Back to Washington

Well it was a nice warm day on the Isle of Long. I went to a local political office to see what it would take to mount a primary challange to my Congressman. But, I got no answer to my question. I then went over to my Congressman's local office and spent 45 minutes walking out in front an questioning his position of amnesty for illegal immigrants and how he would be screwing the middle class taxpayers. I figured I need the exercise and I might as well let his office know there are some constiuents who are really pissed at his position.
Two guys came up to me one gringo and one hispanic from the garden store next to his office they read my sign. The gringo motioned to his hispanic coworker and jokenly said can he hold you sign? He added that he had a green card. To which I said welcome my friend. I have no problem with workers who who have entered the country legally.
Well it's time to get to bed and head back to DC. I'm hoping to get some of that $2.36 gallon of gasoline on the New Jersey Turnpike as it's about $2.65 here on Long Island. I'm also looking to make an early morning breakfast stop at Helen's Sausage House in Smyrna Delaware for a breakfast sandwhich and a Pork Chop sandwich to go. Sure good eatin'!

Dick Durbin & other dumb Democrats

While blundering George W. Bush is probably getting rolled by Vincente Fox in Cancun on immigration. Democratic Senators in Congress are about to screw the middle class of this country. People like my Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) seem to forget who they are supposed to represent. Durbin who got on the flloor of the Senate made an "impassioned" speech to give the 10 to 12 million illegals who have broken our laws amnesty at the expense of middle class taxpayers. It's the middle class communities who will continue to subsidize this illegal workforce with higher school and social service taxes. Durbin says says there is no way we can arrest all the illegals in this country. Hey Dick! Did you forget which country sent men to the moon. Just start enforcing the law and see what happens! Durbin and other Democrats throw up their hands and try to sweep the illegal immigrant problem under the rug because of the failures of the Federal Government to enforce our immigration laws. There are a few Democrats who are truly representing the concerns of middle class taxpayers of the United States like Senator Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) but, it's diisappointing that more Democrats are not representing the concerns of the middle class taxpayers of the United States. If the Democrats continue to pander to the illegal immigration lobby and big business who want the cheap labor at the expense of middle class taxpayers they don't deserve to win any majority in congress this fall.

Memo to Homeland Security & the Democrats

Dear Mr. Chertoff: & security minded Democrats

There is be a demonstration this weekend in New York City regarding the immigration issue now being debated before Congress. At this demonstration there will be a large number of illegal immigrants demonstrating in the crowd which will walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Since you are head of the Department that is in charge of Border Security and Enforcement it would be a good place to enforce our immigration law. As the crowd walks across the bridge Immigration eforcement agents should be positioned at each end of the bridge to question the people as they reach the other side. those that are in this country illegally should be deported as our immigration laws require. This is called law enforcement which is something that your department is required to do. I as an American citizen have sometimes been stopped by Police at DUI checkpoints and been asked questions and been required to show identification. So it would not be out of line for Homeland Security to set up such a checkpoint at the demonstration this weekend.

Illegal Immigtration is sinking the U.S.S America

Being a sailor I love things nautical. I came across this analogy of the immigration problem here in the U.S. from the Phantom Republican which makes a lot of sense to this sailor but, I doubt that the Senators now debating the issue will understand it.

The conservative courage of Hugh Hewitt?

There was a funny exchange between Hugh Hewitt and Time magazine correspondent Michael Ware who was reporting inside Iraq. Hewitt tried to equate his sitting in a radio studio in the Empire State building in New York to the danger of reporting from Baghdad.
Everyweek I travel from Washington DC on Amtrak through New York City. Today I drove from DC to Long Island and crossed over several bridges any one of the could have been a target. According to Hewitt's rational I deserve a medal for standing up to the terrorists. Chickenhawk conservatives like Dick Cheney and Hewitt like to inflate themselves with the patrotic pump as they wrap themselves in the flag and let others take the risk in the reporting and fighting. Read the hilarious exchange here in Blogoland

Illegal Immigration: Democrats sell out the middle class!

The the vote out of the Senate Judicary Commitee on illegal immigration was a sell out by the Democrats of the middle class taxpayers of this country. Instead of tackling the the border security issue first the Democrats along with some Republicans like John McCain and President Bush are granting amnesty to illegals who have violated immigration our laws, protected the "faith Based" organizations who harbor them and use taxpayer dollars to feed and shelter them, while business gets cheap labor subsidized by U.S. taxpayers and local communites see increased taxes in social services and school taxes. The middle class got screwed by the Democrats on this one as did the country.
Meanwhile the business who want the cheap labor had better take note of the demonstrations of the illegals in the past few days. They will not be working at the cheap rates for long. As the demonstrations show they will be banding together demanding higher wages. And as the walkout by the High School students in LA show that the next generation is not going to work at the pay and jobs their illegal parents are now doing. What will be the Democratic, McCain, Bush business solution?
More immigrantion of course!

Outraged Christians make me laugh!

I'm laughing as I follow the Christian outrage about the senior clerics in Afghanistan who want to put to death Abdul Rahman who converted from Islam to Christianity. It is so laughable listening to the cable news talking heads to Australia's Prime Minister John Howard who opined:

"This is appalling. When I saw the report about this I felt sick literally," Howard told an Australian radio network Friday. "The idea that a person could be punished because of their religious belief and the idea they might be executed is just beyond belief."

Beyond belief Mr. Howard and fellow Christian Bible thumpers? Then you better check out this little passage from Deuteronomy in the Bible:

"If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or you intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other: do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you. You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. And all Israel, hearing of this, shall fear and never do such evil as this in your midst." (Deuteronomy 13:7-12 NAB)

Hypocrisy be thy name!

My Congressman Tim Bishop doesn't get it.

It seems some politicians just don't get the illegal immigration issue and why taxpayers are so up in arms about it.. My democratic Congressman Tim Bishop does not get that he is supposed to represent the interests of the people who vote in his district. He voted against H.R 4437 which is a strict immigration reform bill and one that addresses the MILLIONS of illegal aliens who have broken our immigration laws. Thanks to the lax enforcement by our Federal Government millions of these illegals are invading the middle class communities here on Long Island and around the country. The letter I got yesterday is the same form letter I got in January from him. No matter he still does not get that rewarding the illegals by granting amnesty to them is a bad policy. He also does not mention the burden on middle class tax payers in his district who subsidize the illegals through programs like George Bush's Faith Based Initiative where churches who operate food kitchens that feed the illegals are using U.S. taxpayer money to operate and provide other services to the illegals on our dime. He also ignores the burden on the middle class taxpayers who face increased school and social services expenses due to the increased population of the children of these illegals. I voted for Bishop twice though his position on the illegals tells me he (like many other Democrats and some Republicans like John McCain and George Bush) just don't understand the concerns and effects that this influx of illegals into our communities and the cost to U.S. taxpayers wallets. He will not get my vote this time unless there he REALLY addresses the concerns of middle class taxpayers like myself in regards to failure of the Federal Government to protect our borders and finally do something about this influx of illegals into our communities. Amnesty for people who have broken our immigration laws is not a solution.

My Oil Well update.

Well the solar panels (installed in 1986) on my house along with my homemade heat exchanger are putting out 83 degree F air in the downstairs and has 104 degree air coming out of the upstairs heat exchanger at 10:30 AM. All this using a system designed to heat water (which it still does) but, thanks to some of my experiments also dumps a load of BTU's into the house and also keeps a bunch of dollars in my pocket while I tell Chevron and the other oil and gas companies to shove it. And that feels so good! Now it's off to Home Depot to get some items for the next phase of telling Chevon to shove it.

Irag News: The good, the bad & the ugly!

With the rescue of the Christian Peace hostages there was some good news out of Iraq. Though we don't have all the details they seem to be ok. Now maybe someone will tell Laura Ingram to just SHUT UP because I doubt she can sing.
The there was the bad news that the U.S. military can now pay Iraqi journalists using U.S. taxpayer money to plant "good news" in Iraqi papers. So much for the free press but, then in the Bush Administration ethics goes out the window when it comes to pushing their agenda. As shown by the atttempt to hoodwink the American public by hiring disgraced "journalists" like Armstrong Williams and others who were paid to write puff pieces pushing the Bush agenda. With the Bush administrations record of planted propaganda readers and journalist should do an inverse Ronald Reagan on the the news coming out of the Bush Whitehouse. That is: Verify and then trust.
And then there is the continuing ugly news out of Iraq. One that gets this taxpayers blood boiling

Typical Bush.

Well like most of his business deals that ended President George W. Bush is going to leave the the mess he and the Neocon artists created in Iraq to some else and he said so yesterday as the Washington Post reported that when Bush was asked how long U.S. troops would be in Iraq Bush said ""that will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq.". The Neocons like Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle have already left the administration when things got messy. Like the chickenhawk Neocons even Bush now is telling the country after making a mess in Iraq that it will not be his problem. It seems accountability is not a word in the Bush family dictionary.
Meanwhile in communities all over the country thousands of illiterate illegals have crossed the U.S. borders and traveled thousands of miles across the U.S. and we are supposed to feel safe in this country. Meanwhile the Bush administration does not lift a finger to to enforce our Immigration laws. Instead of vowing to protect Israel how about protecting our U.S. borders first or is he going to leave that mess for someone else too.

Iraq: On 9 Billion a month!

Bloomberg News has a story on the 44% increase in military spending. With Iraq costing us about 9 BILLION a month! Another good time to look at Bush Mathematics.

Iraq: Shock & Awe + 3

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.
~Donald Rumsfeld

Another smoking gun on Dick Cheney's desk?

I've been watching a story about a company called MZM that was hired by someone in the Whitehouse for "intelligence services" what the hell does that mean? The muckraking reporters at TPM have been sifting through and finding pieces to this puzzle. People at MZM were involved in the bribery of disgraced congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. What kind of "intelligence services" they performed I think should be investigated. Since Bush and Cheney get all bent out of shape whenever they are questioned illegal wiretapping by the government I smell smoke and it looks like once again it is coming out of Dick Cheney's office. Stayed tuned!

St Patrick's Day: Green Water, Telegrams, Shamrock & the NSA

St Patricks Day always brings back memories to me. It was One year ago today I boarded the Amtrak Crescent heading for New Orleans little did I know that in those pre Katrinia days the that city indeed the region was going to be changed dramatically in a few months by that Hurricane. Then there is the memory of the Hispanic coffee lady and a coworker who every St Pat's day engaged in a humorous battle of the hot water urn at work.
Then there was the news report in late January that the last Western Union Telegram was sent. An end of an era for sure. But, this Saint Patricks Day I think of the end of the Telegrams but, wonder about an operation of our intelligence agencies concerning those telegrams. It started out with the Army during World War II but, after the war it did not end indeed it continued through the cooperation of corporations like RCA, ITT and Western Union , the NSA and the CIA. I am reminded of the intercepting of all these international telegrams by our intelligence agencies on Staint Patrick's Day because the code word for the operation was Shamrock.

MY OIL WELL.

Well it seems like there is a little extra oil laying around these days to which I say fine. Let the Oil execs in Houston drink it. I'm doing my best to make them drown in it. Let me tell you about MY oil well. Back in the mid eighties I installed a solar hot water system on my roof here in central Long Island. It worked pretty good for about ten years helping to supplement my hot water needs. Then it stopped working but, with my 12 hour work days and single lifestyle I really did not use that much hot water if I was home. I never did bother to repair it. Then came Katrina and the Oil companies jacking up the gasoline prices and profits and the natural gas industry jumping on the band wagon..
It was then I decided to look at the those dorment solar hot water panels on the roof. I ran some new wire to the photovolatic panel that runs the pump, replaced the antifreeze in the collector loop and also removed the insulation from the pipes that ran through the upstairs and downstairs closets. I made a homemade air to air heat exchanger using some PVC piping from Home Depot and some 12 dc fans. As I write this at 9:16 in the morning there is 84 F degree air being pumped into my house and I'm telling Chevron to shove it as well as the other energy companies.

Big Oil & Big Lies!

Since the days of John D. Rockefeller the Oil industry has always been about monopolies and manipulation. That's why I did not expect too much contrition from the Oil Industry executives in defending their mergers and huge profits last year at yesterday's Senate hearings. They don't want new refineries built because the would increase supply and lower prices for consumers that's why none have been built not because of "environmental" regulations as they so often claim. Then there was the excuse that they used the extra profits to put back into the business. Yeah right! More likely they need to spend more money on TV ads and full page ads in the newspapers a blatant attempt to try to sway the American public opinion about how real good people they are. While this consumer does not expect anything to change for the better until the two Oil Industry men (Bush & Cheney) are out of the White House. The one good thing about the hearing was that the Oil Executives were sworn in under oath this time unlike the last time on November 9th 2005. At that time when they were asked if they had participated in Vice President Dick Cheney's secret Energy meetings they said they had not or did not know. Yeah Right! It seems big Oil creates big liars!

Maureen Stapleton

While I usually have no use for news that concerns the people of the "entertainment" industry. I did feel a little sad upon hearing the news of the death of Maureen Stapleton yesterday. The news bought me bacj to a performance by here at Arena Stage here in Washington I saw last year where Ms. Staplelton preformed in a one person play based on the life of Eleanor Roosevelt. It was a wonderful performance because she was such a wonderful actor.

A year in the life.

It was a year ago today that I first began publishing Beer Can Politics. It is a little ironic that one year ago I was preparing to take a journey onboard a frieghter and a year later the Dubai Ports deal would be one of the biggest news stories this week. What will the next year bring? Hopefully, less death and destruction in the world and better times for everyone.

Bush advisor arrested.

It seems just about every week we see another member of the Bush administration in trouble with the law. Today comes this story from the Washington Post in regards to Bush's former top domestic advisor Claude Allen being arrested for Felony Theft scheme and Theft. These crimes where allegedly committed while he worked in the White House. When he resigned in February he said it was to spend more time with his family. Yeah right. Can't anyone in the Bush administration tell the truth? It's pretty clear that the Bush administration may be one of the most corrupt and incompetent administrations in recent years. An administration full of thieves and liars!

Mo' Money for Iraq from our pockets!

Hidden in all the hub bub about the Dubai Ports Deal is the approval for emergency spending of some $91 billion dollars a lot of it for operations in Iraq. At times like these my fellow taxpayers its always good to look back and see what we use to spend in Iraq and have a refresher course in Bush Mathematics.

Dubya & Dubai time to say goodbye.

Well George Dumbya Bush has finally done something so stupid with the Dubai Ports Deal that even most Republicans can't support it. Having created and run on a campaign of fear that has now come back to hurt him. The outrage of the citizens who instinctivly feel this deal just does not smell right is something that even some of the Bush butt kissing Republicans can not ignore. How do you like democracy now Mr. Bush? But, perhaps even though Bush has done some real stupid things before like invade Iraq, condone the use of torture of prisoners, etc... It is not out of character from this Texass politician and may even be policy.

Exhibit A:
"Our enemies...never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

- George W. Bush

Business criminals.

As the news that the amount of illegals breaking our laws is increasing comes this amazingly stupid statement from John Gay the spokesman from the National Restaurant Association:

"Most employers would prefer not to break the law to hire workers, but many feel they have no other options, "

How about obeying the the law! There's an option for the business owners! If they can not operate a business without breaking the law maybe they have the wrong business model. Though Mr. Gay's logic does have some appeal. Maybe I'll leave my wallet at home go to one of the restaurants Mr. Gay represents order a nice meal and leave without paying the bill. Just because I feel I don't have any "options" because I left my wallet at home. I'm sure the resturant owners would understand because obeying the law is an option for them too!

A good idea.

Here is a real good idea about what to do with President Bush.

Immigration Confusion?

This Washington Post editorial makes it appear that illegal immigration is a complex problem. It is not. Here is the four step solution:

1) The Federal Government is not to allow anyone to cross our borders illegally.
2) Businesses are not to be allowed to hire anyone who is in this country illegally.
3) "Faith Based Groups" are not allowed to use taxpayer money to feed and house anyone who is in this coutry illegally.
4) What congress should do about illegal immigration. Go to Step 1.

Iraq: The best news money can buy.

It seems the the military has to use our tax dollars to plant news stories in the Iraqi press. Attention General Casey it's no longer news it's PR. So much for a free press and of course the Iraqi's can smell American BS a mile away.

What's in your wallet?

Next time you want to pay down your credit card debt allow some extra time for the transaction to pass through Homeland Security. It's seems those on the right who wanted Government off their backs now have put them in our wallets.

Is there a pattern here?

One wonders if there is a standard Unaccountability Form used in the Bush administration after hearing quotes like these from Clueless Condi Rice and George Dumya Bush.:

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." -Condoleezza Rice

"I don't know anyone who wasn't caught off guard by Hamas' strong showing."-Condoleezza Rice

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did appreciate a serious storm but these levees got breached and as a result much of New Orleans is flooded and now we're having to deal with it and will." - George W. Bush,

I love America! Do you?

I don't recall ever knowing about Harry Browne. But, he died recently and I came across this article by him and it just rings out to be read and is something to be remembered especially these days:

I LOVE AMERICA! DO YOU?

Who are we to believe?

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did appreciate a serious storm but these levees got breached and as a result much of New Orleans is flooded and now we're having to deal with it and will." - George W. Bush, Sept. 1, 2005

Who are we to believe President Bush or our own lying eyes.

Illegal Immigrant lobbying day and another outrage!

I was sitting in the park across from Union Station here in Washington D.C.before heading over to the Library of Congress to do some research. I saw a group of people walking towards me who looked like lobbyists dressed in full uniform trench coats and suits but, in their midst where two or three immigrants wearing red T-shirts which read Immigrant Hotel Workers. They all carried folders that had something like Immigrant Lobbying Day written on them. It just gets this U.S. taxpayer outraged that the business interests who want cheap labor and the groups like Cathloic Charities who want more butts in their church pews and of course the lawyers who have the gumption to parade the illegals into the offices of our elected representatives while the Border and Immigration authorties look the other way. This outrage is no doubt in preparation for Senator Arlen Spectors proposal on Thusday to introduce legislation in the Judiciary Commitee to grant amnesty to the illegal aliens who have come across the U.S. border and broken our laws or substitute the equally bad McCain/Kennedy immigration proposal.
Check here to see what Senator Spector's or the worse McCain/Kennedy bills meanwhen compared to other propsals.