

Pyongyang favors Obama because he has vowed to meet leaders of rogue states, such as the North Korean leader, without conditions if elected.

Barack Obama now has endorsements from most of America’s enemies, including Hamas, Venezuela and Jimmy Carter.

Thank you to the American Interests blog for tipping me off.

Just like a stopped clock, even Justice Kennedy can be right on occasion. Today, in a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court affirmed the rights of American’s to keep and bear arms.

Speaking of Supreme Court decisions and stopped clocks, I heard that Obama disagreed with yesterday’s decision finding it unconstitutional to execute convicted child rapists.

Now if only we could get this nasty federal government of ours to get out of the way and let us Drill Here, Drill Now and Pay Less. Sign the Petition

Barack Obama’s new Fight the Smears website posted a Hawaiin birth certificate, claiming it was Barack Obama’s. Now the Department of Health of Hawaii has confirmed it’s a fake.

The blog Ironic Surrealism II has much more information on this subject.

I was listening to the Mike Church show today and he had the author of the book, Unalienable Rights, Michael Lemieux as his guest. I have not yet read the book, but I certainly would like to.

Mr. Lemieux spent years researching the Constitution, our government and Supreme Court decisions before writing this book. Mike Church referred to the book as the “Physician’s Desk Reference” for anyone who is concerned about the rights and freedoms our government has taken from us over the years.

The premise of the book appears to be that the Constitution does not grant rights to individuals, rather it was meant to set up a federal government and establish boundaries to restrain the federal government.

Our new government was to be created by the people, drawing its power from the people solely for the purpose of protecting those rights. As soon as the government turns to make unjust demands upon the people, or usurp power where it is not entitled, it is the right of the people to correct or abolish that government and start anew.

This book will most definitely be on my summer reading list.

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that it’s unconstitutional to impose the death penalty on child rapists. Go ahead and guess which way the court was split! Justice Kennedy believes the death penalty would be cruel and unusual punishment. I don’t know what he thinks of child rape-kind and normal?

Nancy Pelosi stated she is in favor of the “Fairness Doctrine”. No one listens to liberal talk radio and the Democrats don’t like it so they want to force radio stations to air liberal talk show hosts. Never mind the loss to the radio stations in ad revenue. They can force them to air it but they can’t make me listen to it.

Barack Obama gave another speech, he said a lot but all it really amounted to was “I’m going to do all I can to keep gas prices really high, so vote for me.”

Schools around New York State dismissed today at 11:00 and will do the same tomorrow. The kids have been playing board games. Nothing like wasting a ton of gas in order to keep the federal funds rolling in.

While on the subject of wasting gas, some Wisconsin officials would like to outlaw drive through restaurants due to concerns about global warming. Is there still anyone left out there who truly believes the global warming B.S. isn’t just a way for the government to take control of our lives?

Buried somewhere within the 600+ page Senate housing bill (the one that would require the tax payers of America to guarantee mortgages for people who don’t pay their bills) is a provision that will require credit card transactions to be reported to the government. Since when is it the government’s business where I use my credit card? So, they don’t want to listen to terrorists’ phone calls, but they do want to know what I bought at the grocery store. I guess they haven’t figured out a way to impose a tax on terrorism.

As seen on Billy O’Reilly. Do you think NBC will show it?

According to Townhall columnist Matt Purple, liberal bloggers are bashing Tim Russert posthumously, while his loved ones grieve. These people have no shame.

Whenever a conservative, or anyone they disagree with for that matter, falls ill or dies the radical left-wing hate machine wastes no time in starting the bash-fest. They did it when Tony Snow was diagnosed with cancer, they did it when William F. Buckley died. I could go on and on. It’s completely tasteless.

Tim Russert wasn’t even a conservative. He was a Democrat who was fair and decent, so apparently that’s enough to draw the ire of these far left loons. These people completely lack human decency or respect.

This is just one more example of the hatred in the hearts of the lunatic fringe of the Democratic Party. They should be ashamed. Oh yeah-they have no shame.

There is no end to what people will blame on President Bush. The mayor of Gloucester, home of the alleged pregnancy pact, blamed the pregnancy outbreak at the high school on No Child Left Behind and cuts in school funding. I wouldn’t be surprised if they start saying Bush posed as a homeless man and impregnated these girls himself.

Why didn’t the mayor look a little closer to home for a place to lay the blame? Where are the parents of the parents to be?

Real Clear Politics is showing Obama with a 48% to 41% ratings lead over McCain. Is this a big deal? I don’t think so, it’s way to early for these polls to mean anything. Most Americans aren’t paying much attention right now, and probably won’t really start paying attention until the end of summer or early fall.

According to the New York Times in May of 1988:

Michael S. Dukakis is capitalizing on deep public doubts about Vice President Bush and the Reagan Administration’s handling of key issues and has emerged as the early favorite for the Presidential election in November, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

Mr. Dukakis, the probable Democratic nominee, ran ahead of Mr. Bush, the almost certain Republican candidate, by 49 percent to 39 percent among 1,056 registered voters.

In June of 1988, Mr. Dukakis was still ahead in the polls.

A Gallup Poll of 1,210 registered voters, conducted June 24-26, have Mr. Dukakis leading, 46 percent to 41 percent. That was closer than the results of a Gallup Poll two weeks earlier, in which the Massachusetts Democrat enjoyed a lead of 52 percent to 38 percent.

When Americans got to know the ultra-liberal Dukakis, George Bush ended up beating him in the popular vote 53% to 45%, with an electoral landslide of 426 to 111.

During the 2004 election campaign, CNN reported in May:

As Americans express growing unease about Iraq, President Bush’s job approval rating has taken a hit, according to a poll released Friday by CNN and Time magazine.

That development appears to be helping Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. He wins the support of 51 percent of likely voters, compared to 46 percent for Bush. In February, Bush was ahead of Kerry by two percentage points.

The moral of the story is that the longer these campaigns drag on the more the American people get to know the candidates. Sure, Bill Clinton was elected, but he was no where near as liberal as Obama, in fact, not a single US Senator is as liberal as Obama. Ordinary Americans are leery of ultra left-wing politicians. These polls are inaccurate and misleading, they make things as clear as mud.

Last Thursday at a black caucus meeting Barack Obama said that Hillary’s female supporters should “get over it”. It’s one gaffe after another with this guy. I wonder why this wasn’t in my newspaper. If John McCain said such a thing we wouldn’t hear the end of it from now until November. Again, the MSM gives Obama a pass.

He was given a pass when he said he’s been to 57 states, that asthmatic children need breathalizers and that the North American Free Trade Agreement has sent jobs to China. We could go on and on, but he’ll keep on gaffing while the MSM keeps on passing.