Dan Greear releases new TV Commercial

Who Is Truly Ready to Make a Difference in West Virginia?

West Virginia received some good news today. Beth Walker's run for State Supreme Court has impressed exactly half of the state's voters. The most recent polls show that the race between Walker and the second place Democratic opponent remains too close to select a leader. In a state where 2/3 of the voters register with the Democratic Party, this is good news to anyone looking to change our anti-business climate.

A Walker victory means a shift away from our state's "judicial hellhole" reputation. She can join others on the bench who join many West Virginians in being tired of crackpot lawsuits and their damaging effect on our economy. Why would anyone want to do business in a state that does nothing to discourage the most ridiculous claims against honest business owners while allowing benefits to the friends of the powerful? We need rule of law in West Virginia, not rule of lawsuits.

On the other hand, Nancy Guthrie has swallowed the Obama change mantra hook, line and sinker. She has adapted it to her own political campaign, albeit clumsily according to Vic Sprouse's Change West Virginia blog. How West Virginia Democrats can run on a change platform is beyond my comprehension, unless they tell the whole state to do something it has rarely done in the past seventy-five years, vote Republican.

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They may have reached that decision anyway. With Democrats putting signs for Gary Howell, Dan Greear, Russ Weeks, Beth Walker, and others in their yards, maybe our state is finally fed up with seventy-five years of misrule.

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Has anyone else noticed the change in Obama lately? Mean spirited, sarcastic, no longer confident and pleasant looking. We may be seeing the real Obama here folks. As was said so eloquently on the movie Super Troopers, "desperation is a stinky cologne." The weird inability to stay on message is also a telling sign that the wheels fell off some time ago.

As for Biden, has anyone seen him at all lately? Do the Democrats have a bunker that they stuffed him into? What an inspired choice for them. It is almost as if they saw Biden as Obama's Dick Cheney. Taking pages from the Bush victory story is something I never thought I would see a Democrat attempt. Maybe they ought to listen to the Republican experts that say personally attacking Palin is a horrible idea. I can honestly say that Uncle Joe would have done that campaign a lot more good than Biden.

Personally I would almost bet that the Democrat power brokers have privately folded their tents. They will return to do penance at the Temple of Hillary, and wait for the next favorable time to unleash her on the electorate.

Desperate Times

Almost six weeks from the election, candidates have started falling into desperation mode.

Anne Barth, in an odd strategy designed to link Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito to the president that West Virginia convincingly supported twice, has accused the 2nd District representative of supporting the George W. Bush agenda blindly. In reality nothing could be further from the truth. Capito supported measures designed to reign in institutions such as Freddie Mac while voting with the president 49% of the time. Her desire to follow her conscience and constituents has earned her the respect of the voters. Barth also accused Capito of failing to hold committee hearings on housing problems until too late. Most folks know that only committee chairs can call meetings.

Barack Obama refuses to retract in any way his remark "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig." This is a colloquialism that the Ivy League has learned from someone in flyover country that unfortunately resembles Palin's "Pit bull with lipstick" remark at the Republican convention. It was probably not an attack on Palin. If so it would be in tremendously poor taste. However, Obama refuses to back off the remark. He refuses to even apologize in case he caused offense. The Obama campaign has lost tremendous ground over the past month and shows no sign of regaining traction.

Shotgun Career Choice

Tenth graders in a local high school were shocked recently when a guidance counselor walked into their classroom and announced that the State of West Virginia determined that they must have a clear idea of who they wanted to marry by their date of graduation.

Okay, this did not really happen, but it is not far from the truth. The counselor stated that the State of West Virginia expected each student to have a career choice by graduation from high school.

Say what? I did not know what I wanted to do until I was almost done with college. Some people do not find their calling until much later in life. How can tenth graders, many of whom experience trouble picking out their socks in the morning, understand what they will want to do when they are thirty, forty, or fifty?

What ever happened to the school encouraging children to use their youth to try out different choices? What ever happened to teachers telling their students that they could do anything they wanted? Sure not everyone can be a brain surgeon, but let the intrepid find out on their own whether it is for them or not.

One student called it "Communist" while some parents advised their children to not inform the counselor even if they did have one in mind. After all at the end of the day, it is not really their business. It actually does encourage a more socialist view of schools manufacturing children like tractors and playing a heavy role in "helping" students make choices that in all honesty they do not need to make at this time.

It is not even desirable for students to be pressured into such choices so early. Most people change almost completely between high school and their mid twenties. You gain perspective on life, your experiences change your dreams. The kid who wants to be an NBA superstar at age 15 figures out he wants to be a dentist by 22 because his life experience helped him to choose all on his own. But who has the right to take away this kid's dream before life has convinced him to give it up (unless he really is that good!) Hard work and determination sometimes turns impossible dreams into wonderful realities unless someone along the way crushes the dream by encouraging the kid to be "more realistic." If Owen Schmitt were realistic when he was 20, we'd never have heard from him and he'd certainly never be in a Seattle Seahawks uniform. We'd also have many fewer doctors, researchers, writers, and poets from the ghettos and hollows who were told "you'll never make it out, don't even try."

Again, like any blog entry I write about the school system, the blame rarely lies with principals, teachers, or counselors. It lies with those at the top who make decisions that sound wonderful on paper and make them look good politically, but actually disrupt the learning process and undermine respect for the entire system.

We need to encourage kids to dream big, to dream about all the possibilities, and to make choices in their own good time, not on the regimented schedule of Uncle Joe and the State of West Virginia.

I don't like Ike, I like Walmart even less

While most of us knew that Ike would have an impact on the price of fuel at the pump, I believe most of us know there is a delay in that correlation. A delay of about 7 hours is a little short, but that is the time it took.

Hurricane Ike hit the Texas coast at 2:10 AM local time on Saturday the 13th. Ike hit the Keyser Walmart 7 hours later. I pulled in to fuel up my truck and when I tried to turn on the pump it would not come on. There were a fair amount of people standing at the pumps and none would come on. As us customers began to talk with each other, and the information was the power was off and they were resetting it.

When the pumps came back on it was apparent that Hurricane Ike had struck Walmart, because when the pumps came back on fuel was $0.30 higher that when I had pulled in the station. No delivery truck had delivered any knew fuel. Even if the fuel had been piped from the Gulf Coast it takes about 4 days to arrive to eastcoast terminals (yes there is a gasoline pipleline that runs from the Gulf Coast to New Jeresy).

That Walmart gas station probably has 8000 gallon tanks in the ground and 3 grades of gasoline. Assuming they were half full at the time that means they raised the price on 12,000 gallons of fuel by $0.30. That makes an extra $3,600 profit for Walmart off a Hurricane that never hit the Keyser Walmart. That is wrong it is price gouging.

Some people would blame unchecked capitalism, but they would be wrong. We are Walmart customers and I doubt any of us like what they did. We are fully aware they were taking advantage of the situation and their customers. Capitalism has the answer, we simply take our business elsewhere. There are plenty of other service stations in the area and we should reward those that have the lowest price on fuel.

If you use the gas price checker on this page you will find by not shopping for fuel at Walmart you will usually save money. Dale's Pit Stop north of McCoole is usually the low cost leader and that is how you use capitalism to your fuel advantage.

Enough is Enough

On August 29th Allegheny Power submitted a request for a rate increase. If approved, everyone's power bills will increase based upon usage. The Farmer's Almanac has predicted a rough winter. Should this rate increase go into effect, it will be more difficult for many to heat their homes.

That being said, Allegheny Power claims that it must recover $173 million in costs. A company must make some kind of profit to be viable. If utilities were public, they'd be just as inefficient as any other public entity and also probably be run by someone named Manchin. In the short term, not granting rate increases makes the problem worse.

The long term demands solutions that many have suggested. Al Gore wants to eliminate fossil fuel usage completely. Any realist knows that is not feasible, that it is more of a political statement than a plan. Too many areas depend on mining and it gives us a very high percentage of our energy production. Definitely keep looking for ways to burn coal more cleanly, but you cannot rule it out as a resource. Another option is to expand natural gas production in our state.

Our power bills have gone up because demand is high and supply short. In West Virginia there is no excuse when we sit atop massive deposits of coal and natural gas. It is time for the state to lessen the restrictions on gas drilling.

I joked with a neighbor who was struggling with a gas bill that it will soon be cheaper for them to buy their own equipment and drill for the gas themselves. It was said in jest, but the idea of people tending to their own needs is not so far fetched. Consider that not too long ago in our history many folks dug coal out of their backyard for their stoves. A radio commercial recently directed people towards information on distilling their own gasoline at home. West Virginians have always shown resourcefulness in tough times. The government and environmentalists may not like it, but a lot of people in this state may just take matters into their own hands and start doing for themselves.