Congressional Elections

I had hoped that McCain's selection of Sarah Palin would put him ahead of Obama once and for all. Her selection was in my opinion one of the great political strategy moves of all time. It caught Obama flat footed, galvanized the conservative base, brought more women into Republican side and laid the groundwork for a new generation of Republican conservatives.

I wanted McCain to get ahead so we could put more emphasis on the congressional elections. Republicans really need to recapture congress now more than ever before. The financial mess that just exploded onto the scene demands a lot of attention and we can't trust Democrats to do what is needed.

What is just as important as the financial meltdown is the energy problem. Democrats have already demonstrated that they will no allow expanded exploration and drilling for oil in American waters or other likely areas onshore. What is just as important as drilling for new sources is to build new refineries in areas outside the hurricane zone. Ike proved that a hurricane in the Gulf has an immediate negative impact on oil prices and availability. We have all our eggs in ine basket and desperately need to start locating refineries in other regions.

Probably the biggest thing we need to do and what the Democrats will block if they stay in power is to capitalize on our abundant natural gas reserves. We not only need to drill for more natural gas, we need to build more pipelines to make natural gas available to over 90% of homes and to natural gas fueling stations for cars.

In my opinion, we desperately need to oust the democrats from their majorities in congress. If we don't, we are going to have energy shortages on a massive scale and we will be even more dependent on oil from the middle east. Democrats simply will not address those issues and they will put this country on a path to ruin.

Chuck

Second Childhood

Sometimes I wonder what made me do something like I did today. I bought a Triumph motorcycle.

I have had the itch to do a restoration on an old Triumph for a good while and finally I bit the bullet and bought a 1972 Bonneville. I would have preferred to do a 1968 but all of them that I found were either choppers or priced a lot higher than I was willing to pay. The 1972 is the same style so it really doesn't matter all that much.

I really enjoy bringing an old car or motorcycle back to a like new condition. I have 2 Chevelles, 1966 and 1967 that I restored and the experience was very satisfying.

The good part of this Triumph is that it has a clear title, the bike hasn't been butchered by making it a chopper or bobber. It has all the elements to be better than new when I finish it.

I guess us old retired old men have to do something to keep us out of trouble.

Chuck