Paul Ryan is a Liar

Paul Ryan is a liar. He really is. Paul Ryan is a self confessed apostle of Ayn Rand. He famously proclaimed that she had the most impact on him regarding capitalism than anyone else. He bragged about having his staffers read Ayn Rand as a requirement. He has written, he has spoke, he has preached that Ayn Rand is his patron saint.

His congressional budget is a blueprint of Ayn Rand. It is rigged for the very rich, it attacks the poor mercilessly. It is a chapter out of "Atlas Shrugged".

I didn't read her damn books in college. I started one of them, it was a paperback, and I deposited it in the nearest urinal. It stayed there for about a week, before a fraternity brother broke down and threw it away. It was hateful, bigoted, and vengeful junk.

Ayn Rand was a bigot, a nut, a greedy hateful person, and on top of it all an avowed atheist. I have been bewildered by my Christian conservative friends who sing her atheistic praises. She hated God! She particularly hated Jesus!

And Paul Ryan is her follower. He said he was, until yesterday.

Yesterday, the Catholic Church soundly criticized the Ryan budget, and its sponsor, Ayn Rand, I mean Paul Ryan.

The bishops released a scathing criticism of the heartless, spiteful and hateful Ryan Budget.

They went so far as saying it denied Mathew 25, and turned America's back on "the least of Jesus"; the poor, the sick, the young.

And, what did Ryan do when he found out about the Bishop's message? Why he spun on a dime and said he denies all that Rand stood for. He said he was never her follower.

What!!!!!

An out and out lie. This is a guy who preached Ayn Rand for years. He bragged about his knowledge of her teachings; all the while ignoring that atheistic stuff. Ryan bragged that he made all his staff read all of Rand's books; too bad for them.

Ayn Rand attacked Christianity precisely because of Matthew 25. She spoke constantly about the danger of collective aid for the poor, that fear of "statism", the need to destroy welfare and any kind of help for the poor that the government might provide.

Now, the Catholic in him, suddenly, after he puts together his hateful budget, and is openly trying to get the Vice Presidential nomination; turns on a dime and suddenly he has never heard of his political/social leader, Ms. Rand.

A liar is as a liar does. Mr. Ryan is a damned liar!

Kill, Kill Them All!

Kill, kill them all!

The Sacramento Bee is doing a series on the U.S. Wildlife Service" war on predators. Over the past six years 1/2 million predators have been exterminated by the Wildlife Service.

This weekend I watched a 15 year old move, "Never Cry Wolf". The movie decries man's approach to wolves, basically trying to kill all of them, as senseless, and not based on any scientific evidence.

The Bee article expands that research to include Bear, Lions, Eagles, Coyotes; etc.

There is no scientific backing whatsoever for the wholesale slaughter of predators. In fact, when man is successful in dramatically reducing predator populations, elk and deer herds, who are being maintained to hunt, are actually damaged. The sick and the defective parts of the herd survive, making the herd weaker.

Wolves and coyotes prey on the sick in a herd. They usually eat small rodents, which are in abundance as the scientist in "Never Cry Wolf" discovers. Much to his amazement, the wolves he is researching mainly live on arctic mice, not deer or caribou.

I worked for two years as a superintendent in a rural ranching community. The ranchers there hated coyotes and lions. They complained about the damage they did to their herds. I once asked, when the last time a coyote had killed a calf. The rancher looked at me and said never, because "we kill coyotes".

The truth is coyotes and wolves for that matter rarely kill livestock. And when they do, the government (in wolves cases anyway) reimburse ranchers for their loss.

"Never Cry Wolf" ends with the wolf pair being slaughtered by "hunter tourists" for their tails, leaving three pups orphans. Man comes into the valley, and kills everything he can, for sport. And the wolves run for their lives. And the caribou herds get sicker and fewer.

Today, mankind continues overpopulating, polluting, burning up oil at a record clip, ignoring the signs of global warming, and killing everything he can. And the clock is ticking.

Because the day is not far off, when the number one predator will become his own victim.

Me Me Me

Once again I have tangled with a right winger. This time it is a friend of my daughter, a 30 something, heart defect survivor. The young man almost died as an infant, but was saved by open heart surgery. This surgery of course, was developed through a combination of private competence and public investment in research that led to heart surgery advances. EVERY advance we see in science has been paid for at least in part by public research dollars, public support of doctor education, public expenditures at every level.

That is not to discount the efforts of individuals, who have sacrificed, worked, for cures that save others. Often, these individuals never profit from their self-sacrifice.

In short, it is not about me, it is about we. Human progress has always been that way. People serve a higher purpose, they give of themselves so others may profit, may live better. That is why the older generation gives to the future, it is called paying it forward.

Except for today. Today's young person, under 40, has a 1% chance of doing any public service at all. There is no draft, no compelling reason to join the Armed Forces. There is no push, other than from the left, for any public service outside of the military.

My young right wing friend launched into an attack on teacher's unions, teachers, and (shudder) educational pensions. Basically all the ills of our educational system, according to this wing-nut are the fault of teachers and their unions.

I remember when we did not have Teacher Associations. We had a system of meet and confer. I remember being told by our Superintendent that he had sold shoes during the summer, and did part-time during the year to get by, while he was turning down yet another request for a raise. When Prop 13 passed, the supposedly broke school district he ran, suddenly had to give millions back to the state, that had been rat holed (basically kept from paying the teachers a livable wage).

I can still remember as a high school student, seeing 70 something teachers hobble into class, substituting. I never could understand that, until I asked one. It was the only way they could live, with the paltry pension they received.

And, what did we get? Why Sputnik of course. Suddenly the U.S.A., who as usual ignored education, was outdone by the Commies. Suddenly an interest in education. An interest in a system, that during the Depression saw teachers work for nothing, kept alive by script, that they could redeem at the local market. Teachers literally kept the schools open by working for nothing.

But Sputnik changed all that. We needed math and science. We needed to compete, and we began to educate more. And, thank God for the Greatest Generation, we had veterans by the millions who had served, valued their countries and joined the teacher force.

And we got a pretty good education.

Today, we have a diverse population. We still have unequal educational opportunity. We need to reform the organization of our educational system, more centralized, more national standards, less local school board meddling, more local school site control., more professional teachers, and better pay to lure the best and brightest into teaching so we can compete again with a world that is passing us by.

And what do we get? Attacks on teachers and unions. "Waiting for Superman", that shows disadvantaged kids, who come from backgrounds that are one big reason why we need to spend much MORE on education, but conservatives blame unions and what we pay teachers for the problem.

And, it is all about me, not we. My right wing friend is so selfish. He hates everything public. He believes the free market can fix everything. He quotes Ayn Rand as an icon; an icon of hate and selfishness.

We are competing against collective, teamwork oriented countries, who are working as teams. We are deciding to do so as disorganized individuals, who are tearing down the very institutions that must save us.

It will not work. As natural resources shrink, collective teamwork will be essential just to survive. The free market fails when resources dwindle, resulting in anarchy and chaos. That is what my selfish conservative buddy doesn't get.

And my friend, who had his heart fixed by the efforts of all of us, has not a heart for anybody but himself.

We are losing because we don't have the guts and some of our young people are just flat greedy, selfish and narcissistic.

No Sense of History in Potterville

There used to be several Victorian Era houses in Potterville. They were torn down for stores and a car lot.

There was a Carnegie Library in Potterville, a park (at least) stands in its place.

The downtown was converted into a Mall at one point; a business disaster with huge cooling bills during the summer. A few years ago the roof was taken off, leaving a "promenade" that has absolutely nothing of the old town in it.

Not that the old town was that great. It was called "Poverty Flats" before Redding. But, it was my hometown, my Eatons Drug Store, the Five and Dime; etc.

The Cascade Theater was saved, and is thriving as a cultural center.

But the rest of "downtown" is being lost, despite valiant efforts by mostly those under forty. The local Costco, that is on the other side of the river, but centrally located, is scheduled to move far north of the city center. It will have gas pumps, at a discount to Costco members, promising to drive the downtown further into decline.

In short, Potterville has no sense of history, nor of common sense. Right when oil prices are going up, and will stay up, Potterville spreads more and more.

But, with the Tea Party holding a majority on the City Council, what more would you expect.

Now, one of the most historic buildings in Potterville, Shasta Learning Center, is being considered to be renamed after a nine year former Superintendent. Potterville had at least two other educational leaders of its high schools, with far longer reigns and accomplishments, but never mind, Potterville's historical perspective is about twenty years long.

Its outlook into the future is about six months long.

So, with literally thousands of Shasta High graduates who graduated from a school with magnificent columns, a true architectural treasure, plans are underway to take Shasta off the face of the building, and name it after a Superintendent who was in the district for a few years.

And, are your ready for this, before he was Superintendent, he was Principal of Enterprise, Shasta's arch rival!

That's right, the powers that be are considering renaming the old Shasta High Building, after the Principal of Enterprise.

It would be like renaming Stanford's Hoover Tower, the University of California Tower.

I live in Potterville, where there is no sense of history, where there is no perspective of the future, and where we are slowly sinking into oblivion.

The Dam

I can still see the deer, dozens of them, grazing on the lawn around The Dam.

Since I was a little boy, The Dam (Shasta Dam) has been a dominant landmark. We used to take rides to The Dam after getting root beer freezes. We fished off its banks. We watched as tons of water went over its spillway. We marveled at the size of it, the power of it. We even went there to "neck" in high school.

The Central Valley Project was part of The Dam. A series of dams were planned over about a 50 year period, from 1900 to approximately 1965 dams were built all over the country, for hydro-electric power, flood control, and reclamation of lands and watershed that had been destroyed by gold mining, and de-forestation of the 1800s.

Many environmentalists decry what was done, and resist virtually every modern attempt to either increase the size of dams or build new ones. However, the benefit to mankind and development have far outweighed their concerns.

The Dam was built during the last years of the Great Depression and during World War II. Because it was the last of the large dams of the era, the government was on a tight budget.

A manifestation of that was the poor city that was left in the shadow of The Dam. Usually, the federal government left a well planned town, where the workers on the dam used to live. This time, money was tight, so the government just left, with only an elaborate management quarters as evidence of their presence.

This has meant that Potterville had a "slum" on its northern border, that has been a problem ever since. A few years ago this area incorporated into Shasta Lake City, still a poor area, but attempting to develop and improve.

A recent Potterville development was the recall of a Tea Party fanatical City Councilwoman. The citizens of Shasta Lake City, who sit in the middle of what a massive federal project developed, still are strangely conservative; but not that conservative!

So, they recalled a wing-nut, who was attacking everybody and everything. Potterville watched with amusement, and elected more Tea Party members.

I don't think most people really appreciate The Dam. They can't remember (most were not born yet) that these projects provided jobs during the Great Depression that literally saved millions of lives. They forget that these large projects, caused a huge budget deficit, that has been repaid thousands of times over.

Literally, the Sacramento Valley's agricultural vitality is directly due to The Dam. Without the water projects and irrigation it provides, there would be no agricultural industry in the Sacramento Valley. This is a multi-billion dollar industry.

The placer mining had caused so much silt to run down the Sacramento River, that sea water was encroaching into the Sacramento Valley. Without The Dam, to push fresh water to the Pacific Ocean, you would not be able to grow anything in the Sacramento Valley. No billion dollar industry.

One wonders what will happen when the ocean levels rise due to Global Warming!

We live here in Potterville, with not just one, but three huge dams close, proof that big government works for our benefit, and vote crazy conservative all the time.

We have an active Tea Party, who demands a loyalty oath of all candidates. We have government haters, who fight every government project, who want to be left alone as rugged individualists (some have large marijuana projects).

But the people of Potterville still go on rides to The Dam, read the inscriptions on the plaques that are all around, about how We The People built the dam.

And most, don't have any appreciation at all for what we can do when we work together.

And the large majority hate the government.

And that, is what will doom Potterville and our country to defeat.

Is it worth a friendship?

Is it worth a friendship?

Last night I admit I was not feeling too well. I had surgery again to clean out my sinuses (am home today and ok), but was not in a real positive mood.

Then I get an email from a golfing buddy, who claims to be a Democrat, but sends me right wing fanatical stuff all the time. He thinks it is funny.

This time, the author (not my former friend) of this hateful fascist propaganda, did what fascists do, they criticize and denigrate the government and those who work in the government.

Now I am not talking about the normal, and healthy watchdog system we enjoy to criticize the government, that is well established in law and tradition in our country. Every level of government has recourse, whistle-blower rules, appeals; etc.

We do not have a out of control government at any level, in the United States, regardless what the Tea Party's propaganda says. Due process is everywhere, even in the military. If anyone tells you different, they don't know what they are talking about.

One of the first stages of fascism is to de-legitimize these checks and balances, make people suspicious of elected government, and set up the "Party" as an alternative: The Tea Party is doing that right now by running for as many offices as they can, but according to a creed (oath) that dictates how to govern the way the Party dictates. In short the Party is set up as a mirror government.

This is not healthy criticism or check and balance. This is fascism!

The "joke" listed several governmental services, from the IRS, to teachers, as service, it was very inclusive. The author claimed to not understand what the service types do, then he used a metaphor that a "bull" recently "serviced his cow", and now he knows. (I am surprised the idiot knows how to tie his shoes).

In short, the bull, public service employee, is screwing the public and him.

Nice huh. Tell that to the widow of the F.B.I. Agent who gave his life for us. Tell that to the 35 year teacher, who has worked in the poorest neighborhoods. Tell that to the Public Health Service that eradicated Polio.

"Ask not, what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country".

Now, conservatives are saying ask nothing of me, screw the poor, I've got mine, the hell with you. Their blind, irrational hatred of government, is making them ripe for the picking by the fascist right.

Today, we have lowest number of Americans serving their country in any capacity, in our history. This is because we now have an all-volunteer army (SERVICEMEN).

I spend 35 years serving the youth of this country as an educator. I served 3 and 1/2 years in the National Guard. It was at the end of the Vietnam era, and yes I didn't get shot at. But, do you have any idea how FEW serve today?

Less than 1%! That's right, our young people are "letting George do it", and George comes home, screwed up, wounded, and unemployed. The slackers stayed home, did not serve even in the Guard, took the jobs, and then write the crap that I received today. There is a word for that, traitor.

Everyday, millions of service men and women deliver your mail, fight your fires, find and kill terrorists, educate your children, save you in tornadoes, cure your sick, and yes, "ask what they can do for their country".

Many of these jobs, contrary to the selfish, greedy and yes STUPID right who relishes in degrading service men and women, pay less, have dangerous and thankless jobs. Oh yes, they are screwing us alright, screwing us by protecting us, educating our children, delivering our mail, and yes, collecting our taxes.

Did any of these idiots think how we are going to pay our Defense Budget, which is more than all of the other nations in the world combined? That is right, combined! The more tax breaks we give ourselves the more selfish and "do for ourselves" we become. There is a word for that: treason.

I was proud to be one of those few who served. I did more for my country in ONE day, than most private sector right wing critics do in a year. Oh yes, they give to charity, they cheat on their taxes, they plot to cut programs that feed starving children. Real patriots!? Traitors.

So this is the deal. I have grimaced, I have stomped out of golf matches, I have written angry blogs like this one.

Now, if one of these idiots sends me anymore fascist propaganda, putting down public service men and women, you are done with me.

That is right, done.

And, I will come after you non-violently, hitting you with fact after fact, argument after argument.

Fascism is growing every day. I really believe this. We must resist its malignant growth at every level. The Tea Parties are spawning grounds for fascism. This is treason.

I will not stand silent and let it grow without a fight!

Is that worth a friendship? You are damn right it is.

Renounce Fascism

Last night I got an email from one of my Sons in Retirement friends, a really good guy. My friend sent me an Internet article, in good faith, about Mr. Katchenhammer and his views. My friend stated that he knew I held opposite views, but "you should consider this rationally" because (I paraphrase), "you think things out".

I read the article, expecting a fairly well reasoned argument against President Obama and certain issues.

The second paragraph claimed the President was intent on destroying capitalism. The next attacked the Affordable Care Act as socialism. The next, attacked the President's advisors as total idiots, "who couldn't sell candy in a candy store".

And on it went, one untruth after another, one propaganda claim stacked on the next.

What it amounted to, in sum, was a three page propaganda piece. I don't know how much of actually was said by Mr. Katchenhammer, who has been brutally critical of the President, but whoever wrote it was a propagandist. It was full of lies, not policy differences.

Last week, while recuperating from sinus surgery, I watched "Triumph of the Will". It was chilling to say the least.

What was most upsetting, was a segment when several Nazi leaders (this was 1934), were shown making speeches that were presented in the film.

Joseph Goebbels (Propaganda Minister) , in one of these clips, stated that the people were the source of the propaganda that was intended to unite the nation. He then said that propaganda was a tool to build national unity and love of the state, who is Hitler. He actually stated directly, to the Party Congress meeting, that propaganda was being used to fool the people into becoming fascists.

I paused the film, and thought about our country right now. Conservatives, let's take the Tea Parties, are using propaganda to "unite their cause". The hit piece I was sent by my friend, used lies and hate propaganda to build a "movement".

I was being asked to join the movement I suppose.

Are we watching the development of fascism in our country? The ingredients are certainly there: a distressed economy, fear of terrorism, a right wing becoming more extreme and violent all the time; and, the internet, being used to hammer away at the themes of hatred of the President (a minority), hatred of the opposing party depicting them as socialist, and intolerance of democracy. Add to this corporate sponsorship and you have a fascist brew.

I wrote my friend back, responded to most of the lies in the piece in a rational, fact backed mannner. He responded that he had "tried" to change my mind, and "had not intended to be personal".

This has happened before. When I knock down these lie filled propaganda pieces, I get a response that "I didn't mean to offend you personally".

This of course ends the dialogue. There is no debate, no argument, no marshalling of facts on each side to reach any kind of agreement. They just go on to the next person, dishing out propaganda.

It's fascism, plain and simple. My wife scolds me when I say this, because fascism is such a charged word. She says I am like the right, when they accuse me of being a socialist. She tells me not to use the word.

But there is a huge difference. I am not part of a coordinated, planned form of progaganda, using lies and falsehood, to "build a movement". I am not a tea party member, who are running candidates in local elections everywhere to swing areas to the "party". I am a lone liberal, alarmed that the country I love is swinging toward fascism. I also am well aware of happened to liberals in Nazi Germany!

That is what Goebells was talking about in "Triumph of the Will". Fascism needs a cause, a party, the left to hate, and propaganda to believe myths of the state that ultimately attacks diversity and finally democracy with propaganda. Fascism is tea party members carrying around the Constitution like the Bible, preaching their lies.

In fact, there are now "purity tests", you have to sign oaths against taxes, against gays, to prove your ideological purity. The Republicans are having trouble finding a Presidential candidate who is ideologically "pure" enough. Ideological purity tests of the right is indicative of fascism at its core.

Fascism is a political reality right now in America.

If you love our country, you will renounce the Tea Party, the extreme right wing, and start reasoning and using democracy again. Be part of a true movement; become an American again!

Start by erasing the next right wing hit piece you get. Start by watching "Triumph of the Will" . Remember when we were kids, and we were shown countless movies, warning of the dangers of fascism, always ended with film of the concentration camps.

IT CAN, AND IS, HAPPENING HERE!

The Buffalo

First there are some truths we need to review:

One: the United States does not have a nationalized oil industry. Private, multi-national companies explore for oil, drill or mine it, refine it and sell it on the global market. Our "strategic reserve" the government bought, just like you buy gas when you fill up your tank. The United States is a capitalist economy, private enterprise owns the oil, coal, etc.

Two: Peak Oil is not make believe. There are finite oil, coal and gas resources on the earth. Unfound resources may exist, but are beyond our means to mine.

For example, there may be tar sands and shale, but it requires millions of gallons of water to extract, and there is no water.

Or, tar sand and shale, may exist, but contains chemical molecules that would destroy an engine if refined.

The oil companies have known this for decades!

Three: The days of cheap crude oil are long gone. Now, all oil, and natural gas for that matter, has large production costs. This will drive up the retail price forever. Cheap energy is gone forever.

Four: Peak Oil means we are running out of all reserves, we have been on the downhill side of reserves for oil in the United States since 1972. We are now on the downhill side of worldwide reserves since 2005.

Five: Tying our economies to the idea of forever oil is simple madness. We have found all we are going to find. There is no more.

Six: Ruining the environment in a desperate attempt to get every last drop, will not matter given one through four above. Look, once you use it, it is gone. It took millions of years for nature to produce crude oil and natural gas. We are an advanced, technologically driven culture, that has over the last 150 years explored every square inch of planet, on ground and in the sea, looking for precious oil. We have found and used most if not all of it; right now we are on the downhill side of a bell shaped curve of oil use. The bonanza of "environmentalist protected" oil is a pittance, a couple days of gas.

To use that as an excuse to not conserve, or adapt is simple madness!

In the latter part of the 19th century, the United States Army was having a tough time ridding the Plains of the Native Americans. This culminated with the Custer massacre. In short, the expansion west was in trouble. The Army then came up with a plan, to indirectly annihilate the Native Americans; kill all the buffalo. So, hunters were hired, protected by troops, and the great buffalo herds were exterminated. The warriors went hungry, the tribes dwindled, and the west was won.

Supply and demands wins everytime.

Today, we are faced with the same challenge. The United States especially, has a car driven economy. We are bound to the automobile for our very existence. And our buffalo is crude oil. And, whoever the Army is, has figured out we are running out of it fast. I think God is in there somewhere.

The Native Americans could not adapt, and they lost big time. We, it appears are also refusing to adapt, listening to those who lie to us and tell us the "greenies" are blocking endless reservoirs of oil. Or, the Democrats are keeping us from oil that would fix everything. It's the President's fault?! Right!

Guess what? Peak oil predictdions took into account all known reserves, including tar sands, shale, and protected resources. That is right, all of it.

In fact, after 1972 predictions for the run out of oil reserves actually were more optimistic than warranted. In short, it is becoming worse sooner than expected.

And what do we do? Why we drive faster! We deny and deny and deny!

And what do we do? We conserve less.

We knew all this in 1972. President Reagan knew this in 1984, when he vetoed the 65 mile per hour speed limit, subverted the MPG standards, and in 1980 when he tore the solar panels off the White House. Conservatives have attained superiority politically by lying about Peak Oil, and pandering to an American public who simply refuses to acknowledge common sense!

Conservatives for cheap political reasons, have tied our "liberty" to our need to get oil anywhere, no matter what the cost. What they are not telling you, is it doesn't make any differrence.

Do you really think, that with a capitalist run energy system, based on profits that right now are huge, that the oil industry is really staying out of vast reserves, or not refining because of environmentalist power? Come on, we are talking the good old American values of greed, that clear cut our forests, that placer mined Northern California so severely that the entire watershed was destroyed. Do you really believe that environmentalists have been so successful that they have kept oil exploration at bay?

That is what they want you to believe, so you will not conserve, and their profits will soar.

Will this work to expand supply?

Of course not. Oil exploration has been going full tilt for decades; expecially since 1972. And, we are not alone. As China, Brazil, India and others "develop" further they are emulating the United States consumer culture, and also are tying their economies to the assumption that oil will last forever. Every country on earth has been desperately looking for oil for the past 50 years.

And, every reputable scientific study shows that oil running out. Every single one.

Add to that the little nuisance of fossil fuel driving global warming, and you have a catastrophe facing our civilization just like the one the Plains Indians faced in 1780.

"The Buffalo are gone, the children are starving, I will not fight anymore", Chief Joseph.

Our children will starve, our culture will collapse, unless we wake up and start shifting right now from our total reliance on fossil fuels.

Those are truths based on the common sense that our buffalo are disappearing with every tank of gas we burn.

It's a matter of common sense.

The Economy Lies Under the Oil

The economists who disagree on the future of California's economy miss the greatest threat, and potential opportunity to economic growth. Your article in Sunday's paper misses the real issue of the economy by a mile.

It is not government regulation or taxes, it is not the opportunity for green jobs and a green economy.It lies in how California, an extreme, automobile centered economy, reacts to Peak Oil; that is a harsh reality, and is building in its destructive force for all of us.We are running out of oil at a rapid pace.

Just today, I read that Mexico is preparing to drill in super deep waters, just as BP did in the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico has, or rather had, vast reserves of oil; now even they are desperately looking for oil thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean.

If Mexico is doing this, we are in deep trouble. The world cannot even come close to providing the oil supply to match its demand. The United States uses between 20 to 40 percent of the world's oil, depending on who you read. Regardless, we make up 3% of the world's population.There is simply NO WAY this can work. We must, right now, start planning and building new ways to get to work, new ways to conserve the precious oil we have left, new ways to live.

In a sense this can revitalize the economy, but in ways that are as revolutionary as when the internal combustion engine was first introduced.

Why now research Peak Oil some, and write an article about it in realistic terms.It will scare people I am sure, just like blacksmiths were scared in 1910, when the "infernal combustion engines" threatened their livelihood.The stakes are even higher now, since our very civilization is at stake.

Liberal, conservative, it makes no difference...cheap oil is gone, and oil is becoming more scarce every day. We are running out of time.

Freedom Betrayed

Herbert Hoover apparently kept score. He was a bitter man, enraged for years by perceived slights at the hand of Franklin Roosevelt.

His recently published "Freedom Betrayed", edited by the Hoover Institute, is an strange echo of the birther madness that affects conservatives today.

What? How on earth did Hoover know that President Obama was a secret Muslim plant, snuck into Hawaii as an embryo, after being conceived by martians in Kenya?

Hoover's diatribe is rife with the same kind of delusional thinking.

When your political position is weak, sometimes you make stuff up.

The editor, a Hoover Institute conservative, claims that Hoover is speaking the truth, has special inside knowledge, knows more than 99% of historians.

And what does he know, what special insight does he have that we had to wait fifty years to find out? These "betrayals" are reminiscent of the 1950s red scare, one almost can see I Love Lucy from our house.

1. Joe McCarthy was actually right. His reign of terror, claiming "fellow travelers" or covert communists were rife in the federal government was right. Hoover knows, he knows who there were.

I wonder why he didn't tell back then.

To believe Hoover, we must disregard historical fact, that McCarthy could find not ONE communist for all the hearings he held. The dozens of Americans who had their career reputations ruined, Hollywood producers and actors who were blacklisted, were really commies according to Hoover. The historical record is somehow wrong. If we believe Hoover, then he somehow had an insight that nobody else could prove in 1951.

2. Roosevelt set up World War II. Germany should have fought Russia without our involvement and both would have been destroyed, we should have stayed out of it. Germany was not near as bad as Russia, Stalin cleverly sent dozens of agents to America, to sway Roosevelt into taking sides in the war. Roosevelt waged a secret war in the North Atlantic against poor old Germany, deliberately causing the war.

3. The Japanese were forced into WWII. Roosevelt, (notice a trend here...it is ALL Roosevelt's fault- sounds like today's attacks against President Obama), tricked the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor. The Japanese did not want war, they were manipulated into it.

4. Toward the end of WWII Roosevelt sold out Europe, he gave Eastern Europe to Stalin, subjugating millions to slavery or worse. After the war, communists in the federal government actually conspired against the interests of the United States; that is why we needed McCarthy's hearings.

5. In short, Roosevelt was a dictator, a traitor, a communist, and was rude to the butler as well.

Nonsense, all nonsense!

First McCarthy was wrong. He never found one communist agent.

For all the work, he got one conviction for perjury, none for espionage. Not one. You would think, after years of "Un-American Activity Hearings" he would have got lucky and found one communist spy. He didn't find any!

His efforts were the birther movement of the time, so whacked out that finally an exasperated Dwight Eisenhower had the political courage to stop him (after enjoying the roasting the Democrats took for almost two years).

Moderate Republicans approached McCarthy like they do the birthers of today, slyly not agreeing with them, but not attacking them either. A shrug of the shoulders, a wink and a nod, only encourages the madness; as long as only Democrats took the hit.

As today, Republicans stood silently by as a maniac used lies, scare tactics and power to destroy innocent people, which was acceptable, as long as it discredited Democrats. When McCarthy turned on Republicans, things changed fast and his reign of terror ended.

The birther movement had its antecedents in McCarthyism. The birther movement is much like McCarthyism in its cynical political application.

Roosevelt set up World War II? This ignores some huge facts: one, Britain was on the ropes, our old ally was about done. France had already been defeated. Western Europe was gone. Russia was about finished as well, leaving nothing in the way between Germany's superior war machine and the United States.

Thanks to Hoover and other "America Firsters", the United States was so isolationist that the draft passed by ONE vote in Congress in 1940. Thanks to isolationists, our military was horribly under prepared. This was with Germany literally knocking on the door.

Hoover, who once famously said that "prosperity was right around the corner" in 1932, was working hard at the time to keep America out of the war in 1940.

By doing so, he was setting us up for defeat.

At the time, because of the horrors of WWI, it made some sense, until December 7, 1941 that is.

The Japanese were forced into the war, is he serious?

Hoover, as usual, conveniently forgets that the Japanese had invaded China in the early 1930s, and had just about conquered it. And, another part of the Pearl Harbor attack strategy, was a coordinated attack on Southeast Asia and of course the Philippines.

Strange, how the poor Japanese, who were "cornered" into striking back at the American monolith, had a coordinated and well planned invasion plan for most of the Pacific, including Australia, that they put into immediate and devastating effect after Pearl Harbor.

In short, Japan had a preemptive attack strategy to conquer most of the Pacific; not exactly a defensive posture.

Japan also engaged in "peace" negotiations for months, while secretly sneaking up and attacking without a declaration of war; it doesn't sound like they were acting reluctantly in self defense.

The Japanese were the aggressors, they attacked the United States. How on earth can Hoover claim they were manipulated into attack? If they were, then why did they set into effect an elaborate plan of conquest?

If Hoover were right, the Japanese would have attacked, and immediately sued for peace. Tell the Bataan Death Marchers that! The Japanese had a plan, and it was way more ambitious than Hoover could ever imagine.

These historical facts show Hoover for the spiteful, vengeful and pathetic historical figure he became.

There is good reason for this spite. Republicans were nearly destroyed by the depression and World War II. The reason was they took positions contrary to the best interests of the American people.

Hoover was wrong on the depression. So were most Americans, including many Democrats. The modern economy had changed so much because of WWI, that the old paradigms did not work (the gold standard for one).

Hoover was, rightly or wrongly, blamed for the depression. That would be hard for anyone to take.

It took the experimentation of the New Deal, and the huge economic effects of WWII to change the economic approach to bring back prosperity and growth. Hoover did not have a clue what to do.

And sure enough, after WWII, clueless Republicans once again wanted to go back to small government, the unregulated economic approach of the 1920s; attacking Democrats for being communists and Roosevelt as a fool.

And, once again, in 2007, it blew up in their faces. Looking backward when trying to manage a global economy does not work! They still are clueless!

We are having the same argument we had in 1933, with predictable results. President Obama refers to it as trying the same thing over and over, expecting a different result... it simply does not work!

Conservatism does not work to manage a modern global economy. It is out of date, short sighted, weighted toward the rich, and leads to widespread poverty. It is Hooverville all over again!

And then there is that pesky reality that Roosevelt and the Democrats were spot on about the need for the war. When the American Army uncovered the horrors of the Holocaust, any question of the need for the war evaporated.

Hoover's clinging to the assumption that the war was unnecessary, that it was part of Roosevelt being duped by Stalin, does not compare well with what we found in the concentration camps.

Germany, and Japan to a lesser degree, planned and enacted genocide on a huge scale. The historical record proves that both had elaborate plans for conquering the United States, and Hitler made no bones about what he would do to Jews and Blacks once he took over.

Hoover is a tragic figure in history. He was trained engineer, with a first class mind. He was also an humanitarian, who helped feed Europe after WWI.

But he was a partisan hater of the man who displaced him after one disastrous term in the White House. His party never could get over the fact that the world changed so fast, and the conservative approach that had served so well simply no longer worked.

Roosevelt did not help, when he famously said, "The difference between the conservative and the liberal is that one looks backwards in time for answers, the other looks into the future, the answers always lie in the future."

Hoover lived in the past, Roosevelt looked forward; and that made all the difference.

Thank God we went with the future, and not with the past