WRAL is reporting:

Raleigh, N.C. — Attorneys for former House Speaker Jim Black say he’s served enough time for a political corruption conviction.

The way that Jim Black abused his power and corrupted the institutions of the State of North Caroliana is detestable.   His sentence was an insult to the good people of North Carolina.  He should have been thrown UNDER the jail.

It has become painfully obvious that the previous two administrations in Raleigh were horrendously corrupt (Jim Hunt and the DOT scandals, and the ongoing revelations about the shenanigans in the Easley administration).  And we know that the Governor (Mike Easley who pushed hard for a lottery and then signed the dirty and wrongly passed bill) and the Lieutenant Governor (current governor Bev Perdue who cast the tie breaking vote in the Senate) were in cahoots with Jim Black to get the lottery passed in the most dishonest and unscrupulous manner that they could.

Ron Paul is at present the only sign of life in the Republican Party.  In the Presidential primaries last year, he was THE ONLY candidate from the Republican Party (or the Democratic party for that matter) to articulate the fundamental problems with the US economy and predict the economic chaos that has engulfed us.

Barack Obama has taken the “failed economic policies of the Bush administration” and put them on steroids.

Ron Paul very nicely sums up the situation that we are presently in:

Comingling public control of private business is known as fascism. While today’s politicians may feel emboldened with all their new power, history will only repeat itself as all this collapses on itself. It is the height of hubris for bureaucrats and politicians to attempt to control the market and the freewill of the American people. In the end, the market always wins out. Maybe one day future generations will wise up and allow free markets to function and thrive without the albatross of government around its neck. For now, it looks like those in charge have not learned the lessons of the past, and have doomed us to repeat those mistakes once again.

It has come to my attention that the Second US Court of Appeals has ruled:

The unanimous three-judge panel ruled today that a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year, which recognized an individual right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, didn’t apply to states and municipalities.

To which I say… fair enough.  The Bill of Rights was meant as a check on Federal Abuse of Power.  Not a restriction on State power.

In return to ceding this point, I expect for the courts to acknowledge…

1)  Roe V. Wade was a farce and that the constitution does not enshrine a right to kill unborn children.

2)  The 9th and 10th Amendments mean what they say and we’ll see them enforced in the courts

I can say this comfortably with the knowledge that almost all the States have some version of the Second Amendment enshrined in their constitutions, and a Judiciary that actually gives judgements based on what the law says and means is in the best interests of everybody – assuming, of course, that the State Courts follow suit and issue decisions based on what the law actually says.

Weeeell…

It’s been a while since I spruced up the ol’ blogroll.  I’ve removed some abandoned blogs and generally put it back into proper order…  This was brought on by a server upgrade and a clean install of Wordpress that didn’t import my old blogroll (fortunately, I saw that server change coming from a mile away and backed everything up…)

Hopefully, this is the first step in ending the decay that has fallen on this corner of the internet over the past year or two.

Well, this post has been inspired by this comment:

I know you probably think I’m crazy, but I think we should have a much higher gas tax. I’d be all for something like $5 a gallon gas tax, it’s a win-win more $$ for the government for things like road and great incentive to reduce consumption.

First off, I think that crazy is too strong  a word.   I would prefer “horribly misguided”.. but whatever works…

Here’s the thing that really gets me…  the folks who scream loudest about the environment are completely and totally squandering a perfect opportunity to work for real change and are instead chugging ahead with the current “climate bill” that rather than actually address any of the problems that this nation faces instead imposes heavy handed restrictions on the United States simply to pander to rabid environmentalists.

And this isn’t just the Congress… Barack Obama has followed through with this same heavy handedness by raising CAFE standards through executive fiat.

To start off…  the Climate Bill will never accomplish it’s stated purpose of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.  Cap and Trade has one inevitable result:  the movement of industry offshore.   The emissions will not go away.  They will merely be outsourced to China and Mexico – where the factories will probably be orders of magnitude LESS efficient, and then the shipping will further release gases into the atmosphere.  We lose jobs and accomplish absolutely nothing.  The only way that a Cap and Trade scheme has any hope of working is to apply some penalty (i.e. a tariff) to goods coming into this country from countries that exceed the mandated standards.  This, of course, will never fly with the Chinese who now own us.

This is of course assuming that one buys into the whole Global Warming panic, which I don’t.  Nobody has shown that a marginal increase in the temerature of the earth is actually going to destroy the world (in fact, scientists generally tend to agree that the earth used to be significantly warmer than it is now).  And not only that, as far as I can tell, nobody has even bothered to establish that a warmer earth is, in fact, a bad thing.  Why should we want a cooler earth with the resultant shorter growing seasons?  And to go even further, how is it that the answer is always heavy handed government intervention?  Trees are an excellent means of absorbing atmospheric gases.  Maybe we should just outlaw clear cutting of woodlands to put in McManisions.  Perhaps we should plant trees down highway medians instead of grass – perhaps we can even save some on mowing as part of the deal.

But the really annoying thing is that the environmentalists seem dead set on these heavy handed laws rather than trying to encourage the development and adoption of technologies that would meet their prescribed criteria.  The climate bill is more Anti-Industry than it is good stewardship of the earth and its resources.  A proper energy plan would provide incentives for industries and power companies to change.  In the United States the government has a lot of carrots it can offer to accomplish this without heavy handed draconian measures.

Now… on to cars…

As I have said previously, I have no doubt that Obama has no interest in running GM, but I am certain that Obama and every other liberal in this country is salivating at the prospect of being able to appoint one of their cronies to the GM board.  They’re already planning to make little green Obamamobiles whether or not people want them (a la the previously mentioned CAFE standards).

I have had a little bit of a change of heart having now seen what has happened with Chryler and GM, and I am no longer sympathetic to bailing them out.  The scariest words in the English language continue to be “I’m from the government and I’m here to help!”.  GM and Chrylser would have been far far better off had they simply declared bankruptcy without government involvement and bailouts.  Bankruptcy could have brought a fresh start to GM (or at least the pieces of GM)  with a new direction and outlook.   The way that this has happened, the government has siezed GM and has now taken away an opportunity from an entrepenuer to take the reins and innovate.  It goes without saying that the main beneficiary of the government involvement has been the United Auto Workers who gave considerable support to Barack Obama’s Presidential bid and they’re now getting their payback.  If GM had declared bankruptcy outside of this government arrangement, the UAW would have been defunct.  The agreements between GM and the UAW wouldn’t be worth the paper they were written on, and no automaker in their right mind would tolerate a UAW rep within 100 miles of their operations.

The federal government is too big.  It has too much power.  This situation is getting out of hand very quickly.  Powerful and invasive central governments very seldom turn out well for their citizens.

The North Carolina Turnpike Authority says construction could begin on the state’s first toll road by mid-July.

The state House passed legislation Thursday allowing the Turnpike Authority to get bond insurance for the N.C. 540 project. The insurance gives the project a AA rating, which is what is needed to raise necessary funds.

NO Toll Roads in North Carolina!  Especially ones that go to half the county for free and the other half for a fee!  It’s bad policy, and it’s just plain wrong.

The government of North Carolina already collects the highest gas taxes in the Southeast, and yet they can’t manage to fund the roadways!  It’s insane!  The gross mismanagement of money of the State of North Carolina is mind boggling.  How can the North Carolina General Assembly get away with this?  How many times do we have to pay for the outer loop?  We’re paying car registration fees, gas taxes, and now tolls?

I don’t understand why the people of North Carolina put up with this idiocy.  The same people in the General Assembly come back year after year and they do all the same crazy things and it just gets worse and worse.

In the months that have passed since November of 2008, it has been suggested that the Republican Party needs to re-brand itself. That it needs to abandon its old ideas and get with the program. That failure to do so will relegate the Republicans to the status of the Whigs. That the Republican party is bankrupt of ideas and has simply become the “Party of No”.

While I cannot speak for the leadership of the Republican Party (or what passes for leadership in this day and time) I can speak for myself. Over the past few years, I have grown increasingly disillusioned with the GOP, to the point that I tend to refer to myself as a Conservative, not a Republican.

To this end, I am writing this Conservative Manifesto. While my thoughts have been influenced by many over the past several years, I speak for nobody but myself in writing this manifesto, in the hopes that Conservatives will read it and find common ground to unite behind.

The creed behind this Manifesto can be summed up thusly: As Ronald Reagan famously said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”

Article I: Balancing the Federal Budget

The Dollar is the currency of international trade and has been since the end of World War II. This has produced a great deal of wealth and prestige for the United States of America. But the government tied the value of the Dollar to the “faith and credit of the United States” and as such, an unbalanced budget causes the value of the Dollar to drop. Many foreign nations hold Dollars as reserve currency. The plans of our past and present administrations to print money as if it was going out of style has left the value of the Dollar on a precipice. As the value of the Dollar falls, more foreign powers wish to divest themselves of Dollars. This makes the value of the Dollar fall further. It’s basic supply and demand. The trillion dollar stimulus plan may well be the death knell of the Dollar.

It is, therefore, absolutely imperative that the Federal Budget be balanced. Inflating away debt is not a policy. Ask Zimbabweans who pay Ten Million (Zimbabwean) Dollars for a loaf of bread about inflation.

Article II: The Sanctity of Life

Human life is sacred. The value of Human Life comes as a consideration before all else. The Human Consequence must be weighed in all decisions, political, environmental, military, etc. To this end there are two proposals that are immediately apparent.

Abortion is unacceptable under this policy. The majority of abortions have nothing to do with rape, incest, or the health of the mother. The child is simply an inconvenience. But that makes it no less human, and no less innocent. If the Government does not stand for the rights of the defenseless, then who will?

Deploying the Military to fight an undeclared war is unacceptable under this policy. Despite the greatest technological military might that the world has ever seen, the strength of the United States is not measured in the number of nuclear warheads and aircraft carriers that we possess, but in the strength of our people. We cannot fight and win a war if we are not united. Asking for our soldiers to risk their lives so that their sacrifice can be thrown away on the whim of the next election is unfair, and unjust. Let there be no more undeclared wars. If there is a threat severe enough to ask for our soldiers to fight and die, then the threat is severe enough to issue a declaration of war.

Article III: The Rights of the People

When the Constitution was ratified, it was ratified on the condition that The Bill of Rights be ratified right along with it. Somewhere down the line between then and now, the Government ceased to respect those rights and has imposed its will on the people and the states. The enforcement of the 9^th and 10^th amendments to the Constitution are of paramount importance. Likewise, the many threats to the First and Second Amendments should be dealt with.

Churches and other non profits should never be bludgeoned into silence with the threat of the IRS taking away their tax exempt status. Pastors have freedom of speech too. And that freedom extends to the pulpit.

The people of this nation have a God Given right to defend themselves when threatened. They have a right to own weapons and to use those weapons to defend their lives, the lives of their loved ones, and their property.

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution guaranteeing Freedom of Speech.

The rights of the people do not include Health Care, Welfare, Social Security, Education, or any other government social program. These programs are little more than vote buying schemes and should be abolished immediately.

Article IV: This IS a Christian Nation

The United States of America was founded by Christians on Christian principles. To deny this is to deny the history of the United States. The Constitution guarantees Freedom Of Religion because of the experience of the Founders with the state run Church in England. Not because they wanted to enshrine some kind of quasi-atheism on the country.

To this end, the US Government recognizes religious institutions such as Marriage. This does not give the government the right to redefine marriage. Furthermore, instances of the government attempting to establish definitions of marriage that run counter to Biblical teaching violate the First Amendment of the Constitution and the protections of the religious in this country.

Almost all laws passed in the Congress are somehow related to a moral issue. The question is whose morality is being enacted. Christians have as much right to voice their opinion as anybody else.

Article V: Social Justice Is No Justice

The roles of the courts in this country is to rule whether an action is legal or illegal. Not to judge the morality of the law. It is the responsibility of the Congress to make the laws and to debate the relative morality of the edicts.

To use the judicial system to enact decisions that cannot be made through the legislative process is absolutely unethical. And the inevitable result of doing so is a total loss of respect for the judicial process. If the people do not believe that they can turn to the Judiciary to receive Equal Justice Under the Law, then what purpose does the government serve?

To be continued at a later date…

Ban applauded President Barack Obama’s engagement on global warming but said that other countries were doing more, and added that a new global climate pact meant to be agreed in December could not wait for the United States to pass its domestic rules.

“That’s what I have been doing and will continue to do,” Ban said when asked if he was urging the United States to do more.

This climate bill will accomplish several things, none of which is reducing Greenhouse Emissions – the whole purported purpose of the monstrosity.

Mark my words, these things will happen:

1. Businesses are going to do a cost/benefit analysis.  As the cost to comply with this legislation rises, the businesses will flee to other countries with less strict environmental laws.
2. These business will close their American factories
3. They will open factories in countries that we have free trade agreements with like China or Mexico
4. These countries do not have the same environmental laws or worker safety laws  that the United States have.  This means that the factories will be less environmentally friendly than a comparable American factory.
5. Goods made in these factories will have to be shipped to the United States.

There is NO WAY that this bill doesn’t result in a net increase in emissions across the world and cost thousands of American jobs.  The price is too high for a benefit that is absolutely nonexistant.

The Washington Times is reporting that Henry Waxman has the votes to get his “Climate Bill” out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.  This bill must be opposed for a very simple reason, it will drive more of our industry to the third world at the expense of Americans who did nothing wrong.

The story of the past 40 years has been one of shortsighted feel-good policies that have hurt the United States, made environmentalists feel good, and done nothing to help the world.  As long as the United States allows for free trade with countries that don’t have similar laws, the effect of environmental and worker safety legislation is going to be to drive business out of this country.  It’s cause and effect…

When this bill becomes law, it will become much cheaper for manufacturers to manufacture their goods in a country like China that has very lax environmental laws and ship them here.  From where I’m sitting, this will probably result in a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions for the simple fact that when a manufacturer outsources to China, the Chinese factory is likely to pollute more than the equivalent American factory, THEN you have to SHIP the goods across the ocean.

If the goal of this legislation is to prevent “global warming” (which, for the record, I believe to be a hoax and a fraud), then it has no hope but utter failure because I see no way that the net greenhouse gas emissions can do anything but go up without the full cooperation and participation of countries like China.

And this doesn’t even take into account the spike in energy costs to the average American.  Even if they give away the CO2 Emmissions Permits to electrical companies, the mandates for wind and solar are still going to cost them a fortune.

Lately, I’ve been hearing on the radio an advertisement from “The Alliance for Climate Protection”.  This ad presumes to inform us that “Clean Energy” is the way of the future and that the energy bill currently in Congress will be the equivalent of a “chicken in every pot”

Below, is the text of the ad taken from the website “Repower America”

Let’s talk numbers, North Carolina… 10.7% unemployment…More homes lost to foreclosure…
We need to turn things around. And we can’t afford to wait.
Right now, Congress is debating a clean energy jobs plan that will jumpstart our economy, reduce carbon pollution, and break our dependence on foreign oil.
Investing in clean energy can create 62,000 jobs in new industries for North Carolina workers. That’s right, 62,000 new jobs that can’t be shipped overseas.
We can build America’s energy future right here at home, using clean energy like wind and solar. Fuel that’s free, and won’t run out.
But we’ve got to make a choice: Try our luck with business as usual, or invest in a clean energy future.
The smart money’s on clean energy.
Call Congressman G.K. Butterfield at (202) 225-3101.
Tell him to support the Clean Energy Jobs Plan.
Repower North Carolina. And Repower America.

Now, I’ve looked at the “Repower America” website and they have precious little there in terms of the details that would convince somebody like me that this is a good idea.

For example… they claim

According to researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, North Carolina’s offshore wind resources exceed the entire state’s electricity demand.

But what they don’t explain is how you convert that energy into a usable form.  Wind is not a constant power source, which means that you need to be able to store that energy.  How do you store it?  Our battery technology just isn’t there yet.  As an additional problem, the North Carolina coast is prone to hurricanes.  What happens to these windmills in a hurricane?  Will they simply be totally and completely destroyed much like everything else that catches wind in a hurricane?  And how do they propose to get over the “Not In My Back Yard” problem.  There’s a reason that we’re not drilling for oil off the North Carolina coast, and that is that anything that might possibly interfere with the tourists is dead on arrival.  And I’m sure that somebody will correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t windmills a death trap for endangered sea birds?

But suppose that they overcome all these problems, they still have to get electricity from Point A to Point B, and the electrical grid just isn’t set up for that.  We’re looking at a considerable expense for a return that isn’t guaranteed.

I don’t have an objection with looking into options for clean energy.  What I object to is being sold a false bill of goods.  Green energy isn’t a magic solution to the problems in this state.   And to go even further, any energy plan that sets out to grossly restrict carbon emissions is going to hurt a lot of ordinary people.  The technology simply is not there to do what these people want to do, the costs are too high.

Right now, our energy policy needs to be to develop whatever natural resources we have in the United States to become energy independent, while simultaneously working to develop the next generation of energy producing technology.  And that technology is in the works.   The biggest thing that needs to be developed is batteries that can economically store enough power to make alternate energy sources viable.

If the Congress simply mandates this stuff there will be brownouts across the country and our only means of maintaining our electrical power while meeting the carbon limits will be to go nuclear in a big way.  And we’ll be paying through the nose and we’ll have tons of nuclear fuel that the environmentalists will then be freaking out about.