Obama Should Reflect on His 16th Birthday, Now that His 50th Has Passed (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | President Barack Obama celebrated a half-century of living Thursday, but with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling over 500 points, dropping for the ninth straight session, any celebrating must've been dampened because of the continued economic woes of this nation and those in Europe who are struggling with debt crises, austerity, and putting their people to work.

This includes countries like Greece, Portugal, Ireland, and now possibly Spain and Italy will need bailouts, as reported by the Associated Press.

But some encouraging news came out on the president's birthday. McClatchy Newspapers reported that America's reliance on foreign oil has dropped dramatically from 2005 levels (thanks in part to a purportedly better way of calculating this measurement via "net petroleum imports"), when this country was importing 60.3 per cent of the liquid gold to meet its energy needs. Through 2010, the U.S. now imports 49.3 per cent of oil for its needs, partly due to the rich natural gas deposits (which can be used for the making of petrochemicals and fuel oil). Additionally, potentially rich oil finds (from shale formations) in both Texas and North Dakota exist for a more self-reliant future.

Obama's 50th birthday will not be the most positively memorable in regards to what's going on in the nation, so he should instead look back 34 years to Aug. 4, 1977, his 16th birthday. That's when President Jimmy Carter signed the Department of Energy into being, according to WIRED. In the current day, the Energy Department's scientists are also trying to help combat America's reliance on imported oil. For instance, through the Biomass Program, they are hoping to create petroleum substitutes with the help of spoiled fruits and vegetables, as trumpeted by the government agency's website.

So while conservatives like Rep. Michele Bachmann, R.-Minn., are calling for the end of the Department of Energy, according to U.S. News & World Report, such ranting and raving by the tea party darling should be taken with a grain of salt. It should be crystal clear now that Republicans and tea partiers see government primarily for four things: "thumping" Christian dogma on the American people, undermining social programs, making sure the military industrial complex stays bloated to bankrupt this country while scheming for legislation that keeps the wealthy from paying their fair share of federal taxes.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110806/us_ac/8916885_obama_should_reflect_on_his_16th_birthday_now_that_his_50th_has_passed

black widow rip bryan stow bmc freemason freemason skynews