Phil Graham, former Senator from Texas said recently some things that got John McCain into a bit of trouble on the campaign trail. He said in an interview:

"You've heard of mental depression; this is mental recession... we have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline despite a major export boom that is the primary that growth continues in the economy."

Now, let's make something clear before I make my points: I'm not one of those kids who takes a summer job like walking dogs, delivering papers or cutting grass. I'm not even one of those kids who works at a grocery store or some other retail job. No, I WORK all summer. The jobs I do are ones that my co-workers are all doing this for a living, not as a summer job. They are the kind of people that the Senator is talking about, the whiners, if you will.

So when I heard Sen. Graham's comments I was stunned and shocked and was ready to stand up and say, "Who are you to call ME a whiner?! I am a hard working, pick yourself up by your bootstraps American like my father and my grandparents before me, and you up there in your ivory tower have no idea of the plight of the working man." And this is the reaction many people took, saying the same thing, all clinging to the notion of America as it was in the first two hundred years of our history.

We look back with fond memories of times we never have seen. We look back to the Pilgrims surviving the harsh winters of Massachusetts. We look back to the Wild West and the Industrialized East at the turn of the century. And we remember the Depression and WWII and how our grandparents and great grandparents fought off hunger, famine, and unemployment and survived to defeat one of the greatest threats the world has ever known in Adolf Hitler. We see these times as the best and always consider ourselves as cut from the cloth of those tough workers. But I got news for you... we're not.

I worked this summer in a dairy with a bunch of people who have either been jumping around from job to job and were older or younger guys who had jumped a bit but haven't had the years of work these older guys did. The work was tiring, but not hard; mostly it was repetitive motion and a lot of standing. We got paid very well, and came home with a good amount of money in one week. In addition to forty hours, we got a ton of overtime, and that helped a ton with the payday. It was a good job that paid well, and I'm sure that the paycheck would make our hardworking ancestors fall over in shock.

So what did my coworkers think of the job? Well, they had an opinion about it, and never ceased in reminding everyone what it was. They always had a problem with something. They didn't want to work a full day, but complained when they didn't get overtime pay. They liked not having to get up early for the shift, but complained that we got home so late. They liked the bosses and joked around with them and then complained about them all the time and complained about how ignorant or unfair they were. It seemed that no matter what they did, the job wasn't what they wanted. Some came for a few days and quit, some a few weeks. One guy came for one day, then never returned. I know these people were just a sample, but I've seen it before, and this is the normal reaction of today's worker... nothing but whining and complaining.

So that's what we have become, exactly pegged by Sen Graham... a nation of whiners. He might have been talking about us complaining about jobs being lost overseas, but the truth is there's work out there and Americans won't stoop to doing those jobs. That's why we have illegal immigrants coming to do those jobs, that's why I have a new employee every week, and that's why we're falling behind in the world in production and economy. We need to stand up once again and take responsibility for our actions, not complain about others'. You can't control anyone or anything but your own actions, and if you haven't done everything you can to make a good living and done a good day's work, then you can sit down and shut up.

Posted by ShawnConway at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Looking around the Drudge Report lately, one will find a sense of impending financial doom all around. Headlines like, "DOW PLUNGES 400", and "JOBLESS RATES JUMPS 5.5%", and my all time favorite, "GLOBAL FEARS PUSH OIL PRICE TO NEW RECORDS". But despite all that, I see one headline that scares me more than any other... "$45 TRILLION NEEDED TO COMBAT GLOBAL WARMING". That is exactly the thing we need right now with all the other economic doom and gloom scenarios we have with oil prices and the housing market and other threats that we can't see coming, do we really want to spend $45 TRILLION on Global Warming?

The arguments for and against Global Warming are well known, and I don't need to delve in them right now. Suffice to say, I don't believe in Global Warming. The article starts out with a real "feel good" situation:

The world needs to invest $45 trillion in energy in coming decades, build some 1,400 nuclear power plants and vastly expand wind power in order to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, according to an energy study released Friday.

$45 trillion to cut greenhouse gasses in HALF? Nuclear power is a reliable and powerful source of energy, and there have been only two cases of large scale nuclear meltdowns on record. But what isn't told about nuclear power is that there have been eight other smaller scale meltdowns that didn't result in any kind of environmental or human effects. These are situations where the reactors had a problem that averted larger scale meltdowns because of the bravery and intellect of some courageous technicians. So why not put the plant away from populations, out in the middle of the desert? Nuclear power is only effective if its close enough to urban areas, making the possibility for meltdown a bad consequence to this effective way of providing energy. And the 32 new power plants a year that the report calls for, (that's 1,344 plants by 2050), can be subject to delays that will be rushed through by politicians, making them liable to defects and problems that compromise the safety of the plant.

And wind power? Ted Kennedy didn't want them by his estate, because they ruin the skyline. We'd have to put these out in the middle of nowhere, minimizing their effectiveness as well. Anyone traveling on Route 30 towards Bedford can see these turbines on both sides of the road, and while they are an eye sore, they provide energy to the neighboring towns that would have to pay top dollar for natural gas or other means of heating and electric utilities. And with wind turbines costing one fifth what they did in the 1980s, we can swallow the eyesore that they would be to get the energy they provide. But they're not the whole answer, and we'd have to produce 17,000 turbines annually, (714,000 by 2050), would be quite a tall task for an industry not suited for such large scale production.

I think that this is a step to far, and Congress agrees with me, (I'm surprised they could agree with anybody). They blocked the first bill on this subject that hit the floor. Its not okay to saddle the American taxpayer with the burden of the world's transgressions upon nature, when China and other industrialized nations have no restrictions on pollution. Watch the Summer Olympics this summer and tell me that they do their part to fight global warming. We take on responsibilities that make us an example for the world, but when those who mock and scorn our role in the world as the world's police say that we need to take on this burden of environmental war, it is a step too far. We should be stewards of the earth and do what we can to take care of it, but we shouldn't have to make men, women and children poor because of our need to clear our consciouses for the way we have abused the Earth to this point in history. We must move on and make the best of a bad situation, and ride out the storm if that is our future.

Posted by ShawnConway at 12:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey, everyone! Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina needs your help!

Sen. DeMint is trying to pass an amendment (a rider on another bill) that would place a BAN on pork-barrel spending (which is when your representatives in Congress hand out your tax dollars to benefit their campaign contributors).

The really exciting thing about the DeMint amendment is that if it passes, it'll help keep some money in the Social Security trust fund so that we might actually get some of our Social Security when we retire!

PLEASE call your two senators tomorrow. Each call will take thirty seconds, maximum. All you have to say is something along the lines of, " "Hi I'm a young voter in Pennsylvania and I hope Senator ____ will vote YES on DeMint's budget amendment."

You DO NOT have to try to convince the staff member who answers your call why their senator should support the amendment. All you have to do is register your support. TRUST ME, it will matter.

Sen. Arlen Specter's number is 202-224-4254
Sen. Robert Casey's number is 202-224-6324 or toll-free 866-802-2833

(If you're not from PA, email me at MRitter1776@gmail.com and I'll be glad to help you find contact info for your senators!)

You can also email them using this easy form! http://www.secureourfuture.org/issuealerts.php

If you're feeling REALLY ambitious, we also really need people to call these senators, all of whom are on the fence and can be swayed wither way, depending on how much public support they see for the amendment.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) 202-224-5344
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island) 202-224-2921
Sen. Joe Lieberman (Connecticut) 202-224-4041
Sen. Barack Obama (Illinois) 202-224-2854

THANK YOU!

Posted by MeganRitter at 3:49 PM | Permalink

It took me awhile with my busy schedule to do another one of these, and a few things have changed. First of all, the Republican Field has narrowed from Seven Dwarves to Four. Giuliani, Thompson, and Hunter have since bowed out to make room for a more clear and decisive Super Tuesday. The Democrats have their field narrowed to two... big surprise there... which makes for an exciting, albeit inconclusive Super Tuesday.

Just a Few Thoughts:
-Republicans will have a nominee after Tuesday
-Democrats won't have a nominee
-Giuliani set himself up for VP if McCain wins by endorsing him
-Edwards set himself up for VP by NOT endorsing anyone
-I had said Florida would decide the Republican nominee... I stand by that
-California will decide the Democratic nomination

Republicans

1. John McCain- Sen of AZ- He won Florida, and possibly with it the nomination. With endorsements coming from all over, especially from former front-runner Giuliani, he is looking good going into Tuesday's contest. Can he survive the firestorm from Conservative talk show hosts like Limbaugh, Beck, and Hannity? If he can, he's in the clear.

2. Mitt Romney- Fm. Gov of MA- He's won Michigan, showed up well in South Carolina and Florida, and looks good going into Tuesday despite the McCain surge. He'd be in trouble if it wasn't for his deep pocketbook. He might be able to pay his way to victory, which would make McCain regret his limitations to campaign finance laws.

3. Mike Huckabee- Fm. Gov of AR- He's come from third tier to first tier, and now back down to second tier as McCain and Romney run away with this thing. But Huckabee has shown resiliency by staying in the race with no free media (like McCain), and without a lot of money (like Romney). If he can carry the south, keep reinforcing the social conservative wing in his camp, and keep the other candidates from running away with it, he's got a shot... but a long one.

4. Ron Paul- Cong. of TX- His R3volution is really something I've never seen before, but its more of a joke to the party establishment than anything else. He's got no chance to win a State on Tuesday, but don't tell his supporters that. Maybe if he had tried to appeal to the Republican base a bit more or come a little closer to center as he garnered his far-Right support, he might have had a shot.

Democrats

1. Hillary Clinton- Sen of NY- She's been accused of being weak, racist, a puppet, unfit, too liberal, and a liar... but she's risen above it all to continue to lead in the national polls, and looks good going into Tuesday. Republicans beware, she'll be more fit to take on a general than anyone else because of all the flak she's gone through to get this far. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

2. Barack Obama- Sen of IL- He's been right in the thick of the mud-slinging and stayed clean. Is that because of his race, or his charisma? I think a bit more of the latter, believing that he transcends race, and that makes him a dangerous candidate. The endorsements from the Kennedys help a ton, solidifying the JFK heir persona. Win the majority of races on Tuesday, and I think he wins.

Posted by ShawnConway at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Posted by ShawnConway at 2:28 PM | Permalink