Have you spoken with a “yes we can” screamer lately? Better question: Is anybody admitting these days that they used to be a “yes we can” screamer?

Let’s check out some articles on the front pages:

From Slate — Saying No to Obama — The U.S. president is popular, but world leaders are finding it easy to defy his wishes by Shmuel Rosner:

“Obama can write—and he can speak—but if he can’t fight, he’ll find it hard to achieve his goals. If he can’t fight, he isn’t scary.”

What’s the point of being popular for the sake of being popular?

Secondly, from the New York Times — The Obama Way by Ross Douthat:

“If Obama’s presidency succeeds, it will be a testament to what ideology tempered by institutionalism can accomplish. But his political approach leaves him in constant danger of losing center and left alike — of being dismissed by independents as another tax-and-spender, and disdained by liberals as a sellout.”

So here we are! A year after people cried in Chicago on election night, there is great disappointment and confusion over BO.

I ask again: Where is that “yes we can” screamer who devoted his life to the cause of Obama-mania? It looks like he is now making TV ads against the man he once worshipped.

They call it YesWeWtillCan.org:

“The YesWeStillCan.org petition has been signed by over 600 Obama campaign staffers, 40,000 Obama volunteers, and 60,000 Obama donors.”

Here is the video that they are running around the country:

My guess is that the feud between the “yes we can” screamers and BO will get worse. It will get really bad, specially when Pres BO has to break his promise of starting to bring the troops home from Afghanistan in 2011!

Lead, follow or get out of the way.

Dear Chairman Steele,

Once upon a time I was a proud, lifetime Republican, that is, until a number of years before the irresponsible and wrongheaded behavior of Republicans leading up to the election of 2006, and culminating in the disaster of 2008. Despite my present status as an enlightened and sober Independent, I confess to wanting to go back home. But, it occurs to me that without a significant shift in the thinking of Republican politicians and politics, the Republican Party will have set the stage for seventy years of Soviet style government in what was once the greatest; the most free; the most productive; economically most prosperous; technically the most advanced; militarily the strongest; the most innovative medically; and, spiritually the most tolerant nation that has ever existed in the annals of history, and I will not be “party” to that!

(A note before going on: I believe that central to Republican renewal is for it to advocate and enact term limits either in law or by Constitutional Amendment, and forever banish political careerism. Indeed there are more issues, but they are not the purpose of this communication.)

One recognizes that the United States is not without its faults as only an idiot would make such an assertion. But Americans do not deserve having a President who sees its darkest hours as those that define it; and who circles the globe apologizing for America’s greatness notwithstanding his recent begrudging acknowledgement of having defended freedom for Europe, not once, but twice. He is less sanguine about the fact that the U.S. has advanced the cause of freedom for people juxtaposed the Soviet Union, Communist China, North Korea, Iran, Chavez, Castro and numerous other dictators during the entire Twentieth Century that have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of freedom seeking people.

Most in this nation who pay attention, watched in revulsion as B. Hussein Obama declared the U.S. to be one of the “largest” Muslim countries in the world, then diminished the role of Christianity, declaring to the Turkish Parliament that the U.S. is no longer a Christian nation, then going on to Egypt to proclaim his allegiance to the Koran and Islam. I’ll be nice and state that B.O. is full of B.S.!

America does not warrant having a Commander-in-Chief who tacitly sides with Islamic religion in what is as a matter of fact Islamic Jihad against the United States, and the West in general. Whereas the Constitution of the United States tolerates all religions, Islam inherently does not tolerate the Constitution. That same intolerance, or is it contempt of the Constitution, appears to also be inherent to the contemporary Democrat Party. Chairman Steele, I am not so naïve as to suggest that the Republican Party has not been party to abuse of the Constitution. We both know well that it has. But never in the history of the country has there been such a concerted effort to remold it into something that would not be recognized by its founders if they were alive today, than efforts presently underway by Democrats.

As Chairman of the Republican Party, you should not sell it, frame it, or image it, but rather you should guide and remake it in such a way that the Conservative majority in this country can find it as a welcome home. Statistics are on the side of Conservatives, there are only 20-27 percent of the U.S. population who are ideologically as liberal as the contemporary Democrat Party. Over 70 per cent of the population of all political affiliations is conservative, both socially and fiscally. If the Palin phenomenon is not enough to get your attention regarding the strength of social conservatives, the Republican Party is doomed, and frankly, the nation will be doomed for the foreseeable future.

In the coming elections, I am going to work for the election of conservatives of all political affiliations, social status, and demographics who share my fiscal and social values. I realize that may not appeal to the “big tentists,” but with a 70 per cent conservative majority, that’s a good sized tent! Note: Democrats’ objective is to prevent that fact from coalescing. There will always be some disaffected, and that’s unfortunate, but we can win elections nonetheless.

It is time for the majority in this country to have representation that it has been sadly lacking since Republicans swept to power in ‘94 and promptly forgot how they got there. I urge you to give substance to conservatism and make the Republican Party the home for that majority. If you fail in that task, you will fail not only the Republican Party, you will fail the nation in a way that will for generations change America, not for good, but for perhaps the greatest display of evil to ever face humanity, the resurgence of totalitarian government, but this time in what was once the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”

Now is the time to chart the course, to set the goals, and lead the Party and nation toward the greatness that God has given you the opportunity to achieve; and thus, thwart the gathering clouds of evil darkness that are spreading across the political skies.

I am, and millions like me who have become politically Independent are at your service and we can win, but you must lead, follow or get out of the way!

Semper Fidelis

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I do so because many of you deserve it.  That is, you deserve it if you voted in the last election and are patriotic Americans.  You deserve a great present and future if your interests go beyond yourself and you have charity in your heart. 

It is a good season for believers.  After all, it is a celebration of the Birth of Jesus Christ, who came to teach us about love, charity and peace.  His main command was to love God above all things and to love your neighbor as yourself.  If people all over the world would heed that command, we would not have the problems we have now.

If that command was followed, and it is a simple one, we would not have the problems caused by greed.  Most people would agree that greed is the main motivator for wars, political and corporate corruption, and the vast majority of crimes. 

Next, we should consider the vice of envy.  To be motivated to take from another or treat them badly could be different from greed.  Often gossip, slander, libel or mean treatment can be traced to being envious of that person. 

Pride of a job well-done can be admirable and a motive for setting good goals.  Most grandmothers are proud of their grandchildren and if that is a vice, it can be forgiven.  Grandmothers are very special people.  They are mothers with seniority and many have the wisdom accumulated from making mistakes when raising their children.  By the time they have a new generation to love, they have ironed out the bumps in the road of molding and shaping the personalities of their prides and joy.

Unfortunately, some don’t make the grade and that puts a void in a child’s life.  The major virtues of the good grandmother are unconditional love, kindness and patience.  With some, generosity is a major objective.  One had a little girl in her care.  The child had a bib that said: “I don’t need Santa.  I have Grandma.”

That is one lucky kid.

So, Christmas should be a season of good feelings and a chance to reflect and take every opportunity to improve.  Many people will take the time during the day to smile at strangers and wish them a Merry Christmas.  It feels good to say that and smiling at people you don’t know is good therapy.  We should do that smiling at people thing all through the year.  That alone would be a big help to make life better.

The old song, “Nature Boy” had the line:  “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return.”  That is the feeling we should be feeling all year, not just during the Christmas season.  It would be great if we took pride in being able to make someone else feel good.

Sharing is a good way to meet that goal.  It is a tangible way to express love and for normal people, it inspires satisfaction.  One of the greatest feelings of power is when you have the ability to make someone feel better for having interacted with you. 

Helping another to learn how to control their lives in a positive manner and to be able to see improvement because you cared enough to help is a good way to improve your own life.

These have been random thoughts for the Christmas season with the negatives and the positives.  Hopefully, your future will have a maximum of positives and a minimum of negatives.  For the last time this year, Merry Christmas.

Speaking of Copenhagen, let’s talk about carbon credits and the Oil for Food program. It was a UN managed program that turned into one of the biggest scams in world history!

It was supposed to help children. It ended up keeping Saddam in power.

The Heritage Foundation wrote about it a few years ago:

Saddam’s dictatorship was able to siphon off an estimated $10 billion from the Oil-for-Food program through oil smuggling and systematic thievery, by demanding illegal payments from companies buying Iraqi oil, and through kickbacks from those selling goods to Iraq–all under the noses of U.N. bureaucrats.

The members of the U.N. staff administering the program have been accused of gross incompetence, mismanagement, and possible complicity with the Iraqi regime in perpetrating the biggest scandal in U.N. history.

Is “cap and trade” next? Soeren Kern has a great post about it:

The European Union’s flagship cap-and-trade carbon credit trading system is plagued by massive fraud and is effectively under the control of organized crime, according to a December 9 statement issued by European police.

Europol, an EU-wide criminal intelligence agency similar to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, says bogus trading at the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) has exceeded €5 billion (U.S.$7 billion) over the past 18 months alone.

Europol says that in some EU countries, up to 90 percent of the entire market volume is fraudulent.

Soren’s post comes on top of the e-mail scandal. This is bad news, specially since the climate change crowd wants to get into our pockets to finance their schemes.

Let’s count to 10 before we sign up for any of this stuff. I am not crazy about sending money to unaccountable bureaucrats!

The word is coming out that the panic over global warming is not really based on accurate data.  There is a difference of opinion among scientists that people are not causing the planet to become a desert and that we are all going to cook to death.  This columnist has been skeptical since Al Gore won an Academy Award for his film An Inconvenient Truth.

Internet reports claimed Gore had a house that used more energy than a block of normal houses; it was difficult to believe that his claims were scary enough to be taken seriously.  A couple of hours watching the Discovery Channel about the origin of the earth and past history of climate changes should make any intelligent person wonder if there was any truth to the claims of global warming.

First, we live on a dynamic planet.  When you consider that earth started out as a mass of flaming rock and then started to cool to a point where life was possible, it gives us a different perspective.  Consider that at one time most of the earth was under water and so warm that dinosaurs roamed the earth. 

The fact that there are huge oil reserves near the North Pole gives us positive proof that at one time in the earth’s history, it was a jungle.  At one time the area of New York City was 300 feet under water.  In fact, before the shifting of the continental plates North and South America were joined to what is now Europe and Africa.         

Earth is sitting on one big volcano and every now and then, one erupts with disastrous results.  Recorded history and proven scientific documentation show it had an effect on weather and mankind still survived.  Most scientists agree that the dinosaurs were eliminated when a meteor struck earth and caused a huge explosion that caused the sun to be blocked out and the earth became cold.  This killed the vegetation and the big animals.

In our more recent history, earth had an ice age where a big glacier moved from the Polar Regions south and covered much of North America.  It was a huge glacier that prevented life from existing in those areas.  Due to normal climate changes, the glacier retreated about 10,000 years ago and the continent was then fit for human habitation.

All this happened before the creation of man and his production of carbon dioxide.  Now, Al Gore, Barack Obama and many politicians believe that we need a Cap and Trade policy to regulate the carbon emissions to prevent global warming.  They neglect to put in place a program to end the decimation of the world’s rain forests.  Naturally, they wouldn’t hinder an industry that makes a few people very wealthy.

However, even a fifth grade student knows that trees and vegetation absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.  Sounds like a good trade that benefits humanity, but that wouldn’t give the Obama crowd the leverage they want to make the cost of energy more expensive and soak the middle class with higher energy prices and taxes.

Since many people don’t react to anything short of panic, this is a great program for politicians to gain more power over the people they are supposed to represent.  We had said many times, that far too many politicians sent to the capitols to represent us get the idea that they should rule us.

It still comes down to a historical and natural fact that this dynamic planet will have climate changes regardless of the impact of human habitation.  Sure, we should be conscious of pollution to protect the air we breathe, but that is doable without the far-reaching effects of the Cap and Trade law. 

We in the Buffalo area just experienced a huge snowfall, and many of us remember the Blizzard of ‘77.  We WANT global warming, and we want it NOW!