Category: Politics

A vote for coal

Here’s an interesting thought from Treehugger…
“A Vote For Electric Vehicles Is A Vote For Coal”
I accidentally closed out the window before I could copy the link. DOH. Sorry about that.
But think about this… if half the electricity in the U.S. comes from coal, increased electricity use could mean a huge increase in burning coal.
Something to chew on.

Cindy Sheehan steps down


Cindy Sheehan has stepped down from her position as “the face of the American anti-war movement.
ChristianConservative points out though – she holds no official title.
Regardless, she’s written a letter of resignation and also removed herself from the Democratic party.

However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the “left” started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of “right or left”, but “right and wrong…”
This is my resignation letter as the “face” of the American anti-war movement. This is not my “Checkers” moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources.
Good-bye America …you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.

In a separate letter to the Democratic Party she has removed herself from the party that she says, betrayed her.

As for myself, I am leaving the Democratic Party. You have completely failed those who put you in power to change the direction our country is heading. We did not elect you to help sink our ship of state but to guide it to safe harbor.
We do not condone our government’s violent meddling in sovereign countries and we condemn the continued murderous occupation of Iraq.
We gave you a chance, you betrayed us.

Also, if you’re interested, her five-acre Camp Casey near Bush’s Crawford Ranch is apparently for sale too.

Memorial Day 2007

Tomorrow (Monday) is Memorial Day here in the U.S.
There are likely many folks who will chose not to take part in the holiday, other than enjoy their day off from work.
I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of this war. I don’t know that the reasons were just. If we want to go to war to end tyranny, we should be just as involved in Darfur as Iraq. That’s my own personal opinion. And I can’t give you an answer as to how we get out of Iraq or what our next plan should be.
But regardless, I respect our military forces. I hold each man and woman who has served, is serving and will serve in HIGH regard.
I didn’t have the guts to sign-up and serve my country in time of war. They did.
“This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends.”
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
So this weekend, we honor, we respect, we remember and we give thanks – to those who gave everything so that we might be free.

A memorial video for encounter.

Posts from previous years:

The View from a Veteran (2005)
The Death of Capt. Waskow (2005)
Just a Common Soldier (A Soldier Died Today) (2004)

Huckabee looking for donations

Press Release: 400 Contributors To Donate Price Of Last Haircut To Mike Huckabee’s Presidential Campaign: Next 48 Hours Critical To Goal
Thursday, May 24, 2007

LITTLE ROCK, AR – Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s campaign announced a new fundraising drive late Tuesday to take in donations at the price of an average haircut from at least 400 individual contributors in 96 hours. Now at its midway point, the campaign has nearly hit its target.
The drive started at 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 and will end at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 26, 2007.
Huckabee said the goal of the drive is to underscore comments he made last week at the GOP Presidential Debate in Columbia, SC. “A joke I used in the last Republican debate comparing Congressional spending to John Edwards spending money in a beauty shop seems to have gone over pretty well. While I used humor to illustrate my point, the fact is, most hard-working Americans have to budget for everyday expenses such as getting a haircut,” he said.
“Perhaps if Senators and Members of Congress were more in touch with the real concerns of average Americans, they would be more responsible with the money of their constituents,” said Huckabee, who launched his presidential exploratory committee in late January.
Huckabee said he believes that “connecting with average Americans is critical to the Republican Party’s prospects” of holding onto the presidency in 2008. “I hope my supporters will use this opportunity to weigh in with the campaign while having a little fun,” he said.
Donations in the amount of an individual’s last haircut can be made online at www.explorehuckabee.com or by calling Huckabee’s exploratory campaign headquarters at 1-501-324-2008. Donations are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.
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400 donations at $10 each (what I pay for a haircut) may not go a long way but it does get a number of average people involved.
In addition, Huckabee has posted a video on YouTube about getting rid of the IRS and instituting a Fair Tax.

Fair Tax? What do you think?

Branch Davidians believe TTC new government conspiracy

The famed Branch Davidians, known for their 1993 standoff with the Feds outside Waco, are taking up a new battle against the Texas Department of Transportation.
The Davidians see the Trans Texas Highway as a governmental conspiracy, with the planned super-highway running right over the middle of their Mount Caramel.
The property is right in the middle of the TTC 10-mile study area.

“It’ll go right through our buildings, where we live, right through this place I am standing – going to be a swath right through on this corner that runs right through our wellness center, our museum and even our cemetery,” Charlie Pace, the groups new leader said. “It is going to miss that neighbor’s house over here and that neighbor’s house over there. I think that is pretty strategic.”
“This is where the Lord puts the end to it,” he said. “God is going to judge this nation once and for all. And this is where the judgment begins, right here. We were judged here; the government is going to be judged here. That’s what God is saying.”

Listen to the story from NPR’s All Things Considered.

Democrats and Republicans shady about war spending

ChristianConservative has thoughts on how both parties are using war funding to play politics.

Democrats offered President George W. Bush a deal Friday which would have set a non-mandatory deadline for withdrawal from Iraq. He shot it down…
Now, maybe I’m misreading this. I *hope* I’m reading it wrong. But did our top majority leaders in the House and Senate just offer to set a deadline for troop withdrawals, then use voluntary non-compliance as a bargaining chip for getting something else they wanted?
This makes no sense. What are they playing at?…
This seems like a purely political move — the Democrats finally setting a timetable, then saying, “Well, we have some other things we want, and if we get them you don’t have to actually follow this timetable.”
The goal, of course, is to turn around later and say, “We set a timeline, and you didn’t follow it.”…
Unfortunately, the Republicans are engaged in, well, doing the exact same thing:
“The White House chief of staff said Republicans had offered a proposal that was essentially what received 52 votes in the Senate this week. It would establish a series of standards for the Iraqi government to meet, and condition the flow of reconstruction funds on progress toward achieving the goals…
One side of the aisle is doing the right thing. Both are acting for poor motives, and both are going about it in the wrong way.
Democracy at its finest, right?