Sat, 26 Jul 2008

Rejecting Global Warming

I was just on a website which appears to wholy reject the thought of global warming. Their retoric is "higher taxes, lost jobs, . . . ". I say hogwash! People always find a way to make money from anything. Jobs may shift to new industries as a result of global warming, but lost? Jobs are being lost now. The same rich folks who are rejecting global warming are cutting jobs by the thousands to boost their profits. They aren't interested in the future or your job. The benefits don't trickle down they rush up.

I did a search on Google (no, I won't use the term as a verb) and found a number of paid ads for businesses benefiting from global warming. This number can only increase as the problem becomes worse and we work to solve it. Global warming is real. We need to deal with it, not try to deny that it is happening. Get with the program or get off the planet!

posted 07:40 [/Politics] permanent link

Thu, 26 Jun 2008

Individual Right to Bear Arms

individual right to bear arms. This decision struck down a Washington D.C. ban on indivuals owning hand guns. I expect we will see gun advocates attacking other laws restricting gun ownership in the near future as a result of this.

The amendment reads:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

posted 13:14 [/Politics] permanent link

Wed, 25 Jun 2008

Guns . . . Decision Tomorrow . . .

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on a personal right to bear arms tomorrow. Reports on MPR are expecting the decision to be that there is a personal right. If that is the case, I expect that there will be any number of lawsuits contesting gun laws across the country . . . that's scary!

posted 12:21 [/Politics] permanent link

Tue, 10 Jun 2008

Bush in Europe

George Bush is in Europe on his farewall tour . . . and nobody cares. The Europeans can't even get up enough interest to protest his idiotic policies in Iraq. He want to warn them about Iran and they aren't interested in that. He's going to visit the Queen of England and the Pope. Big deal! George, all I can say is good by and good riddance from the entire world.

posted 18:43 [/Politics] permanent link

Bush Accomplishments

It's good to know that the reign of U.S. President George Bush has finally achieved his goals. Gasoline is over $4.00 per gallon and his cronies are making record profits. Way to go George!

posted 07:11 [/Politics] permanent link

Wed, 04 Jun 2008

Coverage Across the Pond

Barak Obama has secured the Democratic nomination in the U.S. presidential election. A fact that the media in the U.S. seems to have conceded months ago. But, I was listening to coverage from the BBC last night and the reporter said that Hillary Clinton was desparately close to Obama over the last months. This is a term that the American media never used for the campaign. They seemed to favor Obama over Clinton rather than reporting the facts.

This brings up the topic of the media coverage of the elections. The goal of the media, after all, is not to report the facts, but to gain ratings. You wonder why we are talking about the media instead of the campaign itself. I think it's the fact that the media have such an influence on the elections. Most people never get within a 1,000 miles of a presidential candidate. Their only exposure to them is through the media -- either paid advertisements or news coverage. The paid advertisements bring in revenue to the media companies. The choice of coverage brings in ratings. Media organizations will choose their coverage to make sure that their ratings are maximized, not the information to the public about the campaign.

posted 07:18 [/Politics] permanent link

Sat, 22 Mar 2008

Iraq War - Five Years . . .

No war is worth the cost. The cost of Bush's Folly . . .

• Five Years
• Nearly 4,000 American lives
• 800 deaths per year
• Over 2 deaths per day, every day
• Monetary cost: Nearly $500,000,000,000 (half a trillion dollars)
  Nearly $274-million dollars per day or $1,666 dollars for every person in the U.S.

The benefit of Bushes Folly . . .

• Hatred of the United States in the Arab world.
• The creation of more terrorists from the young men and women of this generation.
• Several large companies making a fortune on the war (probably friends of Bush and Cheney).

Worth it?

posted 10:50 [/Politics] permanent link

Tue, 18 Mar 2008

Greed.

It's the cause of all the problems we are having now with the economy. And now, the Fed has bailed out Bear Stearns, giving welfare to the very rich. Who will suffer, evendually? The middle and lower classes, of course.

Greed on the part of buyers and sellers has caused the mortgage crisis in the U.S. and affected markets all over the world. Greed extended to the players in the securities markets. And now, we a bailing out the very rich for being greedily stupid. It seems that the more greedy you are and the more money you invest in stupid money making instruments, the more help you get from our government.

Meanwhile, the rest of us pay for the greed of the very rich -- friends of Bush.

posted 21:27 [/Politics] permanent link

Sun, 16 Mar 2008

Vt. towns approve Bush "indictment"

Yahoo US News (AP)

AP - Voters in two Vermont towns approved measures Tuesday calling for the indictment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for what they consider violations of the Constitution.

Where do I sign up!? Serve the warrant!

Eough said.

posted 10:26 [/Politics] permanent link

Market-Based Solution to the Healthcare Crisis . . .

. . . Now there's an oxymoron if I have ever heard one!

Market-based means profits. So this phrase is code for "my rich friends in the insurance and pharmeceutical industries are making scads of money and want to make even more . . .". Oh, yeah, a large portion of the population don't have insurance, emergency rooms are closing because people don't see their doctors because they don't have insurance, a major cause of personal bankruptsy is crushing medical bills, . . .

We need universal healthcare in the US and a profit based system won't cut it. We spend more on healthcare than many other industralized countries and have poor outomes when we should have the best outcomes. The US is 41st in life expectancy among industralized countries. Our market-based healthcare system is a major contributor to the problem (or maybe a MAJOR contributor to the poor performance of the US healthcare system).

posted 10:21 [/Politics] permanent link