Wednesday, February 21, 2007

 

The real cost of a gallon of gas

The war in Iraq has cost the people of Thurston County nearly $300,000,000 (three hundred million dollars) and the costs go up every second. That's not just a number, each of us owes our share of that amount.

Given that many people believe the war in the Middle East is over oil. How much does that REALLY make a gallon of gas?

In Thurston County, we could have paid for 39,584 children to go to Head Start, or we could have insured 178,960 children's health, or give 14,488 students four-year scholarships to public universities.

Pierce County is bigger, so it's costing nearly $980,000,000.

 

Looking forward to Wal-Mart coming?

It will be nice not to have to drive to Lacey to shop, but take care not to get caught up buying more than you really need and spending more on products made in China than you can afford. Most of us have debt. As a nation we seem to have followed our administration right off the debt cliff and for the first time in our history we are at a minus individual savings level.

We are all inundated with subtly tempting credit card offers. Our students who have no income and no training on how to manage money are offered cards and although building credit is important, having a $500 line of credit seems to make more sense than a $5000 line of credit. Who is going to explain to our students that they are not getting FREE FAKE money. Even Warren Buffet, the multi-billionaire says don't use credit cards!

We are no longer a manufacturing economy, we have become a consumer economy. In fact 2/3rds of our economy is built on consumerism. Consumer debt in America is over $18,700 a household. The business world doesn't see us as citizens, we are called consumers. Until recently the word consumption was an illness, maybe it still is!

If you have a $5000 credit card debt and pay it off at the minimum, at 25% interest it will take you 20 years to pay off and will cost you over $12,000. The credit card industry is making $30 billion in profits in excess fees. The credit card industry and it's supporters spent $154 miilion to pass the bankruptcy bill. It's our lives against the corporations and their mighty buck.

As consumers, we are being bombarded with advertisements on TV, in print media, on billboards etc. The ads are aimed at our unconscious mind. They are also aimed at our children. In fact they are stealing our childrens minds. There are many Christian groups, consumer groups, Republicans and Democrats who are working to help people get out from under. To learn more, read Lynne Twist's book the Soul of Money www.soulofmoney.org and watch the Myth of Money on LinkTV on DirecTV channel 375 or Dish Network 9410. www.linktv.org
I just invested in buying all of LinkTV's DVD's and books and would be happy to share them with any group who is interested. Please contact me to show these to your group. 360-894-5683.

 

Iran - Fooled you twice?

Fooled you twice?

Michael Gordon, the same New York Times reporter that along with Judith Miller, got Saddam's WMD wrong, has a front page story that Iran is supplying arms to the Shiites in Iraq. As with the run up to the war in Iraq, there are inconsistencies.

A fairer report from the Washington Post says, "Yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said serial numbers and markings on some explosives used in Iraq indicate that the material came from Iran, but he offered no evidence." The media were shown the weapons, but weren't allowed to take cameras or cell phones and weren't allowed to name the military briefers.
Did you see the pictures? Did you think it odd that the letters and numbers on the weapons were in English, not Arabic and that the dates are in American, (month, day, year), while every where else in the world the day comes first. Newsweek reports that the weapons parts can be found cheaply in Iranian markets, giving lie to the fact that they are expensive, special and come directly from the Iranian government.

Why would the Iranian government need to supply the Shiites with arms, when the Shiites are already in control of the Iraqi government.

How come we don't hear the media saying that Saudi Arabia has been fundraising to give money to the Sunnis who are responsible for 99% of American deaths?

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) still hasn't found final evidence that Iran is tying to build nuclear weapons, while the CIA says that Iran has 10 more years before it will have the capability to make nuclear weapons.

Both the Vice President and Condoleezza Rice have argued that Iran has enough oil and doesn't need nuclear energy. It turns out that when Cheney was chief of staff to President Gerald Ford, he and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld persuaded Ford to give the Shah a nuclear program to meet its future energy requirements. Energy experts now note that Iran is already near peak and that the country will need alternatives to oil in the coming decades.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

 

Update on Global Warming

The IPCC, a 154 government global scientific research panel report states that there is 90% agreement that global warming is created by humans and their activity. It was 99% before China put pressure on the panel. The report underwent 4 days of intense secret word-by-word editing, lobbying and bargaining.

Now it appears that ExxonMobil is offering $10,000 to anyone who can write an article to debunk the panel's research. Of course they aren't paying it directly, they are offering it through the American Enterprise Institute, one of the think tanks they have funded for years. This comes on the heals of Exxon's latest profit report. Their 2006 profits surpassed their 2005 profits, both years being the largest profits ever recorded in the history of the world!

The weather will become more changeable, more volitile. The report says sea levels will rise anywhere from 6 inches to 2 ft without taking into account such ice melting as Antarctica's 1,255 square mile Larsen B ice shelf that broke off and disappeared in just 35 days in 2002. Many scientists feel the levels will rise between 2 ft and 6 ft. These levels would wipe out many island nations and badly damage U.S. coastal areas and cities.

All over Greenland and the Artic, rising temperatures are not only melting ice, they are changing the coastlines by exposing new chains of islands. While this might seem exciting to some, it isn't the natural order of things.

 

Stem Cell Research

Stem cell research could benefit millions of Americans currently suffering from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and diabetes.A 2006 poll indicates that 72% of Americans support embryonic stem cell research and the scientific community agrees that federal funding is critical to this research. The only major interest group in America opposing this research is the religious right and their friend President Bush.

Life is precious, but hundreds of thousands of stem cells are flushed down the toilet every year. Isn't it a little heartless to throw them away instead of using them to help already living Americans live a better life?

The House should support an override of the president's impending veto.

 

Our Budget

The president says that he plans to balance the budget by 2012. It certainly sounds good, but how will he do it while maintaining the average tax cut of $162,000 to people who earn more than $1 million dollars a year. Apart from cutting funds to Headstart, Hospitals, Housing to Seniors in need, Energy assistance to the elderly, the VA and increasing Medicare premiums, he's going to borrow it from Social Security at a rate of 200 billion a year for a total of 1 trillion dollars.. Of course no one will know about it as Social Security isn't in that part of the budget and the media isn't going to tell.

In the conservative world view, corporations are important and good. It sees the strength of the nation in it's powerful companies and billionaires. It likes big orders going to weapons corporations but has no money set aside to pay for the 92,00 new soldiers and marines the president wants, or to support our brave veterans.

The democratic world view wants a healthy business landscape, but sees that our forebears came here with very little and struggled for years until the New Deal gave them equal opportunity and helped them get a leg up with free education and a retirement safety net. The democratic model believes that investing in infrastructure brings the country prosperity and which has created the clean air we breath, the roads we drive on, the safe drugs we use, the healthy food we eat. Wages were good because we set up collective bargaining that raised wages for everyone. Over the last 26 years all these rights and wages have been under attack.

Doesn't the bible instruct us to care for all? Let's not give handouts, let's give a hand up and let people like Condoleeza Rice, John Edwards, Joe Biden and Colin Powell who all came from poor homes make it on their own.

 

Real cost of a gallon of gas

The war in Iraq has cost the people of Thurston County nearly $300,000,000 (three hundred million dollars) and the costs go up every second. That's not just a number, each of us owes our share of that amount.

Given that many people believe the war in the Middle East is over oil. How much does that REALLY make a gallon of gas?

In Thurston County, we could have paid for 39,584 children to go to Head Start, or we could have insured 178,960 children's health, or give 14,488 students four-year scholarships to public universities.

Pierce County is bigger, so it's costing nearly $980,000,000.

Monday, January 22, 2007

 

Should local mayors join Mayors Climate Campaign?

Is it time for Yelm and Rainier's Mayors to join 369+ mayors in the Mayors Climate Campaign 2007? Will they join Seattle's Mayor Greg Nickels and pledge to take meaningful steps to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that are disrupting weather patterns on the planet.

Nickels says they've got the Republican mayors of Arlington, Texas, Akron and San Diego. Big cities like Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and little ones like Shishmaref, Alaska (population 562), Sykesville, Maryland (4,197) and Huron (11,086).

Some major industry groups like the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufactures continue to oppose so-called 'cap and trade' proposals to cut climate changing pollution, mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.

It's no wonder you're confused!

ABC reported that since 2000 ExxonMobil pumped more than $19 million into more than 40 think tanks; media outlets; and consumer, religious, and even civil rights groups, including the American Enterprise Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, that preach skepticism about the oncoming climate catastrophe using tobacco like disinformation campaigns.
Organizations that have supported novelist Michael Crichton who inspired President Bush to doubt global warming.

But now, 10 executives, representing major utilities, aluminum and chemical companies and financial institutions, said mandatory reductions are needed and that "the cornerstone of this approach" should be a cap-and-trade system. The officials include the chief executives of Alcoa Inc., PB America Inc., DuPont Co., Caterpillar Inc., General Electric Co., Duke Energy Corp, Lehman Brothers, PG&E Corp., PNM Resources, FPL Group and four leading environmental organizations. Big corporations like Wal-Mart, Dupont and GE say saving energy is saving them billions.

It's past time. Let's lead. Let's do it.

Friday, December 22, 2006

 

Are we going the war with Iran?

Are we going to war with Iran? It looks like we are being set up to accept it as inevitable. With no real reporting on the situation, the American people have no choice but to believe what they are told as the President goes for another regime change. It seems a shame as the moderate voices in Iran just won in the country’s local elections.

There are voices speaking out, one of them is Scott Ritter, the U.S. Marine and United Nations Weapons Inspector who warned us about going to war with Iraq. He was right then. Is he right again?

He has delved deeply into Israeli and U.S. CIA covert operations and shows that Iran is not building nuclear weapons but that they have other reasons for an attack. He lays it out in his new book ‘Target Iran’.

Ritter says that Iran has learnt from Saddam Hussein and that within two days of the U.S. attack, we will feel it in our pocketbooks, as Iran closes down its own oil exports and disrupts oil from Saudi Arabia & Kuwait and then closes down the oil shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz.

Maybe the President is moving more aircraft carriers into place to frighten the Iranians from starting a new Oil Bourse using Euros instead of Dollars. Many countries are already trading oil in Euros and this is removing the world’s need for PetroDollars. Seeing as the U.S. owes money to just about every country in the world, including Mexico, this could be problematic for the U.S. economy. As it is, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and the Google founders have been selling out shares in their own companies at massive rates. Warren Buffet, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and the second richest man in the world has been buying foreign currencies since 2002 because of the threat of the U.S. deficits.

Aren’t “We the People” supposed to be in charge? How can we be when we aren’t being told any facts? Call your Congress people and ask them not to follow the President off this cliff.

Monday, December 11, 2006

 

Iraq's Dollars and Oil?

How come so many informative TV programs come from other countries? DirecTV’s Link TV just showed a BBC documentary on what happened to the $22 billion dollars that belonged to the Iraqis from the UN Oil for Food program.

For some reason it was given to the Pentagon and they can’t account for most of the $19 billion dollars spent. They tried to spend it all but couldn’t so they handed over what was left to the Iraqis. $3 billion. There’s hardly anything to show for the $19 billion as the Iraqis have less electricity, running water, supplies or better hospitals. It showed the rampant fraud and how bricks of $100 dollar bills just vanished in a greedy free for all.

The Pentagon also managed to loose most of the $22 billion dollars that we gave the Iraqis.

On top of that $22 billion, this war has cost the U.S. over $450 billion, the state of Washington $8.7 billion and Thurston County $378 million.

No wonder the Iraqis want us out of there. They were once looked up to by other countries in the area as having top class doctors etc but they have become a 3rd world country and to top it off, the new Iraq Study Group suggests we bring in the multi national oil companies and privatize their oil! They mention it dozens of times in the report while mentioning schools a couple of times. Not surprising when you realize that James Baker III who heads the group, works for Saudi Arabia, Halliburton and many of the big corporate oil players.

 

And you thought the Election was Over?

Did you know? That many races in Florida that were deemed by polling to be even with a 2%-4% spread. Amazingly were lost by the Democrats by 60%-40% points!!!!
Only in a few races did Democrats win.

This is outrageous.

Many voter rights organizations and candidates are trying to bring this into the news cycle and are trying to take this to court. The media is not picking this up so the nation is unaware.

We need to get rid of voting machines with no paper trail. We have got to bring back our democracy.

 

How do our legislators look after the troops?

The Veterans Watchdog Organization (www.vawatchdog.org) finds that in 2006, WA Democrats Jay Inslee, Rick Larsen, Brian Baird, Norm Dicks, Jim McDermott & Adam Smith supported the troops 100%. Patty Murray & Maria Cantwell supported them 80%. Republicans Dave Reichert, Doc Hastings & Cathy McMorris supported them 66%. These figures were similar all over the country.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

 
The elections were an emotional roller coaster for me! I was so focused on them that I didn't have time to blog. As it is, my blog isn't personal. My blogging is born of my passion to bring forth the facts as I find them. I am developing a new way to get information out. Just because the Democrats took control of the House and Senate doesn't mean that we are done.

It seems to me the difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans toe the party line, while Democrats continue to question their leadership, always wanting to make things better. It's a strength and a liability!

Thursday, October 26, 2006

 

So that's what happened to the media!

Watching Democracy Now! this morning, I saw veteran investigative reporter Bob Parry discuss his experience covering the Iran-Contra Scandal.

As he talked it became clear to me that after Nixon and Watergate, the Regan Administration was very nervous of the media. In fact as they saw reporters investigating what was going on in Nicaragua they started to lean on the press. Those that didn’t fold ended up having their careers virtually ruined, whereas those that toed the line were promoted.

So the years slipped by and we now find those same toadies in control of the nations media. Is it any wonder that when leaned on again, they are happy to toe the line one more time?

 

Are the Republicans helping small business?

Not as far as 13 federal investigations are concerned. They say that this administration has been cutting funding to the Small Business Administration for the past 5 years and will continue to do so.

I understand that by law, the government has to give 23% of all money given in federal contracts to small businesses with 100 or less employees. They aren’t getting it. It’s fraudulently going to big corporations and it doesn’t look as if the chambers or small business organizations are doing anything to help.

The Democrats are trying to get Transparency in Contracting passed so that we can find out where $79.6 billion that was announced by the SBA went. In fact, Lloyd Chapman of the American Small Business League www.asbl.com has offered $10,000 to anyone who can tell him what has happened to the money!

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