"...from my cold dead hands..."

Night shoot at Knob Creek gun range, West Point, KY.

Today is an historical day, the day our Supreme Court of these Great United States upheld one of the most fundamental rights we have, the right to bear arms. The challenge was the District of Colombia, Washing DC, and its practical ban on handguns of any kind being owned by its population, even in their own homes for self defence. The court found that the 2nd amendment applied to individual rights, a sticking point for years and years with the "control" crowd. The SC has made its ruling, coming down on the side of the peoples right to have a gun for self defence. Here is the majority opinion; http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/07-2901.pdf

"The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a
firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home." Supreme Court, District of Colombia-V-Heller, June 26, 2008

This really says it all, the right is unconnected to service in a militia. It is an individual right, the right of the "people" to bear arms.

This ruling shows the importance of having the right person in the White House and also in the Senate. The only reason we, the people, were handed this ruling is the fact that Pres. Bush was in office and he made two appointments to the US SC that were approved by a Republican controlled Senate at the time. If Gore was the president we would have had a totally different out come. Even though we don't have the strongest conservative nominee in John McCain, he still strongly believes in and holds dear the words of the US Constitution (okay, McCain/Feingold, not so much) as what our founding fathers meant to say. And only those words, and the documents they were founded on should be considered when interpreting what is law. Nothing after that, accept rulings by the Court its self, should be considered. Even if he's not our favorite, we will have much more chance to influence him to our way of thinking than Senator Obama. Better "center-right" than "far-left". He has said that he will use Scalia, Roberts and Alito, as examples of the kinds of judges he will nominate. We will have to hold him to that.

Here's the oil news that makes me go NUTS!

An article from CNNMoney.com interviewing 2 Senators about our greatest, and the world's largest oil reserve, the US western oil shale fields. Over 1.5 TRILLION, yes, with a "T", barrels of oil in the ground in Colorado and her neighbour states. We have 5 times the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia but our government, again gets in the way.

This article talks about the politics of oil shale, and the new and improved methods of retrieving it without harming the surrounding environment and the cost of recovery compared to ethanol via the all mighty corn.

So get out the duct tape, rap your head really tight and read this, and then reply to me and let me know how much of your head you recovered after it blew apart from the absolute insanity of it all.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/06/news/economy/birger_shale.fortune/?postversion=2008060617

Drilling Now Won't Help, Or Will It?

Let's look at what a oil futures speculator looks at every day. They try to see into the future at what the supply of oil will be and what the demand will be, 1 year, 3 years, 5 year or even 10 years out into the future. The prices they set are what they think the price will be at these future times. They write contacts with the producers to buy their oil at a certain price, thinking it will be worth that or more. So anything affecting the supply or demand in the future will affect the price they set today. A great example of that was when the NYT came out with a rehash of a news report about the war games held by Israel. The speculators saw this last week and saw it for what it was, a practice for attacking Iran's nuclear facilities. So they saw the possibility of the supply of oil going down in the future, Iran strikes back at the Straits of Hormuz and such, and boom, the price of oil goes up $15 in 2 days. Then, today, the NYT comes out with the news that the US says that the war games where just what they thought, and again, oil spikes. We hear all this chatter about how the oil speculators are driving the prices up, but they are doing what any commodities trader would do, they try to guess the future, and to them it must look very bleak.

Here's an example of speculating on a more personal scale. Let's say you love creamed corn, you just can't live with out it, you have it at every meal. Now let say the cost of a can of creamed corn is $1.00 per can. You go through one case per week or 24 cans. Now, in the news you hear that the corn corp has been devastated by hail and flooding and the corn corp will be 50% less this year. You are beside yourself, what will you do if you can't get your creamed corn. Well, someone comes to you and says, "you like creamed corn, I'll make a deal with you. We'll write a contract that states I'll sell you the right to buy creamed corn at $3.00 a can 6 months from now." You think about it and conclude that creamed corn will cost more than that 6 months from now so you sign the contract. There, you've just become a speculator on creamed corn. Because you think it will cost at least $3.00 or more 6 months from now, you looked into the future and saw that supply will be less, you were willing to bet that that price, $3.00, will be a bargain.

Now, lets go ahead one month and you find out that the FFA discovered a way to bring in a corn harvest in half the time, they discovered new corn supplies. We had this ability in America for years but the government just now lets us go forward with it. Now you're thinking that your $3.00 contract for creamed corn is over priced and you want to sell your contract. You'll have to take a loss but you'll sell at $1.50.

Translating this to oil, as if you weren't doing so already, if we open up, and even "invest" some of our tax dollars in developing our oil reserves in the very near future, the speculators will see that the supply of oil will increase and that will drive down the price per barrel. Even if will take 4 years, as many of the drilling companies think it will, or even more as the Dem's in Washington spout, the speculators will see this as a increase in supply and lower the price per barrel. Let's face it, 4 years is not that long, I mean what should you tell your college bound student, "you can go Tommy, but it really won't do any good now to you income, that's far off in the future." The Saudis said they'd increase by 3 to 6 million barrels a year more and the price fell, just by them saying so. What if we can produce, and we can, 100 million more barrels a year, what would happen to oil prices then. We have over 80 billion barrels of oil that we know of waiting to be pumped, or mined and refined. All we need is something concrete from Washington, a bill passed, and we'd see the benefits now.

We have the ability to be independent of middle east oil in 20 years. If we passed laws and made everyone aware of our goal, how much more oil do you think the OPEC would pump to keep down the cost so we would move slower or make it so we couldn't do it for what the price of a barrel costs. They'd pump so much to drive down the price, we'd see the oil price dump and prices at the pump, for a little while, fall dramatically.

I say we do this; use up their oil, then start using our own when they run out. But we must be ready to drill, develop and refine as soon as the world sees OPEC starting to run low. We have enough oil in off-shore deposits, oil shale and coal to liquid technology to supply us and much of the rest of the world with black gold for over 100 years. It's just not the light, sweet, easy to refine stuff that the Saudis have. But theirs won't last forever.

We are the greatest nation on earth, and we've been blessed by God to live in a land of bounty. We must survive and thrive to promote freedom and liberty around the world for as many people as we can. This is the calling of our nation, and we must be good stewards of the blessings God has provided for us to carry out this calling. Using our resources wisely, natural and technological resources, we must show the world's despots and radical leaders that there is one thing all people are given in this world by their creator, Free Will, the ultimate freedom. They will see that living as we do, a free people, a free nation, will provide their people with the ability to become the best that can be and use the gifts that God has given them. I know President Bush sees this and I hope that more and more Americans see this as well.

ps: Here is a great example of what I mean, this article from NRO tells the story of how this will work, just pass a law Congress and we'll have lower gas prices very soon after. http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTM1YmU4NWZkYjBhOTk3MjJmM2YzYmM5ZWU3M2UxYTY=

Letter to Mel Martinez, Say NO to Cap-n-Trade

updated today, 06/20/08

Dear Senator Martinez,
I have to respectfully ask if you have seriously looked at the global warming issue, because voting for the Warner-Lieberman bill was a huge mistake. One only has to research this matter for a short while to realize that man has nothing to do with the warming of the earth and that increasing Co2 levels have never, in the data that man has accumulated via ice cores or sedimentary analysis, shown a time when Co2 PRECEEDED a rise in global temperatures. Please see this Cap-n-Trade program for what it is, redistribution of wealth and a giant leap forward for the powers that be to intrude on the daily life of every man, woman and child in this country.

If you continue to follow this line of thinking and voting I will no longer be able to support you in the next election. I am a life long Republican and conservative. I care deeply about our environment but also about the economy that makes it possible for us to lead the world. I have supported you in the past, but on this issue, Cap-n-Trade, I will withdraw that support for always if there is no change in your support for this bill or anything like it.

Governments in Europe and elsewhere are turning away from this type of bogus legislation because it simply does not work. And even if it did, the reduction in Co2 emissions would be of such little importance or impact that it would all be for naught. Don’t let political correctness or the desire to look like an environmentalist cloud your judgment on this issue.

Please remember, Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less. 50 miles off the west coast of Florida is some of the richest natural gas reserves available, and you and Mr. Nelson keep thinking that the people of Florida don’t want there to be drilling there. You are absolutely wrong. If there is natural gas or oil field off the Gulf coast we want you to drill, not just so we can have $2.00 gas back again, I think that’s gone forever, but for National Security. I know we will never be energy independent, we get much of our oil form Mexico and Canada. But keeping the money here in our county instead of in the hands of those that would do us harm is vital to our security. We would also be less vulnerable to serious import issues, such as Iran cutting off the Straits of Hormuz or damage to vital pipelines. Oil is life to this country, and until we figure out how to live without or much less of it, it will remain so, so drilling and pumping more is our only option today. I agree with you that we need more nuclear power plants, please read:

http://capmsblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/drill-now-nuclear-later.html .

I think it’s the only thing that will allow us to really have the security we seek, security from Islomo-terrorists and security from powers that would cut off the flow of oil to us and the rest of the world.

So please Senator, do more research, and if you find that I am wrong on about an increase in Co2 never preceding an increase in global temperature, I will change my mind about you and support your efforts. But if you can’t find a study that clearly shows increasing Co2 coming first, then please keep looking, look into this subject and find what I know you’ll find, that this is hype and misinformation on a level we have never seen before.

God Bless you and yours Senator and God Bless America!

Senator's response:

Below is a response to the recent comments I received from you:

Dear Mr. Kirk:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the expansion of domestic drilling in our nation. I appreciate hearing from you and would like to respond to your concerns.

The United States faces a fundamental need for increased domestic energy supply in the face of increased global demand to reduce energy prices. I share your concerns with the high price of fuel and its effects, particularly the unprecedented wealth reallocation resulting from our nation's dependence on foreign oil.

I helped design the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (S. 3711), which was passed into law in 2006. This bill opened 8 million acres of the Outer Continental Shelf in the western Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas exploration while securing environmental protection for Florida's beaches. Although this opened OCS area contains trillions of cubic feet of natural gas and millions of barrels of oil, no new production has begun. Production in this area is the most immediate option we have for a large-scale increase in domestic energy supply. We must take advantage of this available asset before considering expanding coastal drilling that may jeopardize our beaches.

In order to increase domestic energy supply, I have consistently supported an environmentally responsible approach for oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). I have also promoted coal-to-liquids technology, the development of cellulosic ethanol and other non-food-based renewable fuels, tax incentives for renewable energies, and the extraction of vast oil shale deposits in America's West. To reduce demand, I have consistently supported increases in fuel efficiency standards and investment in mass transit. I am committed to both increasing domestic supply and decreasing domestic demand of energy in order to alleviate these factors that contribute to high fuel prices.

I am working closely with the Administration and my colleagues in the Senate to ensure that Florida’s voice is heard as we address the need for increased domestic energy supply. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any additional comments or questions. For more information about issues and activities important to Florida, please sign up for my weekly newsletter at http://martinez.senate.gov/.

Sincerely,Mel Martinez

United States Senator

The Senator still did not address the issue of Cap and Trade and defend his vote on that. All these other items are in the past, I want to know what he will do in the future.

My responce:

Senator,
Thank you for your response to my email, but you didn't answer the question about your Cap-n-Trade vote. I do appreciate the efforts to open more areas to drilling. But voting for Cap-n-Trade will only hurt our economy, and hurt the consumer. It's just another tax on business and commerce. And corporations don't pay taxes, you know this, they just pass them along to you and me in the form of higher prices, lower employment growth or lower dividend payouts, to your 401K and my IRA.

Drill Now, Nuclear Later!

60% of the voters are for drilling off the coasts and in wildlife preserves. That statistic from an article from Larry Kudlow, ( http://www.kudlowsmoneypolitics.blogspot.com/ ). And Newt Gingrich with his "Drill Now, Drill Here, Pay Less" campaign should wake up Washington to the fact that the public is not fooled by their petty pandering. Obama with his "wind-fall profits tax", what the hell is a Wind-fall profit anyway, someones in the right place at the right time and put in the hard work to be there and the government wants to punish them for it? As I write this the government of Russia is lowering the taxes on their oil companies, helping them explore and produce more. But our possible future president wants to increase taxes and take away tax breaks that assist them in their exploration and development of new resources. This makes no since, especially in a very slow economy as we have now.


Instead of handing out another $50 billion in a stimulus package as Obama suggests, how about taking that $50 billion and investing it some new drilling off the Florida coasts, ANWR and my favorite, building more Nuclear power plants. As I've stated in the past, if government would get out of the way and let Americans do what we do best, innovate and produce, that $50 billion would come back to the government 10 fold in new business and personal tax revenue. But that's not all I'd like to see.


How about this for a concept: Many more nuclear power plants, producing a much higher percentage of our power needs than today, and the use of state of the art electric cars. Now I know what you might be thinking, electric cars, those golf carts on steroids, no thanks. But what if you could go from zero to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds in one. And what if you could travel for more than 220 miles before you hand to recharge. And what if you could recharge in less than 4 hours. And what if your car looked like this:

Now, yes, this car is expensive, about $109,000, but it's the first one. Plans are in the works to produce a 4 door version that we can only expect to go longer, be a little more family friendly, and be more affordable. And as any new technology, time has a way of bringing down the costs as more are produced and costs per unit decrease. This car runs of the same type of battery technology as your cell phone or lap top computer use, lithium batteries. There are over 6800 lithium batteries in this car alone. And they will last 100,000 miles, then they will start to loose some of their storage capacity. And disposing of them is much more environmentally friendly than lead acid or nickel type batteries. Read more about the Tesla "Dark Star" here: http://www.teslamotors.com/design/wallpaper.php



With Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV) and with Zero Emission Power, Nuclear plants, so many problems are solved. Immense reduction in oil imports, 68% of oil is used to power our cars and other transportation, less reliance on fossil fuels for power, which will result in much less Co2 going in to the atmosphere. Less Co2 will appease the "Greenies" that think we are the cause of our world warming up. Less reliance on foreign powers for our energy needs provides us security in a dangerous world. We could lead the way in the world to the next big technologies in battery power and ZEV production.



Let us innovate and produce and we, America, will again lead, leading the world out of fossil fuel dependence to a world of energy independence for any country that will follow our lead.