By R.A. Pearson
Jack Kingston, the eight term Congressman from Georgia’s First District who originally ran on term limits, has canceled the two remaining debates he had scheduled with his Democratic opponent Bill Gillespie. The debates were due to be held on October 17th and 26th. Georgia’s First Congressional District runs along the coast of Georgia from Chatham County to Camden County and includes Glynn County.
After a rather poor showing in the first debate held on October 9th held on the Brunswick News Channel, Kingston canceled the next two debates due to be held at Savannah State University and The Atlanta Press Club. The Atlanta Press Club debate was to be broadcast on Georgia Public Television.
The Gillespie campaign indicated in a press release, “This (canceling the debates) is so unfortunate given our national, state and district issues. Where is the leadership? Kingston "the 16 year incumbent," owes his constituents answers. This is totally unacceptable. We will try every major news outlet to rectify this cheapening of our democracy. I am willing to address the issues any time and any place. We need this prior to November 4th.”
Here at the Clarion Issue we would have liked to have seen Mr. Kingston and Lt. Col. Gillespie together to answer tough questions on the economy, the Wall St. bailout, the national deficit, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, foreign policy, and other issues facing our nation. Mr. Kingston had time to make a few chippy political commercials but bailing on debates after being taken to the woodshed during round one is like throwing in the towel after a bad first round during a boxing match or forfeiting the World Series because you lost seven to one in the first game. No one does that unless ‘they ain’t got no game.’ Kingston must feel real safe in this ‘safe’ First District in costal Georgia.
However, Americans are getting tired of the Republican Party hiding from the real people they are supposed to answer to and represent. The days of the eight-second sound bites and the easy “foxtrots” on the FOX propaganda network with Sean Hanity style softball questions are over as Americans see home values crumbling, their savings cut in half, and our young soldiers nation building and dying in parts of the world where Jeffersonian democracy remains a dream of individuals who believe they can export democracy to parts of the world reluctant to accept it.
Lt. Col. Gillespie’s platform and biography can be found a few article entries down in this blog. Please read it then visit his web site; especially since we can’t see any more Kingston v Gillespie debates.
His web site can be found at www.BillForGeorgia.com .
Editorial Addendum: Jack Kingston did finnaly attend the October 26th debate broadcast on Ga. Public Television and Radio; however, this was after the fact he had announced he would not show up had been printed in various newspapers and internet sources around the state. The number of costal Georgians who missed the debate due to Kingston’s actions will never be known.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
I’M SICK AND TIRED AND I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE
By R. A. Pearson
Many of you Clarion Issue readers may remember this paraphrase from the 1976 movie Network starring Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, William Holden, and Robert Duvall, where the newscaster calls on the entire city to open its windows and shout “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” This is how I feel just a few days before I will walk into the polls on November 4 and vote in this election. I’m mad, and I know who I’m going to blame from the top office in the land down to the county dogcatcher.
I will preface this article by saying no one really has experience in the job of being president unless he is running as the incumbent; therefore, any claims to experience a candidate may offer is purely hypothetical and arbitrary in this race. While time served in various offices may broaden a candidate’s knowledge of important national and international information, shape their political and economic philosophies, and influence his world prospective, it in no way really prepares him to be president “on day one.”
What concerns this writer most about this election is today I am not better off than I was four years ago, or better yet ten years ago. My salary has gone up yet my buying power has gone down. My health insurance pays less and costs more, and I am lucky to be one of the Americans to still have health insurance coverage provided through my employer. My daughter and son-in-law, both of whom own local business and are the ‘backbone of the economy’ according to both Republicans and Democrats, pay over $400 a month for a private health care policy. They have an outrageous deductible and the cost of having my second granddaughter was not even covered under their plan. For eight years we have had Pres. Bush’s ‘compassionate conservatism’ yet there has been no move on fixing health care, and today 45 million Americans now go without healthcare while millions more are underinsured. Two years of Democratic control of Congress has also done little to move America forward on this vital issue.
I also recall Pres. Bush ‘compassionate conservative’ fix to Social Security; private investment accounts on Wall Street. If that had taken place the bail out may be near a trillion dollars instead of just $700 billion. (Remember Senator McCain has or had a similar plan for Social Security.) However, it is not my intention to discuss Social Security here but what Wall St. and the banks have done to the American people. By lowering interest rates to nothing the banks have forced Americans into the stock market at a higher rate than many would prefer. What interest rate do you get on your savings account? Your CDs? Your money markets? I would like to see higher interest rates and more responsibility placed on who the banks loan money to. I remember when Cluny, my dog who writes a column in the Clarion Issue most of the time, got an offer for a home improvement loan in his email. The banks have been irresponsible, and when Pres. Bush promised on Sept.16 the tax payers would get their money back from this massive bail out, it reminded me of Paul Wolfowitz’s promise the Iraq war would be paid for by Iraqi oil money. The housing crisis, the bank failures, and the Wall St. crisis happened on the Bush watch, and the architect of the banking deregulation was Phil Graham, who became an economic advisor to McCain until he called America ‘a nation of whiners.’ McCain admits he doesn’t understand the economy. Even the day after AIG threw in the towel, McCain said the fundamentals of the American economy were sound. Finally a piece of granite from a bank ceiling must have hit him on the head, and he finally admitted we have a problem, ‘suspended his campaign’ to help return to Washington to fix the problem, and threatened to postpone the first presidential debate which had been planned since spring. Wall St. has been bailed out with your tax money. However, if America believes this problem is fixed, I’ve got a bridge in Alaska I’ll sell you.
On taxes, I have a problem with tax cuts here and tax breaks there. Tax cuts and tax breaks are like quack-quacks on old McDonald’s farm; some are here, some are there, they are everywhere but where you need one. On taxes, the Tax Policy Center concluded that Senator Obama’s plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about five percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. Senator McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by three percent. However, all of this is smoke and mirrors, voodoo tax policy. It depends on tax breaks for childcare, business loans, hiring the handicapped or teenage worker, and other tax cuts for houses, businesses, children, medical needs, and other plans, or tax cuts for business that meet this requirement or spend on that program, or if your money is made via a salary or by capital gains, or whatever. Here is a real way to cut taxes. Lower the tax threshold: if a person paid 28% in Federal Income taxes lower it to 25%. That is a real tax cut! My house is paid off. My children are raised, and I’m a grandparent with no deductions. This is the only way I’ll ever get my taxes lowered. Neither Obama nor McCain are really listening to America. I’m mad as hell!
The situation with gas prices continues to cripple the American economy and the pocket book of the American consumer. The inflation in food and consumer prices is directly related to the cost of fuel both to ship and produce the basic products Americans buy weekly as necessities for their families. The failure of the Bush-Cheney administration over the last eight years to produce a true comprehensive energy policy has cost this country precious years in the race for green technology to offset the high cost of petrol energy. The McCain policy of ‘drill baby drill’ is equivalent to people chanting ‘IBM Selectric typewriters’ on the eve of the personal computer revolution of the late 1980s. Inflation and the fall of the stock market, the housing crisis, and massive bank failures across the country mark hard times for America. Once again, it happened on the Republican watch.
In Iraq, McCain refuses to realize the surge has only worked to put a heavier lid on a boiling pot and has not guaranteed victory. Today the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and his Shiite led government, have placed arrest warrants on many of the leaders of the Sunni Awakening leaders in al-Anbar and other providences while trying to stop their participation in provisional elections that have been postponed for years. The real winner in Iraq is Iran, a Shiite nation that has expanded and will continue to expand its influence over Iraq and the Hezbollah areas of Palestine and Lebanon. The worldview of the Republicans continues to be ‘big stick’ diplomacy. As America’s military is pressed around the world, Gen. David McKiernan (not Sarah Palin’s Gen. McClellan) has called for three more divisions in Afghanistan while our British allies admitted on October 5, “The war could not be won militarily.” Yet we continue to spend billions to rebuild in Iraq where much of Baghdad does not have but two hours of electricity a day and very little water and sewer service! Plus we spend billions of dollars in Afghanistan who is the major producer of opium in the world! I’m mad as hell; why aren’t you?
I also cast a weary eye toward Senator McCain’s ‘shoot from the hip’ responses to national and world events. When Russia invaded Georgia he labeled Russia the aggressor and said, “Today we are all Georgians.” McCain made his statements despite the fact the Bush administration was calling for restraint from the presidential candidates and the fact, admitted to by Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice, Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili initiated the conflict. When you kick a schoolyard bully in the shin, you need to be willing to back up the action. When the American banks began to drop like flies in mid-September, McCain said he would fire SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) chairman Christopher Cox and create a special trust to help strengthen weak institutions of Wall St. First, Cox is maybe one of the two Republicans in the Bush administration who may have an idea what is going on and how to fix it. Second, a president cannot fire the chair of an independent regulatory commission like the SEC. While the president nominates and the Senate confirms the SEC chair, a commissioner of an independent regulatory commission cannot be removed by the president. From time to time, presidents have attempted to remove commissioners who have proven “uncooperative.” However, the courts have general upheld the independence of commissioners. The president may ask for the SEC chairman to resign, but he cannot fire him. I think McCain is a hot head. He never vetted Sarah Palin, his suspension of his campaign and threat not to attend the first debate was an attempt to gain headlines, and he does not know U. S. Constitutional law.
In Georgia, the Clarion Issue worked and lobbied for a two party state; however, today it is a one party state dominated by the Republican Party. With very little checks on his power, Governor Sonny Perdue is working to get access to the teacher retirement fund while denying retired teachers cost of living increases. The same Republican government is cutting funding to schools and school programs all over the state. Teachers and other state employees have not received decent or even cost of living raises in over five years. At the same time other state budgets are being cut while the state marches ahead with tax cuts. Voters can easily look south at Florida and its revenue woes from tax cuts. Look at what the tax cuts have done to California, in the middle of the national seven-hundred-billion-dollar bail out of Wall St. America will be called on to issue the Bear Flag state a ten billion dollar transfusion of its own. The reason: tax cuts. Tax cuts are nice, but when the ambulance or fire truck takes 27 minutes to show up at your door instead of seven, was the tax cut really worth it? When you child or grandchild is in the eighth grade and reads on a forth grade level, was the tax cut worth it?
In summing up the presidential race, America suffered 159,000 job losses in September alone. The total job loss for 2008 is estimated at 760,000 jobs across the nation. Many good jobs have gone overseas during the last eight years, and American workers have been forced to train their foreign replacements and even disassemble the plants where they were employed for shipment overseas or to Latin America. By now you have seen your latest 401K or 403B statements and wondered what happened to the money you had ten months ago. The massive loss of jobs and the plunging economy have occured as the Bush Administration insisted the economy was sound, a sentiment echoed time and again by Senator McCain during the primaries and for months until mid-September. In the midst of rising inflation, rising energy costs, rising health care costs, rising individual bankruptcies, and the housing crisis, the Republican Party got it wrong. America is now in the midst of two costly and probably unwinnable wars, both of which Senator McCain insists he knows how to win. McCain insists on continued tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans while the trillion-dollar Iraq War, the unknown cost of the War in Afghanistan, and the virtual trillion dollar Wall St. bail out have gone on the tax payers credit card. I’m mad as hell and see no where else to lay the blame but at the feet of Pres. Bush, the Republicans in Congress who supported his policies and ran up these debts, and John McCain, who for the most part was part of that Republican majority.
I feel the same way about the Republicans in Georgia. There may be a few local Republicans I may vote for but not many.
Will the Democrats do any better? Probably not; however, if the ship has not totally gone down maybe a change of crew can help. Maybe one day there will be a third party that really cares about the American worker and middle class. Maybe by 2012 there will be real leaders with real plans supported by real Americans, but for now I guess I’ll vote for the other party. If the guard does change in Washington or Georgia, rest assured the Clarion Issue will be as hard on the new crew as it has been on the old crew. But for now, I’m raising my window and shouting, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”
Many of you Clarion Issue readers may remember this paraphrase from the 1976 movie Network starring Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, William Holden, and Robert Duvall, where the newscaster calls on the entire city to open its windows and shout “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” This is how I feel just a few days before I will walk into the polls on November 4 and vote in this election. I’m mad, and I know who I’m going to blame from the top office in the land down to the county dogcatcher.
I will preface this article by saying no one really has experience in the job of being president unless he is running as the incumbent; therefore, any claims to experience a candidate may offer is purely hypothetical and arbitrary in this race. While time served in various offices may broaden a candidate’s knowledge of important national and international information, shape their political and economic philosophies, and influence his world prospective, it in no way really prepares him to be president “on day one.”
What concerns this writer most about this election is today I am not better off than I was four years ago, or better yet ten years ago. My salary has gone up yet my buying power has gone down. My health insurance pays less and costs more, and I am lucky to be one of the Americans to still have health insurance coverage provided through my employer. My daughter and son-in-law, both of whom own local business and are the ‘backbone of the economy’ according to both Republicans and Democrats, pay over $400 a month for a private health care policy. They have an outrageous deductible and the cost of having my second granddaughter was not even covered under their plan. For eight years we have had Pres. Bush’s ‘compassionate conservatism’ yet there has been no move on fixing health care, and today 45 million Americans now go without healthcare while millions more are underinsured. Two years of Democratic control of Congress has also done little to move America forward on this vital issue.
I also recall Pres. Bush ‘compassionate conservative’ fix to Social Security; private investment accounts on Wall Street. If that had taken place the bail out may be near a trillion dollars instead of just $700 billion. (Remember Senator McCain has or had a similar plan for Social Security.) However, it is not my intention to discuss Social Security here but what Wall St. and the banks have done to the American people. By lowering interest rates to nothing the banks have forced Americans into the stock market at a higher rate than many would prefer. What interest rate do you get on your savings account? Your CDs? Your money markets? I would like to see higher interest rates and more responsibility placed on who the banks loan money to. I remember when Cluny, my dog who writes a column in the Clarion Issue most of the time, got an offer for a home improvement loan in his email. The banks have been irresponsible, and when Pres. Bush promised on Sept.16 the tax payers would get their money back from this massive bail out, it reminded me of Paul Wolfowitz’s promise the Iraq war would be paid for by Iraqi oil money. The housing crisis, the bank failures, and the Wall St. crisis happened on the Bush watch, and the architect of the banking deregulation was Phil Graham, who became an economic advisor to McCain until he called America ‘a nation of whiners.’ McCain admits he doesn’t understand the economy. Even the day after AIG threw in the towel, McCain said the fundamentals of the American economy were sound. Finally a piece of granite from a bank ceiling must have hit him on the head, and he finally admitted we have a problem, ‘suspended his campaign’ to help return to Washington to fix the problem, and threatened to postpone the first presidential debate which had been planned since spring. Wall St. has been bailed out with your tax money. However, if America believes this problem is fixed, I’ve got a bridge in Alaska I’ll sell you.
On taxes, I have a problem with tax cuts here and tax breaks there. Tax cuts and tax breaks are like quack-quacks on old McDonald’s farm; some are here, some are there, they are everywhere but where you need one. On taxes, the Tax Policy Center concluded that Senator Obama’s plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about five percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. Senator McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by three percent. However, all of this is smoke and mirrors, voodoo tax policy. It depends on tax breaks for childcare, business loans, hiring the handicapped or teenage worker, and other tax cuts for houses, businesses, children, medical needs, and other plans, or tax cuts for business that meet this requirement or spend on that program, or if your money is made via a salary or by capital gains, or whatever. Here is a real way to cut taxes. Lower the tax threshold: if a person paid 28% in Federal Income taxes lower it to 25%. That is a real tax cut! My house is paid off. My children are raised, and I’m a grandparent with no deductions. This is the only way I’ll ever get my taxes lowered. Neither Obama nor McCain are really listening to America. I’m mad as hell!
The situation with gas prices continues to cripple the American economy and the pocket book of the American consumer. The inflation in food and consumer prices is directly related to the cost of fuel both to ship and produce the basic products Americans buy weekly as necessities for their families. The failure of the Bush-Cheney administration over the last eight years to produce a true comprehensive energy policy has cost this country precious years in the race for green technology to offset the high cost of petrol energy. The McCain policy of ‘drill baby drill’ is equivalent to people chanting ‘IBM Selectric typewriters’ on the eve of the personal computer revolution of the late 1980s. Inflation and the fall of the stock market, the housing crisis, and massive bank failures across the country mark hard times for America. Once again, it happened on the Republican watch.
In Iraq, McCain refuses to realize the surge has only worked to put a heavier lid on a boiling pot and has not guaranteed victory. Today the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and his Shiite led government, have placed arrest warrants on many of the leaders of the Sunni Awakening leaders in al-Anbar and other providences while trying to stop their participation in provisional elections that have been postponed for years. The real winner in Iraq is Iran, a Shiite nation that has expanded and will continue to expand its influence over Iraq and the Hezbollah areas of Palestine and Lebanon. The worldview of the Republicans continues to be ‘big stick’ diplomacy. As America’s military is pressed around the world, Gen. David McKiernan (not Sarah Palin’s Gen. McClellan) has called for three more divisions in Afghanistan while our British allies admitted on October 5, “The war could not be won militarily.” Yet we continue to spend billions to rebuild in Iraq where much of Baghdad does not have but two hours of electricity a day and very little water and sewer service! Plus we spend billions of dollars in Afghanistan who is the major producer of opium in the world! I’m mad as hell; why aren’t you?
I also cast a weary eye toward Senator McCain’s ‘shoot from the hip’ responses to national and world events. When Russia invaded Georgia he labeled Russia the aggressor and said, “Today we are all Georgians.” McCain made his statements despite the fact the Bush administration was calling for restraint from the presidential candidates and the fact, admitted to by Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice, Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili initiated the conflict. When you kick a schoolyard bully in the shin, you need to be willing to back up the action. When the American banks began to drop like flies in mid-September, McCain said he would fire SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) chairman Christopher Cox and create a special trust to help strengthen weak institutions of Wall St. First, Cox is maybe one of the two Republicans in the Bush administration who may have an idea what is going on and how to fix it. Second, a president cannot fire the chair of an independent regulatory commission like the SEC. While the president nominates and the Senate confirms the SEC chair, a commissioner of an independent regulatory commission cannot be removed by the president. From time to time, presidents have attempted to remove commissioners who have proven “uncooperative.” However, the courts have general upheld the independence of commissioners. The president may ask for the SEC chairman to resign, but he cannot fire him. I think McCain is a hot head. He never vetted Sarah Palin, his suspension of his campaign and threat not to attend the first debate was an attempt to gain headlines, and he does not know U. S. Constitutional law.
In Georgia, the Clarion Issue worked and lobbied for a two party state; however, today it is a one party state dominated by the Republican Party. With very little checks on his power, Governor Sonny Perdue is working to get access to the teacher retirement fund while denying retired teachers cost of living increases. The same Republican government is cutting funding to schools and school programs all over the state. Teachers and other state employees have not received decent or even cost of living raises in over five years. At the same time other state budgets are being cut while the state marches ahead with tax cuts. Voters can easily look south at Florida and its revenue woes from tax cuts. Look at what the tax cuts have done to California, in the middle of the national seven-hundred-billion-dollar bail out of Wall St. America will be called on to issue the Bear Flag state a ten billion dollar transfusion of its own. The reason: tax cuts. Tax cuts are nice, but when the ambulance or fire truck takes 27 minutes to show up at your door instead of seven, was the tax cut really worth it? When you child or grandchild is in the eighth grade and reads on a forth grade level, was the tax cut worth it?
In summing up the presidential race, America suffered 159,000 job losses in September alone. The total job loss for 2008 is estimated at 760,000 jobs across the nation. Many good jobs have gone overseas during the last eight years, and American workers have been forced to train their foreign replacements and even disassemble the plants where they were employed for shipment overseas or to Latin America. By now you have seen your latest 401K or 403B statements and wondered what happened to the money you had ten months ago. The massive loss of jobs and the plunging economy have occured as the Bush Administration insisted the economy was sound, a sentiment echoed time and again by Senator McCain during the primaries and for months until mid-September. In the midst of rising inflation, rising energy costs, rising health care costs, rising individual bankruptcies, and the housing crisis, the Republican Party got it wrong. America is now in the midst of two costly and probably unwinnable wars, both of which Senator McCain insists he knows how to win. McCain insists on continued tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans while the trillion-dollar Iraq War, the unknown cost of the War in Afghanistan, and the virtual trillion dollar Wall St. bail out have gone on the tax payers credit card. I’m mad as hell and see no where else to lay the blame but at the feet of Pres. Bush, the Republicans in Congress who supported his policies and ran up these debts, and John McCain, who for the most part was part of that Republican majority.
I feel the same way about the Republicans in Georgia. There may be a few local Republicans I may vote for but not many.
Will the Democrats do any better? Probably not; however, if the ship has not totally gone down maybe a change of crew can help. Maybe one day there will be a third party that really cares about the American worker and middle class. Maybe by 2012 there will be real leaders with real plans supported by real Americans, but for now I guess I’ll vote for the other party. If the guard does change in Washington or Georgia, rest assured the Clarion Issue will be as hard on the new crew as it has been on the old crew. But for now, I’m raising my window and shouting, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”
Saturday, September 27, 2008
GEN. WESLEY CLARK ENDORSES DEMOCRAT BILL GILESPIE IN GEORGIA’S FIRST DISTRICT ELECTION
Former NATO Commander and 2004 U.S. Presidential candidate indicates Congress needs Gillespie's military experience and economic ideas.
In September, Gen. Wesley Clark and his political action committee, WesPAC-Securing America’s Future, endorsed Democrat Bill Gillespie in Georgia’s First Congressional District election.
Gillespie served 23 years in the Army, working in various leadership positions while stationed in places such as Korea, Germany and the Middle East. He served in Iraq as Senior Logistician for the Third Infantry Division, earning a Bronze Star. Gillespie retired last year as a Lt. Colonel and disabled veteran.
Clark said, “I am proud to endorse Lt. Col. (ret.) Bill Gillespie for Congress. America has reached a critical point, and we need strong leaders in Washington with the courage, knowledge and integrity to overcome our many challenges at home and abroad. Bill’s ideas to develop alternative energy, lower taxes for families and small businesses and recruit manufacturing back to America are just what the ailing economy needs. I also support Bill because he’ll fight hard to increase healthcare, education and other benefits for our brave veterans. Bill represents a hope for change in southeast Georgia - a change to government that represents the people not just special interests with lots of money.”
Clark, who was a 2004 candidate for President, spent 34 years in the Army and the Department of Defense, receiving many military decorations. He commanded Operation Allied Force in the Kosovo War during his term as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 1997 to 2000.
Gillespie said, “I am honored by the endorsement of Gen. Wesley Clark, one of our country’s finest military and political leaders. We share many goals, especially making sure our country honors the sacrifices of our troops and their families by taking good care of them when they return home. Last year the Democratic-majority in Congress passed the largest ever funding increase in the 77-year history of the Veterans’ Administration. It is still not enough. The toll of the War on Terror on our military has been large, and I will seek even more increases in funding for veterans benefits.”
Gillespie, who has also proposed that all veterans get a healthcare card that allows them to seek care outside the VA system at whatever facility they prefer, says his career as an Army leader and soldier has prepared him well to be a Congressman who can defend America from terrorism and lead the United States toward winning the peace in Iraq.
His top domestic issue is creating the South Georgia Alternative Energy Alliance, making the region the center of American research and production of agri-fuel, solar, wind, methane and other alternative energies.
Gillespie’s other top issues include: improving benefits for veterans, lowering taxes for families and small businesses, saving Social Security from privatization, stopping illegal immigration, reforming the healthcare and insurance industries, repealing the No Child Left Behind Act, balancing the federal budget, protecting South Georgia’s natural resources and promoting ‘sustainable development.’
BILL GILLESPIE’S BIOGRAPHY
Bill Gillespie of Chatham County served 23 years in the U.S. Army, retiring last year as a Lt. Colonel and a disabled veteran. In 2003, he served in Iraq as Senior Logistician for the Third Infantry Division, earning a Bronze Star.
Other positions held in the military include Inspector General, West Point professor, Chief of Staff for the Third Infantry Division Rear Command Post, Operations Director of the Army Ordnance Center and Chief of Leadership and Tactics of the Army Ordnance Center. Gillespie has traveled to six continents and been stationed overseas in Kuwait, Korea and Germany. His military awards include the Legion of Merit, Combat Action Badge, Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award, Master Instructor Award, and three NCAA Championships as coach of the West Point Orienteering Team.
Most recently, Gillespie worked as southeast Georgia’s Army ROTC Program Director, charged with supervising ROTC programs at Georgia Southern University, Savannah State University, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah College of Art & Design and St. Leo University. He also ran all of southeast Georgia’s Army Junior ROTC Programs.
Gillespie has earned B.S. and M.A. degrees in Environmental Science from Towson University, and a PH.D (ABD) in Immigration Studies and Cultural Geography from the University of Maryland. Gillespie has taught classes on Geography, Military History and Leadership at West Point, Georgia Southern, Armstrong Atlantic State and Maryland. He is also a published author on subjects such as Education, Geography and History.
He currently teaches a course to veterans at Fort Stewart in Hinesville designed to help them learn the skills necessary to transition into civilian life and gain employment.
Gillespie has been active in community organizations such as the American Red Cross, Farm Bureau, Kiwanis, Rotary, Ancient Order of the Hibernians, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Historic Savannah Foundation, Savannah Downtown Community Association, Chatham County Democratic Committee, and Georgia Southern University’s Science & Technology Board and Irish Studies Board.
This information was provided to the Clarion Issue by the Bill Gillespie campaign. The web site is http://www.billforgeorgia.com .
Editor’s note: Bill Gillespie is running for Congress against Republican Jack Kingston, the eight term congressman form Georgia’s First Congressional District. The Clarion Issue remembers when Kingston ran on term limits!
In September, Gen. Wesley Clark and his political action committee, WesPAC-Securing America’s Future, endorsed Democrat Bill Gillespie in Georgia’s First Congressional District election.
Gillespie served 23 years in the Army, working in various leadership positions while stationed in places such as Korea, Germany and the Middle East. He served in Iraq as Senior Logistician for the Third Infantry Division, earning a Bronze Star. Gillespie retired last year as a Lt. Colonel and disabled veteran.
Clark said, “I am proud to endorse Lt. Col. (ret.) Bill Gillespie for Congress. America has reached a critical point, and we need strong leaders in Washington with the courage, knowledge and integrity to overcome our many challenges at home and abroad. Bill’s ideas to develop alternative energy, lower taxes for families and small businesses and recruit manufacturing back to America are just what the ailing economy needs. I also support Bill because he’ll fight hard to increase healthcare, education and other benefits for our brave veterans. Bill represents a hope for change in southeast Georgia - a change to government that represents the people not just special interests with lots of money.”
Clark, who was a 2004 candidate for President, spent 34 years in the Army and the Department of Defense, receiving many military decorations. He commanded Operation Allied Force in the Kosovo War during his term as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 1997 to 2000.
Gillespie said, “I am honored by the endorsement of Gen. Wesley Clark, one of our country’s finest military and political leaders. We share many goals, especially making sure our country honors the sacrifices of our troops and their families by taking good care of them when they return home. Last year the Democratic-majority in Congress passed the largest ever funding increase in the 77-year history of the Veterans’ Administration. It is still not enough. The toll of the War on Terror on our military has been large, and I will seek even more increases in funding for veterans benefits.”
Gillespie, who has also proposed that all veterans get a healthcare card that allows them to seek care outside the VA system at whatever facility they prefer, says his career as an Army leader and soldier has prepared him well to be a Congressman who can defend America from terrorism and lead the United States toward winning the peace in Iraq.
His top domestic issue is creating the South Georgia Alternative Energy Alliance, making the region the center of American research and production of agri-fuel, solar, wind, methane and other alternative energies.
Gillespie’s other top issues include: improving benefits for veterans, lowering taxes for families and small businesses, saving Social Security from privatization, stopping illegal immigration, reforming the healthcare and insurance industries, repealing the No Child Left Behind Act, balancing the federal budget, protecting South Georgia’s natural resources and promoting ‘sustainable development.’
BILL GILLESPIE’S BIOGRAPHY
Bill Gillespie of Chatham County served 23 years in the U.S. Army, retiring last year as a Lt. Colonel and a disabled veteran. In 2003, he served in Iraq as Senior Logistician for the Third Infantry Division, earning a Bronze Star.
Other positions held in the military include Inspector General, West Point professor, Chief of Staff for the Third Infantry Division Rear Command Post, Operations Director of the Army Ordnance Center and Chief of Leadership and Tactics of the Army Ordnance Center. Gillespie has traveled to six continents and been stationed overseas in Kuwait, Korea and Germany. His military awards include the Legion of Merit, Combat Action Badge, Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award, Master Instructor Award, and three NCAA Championships as coach of the West Point Orienteering Team.
Most recently, Gillespie worked as southeast Georgia’s Army ROTC Program Director, charged with supervising ROTC programs at Georgia Southern University, Savannah State University, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah College of Art & Design and St. Leo University. He also ran all of southeast Georgia’s Army Junior ROTC Programs.
Gillespie has earned B.S. and M.A. degrees in Environmental Science from Towson University, and a PH.D (ABD) in Immigration Studies and Cultural Geography from the University of Maryland. Gillespie has taught classes on Geography, Military History and Leadership at West Point, Georgia Southern, Armstrong Atlantic State and Maryland. He is also a published author on subjects such as Education, Geography and History.
He currently teaches a course to veterans at Fort Stewart in Hinesville designed to help them learn the skills necessary to transition into civilian life and gain employment.
Gillespie has been active in community organizations such as the American Red Cross, Farm Bureau, Kiwanis, Rotary, Ancient Order of the Hibernians, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Historic Savannah Foundation, Savannah Downtown Community Association, Chatham County Democratic Committee, and Georgia Southern University’s Science & Technology Board and Irish Studies Board.
This information was provided to the Clarion Issue by the Bill Gillespie campaign. The web site is http://www.billforgeorgia.com .
Editor’s note: Bill Gillespie is running for Congress against Republican Jack Kingston, the eight term congressman form Georgia’s First Congressional District. The Clarion Issue remembers when Kingston ran on term limits!
Monday, September 22, 2008
ISLAMIC CLERIC ISSUES FATWAH AGAINST MICKEY MOUSE
By R. A. Pearson
On September 19, 2008, a Saudi Arabian Islamic cleric, Sheikh Muhammad Munajid, declared a fatwah (death sentence) on Mickey Mouse claming the cartoon icon is, “One of Satan’s solders and makes everything it touches impure.” The cleric, a former diplomat at the Saudi embassy in Washington DC, said that under Sharia law, Arab tribal law used as Islamic Holy Law, both household mice and their cartoon counterparts must be killed. Of course, this is the same Saudi Arabia that president George Bush was seen holding hands with its princes and sword dancing in their palaces while they jacked up the price of oil during our national energy emergencies.
The Fatwah came in an interview with Al-Majd Television. The sheikh condemned all cartoons that endear rodents to their viewers (including Tom and Jerry) warning the depictions of these creatures in cartoons had taught children that the creatures were loveable. He went on to condemn many of the popular Turkish soap operas popular on the Muslim TV cable networks.
The Clarion Issue is happy to report the Disney charters are taking the fatwah seriously. Donald Duck and his nephews Huey, Louie, and Dewey are in hiding in New Jersey with the mob under the protection of the Soprano family, while Goofy is at an undisclosed location with Vice President Cheney. The Vice President has checked his shotgun and promised not to use Goofy as a quail dog this hunting season. However, Mickey and Minnie Mouse refused protection and will stay in Disneyland under the protection of the Alaskan National Guard, commanded by Generalissimo Sarah Palin, to help build up her National Security credentials.
In an unrelated story, on the same day a group calling itself ‘Group XP’ hacked into the website of Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and placed a video of comedian Bill Maher making fun of the Ayatollah and his advice to the Shiite faithful, as well as posting messages on the site.
The hackers said they are upset at the sexual nature of the advice given to faithful by al-Sistani through a spokesperson. Those who have studied the attack believe that the Maher video (taken off youtube) is meant to illustrate how such advice promotes mockery of Islam. The communications said it was hacking this and other sites giving a "bad name" to Sunnis upset over fatwas, or edicts, issued on the site. News reports link the hackers or Group XP to Wahhabis, fundamentalist Sunnis, who are a major sect in Saudi Arabia.
Sources indicate Christian sites that insult Islam and sexually oriented sites run by Arab Christians out of Israel were also hacked on the same day.
On September 19, 2008, a Saudi Arabian Islamic cleric, Sheikh Muhammad Munajid, declared a fatwah (death sentence) on Mickey Mouse claming the cartoon icon is, “One of Satan’s solders and makes everything it touches impure.” The cleric, a former diplomat at the Saudi embassy in Washington DC, said that under Sharia law, Arab tribal law used as Islamic Holy Law, both household mice and their cartoon counterparts must be killed. Of course, this is the same Saudi Arabia that president George Bush was seen holding hands with its princes and sword dancing in their palaces while they jacked up the price of oil during our national energy emergencies.
The Fatwah came in an interview with Al-Majd Television. The sheikh condemned all cartoons that endear rodents to their viewers (including Tom and Jerry) warning the depictions of these creatures in cartoons had taught children that the creatures were loveable. He went on to condemn many of the popular Turkish soap operas popular on the Muslim TV cable networks.
The Clarion Issue is happy to report the Disney charters are taking the fatwah seriously. Donald Duck and his nephews Huey, Louie, and Dewey are in hiding in New Jersey with the mob under the protection of the Soprano family, while Goofy is at an undisclosed location with Vice President Cheney. The Vice President has checked his shotgun and promised not to use Goofy as a quail dog this hunting season. However, Mickey and Minnie Mouse refused protection and will stay in Disneyland under the protection of the Alaskan National Guard, commanded by Generalissimo Sarah Palin, to help build up her National Security credentials.
In an unrelated story, on the same day a group calling itself ‘Group XP’ hacked into the website of Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and placed a video of comedian Bill Maher making fun of the Ayatollah and his advice to the Shiite faithful, as well as posting messages on the site.
The hackers said they are upset at the sexual nature of the advice given to faithful by al-Sistani through a spokesperson. Those who have studied the attack believe that the Maher video (taken off youtube) is meant to illustrate how such advice promotes mockery of Islam. The communications said it was hacking this and other sites giving a "bad name" to Sunnis upset over fatwas, or edicts, issued on the site. News reports link the hackers or Group XP to Wahhabis, fundamentalist Sunnis, who are a major sect in Saudi Arabia.
Sources indicate Christian sites that insult Islam and sexually oriented sites run by Arab Christians out of Israel were also hacked on the same day.
Monday, September 15, 2008
"Appeal For Redress" Founder to Headline Local Peace Celebration In Glynn Co.
GlynnPeace Press Release
Navy Petty Officer Jonathan W. Hutto, Sr., will be among the speakers at a community celebration of the International Day of Peace, hosted by GlynnPeace on Sunday, September 21st. The event will be held at the Farmers' Market pavilion at Mary Ross Waterfront Park A community meal will be served.
Hutto is a native of Atlanta and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in January 2004. Two years later, with a small group of fellow servicemen and women, he began Appeal for Redress (www.appealforredress.org), which provides a way in which individual service members can appeal to their Congressional representative and senators to urge an end to the U.S. military occupation of Iraq. Hutto, currently stationed in Norfolk, VA, speaks often of the little-understood ability of active duty military personnel to exercise their citizenship rights.
Joining Hutto will be Iraq War veterans Maggie Martin, Jason Hurd, and Doug Ament. Maggie Martin spent five years and two months in the Army, 14 months of which was under "stop loss" (involuntarily extended). During that five years she was deployed for eight months to Kuwait for Operation Desert Spring, another eight months between Kuwait and Iraq with the initial 2003 invasion of Iraq, and finally for a year in 2005 for Operation Iraqi Freedom III. She is currently a student at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah and has been a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War for a year.
Jason Hurd is also living in Savannah now. He completed 10 years of honorable service in the U.S. Army and the Tennessee Army National Guard. From November 2004 to November 2005 Hurd served in central Baghdad as a medic for Bristol, Tennessee's Troop F 2/278th Regimental Combat Team. He graduated in May 2007 from East Tennessee State University.
Douglas Ament joined the military in 1988, worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, and helped the United Nations run the 2005 Iraqi elections. He is now a graduate student at Emory University in Atlanta.
The United Nations established the International Day of Peace in 1981 and in 2001 declared the annual date as September 21st for a worldwide, 24-hour spiritual observation of peace, nonviolence, and global ceasefire. Building peace one day at a time is the vision behind the United Nations resolution. Events marking the day are observed worldwide, including a minute of silence at Noon.
The local community celebration of the International Day of Peace is co-sponsored by GlynnPeace: Citizens To End The War In Iraq and the Social Justice Team of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Coastal Georgia. Following morning observances during church worship services, a community gathering will take place at the Farmers' Market pavilion in Mary Ross Waterfront Park, on Bay Street in downtown Brunswick, beginning with the Noon minute of silence. Participants are encouraged to bring an international dish to share, but some food and drinks will be provided by the sponsors. Music will be provided by local musician Bill Owens. There will be special activities for children, literature tables, an opportunity to register to vote, and lots of food and fellowship. The time together will include brief presentations from Hutto, Hurd, Martin, and Ament, ending at 3:00 PM.
"Recognizing that churches let out at different times," says organizer Robert Randall, "we wanted to keep the schedule fluid. Folk can come anytime after church, put their dish on the serving table, dig in and eat, and just enjoy the time together with other neighbors. Kids can join in the activities for them. Listen to Bill. Talk with our guests. It's a time to put aside violence and live in peace."
Organizers plan to have the pavilion well decorated with signs, banners, and flags of many nations. "It's an international celebration, emphasizing that we're all in this together and we all want peace," stated Cathy Browning, another organizer of the event.
The event is free and the public is encouraged to attend. For more information call 262-1274 or 996-6523 or visit www.glynnpeace.org.
Navy Petty Officer Jonathan W. Hutto, Sr., will be among the speakers at a community celebration of the International Day of Peace, hosted by GlynnPeace on Sunday, September 21st. The event will be held at the Farmers' Market pavilion at Mary Ross Waterfront Park A community meal will be served.
Hutto is a native of Atlanta and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in January 2004. Two years later, with a small group of fellow servicemen and women, he began Appeal for Redress (www.appealforredress.org), which provides a way in which individual service members can appeal to their Congressional representative and senators to urge an end to the U.S. military occupation of Iraq. Hutto, currently stationed in Norfolk, VA, speaks often of the little-understood ability of active duty military personnel to exercise their citizenship rights.
Joining Hutto will be Iraq War veterans Maggie Martin, Jason Hurd, and Doug Ament. Maggie Martin spent five years and two months in the Army, 14 months of which was under "stop loss" (involuntarily extended). During that five years she was deployed for eight months to Kuwait for Operation Desert Spring, another eight months between Kuwait and Iraq with the initial 2003 invasion of Iraq, and finally for a year in 2005 for Operation Iraqi Freedom III. She is currently a student at Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah and has been a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War for a year.
Jason Hurd is also living in Savannah now. He completed 10 years of honorable service in the U.S. Army and the Tennessee Army National Guard. From November 2004 to November 2005 Hurd served in central Baghdad as a medic for Bristol, Tennessee's Troop F 2/278th Regimental Combat Team. He graduated in May 2007 from East Tennessee State University.
Douglas Ament joined the military in 1988, worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, and helped the United Nations run the 2005 Iraqi elections. He is now a graduate student at Emory University in Atlanta.
The United Nations established the International Day of Peace in 1981 and in 2001 declared the annual date as September 21st for a worldwide, 24-hour spiritual observation of peace, nonviolence, and global ceasefire. Building peace one day at a time is the vision behind the United Nations resolution. Events marking the day are observed worldwide, including a minute of silence at Noon.
The local community celebration of the International Day of Peace is co-sponsored by GlynnPeace: Citizens To End The War In Iraq and the Social Justice Team of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Coastal Georgia. Following morning observances during church worship services, a community gathering will take place at the Farmers' Market pavilion in Mary Ross Waterfront Park, on Bay Street in downtown Brunswick, beginning with the Noon minute of silence. Participants are encouraged to bring an international dish to share, but some food and drinks will be provided by the sponsors. Music will be provided by local musician Bill Owens. There will be special activities for children, literature tables, an opportunity to register to vote, and lots of food and fellowship. The time together will include brief presentations from Hutto, Hurd, Martin, and Ament, ending at 3:00 PM.
"Recognizing that churches let out at different times," says organizer Robert Randall, "we wanted to keep the schedule fluid. Folk can come anytime after church, put their dish on the serving table, dig in and eat, and just enjoy the time together with other neighbors. Kids can join in the activities for them. Listen to Bill. Talk with our guests. It's a time to put aside violence and live in peace."
Organizers plan to have the pavilion well decorated with signs, banners, and flags of many nations. "It's an international celebration, emphasizing that we're all in this together and we all want peace," stated Cathy Browning, another organizer of the event.
The event is free and the public is encouraged to attend. For more information call 262-1274 or 996-6523 or visit www.glynnpeace.org.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
THE MOUNTAINS THEY MUST CLIMB: WHAT THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES MUST OVERCOME TO WIN IN NOVEMBER
By R. A. Pearson
The summer campaign season and party conventions are over, and now Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama must take their message to the voters of America in what appears to be a toss up election. Both candidates are well financed and the 527 groups are loaded for bear. However, both candidates have certain obstacles, even within their own parties, they must overcome if they hope to win in November. As the campaign season begins in earnest, as the political ads start to roll, as the polls that matter start to come in, we should take a look at the candidates and see what each candidate needs to overcome in order to win in November.
For John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the obvious first obstacle for the candidate is his age, 72. There have been times when Senator McCain has seemed addled on events, such as the time he got confused on the religious affiliates of the various parties in the Iraq conflict, confusing Sunni and Shiite factions, and the time he referred to Czechoslovakia, a state which no longer exists. Recently he mispronounced the name of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili several times while claiming to have personal contacts with the Georgian President.
The recent gain of McCain in the polls can be traced to his ability to finally unite his party. He seems to have brought in the Tom Tancredo anti-immigration wing although he supported a rather liberal comprehensive immigration package which angered the anti immigration faction in the Republican Party. With the addition of Gov. Palin to the ticket he also seems to be winning the majority of the evangelical Christian vote, although how much and how enthusiastically has yet to be seen. McCain’s stance on Supreme Court and other judges and his anti-abortion feelings will also hurt his chances as he tries to pick up any Democratic women voters still upset over the defeat of Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Presidential nomination contest.
At times during the summer McCain’s campaign looked disorganized, off message, and mismanaged. When Obama was in Germany making his speech to some 200,000 Germans, McCain was in Columbus, Ohio, at Schmidt’s Fudge Haus buying a box of truffles and dining at a German Restaurant on German Sausages. Later the Senator was in New Orleans for a tour of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico to prove they were safe and efficient, but the plans had to be scrapped due to Hurricane Dolly which closed down the oil rigs. Almost simultaneously a massive oil spill in the Mississippi River occurred when a tugboat collided with an oil tanker spilling almost 450,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil into the Mississippi River. New management has brought the McCain campaign more in line and on message; however, McCain has a tendency to get off message and onto more comfortable ground, especially in his easily orchestrated, softball pitching, “preaching to the choir” town hall meetings.
In terms of the economy McCain has two problems. The first is he has admitted he does not have a firm handle on economic issues, an honest strait talk admission of weakness on his part but one that may hurt him in the weakened economy. The other is he is a free trade Republican, a stand that may hurt his chances to pick up the votes of those lunch box blue collar and other middle class Reagan Democrats he will need to carry the all important battleground states such as Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and several others that will be in play in this election. Polls show voters prefer Obama 50% to 30% to McCain when it comes to the economy.
The McCain energy program, at least when it comes to off shore drilling, seems to be playing well with voters. Over 65% of American voters want off shore drilling to lower gas prices; however, most of these voters are in the heartland where off shore drilling would have little affect on their economy or environment. Where McCain’s energy meets resistance in the heartland is with his nuclear energy policy. While Cleveland, Ohio, voters may see no problem with an oil well off the coast of California, they do not want to see a nuclear power plant one mile away from the Cleveland Wal-Mart. McCain indicated he would have returned Congress to Washington over the summer break to pass important energy legislation; however, in 2007 McCain missed 11 energy related votes on topics such as automobile fuel economy, offshore Virginia drilling, refinery construction, renewable electricity mandates, energy efficiency, support for biofuels, and other energy issues. He also failed to point out at the same time he was calling for Congress to return, Pres. Bush was in Bejing hobnobing with the corporate Communists at the Olympic games or on vacation at his Texas ranch.
On Iraq McCain contends America can “win the war” by staying. Here most Americans want to leave Iraq and the Bush administration and Iraqi government are agreeing to “time horizons” sometime at the end of 2010. This is almost a stab in the back for the McCain position. The Arizona Senator may have another problem with his Iraq policy. The Center for Responsive Politics reports the troops on the battlefield are giving money six to one to Obama over McCain. While it is hard to read the tea leaves on this one, America has to realize the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been fought by .05% of the American population, many of whom have now served three or four tours in the war zones. It is also a fact the Army has seen a sharp increase in the number of younger officers resigning their commissions. Whether this money is coming from the officers, the enlisted personnel, or the military as a whole, it could spell trouble for the Republicans if they loose the military vote.
McCain’s recent ‘house gaffe’ really hurt him with the American people. Most Americans know how many houses they own. To not know he owned seven homes showed him a little out of touch with the typical American struggling with real ‘kitchen table’ issues in today’s economy.
However, McCain’s worst enemy is the unpopularity of the current president, George Bush. In what has been billed as the “New Misery Index” (remembering Ronald Regan’s “Misery Index” of 1980) if you add those who believe the country is going the wrong way to those who dislike the job President Bush is doing the “New Misery Index” equals about 160%. This lands squarely on the back of the Republican standard bearer. Republican Representative Tom Davis of Virginia quipped, “The Republican brand is in the trash can. I've often observed that if we were a dog food, they would take us off the shelf.” McCain may be a maverick, but if the Democrats can weld him to the Republicans in general and Pres. Bush in particular, it will be a long campaign for McCain.
Nation wide polls show the Hispanic vote, other than the Cuban vote in Florida, breaking for Obama, putting Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico in play. This could not bode well for McCain. Another factor, the purchase of Budweiser by the Belgian Company InBev may include the American distribution of the Cuban beers Bucanero and Cristal beer by Budweiser and InBev, a move which could cost McCain the Cuban vote in Florida, a state seen by many to be already in play.
To win McCain must get out of the town halls and address real non-committed voters, not just the converted. He needs to sharpen his economic message. He must also hold the Bush states of 2004. He needs to end his gaffes, stay on the message of the day, and put as much distance between himself and Pres. Bush as possible.
For Barack Obama, and his running mate, Joseph Biden of Delaware, there are also a host of mountains to climb to win the electoral votes needed to win in November. Obama’s obvious weakness is his lack of experience in politics; however, many Americans consider this a positive. He has also been forced to spend a lot of time attempting to unite a divided party, had his patriotism questioned, and must convince the American people he is a fit commander-in-chief of our nation’s armed forces. His hills are just as high as his Republican rival’s.
For Obama the major hurdle is his inexperience. During the last Presidential election he was in the Illinois Senate with his eyes on a U.S. Senate seat. One of the best things to happen to Obama was the cartoon cover of the New Yorker showing him and his wife because the cover caused such a stir if kept people from reading the article inside. The article by Ryan Lizza indicated Obama had moved up in Chicago politics very quickly and never really became proficient in any elected position. He never held leadership roles in the State Legislature and his bid for the presidency after only two years in the U.S. Senate is seen as premature. Lizza indicates people who knew, worked with and liked Obama felt he was over ambitious, never really settling into a job and learning it, passing real positive legislation, and working with legislators on tough bills especially with those across the aisle. Lizza concludes Obama was always trading up and the fact he is accused of a lack of experience is justified for those who wish to point to that fact.
Obama has also had his patriotism questioned. The criticism for his refusal to wear a flag pin on his lapel was a little over the top promulgated by the right wing talk show hosts who are predisposed to eat the elephant crap off the street; however, at one point he did not put his hand over his heart during the national anthem at a major event. This is not unpatriotic, it is correct to simply stand at attention unless you are wearing a hat, them one removes the hat and holds it over their heart. Individuals express their patriotism in different ways. Let’s not let ‘can I borrow a hit of oxycodone’ Rush Limbaugh tell the nation how patriotism needs to be expressed.
In reference to Iraq, Obama plans to withdraw from the conflict with in two years of becoming president. This plan now seems in line with Iraqi wishes. A major problem with Obama’s Iraq policy could come in the form of American backlash from the 2006 elections when voters gave Democrats control of the House and Senate upon the promise the party would stop the war in Iraq. While there was weak posturing and maneuvering in both houses to end funding for the war, the leadership of both houses of Congress capitulated to the Bush administration and voted to fund the war when they could have not voted the funds. How much voters blame Obama for the Democratic failure on this issue remains to be seen.
On the issue of Commander-in-Chief, voters prefer McCain 50% to Obama 40% in a general average of the polls. Here Obama has climbed a little over the summer since his favorable trip overseas. McCain's team sought to highlight Obama's failure to visit wounded troops from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars at the Landstuhl US military hospital in Germany as a failure on Obama’s part and here the Democrat was between the proverbable rock and a hard place. If he went it was “political;” if he did not he was failing the troops. His decision not go to the hospital was probably the only real hiccup of the trip. However, Obama’s week off in August as the Georgia crisis unfolded in Asia let McCain and Republican 527 ads define Obama on certain issues with negative ads.
It seems the Democrats and Obama may be coming around on off shore drilling as long as the energy package is inclusive and includes all types of energy solutions to the energy problems. However, Americans must realize this is a complex problem and deserves a complicated solution. There is no easy solution to a problem America and its political and industrial leaders have ignored for 40 years.
Another major problem Obama must overcome is to unite the Democrats. He still faces a disunited party with Hillary PUMAS (Party Unity My Ass) angry about the way women have been treated within the party and the nation as a whole and angry lunch bucket blue-collar Democrats unsure of his ability to identify with their issues. Obama needs votes in the rust belt states of Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania to win in November.
Obama is also relying on a massive youth vote, especially on college campuses. Will these potential voters vote? In a day when college is more expensive, loans are harder to obtain, and students graduate with more debt than ever before, these young people have a lot at stake. This may be the year they vote in record numbers and the Obama forces are well organized on campuses all over America to help make it happen.
However, the elephant in the room, pardon the pun on party mascots, is the fact even Obama has alluded too, he is African-American. While the news media politely tap dances around this by calling his campaign “historic,” the question really is, “Will white Americans vote for an African-American.” If so why were so many lunch box Democrats unwilling to switch from Senator Clinton’s camp to Obama when their platforms were virtually the same? America may still hold strong racial feeling deep inside, and this election may expose them.
To win Obama must convince America what his idea of change is all about. He needs to flesh it out and discuss how he will pay for it. He needs to stay strong on Iraq. He must win over the PUMAS, the lunch box Democrats, and get out the youth vote. Finally he needs to wear a blue shirt now and then; this may help with many of the groups he needs to win over.
For both candidates the race to November 4 is less than 50 days away. Which candidate can climb the mountains and win the voters he needs to win will be watched and analyzed by America’s voters in the next month and a half.
The summer campaign season and party conventions are over, and now Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama must take their message to the voters of America in what appears to be a toss up election. Both candidates are well financed and the 527 groups are loaded for bear. However, both candidates have certain obstacles, even within their own parties, they must overcome if they hope to win in November. As the campaign season begins in earnest, as the political ads start to roll, as the polls that matter start to come in, we should take a look at the candidates and see what each candidate needs to overcome in order to win in November.
For John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the obvious first obstacle for the candidate is his age, 72. There have been times when Senator McCain has seemed addled on events, such as the time he got confused on the religious affiliates of the various parties in the Iraq conflict, confusing Sunni and Shiite factions, and the time he referred to Czechoslovakia, a state which no longer exists. Recently he mispronounced the name of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili several times while claiming to have personal contacts with the Georgian President.
The recent gain of McCain in the polls can be traced to his ability to finally unite his party. He seems to have brought in the Tom Tancredo anti-immigration wing although he supported a rather liberal comprehensive immigration package which angered the anti immigration faction in the Republican Party. With the addition of Gov. Palin to the ticket he also seems to be winning the majority of the evangelical Christian vote, although how much and how enthusiastically has yet to be seen. McCain’s stance on Supreme Court and other judges and his anti-abortion feelings will also hurt his chances as he tries to pick up any Democratic women voters still upset over the defeat of Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Presidential nomination contest.
At times during the summer McCain’s campaign looked disorganized, off message, and mismanaged. When Obama was in Germany making his speech to some 200,000 Germans, McCain was in Columbus, Ohio, at Schmidt’s Fudge Haus buying a box of truffles and dining at a German Restaurant on German Sausages. Later the Senator was in New Orleans for a tour of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico to prove they were safe and efficient, but the plans had to be scrapped due to Hurricane Dolly which closed down the oil rigs. Almost simultaneously a massive oil spill in the Mississippi River occurred when a tugboat collided with an oil tanker spilling almost 450,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil into the Mississippi River. New management has brought the McCain campaign more in line and on message; however, McCain has a tendency to get off message and onto more comfortable ground, especially in his easily orchestrated, softball pitching, “preaching to the choir” town hall meetings.
In terms of the economy McCain has two problems. The first is he has admitted he does not have a firm handle on economic issues, an honest strait talk admission of weakness on his part but one that may hurt him in the weakened economy. The other is he is a free trade Republican, a stand that may hurt his chances to pick up the votes of those lunch box blue collar and other middle class Reagan Democrats he will need to carry the all important battleground states such as Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and several others that will be in play in this election. Polls show voters prefer Obama 50% to 30% to McCain when it comes to the economy.
The McCain energy program, at least when it comes to off shore drilling, seems to be playing well with voters. Over 65% of American voters want off shore drilling to lower gas prices; however, most of these voters are in the heartland where off shore drilling would have little affect on their economy or environment. Where McCain’s energy meets resistance in the heartland is with his nuclear energy policy. While Cleveland, Ohio, voters may see no problem with an oil well off the coast of California, they do not want to see a nuclear power plant one mile away from the Cleveland Wal-Mart. McCain indicated he would have returned Congress to Washington over the summer break to pass important energy legislation; however, in 2007 McCain missed 11 energy related votes on topics such as automobile fuel economy, offshore Virginia drilling, refinery construction, renewable electricity mandates, energy efficiency, support for biofuels, and other energy issues. He also failed to point out at the same time he was calling for Congress to return, Pres. Bush was in Bejing hobnobing with the corporate Communists at the Olympic games or on vacation at his Texas ranch.
On Iraq McCain contends America can “win the war” by staying. Here most Americans want to leave Iraq and the Bush administration and Iraqi government are agreeing to “time horizons” sometime at the end of 2010. This is almost a stab in the back for the McCain position. The Arizona Senator may have another problem with his Iraq policy. The Center for Responsive Politics reports the troops on the battlefield are giving money six to one to Obama over McCain. While it is hard to read the tea leaves on this one, America has to realize the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been fought by .05% of the American population, many of whom have now served three or four tours in the war zones. It is also a fact the Army has seen a sharp increase in the number of younger officers resigning their commissions. Whether this money is coming from the officers, the enlisted personnel, or the military as a whole, it could spell trouble for the Republicans if they loose the military vote.
McCain’s recent ‘house gaffe’ really hurt him with the American people. Most Americans know how many houses they own. To not know he owned seven homes showed him a little out of touch with the typical American struggling with real ‘kitchen table’ issues in today’s economy.
However, McCain’s worst enemy is the unpopularity of the current president, George Bush. In what has been billed as the “New Misery Index” (remembering Ronald Regan’s “Misery Index” of 1980) if you add those who believe the country is going the wrong way to those who dislike the job President Bush is doing the “New Misery Index” equals about 160%. This lands squarely on the back of the Republican standard bearer. Republican Representative Tom Davis of Virginia quipped, “The Republican brand is in the trash can. I've often observed that if we were a dog food, they would take us off the shelf.” McCain may be a maverick, but if the Democrats can weld him to the Republicans in general and Pres. Bush in particular, it will be a long campaign for McCain.
Nation wide polls show the Hispanic vote, other than the Cuban vote in Florida, breaking for Obama, putting Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico in play. This could not bode well for McCain. Another factor, the purchase of Budweiser by the Belgian Company InBev may include the American distribution of the Cuban beers Bucanero and Cristal beer by Budweiser and InBev, a move which could cost McCain the Cuban vote in Florida, a state seen by many to be already in play.
To win McCain must get out of the town halls and address real non-committed voters, not just the converted. He needs to sharpen his economic message. He must also hold the Bush states of 2004. He needs to end his gaffes, stay on the message of the day, and put as much distance between himself and Pres. Bush as possible.
For Barack Obama, and his running mate, Joseph Biden of Delaware, there are also a host of mountains to climb to win the electoral votes needed to win in November. Obama’s obvious weakness is his lack of experience in politics; however, many Americans consider this a positive. He has also been forced to spend a lot of time attempting to unite a divided party, had his patriotism questioned, and must convince the American people he is a fit commander-in-chief of our nation’s armed forces. His hills are just as high as his Republican rival’s.
For Obama the major hurdle is his inexperience. During the last Presidential election he was in the Illinois Senate with his eyes on a U.S. Senate seat. One of the best things to happen to Obama was the cartoon cover of the New Yorker showing him and his wife because the cover caused such a stir if kept people from reading the article inside. The article by Ryan Lizza indicated Obama had moved up in Chicago politics very quickly and never really became proficient in any elected position. He never held leadership roles in the State Legislature and his bid for the presidency after only two years in the U.S. Senate is seen as premature. Lizza indicates people who knew, worked with and liked Obama felt he was over ambitious, never really settling into a job and learning it, passing real positive legislation, and working with legislators on tough bills especially with those across the aisle. Lizza concludes Obama was always trading up and the fact he is accused of a lack of experience is justified for those who wish to point to that fact.
Obama has also had his patriotism questioned. The criticism for his refusal to wear a flag pin on his lapel was a little over the top promulgated by the right wing talk show hosts who are predisposed to eat the elephant crap off the street; however, at one point he did not put his hand over his heart during the national anthem at a major event. This is not unpatriotic, it is correct to simply stand at attention unless you are wearing a hat, them one removes the hat and holds it over their heart. Individuals express their patriotism in different ways. Let’s not let ‘can I borrow a hit of oxycodone’ Rush Limbaugh tell the nation how patriotism needs to be expressed.
In reference to Iraq, Obama plans to withdraw from the conflict with in two years of becoming president. This plan now seems in line with Iraqi wishes. A major problem with Obama’s Iraq policy could come in the form of American backlash from the 2006 elections when voters gave Democrats control of the House and Senate upon the promise the party would stop the war in Iraq. While there was weak posturing and maneuvering in both houses to end funding for the war, the leadership of both houses of Congress capitulated to the Bush administration and voted to fund the war when they could have not voted the funds. How much voters blame Obama for the Democratic failure on this issue remains to be seen.
On the issue of Commander-in-Chief, voters prefer McCain 50% to Obama 40% in a general average of the polls. Here Obama has climbed a little over the summer since his favorable trip overseas. McCain's team sought to highlight Obama's failure to visit wounded troops from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars at the Landstuhl US military hospital in Germany as a failure on Obama’s part and here the Democrat was between the proverbable rock and a hard place. If he went it was “political;” if he did not he was failing the troops. His decision not go to the hospital was probably the only real hiccup of the trip. However, Obama’s week off in August as the Georgia crisis unfolded in Asia let McCain and Republican 527 ads define Obama on certain issues with negative ads.
It seems the Democrats and Obama may be coming around on off shore drilling as long as the energy package is inclusive and includes all types of energy solutions to the energy problems. However, Americans must realize this is a complex problem and deserves a complicated solution. There is no easy solution to a problem America and its political and industrial leaders have ignored for 40 years.
Another major problem Obama must overcome is to unite the Democrats. He still faces a disunited party with Hillary PUMAS (Party Unity My Ass) angry about the way women have been treated within the party and the nation as a whole and angry lunch bucket blue-collar Democrats unsure of his ability to identify with their issues. Obama needs votes in the rust belt states of Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania to win in November.
Obama is also relying on a massive youth vote, especially on college campuses. Will these potential voters vote? In a day when college is more expensive, loans are harder to obtain, and students graduate with more debt than ever before, these young people have a lot at stake. This may be the year they vote in record numbers and the Obama forces are well organized on campuses all over America to help make it happen.
However, the elephant in the room, pardon the pun on party mascots, is the fact even Obama has alluded too, he is African-American. While the news media politely tap dances around this by calling his campaign “historic,” the question really is, “Will white Americans vote for an African-American.” If so why were so many lunch box Democrats unwilling to switch from Senator Clinton’s camp to Obama when their platforms were virtually the same? America may still hold strong racial feeling deep inside, and this election may expose them.
To win Obama must convince America what his idea of change is all about. He needs to flesh it out and discuss how he will pay for it. He needs to stay strong on Iraq. He must win over the PUMAS, the lunch box Democrats, and get out the youth vote. Finally he needs to wear a blue shirt now and then; this may help with many of the groups he needs to win over.
For both candidates the race to November 4 is less than 50 days away. Which candidate can climb the mountains and win the voters he needs to win will be watched and analyzed by America’s voters in the next month and a half.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
15 MAJOR WAYS TO SAVE GAS
Editorial Staff
As oil and gas prices remain high, several newspaper articles and TV news networks have introduced ideas to help consumers save gas and money. The Clarion Issue has looked and listened to many of these, taken the best ideas, and added a few of our own to help you, our loyal readers, make it through these tough times.
GET ANY “CHECK ENGINE” LIGHT CHECKED OUT This could be a faulty oxygen sensor, a fairly common cause of those unexplained “check engine” lights and can actually cost you up to 40 percent of your engine’s performance. If the light's on, get it checked now. It could pay for itself very quickly.
CHECK YOUR TIRE PRESSURE This point is on all short lists on saving gas. According to some government estimates, the average driver could boost their fuel efficiency by 25 percent just by keeping their tires inflated.
CHANGE YOUR AIR FILTER A clogged air filter can rob your engine of 10 percent of its efficiency. A new air filter can get that 10 percent back, usually for under $25. Check your lawnmower’s air filter too.
SLOW DOWN On the highway, stay close to the speed limit, and keep your speed as constant as traffic allows. Most cars reach optimal gas mileage at about 60 miles per hour. Speeding up increases wind resistance against the car, making the engine work harder and burn more gas. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), each 5 mph over 60 that you drive decreases fuel efficiency by up to seven percent. In town avoid speeding up rapidly after stops at red lights and stop signs and coast to stops. The EPA estimates that accelerating rapidly and braking hard can reduce your car's fuel efficiency by as much as five percent, and that may be a low estimate. Look at it this way, are you willing to spend money to stop at a red light sooner?
REGULATE THE A/C USE Some air conditioners rob an engine up to five percent of its fuel economy. There is some controversy about this one, many newer cars are able to compensate for the energy used by the air conditioner and do not suffer the same penalty for keeping the car cool. However, there is no need to blow the cold air past you with the fan on high if there is no one in the back seat. Do not use the ‘Maximum A/C’ in the early morning, late evening, night, or when weather conditions make it unnecessary to do so. There is no need to freeze to be comfortable.
KEEP YOUR ENGINE IN TUNE Most people can boost their car’s mileage by four percent with a simple tune-up.
GET RID OF EXTRA WEIGHT IN AND ON THE CAR A driver can save 13 gallons a year for every 100 pounds removed from the car of truck. Think about things in your trunk or truck bed: the two sets of golf clubs, the three 50 lb bags of dog food, the cases of water you will “bring in later.” Government estimates say that an extra 100 pounds in your car can reduce fuel efficiency by up to two percent. That is just an average; the smaller the car, the more extra weight makes the engine work harder. Also look at items outside your car, which add weight and cut wind resistance. Do you have a roof rack? Wind resistance is the enemy of fuel efficiency. Every time you drive it is making your car fight wind resistance and burn fuel. Most of the time, that is money you are spending to carry an empty roof rack. You could get a two percent boost by taking the thing off. You can always put it on when you need it. How much other stuff do you have on your car adding weight and negative wind resistance that could come off 95% of the time?
DO NOT IDLE YOUR CAR AT THE QUICK STOP Many people believe it cost more to turn a car off and on than to run it for a few minuets. That may have been true 20 years ago but not now. It is cheaper and safer to turn off the car for a quick errand into a Quick Mart than to run a car for three of four minutes.
CHANGE YOUR OIL ON TIME Changing your oil and oil filter when your car manufacture’s guide recommends you to do so (usually after 3,000 miles) and using the recommended grade gives you back one percent of your car's mileage rating. It will also extend the life of your car’s engine. Check the oil in your lawn mower too.
CARPOOL IF YOU CAN In a day when many people live more than 25 miles from where they work, carpools are a good way to save on gas and the wear and tear on automobiles. Here are a few tips for a successful carpool. Do not overload the car. Five adults in a compact car is a little extreme. A good carpool is usually three people. Agree on the rules: who will drive and when, will we stop for coffee, when do we leave for work and after work. Also remember to be flexible, unscheduled meetings do pop up; however, if you know you have a meeting and may run late, drive that day unless the rest of the pool is willing to stay late and catch up on paperwork.
COMBINE TRIPS AND MAKE A LIST When running errands combine trips to the store, dry cleaner, pharmacy, school, and other stops so you are not covering the same distance between home and the business areas of town more than necessary. When picking up the children from school or play, after asking about their day ask do they need anything (pencils, pens, poster board) or do they have any projects due (you may need to stop at the library). Make a list of stores you need to stop at, what you need to do, and the items you need to purchase. Mark the items off it as you accomplish it or buy the items. It would be bad to get home with the vodka, dry Martini wine, and realize you forgot the olives even though they were on the list; you just did not notice the olives on the list while you were in the store. Make the list, check it twice and remember to take it with you!
LOOK FOR TRIPS YOU DO NOT HAVE TO MAKE AND CUT THEM OUT Do you have a left over post office box you have to check three times a week even though your mail is now delivered to your home? Is the PO box an absolute necessity or have you just not got around to doing all the change of address paperwork? How many things do we have hanging in our daily or weekly routines that are carryovers and could be altered to conserve fuel? At over $3.50 a gallon it may be worth trying out a new dry cleaner, dance school, closer to home or even a new church if you really drive a long distance for that special service.
KEEP STAPLES AND SUPPLIES HANDY This includes more than dog food, rice, macaroni and cheese, and those little packs of cheese crackers or potato chips that go in the kids lunches every day that go in the pantry. Think of what do I have to make a 6:00 run to the store once a week for that I could buy on my weekly trip to the shopping center and save money on both gas and the price of the item. Items such as school supplies: pencils, pens, paper, folders, and other items could be kept in a box near where your children do their homework and ready for home or school use. Don’t forget the ‘surprise’ “I need poster board for a project due tomorrow” refrain. Have poster board, markers, and project supplies handy also.
DO NOT WASTE GAS GOING HOME If you are taking a child to a dance or karate lesson, sports practice, or some other activity stay and read a book. If you have other children read to or with them or take a ball or toy and play with them. This could be good ‘our time’ for you and your children. If you have to cook, become a master of crock-pot cooking for those days when you may be late getting home. Crock-pot cooking is easy and even saves on the home energy bill.
USE A SPOUSE FOR QUICK STOP ITEMS Today with cell phones and other quick methods of communication, it is easy to communicate with anyone anytime. If you see you need a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread call your spouse and have them stop at the local quick stop and pick it up as they pass it on the way home. You can save a trip, time, and a gallon of gas by doing so.
These are just a few ideas we saw in the various sources on the web and a few the staff discussed. If you have any you would like to add feel free to do so.
As oil and gas prices remain high, several newspaper articles and TV news networks have introduced ideas to help consumers save gas and money. The Clarion Issue has looked and listened to many of these, taken the best ideas, and added a few of our own to help you, our loyal readers, make it through these tough times.
GET ANY “CHECK ENGINE” LIGHT CHECKED OUT This could be a faulty oxygen sensor, a fairly common cause of those unexplained “check engine” lights and can actually cost you up to 40 percent of your engine’s performance. If the light's on, get it checked now. It could pay for itself very quickly.
CHECK YOUR TIRE PRESSURE This point is on all short lists on saving gas. According to some government estimates, the average driver could boost their fuel efficiency by 25 percent just by keeping their tires inflated.
CHANGE YOUR AIR FILTER A clogged air filter can rob your engine of 10 percent of its efficiency. A new air filter can get that 10 percent back, usually for under $25. Check your lawnmower’s air filter too.
SLOW DOWN On the highway, stay close to the speed limit, and keep your speed as constant as traffic allows. Most cars reach optimal gas mileage at about 60 miles per hour. Speeding up increases wind resistance against the car, making the engine work harder and burn more gas. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), each 5 mph over 60 that you drive decreases fuel efficiency by up to seven percent. In town avoid speeding up rapidly after stops at red lights and stop signs and coast to stops. The EPA estimates that accelerating rapidly and braking hard can reduce your car's fuel efficiency by as much as five percent, and that may be a low estimate. Look at it this way, are you willing to spend money to stop at a red light sooner?
REGULATE THE A/C USE Some air conditioners rob an engine up to five percent of its fuel economy. There is some controversy about this one, many newer cars are able to compensate for the energy used by the air conditioner and do not suffer the same penalty for keeping the car cool. However, there is no need to blow the cold air past you with the fan on high if there is no one in the back seat. Do not use the ‘Maximum A/C’ in the early morning, late evening, night, or when weather conditions make it unnecessary to do so. There is no need to freeze to be comfortable.
KEEP YOUR ENGINE IN TUNE Most people can boost their car’s mileage by four percent with a simple tune-up.
GET RID OF EXTRA WEIGHT IN AND ON THE CAR A driver can save 13 gallons a year for every 100 pounds removed from the car of truck. Think about things in your trunk or truck bed: the two sets of golf clubs, the three 50 lb bags of dog food, the cases of water you will “bring in later.” Government estimates say that an extra 100 pounds in your car can reduce fuel efficiency by up to two percent. That is just an average; the smaller the car, the more extra weight makes the engine work harder. Also look at items outside your car, which add weight and cut wind resistance. Do you have a roof rack? Wind resistance is the enemy of fuel efficiency. Every time you drive it is making your car fight wind resistance and burn fuel. Most of the time, that is money you are spending to carry an empty roof rack. You could get a two percent boost by taking the thing off. You can always put it on when you need it. How much other stuff do you have on your car adding weight and negative wind resistance that could come off 95% of the time?
DO NOT IDLE YOUR CAR AT THE QUICK STOP Many people believe it cost more to turn a car off and on than to run it for a few minuets. That may have been true 20 years ago but not now. It is cheaper and safer to turn off the car for a quick errand into a Quick Mart than to run a car for three of four minutes.
CHANGE YOUR OIL ON TIME Changing your oil and oil filter when your car manufacture’s guide recommends you to do so (usually after 3,000 miles) and using the recommended grade gives you back one percent of your car's mileage rating. It will also extend the life of your car’s engine. Check the oil in your lawn mower too.
CARPOOL IF YOU CAN In a day when many people live more than 25 miles from where they work, carpools are a good way to save on gas and the wear and tear on automobiles. Here are a few tips for a successful carpool. Do not overload the car. Five adults in a compact car is a little extreme. A good carpool is usually three people. Agree on the rules: who will drive and when, will we stop for coffee, when do we leave for work and after work. Also remember to be flexible, unscheduled meetings do pop up; however, if you know you have a meeting and may run late, drive that day unless the rest of the pool is willing to stay late and catch up on paperwork.
COMBINE TRIPS AND MAKE A LIST When running errands combine trips to the store, dry cleaner, pharmacy, school, and other stops so you are not covering the same distance between home and the business areas of town more than necessary. When picking up the children from school or play, after asking about their day ask do they need anything (pencils, pens, poster board) or do they have any projects due (you may need to stop at the library). Make a list of stores you need to stop at, what you need to do, and the items you need to purchase. Mark the items off it as you accomplish it or buy the items. It would be bad to get home with the vodka, dry Martini wine, and realize you forgot the olives even though they were on the list; you just did not notice the olives on the list while you were in the store. Make the list, check it twice and remember to take it with you!
LOOK FOR TRIPS YOU DO NOT HAVE TO MAKE AND CUT THEM OUT Do you have a left over post office box you have to check three times a week even though your mail is now delivered to your home? Is the PO box an absolute necessity or have you just not got around to doing all the change of address paperwork? How many things do we have hanging in our daily or weekly routines that are carryovers and could be altered to conserve fuel? At over $3.50 a gallon it may be worth trying out a new dry cleaner, dance school, closer to home or even a new church if you really drive a long distance for that special service.
KEEP STAPLES AND SUPPLIES HANDY This includes more than dog food, rice, macaroni and cheese, and those little packs of cheese crackers or potato chips that go in the kids lunches every day that go in the pantry. Think of what do I have to make a 6:00 run to the store once a week for that I could buy on my weekly trip to the shopping center and save money on both gas and the price of the item. Items such as school supplies: pencils, pens, paper, folders, and other items could be kept in a box near where your children do their homework and ready for home or school use. Don’t forget the ‘surprise’ “I need poster board for a project due tomorrow” refrain. Have poster board, markers, and project supplies handy also.
DO NOT WASTE GAS GOING HOME If you are taking a child to a dance or karate lesson, sports practice, or some other activity stay and read a book. If you have other children read to or with them or take a ball or toy and play with them. This could be good ‘our time’ for you and your children. If you have to cook, become a master of crock-pot cooking for those days when you may be late getting home. Crock-pot cooking is easy and even saves on the home energy bill.
USE A SPOUSE FOR QUICK STOP ITEMS Today with cell phones and other quick methods of communication, it is easy to communicate with anyone anytime. If you see you need a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread call your spouse and have them stop at the local quick stop and pick it up as they pass it on the way home. You can save a trip, time, and a gallon of gas by doing so.
These are just a few ideas we saw in the various sources on the web and a few the staff discussed. If you have any you would like to add feel free to do so.
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