Entertain me for a minute!

Tuesday-March 8, 2011

Entertain me for a minute!

While the rest of the world is rejecting their governments, we still have half of our government acting against our own interest. How can I say this? It’s simple. What has our young president done in the last four weeks to advance our country here at home and abroad? What has our young president done to advance our political interests abroad? What has our young president done to make us more secure?

These are all questions that can entertain some, but bring a harsh reality to few! The harsh reality is that the young president has made strategic errors and has been caught off guard and flat footed to the recent events in the Mideast. The harsh reality is that, instead of leading, he has demonstrated a naïveté and total misunderstanding of what projecting strength is all about.

As Moammar Qadafi gets creepier, the price of oil is creeping up. The price of a gallon of gas is now over four dollars a gallon in nine states. Oil and jobs go hand in hand. Oil and disposable income goes hand in hand. We use about 10 million barrels of oil a day in our country. It’s estimated that the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) amounts to a 40 day supply. Over the last 40 years we as a country have not done a thing to curb our appetite for foreign oil. We have yet been able to solve interruption problem’s that continues to hold us hostage. You would think after the Iranian hostage crisis we would have learned that these countries are not our friend.

When ever the fragile supply and demand balance of oil is threatened and or interrupted the price of oil goes up in this country. What oil producing nation is now friendly with us? The Saudi government is the only one and they are protected by us. Their oil production is protected by us. But when the supply chain is interrupted they raise the price of oil per barrel to us. They do not pay us for our protection, but we pay them what ever they want for a barrel of oil.

Former Senator Alan Simpson, from Wyoming, the Co-Chair on the deficit commission said over the weekend that, “The definition of a leader is a guy that takes the flak. If you don’t want to take the flak, then don’t be leader, be a pansy!” I can’t agree more with his sentiment. Though he was indicting all of the parties involved in the battle over the budget his comments do reflect upon this crisis. The budget is affected by our dependence on foreign oil.

While we waste valuable time in the debate over electric vehicles vs. gas powered vehicles our enemies now see that we have not done a thing to protect our flank! While we debate over the environment our enemies laugh at the notion that we want to save a few Elk and Caribou in the oil rich regions of the country, a few Otters in the Pacific and, yes, the Spotted Owl over drilling at home and producing our own oil.

While we have wasted two years with a young president that promised to create a sensible energy policy, gas has risen at a faster rate than any time in our history in the last three weeks. Senator Simpson was right with using the P word. Our enemies do not fear us and they do not see us taking decisive action against them and keeping the supply and flow of oil at market prices constant. Our enemies, like Qadafi, who was an enemy, now turned friend after we almost annihilated him has seen fit to once again cost us not only our hard earned dollars, but cost us our reputation in the area of projecting strength. He has again held an American President hostage while we are caught in the middle by his inaction.

What this young president needs to do is open up domestic drilling here for oil for our own domestic needs. If the young president had done this two years ago, we would have been on our way to lower prices today. If the young president had done this two years ago, we could have had more time to produce new types of vehicles that don’t use gasoline, because we would have had the proper research time to bring them to market. If the young president did this very simple thing two years ago we would not be held hostage today by these creepy dictators who can destroy our economy because of our dependence on their oil.

Just entertain me for a minute. Think of what the cost of two dollars a gallon would mean to you. Just entertain me for a minute, think of what two dollars a gallon would mean to transport items across the country by means of domestic trucking. Just entertain me for a minute, think of what two dollars a gallon would do to eliminate the effects of inflation here at home. Just entertain me for a minute, think of what two dollars a gallon of gas would mean to our domestic and national security. Just entertain me for a minute, think of what two dollars for a gallon of gas would do to OPEC, the Mid East and the prosperity of the leaders of these regions. Just entertain me for a minute, think of what two dollars for a gallon of gas would mean to anyone who wants to pick a fight with us. Just entertain me for a minute, think of what OPEC and the other oil producing nations of the world would do if they were in our shoes - what do you think they would do?

You see, our young president doesn’t think of these things, because he doesn’t want to take the flak from his base, because he doesn’t want to lead. Remember what Alan Simpson said about the P word.

If this weren’t such an important issue, it would be an entertaining story line. The problem is that it is entertaining to our enemies, because they are laughing all the way to the bank. We here at home are not laughing; because every time we go to the bank it is for money to fill our tanks.

Just entertain me for a minute. Write your Congressman and relate the story I just told here!

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: Just entertain me for a minute. If a former Senator can use the P word about failed leadership, just think about the words our current enemies are using. Not so entertaining, is it?