RANDOM THOUGHTS

Obama's War On Coal : Two power companies announced Wednesday that they are shutting down nine coal-fired electricity plants. Both companies blamed EPA regulations for the closures. Consider this excerpt from the Washington Post:

"Edison Mission Group, issued a statement saying that in light of environmental rules being phased in over the next three years, 'unfortunately, conditions in the wholesale power market simply do not give us a path for continuing to invest in further retrofits at these two facilities.' …In its announcement, GenOn outlined a schedule for closing 3,140 megawatts of generation capacity in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey 'because forecasted returns on investments necessary to comply with environmental regulations are insufficient.'"

In other words, Obama's EPA is making it too expensive to operate these power plants. This should not surprise anyone. Obama made it clear in 2008 that he wanted to "bankrupt" coal plants and that his plans would cause electricity rates to "skyrocket."

Back in the Clinton eras, Republicans wanted to expand American oil drilling. The Democrats blocked it, claiming it would take 10 years to see any results. 10 years later,under Bush they tried again, and again Democrats blocked it because it would take 10 years to see the results. 10 years later we have record high gas prices and the current President makes fun of drilling. And today I heard Debbie Wasserman Schultz (the Mouth of the South) ridicule the Keystone Pipeline because it would take 45 years to get any benefit. So there is no point in ever starting exploration because it will take too long to reap the benefit!

So let's think about this for a moment. Obama doesn't want us driving our gas powered cars. He said no to the Keystone pipeline, and has severely limited drilling and exploration on public lands. His Energy Secretary wants the price of gas up to $8.00 a gallon or more. Obama wants to increase subsidies for the "Government Motors" Volt to $10,000. The Volt runs largely on electricity. Yet Obama admits his plans would cause electricity rates to skyrocket. America gets about half of its electricity from coal-fired plants, which Obama wants to bankrupt. Lo and behold, coal plants are shutting down now thanks to Obama's EPA. This is madness! From the gas you put in your car and the price to heat and cool your home to the costs borne by manufacturing businesses and every company that pays an electric bill, fewer issues are more important to working men and women than energy.CNBC's Rick Santelli blasted Obama's energy policy as "reprehensible." He added: "Our society, our culture -- the greatness of America -- goes hand-in-hand with energy, and our leaders need to wake up. We need energy, OK? …we need to be more honest -- do we want to be a superpower that uses energy and tries to do it wisely, or do we want to put our head in the sand… [Alternative energy sources] are not ready, and I think it's just a disservice to my kids that they're going to make energy usage such a penalty-type scenario, where we all know if you want to put GDP up, energy usage is going to go right along with it."Santelli is right. Obama has been celebrating the fact that we have consumed less oil in recent years. But that reduced consumption has gone hand-in-hand with high unemployment and a collapsing economy. "When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing; when you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods, but in favors; when you see that men get rich more easily by graft than by work, and your laws no longer protect you against them, but protect them against you… you may know that your society is doomed." … Ayn Rand. Are we there yet??

Every year the Heritage Foundation partnering with the Wall Street Journal publishes the Index of Economic Freedom. America which once led the world as the beacon of freedom has now dropped to 10th among the world's nations. We have dropped 5 places since 2008 and have fallen from the category of "free nations" and are now among the "mostly free". Americas is no longer "the land of the free".

The Obama administration is proposing $487 in defense budget cuts and calls for military retirees and families to pay sharply more for healthcare but leaves unionized civilian defense workers' benefits untouched. Do you think our military should not lose benefits they were promised? Campaign for Working Families points out "Barack Obama is trying to cut healthcare benefits for our soldiers while he is trying to force the Catholic Church and other religious institutions to provide free contraceptives to college students." I think we need to keep our promise to our veterans and let college students buy their own contraceptives. How about you!?

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Give a man a welfare check, food stamps, Section 8 housing, and a free camera cell phone, and how do you think he votes for a lifetime? A Heritage Foundation report says that in 2010 the average individual who relies on Washington could receive benefits valued at $32,748, which ismore than the nation’s average disposable personal income ($32,446).

What next? Students in 9th through the 12th grade attending summer programs at Montgomery College will get a taste of the Occupy operation in a new course "Occupy MoCo. " The course description says "Young people hold the power to change their community, their schools, their future -- are you ready to join the movement for justice?" Is this an effort to teach young people how to attack our system at taxpayer expense.

The Club for Growth ranks Congressmen for 2011. Among Maryland Congressmen, Andy Harris scores the best with 95% and Dutch Ruppersberger the worst with 1%.

‎"I will march behind whoever our candidate is because if we don’t, we lose. There are two paths… one is America and the other one is Occupy… Anyone that’s willing to stand next to me to fight the progressive Left, I will be in that bunker. And if you’re not in that bunker because you’re not satisfied with this candidate, more than shame on you, you’re on the other side!"...Andrew Breitbart at CPAC. Let’s all pledge to honor his request!

Ellen Sauerbrey