That’s Elbert With An E

Recently publisher Steven Strang wrote about a meeting with Barack Obama he and many other Christian leaders attended by invitation. Strang expresses that he was not comfortable with the meeting but curiosity drove him to attend. The “off the record” meeting included 43 leaders covering the spectrum of theological and political backgrounds. Prominent minister T.D. Jakes noted that in this AP article. Strang says that Obama took the time to meet with each one and shake their hand. Strang said that he was “warm and personable — obviously one of the reasons why people like him.”

The questions were mostly “softball” questions in my opinion. I was concerned after three or four general questions that we wouldn’t ask the most important questions. So I raised my hand and he called on me. I said, “Senator, I want to ask a question I’m sure you are expecting regarding your position on abortion. I represent a segment of the church where nearly everyone considers the issue of supporting life to be the most important issue and where nearly everyone would be opposed to abortion. I want to ask what your stand on abortion is and if you believe what I think you believe, how you justify that with your Christian faith and why you think we should vote for you.”

Since his response was “off-the-record,” I can say that the time he took to answer was probably 15 minutes. He came across as thoughtful and much more of a “centrist” than what I would have expected. He did not appear to be the crazy leftist that is being supported by George Soros and his radical leftist friends. Sen. Obama looked me in the eye as he answered my question, almost as if it were a one-on-one interview. I had already read the chapter on “faith” in his book the “Audacity of Hope.” If you want to know how he answered the question, read that chapter. In other words, other than his demeanor and obvious attempt to win over the Christian leaders in the room, he didn’t say anything new.

If Obama seems to have an attachment to a teleprompter then his answer to the abortion question isn’t really much of a surprise. Then again, it could speak to consistency in his beliefs. I’m more suspicious myself.

It’s certainly something worth watching. Obama wishes to at least include more conservative Christians in his outreach to the church in general. McCain seems to desire to push conservative Christians aside when it’s not convenient anymore. As Strang notes in another post:

When McCain wanted and needed to win both the Texas and Ohio primaries, he was happy to get these endorsements from Hagee in Texas and Parsley in Ohio. But then when Barack Obama’s radical former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright became a controversial figure in the election, some liberals looked for controversial clergymen who backed McCain to use to blast him. They latched on to Hagee and Parsley.

Either way, if I were McCain I would be making sure that I got the Evangelical vote come November, unless he just assumes that we’ll vote for him because of our fear of the damage someone as left-leaning as Obama will inflict upon this country. Personally I wouldn’t bank on that. It’s more likely that they will stay home which to me is crazy. McCain isn’t going to make me stay home. He’s not that important. There are local issues much greater than McCain, like making sure the the Democrats don’t get more control over this state, and those will drive me to the ballot box.

Steven Strang’s blog entries are here and here.

To some friends I made this prediction about this upcoming election, and it’s worth saying here. I believe that our next president will be Jimmy Carter’s second term. For me this means whoever takes the reigns, even if it’s a minor party candidate, will royally screw up this country, guaranteeing a new president in 2012. Why is this? I look over each of the major party candidates and see many policies that are not universally popular and potentially hurtful to our economy. In addition, the two major candidates are very weak on immigration. The only candidate that is even interested in our war on terror is McCain, which might be his only strength. It would be more likely that under anyone else’s policies we would have another terrorist attack on our own soil because most act as though there is no need to fight terrorism.

I think more than likely we will be worse off in four years than we are now. One can only hope that there is a Reagan-like person somewhere out there to fix America much like in the 1980’s.

Senator and Presidential candidate John McCain (RINO - AZ) proposes a holiday on gas taxes:

“I propose that the federal government suspend all taxes on gasoline now paid by the American people — from Memorial Day to Labor Day of this year. The effect will be an immediate economic stimulus — taking a few dollars off the price of a tank of gas every time a family, a farmer, or trucker stops to fill up. Over the same period, our government should suspend the purchase of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has also contributed to the rising price of oil. This measure, combined with the summer-long “gas-tax holiday,” will bring a timely reduction in the price of gasoline. And because the cost of gas affects the price of food, packaging, and just about everything else, these immediate steps will help to spread relief across the American economy.” (story here)

If this is something they want to try, then getting the states to jump on board would make this “holiday” have the greatest impact. It won’t happen in Delaware because the budget can’t handle it this year. Maryland won’t do it either. If there was a state that would take the “holiday”, more than likely they would draw many drivers in from neighboring states, giving a boost to that state’s economy. We live 7-8 miles from Maryland. If gas was 20-some cents cheaper than Delaware, it might pay to drive down there just for gas.

I talked about pausing the tax here.

This is a picture of the gas prices at Shore Stop on 4/11/2008 in the afternoon:

As most everyone has noticed, the price has been climbing steadily all week. Today’s price on a barrel of crude oil sits at $110.14. Our wallets are crying “uncle”, well, they may just be crying.

There are those, mainly on the left, who wag their fingers at what they call “big oil” and criticize them for making money. Well, really their criticism is that “big oil” makes too much money (profit), as though they know how much money that anyone should be making. Our Democrat-controlled Congress hauled the CEOs of “big oil” before them to question why they made money in their business. According to Frank Calio’s column in the April 10 edition of the Laurel Star:

When a congressman asked the oil magnates if they ever considered dropping the price of gas, there was immediate silence, so much that you could hear a pin drop.

I would bet that the silence came from shock. Mr. Calio doesn’t name the congressman, but I would have to wonder if that congressman actually ever ran a business or even knew anything about running a business. Doubtful? Yes.

One of those CEOs should have answered our nameless congressman sitting in his ivory tower, “have you ever considered lowering the gas tax?” I’m sure that silence would have followed that question too.

According to GasPriceWatch.com, Uncle Sam tacks 18.4 cents on a gallon of gas, and in Delaware Mama Ruth tacks on an additional 23 cents. That comes to 41.4 cents in taxes on every gallon of gas. In other words, that gallon of gas is really $2.865 not $3.279 as it is pictured above. What would it do to your wallet if our government suspended the gas taxes for a period of time? My wallet might stop crying.

Actually, if the government wanted to help lower gas prices, it would allow drilling in ANWR and off of our coasts, in addition to relaxing or removing the burdensome restrictions on construction of new refineries. That would go a long way to reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

The proclamation given by George Washington for a day of thanks:

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor– and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be– That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks–for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation–for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war–for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed–for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted–for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions– to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually–to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed–to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord–To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us–and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go: Washington

Taken from the Library of Congress web site.

I’m publishing this a day early because I’d like to give readers a chance to read it and because most of us won’t be reading or writing on the blogs on Thursday unless it’s between events. May you have a great Thanksgiving Day!

Here’s some more news on the Comcast traffic blocking story (I wrote about it near the end of this post). On 10/22, the New York Times had an article regarding Comcast’s blocking of peer-to-peer traffic. According to the article, Comcast “occasionally – but not always – delays some peer-to-peer file transfers that eat into Internet speeds for other users on the network.” If there is some truth to this, I can understand the desire to manage network traffic to benefit all subscribers, but I seriously doubt that a few peer-to-peer software users are using so much bandwidth that it’s going to mess up service to other Comcast users. Now there’s a complaint filed at the FCC against Comcast. SaveTheInternet.com has filed this complaint, which is discussed in the press release here. I guess this isn’t going to end real soon is it?

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