The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy: Above My Pay Grade

 

I watched the first and maybe the only showdown between Obama and McCain on Saturday. I actually watched it on Sunday after doing a gig and after hearing several things thought I had broken my twenty years of sobriety. I wasn’t drunk but Mr. Obama may well have been judging from his answers.

 I can understand his not wanting to take a stand on abortion. He has to do a dance that pleases his far left base and does not alienate centrists and right wing Christians who he is trying to win.  He cannot speak his mind on abortion and say what he believes, he has to dodge the question about when does a child deserve human rights. So he tried to be clever but that strategy is full of landmines. His non-answer of “That’s above my pay grade.” was the wrong thing to say.  

“Above my pay grade” is the government/military version of “That’s not my job.” I’m sorry, my enlighten progressive friends, but when you are getting ready to try to run the free world there is nothing above your pay grade. If there is then you are not the leader, so send us the person for whom answering tough questions is within their pay grade.

Does Mr. Obama really expect the American people to believe that he has no opinion on when a fetus is protected by the constitution? Doesn’t this guy make a big deal out of the fact he was the editor of the Harvard Law Review? There is no decent lawyer in American who isn’t up to date on this issue. Does he really have no opinion on when human life begins? No wonder he voted “present” so many times in the Illinois Senate.

Later when asked which Justice on the Supreme Court he would not have nominated he said the obvious, “Clarence Thomas.” Then instead of speaking what he really believes, that no real “Black Man” can be a conservative. That being a conservative excludes you from being a member of the African-American community because you’re just a lackey of the White man. Instead he has the absolute chutzpa to say the Thomas was unqualified because of his lack of experience!  I think the whole lack of experience thing is a subject he might want to play down.

One final comment on this evening, and this is not an opinion a lot of conservative share but can we let the questioning of the presidential candidates to the journalists. I admit I am not a big fan of any preacher who seems to be more interested in self aggrandizement and wealth than following the word of Jesus.  I know the arguments about all the good that Rick Warren does and how his books have inspired millions but those are the same things arguments that I have heard defending Rev, Wright and Louis Farrrakhan. There was a rich guy in the bible who he told Jesus about all the charity work he did and asked what else he could do and I believe the Lord said, “Give up all you have and follow me.” If you want a more secular authority Lenny Bruce put it this way, “No preacher should own two suits until everyone in his congregation owns at least one.”

The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy: The Olympics, the Agony of the Seat

I am trying very hard to put my backside in front of the television to root home our Olympic team but in direct contrast to the old saw my flesh is willing but my spirit is weak. I just can’t get into the games and after giving it some thought here are several reasons.

First, the coverage has become too political correct. I don’t want to see the Brazilian Woman’s water polo team, a Togolese kayaker or the Pakistani field hockey team. I don’t care! I’m an American and do you know what I want to see? I want to see another American kicking someone’s ass! If we are not kicking their ass, cut it off and show me something else. In the 2004 Olympics NBC showed a basketball game where our men got beat by Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico! We still own Puerto Rico so why aren’t they on our team? It’s like Indiana getting their own Olympic team, it isn’t right.

There are a lot of thing in the Olympics that just aren’t sports. Badminton comes to mind. If I would have know I could win a gold medal for playing badminton I would have had a few less Budweisers at the annual Fourth of July picnic and been working on my game. Games like badminton are put in the Olympics so that third world countries can get a few medals. I would imagine that all of the badminton awards this year will go to someone from a country where getting food is more of a national pastime than any athletic competition. Ping Pong is also in at the games this year and I am trying to think which nation is good at table tennis. Could it be the China?

Other sports are being taken out of the Olympics. Baseball and softball are being shown the door after Beijing. These sports are played seriously in a lot more countries than badminton but the International Olympic Committee is made up of a lot of third world socialist. Liberal socialist everywhere, from France to Berkley hate the USA and Bush. Since these are our national sports and we dominate them in every games it’s their little way of sending a big FU to the U.S. In order to retaliate I think all of the gay women on our softball team should take up badminton.

I can’t watch woman’s gymnastics. It makes me feel dirty watching prepubescent girls flop around in skintight suits. If you had stuff like that on your computer you could get arrested for child pornography

Finally I can’t believe that everyone who wins an event gets exactly the same gold medal. That isn’t fair because some sports are harder than others. I like boxing it’s the most brutal and basic of all sports. But the guy who wins the heavyweight division of Olympic boxing gets the same medal as the guy who sits backwards in the eight man rowing event and doesn’t do anything.

The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy: Alexander Solzhenitsyn

 One of the greatest voices against communism fell silent this week and I heard very little from the same folks who can’t say “Ronald Reagan” often enough when talking about the downfall of the Soviet Empire. Alexander Solzhenitsyn stood up to the Stalinist while Ronnie was still trying to get third leads in Hollywood and pitching Borax. I like Reagan, he’s number two on my list of people who I would liked to have met right behind Elvis, but Reagan was a strong anti-communist from the safety of Southern California while Solzhenitsyn was making little rocks out of big ones in a prison camp where -30F was a heat wave.

Solzhenitsyn’s pen put the first crack in the Berlin Wall at a time when the American left was still singing the praises of Big Joe Stalin and getting a copy of “Soviet Life” was seen as cool. Solzhenitsyn was pounding on the Iron Curtain when even most hopeful Goldwater Conservatives could not imagine a world without the U.S.S.R.

Stalin, for you lefties are too young to remember was the guy who used the word “progressive” to describe slaughtering twenty or thirty million of his enemies.  Anyone who spent some time in the Stalinist Gulag would have seen having a pair of panties put on your head as a day off.

When you hear someone in this country chirping about a “chill wind” blowing through their right to self expression think of Solzhenitsyn striking blows against communism in a time when looking at the wrong guy in the wrong way could get you whacked in less time that it takes a Democrat Congress to head for vacation.

He spent most of his exile in America but never became Americanized. He deplored the west for its immorality, decadence and materialism. Like all good conservatives Solzhenitsyn sought a nation that would return to its roots and religion. There are those who believe his legacy was diminished by his support of Putin whom he thought was trying to accomplish those things he held dear.  But many old men, feeling their time grow short make mistakes in trying to live to see their dreams come to fruition. Einstein’s early work wasn’t diminished by his mistakes late in life nor will Solzhenitsyn’s legacy be lessened by his association with Putin.

My only question is when will the right in this country become welded to ideals like Solzhenitsyn rather than marginalizing our principles for votes.

The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy: Brett Favre, the NYT, and T. Boone

 

I was going to write this whole thing about how Barack Obama was going to solve the Brett Favre problem, beat Condi Rice and Rush to the NFL Commissioner job and drop out of the presidential race. Unfortunately all I got out of that idea was the preceding sentence so I had to come with something else. I was at the airport and I picked up a copy of the Sunday New York Times to try to get some ideas. Please, for the love of God, don’t let any of my radical right wing pals know I am saying this but I read the New York Times.

Not every day, but I like to pick it up when I am traveling. There are a lot of things to like about the Times. I may be the only person in the world who likes the way the ink still comes off on my hands especially when I am getting steamed reading Maureen Dowd. I like the crossword puzzles. Maybe the thing I like the most is that it’s not USA Today, a newspaper which gives new meaning to the phrase “lowering our standards”.

Of course the paper has a very liberal bias, a liberal bias that starts on page one and goes right through the review of books. For fun I counted the number of references to Obama in the headlines of one section and compared it to the number of times McCain’s name was in the headlines. The final tally was Obama four, McCain one. Even the ads have a liberal bias but you know that when you plunk down your buck fifty. Being unhappy with the bias of The New York Times is like being shocked at the graphic nature of Hustler Magazine.  

As I thumbed through the pages of The Old Grey Lady I found a short interview with T. Boone Pickens. He has been spending millions of dollars on a TV ad campaign to promote his huge investment is wind power. This whole “I don’t care about making money I just want to make energy” scam is why he is in the news these days. He even went up to Capitol Hill to try to get the ball rolling to try to pry loose a few government dollars to back his “plan”. He is running around claiming to have a plan to solve our energy dependence problem but I haven’t seen the whole plan yet. I am all for alternative energy sources but the problem with wind is that it doesn’t always blow. Just like electric cars, which I would buy in a minute if I could drive a little farther and a little faster than I can in a golf cart, the problem is storage.

But I am getting away from my point. I don’t care how T. Boone Pickens spends his money, I am a laissez-faire capitalist. Hey, if you can hoodwink the government into another bad alterative energy decision good for you. Maybe you could form a club with the corn farmers of America who are enjoying the fruits of the law unintended consequences.

The interview was edited to nineteen questions. None of the questions asked him for information about the plan. Several were about how wind turbines don’t look good and might kill birds. One was actually about his many marriages. There were four questions about his giving money to the Swift Boat Veterans. I was wondering if The New York Times did an interview with George Soros would they grill him about his political donations. Does anyone else see the irony in the fact that the leading progressive political action committee is called “Move On” and yet progressives love to keep bringing up things that happened during the past two presidential elections?  

The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Goes To the Movies: The Dark Knight

My wife wanted to go out last night. My choices were taking her some place expensive to eat or a movie. Since I really wasn’t in the mood to discuss some minor defect in our relationship over and over again I opted for the movie. I don’t see a lot of movies at the theater due to the political correctness of Hollywood. Don’t take that the wrong way. I’m not one of those right wingers who don’t go see a performer because of their political beliefs.  If I were I would be limited to Ted Nugent and Toby Keith concerts and Tom Selleck movies. I don’t like the Dixie Chicks because they are to country music what the Backstreet Boys were to pop, contrived treacle.  I generally don’t go to movies in the theater because I don’t enjoy sitting in a dark room with a bunch of yahoos who haven’t figured out how to shut off their cell phones or shut their cake holes for two hours and paying eight bucks for the privilege. If I want to hear commentary along with my movie watching I will find an old episode of Mystery Science Theater.

A few years back minority pressure groups started to complain whenever members of their group were depicted as the bad guys in movies. So no matter how illogical it might seem if you make a movie about terrorist attacking New York you better not make the bad guys Arabs. If there is an intercity drug dealer he better not be an African-American or Hispanic. Woman’s group and gay organizations also started whining about how they are “stereotyped”. It has gotten to the point that whenever you see the straight white guy in a movie you know he’s gonna end up being the villain.

But we went to see the new Batman movie “The Dark Knight”. Inadvertently my wife got the other thing she wanted because we stopped by the concession stand and got two sodas and a box of popcorn for just $12. I was hoping Dennis Kucinich or Henry Waxman could start an investigation into this senseless price gouging.

The movie was actually pretty good. The cast was top notch and included my old Chicago drinking buddy Ron Dean as a crooked cop. Talk about stereotyping, like every Chicago cop and politician is on the take. Maybe Chicago politicians need an advocacy group to help them clean up their image, if they could only find a clean, well spoken guy from the Windy City to champion their cause. Anyway, the acting was great, there was plenty of blowing up stuff and shooting people. Batman’s sidekick was happily absent so the entire homoerotic nuance of the George Clooney/Batman era was gone. The casting director did a great job of finding an actress who looked a lot like Katie Holmes-Cruise to play her part since she was too busy with Scientology to take the job.

 Still Hollywood couldn’t resist taking a few liberal swipes with references to the Patriot Act and torture.  I am about to discuss some of the plot so if you are fussy about that kind of thing stop reading right now. Batman builds this big eavesdropping device and his R and D guy Mr. Fox, played by Morgan Freeman gets all moral even though it ultimately saves the lives of hundreds if not thousands of people and leads to the Jokers capture and the end to his reign of terror. Perhaps someone should take Barack to see this. He might get the message about fighting terror or drop out of the Presidential race to take that Chicago job.  

The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy; Barack Does Berlin

When Barack Obama was in Europe last week the enlightened progressives of the United States got a rare opportunity to indulge two of their compulsive behaviors at the same time; Europhoria and Obamamania. Fortunately for me I was in Alaska enjoying myself hunting, fishing and looking at glaciers that were supposed to be gone by now according to some. They were still there and seemed to be just as large as they were the last time I was there four years ago but that is just anecdotal information.

Most enlightened progressives suffer from these two insidious diseases. You can check my blog from June 21, 2008 if you want more information on these ailments.

I saw some of the video of Barack in Berlin. The size of the rally was impressive but then the Germans have always been suckers for a free beer and a good speaker. Barack is an awesome speaker. He says some really scary things but he says them so well that I think they just go by some people don’t realize what has been said. I went and read the lyrics the song he sang in Berlin. As a public service to my friends on the left who are in love with the melody but don’t hear the words I thought I might break down a few lines from the speech.

“I know that I don’t look like the Americans who’ve previously spoken in this great city.”

Here is the guy who is supposed to be the post-racial candidate and yet at every opportunity he brings up race. It’s getting close to the John Kerry reminding us he was in Viet Nam rate.

“Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle.”

We didn’t learn to work together, we kicked their ass! We bombed and beat them into submission and then we fed and clothed them when the Russians tried to starve them and chase us out of town.

“As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.”

As I said above there seemed to be plenty of ice in Alaska and it was the middle of July. Anchorage is having its coolest summer in twenty years. The Southern ice cap is as large as it has ever been since records were kept. I know he said “Arctic” but I would hope he isn’t going to be that Clintonian. I think he meant to imply the ice caps are shrinking. I would like Mr. Obama or Mr. Gore to show me exactly where on the Atlantic the coastline is shrinking. I was in Miami recently and Key Biscayne was still there and it is only a few inches above sea level. While I haven’t been to Kenya in awhile the farmers from Kansas to Ohio are having a bumper crop year while corn prices are at an all time high thanks to the brilliant government plan to make food into fuel. Meanwhile the farmers in Iowa have crops that are under a few feet of drought.

While we are on this whole global warming thing can any of you tell me what the optimum temperature for the human race or for the planet might be?  I didn’t think so.

“This is the moment when we must renew the goal of a world without nuclear weapons.”

 Who isn’t for a world without nuclear weapons? It’s probably the same folks who are against clean air and water. I would like to know what Barack is going to do about Iran. Let me tell you how many nukes Barack is going to get rid of if he is elected; zero.  

“This is the moment when we must build on the wealth that open markets have created, and share its benefits more equitably.  Trade has been a cornerstone of our growth and global development.  But we will not be able to sustain this growth if it favors the few, and not the many.” 

“From each according to their ability, to each according to their need” and “Workers of all lands unite”, sound familiar?

 

The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy: Back From Alaska

 

 

You take a week off and the world goes nuts!  I’ll get to the media’s Obamathon and “Barrack Does Berlin” later this week. Bush went and reversed an executive order and the price of gas in my area dropped fifty cents in the nine days I was away. I admit I was caught off guard. I figured that this would be a slow time in the campaign and I could sneak off to Alaska for a little hunting and fishing and I wouldn’t miss much. I thought I’d go up join in with a few of my eco-insensitive brothers and have a look at where the new oil wells are going to be, grab a nice polar bear and bald eagle sandwich and be back before the riots and the real mudslinging got into high gear.

 

I had a good look around up there in the 49^th state and here’s what I learned; could stick a few thousand drilling rigs out there on the tundra and I don’t think anyone would notice. Most of the Native Alaskans I spoke with, for you who still think English should be used in an exact manner I mean the people we used to call Eskimos not all people who are really native to Alaska, want more drilling!

“What!” you enlightened progressives say, “That can’t be! Those indigenous peoples love the earth and don’t want to see her despoiled.” Wrong-o my leftist friends, just like all human beings those whale hunting, seal clubbing mukluk wearers want as much oil to flow out of the frozen north as possible. “Why is that?”  You may ask. There is a simple one word answer, money! As much as it may ruin the leftist image of our Native American brothers and sisters they are just as human as the rest of us and the real green that drives the energy debate is not ecology but cash!

 

Every person in Alaska who has lived there long enough is a stockholder in the state oil business. Not directly, but profits from Big Evil Oil Companies leases are put into the government fund and whatever is left after the politicians skim off their graft is divided up among the eligible residents. Every year they get a check from the government for their share of the business. In 2007 it was $1654. Oil averaged less than $70 dollars a barrel for that year. This year the average has been over $120 so the dividend from the permanent fund should rise quite a bit this year. Imagine that check if the the flow of oil from the frozen north doubled. Now add in a couple of trillion of cubic feet of natural gas. Those kooky Alaskans just completed a big deal with Canada to ship a whole bunch of our natural gas to Canada through a pipeline the Canadians get to build. Can you begin to see why those who will have to live closest to the new oil and gas production are all for it?  This new gas pipeline is going to ship over four billion cubic feet per day. Per day!   

 

  On top of that there are corporations which are entirely owned by the native tribes and rake in millions more from the leases they grant to Evil Big Oil. Guess what those nutty Eskimos want to do? They want to open Anwar and drill. Think I’m making that up? Here is a quote from Jacob Adams Chief of the Inupiat Eskimos and the president and chairman of something called the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation.

  “It is our experience that carefully regulated oil exploration and development can take place on the private and public lands inside the Coastal Plain study area. We believe the oil industry has made good on its promise to preserve our environment, while providing economic opportunity for our people and energy security for our country.”

 

 So if the native peoples in Alaska want drilling, and the vast majority of Americans want drilling, and just simple act of the President negating an executive order send gas prices down why aren’t we getting ready to drill.  Six words; Environmental extremist own the Democrat Party.  

Notes From The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy; Warning Explicit Opinions

 

Warning: This may be the most offensive and politically incorrect blog I have ever written. If you are easily offended stop reading now.

On Saturday I went to a fundraiser with my son. It was a good cause and my son was playing in a three-on–three basketball tournament. There was a lot of other stuff going on, kids games, a cornhole tournament, (don’t ask, it’s a mid-western thing) a bake sale, a basket raffle and entertainment. The entertainment was a local “dance team” that did some interpretive dance numbers as a team and as single dancers.

 Here’s where it’s going to get rough so I am warning you for the final time, if you are squeamish stop reading and go get your Oprah Book Club selection.

After watching these poor kids flop around for three of four songs a question came into my mind. When do we start to tell kids that maybe they aren’t good at something? Here is a team of young girls and maybe one or two of them could keep time and knew the routine. Many were out of step, overweight and jammed into unflattering costumes. No wait, I didn’t want to say overweight, I wanted to say fat. Fat teenage girls packed like sausage into ugly costumes. Before you get yourself in an uproar about young girls and body image I don’t think everyone should or has to be slim. I am pretty hefty myself and have been all of my life. I was dressed in Sears Husky’s and have worn the nickname “Tubs” around my hometown from the time I was in fourth grade. I just think there are things that are much crueler than telling a kid to choose another leisure activity. Letting them make fools of themselves in front of their friends comes to mind.  I think we need to teach our kids that when you are obese modeling and dance are probably out as career choices.

Let’s say your kid came to you and said, “Hey I have been watching Ultimate Fighting on TV and I want to try it.” How many times would your child have to hit the deck before you say, “Enough!”  If you’re anything like me the answer is once or less. You would sit that child down and explain why it isn’t a good idea that he let other more talented kids smack him silly. If that didn’t take hold you would fall back on the old dad stand by, “Because I said so.”

Yet, little girls see Hannah Montana or some other Disney preteen crap and hundreds of moms encourage their little darlings to go sing and dance. Forget the fact they have no talent and don’t look good in spandex. I don’t know how this whole thing of everybody gets a trophy, never stop a kid from trying, never say you can’t got started but it has to stop. We have raised a generation that thinks just putting on a uniform makes you an athlete and that just pulling up a leotard makes you dancer. It doesn’t and at some point you aren’t encouraging your child you’re lying to them and enabling their delusion. Kids have to learn there is a difference between showing up and being a champion.

You have to find a balance between encouragement and toughness. If you want to be a winner you have to learn how to beat people and be tough. The truth of life is that in order for there to be winners there have to be losers. If you don’t like being a loser you have two options; work harder or quit. It pains me to think that Vince Lombardi couldn’t get a coaching job today. He would have to go to anger management and all kinds of sensitivity classes.

Yes, my friends I am a troglodyte and a dinosaur but my son will learn the difference between showing up and excellence. It is my hope for him that he becomes a man who knows how to kick butt in athletics and in life when he grows up. Do you know whose butt he will kick? Your wimpy kid’s!

Notes From The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy: An open letter to and from Sen. McCain

I got this e mail from John McCain today. I almost just hit the delete button but read it and looked at the survey mentioned. It was the typical political stuff.  Directed questions which all meant to show how much you and the party and candidates are in step with your stated views. Since John said my feedback was needed I thought I would go off the page a little and write back to him.

 

Dear Friend,

I am 100 percent committed to leading our Party to victory in this November’s elections all across the country

.

As a critical first step in uniting our Party and putting together a winning campaign plan I am asking you to take part in a Victory 2008 critical issues survey. I hope you will help our efforts today by following this link and completing it online.

Your support for RNC VICTORY 2008 and your survey answers are vital to electing Republicans this November.  Your participation will give us a greater understanding of the views of voters in your area.  And it will provide an invaluable up-to-date reading on many of the key issues that will decide the outcome of this momentous election.
 
The fate of all of our Republican candidates and the fate of our Party in the 2008 election is in the hands of Americans like you.  We cannot succeed without your immediate input.  Please join us in our campaign to make sure America is on the right path by completing your Victory 2008 Critical Issues Survey today.

With warmest regards,

 

John McCain

P.S. Your participation in the Victory 2008 Survey Project is crucial to getting a better understanding of the views of voters in your area.  I hope you will return your completed Survey to RNC Headquarters today.

 

Dear Senator McCain,

 

I am not a Republican, I am a conservative. I usually vote for Republican candidates because they best represent my views. I am 100% committed to not just saying close enough anymore when I cast my vote.

 

The past eight years have been a bigger disappointment for me than the eight years of Clinton because I expected so much from a President who I thought was a conservative and governed like a liberal. I would like to support you because of your genuine status as an American hero and long family tradition of service to America but your involvement in McCain-Feingold and McCain-Kennedy among other things leaves me leery.

 

You asked me to fill in a survey which is meant to show support for your positions but I have opted to give you a few things I would like addressed in the general campaign.

 

I am not interested in reaching across the aisle and getting along with socialist like Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. I don’t care if their intentions are good or they are noble people. So was Chamberlain.

 

I am interested in kicking Islamic extremist down a deep dark hole. I am interested in making English our national language. I am interested in voter reforms which assure only citizens vote. I am interested in securing our borders by doing so helping to secure our economic future. I am interested in energy independence even if it means drilling wells in the Rose Garden, my front yard and the middle of the Yosemite Valley. I am interested in returning manufacturing and middle class jobs to the United States from Mexico, China and India. I am interested in the sanctity of human life and think the right to life trumps so called “reproductive rights” which I am having difficulty finding in the Constitution. I am interested in keeping my Second Amendment rights because I realize without the Second Amendment there will soon be no First Amendment.

Finally I am interested in exactly who you are going to appoint to the Supreme Court. I actually don’t give a big horse’s backside who you pick as a running mate. He or she will have little or no effect on my life over the next twenty or thirty years but those Justices will be around for a long time.

 

So, please name a few names and give me a sign on just a few of these issues so I can leave my clothespin home on Election Day.

 

Your Fellow Reagan Conservative,

 

Jeffrey Jena

 

Notes from The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy: The President and his gas problem.

 

I am no economist. I couldn’t tell you the difference between Adam Smith and Paul Craig Roberts. I don’t know if NAFTA was good or bad for most of us but I do know I liked it better when the person at tech support spoke English as their native language. I haven’t balanced my check book since…well to be honest I never have! I have automatic overdraft protection and don’t really worry about if the balance is a few cents off. What I am trying to tell you is that everything I am about to say could be wrong, however being a blow hard far right wing nut job I never let being wrong stop me from spouting off.  Anyway, I don’t think the president has any great effect on the price of gas. Come to think of it I don’t think the president has much immediate effect on the economy at all.

 I know politicians both right and left like to make you think they are in control of everything when things are good. However let the inflation numbers rise, unemployment creep up or a bunch of deadbeats stop paying their mortgages and watch ‘um run for cover. I believe Jimmy Carter, and I am about to make my conservative friends go nuts here, got a bad rap for the economy when he was busy screwing up the country. He had plenty of faults but I guarantee if he would have kicked some Iranian ass and brought the hostages home Ronald Reagan would be a historical footnote. As much as I like Ronald Reagan I don’t think he was any economic gawd and Bill Clinton did just about everything an economist would say would kill growth and yet the stock market skyrocketed.

I know the conventional wisdom is that people vote their pocketbooks but I don’t have a pocketbook. I’m not even sure what a pocketbook is. I have an Elvis wallet and an ATM card and they both would rather have secure borders and a strong military than positive economic data.

Here’s my point, and I do have one. I am tired of hearing about how Bush is an oilman and he is helping all is oilman buddies.  Oil companies don’t own the oil. Most of the oil we are now using is owned by the Saudis, Iran, and Venezuela. My, what a lovely bunch of trading partners! I think I would rather be late with my payment to my loan shark/bookie whose family is in the olive oil business than deal with any of those folks. Just in case you haven’t figured this out yet, the Saudis are not in love with us. Having the Saudis for an ally is like having Scott Peterson for your fishing buddy. You do not want to turn your back for too long.

I know a there are a lot of conspiracy theories bouncing around about why the price of oil has shot through the roof. There are the Bilderberg kooks who think power mongers like the Duchess of Mallorca and the ex-mayor of Amsterdam are pulling the strings of an international cabal. Then there is another group who think the Bushes are hooked up with the house of Saud, of course they would have to have the permission of the Duchess to do anything.  Then there are the ultra-green folks who think the whole thing is just a scam to drill in Alaska and off shore in California and Florida.  I actually wouldn’t mind if Exxon came and drilled a well in my yard. It would mean we were closer to thumbing our noses at a whole bunch of folk and a lot less yard work for me.

I really don’t mind paying four bucks for gas. Sure, I would rather be paying a buck thirty but I would also like to be paying less than sixty percent of my income to one arm of the government or another and that is something the president could have an immediate effect on.