PHIL COLLINS, etc., SUPER HEROS

I confess…I’m pro-planet. I’m pro-Earth. I think we should support Earth, or should I say “The Planet.” Yeah! I guess that makes me a celebrity…or a politician, or a Democrat. Then again, I don’t care about global warming, so I guess I can’t be a celebrity or a politician OR a Democrat! I guess that makes me one of those whack-jobs who, for lack of caring, are going to throw the Earth off its axis, or otherwise end God’s creation as we now know it!

But I really don’t have to care and neither do you. We have countless rock stars needing career jumps to do all the “caring” for us.

They will conspicuously over consume and pollute the joint to do it, but they are acting for me and for you and any others out there, if there is indeed anyone else out there, who doesn’t give a crap!

Today (July 7), Ladies and Gentlemen, we have Live Earth. The global concert, held at eight venues including one on every continent (I guess Antarctica makes for a ninth venue) on this ailing planet.

It will surely be as effective as the other concerts held for various causes with no known intended result. I give you;

Live aid (1985) – Prompted by the Ethiopian famine of 1984/85, to help periled African nations pay their debts to evil Western banks, helping to alleviate starvation in Africa. Much of the money fell into the influence of the Derg military junta which enforced resettlement and “villagification” programs which killed between 50,000 and 100,000 people and displaced at least 3 million. Nice!

Farm Aid – I guess this one was to help keep farmers in subsidies. Apparently a huge success, as $171 billion will be paid (welfared) in direct farm subsidies over the next ten years.

Band Aid (1984) – No more hungry kids in Ethiopia?

Live 8 (2005) – To raise more awareness of issues that plague Africa…and the rehabilitation of aging rock stars’ careers.

Which leads us to…

Live Earth (2007-Today) – This one will stop global warming, I mean, “climate change,” so planet Earth can go on to be planet Earth for future generations of politicians and celebrities.

How about a bake sale for burkas?

How about this one: We can shame and defame our soldiers abroad to help bring about the end to war. Oh, wait a minute, that’s already been taken care of…celebrities, Democrats and more than a few Republicans already have a handle on that cause.

I suppose we could swim to raise awareness for the fishes in order to save the oceans. But sure enough, renowned oceanographer, environmentalist and scientist (and Cheers bartender), Ted Danson declared, circa 1987, that the oceans and the earth, would be dead in ten years if we didn’t drastically alter our lives, raise taxes and commit mass suicide because we are Americans. So whatever he did, it must have worked because last time I was on the coasts, the oceans, at least the two I have ready access to, were alive and well.

I now kneel and thank Almighty God for celebs and politicians, especially Al Gore, Rock Stars and pop white trash, Sheryl Crow. Because of them, we have not yet stolen Planet Earth from God and the cosmos!

On another note, John Edwards is campaigning to raise the minimum wage and put an end to poverty right here in America because haircuts apparently cost $1,200.00.

JD.

PARDON ME?

President Bush commuted the 30 month prison sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby yesterday. Big deal, considering he wants to pardon 12 million illegal aliens in the name of "immigration reform.”

I laughed out loud when I heard Hillary Clinton, with Bill by her side, say in response, “This commutation sends the clear signal that in this administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice."

My God, these people are psychopathically amazing!!!

President Clinton pardoned 459 people during his presidency, to his predecessor’s 77 pardons.

Here are a few of the crimes that were committed by the people Bill Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences for. The whole list is too exhaustive for me to bore you with, but here are some of the crimes:

Conspiracy to counterfeit money, bank embezzlement, tax fraud and nonpayment, auto theft, pushing drugs, mail fraud, firearms convictions, LSD and other drug distribution, bank fraud, falsifying firearms records, insurance fraud, Medicaid fraud, bank robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon, price fixing, blackmail, mutiny during wartime, destruction of military property, forgery of U.S. checks, possession of illegal explosives, conspiracy to damage property with illegal explosives, falsification of union records, transporting illegal aliens, bribery, money laundering, issuing worthless checks, food stamp fraud, illegal campaign contributions, passport fraud, conspiracy to commit racketeering, illegally importing animal skins, conspiracy to aid in prison escape. He also pardoned six Puerto Rican terrorists who were making bombs.

And let’s not forget this personal favorite, of which he was convicted…Perjury!

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In the Sidney Morning Herald on Tuesday, Chee Chee Leung asserted that humans are using too much of the sun’s energy. Because we humans use so much energy, we rob plants of needed energy from the sun, stealing especially from corn production, which we need to make ethanol.

Are you still convinced the global warming crowd doesn’t use junk science?

Looking at Michael Moore, there is more than a small chance that he will be stricken by illness sooner, rather than later. Do you think Michael will go abroad for medical help?

Just Wondering,
JD.

ETHANOL - A CORNY IDEA

It’s so hard to understand how our gutless, pandering and sometimes just plain ignorant elected officials can continue to push this ethanol scam with a clear conscience.

The promotion of this disastrous “alternative” to fossil fuels is costing you and me a fortune. Consider the increased prices of just a few of the products and commodities affected by mandated increases in corn production for the manufacture of ethanol.

Ethanol policies have driven the price of corn up to as high as $4.50 a bushel last week, from what was typically $2.00 to $2.50 a bushel.

More expensive corn drives up prices on many products we use. You would think that the higher prices would benefit farmers, but companies that produce seed, like Monsanto, have raised seed prices by 66 percent. Of course this helps all you shareholders in Monsanto stock, and good for you.

I’ve written about the evils of ethanol several times in these blogs but feel compelled to bring it up again once in a while because it eats at me so. As I’ve mentioned before, when President Bush mentioned ethanol during his State of the Union speech in January, I cringed. I knew, as many of you did, that gas prices would be up the next day and continue to climb. And they did. What other prices have soared as a result of the ethanol obsession?

Have you wondered why beef prices are as high as they have gotten? How about the increase in milk prices that we all screamed about? Shoot, let’s just think about the additional premium on land because of the ridiculously low yield of corn producing ethanol per acre.

So land, fuel and corn go up. Again, beef and milk prices. What else does corn effect? Poultry, pork, sugar (prices already controlled by artificial supports and tariffs), sweet goods, anything made with high fructose corn syrup, cheese, butter, all products made with any of the above, soft drinks, ice cream…the list goes on and on.

Were you paying attention to the tortilla riots in Mexico City last February?

How about taxes? On top of the federal and state taxes you pay on gasoline, let’s consider the following:
Ethanol blenders -- gas stations and suppliers – receive 51 cents a gallon in tax credits so ethanol can be competitive with gas. In other words, ethanol is so inefficient and expensive to make, we taxpayers have to give the companies 51 cents a gallon in tax credits to bring the price down enough to compete with gas.

There is a 54 cent tariff on imported ethanol, to make sure we can’t buy it cheap from other countries.

We taxpayers gave $340 million in subsidized loans to build ethanol plants, thanks to Jimmy Carter. The plants aren’t competitive enough for private industry to make money, so we taxpayers buck up to build them for someone else to make money on the product we support.

Make your head spin? Does mine!

We taxpayers contributed $70 Million in corn to ethanol producers, via Ronald Reagan’s Department of Agriculture.

The 2005 Energy bill mandates that gas companies buy ethanol. We force companies to buy this stuff because they wouldn’t touch it otherwise.

The current mandates have increased food prices by $14 billion dollars, according to a recent University of Iowa study, and our Democratic Congress wants to increase mandates by seven fold.

Because of mandates that compel gas companies to buy ethanol, prices on ethanol went up, raising gas prices by another 30 cents.

On performance: Ethanol is one third less powerful and efficient as gasoline so a gasoline and ethanol blend will get you fewer miles to the gallon than gasoline. So ethanol prices have to be artificially depressed (again with your tax dollars) to be cheaper than gasoline in order to get you comparable mileage for the same money.

It takes a lot of energy just to make the stuff. You have to grow the corn which means plowing, planting, fertilizing, watering, harvesting, grinding, soaking, distilling and trucking, since you can’t run ethanol though pipelines like gasoline.

Geez! And why is it we don’t want to drill for oil in this country to tap some of the biggest reserves on earth? Oh, that’s right, a super ignorant electorate that believes what these politicians are telling us.

I’m exhausted and depressed, and that’s just a little teeny bit of the story.

JD.