drill dammit

A grassroots campaign by cabiv.com to get America back into the oil business, save our economy, and support conservative ideas.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Our politicians seem to have taken leave of their senses when it comes to energy production. They want to conserve our way into energy independence. My suggestion is to let them conserve our way into a balanced budget. Better yet, next time they vote (or don’t vote) themselves a raise, let’s suggest that they conserve their way to a raise and reduce their paycheck.

I believe to have a vibrant growing economy; the world will rely on oil (natural gas, nuclear & coal also) for at least the next 50+ years. To bring down the price of oil, and meet their demands, virtually the rest of the world is drilling wherever they can. 

·         China is drilling 30 miles off the Florida coast in Cuban waters. We are not.

·         Brazil, the ethanol king of the world, was still looking for, and found, oil off their coast.

·         Anwar in Alaska.

·         Tar Sands in North America.

The same people who do not want to drill in these places because it may only provide a million barrels whine when the price of one gallon increases ten cents.

I believe the only way to convince congress to change its mind, is through grassroots efforts. To reach this goal I have started drill dammit.  My first step is placing this on my http://cabiv.blogtownhall.com/  blog and at http://cabiv.com/index.htm.  

I am in the process of getting bumper stickers printed. Please start contacting your elective official and demand that they dammit!

Please check back for updates and see what is happening.

Sincerely,

cabiv

drilldammit@stx.rr.com

Congress should end the ethanol mandate and subsidies today. How come Big Oil is bad for getting rich while big corn is making record profits and is a night in shinning armor? The poor are the hardest hit by the increasing cost of food. The middle class is going from steak to hamburger. What are the poor suppose to eat now? That would help lower the cost of food.

Congress should also immediately pass a bill that President Bush should sign opening all offshore oil fields and Alaska to drilling. The speculators would immediately drop the price of oil as the ink on the bill dried. Erasing the Federal Gas tax would also help the consumer as would incentives for the building of refineries.

To further encourage drilling, states who continue stand in the way of drilling, oil production and refining should be charged a “not in my state” tax on every drop of oil, natural gas, and coal they use. This charge should also be applied to electricity that they use produced in other states.

            Label each state a producer, neutral, or user.  A producer is a state that is making a surplus of any of these items. A neutral state would get the same benefits as a producer if they prove they have no additional natural resources, and are making an effort to produce electricity and refine gasoline.

            Tax the users for hypocrisy for being willing to use the energy produced elsewhere. This tax would then be used for subsidies of energy in the other states. This would also screw their economies and the outflow of citizens from these states would not only continue but would increase.

            This whole argument does suffer from not supporting my states rights basic beliefs by giving control to the Feds.

  Secede to Succeed?

As the Federal Government continues to get more wasteful, bothersome, and intrusive, what can be done? I believe Texas should look towards history for an answer. The 13 colonies split from England when the government was not longer responsive to their needs. Texas split from Mexico for the same reasons.

Is Texas reaching the same point again? According to the Tax Foundation http://www.taxfoundation.org in 2005 (latest figures available) Texas ranked 35 in Federal Spending Received per Tax Dollar paid. That’s translates into $0.94. New Mexico was number one with $2.03 for each dollar sent. Rhode Island reached the break even point at number 33 with $1 sent for $1 received. Could Texas just not implement all the programs and increase Taxes less than the current dollar sent to the feds?

What does this money get us? The right to support 32 other states and their spending? Environmental rules and regulations that Texas may not agree with. Corn subsidies for ethanol? Higher prices for gas because federal bans on drilling offshore of other states? Ask a teacher about how many rules the feds place on teaching. How many other rules, regulations, etc. does the federal government have in place to control our state and our life?

If Texas was a Republic again, think about how many of the Federal programs that we could leave out. Yes we would have to fund additional programs along the lines of Social Security and Medicare. But the fed is going to have to pay for them with taxes since no money has been saved. Texas could pay for taxes just as well. Liberal courts would probably rule that the USA would still have to pay what they are owed.

A military would have to be funded also, but Texas could rely on the USA like most of the rest of the world does. Join NATO. Do not join the UN.

Texas is currently has the fifteenth largest economy. How much larger could we get by provided a favorable tax rates for corporations. Joining NAFTA would provide access to the other 49 states. If they do not agree quit sending oil, gas, and electricity. Without the regulations of the feds, oil refineries could be built to sell.

As a Republic, could Texas than ask for and get foreign aid from the old USA?

Does this means if McCain really screws it up and gives up before the convention Romney can still get teh nomination?

As a teacher in a public elementary school, I would say that individual teachers and schools can hold wonderful educational opportunities for students.  If your local school does not meet the wonderful status, your kids either 1. suffer, 2. you move, or 3. go to private school.

With Hillary Care how long before doctors in an area is added to schools as something to check before buying a house?

Hillary seems to think that throwing the governments money (actually my money) at health care will fix it.  Washington DC & New Jersey school prove just spending money does not fix anything.

In education, there is little monetary reward for working harder than your co-workers.  Your pay is based on years of experience, not your successes.  And unions keep the unsuccessful teacher employed.  How long before the doctors join unions to bicker over the hours they may work in a day.

Consider these thoughts:

As a teacher, (especially at a low performing school) there are acceptable failure rates.  Stay above them, your job is safe.  Find out how many 8th grade students your district has this year.  Check how many graduates they have in 4 years.  It will be at least 30% to 60% lower, yet they will tell you their drop out rates in 10%-20%. (The other students all moved to "another  school".  Somewhere in America this "another school' must have millions of graduates.  Can anyone tell me where they are?)

So under Hillary Care, a doctor/hospital will be able to lower their death rate simply by sending them to "another hospital".

In highly unionized districts, some teacher will walk out of meetings, parent conferences, etc, when their contract say the day ends.

Under Hillary Care, will some doctors leave in the middle of (or not start) surgery because their day is over?
They will not what the acceptable rate of patient loss is.  Have they saved too many patients this month?  If they die at home will it count against them?

I know this seems extreme but it will happen over time.

The strong supporters of a one payer system, also seem to be against tort reform.  Hillary seems to be against Tort reform.  Democrats love trial lawyers.  Wait till they see how the government will control cost simply by making it almost impossible to sue.  Doctors will have relatively little money, hospitals will have no profits, health care will be rationed, and no money will be available to sue for. 

The doctors union will quickly negotiate that Hillary care pays their malpractice.  The government will reduce cost them by outlawing malpractice suits.

Don't believe me?  How many lawyers specialize in suing K-12 public schools?  Teachers drive better cars and live in better housing than the lawyers who sue them. 

Governments run the schools, so they cannot do wrong, and you cannot sue them.

    According to you friendly tax and spend crowd, not renewing the tax cuts does not result in a tax increase.  It is just a rollback to where they were before the increase. 

  How about congress then reset their salaries to what the were paid before the tax increase?  It wouldn't be a a pay cut to return the salaries to what they use to be would it?

       As a teacher, some of the most important lessons I teach occur from "teachable moments".  These are moments that randomly  occur where a large portion of a class is ready to learn something.  This is rarely in a lesson plan, and may not even be in the curriculum I am suppose to teach.  These are the lessons that I remember from my childhood and my students will remember in the future.

      As a parent, off for the summer with my kids,  my job is to provide opportunities for my kids to create their own moments.  It is the time for a certain amount of freedom.  Our swimming pool does not have a diving board, so the kids regularly create their own.  This has provided hours of play that has outlasted an actual diving board. 

     Unstructured, thought not unsupervised, play is disappearing from our children's life.  It is this creativeness that has helped make America.

As teacher I constantly hear about how short of an attention span our kids have.  The multi-task and play video games.  The text message on a phone.  Fast, fast, fast is what describes their life.

So how does education respond to this need.  (or least all the research I have seen in the last 20 years)?

Extend the school day.
Extend the class times.
Extend the school year.
Spend more time learning.

So, according to educational research, if a kid has an attention span of 15 minutes, I should try to teach him a lesson in 30 minutes, and it that doesn't work, I should try 2 hours.  What is wrong with this?

I teach at a fine arts elementary and my students spend 90 minutes in fine arts everyday.  I have looked to find a faster way to teach them for 6 years.  I have been unable to find any research.  Rush says follow the money, I guess there are no grants for shortening the school day.

cabiv

Government and education seem to think that we are just one plan away from perfection.  When ever there is a problem, just write an new plan (law).  The plan comes first and then people must implement it.

In a capitalist society, people come up with plans and are rewarded with money when they work.  They are self-adjusting because the monetary rewards change if the plan stops working.  In government, a plan not working is just a plan in need of more tax dollars.

In education, if all that was needed was a plan, I would have been replaced long ago by a video or a computer program.  50% to 70% of all students can learn with any method used (old math, new math,  phonics, sight words, etc)  it is my job to personalized education for the rest of my students.

cabiv

The democrats have pushed to match budget increases with tax increases and tax cuts with budget cuts. How about uses the same principal for writing new laws?

Each time congress passes a new law, it must be match with repealing an old law? This might force them to actually study what laws are currently on the books.  Everytime there is a problem, their response is to pass a new law.

To really have an effect, make them match word to word, not just law to law.  You of course might have them same effect, just requiring a sponsor in the house and senate to read the entire law into the record, while congress is in session.

cabiv

    Congress seems to work onthe plan theory.  They must have plan. A plan for Iraq. A plan for health care.  A plan for education.  It is the plan that is important, or as Rush says, it is the thought that counts. 
    Their arrogance makes them believe, the perfect plan solves a problem.  There are no perfect plans, yet they continue to think the country is just on plan away from utopia.
  Congress should be held accountable for past laws and plans before support for new ones are passed.
    
    

One of the most often used phrases by local and state politicians seems to be”We are applying for a Federal Grant”. This is often heard by people as “We are getting free money for it!”. Last time I checked the Federal government is sending our tax money back to us, and we should be grateful to get part of it back.

This reminds me of when I was younger, going to school, and living with my grandparents for “free”. It was free except for all the little conditions that I was expected to follow to keep them happy. Most were common decency, some where slightly annoying, others really grated upon my nerves. With a little more backbone, I might sucked it up and moved out. But it was free.

For decades, Washington used a similar ploy to keep the speed limit set at 55 mph. No law was passed that mandated the speed limit. No consideration was given to where it was located or what the local people thought. It was controlled by money. If you want a dime of federal money for your roads, your speed limit must be 55 mph. Sounds like “As long as you live under my roof, you will follow my rules.”

Unfortunately, no state had the backbone or was adult enough to say “Okay, I am moving out and following my own rules.” The Feds have a way of attaching strings to the money they are giving you. Or should a say “your tax dollars they are returning to you.” These strings are quite numerous in education. As a teacher, this is an area I am quite familiar with.

Many of the educational programs that are in the forefront (No Child Left Behind.& Title 9 womans sports, busing, vouchers ) are controlled throw the federal funding. The merits of these programs are not the issue. What is the federal government doing running schools in 50 different states.

For this extreme over site by the feds, they pay just 8.9% of the education bill across the country. This ranges from a high of 19.4% in Alaska to just 4.3% in New Jersey. (http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/92.htmlhttp://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/92.html) It is time for the states to grow up, pack the bags, and move out of Uncle Sam's house (at least in education).

The first step would be to reduce the federal taxes by the amount the “spend”, including the waste in the program. This website list just some of the problems with the department of education (http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=policy_Department_of_Education ).

Whats that you say, inside the beltway will never give up this power? Read the following from your friendly wikipedea:

If at least two-thirds of the legislatures of the states so request, Congress is required to call a convention for the purpose of proposing an amendment. The requisite number of states never made such a request although two proposals have come just two states shy of the required number. There is much controversy as to how such a convention would operate, how its delegates would be chosen, the necessary vote required to propose a particular amendment, and many other lingering questions. The state legislatures have, in times past, taken advantage of the fear of the unknown by using their power to apply for a national convention in order to frighten Congress into proposing the desired amendment. For example, the movement to amend the Constitution to provide for the direct election of U.S. Senators began to see such proposals regularly pass the House of Representatives only to die in the Senate from the early 1890s onward. As time went by, more and more state legislatures adopted resolutions demanding that a convention be called, thus pressuring the Senate to finally relent and approve what later became the Seventeenth Amendment for fear that such a convention—if permitted to assemble—might stray to include issues above and beyond just the direct election of U.S. Senators.

Lets propose an amendment to limit the power of Washington to meddle in local education. Or better yet, ban them from even funding at least k-12 education. This would move the power back to the states. Most states would not even have to raise taxes, because of the money saved preparing the federal paperwork.

If we go through the state legislatures, they will see a power grab and be willing to support. (each state will then need to deal with their legislatures as they see fit). It might just be the first step towards states becoming an adult and paying their own way.