There’s a lot of talk right now about the skyrocketing oil and gas prices. With the summer blends kicking in and the flooding in Iowa jeopardizing the corn crops, most people will be paying $4 a gallon for the majority of the summer. Who is to blame for the high pump prices?

Republicans and Big Oil?

The Democrats, liberals, and Greens say this. And they point to the oil companies and say “Windfall profits! Price gouging! Bush! Cheney! Enron! Evil!” These people are still pushing the theory that Bush & Cheney are doing this to “make their buddies rich”. I offer you this: they’re already rich. They’ve been rich for years. It’s not like they were poor and all of a sudden they’re millionaires. “But they’re doing this to get more rich!” 

Does anyone believe this anymore? Seriously?

They’re rich because — like Bill Gates and Doug Daft — they are the top-tier management of global corporations with shareholders who demand profits. They are rich because they are responsible for managing the exploration for, and the drilling, refining, and delivery of, a global resource. These “greedy oil companies” employ tens of thousands of people worldwide, and operate on a profit margin hovering around 8%, which is about 1/3 that of CocaCola and Pepsi. They make a lot of money because every around the world buys their product, so they sell a lot of it.

As fast food companies have blossomed, so have the sales of Coke, but Doug Daft isn’t hauled in front of Congress to testify about CocaCola’s record profits last year, earned on about a 28% profit margin. And I don’t hear you complaining that a medium Coke that used to cost 30 cents is now a buck-twenty-five. Why not?

So if Big Oil, Bush, and Cheney are not to blame, who is? (more…)

POSTVILLE, Iowa — Antonio Escobedo ran to get his wife Monday when he saw a helicopter circling overhead and immigration agents approaching the meatpacking plant where they both work. The couple hid for hours inside the plant before obtaining refuge in the pews and hall at St. Bridgets Catholic Church, where hundreds of other Guatemalan and Mexican families gathered, hoping to avoid arrest.

“I like my job. I like my work. I like it here in Iowa,” said Escobedo, 38, an illegal immigrant from Yescas, Mexico, who has raised his three children for 11 years in Postville. “Are they mad because I’m working?”

No, we’re mad because you broke the law.

Now, there are some who call these people “migrant workers” or “undocumented workers” to try and change the conversation. (Because he who controls the conversation controls perception.) The reality is no matter what you call these people, they are illegal immigrants. They jumped the line. They broke the law. And they continue to break the law by:

1. Staying in the United States illegally
2. Using forged documents
3. Driving without drivers’ licenses
4. Using stolen Social Security documents
5. Failing to pay taxes on their income

This is a simply matter of supply and demand. We have a supply of money and jobs; illegal immigrants have a demand for money because their home country’s economy isn’t doing well. The way to fix the problem is to cut off the motivation — money — which will encourage these people to stay (and go) home. Here’s a free idea for the law-makers (Congress) and law-enforcers (the President):

Since most illegals send substantial amounts of their money home, impose an 80% export tariff on any wire transfers (Western Union and bank-to-bank) going to Mexico and Guatemala. Use 2/3 of the money collected to build the border fence and then build a detention center where illegals who are arrested wait for their “out-processing”. Give the remaining 1/3 to hospitals, based on the number of illegal immigrant patients treated per year. With the primary reason for coming to the United States negated, illegals will be more likely to fix the problems in their own country, rather than coming here and forcing us to endure bi-lingual ATMs and phone prompts.

Unfortunately, such common-sense legislation would never happen because the politicians in Washington are courting the Hispanic vote, and are more concerned with getting re-elected than they are with doing what is right for this country. That’s why they propose such things as amnesty and Social Security benefits for illegals, and “free” healthcare to fix a problem that has been caused in part by illegal immigration.

It is time to call a spade a spade. These people are breaking our laws by being in this country illegally, therefore they are illegal immigrants. We should treat them — and call them — exactly what they are: lawbreakers.

The Democrats in this country is on a never-ending march toward a larger, more powerful government. They have been since the beginning of the progressive movement, and really gained momentum under FDR.

Look at recent news. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, across the nation the three levels of government added 76,800 jobs to their payrolls in the first quarter of 2008. [1]

Meanwhile Michelle Obama tells people “Don’t go into corporate America,” and her husband and presidential hopeful Barack Obama blasts executives with the tired old line ”Some CEOs make more in one day than their workers make in one year.” Never mind that corporate America is where the best-paying jobs with the best benefits are. Never mind that these “greedy” executives are in charge of multi-billion-dollar corporations that employ tens of thousands of people, and their stock is owned by many retirement plans. According to the Obamas, these “greedy companies” should be punished by taxing them into oblivion.

But are the Republicans any better? Now we have headlines trumpeting the fact that McCain is promising billions in spending.

Republican John McCain is making promises that would cost billions of taxpayer dollars, yet he is vague about how he would pay for them. 

McCain is handing around a campaign grab bag of goodies. There are little treats like a summer gas-tax holiday and new mortgages for struggling homeowners, and there are big plums like tax breaks for corporations and families with children.

Aren’t all politicians vague about how they intend on paying for their campaign bribes promises? They all fail to do the math. Which is why we’re in the situation we’re in, forced to choose between three trains with the same destination — socialism — just different speeds in which we’ll get there:

The expected GOP presidential nominee has nothing on the Democrats. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama would spend billions of dollars themselves on things like paid family leave, universal health insurance and preschool for kids.

John McCain: The local commuter train who’s top speed is 20mph and will stop at every station.
Hillary Clinton: The freight train chugging along at 60mph with few or no stops between here and there.
Barack Obama: The 200mph express bullet train that will get us from liberty to tyrannical socialism in mere minutes.

Perhaps this is the reason that there’s been such an interest in Libertarian-leaning candidate Ron Paul. His new book, The Revolution: A Manifesto, has hit #1 on Amazon. [2]

The question is: can we turn this train around before it is too late?