During the entire week we heard the news reports stated that this is going to hit Florida, then it said it was going to hit the Carolinas. It was estimated that it would be a CAT3 when it made land fall. Irene was over thousand miles from hit land, moving at 15 miles per hour, but the media along with the Obama Administration were issuing statement to batten down the hatches and prepare for the worse storm to hit the area in over fifty years. The estimates being reported in regards to the damages Irene will cause was over $8 billion and as high as $20 billion.

As of Sunday morning we can see that the damages from the storm was minimal, mostly due to flooding. Yes New York City did get hit with a lot of rain, but being a kid from Brooklyn, it wasn’t the first time nor the last.

It’s gotten to the point where people who listen to the newscast, watch the weather reports and pay attention to possible disasters are starting to think that the “power-that-be” have no idea what they are doing when it comes to notifying the public of important information. The truth of the matter is that they do know what they’re doing and it all surrounds ratings.

Even as the storm was downgraded to a CAT1 Friday night, the news channels didn’t push the point too much. Instead they sent reporters out to areas that the town or city are just a few feet above sea level and made it seem that this is what the entire city was dealing with.

Yes there were many areas in the tri-state area that flooded, but if you look at the landscape of the region, you’ll see that most of the area is only feet above the sea level. Have any decent storm move in on the city and the same thing will happen.

So why didn’t the government do the right thing and properly warn citizens about the truth instead of causing the entire east coast to shut down operations? Because after the mishap of this past winter when New York, New Jersey and Washington were buried under feet of snow, Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Christie and President Obama din’t want to show how incompetent they are when it comes to handling issues that need immediate action. So over the past week, the beaches were closed, subway systems shut down and government agencies had a few extra days off.

How are the American people going to take these warnings serious if every single issue is going to be handled like it’s the next Armageddon. News broadcast, newspapers, and the government (all levels) must be honest and precise with the information they release to the public if they expect the public to take them serious. If not, one day there will be a major warning and many people will just shake it off and go about their business. Then what are we to do when there are hundreds of people injured, trapped or even dead because the media and the government cried wolf once too many times.

The issue with subsidies is that it’s only props up the the desired industry to stay a float when it isn’t profitable. The United States have been trying to find a better way to reduce our need for foreign oil for years and giving ethanol a chance seemed like the right idea at the time. We now know so much more about it that we know it isn’t worth subsidizing it. Ethanol hasn’t been the bio fuel we needed to get to the final goal of energy independence. It’s actually has affected the price of corn as well as taking a food source away from the American people.

Finally Congress is moving forward to banning the subsidy support for ethanol. This week a vote was taken on a measure to repeal ethanol subsidies. The Senate voted 73-27 Thursday to end two major subsidies. The first is a $0.45 a gallon tax credit given to oil companies which blend ethanol into gasoline. The other is a $0.54 per gallon tariff on imported ethanol which is aimed at Brazil to help protect our domestic market.

The result will be a savings of about $6 billion dollars per year of the American tax payer’s money. President Obama, of course is not happy with Congress’ decision to take this step. He has made remarks towards vetoing the bill when it comes to him for his signature. The measure passed by a veto-proof margin will still need the Senate to take action since the repeal of the ethanol subsidies was only an amendment. If it clears the Senate, it will need to go to the House of Representative for approval too.

In a year where cutting the spending has never been more important than before, Obama vows to veto the bill. The bill the repeal language is attached to is expected to never make it into law. It’s a slap in the face to the American people as Washington is looking to cut spending, but no one in the Beltway is willing to make the sacrifices needed to get the job done.

This vote comes at a time when global criticism rises over the subsidies for corn-based ethanol. Some blame the industry for the rising food costs. Ethanol may be good for corn farmers, but U.S. livestock farmer argue about the rising cost of feeding which in turn has caused the rise in food prices.

In my opinion, if the idea of ethanol is such a great profitable one, then the industry doesn’t need the subsidies in the first place. I understood in the beginning of the ethanol movement, subsidies were needed to get the ball rolling. After ten plus years of subsidies to any industry is still needed, then maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.
In the case of energy independence, the best way to get there is by America drilling in their own backyard. After all, we have the biggest deposit of natural gas than any other country or continent. Many other countries like China, Russia, and Cuba are now drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, why would we not do the same.

After all that Obama has done to “save the economy” from it’s recession, it hasn’t worked. Besides, why would it? Everything he has done has been the opposite of Reaganomics. The increase in the deficit is the most than any other president has done and if you were to combine the spending of all the past presidents, Obama has them beat. Programs that have been supported for by the stimulus are nothing more than wasteful spending that won’t do anything for growing jobs and bringing us out of this recession.

Of course some voters, especially liberal and progressive Democrats, think this is what needs to be done to save the country. They don’t seem to realise that more wasteful spending is not the answer!

As for ideas that will save this economy and help launch us ahead by leaps and bounds, Peter Ferrara has written a book that details the issues we are experiencing now because of the policies implemented by past and present administrations. In his book “America’s Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb”, Peter shows us ways to turn the economy around in a short period of time. He talks about how a normal recession lasts about ten months, while this current one has been going on for forty-one months and how the situation can not be changed while on this current course.

Click the link to view or purchase this eye opening book.

It’s a must read book for all those who are concerned with their financial future.

“Tonight’s speech was a reminder that, for decades, the policies of Republicans and Democrats alike have failed. Libertarians are asking people to take matters into their own hands. Instead of just complaining, we’re encouraging ordinary Americans to step up and run for Congress on the Libertarian Party ballot line.

I can say exactly the same thing about President Obama’s speech tonight that I said about George W. Bush’s State of the Union speech in January 2008: ‘Tonight’s State of the Union address went much as expected. Instead of calling for a more limited role of the federal government in American society, the President laid out plans that would only increase the government’s intervention into the realm of economics, health care, education and foreign policy.

I am weary of the President’s unspoken premise that only government–indeed, only the federal government–can accomplish good in our society.

President Obama seems to be totally blind to the concept that government can cause problems rather than solve them. His speech was filled with ‘More’: more handouts, more spending, more programs, more bailouts, more regulations. We Libertarians want less government, not more.

Not to be outmatched by the Democrats, the Republican Party conveyed its lack of seriousness in addressing this nation’s government spending problems by having Bob McDonnell, Virginia Governor for eleven (11) days, deliver its rebuttal to the President. If they were really serious about addressing the dire fiscal circumstances of this nation, they would have had Paul Ryan, a six-term congressman from Wisconsin, who has proposed the most serious plan of anyone in the two older parties to keep us from going off a fiscal cliff.

Last week, Alan Auerbach, Professor of Economics and Law at UC Berkeley and US government fiscal policy expert, said that the Democratic and Republican parties are in a ‘death embrace’ with their government spending. The only political party that is rationally and forthrightly addressing the need to cut government spending and end our culture of ever expanding entitlements is the Libertarian Party.

As Americans lose hope in Obama, we Libertarians are warning voters against running back to the Republicans who got us into such big messes in the first place. Republicans started the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Republicans made the false intellectual case for bailing out banks and car companies. Republicans argued that deficits don’t matter. Republicans gave us the giant Medicare expansion bill.

The President’s suggestion of a ‘spending freeze’ was especially ludicrous and insulting to the intelligence of Americans. The amounts involved are minuscule, and Congress won’t accept them anyway. Will Obama sign the spending bills that ignore his ‘freeze’? You bet he will. Instead, the President should demand across-the-board cuts in all areas, including entitlements.

The President talked a lot about jobs. Unfortunately, the policies he supports are responsible for most of the unemployment we see today. High taxes, minimum wage laws, hiring regulations, firing regulations, mandatory unemployment benefits, and other government interference make it much more difficult for businesses to hire and keep employees. As expected, the President’s prescription is to increase the dosage of this government poison.

While our nation is declining dangerously right now, a turnaround could be straightforward and simple with steps like these: 1. Bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan; 2. Stop rewarding failed companies with bailouts; 3. Cut taxes and spending and let the free market work.

Finally, on the matter of political rhetoric, I call upon the two older parties to stop spoon feeding politics to the American people as if we are a bunch of overgrown children. These are difficult times that call for more than rhetorical flourish or positioning a group of diverse people around a politician. Older party politicians need to be specific about their proposed policies, as Libertarians are.

And, I know I’m probably just wasting electrons, but can’t we go back to the days in which the President sent a copy of his speech to Congress and left it at that. The speech last night took 1/7000th of an entire year. I think the vast majority of the American people would agree that we have better ways to spend our time.”

William Redpath has served as the Chairman of the Libertarian Party since 2006. For more information, or to arrange an interview, call LP Executive Director Wes Benedict at 202-333-0008 ext. 222.

The LP is America’s third-largest political party, founded in 1971. The Libertarian Party stands for free markets and civil liberties.

It’s a shame that many (if not all) of these politicians are just going through the motions of actually listening to their voters. Quite a few of them have canceled their meeting and the ones that are having one are just trying to pacify the crowd.

Arlen Specter (Republican turned Democrat) had a meeting this morning and from the way his posture and his actions gave me the impression of not really listening to the people. When one woman asked a question about health care. She read from the Bill that at a certain age, the persons coverage would be limited. If a seventy-four year old with cancer, that patient would not be given the treatment to fight the disease. The Senator gave a snappy answer as to the statement is just a lie and 1that that is not the case for the elderly. He immediately asked for the next question and did not go into detail of the bill.

These politicians no longer care about the American people and in my opinion should be voted out of office at the first chance that they come up for re-election. Not just the Democrats, but the Republicans as well. The position of a Senator or a Representative was never meant to be a career. It seems that all politicians have forgotten the fact that they work for us, the American people. We are their base and they need to be reminded of the fact. No matter who is up for re-election, they should be removed from the position. The political ties that they have made have gotten too big.

There are a lot of third parties in this country, but none really have the ability to rise up politically and make a difference like the Libertarian party. It is the only political organization which respects you as a unique and competent individual.

The creation of this country was based on the ideas that are more in line with the Libertarian way than any other party. It’s approach is more of a logical consistent one toward politics based on a moral principle of self ownership. We believe in a smaller government. The government’s role in our lives should be to defend our freedom from force or fraud. Free expression of speech, religion (or lack of), the right to control one self’s body, action and property.

A free-market economy, with the abundance and prosperity it can bring is what the Libertarian party wants for this country just as our fore fathers wanted over two hundred years ago. Civil liberties and personal freedom that has puts this country above all others; and a foreign policy of non-intervention, peace, and free trade as prescribed by America’s founders.

It’s time to start looking at the third largest political party in this country. Soon to be the party of choice above all the others out there. There is no other party that will care about your freedoms and the rewards of your hard work than the Libertarian party.

For more information about the Libertarian party, check out their official website at www.lp.org