They Did What !

Have you heard about the current senate bill that is supposed to provide security for our votes? S3212 would allow electronic “verification” of votes cast on electronic voting machines. Huh? Isn’t the need for verification at issue because of the possibility of electronic errors? So how does one possibly faulty machine checking on another possibly faulty machine take care of the problem? We can thank our very own Diane Feinstein for introducing this masterful piece of oxymoronic legislation.

The House Judiciary Committee is getting ready to vote on whether or not to hold Karl Rove in contempt. Let’s see…

• Congress has the right and the responsibility to maintain oversight of government activities in order to protect the Constitution and maintain the balance of power among the three branches
• Karl Rove received a subpoena to testify in regard to what appears to be overstepping by the Executive Branch.
• Karl Rove refuses to appear.

Did you know that the State Department barred its employees from attending Sen. Barack Obama's speech in Berlin on July 24th? It would seem in Dubya’s world, when you go to work for the government you give up your right to spend your personal time as you choose. The explanation for this obviously partisan political action?
“…ensuring that Foreign Service officials will remain untainted by a ‘partisan political act’."

Speaking of Obama’s Middle East/European trip - what gives with John McCain? He criticized Obama for not going to the Middle East. But when Obama went to the Middle East and then some, all McCain did was criticized Obama for making the trip. The contrast between the two candidates was exemplified by their “German experiences.” On the same day, Obama, in Berlin, spoke before a crowd of 200,000 while McCain, in a German restaurant in Ohio, spoke to a small select Republican audience. It seems McCain’s only campaign strategy is to criticize and belittle Obama. I guess that is what you do when you don’t have much to offer in your own right.

In McCain's third attack ad (so much for his noble sounding statements about running a positive campaign) he starts out criticizing Obama for not holding hearings on Afghanistan. Obama is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Europe. Uh… maybe Mr. McCain doesn’t know that Afghanistan is not in Europe. Sort of like he didn’t know Iraq and Pakistan don’t share a border. Get that man a map! What McCain doesn’t mention when he goes after Obama about Afghanistan, is that even though he, McCain, is the ranking Republican member on the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee on Afghanistan, he has missed every hearing for the past two years. Better check that plank in your eye John!

Another claim in the attack ad is that Obama had time to go to the gym but cancelled a visit to wounded troops in a German hospital because cameras were not allowed. The footage accompanying this claim shows Obama shooting hoops – but it is footage shot in Iraq. Oops, there’s that darn geography confusion again! And incidentally, Obama did visit wounded troops in Iraq and without any cameras.

The ad continues with a sanctimonious statement that John McCain is always there for the troops. McCain’s vote against the new Obama/Webb GI bill and his vote against $360 million for armored tactical wheeled vehicles for units deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan seem a strange way of "being there" for the troops.

Posted by Trish Purcell at 05:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

If you replace one finite source of energy (oil based fuel) with other finite sources of energy (natural gas, coal) are you solving the problem or simply passing it on to future generations?

If you replace sources of energy (oil, coal) that are proven to damage the environment with another source of energy (nuclear power) that has the potential for total destruction of the environment are you solving the problem or simply jumping out of the frying pan into the fire?

If you replace one source of energy (oil) that has the ability to wreak havoc on the economy with another source of energy (food based ethanol) that not only has the ability to wreak havoc on the economy but also to endanger the food supply of the world, are you solving the problem or simply making it worse?

If, on the other hand you replace finite, environmentally damaging, and economically destabilizing, sources of energy (oil,, coal, natural gas, nuclear power) with non-finite, environmentally friendly, and economically sound, sources (solar and wind) would you not be moving toward an actual solution to the problem?

Before considering the true value of any of the proposed “solutions” there are many questions that need to be asked. First and foremost is the necessity of examining the possible motives of those proposing the solutions and the possible unintended consequences of implementing them.

What is the potential for profit for the Proposer? The greater the potential for profit, the stronger and smoother the persuasive rhetoric will be and the more it needs to be questioned.

Making a profit is the American way but, given human nature, the likelihood of greed and manipulation creeping in needs to be carefully considered. We have the example of the lengths to which oil companies have gone, without regard for anyone or anything including the health of our planet, to encourage our country’s addiction to oil so they could continue to reap huge profits. It would be the height of stupidity to ignore the same possibility for those who are promoting off-shore drilling, natural gas, the expansion of the nuclear industry and so called “clean” coal.

If off-shore drilling is a solution, then why are the oil companies not drilling on the millions of acres of oil leases they already have. Even as a stop gap measure, expanding the off-shore drilling leases doesn’t make sense. How does further degrading of our environment help our environment?

Natural gas deposits are profitable but finite so while they may offer a viable transitional energy source, this option should not be allowed to detract from the development of more permanent solutions.

The existing waste from nuclear power has still not been dealt with successfully and its potential to poison our earth for generations to come is well known but is either ignored or pooh poohed by the Proposers in the industry.

Isn’t ‘clean’ coal an obvious oxymoron? Been there, done that; remember cave-ins, respiratory diseases, dirty air, soot? There is no way that this is a feasible solution as an alternative fuel and it sure seems like profit is the prime motivator for the Proposers of this energy source.

What are the possible side effects of the proposal? Think of every “what if” situation you can possibly imagine. The fewer negatives brought out by the Proposer, the more important this is.

Remember how many of us thought using corn to make ethanol sounded like a great idea – good for the environment, good for farmers, good for reducing oil dependency and on and on. The reality is very different and this “solution” turned out to be anything but. As a help for the environment – not so much; as a help to some farmers, yes, but a great harm to others raising animals for food; and it has contributed to rising food prices and food shortages world wide.

The lack of foresight shown in rushing into this so called solution is a clear indicator that Washington doesn’t know its head from a hole in the ground when it comes to solving the problems we face. We, the people, cannot just sit back and let them, urged on by those with dollar signs in their eyes, continue to lead us down one erroneous path after another. It is time for the people to listen to the “real” experts and insist that our elected officials do the same.

It is “life as we know it” that is at stake here. Anyone who thinks they can just sit it out and someone else will take care of things is in for a rude awakening. If we don’t get off our duffs and get involved we are all going to be living in the desert, no matter where we are.

Posted by Trish Purcell at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

In case you haven’t noticed, we the people have become expendable - you, me, the guy down the street or in the next state. If it hasn’t touched us personally it is just because we have not yet been in the way of the movers and shakers making a buck or advancing their agenda.

How else can we explain all the elected officials who mouth words of concern but continue to prove a total lack of concern by their actions?

• The way the people of New Orleans were treated during and since Hurricane Katrina.
• The way the Pentagon puts dollar interests and politics before the welfare of those they send off to fight and die for them – lack of properly armored vehicles, issuing incompatible weapons and ammunition, and lying to families about how their loved ones are killed.
• The way mercenaries, hired by our government, kill innocent civilians and are not accountable to anyone for their actions.
• The way the veterans, (you remember - those troops everyone claims to support), are not properly cared for when they come home with brain injuries, missing limbs, post traumatic stress, and other life altering wounds.
• The way corporations avoid responsibility for illnesses caused by chemicals in the work place, and pollution of rivers, groundwater and even the air in residential areas surrounding their plants.
• The way government agencies, created to protect the people, instead benefit big business at the expense of we the people who pay the price in illness, lost livelihood, homelessness, death from treatable diseases, and death by incompetence in war zones.
• The way our government promotes poverty in other countries by lending “aid” which destroys their economies and leaves them worse off than they were before we “helped.”
• The way we are told over and over that our problems - lack of health care, outsourcing of jobs, failing infrastructure – are a priority with our leaders but strangely things continue to get worse and solutions never materialize.

So when the people talk about change, regardless of which specific issue they are talking about, it really boils down to one change – putting “for the people” back into our government. That one change will be the beginning of solutions to the issues that concern us all.

So when you hear John McCain talking about making the tax cuts permanent, look at the economy, look at the deficit; when you hear him talking about staying in Iraq, look at the economy, look at the deficit, and most particularly, count the wounded and the dead; when Mr. McCain talks about drilling off shore and in Alaska for oil, look at what the hunger for oil has brought us – wars, environmental destruction, high gasoline prices, and high heating costs; when John McCain talks about continuing the Bush policies, think about the fact that doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

Posted by Trish Purcell at 02:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)