As I was gathering my thoughts to pick up where I left off last week with the list of the five things needed to change immediately to protect the future of our great Nation, I received a phone call from a wonderful lady that was leaving our little neck of Penns Woods. She called to tell me how much she has enjoyed reading the Webb Weekly over the years. She gave me one of the nicest compliments. “When I read you, it’s like reading your Father.”

During the move, she had come across a couple of my Father’s articles she had cut out and saved from 2011. She had great praise for him and how timely and right on the mark his articles were back then and how they still apply all these years later.

When I dug up his old column and read it, it was like my Dad was speaking to me through a medium. The very same things he wrote about on February 9th, 2011, were going to be much of the basis of my column.

It’s worth noting that Barack Obama was president then; his vice president, Joe Biden, now obviously occupies the Oval Office. Many of those seated in the House and Senate getting nothing done back then are still living at the trough of the American taxpayer today. And as I often write, where our Country is regarding our problems has been decades in the making.

It’s hard to believe later this month will mark the 9th year since my Father left us.

I figured the best thing I could do this week is republish my Dad’s article.

A heartfelt thank you, Sherry, for reaching out to me. May God bless you and your husband Chip in all your travels.

God Bless America.

– Jim Webb, Jr.

The MORE I See…

That is right!

The more I see — the less I like it.

The recent turmoil in Egypt is just another in a long string of WARNINGS our government fails to recognize. Our inability to recognize danger signals means we have no plan as to how to deal with our enemies when they again strike our homeland. They have openly stated attacks are being planned. Our stupidity is to think we will be able to short stop every attempt they make. It’s the old story — we need to bat a thousand; they only have to be successful once or twice to raise more havoc than we are prepared to handle. There is still time left to better prepare ourselves if only our leaders in Washington would “get it.” Instead of just identifying the threat, I want to offer for everyone to read what we can do to save our lives and our way of life here in the USA.

Let’s start with the big one on the list — ENERGY!

If the radical factions take control of Egypt, the flow of oil through the Suez Canal and adjoining pipeline will cease. The flow of oil out of other parts of the Middle East will also be disrupted. All of the sudden, the only Mid-Eastern oil we will have is what is in the pipeline, i.e., tankers already loaded and headed this way. More important is the answer as to what to do. Here it is, and I will guarantee we can solve the energy question once and for all.

Turn our energy industry loose to have us completely free of Middle East oil in 180 days or less. We have the ingenuity and ability to tap every source of energy we need to be self-sufficient. Is it just that plain and simple? Six months of focused effort, and we can be self-sufficient here in the northern hemisphere. From there, we need to protect our energy from terrorists; we need to look at the US and Canada as joint partners in protecting our resources.

Close our borders to anyone other than qualified immigrants. It is just that plain and simple. If you violate our laws to get here, you are not going to collect free benefits and get free medical care. There are over 12 million illegal aliens here in the country today. The problem is how many are terrorists or sleeper cells ready to strike and cause us harm. We don’t know how to attack a 12-million-person problem, so we sit here and do nothing. We need to get started sorting through these people. We know the country they originated from. We know the countries from where attacks against us originated.

We know what has to be done to close our border with Mexico. So, let’s get started. Our government, who allowed this mess to develop, needs to enforce the laws already on the books.

Coupled with closing our borders comes the next big steps. All USA companies who exported our jobs to foreign countries have six months to return these jobs to the USA. Any companies failing to comply will be barred from shipping any goods to the USA. We are the biggest consumer in the world. If we just kept the jobs here, we wouldn’t have an unemployment problem.

Filling these jobs with taxpaying American workers would be the single greatest thing we can do to help our social security problem and would go a long way to helping to solve the health care problem. You see, the difference between ourselves and the people in Washington is we believe in finding the money to finance new programs before they are started.

Washington loves to start new programs and run up our national debt. No more. No tickee-no washie!!

By filling jobs with American workers offers another benefit. By reducing products coming into our country reduces the available ways for terrorists and their weapons to land in the USA.

You see, our leaders in Washington simply don’t understand the culture of people who cut the heads off of anyone who disagrees with them, on television, no less. We need to get much tougher than we are today. If our parents dilly-dallied around like Washington does today, we would be living under a German regime. How would you like being ruled by a Middle East country? There are people in our government today who would give up rather than fight to preserve our liberties and freedom.

And what about our military? We have people who think we need to be the world’s policemen.

If we are energy self-sufficient, we don’t need to have thousands of troops in places like Afghanistan, and I could name dozens of other places we have troops that just begs for the question of “why are we there?” Get our troops, ships, and planes back here where they can protect the mainland, including Canada.

We, as USA citizens, have a constitution and a Bill of Rights. Our parents, grandparents, and previous generations worked hard and sacrificed much.

I can’t say we have done very well in caring for our legacy. What we are about to leave for future generations is not a legacy but a liability.

National defense, energy, jobs, terrorists, healthcare, illegal aliens are all things with issues. We can’t bury our heads in the sand any longer.

When our current President starts to speak of green energy, using corn to produce fuel, bowing to the pressure of the Middle East, he does so in a most eloquent fashion.

We would hope he evaluates his position on different issues and clearly sees the people with whom we are dealing and the threat they represent to our country. Our leaders in Washington have the opportunity to either be our greatest asset-or our biggest liability. Paralysis by analysis has long been a Washington problem. With all the new members in Congress, we have a very good chance of positive change and putting our citizens and our Nation first.

– Jim Webb (February 9th, 2011)