Rex, you are so right.. Here's what I think, my apologies to my southern friends on this blog. Minimum of one half of the military bases and government offices should be closed in the South. Arizona too! They hate the "librul guberment" so much, get outta there and let them fend for themselves. The huge divide between rich and poor has always been bigger in the south, but they are blessed with more federal spending than the rest of the country, so whose profitting down there in Dixieland? Punish these nutty governors and wealthy neocons and take away their gravy train of "evil librul" tax dollars. Nothing's trickling down to the working poor anyway. The same could be said of the states that have been hijacked by the radical right.
Then, hit the road, Mr. President. Just like you've been doing. Many people are accepting the fact that we have a black president. I voted for Obama and don't think I have any racism in me, but have to admit I never thought it could happen in my lifetime (glad it did.) I admit to some kind of strange feeling seeing a black family as our first family, even as I recognize what a beautiful and "normal" family they are.
During the state of the union and in the days before, I saw a new President. More confident, more committed, and more "normal." From singing at the Apollo to grinning over the spilled milk joke at the SOTU, I felt a real connect with this President. I can see he's a moderate Republican, I can see that he is cozy with many bigwig bankers and CEO's, I can see that he's a politician. But he has compromised because he is President of ALL the people, not just liberals, and I'm glad he has the courage to try to be just that. Now that the other side is exposed as the greedy, obstructionists that they are, who only represent the wealthiest of Americans and Grover Norquist and have no intention of compromising to represent ALL their constiuents, the President is vindicated and can take the teabaggers on with a vengence. I hope he does!
TAX THE RICH, stay on message!
Rex, Moorhead
1/29/2012 1:46:41 PM
Obviously, Here is not spelled with an "f" in front of it. Oh well, there is no edit function. I can not fix problems with spelling if you don't see them upfront before you post.
Nancy Pelosi's interview with Ed shows why she needs to be Speaker of the House again. She has a clear understanding of what needs to be done in the long run. She also is tactically smart in the short run. I agree strongly with what she is saying. However, I would like to point out that we have a very serious energy crisis that is looming in the near future. China and India keep growing the GDP's at a 7% rate or higher annually. These countries both have large growing middle classes. Their industrialized economies will require more cars and trucks to haul people and goods around. This fact will cause increasing demand for oil and gas in the future. We also have to consider other countries like Indonesia, South Korea, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, perhaps Chile and other countries in eastern Europe including Russia that have growing middle classes as well. The number of automobiles is going to hit one billion by 2020. We need to understand that with a world at peak oil production this sends a dangerous trend of declining global supplies of oil while global demand for oil is increasing steadily.
These facts about the looming energy crisis are not "conservative" or "liberal", they are just facts. Oil prices will in this coming decade hit the $150 to $200 per barrel threshold. Americans need to understand that we can not sustain our gas guzzling ways. Americans consume twice as much energy per capita as compared to an average German, Frenchman, or Englishman. All three of these countries have taxes on imported oil making the price about $8 per gallon. As a consequence of this bullet trains, mass transit buses, commuter rail and 50 MPG turbo-diesel cars are the norm in all three of these countries. Germany particularly have robust programs for developing wind and solar power connected to a smart grid so the energy is not wasted.
We Americans need to look towards Western Europe and Japan for our energy future. We do not need to spend tens of billions of dollars on more research to do the things that the Europeans have been doing for decades to conserve energy. If we did all the things that the Europeans have routinely done for decades and combined it with insulation and weatherization of all buildings in America we could quickly cut our energy use to European levels fairly quick. No one's living standard would decline in America either. All we need to do is apply everything that is known about energy conservation today to get ready for the energy crisis that is just over the horizon tomorrow. But my prediction is that domestic American politics will keep us from getting ready until a crisis, like Pearl Harbor or the 1970's energy crisis, to take the serious concerted actions necessary to deal with the energy challenges we face. If you are following recent developments between Iran and Israel that crisis can happen at anytime. We could wake up one morning to permanent $8 fuel. A 5% shortage of oil in the 1970's caused oil prices to quadruple. Yes, wars in the Middle East are inconvenient truths and anyone that says there won't be anymore wars in the Middle East is an idiot or a "flat earth" conservative.
Rex, Moorhead
1/29/2012 11:58:44 AM
fHere is President Obama's Weekly address. He is calling for an end to the partisan gridlock on judicial nominees with a up or down vote in 90 days. He cites the example of a newspaper article where a GOP Senator plans on blocking all of President Obama's judicial nominees and other public service appointments. The GOP Senator is upset about the recess appointment of Richard Cordray Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
President Obama needs to keep calling these GOP Senator's out by name in public. He needs to make it personal. Perhaps extra military bases need to be threatened to be closed in his district or special subsidies for local industries should be threatened to be closed in those GOP districts who are blocking President Obama's nominees. One good punch in the nose deserves a kick in the groin back don't you think? Pain and money are all the Republicans care about. The country no longer means a damn thing to any of them.
