No Nukes!

The conventional wisdom says that Nuclear power should be widely used because it is so very efficient, clean, and available 24 X 7. But just because we CAN do something does not mean that we necessarily should. Hitler and the German Nazi party were hell bent on efficiencies and carried out to the nth degree decided it would be in the best interests of efficiencies to kill off all the disabled, handicapped, slow people, jews, etc.; so much for efficiency.

Our primary obligation and responsibility must always be foremost to the safety and well being of the American people. And we could extend that thought to include in general all of the people in the world. People first.

If Nuclear power ends up killing many of us off then no matter how efficient it was the net result is that it was not such a good idea. I have no faith in large corporations that are owned by stock holders which are focused only on the bottom line. Those are the very same corporations that will allow a certain amount of death if said death is limited in scope to few enough lawsuits so as not to impact the bottom line(IE: Ford Pinto exploding gas tanks thank you very much).

My vote goes to publicly owned wind, solar, and other alternative energy sources.

Crashing Politicians

The movie “CRASH” showed us how people are a complex blend of both good cop and bad cop and life is not as simple and black and white as we would like it to be. And so it is with politicians. We applaud those politicians who can articulate precisely our own point of view, but when the very same politicians are revealed as human beings with flaws and imperfections, then we are disappointed.

It’s as if we expect politicians to be walking talking American Government text books or a rolling law library that always looks like a Time Magazine cover photo shoot and every word uttered is a speech in the category of the Gettysburg address. None of us is perfect and that applies to politicians, too.

So what can we reasonably expect from our leaders? I think we can visit their web sites and study their positions on the issues and hold them accountable to work towards those goals. Credibility is to mean what you do what you say as it pertains to the salient issues of the day.

What matters to me is that the president stay focused on these issues:

1. Energy Independence (alternative energy from solar, wind, geo thermal, hydrogen)
2. Ending the war in Iraq (bring all of the troops home)
3. Health Care – single payer for all Americans
4. The economy
5. Social Security
6. Immigration stopped now

It is reasonable to expect that our leaders will spend our tax dollars wisely and uphold the constitution as it was written and not what some lawyer thinks they can get away with.

Time Magazine, Rainforests, Guitars, Global Warming, and the Iraq War

Rain forests have been disappearing at an alarming rate for decades. That Time Magazine has suddenly decided to blame bio fuel for the disappearing rain forests is proof positive Time is working for the oil companies. Guitars made out of Brazilian Rosewood started being priced through the roof in the 1970s when a premium was placed on the wood due to disappearing rain forests. Environmental movements pressed to have logging slowed or stopped back in the 1970s. But Bio fuel is a much more recent development.

Besides, the world has a long history of clearing land for farming. The first thing the pioneers did when they arrived in North America was clear the land for farming to grow food - a very natural thing to do. So don’t blame bio fuel for the absence of trees. Besides, we can always plant more trees and we should. Plant a tree today!

The real solution is to have solar, wind, geo thermal, and wave technology, generate electricity for the grid instead of coal and nuclear. Then plug in hybrid cars can plug directly into the grid and be recharged each night. None of these technologies require that we cut down any trees or that we burn anything.

Factories that create solar panels can be run by solar powered electricity and thus you have solar energy being used to create solar products. Same for wind, geo thermal, and wave technologies; alternative energy can be used to create alternative energy products. Nothing is burned. Solar panels last up to thirty years without repair or replacement so the cost of investment is well worth it over the long run and will go far in reducing the threat of global warming.

Bio fuel is burned and that creates more CO2 (big negative) but bio fuel does make us more energy independent from terrorist nations that hate us. It may also lower the price of crude if we can flood the market with bio fuel.

Indian Rosewood is now used in acoustic guitars with good results. Apparantly India doesn't mind giving up their Rosewood trees for guitars. There is also a Madigascar Rosewood that is sometimes used for guitars. Other tonewoods used in guitars such as Mahogany, Koa, Maple, Walnut, are available from areas other than the Amazon.

It is essential that we develop and deploy the new alternative energy technologies to reduce the stranglehold the oil companies have on our American economy. Unless we force the issue big oil will continue to take advantage of a willing public who refuses to be weaned from the teat of the oil barrel. When oil becomes unnecessary, the Iraq war becomes useless.

Why General David Petraeus will never leave Iraq

The original excuse for invading Iraq was first for Regime change and second to secure the weapons of mass destruction. Mission accomplished signified that the United States had toppled the Iraqi government and when later Saddam Hussein was captured and executed there could be no doubt there had been a regime change. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found save the poison the United States sold Iraq decades ago. No nukes. That was five years ago. What are we still doing there? The war is over and we won. Now is the occupation of Iraq.

For General David Petraeus to now stand before us and relate how we must continue to stay in Iraq is proof positive there is another agenda for the Iraq war that has nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction and nothing to do with Regime change.

General Petraeus is charged with the success of the occupation of Iraq and so quite naturally he will always ask for more troops and more money. The more resources he has at his disposal the more his chances increase of having a successful mission in Iraq. He is not involved in the Global war against terror except for where it pertains to Iraq. Nor is he charged with defending the United States against invasion, except where it pertains to Iraq.

But more than that, General Petraeus is not charged with the National Budget, the National Debt, jobs for Americans, taxes, health care, or any of the rest of the agenda items that we look to congress to decide for us. Congress and only congress has the constitutional authority to raise money for troops, training of troops, to turn on and turn off wars, not General Petraeus. He is looking for congress to tell HIM when the time has come. Don’t look for Petraeus to come to Congress and say I am finished, the day will never happen and the occupation of Iraq will never end unless congress acts.

Bush Bankrupts America while candidates call each other names

The bankruptcy of five major airlines over the last two weeks is just one more proof positive that the rising cost of crude oil is crippling the U.S. economy and the disastrous foreign and economic policies of the Bush administration will put most Americans in extreme hardship for the foreseeable future.

When questioned, the bankrupt airlines have reported that one of the major reasons for the bankruptcies has been the rising cost of fuel. The price increase of oil is directly related to the inadequate foreign and domestic policies of the Bush administration.

One metric to determine the success or failure of the war in Iraq must be to keep oil costs consistently low, otherwise, there is not much point in trying to keep America safe since all Americans will have starved to death.

Thirty five years ago the U.S. intrusion into the Middle East put gasoline prices through the roof and put the economy into a deep depression. What we learn from history is that we have learned nothing from history.

Stringent controls must be put on the oil companies governing salaries of top executives to include bonus, stock options, etc. The relationship between oil executives and OPEC must be scrutinized to determine if there is collusion to rig prices. Above all, the United States must stop invading countries in the Middle East. It is apparent to this writer at least, that the United States is being punished for the Iraq War by the oil producing nations.

I would like to see the candidates debate the economy instead of who has a minister that is strange and who has a husband that can’t keep his pants zipped. The campaign is again sidetracked on not debating the salient issues.

Why I am Pro Choice!

Contained within Pro Choice is the ability to choose life. For many people, having a child can be a wonderful experience; or it can be certain death. With so much at stake shouldn't that choice be yours and yours alone?

There are hundreds of things that could go wrong with a pregnancy or the mother may not live through a delivery because of cancer or some other disease. Many people would choose to go ahead and have the child anyway but some would not. With such a personal decision that effects whether you live or die, do you really want that decision to be made by some bureaucrat who doesn't even know you? Or worse yet, do you want that decision to be made by some religious fanatic who has a motive that may not be consistent with your own?

Pro Choice gives you the freedom to make that decision on your own and you can choose life or not. Since this country began the entire premise of democracy and America has been freedom. I can think of nothing more free than the ability to make your own choices.