Democrats prospective for the upcoming election

I had the opportunity to meet a lot of Bush/Christian supporters recently. You would think that with all the bad news, they might begin to have a change of heart. The only problem is they don't watch the news or they watch Fox News. They live in a bubble and are clueless about what is happening in the world. As far as they know, he's still doing a great job and have not heard otherwise. That's a problem folks. That's why one of our fore fathers said something like, " For a democracy to work you have to have an informed electorate." That' why we are in trouble. People care more about celebrity gossip than they do their civic duty. I'm going to work in the upcoming election. Granted, it my former youth, I would not have considered doing this at all. During the Viet Nam war, when it was popular to protest ( OK, I was shallow ), maybe, yes, I might have. But there are tons of Baby Boomers that are clueless about the world at large and they have no excuse. What happened to our generation? We got caught up in materialism...

Watching in Horror

I have been vacationing and back to work so I needed to take some time off from my blog. I'm watching in horror and disbelief at the events unfolding in the Middle East. Is this the outcome of the Neocon Fanatics in government? War is OK, if the end result gives us what we want. Would someone please impeach this President? I don't think we can take much more!

Sen. Specter preparing bill to sue Bush

Boy, it just keeps getting better and better.

Rice's "Suprise" Visit to Lebanon

Israel's objective in bombing Lebanon is to get Hezbollah out of Lebanon. How can you militarily remove something that lives in their heart?

The Whole Stephen Colbert White House Correspondent Dinner

Lieberman's Ploy- Maybe we need to rethink our anti-Liberman position.

Evidently the right wing anti-environment groups are upset with Liberman for moving the environement agenda forward with the "early reduction" program.

This is from the TCS website: All such schemes are Trojan horses for Kyoto-type policies. Credits awarded for "early" reductions are assets that mature and attain full market value only under a mandatory emissions reduction target or "cap." Consequently, every credit holder acquires an incentive to lobby for emission caps.

Unsurprisingly, credit for early reductions originated as a brainchild of the Green Left. Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), Environmental Defense, and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change championed early credit legislation during the 105th and 106th Congresses.

On Valentine's Day 2002, the Bush Administration naively resuscitated Lieberman's ploy. President Bush directed the Department of Energy (DOE) to "enhance" the "measurement accuracy, reliability, and verifiability" of the Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Program (VRGGP), established under Section 1605(b) of the 1992 Energy Policy Act.

More from their website:

Case Against Credits
Several free market organizations -- the Competitive Enterprise Institute, American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform, American Legislative Exchange Council, Citizens Against Government Waste, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Consumer Alert, Frontiers of Freedom, National Taxpayers Union, Small Business Survival Committee, and 60-Plus Association -- have repeatedly warned the Administration about the political and economic perils of early credit programs. Not once has any Bush official attempted to rebut their arguments.

However, EEI and its member companies spend millions of dollars on campaign contributions, and in politics, money talks. Unless conservatives on Capitol Hill quickly weigh in, Lieberman, Pew, and Environmental Defense may achieve under Bush-Cheney what they could not under Clinton-Gore.

So is there more to this guy than we are seeing on the news?

Advocates promoting action to curb climate change are accused of promoting energy poverty and energy suppression

At the risk of soudning like a broket record, if you haven't checked out the website, Exxon Secrets, it is definitely worth your time to investigate the website. I've been having fun listening to "spokespeople" on the news make their claims about this and that piece of news. Then I go to the website and check out more of the unknown facts about that person, who is paying their bills and the political positions of those organizations. It's interesting to see the connections. You can also find out who the largest donors are to these organizations.

For example: I found out that the American Enterprise Institute gets lots of money from Exxon. So does the Competitive Enterprise Institute. They use word like "energy poverty", "energy suppression", “anti-growth”, “anti-American” when they describe the environmentalism’s agenda. They promote the idea that government intervention of any sort will be bad for the economy. I don’t know about you but I’m wondering how someone who makes $26,000 dollars an hour (the CEO of Exxon) can even begin to understand the average person’s needs.

It’s too bad that we can’t get the two opposing views to sit down and have a real conversation.

American Enterprise Institute says environmentalists are "ANTI-AMERICAN"

Here is a quote from their website, "As Greenpeace has been trying to reinvigorate its radical environmental agenda, and it has been willing to distort the facts in order to send an anti-American, anti-capitalist message."

So let me see if I have this rationale of the American Enterprise Institute correct: destroy the environment equals pro-capitalist, pro-American and pro-patriotic vs. trying to live in harmony with the environment and develop sustainable practices is anti-capitalist, un-American and un-patriotic. And these people are major contributors to the current Republican regime….

What the Competitive Enterprise Institute Whats You to Believe About Global Warming

To sum it up: They want you to believe it's a hoax and that only quacks believe it. And they are willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars they have received from the oil-industrial-complex to confuse you with "disinformation."

What's at stake? Oil profits. Did you know that Exxon's CEO makes roughly $26,000 an hour? Global demand for oil is up; oil exploration can't keep up with the demand. Consumers want alternatives to oil and Al Gore refuses to pander to the oil industry. CO2 in large quantities is harmful and major contributors to the excess CO2 are fossil fuels. So the CEI with a huge infusion of cash from the big oil giants does the industry's biddings. They buy off reporters, scientist, and other experts off to spread their "disinformation propaganda" and try to confuse the consumer. Manufactured consumer confusion is "good for bizzness", keeps the public eye off of their backs.

Let’s hope that the public wises up and keeps their eye on the ball. It’s time for new sources of energy!

Exxon Secrets--Follow the Money

What a powerful website!

Secret Money goes after Gore and tries to discredit him

GW or King George is rebuked-Sweet

Thank you Leonard Pitts for this wonderful editorial on King Geogre II.

Thomas Friedman Educates Me About Middle East

In my last post, I criticized Israel for over reacting when two of their soldiers were kidnapped. Thomas Friedman's editorial in the Orlando Sentinel today titled: "The Kidnapping of Democracy” gives me a broader perspective. He points out the reason why this war we are watching on TV is happening and explains the underlying reasons for war. He writes, “This is not a conflict about Palestinian or Lebanese prisoners in Israel. This is a power struggle within Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq over who will call the shots in their newly elected “democratic’’ governments and whether they will be real democracies.”

OK, OK, I didn't have all of the facts when I formed my opinion.

The bottom line in his editorial is this:
The radical groups who were “democratically elected” continue to behave as though they are street gangs and are being funded by Syria. Syria and Iran do not want democracy to flourish or modernism to take hold. These groups intimidate anyone who speaks out against them, or kill them. They hold a timid majority hostage. These groups fail to govern, and are using their offices as an excuse to spread fear and terror.

Here is a quote:
"But the roots of democracy are so shallow in these places and the moderate majorities so weak and intimidated that we are getting the worst of all worlds. We are getting Islamist parties who are elected to power, but who insist on maintaining their own private militias and refuse to assume all the responsibilities of a sovereign government. They refuse to let their governments have control over all weapons. They refuse to be accountable to international law (the Lebanese-Israeli border was ratified by the U.N.), and they refuse to submit to the principle that one party in the cabinet cannot drag a whole country into war."

In summary: The fight is not about two soldiers but about whether governments or street gangs funded by extremists will rule.

Israel Doesn't Want Peace

All of this bombing and killing because two soliders were kidnapped? I agree with Syria's ambassador on CNN tongiht who said, "This administration (GW Bush) lets Israel do ANYTHING IT WANTS TO DO and doesn't say a word about it. But Hesbolah does one thing wrong and Israel can act irresponsibly and its OK!" I actually agree with Condoleezza Rice for once. Israel should use contraint. Too bad she didn't say that weeks ago. This two solider rampage is just an excuse to kill Hesbolah.

Health Industrial Complex are Fat Cats

One out of every six citizens in the US do not have health insurance in the United States.

Many who do have insurance have such huge medical debts from a major medical condition that they have had to file bankruptcy according to a Public Watch Dog pulication called, The Lowdown.

The United States Healthcare system is ranked number 37 in the world. A total of 16% of the economy goes to the Health Industrial Complex.

Americans pay an average of $6,200 per citizen for health care each year. Other industrial countries pay an average of $2,300.

CEO's earn on average $28,000 an hour.

Did Israel Over React Just a Tad?

Headlines read: Israel launches offensives in Gaza and Lebanon over the capture of Israeli soldiers. Excuse me, but that was so uncalled for. Can you imagine if the United States went to war because of "one solider"? Don't you think that maybe they over reacted just a little bit? Ever heard of "diplomacy"? Giving an ultimatum and then driving a TANK through the neighborhood to make a point is supposed to accomplish what? This whole affair was so unnecessary in my humble opinion. I don't get the impression either side really wants peace.

Bush's ratings in Florida

The Orlando Sentinel reported today that President Bush has a 60% disapproval rating in Florida.

Slate Podcasts

Cool

Speculation about Ken Lay's Death

I must admint, it never even crossed my mind. But today in the New York Times, there was an article about the many folks out there wondering if Ken Lay staged his own death. They speculate that he is now living on some tropical island, avoiding his prison sentence. I guess we'll have to see whether or not his family decides to leave the country and live on an island somewhere now that they will inherit $10 million from his life insurance policy.

CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES VOTING TO ABOLISH NET NEUTRALITY TO BE ABOLISHED IN NOVEMBER

See video # 20... they want to put toll booths on the Internet!

"Is this the America that our soliders (our children) are dying for?" Right on Ben Stein

I usually have pause at some of the political positions that Ben Stein takes. But this time he was right on the money. This needs to be shouted from the roof tops, "Is this the America that our soliders (our children) are dying for?"

"We are mortgaging ourselves to foreigners on a scale that would make George Washington cry. Every day — every single day — we borrow a billion dollars from foreigners to buy petroleum from abroad, often from countries that hate us. We are the beggars of the world, financing our lavish lifestyle by selling our family heirlooms and by enslaving our progeny with the need to service the debt."

I have new found respect for Mr. Stein.

Oil companies get into Alternative Energy

An Unlikely Spark in Alternative Energy

Pentagon funds study about limiting Freedom of Information Act

In today's paper (Orlando Sentinel) there is an article written by Melissa Ludwig from the San Antonio Express-News that says the Pentagon has given $1 million dollars to the St. Mary's University School of Law to study how to limit the FOIA! In the name of National Security of course! The purpose is to secure information about our vulnerabilities: electrical grid, waterways, sewer systems and transportation systems.

I’m all for National Security but if they limit information, how do we know when there is abuse? Ken Lay and the Enron Boys were abusing our trust in the name of corporate greed. Look at the Superfund case studies as historical proof that corporations will do what is in their best interest not the public’s best interest when it comes to their operations and profits. Limiting information limits the public’s right to know when these abuses are taking place! That is a threat to our National Security because it opens the door to a Corporatocracy instead of a government that is for the people and by the people.

God help us!

Going Green

If every household replaced just three 60W incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, the reduction in pollution would equal that of taking 3.5 milllion cars off the roads. The new bulbs last 15 minutes longer than the old ones, while signifiantly lowering electric bills.

You Might Be A Republican If....

Well, Ann Colter definitely qualifies by this definition.

Here's one I like:

A person protesting against W is un-patriotic, un-American and should be shot, but a person protesting against Clinton is merely exercising his first amendment right.

(Entire list )

Ann Colter Blows her Cool

I found this link to Ann's radio interview.

How can anyone consider her rationale?

Last words, "I'm very popular, I have to go know..."