It is now Day 52 of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. After many attempts to “plug the damn hole” and as NASA continues to track the spread of the oil, the question is; what could have been done sooner?  According to the White House, they have been there since day one are the ones calling the shots during this disaster.  The Federal government is responsible for the area off of the coast and they should be involved in making sure that the mess got bigger.  With that in mind, it is up to the Federal government to approve efforts for containment, from new ideas to getting materials to the region.  First of all, everyone should know that the Federal government agency that handles this sort of issue, did have a plan that was approved in 1994.  While the EPA had a plan, it is evident that BP didn’t have a plan for deep water disasters.  What could the EPA have done to contain the spread?

Purchase oil booms to ring the accident

As shown during World War II, the United States manufacturing capabilities are extraordinary.  When a need arises, companies step up to the challenge to provide items for what ever the need is.  In the case of the oil disaster, a good start would be to ring the area with oil booms to prevent oil from spreading or burning the booms to burn off the oil.  Apparently oil booms aren’t very hard to make, which promoted Packgen of Maine to start producing the oil booms.  The problem that John Lapoint of Packgen ran into, was that nobody was buying the booms he made due to red tape from the Federal government.  On May 2nd, Gov. Jindal requested three million feet of booms, but has only received a third of that.  Shouldn’t the Federal government expedite those orders for this emergency?

Build sand barriers

When you were a kid on the beach, you would dig holes and trap water.  You might even dig holes and ridges to focus the direction of the water in a futile attempt to control the tide.  When 1,000s of barrels of oil is heading to your beach, the normal instinct is to but up some sort of barrier between the oil and the shore.  So, Gov. Jindal requested permission to build sand berms to help keep the oil off of the shore.  After not getting anywhere with the Federal government, Gov. Jindal announced that he would build the berms without approval.  It only took the Feds 11 days after that to actually approve the project.  Even though some people don’t believe the berm will work, the question to them is; why not try?  So, you put a bunch of sand out in the ocean, eventually it washes away.

Try new technology

It has been said that “desperation is the mother of invention”.  When we have a disaster like this, we need to think about all possibilities.  While BP works on different way to capping the hole, other people have ideas on how to clean up the mess.  An unlikely source has come from actor Kevin Cosnter.  While filming Waterworld, he decided to do research in to methods of separating oil from water… when the world gets flooded, you’ll need a way to power your boat and such.  After spending millions of his own money researching and building prototypes,  the company that he created with his brother has managed to make a machine that can clean 97% of oil from water.  They also believe that with more funding, they could easily make it 100%.  Since the EPA is in charge of what gets put into the ocean, they would have to approve this machine.  After demonstrating this technology, it has only taken the Federal government 19 days to invite Mr. Costner in front of Congress to tell them that Ocean Therapy Solutions wants to help.

If the President has been there from day one and doing everything he can to solve this issue, why is it taking so long for action to happen, when ideas are available?  Even if each of these three ideas need to be looked into, shouldn’t there be someone working 24/7 to either say “Yea” or “Nay” to the ideas?

When Katrina hit, it was up to the local and state governments to have a plan of action for the hurricane.  The state of Louisiana failed tremendously.  I remember watching a news reporter trying to force the Mayor of Myrtle Beach into saying that the Federal government should be there for response immediately.   The Mayor kept repeating how it was the local government’s responsibility, then the state’s and the finally it went to the Federal government.   In this case, it is the Federal government who has the responsibility and the states trying to get them to do the job.  Unfortunately, this disaster is nothing like community organizing.

Because apparently no news is not good news, ABC decided to go to the basement vault to create a story.  On Monday, Jan 18th, ABC reported that U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With Secret ‘Jesus’ Bible Codes.  The story points out that Trijicon has inscribed Bible versus onto the scopes that they sell the U.S. Military.  A member of an atheist group was upset about this finding and decided to make a big issue out of this as what he calls a violation of  “church and state” and Federal law. What Federal law is violated is up to anyone’s guess and anyone who has read the Constitution knows that “separation of church and state” is not part of that document.  The main problem with ABC’s article is that it is 4 years old and the scope manufacturer has been putting the inscriptions on their scopes for 23 years.  To top things off the Bible verse are part of the serial numbers of the scopes.  For example: the 32mm lens ACOG sight serial number is ACOG4X32JN8:12, with JN8:12 standing for John 8:12.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Bob Owens from Pajamas Media believes that the only reason this story popped up again, is that someone on a bulletin board rediscovered the issue a couple of weeks ago and ABC ran with the story.  Mr. Owen also points out how the scope’s use by the military was a big step forward in field optics.  The fact that the scopes have been used for 23 years points to their quality and usefulness and not to some agenda to make the U.S. Army into a group of crusading nights.

I hope that this story by ABC back fires on them and increases sales for Trijicon.  Trijicon’s founder put his Christian faith out in the open for everyone to see.  He ran his company based on that faith and he boldly showed it by making it part of the company’s mission statement.

Guided by our values, we endeavor to have our products used wherever precision aiming solutions are required to protect individual freedom.

This is just another example of the media taking a minority view point and twisting it order to attach Christian values.  It shows that reporting is no longer reporting anymore, just sensationalism without any facts to back it up.  I have not used Trijicon’s scopes and they are a little pricey, but I know that if I do plan on getting a sight or scope, that I will look at Trijicon’s products first.  I will do this to support an American company making products in this country and a company that bravely puts forth its Christian values.

Interview with Keri on the Bill LuMaye Show on the way back from DC on Nov. 5th.

The original interview was to take place at 5:05 pm and would have happened while the bus with 45 North Carolinian’s were still traveling back from DC. However, due to the shooting at Ft. Hood, the Bill LuMaye Show called Keri back after the Ft. Hood news story was completed. When the interview happened, the group was stopped for dinner, which provided Keri a quiet opportunity to conduct the interview. However, it seems that while recording the show, Keri’s husband Bill LuMaye was not afforded the same silence on his end of the phone radio.

Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) introduced draft legislation of a cap and trade bill with slightly more stringent near-term carbon reduction targets and Kerry’s message was simple: The recession worked so well to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, let’s keep it going.

Read  the entire article at The Heritage Foundation

We have launched the new NC Freedom site. The site has a very different look and feel than the old site and will evolve over time.

The biggest change to the site is the addition of NC Freedom Regions. Regions are sections of the state separated by county lines. County lines are used because they are the easiest boundary to work with and they will not change as easily as voting districts. Also, Federal, state and local districts can cross over many different boundaries, which would make it difficult to adjust to those ever change lines. Each of the Regions were created after leaders from across the state reviewed a proposed map and then made suggestions for adjustments. The goal of the Regions is to help people focus on issues of concern in their geographical area. If an issue crosses into different Regions, then those different regions can work together to get the information out to everyone in those areas.

No matter where you are on the site, to get back to the main NC Freedom home page, just click on the NC Freedom Home button.

Site accounts, Newsletter, and RSS

When the site was moved to the new format, only the administrators of the different regions were given accounts on the new site. If you would like to create an account on the site, you have two options. You can create a standard account by clicking the “Register” link under the login form. This will require you to use a new login and password for the site. The other option is to use one of the social networking sites that you are already are a member of to easily create a new account. If you have a Google (Gmail), Yahoo, Facebook, MySpace or Twitter account, you can click on the appropriate button on the right side of the login form. A popup screen will ask you to verify your username and password, plus it will ask if you want to share that information with the site. By doing this, you will not need a new username or password. If you are already logged into your social account, clicking on the button will log you into NC Freedom.

Before the new site was made available, all of the users who signed up on the old site were transferred to the NC Freedom newsletter list. The newsletter is the main way to get overview information about what is happening at NC Freedom and around the state. This information will never be shared is only used to send information to those who wish to receive information about NC Freedom.

If you need to change your subscription, just enter your e-mail in the form filed and click the “JOIN” button. The Contact Contacts site will lead you through the steps for updating your information.

This email list is for the entire state. Each region can add their own email list link to their regional site separately from this site.

The new site also provides RSS feeds to the entries posted for the main NC Freedom site and each region. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Some e-mail programs allow you to subscribe to the RSS feeds, which will give you e-mail updates when the feed is updated. If you would like to get a RSS for any of the different Regions, you will have to click on that Region first and then the Entries RSS link to subscribe.\

Calendars and Events

The new NC Freedom site has calendars for each Region. All of the Region calendars are rolled up to the main calendar on the main NC Freedom site. The calendars get their information from different sources; Meetup, Ning, Google events. Each Region is responsible for keeping their calendar up-to-date. Some events in the calendar will link to other groups that will handle the RSVPing for the event. In general, the calendars are there to help you keep track of what is going on across the state and to encourage you to join with your fellow patriots in those activities.

Articles and Commenting

Everyone is encouraged to provide feedback on issues. There are two ways of sharing your opinion about what is going on in the world.

The first way is to comment on articles posted by NC Freedom contributors. NC Freedom uses IntenseDebate for its comment tracking. IntenseDebate is used on many sites across the web. If you have a Twitter or Facebook account, you can easily sign-in to IntenseDebate to start commenting on the articles. Setting up an IntenseDebate account is fairly straight forward and it will allow you to use that same account on other sites that use IntenseDebate. IntenseDebate has comment threading, which allows you to pick a comment that you want to reply to and easily track that conversation as well as other “threads” in the discussion.

The other way is to write-up an article on an issue, whether it be federal, state or local. If you would like to start contributing articles to NC Freedom, you can fill out the request form to be an author in one of the regions or for NC Freedom as a whole.

The NC Freedom site is meant to be a conduit through which conservative action is distributed. Each region will be responsible for getting that information to NC Freedom so that conservatives across the state will know what is going on and where they can help. As with anything, the product is only as good as what the makers put into it. You are the makers and your effort is what will make NC Freedom grow.

Our mission is simple: restore the Constitution of the United States given to us by the blood and treasure of our forefathers. We have a duty to pass on a better country to our children as our parents did for us.