A Modest Proposal

“Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie that one party can gain only at the expense of another.” — Milton Friedman

In the 1930’s, during the Great Depression, the Roosevelt administration turned to the use of taxpayer’s money to reduce the unemployment rate. In 1932 when Franklin Roosevelt was elected the unemployment rate was 24 percent. After spending billions on public works programs and creating agencies like The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and The Public Works Administration (PWA) the rate had declined to 17%.

The Works Progress Administration (renamed during 1939 as the Works Project Administration; WPA) was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects.

It fed children and redistributed food, clothing, and housing. Almost every community in the United States had a park, bridge or school constructed by the agency, which especially benefited rural and Western areas.[citation needed] The WPA's initial appropriation in 1935 was for $4.9 billion (about 6.7 percent of the 1935 GDP), and in total it spent $13.4 billion.

At its peak in 1938 it provided paid jobs for three million unemployed men (and some women), as well as youth in a separate division, the National Youth Administration. Headed by Harry Hopkins, the WPA provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the Great Depression in the United States. Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA provided almost eight million jobs. Full employment, which emerged as a national goal around 1944, was not the WPA goal. It tried to provide one paid job for all families where the breadwinner suffered long-term unemployment.

The WPA was a national program that operated its own projects in cooperation with state and local governments, which provided 10%-30% of the costs. WPA sometimes took over state and local relief programs that had originated in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) or Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) programs.

Liquidated on June 30, 1943 as a result of low unemployment due to the economic boom of World War II, the WPA provided millions of Americans with jobs for 8 years.[6] Most people who needed a job were eligible for at least some of its positions.] Hourly wages were typically set to the prevailing wages in each area.[8] However workers could not be paid more than 30 hours a week. Before 1940, there was very little training to teach new skills, to meet the objections of the labor unions.

The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression. It built large-scale public works such as dams, bridges, hospitals and schools. Its goals were to spend $3.3 billion in the first year, and $6 billion in all, to provide employment, stabilize purchasing power, and help revive the economy. Most of the spending came in two waves in 1933-35, and again in 1938. Originally called the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, it was renamed the Public Works Administration in 1939 and shut down in 1943.

The PWA spent over $6 billion in contracts to private construction firms that did the actual work. It created an infrastructure that generated national and local pride in the 1930s and remains vital seven decades later. The PWA was much less controversial than its rival agency with a confusingly similar name, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), headed by Harry Hopkins, which focused on smaller projects and hired unemployed unskilled workers.

The PWA headquarters in Washington planned projects, which were built by private construction companies hiring workers on the open market. Unlike the WPA, it did not hire the unemployed directly.

More than any other New Deal program, the PWA epitomized the progressive notion of "priming the pump" to encourage economic recovery. Between July 1933 and March 1939 the PWA funded and administered the construction of more than 34,000 projects including airports, large electricity-generating dams, major warships for the Navy, and bridges, as well as 70% of the new schools and one-third of the hospitals built between 1933–1939.

Streets and highways were the most common PWA projects, as 11,428 road projects, or 33% of all PWA projects, accounted for over 15% of its total budget. School buildings, 7,488 in all, came in second at 14% of spending. PWA functioned chiefly by making allotments to the various Federal agencies; making loans and grants to state and other public bodies; and making loans without grants (for a brief time) to the railroads. For example it provided funds for the Indian Division of the CCC to build roads, bridges and other public works on and near Indian reservations.

The PWA became, with its "multiplier-effect" and first two-year budget of $3.3 billion (compared to the entire GDP of $60 billion), the driving force of America’s biggest construction effort up to that date. By June 1934 the agency had distributed its entire fund to 13,266 federal projects and 2,407 non-federal projects. For every worker on a PWA project, almost two additional workers were employed indirectly. The PWA accomplished the electrification of rural America, the building of canals, tunnels, bridges, highways, streets, sewage systems, and housing areas, as well as hospitals, schools, and universities; every year it consumed roughly half of the concrete and a third of the steel of the entire nation.

Some of the most famous PWA projects are the Triborough Bridge and the Lincoln Tunnel in New York City, the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state, the longest continuous sidewalk in the world along 6½ miles of Bayshore Blvd. in Tampa, Florida, and the Overseas Highway connecting Key West, Florida, to the mainland. The PWA also electrified the Pennsylvania Railroad between New York and Washington, DC. At the local level it built courthouses, schools, hospitals and other public facilities that remain in use in the 21st century.

While these programs had their critics they did provide valuable and lasting infrastructure assets. I am not so positive about the funding of the arts programs as most of artists, writers, musicians, and photographers involved in the program were communists or fellow travelers. Some of the critics compared Roosevelt’s progressive public works programs with those of Mussolini in fascist Italy and Adolph Hitler in National Socialist Germany. Both of these dictators used public spending to create full employment. Mussolini had his corps of fascist workers who built massive public works projects like draining the Pontine Marshes and building new towns. Hitler established the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) to provide labor for agriculture and civic construction projects including the building of the Autobahns

It is difficult for me to harshly criticize the Roosevelt administration for initiating these public works spending. The national economy was in big trouble and with almost one –quarter of the workforce unemployed there was a real threat of socialism or communism sweeping into power. Also the nation benefited from the improvements in the infrastructure, especially in roads, electrification, flood control, sewer and water, and irrigation.

With this in mind I have a proposal for President Obama to reduce our national unemployment. Taking into consideration that most of our major infrastructure has been built and we now require only maintenance and upgrades. We don’t need to subsidies artists, musicians, and those in the entrainment industry, they are doing just fine. What we need is a program for unskilled workers who can’t seem to find work in the service or fast food industry. We need low skilled construction jobs.

With the president’s belief that only government can create jobs and that we all owe any success we have to government or a teacher I think he will jump right in to this proposal.

I call my proposal the Earth Supply and Renewal Project. Here is how it would work. First, our excavation specialists insert their shovels into the ground and remove the soil. This presents the problem of an existing hole in the earth, creating a dangerous situation that could lead to hazards, including but not limited to tripping, falling, and bodily injuries.

Then there is the renewal process. At the Earth Supply Division, professional backfillers will be trained to renew the soil in place of the existing hole, restoring the earth to its original condition.

Some folks say we’re just digging ditches and filling them back up again. But it’s about more than that. It’s about jobs.

Just think of the business opportunities this government program will create. First we have the shovel makers. The government will set the standards for the size of the shovels making them at three-fourths the size of a conventional shovel yow old buy from your local Ace Hardware store. Of course two types of shovels would be needed. Firstly a spade to remove the earth and then secondly a flat-end shovel to scoop up the earth to fill in the ditch. We will also need picks to break up the hard ground.

Second we would have the trainers who would no doubt require a college education in civil and construction engineering. This would help them pay off their student loans.

Third we would have the environmentalist, biologist, and botanists who would select the locations for each project so as not disturb the desert tortoise or the woolly daisy.

Finally we would need the inspectors to make sure the unskilled earth movers were doing the proper job.

Of course the unions would be involved to make sure all of the workers joined unions like SEIU and received prevailing wage, health care, and a pension.

I can’t take full credit for this proposal. I have to give a tip of the hat to James O’Keefe writing in Breibart.com for his Project Veritas idea. O’Keefe’s purpose was to expose union corruption as he wrote:

“That’s the setup. O’Keefe’s Project Veritas then takes this newly-created non-existent company – a company dedicated to digging and filling holes – and asks for help from local union bosses to help move subsidies for Earth Supply and Renewal through legislatures. After all, they argue, even if we’re just digging ditches and refilling them on the taxpayer dime, at least we’re creating new union workers.

And, unbelievably, the union bosses are only too happy to help. They couldn’t care less about wasting taxpayer dollars. And that’s precisely what they say.

John Hutchings, director of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) New York State Laborers’ Organizing Fund (NYSLOF), explains:

Right now it’s all about jobs. It’s awful hard for anybody to vote against like a jobs bill right now …

He agrees that even if there are sites where this ditch digging and filling has no environmental program, legislators will decided, “it’s a jobs program for the laborers.” And when some of the Earth Supply and Renewal “employees” explain that they literally dig a ditch, then fill it up again, Hutchings says, “It sounds like, it almost is exactly the same as where we were with Green Jobs, Green New York.” Green Jobs, Green New York was a $112 million state plan that was designed to create environmentally-friendly jobs. And it was sponsored, in large part, by unions.

Anthony J. Tocci, business manager of the Local 601 for LIUNA AFL-CIO, goes even further. He says that he’d be willing to help find public funds just to dig and fill ditches:

Hey, if people are willing to give you money, if people will give you the money, that’s fine.

And Hutchings adds:

You know, the Green Jobs, Green New York, between us, a lot of it is bullshit… even if it’s bullshit, I think as long as people are working, that’s not bull, you know what I mean?

Tocci and Hutchings say that this is just the sort of stuff that happened under FDR in the 1930s with the Works Progress Administration. “They dug the roads up, put ‘em back!” says an animated Tocci.

Says Tocci, “You just wanna get the money. Then you figure out afterward.”

Hutchings then explains the economic theory behind all of this:

Well, I think, I think the key thing is, even if it’s bullshit, I think as long as people are working, that’s not bull, you know what I mean? Then you’re doing a service. If there are people working, there are people paying taxes, there are people paying goods, there are, you know what I mean… You’re doing right by the economy… anything that brings work into a community is a plus…

And, of course, the union benefits. Says Hutchings, “It’s a win-win for everybody. Everybody understands that part of it.” Especially the unions, who will be including “employees” of Earth Supply and Renewal in their collective bargaining from now on.”

Two read the rest of O’Keefe’s article and watch the video click here.

Once the Earth Supply and Renewal Project gets underway other special interest groups will no doubt get into the act. The Audubon Society and Burpee Seeds will lobby for trees and flowers to be planted in the ditch and the ditches dug alongside of roads. They will argue that this will beautify the nation in the same manner as Lady Bird Johnson’s Highway Beautification Plan did in 1965.

I am positive that President Obama and his progressive masterminds in his administration will enthusiastically adopt this proposal. It will create “shovel ready” jobs that will dramatically increase his chances for reelection. Of course he will gave to appoint a czar of hole digging.

The Biggest Outsourcer

The 'private sector' of the economy is, in fact, the voluntary sector; and the 'public sector' is, in fact, the coercive sector. — Henry Hazlitt

Last fall while driving along the historic Lincoln Highway I passed through Mansfield Ohio. Mansfield was first settled in 1808 and was named for Jared Mansfield, the U.S. Surveyor General who directed its planning. The village of Mansfield was incorporated in 1828, and in 1857 Mansfield was chartered as a city. During the War of 1812, the first courthouse, jail, and church of Richland County was served in one of two blockhouses that were located on the public square until 1816. In 1908, the blockhouse became a symbol of Mansfield's heritage during its 100th birthday celebration, and in 1929, the blockhouse was relocated to its present location at South Park. The railroads came to the city in 1846, followed by the first road across America, the Lincoln Highway in 1913, smoothing the path for economic growth.

However, like many cities in the rust belt region of the Midwest, Mansfield saw a large decline in its manufacturing and retail sectors. Beginning with the steel Recession of the 1970s, the loss of jobs to overseas manufacturing, prolonged labor disputes, and deteriorating factory facilities all contributed to heavy industry leaving the area. Mansfield Tire & Rubber Company, Ohio Brass Company, Westinghouse, Tappan and many other manufacturing plants were either bought-out, relocated or closed, leaving only the AK Steel Plant in Mansfield and the General Motors Fisher Body Stamping Plant (Mansfield-Ontario Metal Center) in neighboring Ontario as the last two remaining heavy industry employers.

The AK Steel Mansfield Works production facility, formerly Armco Steel, was the location of a violent 3-year United Steelworkers Union lock-out and strike from 1999 to 2002. On June 1, 2009, General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced that its Ontario stamping plant (Mansfield-Ontario Metal Center) would close in June 2010.With the loss of the jobs, locally owned businesses in downtown Mansfield closed, as did much of the retail built in the 1960s along Park Avenue West (formerly known as "The Miracle Mile") and Lexington Avenue. New big-box retail, shopping strips and franchise restaurants have been built in the adjacent suburban city of Ontario, which has replaced Mansfield as the retail hub for Richland County and north-central Ohio.

As we drove through Mansfield, not a pretty town, we passed the abandoned Westinghouse appliance factory, a plant that once employed 8,000 people in the manufacture of clothes dryers, electric ranges, and other home appliances. It was here that the first the first “Electro Robot” was made in 1937. Now the plant is being torn down and all of the jobs are gone, probably to China or Korea. Westinghouse fell into decline due to bad business decisions; sell off of division, entry into to broadcast industry, and constant labor strife and strikes. Eventually their main manufacturing plant in Pittsburg closed and the once thriving Mansfield plant was not far behind.

The Westinghouse plant closure is just one example of many manufacturing plants that have closed in the United States due to the high cost of labor, bad management, and oversees competition. Today the Obama reelection campaign is accusing Bain Capital and Mitt Romney of outsourcing American jobs by closing plants and laying off the workers. This is blatantly false. Yes, Bain closed some plants due to the factors listed above, but they saved many more jobs by restructuring plants and allowing them to become more competitive.

From 1984-98, Mitt Romney worked for Bain Capital. There were 77 companies involved with Bain during that time, and some failed, some sputtered, but multiple others were raging successes. Here is a sample of where the Romney wealth came from. A few of Bain’s successes are:

Staples: Staples only had one store when Bain invested. Romney sat on Staples' board for 15 years after Bain invested in it, according to former Staples CEO Thomas Stemburg. Now the company employs 90,000 people. Stemberg also said on Fox News that Romney is "the single best corporate director I ever worked with."

Steel Dynamics: Bain's investment: $18.3 million. Estimated Gain: $85.5 million. A steel making company that first dealt with Bain Capital in 1994. Steel Dynamics went public in 1996, and still is in business today.

Domino's Pizza: Bain Capital invested $1 billion into Domino's in 1998, according to the New York Times. Now Domino's has 9000 stores.

DDi: Bain did very well with the circuit board makers DDi, nearly quadrupling its initial investment in a few years, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported that after Romney left, Bain merged DDi with another company and then gradually sold its DDi stock. Romney personally sold $4.3 million of DDi stock in May 2001. In the early 2000s, DDi experienced a drop in sales and cut its work force, according to the Wall St. Journal. DDi defaulted on some loans when Bain still had some control over the company. But DDi emerged from bankruptcy and is still doing business today. In fact, DDi's website says that the company acquired another company called Coretec Inc. in 2010.

Bright Horizons Family Solutions: James H. Furneaux, venture colleague of Romney from another company wrote to the Boston Globe that Mitt Romney recruited the founding team of Bright Horizons, a childcare company, and was heavily involved in the early strategy of the company. Bright Horizons flourished and still flourishes today, with 800 child care centers and 19,000 employees. In fact, the Boston Globe called Family Horizons the number one place to work in their "Globe’s Top Places to Work" survey.

Sports Authority: Sports Authority was also quite small when Bain became involved. By 2006, Sports Authority had over 14,000 employees, according to American.com

Wesley Jessen VisionCare Inc.: In 1995 Bain Capital invested $6.4 million in specialty contact lens maker Wesley Jessen VisionCare. The Wall St. Journal reported that the investment yielded a gain of more than $300 million. The New York Times reported that in 2000, Ciba Vision Corporation bought Wesley Jessen for $758 million.

Stage Stores: Bain Capital invested in Stage Stores in 1988, and Stage went public in 1996, with 9,606 employees. BY 1999, the company employed 15,700 people. Bain received excellent returns. Employment dropped back down when the company went into chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000. But Stage eventually recovered and now employs 13,500 people, according to America.com. (Click Here to see Romney’s defense against Obama’s outrageous charges of destroying jobs)

Obama wants to tag Romney with outsourcing. It’s the only campaign issue he has for he certainly can’t run on his dismal record. All he has is Bain’s outsourcings and calls warfare. What a miserable president he has been

With all the talk of Bain Capital, let us consider the bane of capital. Speaking at a campaign stop in Roanoke, Virginia, President Barack Obama set business owners straight: "If you've got a business, you didn't build that." Powerful stuff. "If you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."

This from a person who told his supporters that his nomination marked the moment when the waters of the great oceans would recede and when the earth's temperature would cool. So now one wonders whether Obama really did win that election. He didn't build the voting machines. He didn't create the cars that brought voters to polling places. He didn't create the pens that wrote the checks for his campaign. Someone else did that. So he didn't win that election. Someone else did.

This from a person who told his supporters that his nomination marked the moment when the waters of the great oceans would recede and when the earth's temperature would cool. So now one wonders whether Obama really did win that election. He didn't build the voting machines. He didn't create the cars that brought voters to polling places. He didn't create the pens that wrote the checks for his campaign. Someone else did that. So he didn't win that election. Someone else did.

The thing is, he does not know how to create a productive job that adds value because he never built a business. He never filed the corporate-compliance documents, was never posed with obligations to leap through endless hoops of government red tape to sell a product. He never built a factory, never went to a fabricator to have manufacturing machines built to specifications. The only fabrication he knows is falsifying his life story — one cannot call such novels a "biography" or an "autobiography," but only a "life story." So he can fabricate facts in his life story. He can fabricate claims against Romney that fly against the truth. But he does not know how to fabricate a machine. Someone else made that happen.

He does not understand what it means to research a product for years, risking all of one's life savings and borrowing and seeking investment capital, hoping for that breakthrough that might fill a need. He does not know what it is to sell a consumer product and, one day, have an extraordinary insight that, by tweaking the product just a bit, it can open doors to satisfy millions of needs. He does not understand because he didn't build that. Someone else made that happen.

For decades people sat in coffee shops and ordered coffee from a waitress who served it fifteen minutes later in a porcelain cup, refilling it endlessly at no extra charge. It cost peanuts. A guy in Seattle became convinced that he could serve an untapped societal desire for a more glitzy coffee — what he called an affordable luxury. He risked his shirt, and he was right. People were ready to stand in line for ten minutes, pay five dollars a cup, pay for refills, and drink it out of paper cup for the affordable luxury that a Starbucks offered. Other people before him had picked the coffee beans, conceived of brewing them for a drink. But a guy turned an idea into something that has touched millions of lives.

Another fellow experienced an accidental mess-up at work when some glue was not made properly and barely held its stick. He noticed that an adhered item could be separated from the item to which it been glued, and then could re-stick again. Most everyone else would have shrugged and grumbled about the day's mistake at the glue factory. But this guy figured out that people could really do something with little paper notes that could be used as Post-Its. It took a small form of crazy, a wonderful crazy that could think outside a box, to see a vision of millions of insane people like me who survive on Post-Its. 3M made millions.

Obama is the bane of capital. He does not understand it. He does not understand the risk of capital, the possibility of capital, the magic of how America opened possibilities never before imaginable because it liberated capital for private enterprise.

Now let’s see what Obama is doing about outsourcing. Firstly with increasing tax rates and onerous regulations many companies like his buddy Jeff Immelt’s General Electric is doing when they outsource hundreds of thousands of jobs to China and India. Apple, Microsoft, and even General Motors are doing the same. Of course this doesn’t count in the media coverage. It’s only Bain that matters and most of the jobs lost in firms Bain invested in were in companies that just could not make it. See

As President Obama was attacking Mitt Romney for supposedly “outsourcing” jobs when he ran Bain Capital (a charge disputed by The Washington Post’s fact checker), tens of thousands of Americans were fleeing the Obama economy to find work in Canada.

“Skilled U.S. workers are coming to Canada in ever greater numbers, driven out by high unemployment at home, and tempted in by job shortages in key sectors like Alberta’s growing energy sector,” Reuters reported last week.

“Government figures show that Canada issued 34,185 temporary work permits to Americans last year, just shy of the record 35,060 handed out in 2010, and officials expect that number to keep growing.”

Why will it keep growing? Because the U.S. job market is not growing, while Canada’s is.

In the Obama economy, according to news reports this year, blue-collar Americans are fleeing north by the thousands to find work, Mexican immigrants are returning to their home country to find work because the prospects are so bad here, and more of America’s wealthiest are fleeing to Asia to protect their assets from the reach of the U.S. government.

Meanwhile, consumer confidence is down for the second straight month.

“The greatest concern to consumers is that wage and job growth will remain depressed over the foreseeable future, and that these meager gains are likely to be further diminished in the years ahead by rising taxes and benefit cutbacks,” Richard Curtin, who directed the Reuters/University of Michigan survey of consumers, said last week.

President Obama offers nothing that will reverse these trends and bring employment and investment back to the United States. So he tries to distract the people by calling Romney an outsourcer. The irony is that America will continue losing jobs and workers to other countries, with no end in sight, if Obama’s trick works.

The latest and most egregious example of Obama’s push to outsourcing is our space program. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their Apollo 11 lander on the moon on July 20, 1969 the United States was the big kahuna when it came to space. No country could touch us, not even the Soviet Union. We were the leaders in space exploration and technology. This was good for the nation, our national defense, and business. Thousands were employed by the contractors making the parts for the space program. This meant jobs – good paying jobs.

Over time NASA, like all government agencies, grew to bureaucratic giant. Once the Apollo missions ended NASA began the space shuttles program that lasted until last year. The shuttle was used as a recoverable space vehicle for putting satellites into orbit, servicing the Hubble Telescope and supplying the International Space Station.

Congress became more and more disenchanted with NASA’s lack of a focus as they spent more and more money. NASA began to dabble in climate change, environmental issues, and even wanting to give Islamic countries more involvement with the space program. They had become a political correct bureaucracy with no clear mission.

Now the Obama administration is outsourcing much of NASA’s space program, particularly supplying the ISS, to Russia. The Mail Online reported this week that American astronaut blasted off in Russian rocket after the end of shuttle program forces U.S. to outsource space travel:

“They may have been bitter enemies during the Cold War space race, but these days the U.S. and Russia work together to transport astronauts through the cosmos.

And it's just as well - for since the demise of the space shuttle programme last year, NASA has been forced to piggy-back off other countries rockets for its space expeditions.

This enforced co-operation was on show on Sunday, when American Sunita Williams joined colleagues from Russia and Japan on a Soyuz capsule headed to the International Space Station for a four-month mission.

Ms Williams, Yuri Malenchenko and Akihiko Hoshide launched successfully from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 0240 GMT.

They are scheduled to berth early on Tuesday, joining Nasa Flight Engineer Joseph Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin aboard the ISS.

'The Soyuz had a very smooth ride into space,' a spokesman for Nasa said during a live broadcast on the agency's television channel.

The Soyuz TMA-05M rocket blazed a bright orange trail through cloudy skies above the Kazakh steppe on the first stage of its journey to the ISS, a $100billion research complex orbiting 240 miles above Earth.

Moscow hopes a successful mission will help to restore confidence in its once-pioneering space programme after a string of launch mishaps last year, including the failure of a mission to return samples from the Martian moon Phobos.

The previous Soyuz launch on May 15 was delayed by more than a month after an accident during pressure tests damaged the Soyuz crew capsule. There were no such delays with Sunday's launch.

'The most tense, the most difficult part (of the launch) has been successfully implemented,' said Vladimir Popovkin, head of Russian space agency Roscosmos.

'I have just spoken to the crew. They are feeling great,' Russian news agencies quoted Popovkin as saying in Baikonur. 'I have no doubts that all will go according to plan.'

Colonel Malenchenko, a 50-year-old cosmonaut on his fifth space voyage, loosened his straps about 20 minutes after blast-off after conducting air pressure checks.

Asked by Mission Control how the crew was feeling, he replied: 'Good.' A doll given to him by his daughter dangled from the roof of the capsule.

Captain Williams, 46, and Mr Hoshide, 43, a civilian engineer, are both on their second space flight and their first aboard a Soyuz spacecraft.

They, along with Colonel Malenchenko, are scheduled to return to Earth in mid-November.

The previous crew of three at the ISS returned on July 1. Cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Don Pettit and European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers helped to dock the first privately owned spacecraft during a six-month stint in orbit.

Sunday's launch took place less than three weeks after China's Shenzhou 9 spacecraft returned to Earth, ending a mission that put the country's first woman in space.

Although China is far from catching up with the United States and Russia, the Shenzhou 9 marked China's fourth manned space mission since 2003.

It comes as budget restraints and shifting priorities have held back U.S. manned space launches.”

So while Obama and his media minions harp about Bain Capital our campaigner-in chief is outsourcing elements of our national defense to nations that have their own interests in mind — not ours. Once a leader in space technology we have abdicated that role to our once Cold War enemy and China. This is due of an absence of a clear mission for NASA by Obama and the Bush Administrations. Obama wants to put all of his emphasis on social issues and class warfare, items not enumerated to Congress for funding, while we lose our edge in technology.

My Letter to Barack Obama

"The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money." — Alexis de Tocqueville

Dear Mr. President:

Last week you made a speech to your supporters in Roanoke, Virginia stating that I did not create my own business and that the community and government helped me. Well, Mr. President you are dead wrong and you really ticked me off with your uneducated remarks. As you stated in a recent interview how you believe your only mistake in your first term was that you did not tell enough stories to the American people let me tell you my story and see how it stacks up with your view of business and your own personal history.

The first job I ever had was in 1949 at the age of 13 when I obtained a paper route in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. I got up every morning at 6:00 am and rode my bicycle about a half mile from our house to the corner of our street where I picked up 70+ dailies of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and delivered them to my customs. I did this six days a week, rain, shine, and snow. On Sundays I had over 200 papers to deliver and I had to use my wagon and walk the route. On Saturdays I had to make the rounds to collect the money for the papers from my customers and pay the newspaper company for the papers with me keeping the portion allocated for profit. I made about seven or ten dollars a week. This was my introduction to capitalism and the free enterprise system. If I worked hard, treated my customers well and made my collections on time I had a steady stream of income and some customers even gave me tips for my prompt mooring deliveries. Tips were very good a Christmas when I could clear as much as $50.00

My next job was in 1952 at the age 16 with a typewriter repair shop in downtown Cleveland. I would deliver my papers and then take the bus to the typewriter shop where I would do odd jobs such as going for parts and cleaning typewriters. I kept the paper route as I knew this was a summer job and I would need to continue my income stream during the school year. I was paid $75 cents per hour at the typewriter shop so for a 40 hour week I made $30.00 gross. I also began paying into Social Security, some I did for the next 54 years. My bus fare to and from the typewriter shop was 50 cents per day. I was learning about gross income, net income and taxes. I was doing this at the same age as you were when you were smoking dope and getting drunk on a beach in Hawaii.

I did not care for the job at the typewriter repair shop and knew I was not mechanically inclines enough to repair those complex machines. My Dad, who was a skilled typewriter repairman, had a customer who worked at a civil engineering and land surveying firm in downtown Cleveland. He asked them if they ever hired summer help and they told him they did and if I was interested to drop in for an interview.

I did just that as working on a survey crew sounded intriguing to me. I looked like clean outdoor work and I would not have to deal with those smelly cleaning chemicals. On one of my school holidays I put on my pressed dressed pants and my sport jacket and took the bus downtown for an interview. During the interview I was polite and when asked why I wanted to work for the firm I told them I though surveying sounded very exciting as surveyors built things and were considered part of the engineering profession. Evidently they like me and told me to report promptly at 7:30 am on the first day of my summer vacation. This was 1953 and my pay was once again 75 cents per hour. The only downside was hat I had to give up the paper route.

I worked the entire summer six days per week assisting a crew chief doing mortgage identification surveys all over Cuyahoga County. I worked hard, was always on time and when school started up again they told me I could continue to work Saturdays and on school holidays which I gladly did. The pay was not great but I was learning and investing in my future.

The day after I graduated high school in 1954 I began full time employment for the surveying firm at a whopping one dollar per hour for 48 hours per week. I was earning, saving, and paying taxes, something you were not doing at my age while you lounged on the beach and listened to your communist mentor Frank Marshall Davis and tried to get a scholarship to Occidental College.

I did well at the survey firm for about 18 months working hard, learning and going to night school for advanced mathematics and physics. In the fall of 1954 I purchased a new car, a 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air> I was now living a middle-class life at the age of 18. No, I did not take government money to go to college. I learned on the job and went to night school something many people still do.

In 1956 another civil engineering and land surveying firm much closer to my home offered me a job. Due to my reputation and acquired skills the offer was for $2.50 cents per hour. Naturally I accepted their offer and moved on. I worked for a young crew chief who had recently completed his military service with the U.S. Army as a surveyor for the artillery. He was sharp and willing to teach me not only about surveying, but about life. I still consider him a mentor. You see Mr. President there were no government grants or job programs. People helped people who wanted to be helped.

I did well at the new firm and by 1958 I had my own survey crew and the raises continued to come. It was also in 1958 that I met my future wife and in 1960 we were married. You see in those days people got married befire having children and did not look to government for support.

In 1962 my wife and I decide to move to California. I was tired of working outdoors in cold weather. We came to California with all of our worldly belongings in a 4x6 U-Haul trailer. It took me about a month to find a job with the California Division of Highways where I would spend the next ten years of my life. I worked hard and did well with the highway department continuing with my night school education and a correspondence course in surveying and highway engineering. No doubt had there been an Internet in those days it would have been an on-line course.

In 1965 after years of study I completed the state board exams for my Land Surveyor’s License and I could now begin working on my dream of owning my own surveying business. I continued with the highway department moving up the ladder and doing interesting work building the Interstate Highway System. But, I always had the thought of my own business in he back of my mind. I could have stayed in the civil service and worked for government as you did as a community organizer, but I wanted more for my family.

In 1972 I met two civil engineers who wanted to start their own business. We got along well and decided to share the risk and go out on our own so we started our own civil engineering and land surveying business with five employees — my two partners, me, and two employees who believed in us.

We worked hard and served our clients well and began to grow. By 1978 we had three offices and 100 employees. This meant that every night I went to bed concerned as to how I could keep the clients coming in so we could support these employees with incomes and health care so they could support their families. There were times when my partners and I went without paychecks so we could pay our employees.

In 1978 this country elected one of the worst presidents in our history and a member of your party – Jimmy Carter. Carter’s economic policies were a disaster for our firm. As most of our clients were in the land development and housing industry and interest was at an all-time high of 22% our business took a big hit. By summer of 1980 we were down to one office and 10 employees all due to government mismanagement of the economy. Who do I thank for that Mr. President?

In 1980 we decided to merge with another civil engineering and land surveying firm in similar straits. After the merger we had 65 employees and I was one of six owners and an officer of the firm.

For the next 26 years due to hard work, good client service, and the use of advanced technology my partners and I were able to grow the fir to 850 employees with 7 offices throughout California, Arizona, and Colorado. We had expanded our services to include water services, environmental services, land planning, and geographic information services. We also did work in Turkey, Germany and Central and South America.

When I finally retired, in 2007, we 850 families to support with their health care, food and clothing, car payments, dental care, school tuitions, and vacations.

Mr. President you can see from my story that I did not have wealthy sugar daddies to pay my way to Occidental College, Columbia University, and Harvard as you did. I did not hang out with left-wing and Marxist Chicago millionaires and take government money to be a community organizer. I worked and studied hard, served my clients well providing services they needed, and provided very good paying jobs.

So Mr. President when I hear you and your zombies make comments like you did last week in Roanoke it really pisses me off. Please keep you Marxist ideology to yourself and your Chicago cronies. You haven’t the slightest idea of what it takes to start and run a business so butt out and leave the economy to the people who know what they are doing and are willing to take risks to grow it. We will all be better off and live without the tyranny of your socialist masterminds.

Sincerely,

A pissed off retired businessman and citizen.

Boehner Losses Again

“Socialism has no place in the hearts of those who would secure the fight for freedom and preserve democracy.” Samuel Gompers, American Federation of Labor, 1918.

John Boehner and the House Republicans lost another battle to the duplicity of Barack Obama. Yesterday Obama thumbed his nose at Congress by nixing the XL Pipeline project. The Washington Post reported yesterday:

“The Obama administration will announce this afternoon it is rejecting a Canadian firm’s application for a permit to build and operate a massive oil pipeline across the U.S.-Canada border, according to sources who have been briefed on the matter.

However the administration will allow TransCanada to reapply after it develops an alternate route through the sensitive habitat of Nebraska’s Sandhills. Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns will make the announcement, which comes in response to a congressionally-mandated deadline of Feb. 21 for action on the proposed Keystone pipeline.”

After months of playing political ping-pong with 20,000 potential (mostly union) jobs, the Obama administration decided on Wednesday to kill the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would have carried crude oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries.

According to a State Department release [emphasis added]:

“Today, the Department of State recommended to President Obama that the presidential permit for the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline be denied and, that at this time, the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline be determined not to serve the national interest. The President concurred with the Department’s recommendation, which was predicated on the fact that the Department does not have sufficient time to obtain the information necessary to assess whether the project, in its current state, is in the national interest.

Since 2008, the Department has been conducting a transparent, thorough, and rigorous review of TransCanada’s permit application for the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline project…”.

For more than three years, the State Department has conducted its “transparent, thorough, and rigorous review.” However, apparently, the Obama Administration believes that three years wasn’t enough to be transparent, thorough, or rigorous enough.

As Forbes’ Christopher Helman noted in November:

“In the process of selecting the proposed route, TransCanada plotted and studied 14 different pipeline paths and submitted 10,000 pages of environmental studies. They’ve already studied this thing to death.”

What’s worse is the fact that Obama’s purely ideological decision does not serve the national interest at all. In fact, since China will be the likely recipient of the Canadian oil, in addition to the destruction of possible jobs, Obama’s decision harm—not help—the nation’s interests.

As a result of the Obama’s job-destroying decision, Laborers’ union president, Terry O’Sullivan issued a blistering statement:

“The score is Job-Killers, two; American workers, zero. We are completely and totally disappointed. This is politics at its worst,” LIUNA General President Terry O’Sullivan said. “Once again the President has sided with environmentalists instead of blue collar construction workers – even though environmental concerns were more than adequately addressed. Blue collar construction workers across the U.S. will not forget this.”

The project would create thousands of good jobs at a time when unemployment in the construction industry is 16 percent with 1.3 million men and women jobless.

Environmental groups have used the Keystone XL as a disingenuous proxy for arguments about global warming. The pipeline would carry up to 900,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada’s Tar Sands to the U.S., reducing reliance on oil from hostile nations. While environmental groups decry Tar Sands development, the Canadian government and Trans-Canada, the company developing the Tar Sands, have made clear the oil will be developed – and possibly sold to China – regardless of whether Keystone XL is built.”

[snip]

“The Administration and environmentalists have blown the whistle on workers trying to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads,” said O’Sullivan. “Instead of celebrating their victory by hugging a tree they should hug a jobless construction worker because they’re the ones who are going to need it.” [Emphasis added.]

Below is Speaker John Boehner’s reaction to Obama’s decision

As usual the Republicans in Congress cut deals with Democrats. The Republicans’ favorite reporters and pundits tell us just how awesome those deals are. Then those deals blow up in our faces.

More tragically, then the same Republican leaders who negotiated those deals go back and negotiate the next deals and the same reporters and pundits at the same publications who told the last ones were so awesome tell us these are so awesome and then these deals too blow up in our faces. Conservatives always raise the alarm. The Republicans always run to the usual suspects to spin their way out of the mess.

On Facebook yesterday, Senator Jim DeMint noted this folly. Republicans were supposed to have big wins on the debt ceiling and on the Keystone XL Pipeline. They told us they had played the Democrats. Instead, we played ourselves.

“The two political victories leading Republicans planned on celebrating today only showcase how much we have to lose by compromising with the Democrats.

The non-binding vote of disapproval on the debt ceiling increase held in the House today and the Obama Administration’s decision not to authorize the Keystone Pipeline were supposed to be excruciating political exercises for the Democrats. They turned out to be a walk in the park.

Instead of generating a great public uproar over the debt, economy, and jobs, all President Obama had to do was reiterate his long-held positions—that the debt ceiling should be increased and the Keystone Pipeline should not be authorized.

Giving the President exactly what he wants and then asking him to remind the public that he wanted it after the fact isn’t a strategy to win. It’s a strategy to cover-up a stunning loss under the guise of a compromise.”

So the Obama administration rejected Keystone XL. Oh sure, they want us to think it’s just a delay, a kicking of the Keystone can down the road. Officially, the state department just sent TransCanada (NYSE:TRP) back to the drawing board to look at a variety of other pipeline routes that do their best to avoid the Sandhills in Nebraska and areas overlaying the Ogawalla Aquifer. But don’t be fooled. This is a rejection plain and simple.

In the process of selecting the proposed route, TransCanada plotted and studied 14 different pipeline paths and submitted 10,000 pages of environmental studies. They’ve already studied this thing to death. So when the state department says this new review could be done by early 2013, can we really expect any different outcome than more delays?

Robert Redford, the actor, was happy with today’s announcement. In a statement released by the Natural Resources Defense Council today Redford said, “This is American democracy at its best: a President who listens to the voice of the people and shows the courage to do what’s right for the country. Thank you, Mr. President, for standing up to Big Oil. Thank you for standing up for us all.”

Frances Beinecke, the president of the NRDC ladled on more praise. “President Obama is displaying leadership and courage in putting the interests of the American people before those of Big Oil. He has taken another significant step in the fight against climate change and in our march toward a clean energy future, which will mean healthier lives for all.”

The only response I can summon to that is a big … whatever. If they really wanted to protect the land and the water of the Midwest they would focus on stopping the agribusiness giants from pouring mountains of hydrocarbon-derived fertilizers directly onto the land, chemicals that trickle down into the water table and through watersheds into the Mississippi and the production of Ethanol.

Besides, it’s not as if delaying a pipeline from Canada will do anything to hurt Big Oil. The United States will continue to consume 19 million barrels of petroleum products per day and will continue to import roughly 10 million barrels per day from the rest of the world.

That oil, wherever it comes from, will be traversing continents in pipelines that likely aren’t built to the specifications that the government would demand of TransCanada. That oil will be shipped to the United States in tankers that belch into the air the exhaust of millions of tons of bunker oil. Great victory Mr. Redford!

The environmental freaks, like Redford sitting in the comfort of his Aspen mansion, need to realize is that oil is not only used for powering our SUVs. It’s used for everything from the making of pharmaceuticals to the clothes you wear. Oil to modern civilized society is as needed as much as food and water.

Meanwhile, what happens if someday Israel decides to bomb Iran and Iran moves to block oil shipments out of the Persian Gulf? The U.S., without a pipeline like Keystone XL, will be in more of a pickle when it comes to securing oil supplies.

And what if someday Venezuela’s ailing President Hugo Chavez dies and is replaced by civil war in Venezuela instead of a more reasonable man who reinvigorates Venezuela’s oil production? The U.S., without a pipeline like Keystone XL, will have a tougher time replacing the million barrels a day we get from Venezuela.

And what if Mexico fails to stem its declines in oil production and stops exporting oil to the U.S.? It’s ok, we’ll just use less, and pay more, and suffer slower growth and fewer jobs as a result.

Wouldn’t you rather have a superfluously good supply chain, a wealth of logistical options in a time of plenty — instead of facing shortages in an emergency?

Yes, any pipeline needs to be built to the highest possible standards. Yes, any material leakage from any pipeline is unacceptable. Yes, crude from oil sands does have a higher “carbon footprint” because of all the processing that goes into it. But as long as Canada is dedicated to developing and using the resource, the U.S. would be insane not to build the strategic infrastructure to buy it.

The White House and the State Department understands and appreciates this. It’s too bad that they find it easier to just say no than to pledge publicly to work with TransCanada to build the safest, most reliable pipeline the world has ever seen

Hey Mr. Redford according to Pennwell Map Search, a leader in the GIS industry, there are over 1 million miles of petroleum carrying pipelines in the United States. How much leakage and how many accidents have there been? Virtually none! As a professional land surveyor and GIS manager I and my firm have provided surveying, engineering, right-of-way, and GIS services for the oil and natural gas industry. You cannot believe the scrutiny and restrictions these pipeline builders work under. From the U.S. Department of Transportation to their own internal risk managers these companies build these pipelines to the strictest standards and each inch of the line is part of a national GIS database and can be monitored on a minute by minute basis. The TSA should be a fraction as efficient as the oil and gas industry.

The XL Pipeline begins in Alberta Canada. Do you think for one minute the Canadians want a faulty pipeline running through their pristine farm lands? I think not. This is insanity fostered by the radical, left-wing environmental groups who have gone off the rails with their environmental tyranny. They are the new Communists. They are like watermelons, green on the outside and red on the inside. This is the group Obama is playing to.

As for jobs the usual prediction is 20,000 jobs. I believe it is much more than that. These are not burger-flipping jobs. They are high paying jobs, both union and non-union, that average $70,000 to $100,000 per year. If you doubt my numbers just ask a few of the people who worked on the Alaska Pipeline. These fellows went north to Alaska for a few years and came back home and bought a house and car for cash. These are the folks Obama is screwing in favor of his left-wing environmental, government union, and SEIU service workers union base. Obama doesn’t give a damn about construction workers. Why, because many of them are independents and conservatives. Their union bosses may contribute to the Democrats, but the rank and file vote for Republicans. They know it takes capital to build projects, not rhetoric and social programs.

Obama has played to his left-wing base at a high cost to the American people and the construction industry, one of the driving engines of our economy. The Republicans in Congress have been deceived and taken to the cleaners by the most socialist president in our history. They rolled over on this pipeline. They would not force Obama to approve the pipeline as a condition of passing the payroll tax deal. They wanted to be liked and were fearful of alienating the people who will not vote for them anyway. When will they learn that you cannot make a deal with a liar and a socialist?

The Canadians claim they will refile for pipeline approval with the hope of having a Republican in the White House next year. I hope they are successful on both counts. If not it’s a shorter distance from Calgary to Vancouver than from Calgary to the Gulf of Mexico.

Let’s Make a Deal — Oil for a Tax Cut

"We are either a united people, or we are not. If the former, let us, in all matters of general concern act as a nation, which have national objects to promote, and a national character to support. If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it." — George Washington

Yesterday the Republicans in the House balked at allowing a freeze on Social Security payroll taxes unless Obama’s energy department would give the green light to the Keystone Pipeline. According to Fox News:

“House Republicans are on a collision course with the White House and potentially the Senate over an emerging proposal to extend the payroll tax cut, teeing up a protracted debate that could keep lawmakers in Washington for the holidays as they try to avert a Jan. 1 tax increase.

The Senate on Thursday afternoon rejected rival Democratic and GOP plans for extending the cut. The failure was expected, cueing the House to step in with a new plan.

Details of that proposal, expected to be unveiled in full on Friday, suggest its Republican authors are preparing for a showdown with President Obama. The bill includes a controversial provision to move along the construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas — the Obama administration recently put that project on hold until after the 2012 election, citing environmental and safety concerns.

The provision pertaining to the Keystone pipeline helped sweeten the deal for House conservatives skeptical of a payroll tax extension.

Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., told Fox News that a number of Republicans who were on the fence said they would vote for the bill if it includes the Keystone pipeline provision.

House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday he's confident Republicans are ready to move on the proposal.

But Obama explicitly has said he will reject any effort to tie the Keystone pipeline construction to the tax extension. His allies echoed that message Friday.

It's a non-starter," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said.

Her top deputy, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., urged Republicans to "reconsider" the Keystone language.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney warned Republicans not to include "extraneous attachments" in the bill.

"Whatever happened to Republicans being for tax cuts?" Carney asked. "Is it because this one goes to 160 million Americans, middle-class working Americans, that they're ambivalent or they're willing to oppose it if they don't get some political scalp? Is it because President Obama supports it, or Democrats support it?"

At stake is a cut in the Social Security tax valued at about $1,000 a year for the average family.”

Obama wants a $2.74 per day temporary tax reduction that he can tout as a tax cut but will not green light a pipe line that will increase our supply of oil from Canada, reduce our dependence on Middle-Eastern oils and provide 20,000 well-paying jobs for union and non-union workers, something Obama claims he works 24/7 to create.

We are staring into the face of $180-per-barrel oil. Under President Barack Obama, the Nation is not producing enough oil and is importing far too much of it from potential enemies. This is a reckless game engineered by the President, because oil is America’s economic lifeblood.

It recently become apparent that Obama either does not understand the danger the country is facing or, worse, is willing to ignore it because he has conspired with Arab oil exporters to give them dictatorial powers over America’s energy needs and economic future.

The United States is critically dependent on imported oil, consuming almost 10 million barrels of foreign crude every day. That is about three times more oil than the United States imported 25 years ago. With Obama’s restrictions on further oil exploration, especially offshore, the United States may import 18 million barrels per day by 2020.

Petroleum is essential for the United States. With so many hostile governments selling it to us, it would be easy to think that Canada would be America’s energy oasis. The two countries haven’t had so much as a skirmish in 200 years, and more than any other nation, Canada has stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States. So close are the two peoples that I can’t tell the difference between being in Montana or Alberta.

Both Nations have Judeo-Christian values and common law borne from the Magna Carta. American and Canadian men fought and died together during the two world wars.

On the surface it seems like a pretty simple equation: Canada has 180 billion barrels of reserves, second only to Saudi Arabia, the kingpin petroleum producer and de facto leader of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Canada has a democratically elected parliament. The House of Saud is a desert fiefdom run by a few dozen billionaire princes. Whereas Canada has combat troops stationed in Afghanistan killing Muslim militants, Saudi Arabia provides tens of millions of dollars to Islamic terrorists bent on killing Westerners.

Beyond this, Canada has been a rock-solid energy supplier to the United States. In fact, thousands of Americans work in the Canadian petroleum industry, and there are hundreds of U.S. corporations that have a large stake in further developing Canadian petroleum. Scores of Canadian corporations are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Conversely, Saudi Arabia has nationalized its oil properties, and it implemented two oil embargoes against the United States in the 1970s.

It only makes sense that the United States would sign on to buy more Canadian crude. But with Obama, common sense is not at all common.

TransCanada Corporation is seeking Presidential authorization to build its $7.5 billion Keystone XL pipeline. The line would transport tar sands crude oil from Alberta through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska on its way to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

A number of groups, comprised mostly of environmentalists and liberals, have banded together to oppose its construction. Obama is leading the crusade against Canadian crude.

The President said last month: “Because this permit decision could affect the health and safety of the American people as well as the environment, and because a number of concerns have been raised through a public process, we should take the time to ensure that all questions are properly addressed and all the potential impacts are properly understood.”

The President doesn’t seem concerned that 1,661-mile pipeline would deliver 700,000 barrels per day of crude from the oil sands to the United States.

David H. Wilkins, U.S. ambassador to Canada from 2005-2009, wrote:

“The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline offers nothing but promise: tens of thousands of desperately needed jobs, and a big step toward ensuring North American energy security. But in mid-November, promise gave way to politics when President Obama punted on the pipeline permitting decision, delaying it until after the 2012 election. The Wall Street Journal called the decision a “Keystone Cop-Out.”

I call it a catastrophic cop-out, one with certain economic and diplomatic consequences. The decision on the KXL permit was expected before the end of this year and elected officials in both Canada and the United States rightly called it a “no-brainer.”

The project would reduce dependency on petroleum from the Middle East, a region that is rife with civil war. And what of the economic recovery that Obama promised three years ago? You would have to have been in a coma to see that things are no better and that, overall, the U.S. economy might be in worse shape than when he took office.

This gets me back to why the United States should be begging to sign this pipeline deal. It is estimated that the project would create a minimum of 20,000 well-paying U.S. jobs. That economic bonus would span far beyond all those families that could again have a wage earner and would spill over to every part of the economy, from Wal-Mart to mom-and-pop shops.

In fact, the pipeline deal will add more than $20 billion to the U.S. economy. An extra $5.2 billion in State property taxes would be collected.

The United States will have to deal with the consequences of turning its back on Canadian crude. First and foremost, Ottawa is building closer trade ties with Beijing with a great deal of emphasis on a possible blueprint that would deliver Alberta’s oil sands to the West Coast, where it could be delivered via tankers.

Last month, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with Chinese President Hu Jintao about future Canadian oil exports to China.

Harper said: “This does underscore the necessity of Canada making sure that we are able to access Asia markets for our energy products.”

Canada is counting on China to be a key investor in Alberta’s oil sands projects and a big buyer of crude which would flow through a proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline if Canada encounters further opposition from the Obama Administration. This will make the United States all the more dependent on Arab oil. You would think Obama would understand this. The truth might be that he understands it all too well.

In a December 9^th Op-Ed by John Bussey in the Wall Street Journal the construction of Keystone Pipeline is inevitable. Bussey writes:

“If the Prohibition Era taught us anything about business, it's that demand has a way of finding supply. That was true of whiskey. It will likely also be true of Canada's oil sands and the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

Keystone XL, or a similar pipeline and set of worries, isn't just inevitable. It's something we should accept to prevent worse alternatives from coming to pass.

The 1,700-mile pipeline, proposed by TransCanada Corp. and blocked for the moment by the White House, is back in the news. Lawmakers in the U.S. Congress are seeking to override the administration and start construction of the pipeline, which would carry oil from the oil sands of Alberta to refineries in Houston. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper discussed the matter on Wednesday.

Big corporate names have stakes in the Canadian oil sands: ConocoPhillips, Exxon, Shell, Chevron, Marathon, Statoil, Total, Sinopec and BP among many others.

Environmentalists say the pipeline is a bad idea: "It locks the U.S. into a high carbon form of energy," says Nathan Lemphers at the Pembina Institute in Calgary. "Until there's a national energy policy, these sorts of pipelines will become the surrogate battleground for the environmental movement."

Susan Casey-Lefkowitz of the National Resources Defense Council says the pipeline would promote a dirty and energy-intensive form of oil extraction, pipe that oil through environmentally sensitive areas and aquifers in the U.S., and ultimately keep the U.S. addicted to the wrong sort of fuel, speeding climate change.

Theirs is a compelling argument for abstinence: Until Washington stops dithering and charts a clear road to cleaner energy, remove the temptation to burn more oil by preventing access to supply.

Last month, the White House delayed a yes-or-no decision on the pipeline—conveniently until after the 2012 presidential election.

Markets, however, won't delay. Global demand for energy, driven by growth in developing countries, is expected to rocket 33% over the next 25 years, says the International Energy Agency. By 2035, China is likely to consume almost 70% more energy than the U.S.

Fossil fuels such as oil will still account for 75% of energy consumed in 2035, says the IEA. And these numbers assume positive steps toward conservation and the adoption of renewable and other fuels.

Where will the new energy come from? Globally, reliance will grow on a relatively small number of producers, mainly in the Middle East and North Africa, and the oil will be shipped along vulnerable supply routes, says the IEA. By 2035, the agency says, OPEC's share of global production will rise to above 50%.

If you wonder why China is currently running sea trials for its first aircraft carrier, these vulnerable supply routes and China's own energy insecurity provide an answer.

Frustrated with the U.S., Canada is talking with China about piping its oil west instead of south. Enbridge Inc. has proposed a pipeline to a port at Kitimat, British Columbia, where the oil would be loaded on ships bound for Asia. Native communities in the region are resisting the project.

Somehow, though, demand will eventually pull the oil to market. "That oil is going to get produced, it's going to get refined somewhere, and it's going to get consumed," says Larry Nichols, executive chairman of Devon Energy. Devon produces about 30,000 barrels a day in the oil sands now and plans to more than quintuple production by 2020.

Until cleaner energy sources are cheap, effective and available enough to supplant oil—until pipelines like Keystone are no longer needed—the options for the U.S. are difficult but clear:

The U.S. can continue to rely on dicey regimes in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Or it can buy more oil from its ally Canada and companies it knows, with the added short-term benefit of generating jobs to build new pipelines to U.S. refineries.

The U.S. can let oil-sands oil go to Asia with all the carbon emissions that entails: pollution from shipping, possible substandard refining, and use of the product in Chinese industries with weak emissions rules. Scientists have already found that mercury and other effluents from China's power plants and factories drift across the Pacific and contaminate North American waterways. Expect more.

Or the U.S. can pipe the oil to Houston where regulators scrutinize refiners over emissions, where ever-greater economies of scale help companies create best practices in refining, and where the U.S. can earn money exporting refined products to the rest of the world.”

One of the biggest political and policy winners for Republicans is their strong support for expeditious approval of the Keystone Pipeline. Their unified support for this favorable project has provided voters with a sharp contrast to Obama’s casual disregard for private-sector job creation and cheap energy for consumers. Hence, it is a no-brainer that the pipeline issue should be used as a rallying cry for all Republicans running for elected office in 2012.

In that vein, Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman would be wise to remain in Lincoln, and discard any aspirations to run for Senate.

Toward the end of the summer, amidst pressure from members of his own administration, Obama was on the verge of signing off on the deal. The State Department had published yet another favorable environmental impact study, and even Energy Secretary Steven Chu seemed to concede that opposition to the pipeline was indefensible. But then came the vociferous protestations from Obama’s base; greenies, hippies, Hollywood bimbos, and — Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman.

Late in August, the Nebraska Republican penned a letter to the President and Secretary of State requesting that they deny the permit for the pipeline. Heineman stated that he objected to the route of the pipeline for fear that an oil spill would affect that Ogallala Aquifer – an underground water table in western Nebraska.

Never mind that unlike oil tankers, pipelines are much safer, and in the rare event of a spill, the affected area is measured in tens of feet, not thousands. Never mind that the EPA and the State Department saw no concern with the proposed route of the pipeline. Disregard the fact that the only legitimate threat to the water supply comes from the ethanol production that is so blithely promoted by Nebraska’s Republicans, without any concern for the Ogallala Aquifer. Dave Heineman felt that he must convene a special session of the legislature and block the pipeline, granting Obama the vital bipartisan cover he needed to scuttle the project.

Two months later, buoyed by Republican Heineman’s moral support, Obama suspended the pipeline until after the 2012 elections. As they say, the rest is history.

I have driven across the part of Nebraska where the pipe line will cross and seen the daily progression of Union Pacific trains hauling hundreds of tanker cars loaded with ethanol. If one of those trains were to derail and spill their contents onto the Nebraska soil and eventually permeate down to the aquifer the damage would be 100 times greater than any potential leak from the pipe line. This risk is much greater than a pipe line would create. As a surveyor I have worked on pipe line construction and seen how well they are constructed. Every weld is x-rayed and mapped by its precise geographic coordinates, including elevation, and those coordinates are entered into a geographic information system where the line can be monitored on a 24/7/365 basis. If a leak should occur maintenance crews can quickly respond to repair the line and mitigate any damage caused by the leak. On the other hand if an ethanol loaded train should derail and spill thousands of gallons of refined ethanol on the ground the damage could not be repaired anywhere as quickly and in addition there would be clouds of black smoke laden with carbon and other dangerous particulates filling the skies and drifting across the countryside.

The opposition to the Keystone Pipeline is not based on science and engineering. It is based on politics and the constant desire of the statist environmentalist to change our behavior to conform to their view of the world. While they sit in their air conditioned offices in Washington and Berkley drinking their Kool-Aid and singing the same hymns to mother earth they believe they can enforce their world view on the rest of society through taxes and regulations.

Day Twelve of Our Lincoln Highway Road Trip

Today up at 06:00 at our hotel in Mansfield, Ohio and we were greeted by rain. It began raining during the night and by the time we finished breakfast, checked our maps and loaded the car it was still raining. Ugh! I think we are in for some rain the next few days. Oh, well we will just have tough it.

As we drove through Mansfield, not a pretty town, we passed the abandoned Westinghouse appliance factory, a plant that once employed 7,000 people. Now the plant is being torn down and all of the jobs are gone, probably to China or Korea. So much for all of those union jobs.

After we got out of Mansfield we picked up the Lincoln Highway and began rolling though Ohio farm country. The Ohio DOT has done a good job of marking the highway. Around 10:00 am the rain quit and it began to clear. This was good.

I forgot how pretty the central and western Ohio farm country is. The farms are neat and the fields are well manicured. The smell of freshly cut hay and grass was terrific. These farmers are prosperous and conservative. I can remember hearing about the reactionary, conservative farmers in southern Ohio when I lived in Cleveland. I did not realize then how correct these farmers and citizens of the small towns are. They are patriotic as demonstrated by the American flags on their houses and the monuments in the town squares. The town of Delphos on the old Lincoln Highway had an impressive memorial to the fallen heroes of the town dating to the Civil War. There was also a terrific mural painted on the wall of a Firestone garage depicting the Lincoln Highway of bygone days.

We had to make a quick stop at a Rite Aid in Ontario, Ohio pick up some supplies for the trip. We needed ice, paper towel, crackers and a few other items. The store was neat and clean and the checkout clerk was friendly and helpful. Of course Kathy had to tell her all the details of the trip as she does everyone she meets.

We found several of the historic markers for the highway along with some great fall colors along the way. It almost makes me want to move back to Ohio where there are sensible people who believe in America. You just have to stay away from Cleveland and Toledo.

Around lunch time we crossed into Indiana where the Lincoln Highway is not marked as well as Ohio. We had lunch at a truck stop at the junction of Route 30 and I-69 on the outskirts of Fort Wayne, Indiana. We bypassed Fort Wayne as here was not much of the historical Lincoln Highway to see there and we wanted to make some time to get to our send destination of Joliet, Illinois and the Texas Road House for a great steak dinner.

We discovered the cheapest gas prices in Ohio at $3.19 per gallon. I don’t know why gas is so cheap. Another thing we like to do is stop at a McDonalds for a coffee and a pit stop.

When I went to use the restroom at the restaurant there was a black guy hanging about and he asked me for some money to buy a sandwich as his “comp” check had not come in. I ignored him and walked out. It’s a good thing he did not have a knife or some other weapon.

We had a good lunch and then were back on the road again. Now the sun was out and the farm lands of Indiana were as nice as those of Ohio. There were not many points of interest related to the Lincoln Highway in this part of Indiana so we jumped on the expressway and Interstate 94 for Chicago and Joliet.

We arrived at our Super-8 motel in Joliet very near the Hampton Inn where we stayed the first night of our Route 66 road trip. This is the location where the Lincoln Highway crosses historic Route 66. The Texas Road House where we had a great steak is the same restaurant we ate at the first night of our Route 66 trip.

Tomorrow is supposed to be partly sunny with a chance of showers as we make our way across Illinois and on to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I hope the showers hold and the sun is predominant. I think we will see many historic points and some more lush farm lands.

You can see all of my pictures by clicking here. Don’t forget to click the “Slideshow” button at the upper right to view the largest image.

Till Thursday night.