Libyan Democracy

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For those of you that thought the entire Middle-East and North African regions would convert to democracy just by a bunch of protesters going into the streets and demanding it ... our favorite despot in the region has brought us back to reality.

There was absolutely no way that Muammar al-Gaddafi was going to let a bunch of peasants dictate anything to him. Unlike Egypt, where the Army was respected ... In Libya, the Army is feared. While there were some Army defections to the rebels, the Libyan Army is solidly backing Gaddafi. While the rebels have been able to seize some tanks and weapons ... Gaddafi rules the air. He is using his air power to crush the insurgency. The Rebels have been calling for a no-fly-zone to be established over the country to give them a fighting chance, as well as to keep foreign mercenaries out. They do not want any help in the actual fight ... just some weapons and a chance to take this dictator out.

There have actually been calls in the US Congress to establish a no-fly-zone from both sides of the aisle.

But once again our Procrastinator-N-Chief is waiting. I can almost see the wait and see approach he took with Egypt's Mubarrak (even though I didn't agree with it). But Mubarrak was an ally of the US ... Gaddafi is an enemy. The President doesn't want to do anything without either the United Nations or NATO sanctioning it.

Well ... unfortunately the UN has China and Russia with VETO power. Neither of these countries want the UN to go into Libya ... they use the excuse that they shouldn't interfere with a revolution. The real reason is that Gaddafi has long been an ally to both countries. The problem with NATO seems to be mostly from Turkey and Germany. Turkey is a Muslim country and I guess they want to keep out of another Muslim country's business. Though it seems strange that they would want to allow the wholesale slaughter of fellow Muslims at the hands of Gaddafi's Air Force. Germany is an even stranger story. Angela Merkle says that she is against interfering in Libya ... But I was stationed in Berlin back in 1986 when there were actually 2 bombings perpetrated by Gaddafi-backed terrorists. The first was at a German-Arab friendship center a couple of weeks before the more famous bombing at the La Belle Disco where two American soldiers lost their lives. Why would Merkle not want to help take out this terrorist?

I have actually heard some pundits say that the Middle-East is not ready for Democracy ... who are they to dictate that some people must live under an oppressive ruler ... while they enjoy freedom?

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Gas Prices And The Fragile Recovery

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Just in case you hadn't noticed, gas prices have gone crazy the last couple of weeks. I filled up my tank 10 days ago at $2.99 a gallon and just yesterday I paid $3.25 a gallon. Where is all the media outrage about our President being in cahoots with the oil companies.

After Hurricane Katrina halted off-shore drilling and damaged our Gulf coast refineries, the nightly news beat up on the Administration for the cost of gas going up. Now that Hurricane Obama has halted off-shore drilling and most energy exploration to make the environmentalists happy ... no blame at all seems to be coming his way.

In about a month's time, we will start to see sky-rocketing food prices and the price of synthetic clothing will also go up. Usually when synthetics go up, we can fall back on cotton ... but many of the cotton plants were damaged in the colder than usual winter we had in the south. Cotton prices have already tripled. We could have really used some of that global warming this winter.

The rest of this is simple. When people have to spend more on the necessities (food, clothing, utilities and gas) they have less money to spend on cars, furniture, appliances, etc. The companies that manufacture these goods and the retailers that sell them can't afford to hire new workers, or they go out of business and workers lose their jobs. The recovery stalls or reverses. If I can see this, and you can see this, why can't our politicians see it?

We need to drill for American oil, and avoid paying the fear premium that is currently on foreign oil (the fear that production will be halted in the Middle-East because of the chaos that is going on there). We need to fast-track nuclear power plants. We can continue to explore solar, wind and geothermal energy sources ... but until these options become cost-effective we cannot mandate a certain percentage of our electricity come from them (sorry Mr. President but that is irresponsible given our current fiscal situation).

The left is always looking for ways to spend OUR tax dollars. Sometimes they come up with good ideas and we should not reject them just because they come from liberals. We should not however, mandate how we spend tax dollars or how businesses spend their capital.

As for drilling in Alaska ... I lived there for 3 years and I can tell you that in ANWAR, drilling will cause absolutely no harm ... because for the most part ... it is a wasteland.

So, Mr. President, get your head out of your tuchus and lead. Stop worrying about the 2012 election and do what is best for the country. Take a page out of President Reagan's' book and just work on making America strong. The Country saw that he was looking out for our interests and he had no problem being re-elected.

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