No, you damned, dirty environmentalist idolator! It’s YOU that’s making this country sick.
Your partner in crime Nancy Pelosi is making families and independent truckers sick.
Your masters representing the Watermelon Brigade is making our economy sick.
Spare us the global warming bull. It’s SOCIALISM that’s ruining our country AND ruining our world.
We’ve got to stop voting for you and your ilk — which will be a giant step in healing our economy and healing our land.
Nevadans, do your duty in 2010 and send Harry “Krishna” Reid back to his commune in Searchlight, NV for good!
(link via Jim Rose)
Technorati Tags: coal, energy, environmentalism, harry reid, oil, socialism, watermelon brigade…and I have nothing else better to do…
Well, I told you she’s a Marxist. And guess what — she now wants to nationalize the oil industry (and steal money from retirees in the process), let alone force socialized medicine on the populace.
Who knows? Maybe she’ll also want to govern by decree — just like a certain South American dictator we all know (and the far left loves).
Do you really want this woman to be elected president?
Well, DO YOU?
(link via James Hudnall)
[Updated 2/6]
There is hope, as rouge fuel trading countries are becoming more and more rougish:
President Bush lifted the drilling ban Tuesday for Alaska’s Bristol Bay, clearing the way for the Interior Department to open the fish-rich waters to oil and natural gas development.
Alaska officials as well as local communities had asked for the ban to be lifted, but environmentalists have warned against drilling in the bay, which is also a major fishing area for salmon, crab and cod.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said one or two lease sales in about 5.6 million acres of Bristol Bay will be considered for leasing in the department’s upcoming five-year 2007-12 lease plan.
Separately, Bush lifted a drilling moratorium in an area of the central Gulf of Mexico known as Lease Area 181, making that area available to drilling.
Of course, the enviromentalist movement will decry this with all their might, as they would rather have us dependent upon Mideast and South American countries who wish us ill to provide us with oil. They don’t want a better environment; they want our economy to be weakened and ultimately destroyed.
More still needs to be done, though. More refineries will need to be built, along with opening up more areas designated for oil and gas development. But this is definitely a smart start.
(link via James Hudnall)
As Venezuela embarked on another six years under Hugo Chavez, the president announced plans to nationalize power and telecommunications companies and make other bold changes to increase state control as he promised a more radical push toward socialism.
Chavez, who will be sworn in Wednesday to a third term that runs until 2013, also said he wanted a constitutional amendment to strip the Central Bank (other-otc: CHPA.PK - news - people ) of its autonomy and would soon ask the National Assembly, solidly controlled by his allies, to approve “a set of revolutionary laws” by presidential decree.
“We’re moving toward a socialist republic of Venezuela, and that requires a deep reform of our national constitution,” Chavez said in a televised address after swearing in his new Cabinet on Monday. “We’re heading toward socialism, and nothing and no one can prevent it.” [...]
“The eight-year transition phase is ending and we’re entering a new era - the Simon Bolivar national plan, Bolivarian socialism,” Chavez told his audience of cheering supporters.
Chavez is also moving to censor freedom of expression:
As he begins a new six-year presidential term this week, Chavez is vowing to shut down Radio Caracas Television, Venezuela’s largest and oldest network, because it allows the expression of political ideas opposing the Chavez regime. Since the TV station was among many media outlets that supported the bungled coup against Chavez in 2002 and a general strike against his government in 2003, the dictator-elect apparently feels he has consolidated enough power to retaliate. ”Go and turn off the equipment,” Chavez said as he vowed to deny renewal of the network’s license, which expires in May.
Of course, this threat of totalitarian censorship has been condemned as a grave violation of freedom of expression by many concerned observers, from press freedom groups like Reporters Without Borders and the Inter-American Press Association to the Organization of American States.
Somewhere, in the neighboring country of Colombia, Bolivar — a classical liberal who advocated free markets and admired the American Revolution — is spinning in his grave. If he were alive today, he would surely denounce Chavez’ warped, Marxist worldview and proceed to smack the taste out of his mouth.
Sadly, for what’s left of California’s free market, it’s not a tumor — as the Liberterminator announces the following:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday laid out a sweeping proposal to extend health coverage to California’s 6.5 million uninsured residents, promising to share the cost among businesses, individuals, hospitals, doctors, insurers and government.
All Californians will be required to have insurance, and all but the smallest businesses will have to offer it to their workers. Insurers will no longer be allowed to deny coverage to people because of their medical problem
All children, regardless of their immigration status, will be covered through an expansion of the state and federal Healthy Families program.
“My solution is that everyone in California must have health insurance,” Schwarzenegger said, speaking via video link from his office in Santa Monica. “If you can’t afford it, the state will help you buy it. But you must be insured. That is number one.”
The governor, who is recuperating from a broken femur, was supposed to give his address in person to a panel of health care stakeholders. But he said his doctor would not allow him to fly to Sacramento for the occasion.
Many applauded the breadth and ambition of the governor’s plan, which a special team of advisers spent six months developing in secret.
Insurers, seeing the possibility of 4 million to 5 million new customers, praised the proposal, despite the new restrictions it places on them, such as limiting administrative costs.
Socialized medicine in the U.S. is inevitable. Schwarzenegger — who transformed from moderate republican to leftist Democrat — is intent on bringing it to California whether Californians want it or not. And as California goes, so goes Nevada — followed by the rest of the nation.
An intellectual warrior for free markets and free minds has died at the age of 94.
A statement from the Friedman Foundation:
Today, upon news of the death of Nobel Laureate economist Dr. Milton Friedman, Gordon St. Angelo, president and CEO of the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation, offered the following statement:
America has lost a true visionary and advocate for human freedom. And I have lost a great friend.
Milton’s passion for freedom and liberty has influenced more lives than he ever could possibly know. His writings and ideas have transformed the minds of U.S. Presidents, world leaders, entrepreneurs and freshmen economic majors alike. The loss of his passion, incisive mind and dedication to freedom are all national treasures that we mourn for today.
Milton never chose to slow down; even at 94 he kept fighting to bring educational equality to all of America’s children. And it’s this vision, this drive for educational liberty that the Friedman Foundation will continue to bring to families throughout America.
His impact on my life over the last 33 years was significant. His impact on the world was momentous. Without a doubt, few people have done more to advance civil and economic liberties throughout the world during their lifetime than Dr. Milton Friedman.
I am proud to say the I was among the many who was influenced by Milton Friedman’s passion, writings, and ideas — which led me to embrace libertarianism. Two of my favorite books, Free to Choose and Capitalism and Freedom, helped change my outlook on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for the better.
Those of us dedicated to the cause of liberty are forever in his debt.
Milton Friedman is gone from our lives, but his passion, writings, and ideals shall live on forever in our hearts and minds.
Related: Commentary from Jim Rose, Instapundit, Michelle Malkin, Don Surber, and Pejman Yousefzadeh
This news calls for a chili-cheese Big Bite and a Coca-Cola Slurpee!
7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline supplier after more than 20 years as part of a previously announced plan by the convenience store operator to launch its own brand of fuel.
7-Eleven officials said Wednesday that the company’s decision was partly motivated by politics.
Citgo Petroleum Corp. is a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-run oil company and 7-Eleven is worried that anti-American comments made by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez might prompt motorists to fill-up elsewhere.
Chavez has called President George W. Bush the devil and an alcoholic. The U.S. government has warned that Chavez is a destabilizing force in Latin America.
“Regardless of politics, we sympathize with many Americans’ concern over derogatory comments about our country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela’s president,” said 7-Eleven spokeswoman Margaret Chabris.
“Certainly Chavez’s position and statements over the past year or so didn’t tempt us to stay with Citgo,” she added.
Instead, 7-Eleven, which sells gasoline at 2,100 of its 5,300 U.S. stores, will now purchase fuel from several distributors, including Tower Energy Group of Torrance, Calif., Sinclair Oil of Salt Lake City, and Houston-based Frontier Oil Corp.
Now, how about replacing that Citgo sign in Boston with one from 7-Eleven?
From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Almost seven months after Hurricane Katrina, the Nagin administration still dickers over details of a contract that would gradually rid the cityscape of these vehicular eyesores — at a cost of $23 million over another six months.
Which makes it of more than passing interest to discover that the largest car crusher east of the Rockies, K&L Auto Crushers of Tyler, Texas, offered in October to do the job in 15 weeks and actually pay the city for the privilege of hauling the junk away. How much? How about $100 per flooded car. With an estimated 50,000 vehicles on the street at that time, the city would have netted $5 million, rather than shelling out four times that sum, as it plans to do now.
And Ray Nagin wants to be re-elected mayor? Give me a break!
NO residents should ask themselves if they want to re-elect a politician who would rather waste THEIR tax dollars dealing with a problem instead of welcoming some much-needed income to keep the city running. If they answer “yes” to the above, then they deserve the cesspool of political leadership that has mired the city for decades.
Related: The Nagin administration admits that it willfully violated the Second Amendment:
After denying it for months, the City of New Orleans on Wednesday admitted that it does have a stockpile of firearms seized from private citizens in the days following Hurricane Katrina.
The city even took lawyers to the place where some 1,000 firearms are being stored.
“This is a very significant event,” said attorney Dan Holliday, who represents National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation in an on-going lawsuit seeking to stop the city from seizing privately-owned firearms.
The city’s disclosure came as attorneys for both sides prepared for a court hearing on a motion to hold the city in contempt. (On March 1, The Second Amendment Foundation and the National Rifle Association filed a motion to have New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley held in contempt of court for refusing to comply with an injunction to stop illegal gun confiscations and return all seized firearms to their rightful owners.)
“We’re almost in disbelief,” said Second Amendment Foundation Founder Alan Gottlieb on Wednesday. “For months, the city has maintained it did not have any guns in its possession that had been taken from people following the hurricane. Now our attorneys have seen the proof that New Orleans was less than honest with the court.”
Not only should Nagin be thrown out of office, NO residents should run him out of town on a rail.
Since many Americans haven’t driven a Ford lately, the automaker is taking drastic measures to stay in business.
Ford Motor Co. plans to cut up to 30,000 jobs and shutter 14 plants in a sweeping restructuring that the nation’s second biggest automaker hopes will tackle declining market share and rising costs that led to hefty losses in its North American operations.
Ford shares rose on Monday’s news, indicating some investors were pleased with the long-awaited “Way Forward” plan as well as the company’s larger-than-expected $124 million overall profit in the fourth quarter. Union leaders called the planned cuts “extremely disappointing.”
Ford shares rose 42 cents, or 5.3 percent, to close at $8.32 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Ford said the plan will restore profitability by 2008. But some analysts said the plan was short on details, leaving them uncertain if it would boost Ford profits as the company struggles with aggressive competition, higher gasoline prices, rising costs for labor and raw materials and a junk credit rating. [...]
Ford and its larger rival, General Motors Corp., have been hurt by falling sales of profitable sport utility vehicles, growing health care and materials costs and restrictive labor contracts. GM announced a similar restructuring plan in November that will shave its work force by 30,000 and close 12 North American facilities.
Ford also has seen its U.S. market share slide as a result of increasing competition from foreign rivals. The company suffered its tenth straight year of market share losses in the United States in 2005, and for the first time in 19 years, Ford lost its crown as America’s best-selling brand to GM’s Chevrolet. Ford sold around 2.9 million vehicles for a market share of 17.4 percent in 2005, down from 18.3 percent the year before and 24 percent in 1990.
Related: Neal Boortz comments on what could’ve prevented the job cuts at Ford.
Maryland legislators recently passed legislation that will force Wal-Mart (and only Wal-Mart) to pay more money for health insurance benefits.
“We’re looking for responsible businesses to ante up . . . and provide adequate health care,” said Sen. Thomas M. Middleton (D-Charles), the Finance Committee chairman, as the Senate approved the measure with a majority wide enough to survive an anticipated veto. A similar bill has cleared the House of Delegates, and legislators expect to reconcile their differences easily.
Lawmakers said they did not set out to single out Wal-Mart when they drafted a bill requiring organizations with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health benefits — or put the money directly into the state’s health program for the poor.
But as debate raged in the Senate yesterday, it was clear that the giant retailer, which has 15,000 workers in Maryland, was the only company that would be affected.
“This is crossing a bridge,” said Sen. E.J. Pipkin (Queen Anne’s), who joined the Senate’s other Republicans in voting against the bill. “Annapolis is telling private business in the private marketplace what to do.”
Wal-Mart officials, likewise, condemned the General Assembly’s effort as an unneeded intrusion. “We think that this sets a bad precedent by singling out one employer when it’s a much bigger issue,” said Nate Hurst, a government relations manager at Wal-Mart.
David Brown says that it’s time for the retail giant to fight back.
Wal-Mart execs, here are your instructions. Please follow them to the letter.
One, admit you were wrong about ever participating in any eminent-domain abuse. Two, announce that you are, effective in two weeks, shutting down all of your stores in Maryland and sending all of your employees in the state home. Explain that you do not accept manacles as payment for your productive achievements. Explain that you wish to live in such a way that you neither sacrifice yourself to others, nor others to yourself. Explain that you will be happy to reverse your decision should the commie Maryland legislators rescind their recent commie legislation, so long as they do so within one week of your announcement. And, then, as soon as the press conference is over, begin phasing things out. Hand out pink slips and tell vendors to stop delivering. Then, if and when the commie legislators in Maryland refuse to reverse their obnoxious law in timely fashion, close down everything you have in that state — totally.
When the government tells businesses how to operate (whether it may be a big-box retailer or a small specialty shop), freedom suffers.
Wal-Mart’s only obligation is to make a profit, and the company answers solely to its shareholders (many of them happen to be Wal-Mart employees). Wal-Mart employees work for the company by choice; if they aren’t happy with the pay and benefits they currently receive, they are free to find better employment. At least that’s what I did when I worked briefly at a Wal-Mart store 13 years ago.
Postscript: Apologies to DarkStar for misinterpreting his comments to the above. It does sound silly of me to argue a point especially after there’s agreement. I’ve withdrawn my previous comments, and I’ll do my best in the future to accept agreement (as well as disagreement) gracefully. –DCT
Update: David Brown comments further (with more discussion) over at Blogcritics.
Update 2: Arnold Kling comments at TCS Daily:
Liberals see the market as an arena in which evil corporations inflict their greed on innocent victims. I wish you would see that motives matter less than consequences. I wish you could see that greed is at work when laws are passed that regulate markets, because regulations always produce winners and losers. I wish you could see that those winners and losers are often not who you think they are. I wish you could see that competitive behavior and free choice are forces that operate in the market as a check against greed. Finally, I wish you could see that greed is most difficult to restrain when it is exercised through the medium of government.