The left hijacks 'I have a dream' and turn it into 'I have a scheme'

MLK delivering a speech

A lot has transpired in the 50 years since civil rights activists marched peacefully on Washington DC to hear Dr. Martin LutherKing give his profound and now famous “I have a Dream” speech. 

At the time, it was estimated 250,000 people packed the Washington mall to express their support for equal rights for black Americans.

Dr. Kings message was one of healing, unity and equality for all Americans.  His dream for the country was for a citizen to be judged by the content of his character rather than the color of his skin.

Dr. Kings insisted that his equal rights movement be a peaceful one, even in the face of violence and insults.

But Dr. Kings life was cut short by a snipers bullet 5 years later and he wasn’t able to help steer the civil rights movement in the direction he was hoping.

In the 50 years since Dr. King gave his great speech, the nation responded with  civil rights acts, a “war on poverty” and thousands of laws designed to help black families step into the American dream.

During this time, we have had black Supreme Court justices, powerful members of congress and finally a black president.  The opportunity has been given to those who strive to achieve the American dream, if they wish to reach out and grab it.

But the government programs created to help black families out of poverty and assimilate into our culture have had a devastatingly negative effect.  Once a strong family oriented culture, that ethos was pulverized by government programs that discouraged the presence of a husband in the household. 

Somewhere along the way, the left (Democrat Party) hijacked the civil rights “movement” and forgotten is the fact the Republican Party was the champion of civil rights. 

The social engineering by the left has resulted in a government dependent class of people where the out of wedlock birthrate is 73% and the rate of abortion is 43%.  Crime is rampant and black youth raised in single parent households disproportionately fill America’s prisons.

Many of the black leaders, all members of the Democrat Party,  making speeches in the national mall, are wedded to a message that preaches anger, divisiveness and grievance…Just the opposite of what Dr. King wished for. Many of those leaders make big money out of keeping the divisiveness going and capitalizing on the blame game.

Out of all of the speakers at the national mall today, in front of the estimated crowd of 20,000, where were the Republican or conservative black leaders?  Evidently the left doesn’t want to hear another viewpoint. A viewpoint that might have spoken the truth about the plight of the American black family and what the Democrat Party has inflicted on them.

From a Human Events article titled: Why Dr. Martin Luther King was a Republican:

“In order to break the Democrats’ stranglehold on the black vote and free black Americans from the Democrat Party’s economic plantation, we must shed the light of truth on the Democrats. We must demonstrate that the Democrat Party policies of socialism and dependency on government handouts offer the pathway to poverty, while Republican Party principles of hard work, personal responsibility, getting a good education and ownership of homes and small businesses offer the pathway to prosperity.”

Dr. King was a strong believer in an intact American family structure...He would not be pleased to see what has been done to the black family under the guise of: "We're from the government and we're here to help you"

President Obama pledges to rescue failing college education system with another failed plan

Obama's plan to save college education

After years of claiming he was making a college education more affordable, last week President Obama finally came face to face with the reality of his efforts and proclaimed college education was too expensive.

Record numbers of students are taking out record amounts of loans and are now defaulting on those loans, discovering they cannot find jobs in his moribund economy. The colleges themselves are booming with unprecedented amounts of money flowing in, but the graduates are failing...So what's the metric here?

In response to this reality President Obama unveiled a new plan that he says will solve spiraling college education costs and help rescue students drowning in student loan debt used to pay for these educations.

But predictably, his plan is another huge dose of government intrusion that will only compound the meddling these policies already inflict on the education system.

His idea to set up a college rating system that will tie aid to the colleges that government bureaucrats feel are giving the best bang for the buck,  putting yet another layer of government on an already overburdened system.

This has all of the signs of government taking over yet another industry and nanny stating it into a politically correct arm of this administration….Determining who the education winners and losers are through bureaucratic regulation.

Typically, showing where President Obamas values really are, his policy will reward students who choose a career in government or working for tax exempt organizations. Those winners in the Obama social engineering system, will have their student loans cancelled after ten years….All others pay up or else.

In the brave new world of President Obama, if you become a government employee, you are elevated to a status above the rest of the hoi polloi.

These are exactly the kind of policies you would expect from someone who has no experience in the real world private sector….The sector that actually pays for government programs and can actually create the jobs that college graduates can  find a career in.

President Obamas plan doesn’t attack the root of the problem, but only props up and promotes a failed model.

Europe and America are suffering from the tyranny of green energy policies

US President Barack Obama

President Obama and the hard left ideologues, who guide his energy policies, don’t seem to be paying attention to European economies staggering under the weight of years of “green.”

 In a new article called The Law of Unintended Consequences, Peter C. Glover details Europe’s difficulty in coming to grips with providing energy for a modern society:…. with the economic realities of actual paying for a green energy society:  

“If there is a message to be gotten across to Joe Public it’s this: there’s no such thing as ‘free’ solar, wind or any other ‘clean energy’ source. Someone, somewhere always has to pay for them. And they will always cost far more than hydrocarbons – don’t believe the green hype believe the physics. The bulk of that subsidized social levy is set to continue to be sustained by Joe Public, especially those forced into fuel poverty by costly renewable levies in their domestic bills.”

Europe is buckling under the weight of subsidizing green and the United States wouldn’t be far behind, except for the fact we have astronomical amounts of fossil energy on private and state lands, where it can’t be sealed off, or regulated away by federal edicts….yet.  

 But the Obama administration policies are punishing, non green energy producers and the resultant consequences mean unnecessarily higher costs to American consumers.

I asked Richard Storm, an energy expert and power engineer affiliated with Citizens for Common Sense Energy & Environment, for a snap shot into where clean coal technology is today and his thoughts on America’s energy landscape: Coal power is the source of almost 40% of Americas electrical energy:

"New coal plants are clean and efficient.  In most cases, the new plants replace older plants with much more efficient and much cleaner generation

These new, clean coal plants are likely to continue to produce reliable electricity for decades to come at the most reasonable rates, using America’s Treasure of Coal Energy.

Natural gas prices are likely to increase in the future as more demand for clean natural gas materializes.

 Let’s look at just one example: The Duke Energy Cliffside Unit #6, is one of the cleanest power generation plants in the world furnishing enough power for about 660,000 average sized homes

The new Clean Coal Plants are not only cleaner than any others in the world, but they are also more efficient and use about 10% less fuel per megawatt of electricity generated.

 America’s oil and gas production has increased during the Obama Presidency because of American innovation, risk taking and hard work by the oil and gas industry. With no help or encouragement from the Obama Administration.  In fact, the Keystone Pipeline is just one clear example of Obama’s administration fighting progress.  He is against literally all forms of energy except “Green, renewables”

How about shale gas?  Nope. Neither Obama or the allies in the Environmental extremists support shale gas either.  After the Sierra Club received  millions of dollars to fight coal plants from Chesapeake Energy, now they are against shale gas. So are the Dept. of Interior and the EPA.  One of the planned new coal plants for Oklahoma was stopped by the Sierra Club and Cheapeake Energy. As in other states, natural gas fueled plants were built as a substitute. This may be economical for a couple more years, but then gas prices are expected to rise. So will power costs because fuel is about 80% of the production cost of electricity.

A reminder, America runs on energy. 90% of America’s Energy comes from the traditional fuels of Coal, Oil, Natural Gas and Nuclear. Yes, 90%. When organizations are against these, millions of jobs are at risk as well as America’s energy security. Not to mention the fact that America has a high standard of living which is enjoyed by all.

 Who can be against America’s sustained strength? Here are a few answers. The Sierra Club, The Natural Resources Defense Council, PEW Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation,most of The Democrat Party and for certain, the Democrat leadership.

Come on America; let’s get back to making America strong again. I support the four E’s: Energy, Economic Prosperity, Education and Environmental protection. Yes, speaking for myself and every other power engineer in the business, I support clean air, clean water and a strong America. Who wouldn’t?"

Hillary throws out the tattered race card to scare up support for her tattered record

With no real accomplishments as Secretary of State and much to defend while she occupied that position, Hillary Clinton signaled her upcoming presidential campaign strategy in a grand opening speech in San Francisco last week.

She threw down the dog eared and quite worn out Democrat hole card of racist scare tactics…..again. 

If Hillary actually had something to offer besides being a woman with a burning ambition to be president, she would have featured it in her first unofficial campaign speech….

I asked Richard Grenell, Fox News foreign policy expert, for a professional opinion on Hilary Clintons' four year tenure as Secretary of State:

 "As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton avoided dealing with all of the primary U.S. national security issues.  Her four year tenure was unimpressive and disappointing.  She failed to lead the U.S. in confronting the Syria crisis, the Iranian nuclear issue, the North Korean nuclear advancements and every other difficult foreign policy issue the U.S. was dealing with.  It was as if Hillary calculated that doing nothing as Secretary of State would allow her to build her resume and avoid controversy.  It was a selfish political move designed for personal gain."

As it turned out, Hillary's first speech was designed to inflame paranoia in the black community  by criticizing  the recent Supreme Court decision that struck down key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.  As if somehow, this decision would open the door for states to take the right to vote away from black voters...As if it is something these states have been licking their chops to do.

But of course Hillary knows this decision has nothing to do with taking voting rights away from black voters, but has everything to do with ensuring there is integrity at the American ballot box, by requiring valid identification when voting or registering to vote.

But when did Hillary ever let truth get in the way of her agenda?

Black voter participation has risen dramatically since 1996, in spite of increasing amount of states tightening up their voter ID laws and there is NO evidence of black voter suppression….. If there was it would have been front page news.

No one is trying to suppress the black vote, the pure reason behind requiring voter ID that every civilized democratic nation in the world has, is to ensure the integrity of the system.

If the past is any predictor of future events, look for Hillary’s campaign to be negative and divisive, it’s not pretty and it is not good for the country, but it is effective. If your record is one of disastrous foreign policy, full of scandal and obfuscation, then you take the focus off of you and throw out the red herrings.

Look for Hillary to exploit the race card and create fear in her base of special interests. We will even watch her slowly morph into different dialects as she exploits old fears.  See Hillarys Selma speech

But Hillary’s going to have a slugfest ahead as old scandals erupt and new ones emerge.  You can say a lot about the Clintons, but they have always been  scandal plagued. Where there’s smoke there is going to be fire. 

Even left leaning New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote a scathing article on the unfettered greed exposed by the revelations in the Clinton Foundation. See article. 

This just might signal the first crack in the coronation plan Hillary/Bill have on the White House.

Bono embraces capitalism as a way to lift the world out of poverty (VIDEO)

U2's Bono photographed with a group of Africa school children

Ireland’s Bono, the international superstar of music and philanthropy, has always used his status to bring attention to world poverty and illness.

He played a key role in bringing international relief to Africa as it struggled with the AIDS epidemic; it is said he is responsible for saving millions of lives through his efforts.

Known for his philanthropy as much as his creativity in the music field,  Bono has drawn together quite a far flung army of volunteers in his war on poverty and disease.   Under his tent, he has brought world leaders, rock stars,  soccer moms and evangelicals, all united in goals to make the world a better place.

But through his experience in bringing aid to those in need, it seems Bono has had an awakening, perhaps Biblical in proportion best summed up by:

“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”

Bono, during a speech to students at Georgetown University, declared his altered view on political and economic issues, by saying: ONLY capitalism can end poverty:

"Aid is just a stopgap," he said. "Commerce/ entrepreneurial capitalism take more people out of poverty than aid. We need Africa to become an economic powerhouse."

Bono encouraged the students to think of what they can do to support those in Africa and other ^3rd world countries in need of justice and comfort….

As if writing a lyric to one of his songs, he said:

"Because when you truly accept that those children in some far off place in the global village have the same value as you in God's eyes or even in just your eyes, then your life is forever changed, you see something that you can't un-see."

Bono wields tremendous world influence and his awakening on capitalism can signal a ground shift on how world aid organizations actually find long term cures for poverty and disease, rather than putting a band aid on it.

Bono signaled appreciation for another world famous capitalist during an interview last year with Mike Huckabee:  "America needs Reagan-like statesmanship that is so missing."…See story here. 

President Reagan valued the magic and power that entrepreneurial capitalism brought to the standard of living for mankind throughout the world. 

Sounds like Bono has seen the light.

Here's the video of the Georgetown University speech:

Coal is no longer our parents energy…it is 21st century power

The backbone of our modern civilization is based on relatively cheap and abundant energy.  Coal has been the inexpensive and reliable engine of our economy for generations and up until the 70’s, billowing smokestacks were the sign of economic prosperity for the United States and other developed countries.

But we learned that cheap energy from burning coal and other fossil fuels came with a price tag to our environment and the dirty skies over our cities, proved to be hazardous to our health. The very fuel that powered our modern society was poisoning our environment.

In response, governments and the energy industry set about to enact new standards for energy production.  Soon the air in big cities started to clear up and you could even swim again in rivers that were once deemed too polluted to set foot in.

Smokestacks that once billowed thick black smoke, become steam stacks. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that air quality in major American cities is better now than at any time in the last two decades.

Human ingenuity is amazing and when pushed, great advances can be achieved. Coal which has been the poster child of demonization by environmentalists on the left has made tremendous advances in clean burning technology.  After 40 years of  advances, clean coal power is on the cusp of making new strides in providing the planet with relatively clean and massive amounts of energy.

See: Fueling the Future with 21st Century Coal by Gregory H. Boyce

Now is not the time to demonize coal but to nurture and support the new coal technology that can help power humanity out of poverty throughout the world.

Energy is looked upon as a human right; studies show that each tenfold increase in electricity is linked to a 10-year increase in life.   The United Nations linked life expectancy, educational attainment, and income with per capita energy use….So why deny the rest of the world the same life expectancy the US and other developed nations enjoy?

The developing world wants to step into the modernity of the 21st century too; they want lights, refrigeration, air conditioning television and modern medicine as well.  …..Clean coal power can be their answer.

Coal power lead the greatest mass migration from human poverty into prosperity as China became a manufacturing behemoth.  China is building more ultra modern supercritical and ultra-supercritical coal plants than any other nation in the world.  China has also said they will decommission their older power plants and adapt modern emissions control to the existing fleet of coal power plants.

Instead of punishing their main source of cheap reliable energy, China is embracing coal  to adapt and modernize….to make it a 21st century fuel that will bring clean economic prosperity to their 1.3 billion people.

Next-generation clean coal plants are capable of producing energy at near-zero emissions. With new technology at work to help coal become even cleaner and more efficient…..

Unless “renewable” forms of energy such as wind and solar, achieve significant breakthroughs in technology, they will never be able to compete with clean coal power on a level playing field.

Already countries such as Spain and Germany, which heavily invested in renewables, have started to have second thoughts as the bills come due for years of subsidizing these forms of energy.  Germany’s finance minister even declared solar was the path to bankruptcy. See story.  Spain under a new government is backing out of commitments it made to renewables and is actually going to make them pay taxes. See story

From the excellent piece  “The Fundamental Limitations of Renewable Energy” posted in the Energy Collective:  “It appears unlikely that we will see a large scale market driven displacement of fossil fuels by renewable energy in the first half of this century.”

 Coal is no longer our parents energy…it is 21st century power

U.S. political system gives us the choice between lesser of two evils

A U.S. citizen voting

As the country lurches from scandal to scandal, an unending budget impasse,  a new norm of part time jobs and unemployment of over 7% …Many of us ask how did we get here?

The political forces in this country serve us up “choices” on the ballot for candidates that many of us feel are distasteful and unqualified.  Yet we are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils in order to cast a vote.  Or worse, it estranges millions of voters from the system, who stay home and don’t vote at all.

Because of this, notoriously inept candidates can tell the voters to hold their nose and vote for them, because their opponent is even worse.

Some candidates don’t have to excel or have accomplished anything of note besides being slick talking politicians, or community organizers groomed for political office. They can bypass executive skills or real life accomplishments that should qualify a candidate for the office.

When was the last time a majority of American citizens enthusiastically went to the ballot box and voted for a presidential candidate of their choice?  The last time was when Ronald Reagan swept 48 states to win in a landslide for his 2nd term.

Since that time we have been faced with a choice between carefully scripted, flawed candidates, who never live up to their glossy campaign brochures…And our country is suffering as a result.

From presidential candidates on down to the mayoral races, the scenario is repeated…..Really, in a city of 8.3 million the current crop of mayoral choices are the best and brightest New York can come up with?

Perhaps it’s time to grab hold of an idea that can completely change the political landscape in our country.  An idea that would turn millions of apathetic voters into enthusiastic voters willing to get involved in the system again and force the political system give us candidates that we WANT to vote for, for a change.

It’s time to put a new choice on all of the ballots in America.  This choice would be the 500 lb gorilla in the living room.  The choice is called “NONE OF THE ABOVE”

With just the threat of “none of the above” hanging over their heads, political parties would have to be very careful about who they put on the ballot, because we have a new option: A morning after pill for the American voter.