Climate change mitigation through the we the people.

The government did not act on climate change and now we need to act. If the government of the corporation could not act then the people have a responsibility to act. “Free markets” it is time for you to act for posterity. “Green” technologies are viable and useful, now is the time for the implementation of “sustainable” technologies. Some technologies are still unknown to the general public, while some are known to almost everyone. As with all technologies there are the useful, counterproductive, insufficient, and of course weird.
Among the useful technologies in the energy field are solar, nuclear, and fuel cell. Solar is the least capital intensive as large investments are not required. Nuclear produces massive amounts of energy while requires large investment; nuclear produces radioactive waste. Hydrogen fuel cell if in a closed system like N.A.S.A. systems there is and in conjunction with alternative energy, stores energy.
Among the processes of C02 sequestration is agriculture and natural sequesters such as wetlands. Currently agriculture is dominated by wasteful practices by large corporations and is fueled by oil. Gardening reduces stress on the agricultural economy while sequestering more carbon dioxide. Gardening practices in soil should involve a negative C02 impact. However the is other was such as hydroponics and integrated aquaculture. Soilless gardening sequesters more carbon dioxide by producing more. Natural carbon dioxide sequestration such as forest lands and wetlands are important and preserving and adding this carbon dioxide sequesters is as important as new technologies.
Given these technologies we should exploit them to the fullest we can and the government doesn't foster this growth it is our duty to use these technologies. Remember come the next elections vote for people committed to mitigating climate change.

Letter to the Senate.

Today is the time for action, today is a time for unity, today is not for lies. We are in a situation of that will affect the next generation and more. Climate change is imminent, climate change is real, and climate change is a threat. You are what are needed for change. All who oppose helping our nation please keep the climate bill dead and all who care about future generations please stand up. We need a vote on this legislation before the deniers take control of the committee structure. (R’s) We live in a representative government and if you do not represent the majority of Americans then you will face the electorate.

Harry Reid you have the responsibility of getting the votes and structuring a bill for reconciliation. We the people have the responsibility of getting change from our leaders, but our leaders need to keep their promises and make change. In other words change comes from the bottom up, but change needs the up as well. Harry Reid you may have a hard fight in Nevada, and there is a risk of you losing your seat, but if you campaign in part on climate change you will win.

For the democrats in the senate, I ask you what the real threat of cap and trade? Cap and trade will create millions of jobs, not just among college graduates, but unskilled people as well. The only cost is the profits of big coal and big oil. Sure there are some job losses in some states that are solely dependant on big coal and big oil. If you represent one of those states, then you may vote no. However how did the B.P. oil spill affect Louisiana and how did Massy Energy explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine affect West Virginia? Also how is the water contamination going for any state that mines or drills? What about the oil refinery explosions, the trade deficit, and the unstable energy prices, how is this playing out for America? I urge any senator to consider this when voting. If you weigh America over big oil and big coal, then I hope you will vote yea for a comprehensive climate change bill.

We can get this bill passed and with the help of the senate democrats and we can run on climate change and win. There are 21 days till the election get climate change passed and amazing things will happen.

How to reduce the deficit responsibly.

The current mood in the country is to reduce the deficit and is the rallying cry of republicans. Progressives like me are wary to talk about the subject because we support spending. However our answer when we give it goes something like this no reducing necessary spending and let the bush tax cuts expire. My view is we need to end letting other countries free load of our military. We need to end our mission in Iraq which will save at least 40 billion dollars according to the congressional budget office. We need to raise high income taxes to the level they were in the Reagan era this will reduce the deficit significantly.
Republicans want to eliminate and reduce taxes. Marco Rubio’s platform would add $3.5 trillion to the deficit. The way they want to counteract that deficit creating machine is to reduce spending. But to reduce that much spending you would have to cut extreme amounts of the pentagon, a position neo-cons are opposed to. You would have to eliminate or severely cut Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Unemployment, Highways, Stimulus, NASA, Education, ect. In essence we become a third world country. The middle class will all but disappear and jobs will disappear. Conservatives want to take our country back and they have for the last century. But how far back will we go.
I am sorry but we cannot abandon the middle class and poorer classes. Furthermore some Conservatives seem to be uneasy about race relations while minorities have a very disproportionate unemployment rate. According to the July labor statistics African American unemployment rate was around 15.6% Hispanics was 12.1%. They grew up in a separation with minorities and see minorities as taking what is rightfully theirs. This is flat out racist even if it is not mainstream standard of racism. Stocking the fear is right wing blogs and fox, but that’s a different story.
The right message for the deficit is to raise taxes on those who we can and decrease certain spending. After all do we really want the top 5% running the nation for themselves or will 95% of America rise and say no more. Decrease debt responsibly is my platform what is yours. Think about this America.

(Op Ed) The unwinnable war.

Iraq, a country we are scaling down our war in as we prepare to leave. That war was an unintended consequence of the last administration. We basically imposed our will on the people of Iraq as we interfered greatly with their affairs. By going to a place we do not understand we run higher risks of losing in any way shape or form. Afghanistan is a different war, a different enemy, a different mindset. These differences said the basics of these types of wars are no different. When we invade we are the outsiders, not liberators even if that is what we are doing.

Opponents of this argument will point to World War 2. (If they learned correctly about it) However this argument actually points to my argument; as the countries we were met as liberators were invaded by Nazi Germany. Others will point to Iraq and say “the surge” worked and will work everywhere. This in fact is another false argument. What we did was bribe local leaders to our side and use our military as their police force. Not only after that did we start to do any progress but, it was minimal. Our nation is still in Iraq and it has been a disaster.

In Afghanistan our mission is to stabilize the country and stop Al Qaeda from coming back and launching attacks. As sad as this might seem if the Taliban were to expel Al Qaeda we would give them the keys to the country. What we are doing now is trying to expel the Taliban from Afghanistan and give them an early start to a good democracy. But we have created a power vacuum since our invasion and the Taliban and warlords are filling it. We haven’t made progress since Obama has started his new take on the war.

Afghanistan from our standpoint is or likely unwinnable. We must leave but also be wary of the threats. If Al Qaeda comes again then we must try and take them out while keeping a peace with our current enemy. The people of Afghanistan deserve more but there is nothing we can do. We can draw parallels to our war for independence, (you’re either with us or the enemy of the king) the most recent Chinese civil war, (you can support the home grown Mao Tse Dong or the foreign supported Chiang Kai Shek) and any anti imperialist war. In essence the only way that the Taliban will be satisfied will be control of Afghanistan. From a strategic point of view we cannot let it happen but we cannot afford to not let it happen.

Our country has record deficit we will need to make some cutbacks in areas that are futile, like Afghanistan. If we are to help ourselves then, let the Taliban take back Afghanistan and if we want to help the Afghan people, we have never ending war.

Public option?

The public option, the dead provision from health reform, is back as a form of reducing the deficit. When the public option was first proposed it was as a way to prevent liberals from defecting, they didn’t anyways, and the people wanted it. So house liberals introduced it again. (Long live the public option!) The senate will have to vote on their dread, the public option. As a form of deficit reduction the public option will save $68 billion by 2020. This is a small hole in the deficit but anything will help.

Liberals, like me, are thrilled because this would mean competition and an end to the monopolies. This is not to say the affordable health care act of 2010 was not good. The affordable health care act added millions of uninsured Americans and ended pre-existing conditions for children immediately after it became law. The public option would make the act complete. The public option would stop industry abuses and would not be a government takeover of health care.

The tea party would not be as thrilled: as they would see it as a government out of control. That argument was made throughout the health care debate; only in they were in nice terms uncivil at times. This could if gained momentum spark the ugliness of the health care debate including (most serious to less) acts of random violence, death threats, suggesting fascism, and racist signs. The Glen Becks of the world would be all over this and we don’t want to distract from jobs. The public option is a job saver though and should be treated as such. Any jobs bill should try and have a public option as that at the very least would be the thing to change and not other crucial things, such as the tea party’s favorite thing spending.

The public option has always come back from the dead because of its popularity and the carries of the torch, house liberals. There were headlines throughout the debate, long live the public option, back from the dead, and such. This in March made the Rachel Maddow show have it proclaimed “the public option is dead… long live the public option”. If history has taught us anything the senate will kill it and the house will keep bringing it back. The president shouldn’t push for it, he should be focused on jobs.

The mood among liberals is our views aren’t being listened to and we are expected to act as a wing of the Democratic Party. If we are to energize then the public option would be the perfect way to do that. Liberals are key to the success of the midterms, we need some answers from our leadership, if we will keep anything. Netroots Nation was a perfect example of how they say they wanted a public option but votes weren’t there. If you want to convince us of that then bring the public option for a vote in both houses of congress.

The media, the senate, and climate change

We all have seen the advertisements from the war implications to the anti oil companies and the ethanol. (Climate Change debate) The media however has always given wrong information. If someone said the sky is blue and 2 people said the sky was green the media would say, is the sky green 2/3 of people say yes you decide. The sky is blue facts are facts C02 traps heat that was proven over 200 years ago this is like arguing with gravity. (Paraphrasing Al Gore, the gravity part) If media is here to inform then they should be giving actual information. It doesn’t matter if all our politicians are deniers, science is the truth the deniers have no idea what their talking about.

Deniers prey on people by spreading misinformation through media advertisement blogs in other words propaganda. Propaganda networks Fox News and Newsmax (others like it are the same) and as some righties suggest blogs like mine. But when denying is not based in fact there is no basis for believing this especially when it is as serious as the future of humanity. Anarchy is what’s at stake and the future of our children and our children’s children. This is not an issue for demagoguery if you have any shred of decency then you will see the need for comprehensive Climate Change reform.
In addition to moral obligation the economic aspects are overwhelmingly in favor of comprehensive climate legislation. A cap and trade system would force energy companies to invest in clean energy causing it to be cheaper and make energy cleaner. The job killer the (R) talk about will actually add millions of jobs alone. However some of the most liberal democrats are against cap and trade such as Sherrod Brown of Ohio and in coal states and industrial states.

The Senate now has a joke of a bill not even worth talking about. However I am so outraged that I and others feel the need to let the people now. Basically the bill has protections of American people to make sure oil companies pay up and little incentives to clean energy. This is all good but what was promised was nothing less than revolution and we will expect at the least a significant change in the next 15-25 years. However in 25 years it will be 2035 and by then the technology will be decided and we should be well on our way to prosperity in a clean energy future. If we are still addicted to oil by then offshore oil drilling in waters possibly 20,000ft below the ocean surface will be not just subsidized but required. If we are still addicted to coal then we will move back to smog blasting types and poison our air and water. Make no mistake we have coal; it is oil I am worried about. (from a deniers standpoint, most however would probably deny that)

A future with coal, oil, and natural gas, is a future with unimaginably high fuel costs and unsafe food and tap water. A scenario would suggest that people from the suburbs could not get to their jobs due to high fuel cost because they and their government cannot afford fuel. This severely damage our economy by not having middle class demand for goods fall sharply and foreclosures would make homelessness skyrocket. In urban areas trade will decrease and create rising poverty which will drive poverty and all the social problems it brings. Losing vast amounts of tax revenue and rising senior population will cause governments to disband social programs resulting in more poverty and a downward spiral. This is a real danger and though it is not popular to do something today to help tomorrow. I find an old Native American saying helpful “we don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors we borrow it from our children.”

A world with clean energy would likely take awhile but some solutions without cap and trade could be necessary if we want the strongest bill possible with the necessary votes. One way is to provide large incentives for clean energy as this president and our governor (Christine Gregoire) has done already. Also a federal agency to research options put forth by the private sector while also giving grants. One such company I find promising is Nano Solar where they print solar cells on to metal creating solar energy. Subsidize machines used to make clean energy so factories can transition to making new things.

If the democrats are committed to saving our future and rising to the occasion then they will pass Climate Change reform. Remember our current path is destructive and we must change. Our future as a country our future as the world rests on what the governments of today are doing. Stay active stay involved there will be an update or just another rant. Thank you for seeing this: one more thing Sherrod Brown J.D Rockefeller, and any other senator willing to step up and rise, (this means you Lindsey Graham) do it for our children and our grandchildren.

Wall Street Reform At last!!!

Yesterday (when I was first writing this) was a day that just a week ago could not be imagined for a second by the most optimistic of people. When the announcement was made some trembled at the thought of rules and the people rejoiced at the thought of rules. Scott Brown (R) from Massachusetts finally listened and let the people win: he will vote yay on Wall Street Reform. This will be the great event to make us once again have rules for all.

However this bill is not perfect, the bill was lied and slandered at by all the republicans. One instance reminds me of the public option, a fund that would be paid for by Wall Street to make sure the government doesn't have to bailout Wall Street. This was slandered as endless bailouts when the government would not step in. Glass Steagle was not put in which would protect the people’s money from “shadow banks” or investment banks which does loopy stuff like Goldman Sachs. This made Washington Senator Maria Cantewell originally not want to vote for it. The bill was of course watered down to the republicans likening most recently Scott Brown but also both Maine Senators. Russ Feingold is the lone democrat not voting for the bill which makes 57 democrats voting for the bill and 3 republicans to beat the Tarintino (filibuster).

As we are on the verge of the greatest reform of Wall Street since the great depression, we must remember what happened to get us here. In the great depression little if any regulation during the 1920s led to a stock bubble that when was valued correctly crashed: much like 1990s. People lost their savings and money was wiped out like 2008. F.D.R. and the congress of 1933 passed Wall Street Reform. This included Glass Steagle which in the literal sense separated investment banks and deposit banks. This was the first reform which kept us from severe recessions till “the glorious Ronald Reagan” and congress repealed reforms leading to the crash of 1987 and the recession that followed.

point is that we shouldn’t have gotten to this point and the congress and president of the 1981-1989 is responsible for this recession. (also Clinton and republican congress of 2000 repealing Glass Steagle) Thank the democratic congress of 2010 Obama or specifically the Senate today July, 15th 2010 for passing the most comprehensive Wall Street reform since the great depression. The big banks can screw as much as regulated capitalism can provide.

Reasons for a climate bill

In recent years the issue of climate change has been slowly rising in national politics not just among tree hugging marijuana smoking hippies but the average American citizen as well. In the last 56 days the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has convinced many to rethink offshore oil drilling. However when a “scandal” of some scientist “falsifying data” (I will explain why that is ok later) many people around the world thought climate change was fake.

First of all climate change is real. Factories and most power plants emit CO2 a gas that allows radiation or heat to come in but traps radiation going back to space. There are many gasses like this, such as O3 or ozone, CH4 or methane. (These are the major ones) Some climate change deniers point out that the Antarctic ice sheet is actually growing by some estimates. This is because the layer of ozone has a hole around most if not all of Antarctica. Some point out fluctuations or periods of global climate going down. If the deniers would notice that this happens after a major volcanic eruption like Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. Eruptions release sulfur dioxide which burns of ozone and reflects radiation. Years of volcanic eruption aftermath are outliers; therefore taking them out is okay. Deniers denied, and conclusive data means that global climate change is real.

Climate change being real it would seem necessary to mitigate greenhouse gasses: except ozone or we would get cancer. However the votes are not available as the republicans have said that a cap and trade bill would be a job killer. In actuality cap and trade would create jobs in the short and long term. So why the opposition plain and somewhat simple, Big Coal and Big Oil.
Big Oil is at the forefront of the debate because of the oil spill, but Big Coal just 2 months ago was looked at when a coal mine exploded killing 25 workers. The mine explosion happened under the watch of Massy energy which at the mine had over 90violations. The oil spill happened because of British Petroleum.

I am sorry for libertarians but if you do not agree with me debate me. The government is the answer, not the free market. The free market will use dirty fuels such as coal, oil, and shocking natural gas. All these fuels are killing 25% percent of species, and possibly including most humans. If the corporations had their way all clean energy would be dead. This is because you can’t monopolize the wind, you can’t monopolize the sun, you can’t monopolize the ocean. You can monopolize a coal mine, you can monopolize an oil field, you can monopolize a gas well, you can monopolize a refinery, you can monopolize a power plant.

The free market needs government so it will do what is right and needed. We the people in order to secure our future shall create clean energy jobs. The government is the answer and not always the problem. We as a people of this earth must commit to relying just on what the earth gives us. If we want our costly lifestyle we must either pay the true cost or change.
Climate change is a real problem and must be met by solutions big and small. These

solutions involve doing only what you can. Some people can grow food to make a difference in shipping costs, some people can change to energy efficient appliances, windows ect, Select few people who are CEO’s can change the company to be more “earth friendly”. As a nation we can make sure our politicians do what is right.

Call your Senators and make a difference.

Israels blockade part 1

Israel is in danger not from a terrorist, or Hamas, not from Iran, or other Muslim majority nations. (Not necessarily a connection) No they are in danger from themselves. Their blockade is making the people of Gaza and the world hate Israel because of the despair of the Palestinian people. Their blockade causes poverty and in turn resentment. Israel is using controversial tactics to try and make Hamas go away. Yet however Hamas will be emboldened and empowered by poverty and loss of opportunity.

Israel needs to step up and end this blockade to create opportunity for the people of Gaza. Opportunity for jobs will lift people out of extreme poverty they are in. This consequently will make the parents feel more favorably to Israel and then the children will feel better about Israel. After all, the parent is mightier than the propaganda. Allowing people to move freely is a basic civil right. I know the threat of bombs but what would you think if Jews could not go to Jerusalem or Muslims could not go to Mecca (As Israel is doing) or Christians could not go to the Vatican or Church of Nativity.

I will wait till tomorrow to elaborate as I will get a different opinion and I will use direct quotes or paraphrases until then keep your mind open.

The Israel Dilemma

Israel recently used force to act on a controversial blockade that has already strained relations with the world and particularly the Muslim world. The force was a military raid on Turkish ships operated by Turkish citizens of the free Gaza movement. Their mission was to break the blockade at which Israel offered them to come to an Israeli port to bring the aid by land to Gaza. When the people on the ships refused Israel responded by boarding the ship by helicopter to stop them. The ships were in international waters when they were raided. 9 people died 7 of them Israeli soldiers in an “ambush” 300 are being held in Israel.

Israel was overreacting but are justified in the since they offered to bring the aid to Gaza from an Israeli port. Military action is not however justified there should have been more restriction. I call on the Israeli government to apologies for the dead and make amends to Turkey who is obviously enraged. Israel needs to learn restraint and not just cover themselves by saying they are terrorist. However the Israeli commandos were ambushed by knives, clubs, and metal rods. Then again you should wait till they come to Israeli or Gaza waters to raid it. At the very least get the ok from Turkey.

Israel has been facing international repercussions for their questionable act even a high ranking Turkish official called Israel a state sponsor of terror. Turkey is one of Israel’s best allies in the Muslim world. The United Nations has also condemned Israel’s actions. Israel is to the world a controversial state. They in self-defense and perceived danger have done things to keep them alive that some say prove a bad human rights record. Underlying contempt for Israel are factors for the international reaction. This is not to say everyone is against Israel.
The American reaction has been one to slightly condemn Israel enough to try and keep Turkey from fuming and create a diplomatic disaster. Yet also not enough (they hope) to make Israel fume and create a diplomatic disaster.

I hope I did not take an extreme side I am still deciding I did not mean to offend anyone if I did please forgive me.

Memorial Day

Today as the title suggest is Memorial Day a day to remember those who died in service for our nation. This holiday is not for sleeping in or for playing video games. This is our heritage as a nation for those who fight to protect our freedoms. Many of my generation have thankfully not experienced a world war two style war. Therefore our nationalistic hype was not awakened. (Except 9-11) We at the very least must understand our history in hopes in we can achieve world peace from learning from the mistakes of previous generations. With the efforts of all humans we can make sure that at sometime in the future there will be no more dead soldiers.

The history of Memorial Day is marked with tragedy in which we find the best in us. After the civil war, or war of northern aggression in the south, people in small towns like Waterloo New York got together to honor the fallen in 1866. This happened to be the place in 1966 that the federal government declared Waterloo the birthplace of Memorial Day. Five years later in 1971 congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday.

So I hope to all who slept in today without thinking of the sacrifices of others at least remember Veterans day.

The end of don’t ask don’t tell

On Thursday May 27 the United States congress chose to change history with an amendment that would be one step closer to giving gays and lesbians full civil rights. Ending don’t ask don’t tell is a civil rights issue and must be addressed as such. I understand that civil rights is a emotional issue for many people but not being able to serve for your country just because you are a certain race, creed, or sexual orientation is a civil rights issue.

The president in the state of the union address said he wanted to end don’t ask don’t tell by the end of this year. This seems to be achievable as the senate arms services committee also added an amendment to end don’t ask don’t tell as well. The end of don’t ask don’t tell will tell the world we are not the blind followers of the church of anything. There is hope but there are major challenges ahead.

One road block is that republican senators will filibuster the bill that funds the pentagon if the amendment is in the bill. This means that the republicans would rather have no military than one with homosexuals in it. If the republicans are the ones that will protect the homeland then why would they want to leave this country at risk? John McCain ran for the republicans on country first but what they are doing is ideology first country when popular.

Fortunately they can’t spin this as good for America they are instead a danger to this great nation of ours. Tomorrow is Memorial Day when we remember veterans who have died; why don’t we want people who want to serve for our nation just because of someone’s sexual orientation. If anyone’s civil rights are threatened then all civil rights are threatened. We must remember those who died for our country and we must remember those who need to lie to do what they aspire.

Stand up for everyone’s civil rights call your senators and tell them no more
grandstanding and allow people to serve for our nation.

British Petroleum oil disaster

Today is the 40th day since the Gulf of Mexico first got blown away with oil. On the day of April 20th the deepwater horizon well 50 miles off Louisiana coast 11 rig workers died. Out of this tragic event came news of a failed blow out preventer. Soon the gulf coast braced for an Exxon Valdez magnitude of disaster. What America did not suspect was BP’s trickery and deception.

BP said that 1,000 barrels of oil was “leaking” per day. Yet this was their lowest guess. By keeping what was real a secret they could pay less for their reckless endangerment. This works because judges would make them pay less than what the real cost is. Then when forced to reveal a video they said 5,000 barrels a day. When they tried a method that a small tube connected to a tanker would siphon 5,000 barrels a day.
This would seem to anyone that BP had controlled the problem. However this was not so; BP had lied again.

When BP was forced to show more live footage of the blown out well, it showed deception. The footage still showed oil gushing out of the well like water going of a fire hose in all directions.

BP has lied to America and their endangering of workers show they are corporate criminals but criminals none the less. We must rid ourselves of these conglomerates and create a truly green energy system. BP deception shows we cannot trust oil companies as the Exxon Valdez spill should have shown us. I have hope for America but dead birds covered in old habits are not an energy plan. Oil is a menace when touched by the evils of soulless corporations.

If anything this disaster has shown us it is that we need to clean our ways up for the sake of the fisherman, shrimpers, and most tragically god’s defenseless animals. Call your senators and congressman or congresswoman and say support the climate change bill it cannot wait.