Americans Must Demand Energy Independence NOW!

What could be more important to America, our economy, our national security, and our long term survival as a nation, than energy independence? For over 30 years, successive administrations in Washington have given false promises and miserably failed the American people. Embroiled in politics and false premises no visible short or long term plan exists. Not only have we done absolutely nothing to achieve energy independence, we are now even MORE dependent on foreign oil than ever before. This is an inexcusable dereliction of duty at the federal level of our government.

Yet we have before us all the pieces, all the resources, and all the possibilities of clearly and rather easily succeeding with America establishing energy independence. All it takes is leadership and a committed national plan. Further, this plan would not cost the American people more for energy costs as currently claimed, but significantly less. Still further, the path to achieving it would create jobs and be a major boon to the economy. I would venture to say that a small group of bright college students could put a comprehensive, well thought out plan together, yet our federal government has failed with this vital issue for over 30 years!

The United States should embark immediately on the path of energy independence and cease our dependency upon foreign oil. The path to achieve this should include conservation, seeking alternate sources of energy such as natural gas, solar energy, wind generated energy, hydroelectric power, and responsible nuclear power, environmentally responsible coal energy...as well as new technology sources.

The gigantic opportunity, however, rests with responsibly tapping into the VAST amounts of oil readily available to us within our borders and off shore. We have within our borders many multiples of our needs for oil, far into the future. We have in our grasp the ability to cut off completely, that means 100%, of all of our dependence on foreign oil!

Information readily available from the US Geological Service, and the Energy Information Administration, show that over 503 billion barrels of oil are available from North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana...a reserve worth in excess of $5 trillion. There is an estimated 2 trillion barrels of oil available in the Rocky Mountains. There is another 896 million barrels of untapped oil in Alaska. All of this is within our borders. In addition, there is no doubt that offshore there are additional 2 million barrels per day available, some think much more. What in the world are we doing as a country? Where is the leadership? Where is the plan?

Not only is energy independence for years to come within our grasp, it will create jobs, be a major, major boon to our economy, and will cost homeowners and the American people significantly less (contrary to what we are being told today) and increase our standard of living. By the way, if we embark upon a national committed plan of energy independence, watch how fast OPEC and all those who are currently manipulating our energy costs scramble to lower costs in an effort to deter us.

The goal should be to reach energy independence within 10 years. We need the leadership and a national commitment to achieve this. It is extremely doable to accomplish this. It is time that the American people stand up and demand this. We need to start NOW. IMMEDIATELY.

Unbelievable Hypocrisy

The media, the NAACP, and many others from the left called the Tea Parties racist with full knowledge that it wasn't true. They looked for any signs that they could find, anything at all, that might be associated with "radical" . They then used this to try to make it appear that the whole Tea Party movement is radical. Nancy Pelosi stood there in tears, frightened of the outcome. President Obama called for "civility". The media reported it. Yet the American people held on and knew better.

Yet here we are in Wisconsin where people, organized by union leadership, are being stirred up and used. Radical, inflammatory, and uncivil signs are everywhere...and not just a few...many. One shows a target on the face of Governor Scott Walker, another images him as Hitler, another as Mussolini, another calling him a Communist, and many, many more as radical as you can get. People shout out hate talk, almost foaming at the mouth. "Doctors", in violating their medical profession, give out phony excuses for absence from work. State legislators, who apparently don't believe in democracy, act like cowards and hide out in Illinois.

Where are Nancy Pelosi's tears? Where is President Obama's cry for civility? Where is the media that seemed so intent on reporting the faux radicalism of Tea Parties?

Never before have we seen such blatant hypocrisy in America.

USA Today Poll on Union Issue Questioned

If the Muslim Brotherhood conducted a poll and reported that the people of the world favored Islam as a religion, that would have as much credibility as a USA Today / Gallup Poll saying that the "Public favors union rights". (USA Today Feb. 23, 2011) It is no secret that many of the "polls" conducted by the main stream media, including USA Today, are used to influence public opinions, and even influence elections. A former executive of Gallup in a book revealed how polls can definitely be influenced to obtain a desired result.

In the USA Today / Gallup Polls we don't know specifically WHAT QUESTIONS were asked and HOW they were asked, and in WHAT CONTEXT. We also don't know WHO was asked and if, indeed, they are a representative sampling of the population. Oh yes, we know about sampling plans and statistics, but we are talking about the complexities of sampling human beings here, not widgets off a production line.

Given the above, the American people should think about the following. According to the US Census the 2008 voting age population of the United States was 226 million people. The USA Today / Gallup Poll that was conducted on the union issue supposedly polled 1,000 people. We don't know the answers to the questions above on how the poll was conducted. Add to that the extreme complexity of polling human beings (not widgets). Add to that the known fact that USA Today WANTS the result to turn out as they claim. Then think about the fact that the polling sampled 1,000 people out of 226 million or 0.000004, or .0004 % of the voting age population!

Before anybody in America puts faith in the USA Today headline, "Public favors union rights" they should think about the above. A great disservice to America is being done by these types of polls and claims. Especially since just the opposite may very well be true.

Heroes Emerging at State Level

While we have a federal government that has abdicated its responsibilities, more recently there has been an emergence of a number "hero" governors at the state level. Chris Christie in New Jersey, has taken a state in financial shambles and has begun to bring it back to fiscal reality. With the absence of the federal government doing anything about the dangerous anarchy at our southern border, Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona has had the courage to enact state legislation to begin to deal with illegal immigration that threatens her state. Governor Cuomo of New York has begun to attack the financial crisis in that state. In New York this, in particular, takes a lot of courage. The same is true of Governor Jerry Brown of California who at least is starting to deal with the massive financial crisis in that state. Let's see if they have the guts to carry out what is necessary.

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin has necessarily taken on the unions to deal with the financial crisis in that state. Governor John Kasich of Ohio has begun to deal with the financial crisis in his state.

The American people, for many years now, have LONGED for and have been looking for leadership to do...not what is politically correct, not what is popular...but to have the courage to do what is right. We have several leaders who are now emerging at the state level who are demonstrating the courage to do just this. They are heroes.

In spite of the biased media coverage that attempts to convey a different impression, the VAST majority of Americans support these "hero" governors and what they are attempting to accomplish.

FANS FIRST Distribution of Super Bowl Tickets

Ray Anderson
Executive Vice President of Football Operations
The National Football League
280 Park Ave # 12W
New York, NY 10017

Dear Mr. Anderson: The Following is proposed:

A "FANS FIRST" Distribution of Super Bowl Tickets - The Way It SHOULD Be Done

It has been well documented how each and every year season ticket holding fans of participating teams get screwed out of their opportunity to acquire tickets to the Super Bowl through the NFL. These are the fans that make professional football what it is today; these are the fans that week after week, through thick and thin, through cold weather, snow, rain...or whatever the conditions... faithfully support their team. Their thanks for this is a total screwing by the NFL and by the NFL owners. It has been shown, and proven, how only approximately 20% or less of the available tickets are actually made available for season ticket holding fans of the participating teams. This means that over 80% of the tickets are distributed elsewhere.

Here is what should be done:

65% of the available tickets should go to the participating teams, 32.5% to each team. Of those 30% MUST be made available to season ticket holding fans of each team through a 3 day lottery where the fans would have to make a financial commitment within those 3 days. If there are any tickets left over they would go to the team and / or to the NFL. The 30% that are made available for season ticket holding fans should be some of the best seats in the stadium. This would demonstrate true appreciation for the fans that make the game of professional football.

5% of the 65% available tickets distributed to the teams above would be for the coaches, players, and team choices; 2.5% for each of the participating teams.

35% of the available tickets would be available to the NFL to use as they choose.

The NFL has the responsibility to do everything possible to keep tickets out of the hands of scalpers and the continuing and escalating outrageous prices that they ask for.

If the NFL really cares about the game of football and the fans that make it, this should be done.

Letter to NFL on Super Bowl Ticket Fiasco

February 16, 2011

Ray Anderson
Executive Vice President of Football Operations
The National Football League
280 Park Ave # 12WNew York, NY 10017


Dear Mr. Anderson:

Still another year that the loyal season ticket holders of participating teams get screwed when it comes to acquiring tickets to the Super Bowl. Each team playing in the Super Bowl was allocated 17.5 percent of the roughly 100,000 seats in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. The Cowboys received 5 percent and the remaining 29 teams received 1.2 percent of the seats (29 X 1.2.). The league distributed the other 25.2 percent. What actually occurs is that the teams place a lower percentage of their 17.5% allocation toward a lottery for season ticket holders. Teams use some of their allocation for players, coaches, sponsors, big money people, and celebrities. They are often secretive about how many tickets actually go into a lottery for season ticket holding fans. These are the people who sat through cold and blistery weather in Green Bay and Pittsburgh in support of their team. As an example, generously, I would guess that about 10% or 10,000 tickets went into the lottery for each team. (My research has shown in the past it was MUCH less than this.) That means that over 80,000 tickets (80%) went to those other than season ticket holders. This should NEVER be.

Now these same loyal fans, if they wished to attend the Super Bowl in support of their teams were stuck with paying anywhere from an average price of $4,000 a ticket, upwards to $30,000! Isn't it interesting that scalpers ALWAYS seem to get plentiful tickets, in fact they are so confident that they advertise tickets sales weeks in advance to the game. The fact is the NFL system is set up to feed the scalpers the Super Bowl tickets each and every year. Face value of the tickets runs from $600 to $1200, yet they charge many multiples of these numbers.

The "celebrities" at the Super Bowl should be the season ticket holders of the participating teams, but they are last on the list. Taking precedent over them are coaches, players, sponsors, big money people, celebrities, and of course, scalpers.

Year after year the NFL and owners receive complaints over Super Bowl ticket distribution. You have demonstrated over and over that you could care less.

We Are Being Fooled in Egypt

For now the Muslim Brotherhood are playing it low key, saying they aren't interested in politics and running the government...that they are "secular" and more. All of this is being done to relax the United States and Europe, and to fool the media which is easy to do since this is already their agenda. Yet within two years Egypt will be transformed into a radical Islamic theocracy, just like Iran and fiercely opposed to the United States.

As we sit idly by thinking one thing, being fooled due to a major failure of our foreign policy and intelligence, the mid east will become totally destabilized. There will be a major threat to our ally, Israel, with the probability of a world war as more mid eastern countries turn toward radical Islam. It is already happening, yet we allow the media to have us think otherwise. Our federal government, under the Obama administration, doesn't have a clue. They believe only what they WANT to believe...or what they WANT the American people to believe, not the truth.

Federal Government "Cooking the Books"

The federal government is "cooking the books" on the numbers that are used to report inflation and are essentially lying to the American people. The federal government selectively picks items in the Consumer Price Index and tells people that inflation is flat. Nothing could be further from the truth.

What could be more fundamental than food? In shopping for groceries people are experiencing well over a 20% increase, some say higher. Since January 2009 the average cost of gasoline has increased by 69.6%, and climbing. Mysteriously, real estate taxes have increased in spite of home values decreasing in a depressed housing market. Federal, state, and local taxes, fees, as well as many hidden taxes and fees, have increased. Home heating, electric, and energy costs have increased significantly. Health Insurance has increased dramatically, in some cases by as much as 40 to 56%, with a doubling of co-pay, or more. Most "necessary" items that we purchase to live by have increased significantly. This is the real world that the American people experience in their everyday purchases. Inflation is NOT flat. As one woman recently commented: "What planet do they live in?"

Compounding the problem of falsifying the inflation numbers, the federal government is artificially suppressing interest rates for both savings and loans to ridiculously low levels. In some twisted thinking on economics they somehow think that this helps, rather than facing the reality of true inflation. Somehow the government feels that manipulating numbers is a better way to manage the economy rather than supporting business and people, and dealing with reality. They look at only one side of the equation in believing that artificially suppressed interest rates will stimulate investment and the economy. What they don't look at is that these very low rates actually hurt banks and individuals, particularly seniors. Banks are being forced to walk the fine line of financial viability, their margin of error is very slim. Individuals have less money from their savings to spend on those extra items they may need. Banks are placed in financial jeopardy, less money flows into the economy.

China is actually doing a much better job of managing their economy than the United States. In dealing with reality, they have recently announced raising interest rates for the second time in slightly more than a month. This pushed the benchmark one year deposit rate to 3%, and their lending rate to 6.06%. This is dealing properly with reality and managing the economy! The United States, should right now be at about these same levels of interest rates.

Reality, not manipulation, should be the approach taken by our federal government to begin fixing our economy. Being honest about inflation and rational interest rates are a part of this.

Youth Shall Show the Way

March for Life, Washington, DC

January 24, 2011

Following Submitted as Letter to the Editor:

Youth Shall Show the Way


Abortion activist, Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL, commented about last year’s March for Life in Washington: “I just thought, my gosh, they are so young,” she told Newsweek. “There are so many of them, and they are so young.” This year there appeared to be even more young people at the 2011 March for Life in Washington, an apparent increasing trend.

No surprise, the March for Life this year was covered sparingly and in some cases inaccurately. First, the estimated number of 300,000 marchers did not appear to be newsworthy to many in the media. Secondly, the great number of high school and college age students wasn't reported. Further, there were some reports that the march consisted of both Pro-Choice and Pro-Life marchers. This was a distortion by first mentioning Pro-Choice, and by making it appear that they were represented equally when in reality the overwhelming number of people were marching against abortion. Only scattered handfuls of Pro-Choice people were present. Sadly, young people across our nation are learning early about the major bias of the media. As a result, even many young people no longer trust the media, a sad statement for America.

In reality, it was indeed a March for Life!

The most interesting trend, however, observed by those who really paid attention, were the great numbers of young people. This is very significant and indicative of what to expect in the future. It is a VERY positive sign for the Pro-Life cause. There is something about the purity of youth, not encumbered by years of propaganda, looking at the issue from a clear perspective...a human life is being taken and that is wrong!

In 2009 a Gallup Poll reflected that 51% of Americans were opposed to abortion, 42% in favor. With the increasing number of young people becoming involved, we may expect the trend to continue. The youth shall show the way.

The Truth About Planned Parenthood

The founder of Planned Parenthood was Margaret Sanger. Factual research on her shows the type of person that she REALLY was, not the sanitized heroic woman that Planned Parenthood attempts to convey. Sanger was a racist and firmly believed in eugenics. Eugenics is a racist pseudo science that attempts to wipe away all human beings deemed "unfit," preserving only those who conform to a (her) specified higher human condition. In 1926 she spoke before a Ku Klux Klan rally in Silver Lake, New Jersey and said; "We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population." She maintained that the brains of Australian Aborigines were only one step more evolved than chimpanzees and just under blacks, Jews and Italians. She was specifically concerned with reducing the population of the "less fit", including inferior races. Her magazine at the time called for state sponsored sterilization programs, even forcibly sterilizing the "less capable".

Sanger was an atheist, an avowed socialist, and she abhorred capitalism. She betrayed her 2 husbands and abandoned her own 3 children. She detested marriage, she wrote in the first issue of her journal, The Rebel Woman, that marriage is a "degenerate institution". She had no use for family or motherhood, and detested domestic life. She constantly attacked Christian leaders and the Catholic Church. Her most frightening comment was; "The most merciful thing a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."

This was the person who founded Planned Parenthood. Think about it.

Planned Parenthood performed 324,000 abortions according to their 2008-09 Fact Sheet and this number appears to be increasing every year. They are now expanding their influence internationally in places like Kenya, Nigeria, Latin America and the Caribbean. Instead of preserving life, the United Sates, it seems, is now exporting death. If there is any doubt that Planned Parenthood's business is abortion, only about 0.7% of the cases handled through PP are referred to full term and adoption. Following Margaret Sanger's directional leadership PP has introduced a non surgical, permanent sterilization procedure. For example, seventeen women had received this procedure at the PP Family Practice Health Center in Des Moines, Iowa. In addition to the 324,000 abortions, PP issues 1,436,808 "Emergency Contraception Kits" according to the Fact Sheet, which amount to nothing more than an early abortion.

Even though polls show that the majority of people in America oppose abortion (51% Pro-Life, 42% Pro-Abortion, Gallup Poll 2009), over $360 million of taxpayer money is used to support Planned Parenthood. Supposedly PP is a non profit organization. Undeterred from any government accountability, they recently showed a profit of $110 million. More recently Planned Parenthood clinics in Perth Amboy, New Jersey; Richmond, Virginia;...as well as Roanoke, Charlottesville, and Falls Church, Virginia were all accused, willingly, of offering help to a pimp for the sexual exploitation of underage girls. This includes offering services including abortions and birth control, for girls as young as 14. This is a taxpayer funded organization!

Well over 50 million abortions have been performed in the United States alone since Roe vs. Wade. With early abortions this figure could easily be over 100 million. Permanent sterilization is now taking place in America. Mother Teresa said; "We cannot fight credibly against other social and moral evils, including poverty and violence, while we tolerate mass killing by abortion."

Isn't it about time we reviewed not only our support of Planned Parenthood, but the tragic American error of abortion itself?

Loyal Fans Out in Cold at Super Bowl

Submitted as a Letter to the Editor to Several Publications

Still another year that the loyal season ticket holders of participating teams get screwed when it comes to acquiring tickets to the Super Bowl. Each team playing in the Super Bowl will be allocated 17.5 percent of the roughly 100,000 seats (they will squeeze in 105 to 110,000) in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. The Cowboys will get 5 percent and the remaining 29 teams will get 1.2 percent of the seats (29 X 1.2.). The league distributes the other 25.2 percent. What actually occurs is that the teams place a lower percentage of their 17.5% allocation toward a lottery for season ticket holders. Teams use some of their allocation for players, coaches, sponsors, big money people, and celebrities. They are often secretive about how many tickets actually go into a lottery for season ticket holding fans. These are the people who sat through cold and blistery weather in Green Bay and Pittsburgh in support of their team. As an example, generously, I would guess that about 10% or 10,000 tickets go into the lottery for each team. That means that over 80,000 tickets (80%) go to those other than season ticket holders. This should NEVER be.

Now these same loyal fans, if they wish to attend the Super Bowl in support of their teams are stuck with paying anywhere from an average price of $4,000 a ticket, upwards to $30,000! Isn't it interesting that scalpers ALWAYS seem to get plentiful tickets, in fact they are so confident that they advertise tickets sales weeks in advance to the game. The fact is the NFL system is set up to feed the scalpers the Super Bowl tickets each and every year. Face value of the tickets runs from $600 to $1200.

The "celebrities" at the Super Bowl should be the season ticket holders of the participating teams, but they are last on the list. Taking precedent over them are coaches, players, sponsors, big money people, celebrities, and of course, scalpers.

Year after year the NFL and owners receive complaints over Super Bowl ticket distribution. They could care less.

Alfredo's Gallery

Alfredo's Gallery, Suffield, Connecticut, will be closed today due to Global Warming. Although the immediate reason for closing is a record snowfall, freezing temperatures, and freezing rain...this nonetheless is a result of the overall warming of the earth that is taking place. The United Nations, Al Gore, and climate scientists have told us this, and warned of this happening...erratic weather. Their explanation: If it is too hot, then that is global warming. If it is very cold and freezing, that is global warming. If we have record rain, or record snowfalls, you guessed it, that is global warming. All the weather that we are experiencing today is all part of global warming according to the experts.

For those that are skeptical, then they have recommended to just call it climate change. It should also be added that those that question or criticize the scientists that falsified the infamous "hockey stick" graph that proves warming, as well as falsifying other mathematical factors showing warming, and falsifying other information, we should accept their explanation that scientists always do this, there is nothing unusual about what they did. Also, our federal government and the media have told us that the earth is warming, so it must be a fact.

Further, the UN has stated it is a fact and pronounced that the debate is over. No contrary facts, science, or opinions will be allowed. Enough is enough, we should just believe it and get on with it.

As we go forward, at all costs, we must protect the environment and all wildlife. Therefore no action will be allowed to overcome warming that will affect our precious environment and wildlife. We must also accept the fact that MAN (Men & Women, Us) has caused warming to occur in our planet. WE are at fault. WE cause carbon emissions, that affect the environment, that causes warming. As a solution to what we caused, we must be responsible and offer offsets to the carbon emissions that we cause, in order to prevent warming from increasing even further. Please go to AlGore.com to find out how YOU can offset the carbon emissions that YOU cause. If you can't find an offset, then you will be required to pay a fine for your carbon emissions.

As we go forward in seeking energy independence, there are certain ground rules that we must follow. We can't drill for oil, even though we have MORE than enough offshore and in the continental United States because that will affect the environment and wildlife. We can't use nuclear power due to the radiation hazard. We can't mine and use coal due to detrimental affects to the environment. I am not sure why, but we can't use hydro-electric power. (Must be a good reason, just not familiar with it.) Natural gas has been suggested, but there may be a problem with that. What we must focus on, as recommended by our federal government, are solar and wind energy production. Our federal government has aligned themselves with General Electric to manufacture wind and solar equipment. (If you are buying stock, buy GE, they are a sure thing to make billions of dollars from their environmentally responsible approach to energy.)

There is a problem with all this however. President Obama has warned us that our energy costs, in combating warming, "will necessarily sky rocket". This means our heating, energy, gasoline costs, and more, will cost us 2 to 5 times, what we are currently paying, or more! The answer to this problem (they have it all figured out for us) is to work on CONSERVATION. What this means is smaller and fuel efficient cars, electric cars...no more SUVs, (they are bad). We can also see that our tungsten light bulbs are disappearing, and that will certainly make a difference. We also need to do our part and use less energy. Such things as staying home instead of traveling, keeping the temperature down in our homes...or use less air conditioning, not using appliances or devices that use power and energy...and...always, always, looking for carbon emission offsets. We must all face up to the fact that our standard of living will significantly decrease, while keeping in mind we are doing this to preserve our planet.

There are a few problems that remain, that I am sure will be all worked out by our federal government and the UN. All of this will be a huge negative effect on our manufacturing companies, many will close or go overseas. Millions of jobs will be lost. The prices of energy, to individuals (you and me) will not only skyrocket, but everything we purchase will skyrocket in cost. It has to. In addition, there is one major problem that will exist....all the solar and wind mill energy will be far, far short of our requirements. What that means is that our dependence on foreign oil will linger on, if fact, we will be even MORE dependent upon foreign oil. I sure hope all those nations learn to like us and not hate us anymore...and all this terrorism ends. (I am sure they have all of that figured out.)

Please do your part in all this.

Anyway, Alfredo's Gallery is closed today due to global warming.

Alfredo