ProgressOhio

Over the last few weeks I have heard many "reasons" why the price of gas is setting records.  The reasons come from "the man on the street", Oil Industry "Spokespersons", politicans and economists.  They include:

• Oil Shortages
• Refinery "pinch points"
• Shortages of Refineries
• Aging Pipelines
• Fluctuating Demand
• Change in Quality of Crude
• Increased Demand in China and India
• High Gas Taxes
• The Iraq War
• Unrest in Venezuela
• Political Instability in Nigeria
• Hurricane Katrina
• Environmental Regulations

..... and many others ad nauseum.

No matter which of those conditions exist, it still can be clarified in one phrase: 

"RECORD HIGH GAS PRICES - RECORD HIGH OIL COMPANY PROFITS". 

Can anyone else detect a remote correlation here?

What this administration (..and I used a lower-case “a” intentionally) has done TO our constitution by playing loose with our civil liberties is not just immoral and/or unethical; it is darn right ILLEGAL!!! What has always set our country apart from others on this little planet are our freedoms, our liberties; attained through our Democracy with its foundations based in our Constitution and the Bill of Rights.. It has always been the measure by which other countries compare to and strive for.

That is what our brave soldiers fought for in WWI, WWII, the Korean Conflict and others. Our freedom, our way of life, was being threatened. They fought, and many died, to protect it. Now, sadly, enemies of our way of life don’t have to win battles and take it away from us.

Our administration is GIVING it away.

While our enemies are probably celebrating every time this administration takes a liberty from us, our Collective American Souls should be shedding a tear. The boundaries between our way of life and our enemies are slowly blurring; and we can blame ourselves more than them for that.

If we change the very basis of our Democracy in order to defend it then we will have nothing left to defend.

Well, ya gotta start somewhere.  This is an "intro" post.  This blog will concentrate on the issues most dear to my heart; social justice, civil rights, human rights and separation of church and state. 

I am a woman very frightened by the direction our Administration has taken us over the last few years in terms of our civil liberties.  There have been so many "Executive Decisions" made that fall into the category of "the ends justify the means".  In the name of "Security and Patriotism" we are slowly being stripped of our basic civil rights.  What they don't seem to understand is that the very Rights that are being taken away are the very Rights that we supposedly are fighting for; the Rights that have made us the prototype of freedom.  I can't help but think that those brave men and women who, over the last 100+ years, lost their lives to actually safeguard those freedoms would be appalled at what is happening.  Every time we are stripped of a civil Right our enemies have won a battle.  We can't let them win the "war".