Please post your group correspondence below.

With Best regards,
Jeff Hohlstein

Thank you for all your past hard work to get domestic energy production going again in the U.S.

As I’m sure you are aware, this week, Congressman John Peterson (R-Pa.) will offer an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill that would lift the congressional moratorium on offshore drilling. I strongly urge you to vote for this amendment and I know you will.

I agree that the long term solution is to move to alternative forms of energy but we are decades way from that utopia. In the meantime our Florida trucking, maritime and food industries, to name a few, are being paralyzed by the high cost of fuel. The middle class that so many of our congressmen claim to be standing for are struggling day-to-day just for the necessities because of the high cost of fuel and food (also largely fuel related). By not drilling they have in effect enacted a huge tax-like increase on each one of us. Quite frankly, I’m retired and I can’t afford it.

We are an energy rich country! And the Federal Government (Congress) is strangling our nation. Congress has the key to solving this problem and it must turn that key now. As for oil spills, the last serious drilling-rig oil spill was in the Santa Barbara Channel in 1969, when drilling technology was far less sophisticated and far more risky. Since then, major hurricanes have destroyed several rigs with virtually no oil spills. China is drilling within sixty miles of the Florida keys but American companies can’t.

Engineers have demonstrated in-situ oil recovery capability in Colorado at the Mahogany Research facility. That means they don’t have to remove the shale from the ground. Just the oil. Here’s a link, explaining it: http://www-static.shell.com/static/usa/downloads/shell_for_businesses/exploration_production/fwt_fact_sheet_final.pdf <blocked::http://www-static.shell.com/static/usa/downloads/shell_for_businesses/exploration_production/fwt_fact_sheet_final.pdf>

Again, I thank you for your work on this issue to date, and urge you to keep it up until the rest of Congress starts considering the needs of their constituents.

There is a critical piece of legislation currently pending in the Senate which I most strongly you to support.

S.2958, The American Energy Production Act, is currently in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, with only 18 co-sponsors. This bill lifts the drilling moratorium in ANWR, and the Atlantic and Pacific Outer Continental Shelf regions with a potential for 24 BILLION BARRELS of oil. It also ends the moratorium of oil shale development in our western states where up to TWO TRILLION BARRELS of oil could be recovered. It also streamlines the permitting process for building new oil refineries and accelerates coal gasification. It also speeds development of battery technology and other forms of alternative fuels. I urge you to co-sponsor this bill, work with your counterparts across the aisle to get the best ideas in it from both parties, AND PASS IT!

I agree that the long term solution is to move to alternative forms of energy but we are decades way from that utopia. In the meantime our Florida trucking, maritime and food industries, to name a few, are being paralyzed by the high cost of fuel. The middle class that so many of you Senators claim to be standing for are struggling day-to-day just for the necessities because of the high cost of fuel and food (also largely fuel related). By not drilling you have in effect enacted a huge tax-like increase on each one of us. Quite frankly, I’m retired and I can’t afford it.

We are an energy rich country! And the Federal Government (Congress) is strangling our nation. Congress has the key to solving this problem and it must turn that key now. As for oil spills, the last serious drilling-rig oil spill was in the Santa Barbara Channel in 1969, when drilling technology was far less sophisticated and far more risky. Since then, major hurricanes have destroyed several rigs with virtually no oil spills.

As we sit on our hands, China drills within sixty miles of the Florida keys. Engineers have demonstrated in-situ oil recovery capability in Colorado at the Mahogany Research facility. That means they don’t have to remove the shale from the ground. Just the oil. Here’s a link, explaining it:

http://www-static.shell.com/static/usa/downloads/
shell_for_businesses/exploration_production/fwt_fact_sheet_final.pdf <blocked::http://www-static.shell.com/static/usa/downloads/
shell_for_businesses/exploration_production/
fwt_fact_sheet_final.pdf>

Congress can no longer point the finger of blame away from yourselves. There are too many good articles that expose what is happening. Just today, two scathing articles were printed in the Wall Street Journal. Please start serving your constituents and start drilling! And do the other things needed to ramp up domestic oil production.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

On Thursday, May 15th, the liberals on the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to block oil shale development in Colorado. President Teddy Roosevelt, who acted to federalize this land for future oil development must be spinning in his grave.

By voting to again limit domestic oil production these senators have shamelessly added to runaway oil costs for the future. Unlike ANWR, where liberals claim the oil there is a drop in the bucket, the Colorado oil fields have reserves equal to about two-thirds of the world’s known conventional oil reserves.

Of course, these cowards didn’t rush out and tell the American voters what they had done. So I will. Here are their names and they should be targeted by the American voters for removal from office.

Shame on these senators! Let the roll call of Goose Award Winners begin.

Drum roll, please.

ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia
DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii
PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont
TOM HARKIN, Iowa
BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland
HERB KOHL, Wisconsin
PATTY MURRAY, Washington
BYRON DORGAN, North Dakota
DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California
RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois
TIM JOHNSON South Dakota
MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana
JACK REED, Rhode Island
FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey
BEN NELSON, Nebraska

Anyone out there want to help start a campaign against them?

With Patriot regards,
Jeff Hohlstein

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Nobody likes the collective body of Congress and everybody seems to like our individually elected members. That’s because the members are very skilled at majoring on minor and selling their popularity. When it comes to the congressional body it’s very hard to pin the tail on the donkey. In this case, however, we can pin the tail on one donkey and one elephant.

In 2006, U.S. Senators Bill Nelson, D-FL and Mel Martinez, R-FL led a threatened filibuster that killed a House-passed bill that would have ended the 25 year old oil drilling moratorium in 85% of U.S. coastal waters. That bill had passed the House with a bipartisan vote of 232-137.

Later that year, Congress opened up 12,970 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico for drilling. True to their word, Senators Nelson and Martinez ensured that no drilling would occur within 125 miles of the Florida coast. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama placed no such restriction on the Congress. As a result, these states will receive 37.5% of the royalties, worth $ millions, eventually billions.

Florida will receive nothing. This is money that could have been used to shore up our state’s cash-strapped infrastructure and schools.

In the opinion editorial below, prepared for the Florida Times-Union and likely to be published within the next two weeks, I have put the drilling moratorium into context of the energy crisis.

If there are any like-minded Floridians who know how to put a political action committee together and generate funds, and is interested in removing the drilling moratorium I would like to hear from you.

The mission vision for the PAC would be this:

1. Exert pressure on Senators Nelson and Martinez to reverse their position on oil policy
2. Exert pressure on our Senators and Representatives to place a dollar floor on imported oil that will cause the energy companies to aggressively develop our oil shale industry. We are sitting on over 2 trillion barrels of known reserves (see the oped below)
3. Failing that, work to elect replacements who will get the oil flowing.

Opinion editorial:
Congress created the energy crisis: we must solve it

“What’s done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.” S.J. Harris

Americans are fed up with the cost of energy and Congress points fingers in the wrong direction. So let’s examine the problem and what Floridians can do about it.

In the short run, primarily OPEC and secondarily the futures traders, are responsible for the price of crude oil on the world market. OPEC responds to two things. World demand and competition.

World demand drives prices up. But where does the real demand come from? China and India are blamed because of their rapidly growing and modernizing economies. Yet U.S. oil consumption is currently 20.73 billion barrels per day, about one quarter of the whole world’s oil consumption. China and India combined consume about eleven percent. They primarily affect prices at the margin. U.S. consumption is and will remain for some time, the biggest influence on the core price of oil.

U.S. Gross Domestic Product grew at an annual average of 3.8% from 1996 to 2000 and 2.6% from 2001 to 2006. According to Fareed Zakaria, one of America’s most brilliant foreign policy minds, journalist and author of the book, Post-American World, there are about 125 nations in the world currently growing at 3-5% GDP annually. In my opinion, over time, this will produce an exponential growth in demand of the world oil supply.

Competition, even strongly perceived potential competition drives prices down. OPEC would not welcome an aggressive U.S. drilling program in ANWAR and in the continental shelves off our East and West Coasts, but combined, such programs would produce downward price pressure years before the oil leaves the ground.

OPEC is deathly afraid of U.S. development of oil shale because these known reserves are 2 trillion barrels, equal to three quarters of the known and predicted conventional oil reserves in the world. We know OPEC’s fear because when the U.S. started aggressively developing oil shale capability in the 1980’s, OPEC lowered the price below $30/bbl to kill this development. It worked. Today, when the cost to produce oil from shale is about $60-75/bbl, the oil companies are reluctant to aggressively develop this resource, rightly fearing another OPEC defensive move.

So why is our domestic oil supply so limited? Since 1970 Congress has severely curtailed new domestic oil exploration and our domestic oil supply has declined every year since.

In June 2006, the U.S. House of representatives approved a bill that would have ended the 25 year old moratorium on drilling in 85% of the U.S. coastal waters. It was approved by a bipartisan vote, 232-137. It was defeated in the Senate under threat of filibuster, led by both Florida Senators.

In December 2006, Congress opened up 12,970 square miles in the Gulf of Mexico, off the states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. True to their word, our Florida Senators ensured that none of the drilling would occur within 125 miles of Florida’s coast. As a result, the four cooperating states will soon be sharing 37.5% of the oil royalties, worth millions and eventually billions. Florida will receive zero royalties, money that could have gone a long way toward funding Florida infrastructure and public services, like our schools.

To my knowledge, the United States is the only nation in the world that has chosen to leave trillions of barrels of of domestic oil reserves in the ground.

Developing renewable fuels and energy efficient transportation are important but not at the cost of food. It will take decades to make the transition. Coal gasification would also produce a nearly endless domestic supply but it’s years away. So probably is additional nuclear power. Oil shale is a huge natural resource but to expedite its development, the Government would have to put a semi-permanent floor on the price of crude at about $70/bbl. This approach worked in Brazil to develop ethanol and it could work here to spur the oil companies to develop oil shale.

That leaves the oil fields that the U.S. House of Representatives voted to open up. Two of the major obstacles preventing the drilling are Democrat Senator Bill Nelson and Republican Senator Mel Martinez. We Floridians have the power to put them on notice that they either embrace aggressive oil exploration or forget about reelection. If just one Senator loses his job over oil, Florida, a bellwether state, will have sent the nation’s elected officials a clear message about where their priorities should lie.

With Patriot regards,
Jeff Hohlstein

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“Take care of your minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves.”

Earl of Chesterfield, Lord-lieutenant of Ireland

Last week Congresspeople did on national television what they do best: Bullying of whatever scapegoat they can find that lets them off the hook for their endless in-the-minute screw-ups. In this case they berated corporate heads of the oil industry for making too much profit.

If Congress wants to know who caused the energy crisis, its members have only to look in the mirror.

Before every conservative jumps me and says, “the energy crisis is the natural output of a world free-market economy, and a bunch of international characters that don’t particularly like the U.S.” And before any liberal says, “It’s the greedy oil companies making all that profit,” I’d like to say that the conservatives are correct about the minutes of today and the liberals don’t understand the free market and how much of the oil companies’ profits end up in our pension systems. Added to that, we Americans rejected real energy conservation starting in the period 1983-1985, and have ever since.

Now look at what Congress has done with the “minutes of their day,” i.e. the two or six year spans of their then-current terms, that have affected the hours of our nation. Congress, goaded on by special interests has systematically eroded the U.S. domestic crude oil supply and it only took Congress thirty years to do it. That’s in large part why we are so dependent on foreign oil today.

The last new oil refinery built in the U.S. opened in 1976

By then, Congress had put in place enough roadblocks to construction to make it more cost-effective for companies to increase production capacity in existing facilities than to build new refineries. That worked until the older refineries became too expensive to maintain. Over time refinery capacity has eroded.

• In 1981 there were 324 refineries able to produce 18.8 billion barrels per day (bb/d) of fuel. In 2005, refinery capacity has shrunk to 16.5 bb/d.
• This is why every time a refinery gets taken out, the price of gasoline spikes regardless of the availability of crude oil.

Congress did nothing about the refinery problem until 2006, when at President Bush’s urging, Congress eased the rules for building refineries but it didn’t really streamline them. Meanwhile, the price of land near our oceans and seaports has exploded making it cost-prohibitive to acquire refinery-usable land near the source of our crude oil supply - sea going tankers.

This means that the next refinery likely to go into commission in the U.S. will be in the middle of the Arizona desert - miles from our sea lines of communication. It will require a pipeline either up from the Gulf of California through Mexico, or across Texas from the Gulf of Mexico. What a choice! A pipeline through another sovereign nation that could go left at any time, or the myriad of legal battles that will attempt to block it through Texas.

Congress needs to streamline the refinery construction process - seriously - and create a body of law that strongly favors building refineries in the U.S.

One potential solution is to retain government land after military base closures that could be suitable for refineries. Then lease it to oil companies that will build on it.

So what about crude oil itself?

Domestic crude oil production peaked in 1985 for the last time. Ever since it has been in decline.

The U.S. is crude oil rich. Crude oil is under the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Northeastern Alaska. It’s under the continental shelf in waters off the twenty-some coastal states. It’s in oil shale in Colorado. And Congress has used its minutes to systematically act to keep it there.

Let’s start with ANWR. For decades, the nation had drilled for oil in its wildlife preserves - until ANWR. In fact, in 1980, Congress made the commitment to eventually tap ANWR. Then the environmentalists got involved and with help of the Democrats, stopped it. Congress apparently stopped it for good in 2003.

In Florida, there is currently a moratorium against drilling anywhere from 125 to 235 miles off Florida coasts and both Florida Senators fiercely oppose lifting that ban. They say a spill could cripple Florida’s tourist and recreation industries. Yes, that’s true. So could an event similar to the Exxon Valdez accident or a tanker collision in the shipping channels easily seen from Florida’s beaches. The fact is, oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico have proven that even a Level Five hurricane hasn’t been able to produce a spill. Evidently neither of these Senators has ever visited California. If they had they would have noticed that oil wells dot the Southern California coastal waters and that hasn’t interfered with California recreation or beach industries.

In December 2006, Congress authorized drilling in a new stretch of the Gulf of Mexico, 125 miles off of the Florida, Louisiana and Texas coasts. It also set a precedent, awarding 37.5% of the royalties to these states. That will amount to million dollars in state revenues, eventually growing to billions.

While this was a good baby step, however:

Congress squandered its minutes, by failing to pass legislation that would open up for drilling, the entire continental shelves that stretch up and down America’s east and west coasts.

Two of the main obstacles are the aforementioned Florida Senators, one Republican and one Democrat, who threatened filibuster. Both should be removed from office by the voters.

U.S. and Canadian oil shale and tar sand reserves exceed the world’s conventional oil reserves by 40%.

Properly managed, we’re sitting on a domestic gold mine. Canada is moving forward to produce oil from its tar sands. For all practical purposes the U.S. is sitting on our reserves. The reason? Energy companies can’t count on international oil staying above the estimated $70-$75/barrel (bbl) that would make producing oil from shale profitable. And they have good reason to be concerned. When U.S. oil companies first tried it, OPEC dropped its price to under $30/bbl (the then oil shale profitability number) and killed the fledgling industry. It also killed Brazil’s ethanol program.

Brazil learned. When oil finally shot up again, instead of trying traditional price controls and penalizing the oil companies’ profits, it put a price floor on imported oil, enforcing it with tariffs until the ethanol industry was competitive. They also used the right raw material - sugar cane.

Rather than beating up the oil companies, Congress should immediately put a price floor on imported oil to assure the oil companies that it would be profitable for them to develop the oil shale industry.

It may take decades to get there, but the U.S. could ultimately become an oil exporter if it opened up all of its seacoasts to drilling and encouraged oil shale development.

There are other energy issues just as important, like nuclear power but I’ll save that for another time.

The bottom line is collectively, our congresspeople have squandered their minutes with self-serving tactics. As a result of those minutes over thirty years, the hours have taken care of themselves to drive us to the current energy crisis. It is time we voters hold our elected officials accountable or run them out of office.

Remember, in addition to a new president:

The next general election holds the fate of one-third of our Senators and all of our Representatives in the balance. We must make ourselves be heard.

Congress has certainly not taken care of the minutes in a way beneficial to our country. They’ve had numerous chances and now the American people are suffering the hours of this irresponsible Congressional behavior.

If we don’t set out to make a difference. If we don’t vote out those people who are responsible for the energy crisis and vote in the people who will use their minutes wisely to keep our country physically and economically secure, then we deserve the government we get.

With Patriot regards,
Jeff Hohlstein

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This is an urgent call to action, for each of us to sign a petition urging our Congress to pass the FairTax. This petition is to be delivered to Congress on April 15th, the tax day Americans dread. The goal is to have 100,000 signatures and we are about 30,000 short.

I first became interested in the FairTax not because radio talk show host Neal Boortz was hawking it, but because my own studies had led me to conclude that America must switch from a tax on income to one on consumption in order to remain great. Consider this:

Under the current system:

• There is a 22% tax component buried in the cost of American goods sold abroad, undermining their competitiveness.
• There is very little incentive for Americans to save. According to the Congressional Budget Office, in 2005 and 2006, for the first time since 1933, Americans’ annual personal savings rate was negative.
• Criminals pay no income, Social Security or Medicare tax on their ill-gotten gains.
• Many illegal aliens are paid under the table and therefor pay no income, Social Security or Medicare tax.
• It is easy for politicians to raise our taxes by tweaking the complex tax code and we don’t even see it coming.

Under the companion bills H.R. 25 and S. 1025, enactment of the FairTax would:

• Repeal the 16th Amendment (which enabled income taxes).
• Create a fair, simple and transparent tax system that’s very difficult for politicians to tinker with.
• Enable each American to ‘take home’ all of the pay he or she earns.
• Eliminate all personal and corporate income taxes including Social Security and Medicare.
• Be revenue neutral - the Government will get as much as it does now.
• Increase the tax base by collecting on the consumption of illegal earnings of outright criminals and under-the-table activity.
• Imbed a 23% consumption tax in the retail price of all domestic goods. No tax on exports and used goods for resale. Make American goods more competitive in the world economy.
• Bring jobs back by creating an economically friendly place for corporations to locate.
• Protect those living below the poverty line through prebates.
• Transition the nation to a savings mentality.
• Do away with the income tax filing industry and the IRS.

The list of goodness is much longer. If you’re not familiar with the FairTax, FairTax: The Truth is available through just about any book retailer. Click here to get it through Amazon.com. Or you can go the Fair Tax website for more information.

Politicians are starting to come around. Current co-sponsors in the House are 71 and in the Senate, five. My representative is one of those.

If you are familiar with the FairTax and inclined to support it, please go here now to sign the petition. If you need to do more homework to make your decision, please do that quickly. The deadline for submitting it is fast approaching.

After you sign the petition, please send the link http://paulrevererides.com/?p=173 (for this post) to any friends and family you think might sign. Then leave me a short feedback that you signed it. Hopefully the feedback will encourage others to sign also.

With the FairTax, everybody wins except the politicians who want to control your life.

With Patriot regards,
Jeff Hohlstein

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After nine years in a fifteen-year position as Comptroller General of the United Sates, David M. Walker has left government service. David Walker has been the primary voice of authority raising awareness both in government and the public, for the looming fiscal sustainability issues plaguing our country. Although this is bad news on the face of it, he may have more influence over this problem in his new position, than he had as Comptroller General.

Walker will become President of the Peter G. Peterson foundation. This is a think tank that has pledged $1 billion funding to study these sustainability issues.

Effective March 12, 2008, Assistant Comptroller General Gene Dodero became acting Comptroller General and will remain so until the president appoints and the Senate confirms the next Comptroller General.

Meanwhile the sustainability issues remain. Walker recently produced a PowerPoint presentation titled U.S. Financial Condition and Fiscal Future Briefing, which is important reading for anyone interested in our government’s and country’s future.

With Patriot regards,
Jeff Hohlstein

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Senator Hillary Clinton claims she’s ready to be commander-in-chief on her first day in the oval office, and Senator Obama is not. She’s half right because these are both senators and neither will be qualified on day one - if ever.

President John F. Kennedy was the most recent ex-senator to sit in the oval office. He is one of our most revered presidents and even he wasn’t qualified on day-one to be commander-in-chief. Have we forgotten that Kennedy escalated the Vietnam War to a mess that President Johnson couldn’t manage? It eventually cost Johnson his presidency. Have we forgotten the Bay of Pigs disaster, where he first agreed to provide clandestine military air support for a Cuban invasion by Cuban ex-patriots? He pulled that support in the middle of the landing giving an easy victory to Castro’s forces. As a result, the USSR’s premier Nikita Khrushchev concluded that Kennedy was wishy-washy. Enough so, that the Soviet Union could get away with installing intercontinental ballistic missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy took the nation to the brink of a thermonuclear exchange. He finally got it right and pulled us back. He did it while keeping America’s dignity intact.

President Kennedy had studied great leaders and had even written a book, Profiles in Courage. On the other hand, Senator Obama has written three books on the subjects of race, politics and hope. Senator Clinton has written two, one on child rearing, It takes a Village, and her autobiography.

Arguably, there are only two US Senators that by their extensive foreign policy experience might be qualified as commander-in-chief on day one. Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman. And only one is running.

President Kennedy understood the role of government and he understood economics. “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!” He proclaimed in his inaugural address. He was the first to stimulate the economy through tax cuts and he was very successful. He was prudent with taxpayer dollars. Whatever happened to the JFK democrats? They’re gone.

Democrats now say, “Ask not what what you can do for your country, ask what your government will promise to you.”

Senator Obama would mandate equal pay for “equal” jobs, using a bureaucratic ‘club’ that will: 1) Be a windfall for trial lawyers; 2) Add unwarranted administrative costs to corporations and; 3) Reduce our corporations’ competitiveness in the world economy by dictating what companies will pay their employees.

Additionally, Senator Obama has introduced S. 2433, the Global Poverty Act, which would cause the government to give seven-tenths of one percent of our Gross Domestic Product to the UN to fight global poverty between now and 2015. That’s estimated at $845 billion, above and beyond what we already supply the world in foreign aid. Where will the money come from? More debt. Eventually, our sons and daughters will pay. Ka-ching!

Also, S. 2433 agrees to U.N. protocols that would make U.S. law on issues ranging from the 2nd Amendment to energy usage and parental rights all subservient to United Nations whims, according to Governor Mike Huckabee.

Where Obama and Clinton stand on bellwether issues No. 1 and 3. Uncontrolled federal government spending, and spiraling health care costs:

As previously reported, Senator Clinton loves ‘pork.’ Excuse me, ‘earmarks.’ Oh, that’s a bad word too? The new code is, “congressionally directed funding.” A sow’s ear is still a sow’s ear. Clinton put ‘Congressional directed funds’ of $150 million in a recent defense funding bill. Obama put $34 million in. Neither should be expected to rein in congressional pork as president. Ka-ching!

Health care costs for existing programs (Medicare and Medicaid) are at 21% of the total federal budget, more than the entire Defense budget. Both Senators Obama and Clinton propose greatly expanding the scope of coverage and only argue about ‘how much.’ Both have a nice laundry list of ways to hold costs down. Their lists are long on improving the health care given and short on ways to get these costs under control. They don’t understand the fiscal problems the government already faces and must resolve.

When President Lyndon Johnson proposed Medicare and Medicaid in his 1964 Great Society speech, he confidently predicted that in 1990, Medicare would cost only $9 billion and Medicaid, $1 billion. In 1990, Medicare cost $110 billion and Medicaid cost $41 billion. Source: Boortz, Neal and Congressman John Linder, FairTax: The Truth, New York, HarperCollins: 2008, pp.21-22

The least a federal program ever costs is the day the politician proposes it. How much will our kids and grandkids pay for Senator Obama’s proposed $50-65 billion/year or Senator Clinton’s proposed $110 billion/year plans? Ka-ching!

Finally, there are the issues of experience and judgment. Regarding experience, neither has run a major corporation or been a major elected executive (state governor or big city mayor), so neither has experience that truly qualifies them for the oval office. We can only look to how they have run their campaigns. In looking at their positions regarding foreign policy, Clinton definitely has the edge between the two Democrats. She knows there are limitations to what a president can do. Obama has talked about invading Pakistan, a nuclear armed nation. He has also stated he would meet with foreign leaders such as Cuba’s Raul Castro and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions. Anyone who, as president, would meet with a foreign head of state, any foreign head of state, without having the appropriate diplomatic preparation, and who talks recklessly about invading Pakistan, demonstrates total and dangerous naivety regarding foreign policy. Anyone who guarantees a rapid Iraq pullout is playing fast and loose with America’s security. Even Clinton won’t guarantee that, no matter how hard she is pushed.

We can also look at the judgment they used in running their campaigns. Obama has run a well crafted, well funded campaign. He has shown the ability to come from no-where to front-runner against the establishment candidate. But then there’s his judgment on S. 2433 and diplomatic naivety. Unfortunately, Obama reminds me of President Carter. Brilliant at running a campaign, highly charismatic, a disaster as president.

Clinton has spent with reckless disregard. Her tactics are reminiscent of Nixon and Watergate. And even with arguably the most potent political machine in modern history supporting her, she hasn’t been able to squash Obama. If we believe the scandals of the Clinton 42 presidency were bad, stand by for the Clinton 44 presidency. Stand by for four-eight more years of a bitterly divided nation.

“United we stand, divided we fall.” John Dickinson, Revolutionary War. This is one of the most important times in our history to be united.

With Patriot regards,
Jeff Hohlstein

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This book wouldn’t normally fit into this website’s genre, but it is so important to anyone over 50, that I had to review it. Americans are living longer. But for many, the last few years may be very rough, something that may well be avoidable.

Younger Next Year: A Guide to Living Like 50 Until You’re 80 and beyond, Crowley, Chris & Henry S. Lodge, M.D., Workman Publishing Company, New York, 2004. This book wouldn’t normally fit into this website’s genre, but it is so important to anyone over 50, that I had to review it. Americans are living longer. But for many, the last few years may be very rough. It doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.

This book gave us a fitness program that will last us a lifetime and has already made a big difference. On the fun side, it made us take down the bicycles that had been hanging in the garage for fifteen years and start riding, which we do two or three times a week.

Younger Next Year is about taking care of your cardiovascular system so you’ll live longer, and doing the other lifestyle things to ensure a good quality of life. Crowley and Lodge discuss the transition to retirement in easy to understand language. They describe both the physical and psychological aspects of aging in both active and sedentary people. They do it in easy to understand, yet very compelling terms. They offer practical ways to combat the bad effects without wearing out your joints. And they use humor well to keep it light and to hold your attention.

Humans are social animals. Crowley and Lodge discuss the importance of having a mate in retirement, of finding new friends to replace those lost when you leave work. They also discuss diet.

Regarding the cardiovascular system, they focus not on speed, but rather, the amount of time spent at the proper heart rate. They deal with the typical high cardio range (70-85% of max heart rate) and introduced us to the low cardio range (60-65%). The low cardio range provides much of the benefit of the high cardio range, while allowing one to do more “fun” things. They emphasize use of a heart rate monitor and encourage body-building exercises such as cycling, rowing and skiing as opposed to body-damaging exercise such as running.

Strength training, they maintain, is critical to keeping the body in shape to enjoy the longer life. In addition to maintaining muscles and joints, it helps maintain one’s flexibility and sense of balance.

While this book works for both sexes, Crawley and Lodge also published Younger Next Year for Women, tailored specifically for females. Simply put, one or the other of these books is a must-read for anyone over 50.

Links to these books at Amazon.com are conveniently supplied below. Firefox users - unfortunately they don’t show up. You’ll have to use an alternate browser.

With Patriot regards,
Jeff Hohlstein

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As reported by the Associated Press, the Justice Department recently proposed a rule making it mandatory that government contractors report discovery of fraud waste and abuse where they find evidence of it in excess of five million dollars. Failure to comply would make a company ineligible for future government work. The justice Department estimates that there have been over $14 million in bribes alone over the past five years.

Someone in the Bush administration added an exemption for overseas contracts. This huge loophole means that over $102 billion spent in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003 will be exempt from mandatory reporting. This spending is growing at a rate of 50% per year.

According to the Associated Press, current investigations into fraud waste and abuse in the middle east include 52 investigations by the Special Investigator General for Iraq and 90 criminal investigations by the Army Criminal Investigation Command. The Justice Department has charged 44 people so far.

For an administration that wears its Christian conservatism proudly on its sleeve, the Bush Administration is downright reckless when it comes to fiscal conservatism. I like President Bush and I voted for him four times (we used to be Texas residents). This action, however, is yet another example of the Administration’s callous disregard for proper stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

This lack of respect for the taxpayer dollar and the reckless spending it is part of, have done grave damage to the Republican party and passed big bills to innocent generations to come.

The Bush Administration gets a well deserved Goose Award for handing the American taxpayer and our kids, yet another load of crap.

With Patriot regards,
Jeff Hohlstein

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Maverick /‘mav(a)rik/ n. an unorthodox or independent minded person. a person who refuses to conform to a to a particular party or group. The Concise Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, New York: 2006, p. 548.

Senator John McCain has been branded a maverick. Is it the former or latter definition? And is that good or bad for the nation?

Senator McCain was branded early in his political career, not so much for refusing to conform to his party, but for thumbing his nose at congress’ most sacred cow, the earmark. Pork. He’s had none of it from the beginning and has stood rock solid against it. He walked his talk, a man of principle. Let’s look at the records of the presidential candidates:

• Senator John McCain: Twenty-six years in the Senate; claims to have taken ZERO earmarks. He tried and failed to get one $5 million earmark, sort of, in 1992, for an Arizona wastewater project. He didn’t hide it in a funding bill. Rather, he sent the Administration a letter requesting it. He was turned down because the administration had no legal means to earmark the money.
• Senator McCain has prevented many of the most egregious earmarks from happening. Most notably, he prevented a $26 billion earmark from going to Boeing after 9/11 to “recession proof” the airplane builder.
• Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton; loves pork; in just the recent defense bill, she stuck 66 earmarks worth $150 million of the taxpayers’ money; 154 earmarks in other recent spending bills
• Senator Barack Obaba; in the middle; $34 million for universities, defense contractors and non-profit institutes
• Governor Mike Huckabee; no earmark track record; states support for President Bush’s recent initiatives to rein in pork; and has proven he can balance state budgets.

So, regarding the Number One bellwether issue, runaway federal spending, Senator McCain would appear to be a conservative hawk. Maverick in this regard would be good.

Senator McCain has been criticized for going against the Bush tax cut package. He did so, because in the year after 9/11, congress started a four-year spending spree that has doubled the federal debt and raised the federal government’s unfunded obligations several-fold. It is a conservative principle to have smaller government and lower taxes, but to want permanent tax relief in the face of expanding government isn’t fiscally responsible. The federal government is passing this debt to future generations and affecting way-of-life issues, like the US dollar purchasing power in the world market, and maybe, eventually, the U.S. credit rating. Not to mention the economic vulnerability of having over $2.1 trillion in federal debt held by foreign creditors. Fixing this problem will cause great pain on both sides of the aisle.

It will probably take an iron-willed maverick to even have a chance at fixing the federal government’s fiscal mess. So does this maverick have the iron will and negotiating skills to pull it off? Just maybe.

Remember Senator McCain’s steadfast support of the surge in Iraq? It almost cost him his presidential bid but he hung in there because it was the right thing to do. Our nation couldn’t ask for a better commander in chief and he showed the type of mettle necessary to fix our fiscal problems.

Senator McCain has been pilloried for McCain-Feingold, a failed attempt at campaign reform that fell victim to the Law of Unintended Consequences. It’s strict language was intended to keep big fat-cat so-called soft money out of politics. Instead, through a series of subsequent legal decisions, it has had the effect of limiting free speech, especially on the internet. It is a flawed piece of legislation and it should be replaced or at least repealed. However, there is no indication that Senator McCain was attacking conservative values when he helped push the bill through, but it proved his ability to work across the aisle on tough issues. It is the courts more than Senator McCain who have made McCain-Feingold a liberal piece of crap.

Almost every bill that seeks to significantly control our society ends up flawed by the successes of special interests. The 1996 immigration bill penalized employers who knowingly hired illegal aliens. But it had no teeth and it failed to foresee how easily it could be sidestepped with forged documents. Until recently, neither the Clinton nor Bush administrations seriously tried to enforce that law.

Forty percent of illegal aliens in this country entered legally on visas. Then they blended in and stayed after their visas expired. The Real ID Act of 2005 is another example of a flawed law. Originally set to take effect in 2007, it has been twice delayed, now to 2011. It was designed to make sure we knew who was in the country - legally or illegally and make it virtually impossible for illegals to travel without discovery in the US. But Real ID won’t do that. The devil is in the details, as they say, and it’s always just a few words. Real ID has a short provision that lets states “opt-out” and about seventeen, mostly liberal states, have chosen to do so.

Which brings us to McCain-Kennedy, the infamous “amnesty bill.” To break a complete deadlock on immigration and border security, Senators McCain and Kennedy brokered a deal that had two key elements:

McCain-Kennedy contained:

1. A path to citizenship for illegals currently in the US.
2. Security: Clear, unambiguous requirements and schedule to make Real ID the law of the land, and requiring close cooperation between the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security to dry up American jobs for undocumented workers. This would have removed the biggest incentive for illegals to be in the US.

The citizenship path and bill itself was quickly dubbed the “amnesty bill,” was widely published and roundly booed by conservatives, egged on by talk radio. Almost no mention was made of the security provisions. These provisions survived several liberal attacks right up until the vote that killed the entire bill.

So here we are nine months later. Instead of having a tough law that would have started implementing border and internal security requirements this year, we have a flawed law that may be implemented starting in 2011.

In negotiating this bill, Senator McCain got action. He upheld conservative principles regarding national security and compromised on an issue that will eventually have to be resolved. And he also got the message from the American people, that we don’t trust government to deal with the ‘illegals already here’ issue until it first fixes the border problem.

When President Reagan was in office he had a Democrat controlled congress. He didn’t get everything he wanted from it. But he knew how to work the congress to get the things done that were vital to the nation.

This maverick doesn’t have the wit and charisma of Ronald Reagan. But he has the intestinal fortitude to do what’s right, the courage of his convictions to keep going when things get tough, the right major priorities, and the knowledge of how congress really works.

This maverick just might be able to clean up the Washington mess.

With Patriot regards,
Jeff Hohlstein

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