It is nearly Christmas. I don’t know about every other American city, but I can tell you that traffic in Houston Texas is insane. Perhaps that is the way it should be. How else to reflect the madness of our leadership in Washington? Perhaps we should review some of the more disturbing events of the past few months.

Let’s cut to the chase. Whenever Al Sharpton is given center stage and allowed to speak from a podium of respectability, he is redefining the meaning of the word “oxymoron”. The self-proclaimed reverend is a race-baiter, and has succeeded on the back of fear mongering his entire adult life. The tragic deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner have been politicized and turned into racial incidents where there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that either of their untimely deaths bore one scintilla of a relationship to their heritage or color. What’s worse is that President Obama and Attorney General Holder (he of Fast and Furious and the IRS cover-ups) have repeatedly added fuel to these fires. Instead of dousing angry racial flames, they have poured gas on them. The majority of Americans are tired of it all. The President promised hope, change, and unity. He has delivered hopelessness, deterioration, and discord; a legacy that makes democrats yearn for the likes of Jimmy Carter. I mean, how bad can it get? Well, I think we are finding out.

The democrats in the US Senate issued an entirely partisan report last week condemning torture tactics employed by the CIA in the years immediately following the 9/11 attacks. On one level, I think most Americans would accept the fact that it is incumbent upon us to hold ourselves to a higher standard than our barbaric enemies. This report, however, was designed, written, and delivered with two ideas in mind, and those were to discredit the George W Bush administration, and distract the American people from the mess that now confronts them; a mess entirely of the democrats’ making. Not one Republican was involved in writing the report, and no officials (past or present) from the CIA were consulted. (Click here to learn more about this.)  President George H. W. Bush took time to speak out on the atrocious report.”Nearly four decades ago, it was my privilege to go to Langley to lead the men and women of the CIA at a contentious time. During my short time there, I learned firsthand that they are among the very finest people serving in the United States government — whose selfless and often dangerous work, always behind the scenes, went unheralded. I felt compelled to reiterate my confidence in the Agency today, and to thank those throughout its ranks for their ongoing and vitally important work to keep America safe and secure.” That, my friends, is the definition of class.

On matters economic, most Americans are celebrating lower prices at the gas pump. This celebration does not come without its downside. The major reason the United States has not retreated back into a recession is because of the economic activity (jobs) generated by the oil and gas renaissance over the past five years. Without the resurgence of the energy industry, a case can be made that we would be in year 7 of the great recession. With the dollar price of a barrel of crude slipping into the 50’s, fasten your seat belts. Layoffs and slowdowns are beginning to happen, and the American economy will pay a price.

And while on the wholly depressing topic of our economy, here is the dirty little secret no one is discussing. The Obama deficit is skyrocketing and no effort whatsoever has been put into stop the runaway train that is social spending. You will recall Mitt Romney’s solemn and responsible attempts to address that which ails our US economy were turned around and used against him (very successfully) by President Obama and his merry band of supporters in the main stream media. Lost in all the populist rhetoric was the fact that we truly are in a world of hurt, and it is worse today than it was then. So what is saving us from imminent implosion? I can answer that question with 3 words; low interest rates. Folks, the Fed is between a rock and a hard place. Ironically, low oil prices are buying them some time. As long as inflationary pressures are subdued by lower energy prices, there will be no pressure to raise interest rates. But once rates start going up, the interest cost on our national debt will skyrocket and we simply will not be able to afford to service our self-inflicted debt. The house of cards that is the foundation of our social spending will be exposed for what it is.

The unfortunate truth is that we need a President who can work with both houses of Congress, and pass major social safety net reform. Sadly, the right person for the job would probably have to accept the fact that he or she may be a one term president. We have got to the point (and beyond) where we cannot sustain the ongoing give-aways; to do the right thing will be very unpopular.

There is so much more to say and thoughts to convey. We’ll be back at ya!