Where was the "Blame~Game" by the President of Chile?...

Unlike President Obama during the Gulf crisis this Summer, did you see the President of Chile playing the "blame~game" at every opportunity?

Unlike President Obama: Did you see Chile President Sebastian Pinera blaming the mining company for the accident at every opportunity?

Unlike President Obama: Did you see Chile President Pinera stating that he would "Keep the boot on the throat" of the mining company\industry until the end?

"Estimates for the rescue operation alone have soared beyond $22 million, though the government has repeatedly insisted that money is not a concern."

Unlike President Obama: Did you see see Chile President Pinera continually state that the mining company\industry would pay for all costs of the rescue, the repairs, damage to the local economy, refund every tourist that had to cancel a vacation, and pay off anybody who could come up with a claim form bogus or not?...

Unlike President Obama: Did you see Chile President Pinera playing golf numerous times during the rescue operation or did you see the President at the rescue site welcoming each miner as they reached the surface?....

Unlike President Obama: Did you see Chile President Pinera shut down all mining operations and place a moratorium on discovery drilling looking for more natural resources in response to this one accident thus putting thousands of other workers out of work?

Unlike President Obama: Did you see Chile President Pinera and his family take numerous vacations during this incident or did you see President Pinera at the rescue site many times rallying the troops?....

Unlike President Obama: Did you see Chile President Pinera ask for and accept help from other countries to help with the rescue in technology and resources?

Numerous Americans and their companies responded to this call for aid and did an outstanding job in this rescue. ..

The crews included many Americans, including a driller operator from Denver and a team from Center Rock Inc. of Berlin, Pa., that built and managed the piston-driven hammers that pounded the hole through rock laced with quartzite, some of the hardest and most abrasive rock.

Jeff Hart was drilling water wells for the U.S. Army's forward operating bases in Afghanistan when he got the call to fly to Chile.

He spent the next 33 days on his feet, operating the drill that finally provided a way out Saturday for 33 trapped miners.

"You have to feel through your feet what the drill is doing; it's a vibration you get so that you know what's happening," explained Hart, a contractor from Denver, Colorado.

A muscular, taciturn man with callused hands and a sunburned face, Hart normally pounds rock for oil or water. He's used to extreme conditions while he works the hydraulic levers that guide the drills' hammers.

But this was something different - 33 lives were depending on him.

"I was nervous today," said Hart, 40. He joked that he thought it was his heart stopping when he felt an unexplained "pop" just before the drill broke through into a chamber far underground. "I didn't want anything to go wrong."

Pennsylvania companies - Schramm Inc., which makes the T130 drill, and Center Rock Inc., which makes the drill bits. Hart was called in from Afghanistan, "simply because he's the best" at drilling larger holes with the T130's wide-diameter drill bits, Stefanic said.

Standing before the levers, pressure meters and gauges on the T130's control panel, Hart and the rest of the team faced many challenges in drilling the shaft. At one point, the drill struck a metal support beam in the poorly mapped mine, shattering its hammers. Fresh equipment had to be flown in from the United States and progress was delayed for days as powerful magnets were lowered to pull out the pieces.

The mine's veins of gold and copper ran through quartzite with a high level of abrasive silica, rock so tough that it took all their expertise to keep the drill's hammers from curving off in unwanted directions.

"It was horrible," said Center Rock President Brandon Fisher, exhausted after hardly sleeping during the effort.

Fisher, Stefanic and Hart called it the most difficult hole they had ever drilled, because of the lives at stake.

Compare this to President Obama refusing offers of aid from other countries during the Gulf incident and delays that followed. What exactly did Obama's administration do to plug the oil leak in the gulf? What government agency actually perform a task that resulted in stopping the leaking oil into the Gulf?... NOT a thing.....

Two different Presidents and their reactions to disaster incidents.....

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November....

President Kennedy on taxcuts to spur the economy...

Tax Man... Obama vs. The Beatles....

In 1965 George Harrison and the Beatles wrote the song "Tax~man"
and at that time the English government imposed a 95% tax rate on the "Rich"...

"Let me tell you how it will be, here's one for you nineteen for me"...

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Tax-cuts?... No worry, it's VACATION time!...

Congressman Bob Goodlatte released his weekly column and made some interesting points with data to back it up...

"Last week by a vote of 209-210, with Speaker Pelosi casting the deciding vote, House Democrats voted to adjourn Congress, sending Members home, without stopping a massive $3.9 trillion tax increase that will affect every American. By putting politics before the American people, the Majority in Congress has voted to keep the threat of looming tax increases and the cloud of uncertainty they have created hanging over our economy."

Now how many times recently have you heard President Obama and his "Congress Majority" claim that they are going to give the "middle class" a break by extending the Bush tax-cuts and only stick it to the "Rich" and anybody making over $250K ?...

So why did they go on "Vacation" without fulfilling this pledge?

They have the majority in both the House and the Senate so why did they not vote on the extension of taxcut for the middle class that they promised?

Many from the "Left" will claim that is was no use for they did not have the "Super Majority" to prevent a filibuster but why did they not take the vote and then go home to campaign on how the Republicans kept them from extending the taxcuts to the middle class?

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The truth is they know the "Majority" of the people they are going home to face before the election next month do NOT want any of the taxcuts to expire and know of the damage to the economy if the Democrats get their wish...

"In just three months, the largest tax increase in history is set to take effect, imposing unprecedented tax increases on small businesses and their employees who are already struggling to make ends meet. With 94 percent of small businesses expecting to see their tax bills increase this spells more bad news for our struggling economy."

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Many small businesses are those guys making over $250K and many of us work for those guys. They make over $250K and thus considered "Rich" by Obama & gang but that is gross amount before paying many bills, insurances, payrolls, equipment replacement, and the likes.

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"More than 90 percent of all American employers are small businesses and they generate approximately 70 percent of the new jobs created in the United States each year. Small businesses are crucial to the American economy and account for a significant majority of new product ideas and innovation. Small business owners across the country want to invest in their firms and hire new workers, but instead they are bracing for costly new tax increases."

I have heard President Obama several times state that he has provided small business eight different taxcuts and relief since taking office but obviously these 8 taxcuts have NOT worked to encourage or give faith to the small businesses who fear a large tax increase in the near future....

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"The difference between certainty and uncertainty for businesses is the difference between a thriving and stagnant economy. The first thing we must do is remove barriers to employment including the threat of higher taxes. It is common-sense that you should not raise costs and taxes on employers at a time when unemployment is so high."

Simple...

Something that many of us can understand but seems to elude our Congress and President. Or maybe they did not want to commit to a vote until after the election and they see what numbers they (Democrats) or if they even have a majority in either House and\or Senate....

Once again our "Politicians" will come home, promise us the world or whatever they have to get our vote, and point the fingers at the other guys which the President has become accustomed to calling "The Party of No"....

But the surprise will be that it is actually the "Party of Know" and it's not just the Republicans who are the party of "Know". Many of those who voted Obama into office have also become the party of "Know" and they see what he has done and desires to do to our country and economy...

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A military salute ~Gene Simmons~

1976...

I was a freshman in high school...

mod 9 Study hall with Ms. Janerick...

Good friend Jeff Mcgee who was a smart kid and studied hard...

Then Jeff found Kiss and was never the same...

Was not sure what to think of Gene Simmons after that...

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Gene Simmons today and his support of our military....

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Can "Wind Energy" pay for itself?....

JMU ~James Madison University~ mounted on a tall tower along route 81 in Harrisonburg Virginia...

Near Fairfield Virginia in the backyard of a private residence....

Augusta County Virginia near Fishersville...

Several wind towers in the local area of Augusta County. I drive past several of these each day on the way to and back from work and good to see the effort being made to harness the wind in the Valley. Unfortunately it seems most of these wind machines do not produce enough electricity to pay for themselves over the years and without the grants and tax breaks provided by the FedGov many of these would not exist...

The Oil Drum has an interesting article on these smaller wind units and why they do not produce enough to cover their expense....

"Two real-world tests performed in the Netherlands and in the UK confirm our earlier analysis that small wind turbines are a fundamentally flawed technology. Their financial payback time is much longer than their life expectancy, and in urban areas, some poorly placed wind turbines will not even deliver as much energy as needed to operate them (let alone energy needed to produce them). Given their long payback period relative to their life expectancy, most small wind turbines are net energy consumers rather than net energy producers."

While the rest of the world develops offshore wind farms we continue to delay this use of technology and resource because somebody might see a turbine way off in the distance from the beach or Ted Kennedy's backyard....

"The Thanet farm, will be able to produce 300MW of electricity from 100 turbines - enough to power over 20,000 homes. It will be the biggest offshore facility of its kind until the even larger London Array, which has an eventual goal of 340 turbines, is completed. Thanet will dwarf the nearby Kentish Flats facility off Whitstable, also run by Vattenfall and using similar Vestas turbines."

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Made in China, owned by Italy, Operated by Spain, and will be drilling 40 miles off Key West...

The Key West paper reports that Cuba will be drilling offshore of the Florida Keys sometime next Summer as we sit idle due to the Obama moratorium on offshore drilling...

By next summer, a huge semi-submersible oil rig is expected to be stationed about 40 to 50 miles from Key West for deepwater drilling to explore for oil in the Straits of Florida.

The rig is part of a vast international business operation. The vessel was made in China, it’s owned by the Italian oil company Eni SpA, and it will be operated by Repsol, Spain’s oil and natural gas firm, which is also leasing the area known as the Jaguey from Cuba to look for oil.

And now the Obama administration is striving to raise taxes on Oil & Natural Gas operations who already pay an enormous tax rates when you look at it...

This week, the American Energy Alliance issued a new report quantifying the dire impacts of proposals aimed at hiking taxes on oil and natural gas companies.

As reported over at the energy tomorrow site...

Americans overwhelmingly oppose raising taxes on America's oil and natural gas industry, and most believe higher taxes could kill jobs. According to a survey commissioned by API and conducted by Harris Interactive, 62 percent opposed an increase in taxes on the industry, and 60 percent said it could destroy jobs.

AFP ~Americans for Prosperity~ calls Senator Webb on his "Flip" or is it a "Flop"?...

AFP-Virginia Statement on Senator Webb's Empty EPA Promise

Ben Marchi, State Director of Americans for Prosperity, today released the following statement regarding Senator Jim Webb's duplicity on the issue of over-reaching EPA global warming regulations:

"Outside the capitol on Wednesday, Senator Jim Webb promised a rally of coal miners from Virginia and beyond that Congress is "not going to let the EPA regulate coal out of business".

However, inside the halls of the Senate as recently as June 10, Webb was singing a different song. He voted against S.J. Res 26, which would have stopped the EPA's global warming regulatory onslaught. The resolution got 47 votes, 4 short of the 51 needed for passage. Webb not only voted no, but he also gave cover to other coal state Democrats to let the EPA power grab continue.

I find it outrageous that Senator Webb would promise hardworking Virginians that he would vote to prevent a power grab by the EPA when he voted just months ago, and in lock-step with the Obama/Pelosi/Reid machine, to allow them near-absolute regulatory power."

Webb is also being called out by the otherside and the enviromaniacs at Common Dreams.org

And why is Sen. Jim Webb appearing with such an extremist crowd? He wrote in his bestselling book, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America:

"The ever hungry industrialists had discovered that West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and southwest Virginia sat atop one huge vein of coal. And so the rape began. The people from the outside showed up with complicated contracts that the small-scale cattle raisers and tobacco farmers could not fully understand, asking for "rights" to mineral deposits they could not see, and soon they were treated to a sundering of their own earth as the mining companies ripped apart their way of life, so that after a time the only option was to go down into the hole and bring the Man his coal, or starve. The Man got his coal, and the profits it brought when he shipped it out. They got their wages, black lung, and the desecration of their land".

Both Senator Webb and Senator Warner are even getting flack over at Blue Virginia for their appearance at the rally by the coal miners...

Look, I know you've gotta do stuff in politics, and I know that the country's gone teabagger crazy and all, but Warner's (and Webb's) appearance and speech at this rally today were extremely difficult to swallow. I mean, just because a portion of the country's going stark raving mad, does that mean we can't have Democrats who stand up for what's right, who speak the truth, who don't use right-wingnut framing and talking points, who don't sell out to corporate polluters, and who fight back against the insanity? Ugh, so frustrating. And they wonder why there's an "enthusiasm gap?!?"

But let us not forget the stated "game plan" by the leader of the Warner~Webb Democratic Party, our President, Barack Obama...

It seems Senator Webb has gotten himself in the middle of many battlefronts and it is good to see AFP ~Americans for Prosperity~ call him on his conflicts such as his past voting history against the coal miners he claims to support...

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Augusat County Headquarters opening with Congressman Bob Goodlatte....

The Augusta County GOP HQ opened this weekend and here are some photos for your enjoyment. Congressman Goodlatte and Del. Dickie Bell stopped by to speak with the several dozen who were there to enjoy fellowship and food...two good times for the GOP!


Stop by this week! HQ is located at one of the busiest intersection in Staunton...at the corner of Statler Boulevard and Richmond Road.




Hours:
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday:
11 to 1:30 and 4 to 7
Saturday:
10 - 2