That people really like being polarized and separated into clashes of culture and We versus Them.
That Republicans still don’t get that it’s the economy, stupid.…
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
We Are Not Amused - Comments Page 2
That people really like being polarized and separated into clashes of culture and We versus Them.
That Republicans still don’t get that it’s the economy, stupid.…
Article comments
— go to most recent comments26 - Jordan Richardson
Oh it was you! I was about to blame dear Clavvy again!
27 - Daniel Miller
Jordan,
Mea culpa, mea culpa mea maxima culpa.
Dan(Miller)
walks slowly away, hanging head in abject shame -- close the tab, stupid. There. Did it.
28 - Dave Nalle
Correct me if I'm wrong but the major American car comapnies are all located in Michigan where the Dems who have control over the state have manged to run the economy into the ground through high taxes and unions.
I don't know if any of you watch McLaughlin Group, but what amazed me this Sunday was that the left-leaning commenters on the show were literally raving about how great McCain's acceptance speech was and in particular about how he was saying the things which Obama SHOULD have said in his speech.
One thing singled out in particular was McCain's approach to the problem in Michigan and the auto industry. He has the right answer and Obama has the wrong answer.
Obama's message to Michigan is that they should keep making the same mistakes over and over and he'll bail them out with billions of our tax dollars poured down the hole of failed and outmoded industry, keeping factories open at taxpayer expense and against market forces. McCain's answer is to spend a more reasonable amount of money to retrain workers for good paying jobs in more modern industries which actually have a future. The contrast is striking. It's the contrast between foolish pandering and statesmanship.
Dave
29 - Lisa Solod Warren
Okay, we did not "invent" the car. We just made it ubiquitous. And we sure as hell could have done a much better job by now. (Arch I am not even going to dignify your remark that this is a Michigan issue, for God's sake)..... clearly we have the technology.
As for sex ed, Dan, it's way more than handing out rubbers and birth control packages. If you have kids, how can you even say that!
And for those of you who think I am just blaming the Dems, you didn't read a post I made on public education. (also check out the Sunday Times piece on it in the magazine: it's brilliant and holds the Dems accountable, too). The unions have helped destroy public education. Helped. But more than anything we have to GET RID OF Ed schools in this country. Teaching teachers how to teach is a joke. Paying them what we do is a joke. Taking the bottom third of the class is a joke. Not expecting them to know their subject is a joke.
But not expecting parents to play their part is unforgivable too. Isn't that like communism? All you who hate that word? Turn your kids over to the stat and just sit back and let them do whatever they will do? The only difference is we then complain when we don't like what they are doing...
And no one tried an energy policy "my" way.....
We have had no energy policy, not under Clinton nor Bush. We just keep on keeping on.... hoping it will all go away. Hoping oil will last forever. Giving oil companies subsidies and buying foreign oil from Bush's butt buddies, The Saudis..... And now we want to drill for more oil, which will last another finite amount of time, instead of coming up with some new, creative ways of energy independence. Gosh, guys, grow up.
Off to make and eat supper....
30 - Cannonshop
Dave, something to think on, a bit, if you will permit?
At the height of American Industrial power, (the fifties and the sixties) most industries were heavily unionized. It is my belief that it's not so much the existence or presence of Unions, as the domination of Unions by people who've never done the work (Lawyers), combined with the fact that Unions stopped varying their support and stopped thinking ahead, and simply threw their support behind the guys who promise heaven-on-earth but deliver sacks full of shit that has killed the labour movement and created the bad rep.
Lemme try to explain... When you only support a Brand, that brand has no reason to work to keep you. If you're an automatic vote for one side's nominee, if your dues are used to finance only one side's candidates, regardless of what they do or how they actually perform, you're essentially just a sucker to be shafted and sheared. And, in my opinion, that's what's happened to the Labour movement.
The increase in "Government Unions" has only accelerated this- Government Workers are immune to the business cycle, their ranks fill during hard times, their services only in demand when Joe Citizen is compelled to need them.
There needs a reform in the Labour movement, just like there needs to be a reform in the Government, and in Corporate America-because the Unions have largely abandoned their primary mission, and become just an organ-a "cash Gland" if you will, of the Democratic Party.
This is similar to, but not quite, like the way that minority groups have turned into a cash-gland for the same party, even when said party's policies are DEMONSTRATED to cause harm in their communities and promote poverty among their neighbours.
Unions should always put their members' needs ahead of any "Sweeping national movement of change"-and chief among those needs, is the need for a job. Not a Government Job, but a job that provides work and an income that a member can (rightfully) be proud of, that benefits his community, county, state, and Nation. Pride in work can do enormous things.
Corporate America needs to get rid of the drive to Mediocrity, stop rewarding Executive Failures and start demanding long-term performance from CEO's. Nobody ever stayed in business playing screw-the-customer-cutting-costs. It's time to get rid of the Looters and the Vultures.
Government: So MUCH work to do. Driving out the crooks is a good start, cutting back on things that don't work and maybe, just maybe, scaling back spending and de-centralizing controls. Term limits and serious, enforced and enforceable campaign finance reforms would be nice, but that's the fox guarding the henhouse. Term Limits would be good, forcing campaigns to only accept donations from within their district? much better. ending the "all or nothing" state allocations of electors would also be a good step-when you break down the Election Map by district, there's a LOT of red for all the tiny urban spots of blue. when BOTH parties have to pay attention to ALL the voters, things will likely improve a bit, and apathy is in direct connection with how much someone thinks their vote is worth-and that is usually decided by how much effort is put into getting it.
Yup... unrealistic dreamer...
31 - Jordan Richardson
Corporate America needs to get rid of the drive to Mediocrity, stop rewarding Executive Failures and start demanding long-term performance from CEO's. Nobody ever stayed in business playing screw-the-customer-cutting-costs. It's time to get rid of the Looters and the Vultures.
Fuckin' A.
32 - Daniel Miller
Cannonship,
I am in essential agreement, subject to the caveat in an old Welsh saying, Many a mickle makes a muckle or something like that (I apologize to any Welsh folks here; I probably spelled some words wrong, but then maybe I didn't). We have in this election an opportunity to make a small change or two, and maybe whatever changes we make will perpetuate themselves. I see more likelihood of worthwhile change in the Republican ticket now than in the Democratic ticket. We have to start somewhere, and sometime, and now is not too soon.
Dan(Miller)
33 - Cannonshop
Agreed on all counts, Dan.
34 - Clavos
Lisa,
Believe it or not, i was actually with you all the way on your #30.
Until this:
And now we want to drill for more oil, which will last another finite amount of time, instead of coming up with some new, creative ways of energy independence. Gosh, guys, grow up.
I know of no one, including John McCain and virtually everyone on BC who advocates drilling now, who says that's all we should do. Virtually everyone who wants to drill also wants to pursue every other possible avenue while we are drilling.
Why drill? we believe that sooner or later, we will have to, and it's better to start ASAP. Secondly, we believe that starting to drill will help to lower current prices, as the futures markets begin to discount the fact that drilling is a certainty. This actually did happen a few weeks ago, when the talk of drilling began to get serious and be supported by people like McCain, and the possibilty (just the possibilty) of drilling began to loom large on the horizon, the price of gas dropped about 12% almost overnight -- just on talk and possibility.
But, as I said at the beginning here, I agree with all of the rest of your #30.
35 - Cannonshop
Backing Clavos' point (though I know it's not going to matter much...)
Drill now.
Build Dams
Build the damn wind-turbines
Build the Solar Power Collectors
Build the Pebble-bed, Argonne-6 Style, and other Gen III reactors.
Build the Geothermal taps
Build more Refineries
Develop the Algae and build the Farms for Algaediesel.
Build the crackers for Tar Sands
Build the Crackers for synthetic oil from Coal
Build
Build
Build
Build.
Build and drill our way out from under the thumb of the princelings, fanatics, lunatics, and psychotics. Get rid of the reliance on Tyrants and third world madmen. Let their money flow stop pouring in and let them kill each other like they want to.
Build Hydrogen Infrastructure.
Build Solar Power
Build the Microwave collector/recievers for orbiting powersats.
Build the skyhook tether systems.
Build It. Make It. Produce It.
36 - Cannonshop
Oh...and just a couple more points...
I'm thirty-five, we were supposed to have a Mars and Moon base by the time I was twenty five...and I want my FLYING CAR!!!
I want the future they were promising me when I was seven, dammit.
37 - Daniel Miller
This just in: more Change we can believe in:
I agree completely with the last sentence. When Senator Obama is pressured by tanking in the polls, as he now is, it is disappointing to see how he reacts. It is certainly a change, but hardly a propitious one.Is he perhaps beginning to implode?
Dan(Miller)
38 - Silas Kain
That Republicans still don’t get that it’s the economy, stupid.
Actually, the Republicans think it's all about the economy. What were G.W. Bush's first words to counteract the tragedy of 9/11? GO SHOPPING!
That American car manufacturers had their worst sales year ever this year but still can’t build a reasonably priced small car that gets good gas mileage.
Not fair to blame the Republicans. Americans are to blame. We could have done something about energy back when Carter heeded the warnings. Instead we ignored his wisdom and continued down this path. Ultimately we, the American public, are responsible for the mess we're in. We're detached, ignorant, it's education, stupid! That's how I see it.
That any increases Americans have felt in their salaries have been negated by rises in health care.
I totally agree. Massive health care reform is highly in order and yes a one payer system is fine with me. If more people checked the FEC to see where the PAC money is going they would see it is so. But that takes initiative, a modicum of intelligence and actually caring about something other than grabbing the next X-Box game.
That candidates who advocate not teaching sex education in the schools can also advocate cutting funds for teenage mothers.
Well, making parents MORE accountable for the actions of their teenagers is not such a bad thing. As far as I am concerned any teenager who gets pregnant before 18 years, 9 months of age is the ultimate responsibility of the parents combined with the father of the child.
...vote for a candidate who might very well overturn that right for them and their children and not see the hypocrisy of that.
Make up my mind. Should I not vote for Palin because I'm stupid and it's the economy? Or should I not vote for Palin because I support choice? The beauty of being pro-choice is that I am in support of CHOICE - regardless of what it is.
That a candidate for Vice President of the United States never even owned a passport until last year but has a twenty percent chance of being President of the United States and negotiating life or death foreign policy issues.
Empty rhetoric. Women are multi-taskers by nature and I think Sarah Palin would step up to the plate. Sexist? Maybe. Realist? Absolutely!
That John McCain spent 26 years in Washington but now wants to represent himself as an agent of change who can go there and get things done in the next four years.
John McCain is also not loved by the Washington establishment. He's been an agent of change. He walks the talk. More talking points from the liberal left and the Obama Mammas. Just does not hold water.
That a man who has lived the quintessential American Dream can be derided for achieving what Americans purport to stand for.
And you don't deride McCain for his service to this country? Let me tell you something, Lisa. I'm lukewarm in my support of John McCain. But regardless of anything his sacrifice to this country cannot be overlooked. This man spent 5+ years in the Hanoi Hilton. Did you know that that period of time was the longest he had spent in any one place in his life up to that point? That's because his Dad was a Navy officer and they hopped from base to base; home to home. The McCain family was and is about service to this nation. Yes his wife is wealthy. But to imply that his wealth makes him any less aware of this country's needs is pure hogwash.
That buzzwords and labels have actual weight.
They come from both sides, Lisa. The extreme left is as zealous as the extreme right. I'd rely more on Taliban governance at this point.
Republicans don't have all the answers. Neither do the Democrats. It's going to take a bipartisan coalition with a serious agenda. That won't happen because the American people are too complacent to care otherwise. Barack Obama will get elected at this stage and in two years there will be talk of impeachment because he won't deliver one damn promise he makes. But we'll blame Obama for that. Except me. I'll be back on Blogcritics saying, "I told you it was COngress, stupid!"
39 - Condor
"What does explicit mean?" - Lisa
Explicit by legal definition (i.e. Black's law dictionary)? There isn't one. Try Websters.
Do we really have to draw pictures here?
Do you want anotomically correct genitalia models in class simulating coitus? At what age would you think is suitable for that type of instruction? Elementary school (7 to 12)? Middle school (13 14)? Or, high school?
40 - Condor
Cannonshop in #35....
I'm with you except hydrogen technology. It takes too much energy to produce the hydrogen. Which might not present a viable option.
Also corn based ethenol produces only 450 gals per acre. Cattails, besides being a filter for ground water, produces 1000 gal per acre, is prolific, does not require soil preps, fertilzing etc... and keeps coming back... plus the filtering properties... and can be grown in areas no other crops will flourish. There are a couple of other crops which provide around 1000 gals per acre. But Cattails beats them all, especially since the ground can be as rank as you can get, and only small amounts of energy are needed to grow it (i.e. petrochem fertizers, soil conditioning machinary etc...).
Good listing.
41 - jamminsue
#36 - Cannonshop: Yes, build is right! I am 51 and want my nursing job on the Moon promised by JFK that I should have had when I was 25.
42 - jamminsue
Lisa: you said it all - beautifully, exactly what I have been trying to say for a long time. Keep up the good work.
43 - Dave Nalle
Build the Microwave collector/recievers for orbiting powersats.
You know, I wrote an assessment paper on this for Al Gore when I worked for him at the CCF back in 1979. That would be what, almost 30 years ago? Look how much progress we've made since then.
Dave
44 - bliffle
Clavos repeats this vagrant notion: "...while we are drilling."
Of course we drill NOTHING! "We" do not have any driling equipment, and WE do not command any drilling companies.
The only thing WE can do is lease oil tracts. Then the oil companies decide when to drill for oil. They also decide where the oil is shipped to.
When WE have leased an oil tract we have surrendered control over it.
That is very stupid.
45 - Cannonshop
#40
except hydrogen technology. It takes too much energy to produce the hydrogen.
I know, Condor-but it makes Frikkin' Awesome fuel for rockets, and if we build the rest of the stuff, then the energy to produce it in quantity should be cheap and readily available.
At least, until they can work the bugs out of a DT fusion torch...
Also corn based ethenol produces only 450 gals per acre. Cattails, besides being a filter for ground water, produces 1000 gal per acre, is prolific, does not require soil preps, fertilzing etc... and keeps coming back... plus the filtering properties... and can be grown in areas no other crops will flourish. There are a couple of other crops which provide around 1000 gals per acre. But Cattails beats them all, especially since the ground can be as rank as you can get, and only small amounts of energy are needed to grow it (i.e. petrochem fertizers, soil conditioning machinary etc...).
ooh, good idea. Who's working on cattail biodiesel right now?
A bit to add...
Even if we stopped burning Petrol tomorrow, we'd still need to drill it. See, there's feedstock chemicals we need for all the Other systems, plus we need lubricants, sealing compounds, plastics (sure, there's a lot of plastics you can make from bio sources, but some applications ya gotta use petroleum compounds for because synthesizing them is truly non-cost-effective, even with really, REALLY cheap energy.)
It's easy to take a rich country with the economic slack to clean up environmental problems and worry about social issues, and make it a poor country by using half-assed approaches, Luddite attitudes, and expedient "The bill won't come today" thinking.
It's hard to get out of that hole once you've started down it. Everything I've advocated should have already been going on the last forty years, if it had, maybe jamminsue would BE a Nurse on the Moon. We've had better than forty years of carrot-and-stick leading us to this energy crisis, and leading us to this industrial crisis (AND IT IS A CRISIS!!). The Apollo Programme (and Gemini, AND Mercury, and Skylab) combined cost an average of a nickel per citizen per year. The Interstate Highway system was built with a TOTAL tax burden of 3% per citizen from start to finish-that's out of a budget that had to account for the crash development programmes of the Jet Age, the development and deployment of SAC, and the nuclear deterrent, plus military involvements overseas.
My Grandfather (on mom's side) was able to support a family of four by himself, send one daughter to college, and own his own home on blue collar wages, without going into debt.
Something has gone fundamentally WRONG.
Maybe the only way to fix it, is to drill and build. People will throw all kinds of energy into learning something they think they can use. Give a kid a REAL shot at reaching beyond, and maybe that kid won't sleep through math class, or science class.
46 - Condor
NPR carried this a month or so back from the author of a book called "you can have your gas and eat it too" But, when I googled it, nothing came up, so if you play around with the title it might work. A few Universities are playing around with bio fuels from different crops, but I don't know the extent for commercial production.
I was talking with my Great Aunt Alice one day, she was around 99 at the time (and lived to be 104), sharp as a tack. Anyway, my Great Uncle raised a family of 3, owned a house in Alexandria Virginia, sent all 3 to college and had a nice retirement to boot. He drove a bread truck.
There's something to be said for an economy that can allow a person a decent wage, with an affordable housing market and quality infrastructure. However, that generation went through depression and war, so it wasn't as rosy as it appeared.
Now... Lisa I've been looking at this 6.1% unemployment number along with the other percentages you have put out. I'm not arguing, but I was taught that 5% unemployment equated to a decent ecomnomic outlook. Has that changed?
Additionally a lot of the questions you bring up points directly at a book you should be reading. Andrew Bachevich's "The Limits of Power" insightful reading. I think you would enjoy it.
47 - Lisa Solod Warren
Again, I am not putting all the blame on one party or the other. I am putting most of the blame on the American people. I think most don't read, don't think, and do wish the the schools to take on too much of the responibility of educating our children.
But I think Bush should have asked us to suck it up instead of going shopping and I think, as much as I don't like T Boone Pickens that his natural gas option is a good transition while we get ourselves weaned from foreign oil.
And I think we are woefully ignornant of foreign countries and equate patriotism with xenophobia and diplomacy with cowardice and I still think it is foolish to think we can win a war we never should have gotten into in the first place.
And I know for a fact that this housing crisis and our subsequent economic crisis were caused by greed and deregulation and I am as sure as as my name as Lisa that when we had our first oil crisis during the Carter administration that had we begun in earnest to produce smaller, gas efficient cars and begun to really look at wind and solar and other alternate energies we would be in far better shape. AND had we gotten rid of lobbyists long ago.... well, that would have been bliss.
I think we have been complacent and that has made most of us lazy and we got caught out and now we realize that are in a bad situation.
And McCain has been NO agent of change and you will never convince me of that. If he ever once was or tried to be, that was so long ago as to be unimportant to this race. He has no business running as a change agent now. One day he runs on experience, then takes Palin as his running mate and then changes his mantra. Politics as usual. Not change at all. More of the same.
And, I don't want flying cars, I want those jet packs you strap on your backs. That is what I have been dreaming about since I was a kid:)
48 - Andy Marsh
Comment #29 by lsw - And for those of you who think I am just blaming the Dems, you didn't read a post I made on public education.
Figure the odds on you EVER blaming a democrat for anything!
49 - Cannonshop
But I think Bush should have asked us to suck it up instead of going shopping and I think, as much as I don't like T Boone Pickens that his natural gas option is a good transition while we get ourselves weaned from foreign oil.
Pickens is a shill. He's partly right, at least, but he's shilling. We need to do ALL of it.
As for the "Stimulus stunt", I have to agree based on results.
And I know for a fact that this housing crisis and our subsequent economic crisis were caused by greed and deregulation and I am as sure as as my name as Lisa that when we had our first oil crisis during the Carter administration that had we begun in earnest to produce smaller, gas efficient cars and begun to really look at wind and solar and other alternate energies we would be in far better shape.
Mmmm...not so sure about that, Lisa. Solar's inefficient and requires huge investments in materials and energy compared to Nuclear, and Carter was a big help to the Oil Lobby in killing Nuclear power by executive fiat (Banning further work on closed-cycle systems, which is why we've got the radioactive waste problem we do-instead of recycling spent rods, they're shoved into a geologically unstable hole in Nevada.)
The Housing crisis is because nobody learned from the S&L debacle on either side of the aisle. It wouldn't be as MUCH of a problem, though, if not for business schools adopting the corporate raider mentality as a basis-a mentality that socializes risk while privatizing reward. If your bank can't count on Uncle Sugar to bail them out, they're a lot less likely to make risky loans to people with no job, no assets, no collateral. A real fix might be to stop insuring those institutions with tax money entirely, so that the money they're risking isn't tied to the bottomless Federal printing press.
had we gotten rid of lobbyists long ago.... well, that would have been bliss.
The reason you will never be rid of Lobbyists? Lisa, would you restrict the rights of NOW, NARAL, VPC, The March of Dimes, Salvation Army, Red Cross, Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Sierra Club, Think Tanks involved in basic research, the MacArthur Foundation, The Annenberg CPB project, NPR, or the United Nations to lobby congress? How 'bout the Wildlife Defense Fund, ACLU, ACORN, NAACP? of course not. If those groups have a voice in congress, their opponents have the same right to a voice in congress (however disgusting that voice may be.) Likewise, for-profit outfits have a right to petition just like anyone else...
The trick would be, to sever the ties that allow such groups to offer their thinly veiled bribes as freely as they do. Requiring all campaign funding to come from the districts being run in would be a rather big help, along with limiting how much the parties can spend...and making those limits stick in a way that can't be struck down on first-amendment grounds would be a good way to start. If, for instance, the VPC and the NRA have to open offices in each congressional district, raise their money in each district separately, and spend it in each district, neither Brady's people, nor the NRA can "buy themselves a Congressman" without the support of that congressman's constituents. It ain't gonna happen, naturally, but it's a thought...
I think we have been complacent and that has made most of us lazy and we got caught out and now we realize that are in a bad situation. Inevitably. Defer the bill long enough, well, someone's gotta pay it, don't they?
And McCain has been NO agent of change and you will never convince me of that. If he ever once was or tried to be, that was so long ago as to be unimportant to this race. He has no business running as a change agent now.
Hmmm...well, if you say you can't be convinced, then there's no point trying to persuade you. On the other hand, just consider this-your man is vain and thin skinned, can't take a chiding without treating it like a mortal insult, and wants to have access to the launch codes and the pretty button that can STILL end the world.
AND he chose Joe Biden for HIS veep. The very DEFINITION of old-line, old-money corrupt Washington D.C...and Obama kicked off his whole campaign on..."Change and Hope". The guy can't take a crack about his EARS without interpreting it as a slam on his race, and he's so rattled by a nobody from Alaska that he's got to resort to childish insults during a stump speech. (unless that's his idea of funny? maybe his sense of humour's just really, really dry... nope. I don't buy it.)
Now me, I'm willing to be persuaded-there are sixty days left for someone to convince me that Senator Obama is a better pick than Senator McCain. Lisa, you know my standards on that-prove Obama's accomplishments and responsibility match up to the job better than McCain, prove he's got the stability of character to handle people who aren't goofing around in a campaign where the following day we're all Americans and at least nominally on the same side.
Prove to me he can handle the pressure for real, and won't fly off the handle because some asshat decided to push HIS buttons.
So far, in this campaign, Obama supporters just haven't put much effort into proving their man is the right man for the job, though with extensive chiding and hassling, I know that you, at least, bothered to post/put up some of the man's legislative work so he's not the total waste he at first appears.
But that's for another time, back to the fun stuff...
I think we are woefully ignornant of foreign countries and equate patriotism with xenophobia and diplomacy with cowardice and I still think it is foolish to think we can win a war we never should have gotten into in the first place.
Dunno, I've been shot at by arabs (during Peacetime in the Clinton years), does that count? I've read/seen for myself what the Europeans and their American admirers think of us, it doesn't generally inspire much desire to get to know them better...with the possible exceptions of the Brits, Poles, and Ukranians, who apparently don't hate us as much as the French, Germans, Spanish, Italians, Russians, Germans, Danes, Belgians (who apparently like people who kill cartoonists for doing pictures of Muhammed), And did I miss anyone? Oh, yeah...the French again. I was situated once in a barracks across the street from a French unit. I didn't much care for them after six months of contact.
As for Diplomacy-Diplomacy is the art of saying "Good Doggy" while reaching for a big frikking stick. (paraphrasing, I believe, Disraeli). Most of the world does not operate on the same handbook with regards to dealing that we do, it's not rational to assume that an Emperor Bokassa, for instance, or a Pol Pot can be reasoned with. "Diplomacy" with Stalin created the conditions for the Cold War and allowed him to give Hitler an example of how to really engage in a good ethnic cleansing. Diplomacy failed with Slodoban Milosevic and Ratko Mladic in the former Yugoslavia (and european force failed too-was it dutch, or danish troops that let them butcher the safe haven at Srebenice instead of doing their damn jobs and protecting those people? can't remember... but the French did a bang up job of reinforcing stereotype by surrendering arms and equipment to Bosnian Serbs in..was it '95?) and don't forget the Diplomatic Triumph of Haiti! (yes, I'm being sarcastic. the peacekeeping op in Haiti was a fucking trainwreck in spite of how well the troops from each contingent did their jobs...) I'm not saying Diplomacy doesn't work, but it only works on people who're inclined to honor their agreements. Guys who butcher ethnic minorities can not be reasoned with, only controlled or destroyed. Same for guys who repeatedly don't honour cease-fires, but continue lobbing rockets. And the really big ones? the ones you can't stop without world-war-three? those guys you have to Contain.
When Bhuotros-Bhuotros goes to jail for the oil-for food scam, and the money is returned to the Iraqis, then I might consider the U.N. to be a credible agency. When the U.N. troops in central africa stand trial and face execution for raping kids, I might consider it to have some moral authority. When the U.N. takes mass-murderers who target their own populations off the Human Rights commission and onto the Censured list (and enforces, rather than subverts, embargoes and sanctions) they might actually be worth supporting.
Damn, slipped into rant-mode again...sigh... NOW back to the fun stuff...
And, I don't want flying cars, I want those jet packs you strap on your backs. That is what I have been dreaming about since I was a kid:)
The flying car would let me take my camping gear. The Jetpack's just too 'around town' for my needs.
50 - Joanne Huspek
""That American car manufacturers had their worst sales year ever this year but still can't build a reasonably priced small car that gets good gas mileage."
Correct me if I'm wrong but the major American car comapnies are all located in Michigan where the Dems who have control over the state have manged to run the economy into the ground through high taxes and unions.
I heard that they changed the sign you see as you're leaving Michigan from "Now leaving Michigan please visit us again," to "Will the least person leaving please shut off the lights?"
At the rate they're going that's going to be Jennifer Granholm's last duty as governor."
Damn. You stole my comment.
What I want to know is why do the Big 3, the UAW and Governor Jen forget that it takes GAS to fuel those gas guzzling monster Ram pick up trucks? And who owns most of the oil? So our money is going right over to rich countries like Dubai, where they can build an indoor ski resort and sell their own gas for 25 cents a gallon.
Brilliant.
Oh, and Lisa. You struck a chord with me. I'm not an elitist, but I am also not amused.
51 - Ruvy
Lisa,
Read this carefully and pay attention to it. Remember, I'm not presently in favor of McCain.
I prefer Obama, even if I think he is nothing but an empty suit surrounded by Jew-haters.
Nevertheless:
That is what Sarah Palin did in her speech. Her record has holes in it. But at least she has a record to poke holes in. However, leaving all that aside, when all is said and done, she gives off a gemülichkeit that the elitists like you, who are not amused, cannot give off. And in addition to that, she is vulnerable - not because she breaks into tears on stage like Hillary Clinton did, but because you know that when she is off the stage, she has the real life problems of most common people.
In other words, Lisa, you can pick away at the woman all you want. She has got something that the feminists and elitists who tear at her do not have and do not have a clue about - faith that lets her reach out to others.
And so far, I'm very amused. Barak Obama has to run against McCain's vice presidential pick. It is exactly as I called it a week ago: Obama vs. Palin.
52 - Ruvy
By the way, Lisa.
You are probably right on a lot of the issues you raise in your article. But, as I've pointed out elsewhere it makes no difference who you vote for. None of the candidates can pull you out of the mess you are in. You are in trouble - and there is no savior.
Another reason I am so amused....
53 - Jon Sobel
Do you want anotomically [sic] correct genitalia models in class simulating coitus? At what age would you think is suitable for that type of instruction? Elementary school (7 to 12)? Middle school (13 14)? Or, high school?
6th grade is just fine, or even earlier. We had exactly that when I attended school in Denmark for a year, what would have been 6th grade in the US. Third graders and up had clay models of men and women, and genitalia, and sex. Teaching tools. What was the result? Some knowledge, and a few giggles. Woo-hoo. America seems to be still in the dark ages when it comes to educating our children about sex.
54 - Jon Sobel
By the way, Lisa, hear hear! On your whole article. If only most Americans thought - and I mean thought - as you do.
55 - Andy Marsh
You think sex ed is bad in public school...it's non-existent in Catholic school!
56 - Clavos
If any of you still harbor any doubts about who REALLY controls oil prices (hint: it's NOT the oil companies), this morning's Financial Times notes that the Saudi's small, symbolic cutback in production yesterday was enough to spark a rise in price back up over the $100/bbl level.
We must free ourselves from the grip of the Arabs ASAP.
Until we do, they not we, control our economy.
57 - troll
can we do that without nationalizing the US oil infrastructure - ?
58 - Clavos
Ah troll. The Sub-Span Socrates; always asking the probing, pertinent questions.
I dunno. But I would want to. What do you think?
59 - bliffle
BC is so full of the typical mistakes that shallow minds make that it's easy to find misstatements that can be casually refuted:
-The USA auto manufacturers CAN build good, small, economical cars. In fact they do, for the European market. And they are quite good, too, just as good as any European car and with better headroom! Rent a Ford Mondeo.
But MANAGEMENT chooses to sell Big Cars (SUVs) to anyone foolish enough to buy one because foolish buyers also pay a greater profit margin.
-Even if it were true that Hydrogen production were inefficient, that wouldn't matter much because Hydrogen is basically an energy storage medium, like that $300million battery McCain is looking for, like the fuel cells used in space craft. One could claim that petrol is inefficient because we have to ferment a dinosaur for 100 million years. What a drag! Or that corn ethanol is inefficient because only a small percentage of the sunlight falling on an acre actually produces corn.
-cattails are being researched by a number of universities and companies, and have been for at least 25 years. Very promising, since they grow easily and replenish themselves, maybe get 3-4 crops per year, and they extract bad residuals (phosphorous, etc) from treated sewage. Yeilds vary from 250 to 1000+ gallons per acre compared to corn at about 300-650 gals.
Kudzu is also being researched as a fuel. At last, something that kudzu is good for!
60 - troll
dunno Clavos - all of the players are pretty well hogtied by the logic of maximized profit
go natural gas for now - ? ...ok I'm game...but the problem will just recur
61 - Clavos
CNG is good, as long as we keep up the R&D for a viable, economical (in the real world), renewable source.
I don't really care if the incentive is maximized profit -- that can be a bludgeon (or carrot, if you want to be friendly about it) to ensure that the R&D is aimed at developing a resource that fits the country's needs and goals, as well as providing the patent owner maximized profit.
62 - Dr Dreadful
You think sex ed is bad in public school...it's non-existent in Catholic school!
Then why are Catholics so good at it?
:-D
63 - Andy Marsh
Because it's okay to check out porn and every other thing as long as you go to confession before you receive communion!
64 - Lisa Solod Warren
I agree with Clav re the Arabs and oil. Or rather he agrees with me. Whatever.
Natural gas now while we explore other ways.
Solar expensive? More expensive than importing oil from people who want to destroy our country? I don't think so.
As for you, Canon. Have you had more experience with Europeans other than being shot at? I have. I lived in England for a year in the early to mid 90s. The Brits like us rather a lot. Traveled extensively around Europe as I did every year for about 10 years. No problems. Lived in Paris for 2 years from 2001-2003, from before 9-11 through the beginnings of the Iraq "war." Again, more travelling. Big expat community in Paris, by the way. They were very sympathetic after 9-11, so much after Bush went into Iraq.
(Italy and Spain and beautiful, wonderful countries with great people. Weird to make up your mind without knowing anything real)
Diplomacy has to be first course, as opposed to bombing, unilaterally, everyone whose dictator we don't like. Diplomacy failed with Serbia so we formed coaltion, COALTION, of other countries, went in, got job done.
Lots of bad guys out there. Calling a country a coward (renaming french fries, dumping wine, etc) because they won't sign onto our folly does not make for good foreign relations.
Europeans don't not like us as much as we don't not like them. Trust me.
They don't like our government, but then neither do I.
Relations can be repaired.
Foolishness perpetuated takes longer.
PS Thanks Jamminsue and Jon. I now have 5 people in my fan club that I know of (some are private:))
(*payment to come. Ha!
65 - Silas Kain
Because it's okay to check out porn and every other thing as long as you go to confession before you receive communion!
Every now and again I miss receiving communion. So I go to the local convenience store, buy some of those flying saucer candy things and my need is satisfied.
66 - Cannonshop
Lisa, I think you can count me in with you and Clav on the arabs and the Oil. We went into Kuwait in '90 because Europe's supply was endangered (at the time).
Solar's not really expensive when put that way, Lisa, but it's expensive compared to other, higher-yeild, more reliable technologies that were already pretty advanced in development by the mid-eighties. (the Argonne 6 reactor proved to be immune to meltdown because of the way the assembly and rods were designed-they tested it "Hot" and instead of melting down, it shut down without powered or active safeties. Hanford-N and Tchernobyl are Gen II reactors and require active safeties and operators to shut down...)
As for Europeans- I can read (translated) reports from European news agencies, I can read pronouncements from the EU Parlaiment. I can also read reports about France's deal with the Hussein Regime during the Embargoes, and about what happened with Oil-for-food, and having noted that a lot of bad people seem to have no problem getting Exocet, Mirage, Mistral, Roland and other systems from the french (not to mention Aerospatiale helicopters), my disdain for them stems largely from their actions. But I would hesitate to call them entirely cowards-after all, they've always been there when they need us, and many soldiers consider the unofficial motto of the Army to be "Cleaning up after France since 1956."(actually, that's a joke a Kiwi told me once.)
Diplomacy IS always the first option, but when it fails, it's time to act. Iraq was a case where France and Germany had financial interest in keeping the Ba'athist regime in power. I understand that, I also understand that we listened to the Diplomats and the Coalition guys, and didn't finish Saddam off in '91-so he got to use nerve gas on Kurds WE had talked into opposing him. There's a responsibility there, just as there's a responsiblity involved in removing Noriega from Panama (after all, we PUT him there), and there's the responsibility that three Administrations shirked in Afghanistan-we helped them beat the russians, but then we left them to the hands of the worst elements of their region, and they got a terror regime called the Taliban as a direct result. (Dammit, why couldn't the Democrats have run Charlie Wilson in 2000? or 2004??) "Finishing the Job" in Iraq, to me, means not leaving a regime that's going to turn into a bloodbath when we turn our backs.
It is my belief, that if you make a mess, or your father makes a mess, you clean it up as best you can, so that you don't have to repeat the process over and over again. This is probably idiotically idealistic, but it seemed to work in Germany and Japan. Appeasement, on the other hand, has NEVER worked for anyone that's tried it, and the price tends to go up the longer it goes on.
But...back on something we DO agree on-because let's face it, I'm not going to convince you, and you're unlikely to convince me wrt the European Union's policy direction or how America should handle itself in foreign affairs.
Bliffle's partly right about Hydrogen-it's pretty easy to make. Storing and transporting the stuff is another kettle of fish entirely, and working with it is a pain in the ass. Liquid Hydrogen's more dangerous to handle than liquid nitrogen.
As a fuel, it's unsafe to handle without expensive and complicated gear, (unlike, say, alcohol or petroleum, which can be stored in shirtsleeves environments and handled safely so long as one observes easy-to-comply-with safe handling procedures like not-smoking around the fumes.) valves and seals for it require some pretty exotic stuff in any application that contains heat and vibration.
THIS is what makes it expensive. Gaseous hydrogen is highly explosive when introduced to the atmosphere, it's also hard to contain, transport, direct, or use. The byproduct is water, water retains heat far better than carbon dioxide, and combines with CO2 to form Carbonic Acid in nature. Pumping lots of H2O into the atmosphere and you'll accellerate the greenhouse effect for real, and that water will bond with other atmospheric pollutants much more easily than carbon dioxide does. Hydrogen power, like Solar, is NOT a panacea.
Combined with other approaches, and applied intelligently, it's just one more weapon to gain independence from Riyadh's influence. Independence from imported energy is a critical national security matter, and the skills needed to achieve it mean that it could be a direction for revitalizing the Labour movement and Unions and cutting the AFL-CIO's reliance on Civil Service unions-which is a good thing, in my mind, as those groups benefit when the rest of us suffer.
In my own view, the only rational, serious approach is to drill and refine now, and build the rest as we go. We need petroleum for more than fuel-we need it for chemical feedstocks to build the other systems until alternatives can be put into production. The less you need something from someone, the stronger your bargaining position becomes.
67 - Lisa Solod Warren
Hey Saddam was our buddy, too, until he wasn't. We can't keep doing shit like that and then just getting rid of guys when they no longer serve our interests or we need a fall guy or we need something they have.
The Republican adminstration screwed up in 91, agreed?
We screwed up again in dealing with Afghanistan.
We start something and then don't finish it. Hence, Iraq, which never would have happened. But "finishing" it is now an impossible situation. Some other plan has to happen. And now look, things are once again worse in Afghanistan and worsening in Pakistan; we are now fighting on that border and our supposed "ally" is gone. Things have gone from bad to worse. The lessening of violence, temporarily in Iraq, means nothing for the long term, without a plan that works..... It's a HUGE mess. And a huge mess with out Vets at home. And all because Bush Jr thought he had to "man" up and fix what Dad didn't do at the time, which I am not entirely sure what handled correctly from that get-go.
We are entirely too trigger happy with too much false intel and too litte justification and too much dependence on foreign oil as a motive. It's all nasty and ugly.
PS We have sold plenty of weapons to the "bad guys" too.
68 - Lisa Solod Warren
TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT:
I heard about this interview on Fox and was fascinated so I looked it up.
Keep in mind that Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, is former chief lobbyist for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Here he tries to squirm out of questions by Chris Wallace as to why Palin won't talk to the press.
This is a partial transcript but it is still rather long. And very interesting. And for all you Repubs, it IS on Fox.
This is the inteview.
Here is some of it:
WALLACE: Well, actually, it was Congress that killed the money for the "bridge to nowhere."
But let me move on to something else. Governor Palin has given some very good speeches this week, and I think everybody, Republican or Democrat, would say that she was very effective at the Republican convention.
She has not answered a single question from the national media. When is she going to agree to an interview?
DAVIS: She'll agree to an interview when we think it's time and when she feels comfortable doing it.
Look, your network last night had a wonderful special on " Greta van Susteren had an intimate portrayal of this mayor or this governor when she was in Alaska still and not on our ticket. It was a wonderful look inside who Sarah Palin is " a working mother, you know, a brave and courageous politician. And I think you all did a great job of doing it.
It's not like there's no information out there about Sarah Palin, the governor, the mother, the agent for change. There's plenty out there, and I don't think...
WALLACE: Why is she scared to answer...
DAVIS: I don't think our campaign...
WALLACE: Why is she scared to answer questions?
DAVIS: I don't think our campaign is the campaign that has not given immense amount of access to the press. That's the Obama campaign.
WALLACE: Why is she scared to answer questions?
DAVIS: She's not scared to answer questions. But you know what? We run our campaign, not the news media. And we'll do things on our timetable. And honestly, this last week was not an exemplary moment for the news media.
WALLACE: I understand that.
DAVIS: And so why would we want to throw Sarah Palin into a cycle of piranhas called the news media that have nothing better to ask questions about than her personal life and her children?
And I think our attitude would be why don't we let that pass until we expose her to...
WALLACE: I think there are legitimate questions that " and it doesn't have to be a huge news conference. I'm not telling you how to run your campaign.
DAVIS: Sure.
WALLACE: There are legitimate questions about is she or is she not ready to be commander in chief. If last week didn't work, why not this week?
DAVIS: Sarah Palin will have the opportunity to speak to the American people. She just gave a speech to 40 million Americans in her convention.
WALLACE: But that was reading a script. She's not answering questions.
DAVIS: She's in the process of, you know, getting to know people out on the campaign trail, and she will do interviews, but she'll do them on the terms and conditions of which the campaign decides that it's ready to do it.
And, Chris, all due respect, I mean, you know, the information that the news media has been putting out on Sarah Palin is not what I would call objective journalism.
So until at which point in time we feel like the news media is going to treat her with some level of respect and deference, I think it would be foolhardy to put her out into that kind of environment.
WALLACE: Well, you just said that you " what a great job Fox News did with this piece last night.
DAVIS: You did.
WALLACE: You just praised it.
DAVIS: Absolutely.
WALLACE: My only point is there are legitimate questions to ask her, whether it's For anybody else, about what " is she ready to be president, what does she know about foreign policy.
DAVIS: Absolutely. No question about that. And she will be available to the news media when and if we decide that that is going to be the case.
WALLACE: So you're not at this point willing to say when.
DAVIS: No.
69 - bliffle
This is a good leadin:
#57 " troll
can we do that without nationalizing the US oil infrastructure - ?
#58 " Clavos
Ah troll. The Sub-Span Socrates; always asking the probing, pertinent questions.
I dunno. But I would want to. What do you think?
Good bon mot, Clavos. I think you've found your metier.
In fact, advocating "drill baby drill" is almost certainly a call to Nationalize the oil companies!
Without nationalizing the oil cos. we cannot command anyone to drill anything.
Is that what people want who repeat the slogan?
What other meaning could it have?
Are they advocating starting a USA government drilling operation? Do they know the cost of drilling rigs? Are they willing to enter into open political confrontation with the privately owned (and about 55% foreign-owned) oil cos.?
Do they think that the powers that control the oil lobbyists on K street will ALLOW the US government to do that?
I don't think so.
And I think that if "drill baby drill" leads to the USA (unwsely) leasing more oil tracts, and then people discover that NO drilling occurs, that people will look around and say "what happened?"
They will have been successfully fleeced by the oil cos. into giving up control of even more of our National Heritage.
Do you think that supporters of "drill baby drill" have the best interests of the USA at heart?
I don't.
70 - Cannonshop
I agree with most of the factual assertions you've made, Lisa. In '91 we screwed up by letting the Diplomats make the decision, and the Diplomats thought that keeping Saddam in power would appease the Arabs, and ignored that WE put the bastard in and kept him in as a piece of Cold War Containment policies. There are a LOT of messes like that left over from the misdeeds of the sixties, seventies and eighties. We saw what cutting off support and letting nature take its course does for us when the scumbags become too much of a liability in Cuba, and Iran. The Natives ain't stupid, but they do tend to be less hostile if the evil fuckers are removed before they have to do the work of removing them by force themselves.
Of course, it helps to actually REMOVE the bastards instead of letting them go to ground and pop up later. (Afghanistan), and it helps to pay attention (Pakistan) when the guy you think is for your side is really playing for the other team. (the U.S. should have backed Benazir Bhutto instead of trying to make nice with the Taliban-friendly general, and that's a fact.)
I think we can agree that foreign policy should, on a diplomatic level, focus on reinforcing the rule of law over the rule of man or the Strong Man rule (either one). But Diplomacy doesn't work without the threat of consequences. Sanctions and asset-freezing hasn't worked on Iran, and won't work on it. As Europe has demonstrated, there are folks who just won't negotiate in good faith, and when you make an alliance with a country under threat, there's a moral obligation to step in and defend that country-if you don't, your alliance will be rightly seen as worthless. (South Vietnam-where we also meddled to our ally's destruction. The CIA backed a coup against the guy who could have ended the war eight years early on a U.S. friendly, or at least neutral, note.) If we abandon Georgia or the Ukraine to the russians, our word will be no good-and if your word's no good, you got nothin' to negotiate with.
Please pardon the obscenity, but...
Fixing the fuck-ups of the past isn't as easy as preventing fuck-ups in the present. This is as true of Diplomacy, as it is of machine-work. There are LOTS of fuck ups in the past, and ignoring them means someone else's kid is going to have to fix them later, when they're worse. First, you have to acknowledge the mess as your fault, then, you have to fix it- We kept Saddam in power in Iraq, and left Afghanistan to bleed. Those were fuck-ups that are now costing American and Allied blood to fix-a lot more allied and american blood than they would have cost in '88 and '91. But they're fuck-ups that REQUIRE blood to fix because of the nature of the mistake.
(and before the inevitable "Why didn't you volunteer" thing crops up, the Recruiters read my 201 file and my medical records, looked at my x-rays, and sent me home, this was in 2004, and no, I couldn't get a waiver, I tried. Something about common drugs being poisonous just makes the DoD nervous, and being over thirty didn't help.)
From my perspective, we MUST do an honest effort to finish in Iraq and Afghanistan-their problem is largely the fault of our war with the Soviets, and there is, I believe, a moral necessity to do unto others what is right when you have done them wrong in the past. (and hush-money doesn't do it. it's just money.)
as for selling arms to the bad-guys, you get no argument from me on that one-we should not do it if we are going to arrest or condemn others for doing it.
71 - Lisa Solod Warren
I actually don't think I disagree with any of that. Poor poor Benazir, what a huge nightmare.
72 - Cannonshop
Well, see, Lisa? some of us Konservatives aren't as hypocritical as others. I love my country warts-and-all, but that doesn't mean I'm pleased when the Warts turn out to be tumourous.
73 - Lisa Solod Warren
malignant, in this case.
74 - Ruvy
Cannonshop,
Very good post, #70 was. All the fuck-ups of the United States government, all the betrayals, all the wrong-doing, all the closed eyes as bankers and oil-men robbed Americans blind (not to mention the rest of the world) - all this has a price. Your enemy, Red China, manufactures what you use and holds your debts. You've run out of soldiers, but you haven't run out of wars. Your economy is on the skids, propped up temporarily by the government seizure of Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae. For the most part, your politicians are beholden to foreign masters because you have shut down your manufacturing capabilities. So who you elect is meaningless.
You are in trouble, and there is no savior.
McCain has no imagination, Obama will betray you to the Arabs, who are tired of being the hammer in your hands - and who want to hammer you.
It doesn't matter who you elect. If you are to bring yourselves out of the mess you are all in, you will have to think very much outside the box.
If your corporate masters will allow you to.
75 - Cannonshop
I think where we differ, Lisa, is in the treatment of the malignancy. I think McCain-Palin is more likely to work in removing it (this would be a bit like recommending surgery), while you think Obama-Biden will work better (which is more like chemotherapy or Radiation). We aren't going to agree, but we CAN agree that something must be done about the problem, and we can even (roughly) agree on what the problem is.
This allows us to have a reasonable discussion without dropping into the realm of juvenile slur-slinging, and I think that's probably a better thing than not- the day after the Election, we're still Americans, and we will all have to live with the result, try to make it work, and hope for the best. I think a lot of folks on both sides of the Aisle forget that, forgot that, and insist on ignoring that.