Opinions and Comments On Current Issues

This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions.

Arizona:

This entire situation is so filled with anti-American, political, selfish, undemocratic, and downright foolish behavior that I have trouble believing it is actually happening in our country.

The conflict has evolved into a multitude of face to face confrontations and inappropriate government policies which seem unimaginable.

First there is the responsibility of the Executive Branch to uphold the laws enacted by the Legislative Branch. Congress enacted the national immigration policies, procedures, and laws. Now our Executive Branch (Bushes branch included), have refused to have the Federal law enforcement agencies and Federal prosecution personnel enforce those laws. This is a blatant violation of the “checks and balances” prescribed in the Constitution. It is also a disgusting example of selective law enforcement because of political considerations.

This inaction by the Administration then led to Arizona taking steps which were obviously necessary on the part of the state Governor who had the responsibility of protecting the safety and welfare of the citizens of her state. Thus, Arizona enacted its own border protection laws and enforcement procedures, which were in reality merely a restatement of the Federal laws which were enacted by Congress. This action created a loud uproar from a mob comprised of some of the 15,000,000 illegal aliens we are hosting, a portion of the legal aliens on the scene, and bus loads of California union members paid for by various unions in support of the Administration.

This created a historical States Rights Vs. Federal Authority court case which is now working steadily towards a Supreme Court Ruling. Most of the lower federal courts are filled with liberal, Democratic appointee Federal Judges, and Arizona has little chance to win at any level other than the highest court in the land. Anyone who has ever read the Constitution would know what the Founding Fathers would have ruled in this case…their greatest fear was the creation of a powerful central government which would erode the then existing powers of state governments.

What is the real reason for all of this conflict? In my opinion, if Obama is able to maintain control of the House and the Senate after the elections this November, his next step on the immigration front will be to force through legislation which grants citizenship to the herd of illegal’s on a time frame which would give them voting rights before the 2012 elections. They are one of his hopes and strategies for a second term.

Political Corruption:

Charlie Rangal has been renowned as a public shyster, self serving, crooked political icon who was always assured reelection from his Harlem, New York base which exemplified those same characteristics. He was reelected twenty times and has served forty corrupt years. He became so cocky, so outlandishly full of himself and his image of being above the law that it finally caught up with him. Can anything be more representative of the unbelievable idiocy of the Washington scene than for this man to be “Chairman of the Ethics Committee”?? It is an example of how bad our fragile democracy has become. It is another example of why we need to “vote all of the rascals out of office” as soon as we have the opportunity. If it is too late, and we are unable to muster the needed majority….I fear our nation is doomed. I plead for everyone to vote (at least one time even though many of them will be voting several times). We have to “Get it Right” immediately, or we will never get it right again.

The Oil Spill:

Thank God that it appears we are about to permanently get this monster well under control I think several positive lessons may ultimately result from this experience.

First, we must determine what additional safeguards are necessary and force that technology into use.

Second, we must continue to drill but step up access to alternate sources of energy including conversion to natural gas, more nuclear, and drilling in easier to reach oil reserves such as the West, Alaska, and oil shale technology, along with more research on hydrogen cells, solar and wind technologies.

Third, we should create a poised, ready to use response system which can serve the entire Gulf shoreline with skimmers, booms, barriers, and other technology for keeping any released oil from reaching land. This could have been accomplished in this incident if political bureaucracy had not hampered international reaction and mobilization.

Clean Up:

Another thing which is interesting to observe is the ongoing clean-up efforts. It appears that the one thing that all of the experts on the environment failed to plug into the situation was the self healing skills of Mother Nature. It appears that the oil that went into the ocean has been quickly and efficiently broken down by natural microbes, and is effectively disappearing from the problem of clean-up. It appears that the discussion of oil covering the entire shoreline of the Florida peninsula and the Eastern seaboard was in error.

This leaves the problem of cleaning those areas of grassland and shore where the oil did create ecological problems. This oil could have been stopped before it reached those shores if government had not deterred and hindered reaction, but now there is a clean up problem in several areas, primarily in the Louisiana Mississippi Delta.

This is a good example of something our liberal environmentalist should heed, “Mother Nature is still in charge”.



Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning-

● (Always say something Nice)… The crew putting the utilities underground around the court house are a very productive, skilled, organized, and hard working crew. They exemplify what good management and motivation can accomplish in the private sector…wish we could accomplish the same in the public sector.

● I commend the County Commission and the Marianna City Commission for not raising taxes to offset the property devaluations which were recognized in the tax roll this year. (Oops- That is two nice things.
“There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.”
Robert Heinlein (1907-1988) (Provided by Dick Kranker)

Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Hatcher Publications.