Limbaugh Listeners Revolt

The ditto heads of Limbaugh’s EIB network are fed up and Rush pretty much insists that you are ignorant if you as a Republican believe that torture is okay. Even if you are a former soldier, marine, or past member of any part of the military. According to Rush, people that think that torture is wrong have no place in “His” Republican Party. And in Rush’s mind, people in the middle of the political stratosphere that do not follow the Rush Almighty Republican philosophy are to blame for President Obama being elected.

Let me just say this, I think I know now what the Democrats are doing with the money they had previously appropriated for liberal blogger advertising, they gave it all to Rush Limbaugh. I’m loving this!!! Over at Countdown with Keith Olbermann they have this great piece…

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How classic is this for Democrats? The global warming “Phenomenon” has finally reached the EIB and the meltdown of Rush has begun. Here is Rush Limbaugh being called out by a former Marine radio broadcast listener and blamed for the downfall of the Republican Party. What I find truly funny is that all that the esteemed brain on lone from God shock jock could do was to attack the listener rather than offer a clear well thought out rebuttal. Then again isn’t that typical of the Ditto Heads, if you don’t agree with them, then you are Un-American and unclean.

Getting back to the caller and the torture issue, the caller holds the higher ground as far as being against torture and let me tell you why. The caller, a former US Marine and Army service member put his life in danger and the possibility of being tortured actually existed if he was captured in a hostile situation. Rush Limbaugh’s only chance of that happening is if he spills his coffee at the drive up because he never served in the military.

I’m loving it, the more Rush talks, the better it is for those of us with left leaning political thoughts. Some of which just happen to be fed up life long Republicans. Come on over to the left folks, take your shoes off and relax. We are not the big scary monsters that Rush told you we were. Group hug!

Papamoka

It’s all about Style

President Obama on his world tour found many nations willing to join in his campaign and message to promote that there is a new sheriff in town in the USA. There is finally a President of the United States that is willing to listen to other nations rather than demand that they assimilate. There is finally a President of the United States that is willing to work with our allies rather than demand that they tow the line. There is finally a President that can and will listen to the rest of the world. There is finally a President of these United States of America that knows that we do not live in this world alone, that message is clear and obvious by the support President Obama has had in every country he has visited.

If you want the world to follow you, then you can not force them to do so by threatening them with a billy club mentality. President Bush used the “With us or against us” approach and it failed miserably. One does not deter terrorist actions by pissing off the leaders of nations that could stop terrorist actions internally with their own police forces. President Obama made nice nice with the folks overseas and he is coming back home to face many more battles on many more fronts. And he is up to the challenge. It is pretty clear to this writer that he is not afraid to answer or tackle any of the toughest issues facing his own people. As long as he is honest and straight forward with all of the people then he will have a Presidency that has never been seen in modern times.

The difference between Obama and Bush is night and day. One President told and dictated his desires and consequences followed, the other is listening and being a true statesman. Night and day and you can not argue how different these two Presidents are on policy. While Bush ruled from his gut, Obama is listening and learning from his heart. Big difference, HUGE!

Papamoka

Renewable Energy and the Military

When it comes to our United States military and their “needs” there is what some would call a demand for results in technology when it comes right down to it. Anyone that has worked with the military in the private sector knows that the contracts go to the people with the best idea for what they “need”. There is no better source of expedience when it comes to the private sector than facing a military contract to supply X at date Y and if they like it then contract Z is awarded. The competition for military contracts in the private sector is intense, extremely intense, and a life or death existence for many companies all across America. Make no mistake about it, the people with the best plan can charge the value they think it is worth.

Maybe it would be a good idea for the Pentagon to put out a call to arms for all of the garage inventors in America to hasten the effort to expand renewable energy sources that could be used in the business end of protecting America? One thing is certain with this article from Reuters is that the end result will be something that will eventually pay it forward in your home down the road…

Military wants to lead U.S. into the green

By Bernie Woodall

FORT IRWIN, California (Reuters) - The U.S. military has a history of fostering change, from racial integration to development of the Internet. Now, Pentagon officials say their green energy efforts will help America fight global warming.

By size alone, the Defense Department can make waves. It accounts for 1.5 percent of U.S. energy consumption.

The military has set a goal that 25 percent of its energy should come from renewable sources by 2025 and aims to create machines and methods to help Main Street America reach similar targets, said Alan Shaffer, a retired Air Force officer who leads the Pentagon's research and engineering arm.

Snip and “Atten Hut!”

Renewable energy is not new to the military. Wind turbines supply much of the power used at the isolated U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and the geothermal power plant at the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station in California has been in operation for two decades.

But urgency to ramp up the program increased in 2006 after Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer said bringing solar and wind power to the battlefront would cut down on casualties.

"Cost matters. Lives matter more," said Shaffer. "Every time we have to send a convoy out to refuel tanks or deploy forward locations, it puts people's lives at risk." -Reuters

Make no mistake about this article from Reuters, the Pentagon is hurting from the price of oil and that money has to come from somewhere else to pay for our troops movements. If the money for energy use comes from somewhere else then programs the military really cares about have to be canceled. This policy of our military will change the imprint that our military and their use of energy has and will funnel down to the bases all over the world and thus onto the economy of America. What I find interesting about this military intervention is the fact that they are not embracing renewable energy because they like the idea but the simple fact that they have no choice in the matter. Something all of us in the private sector have faced for two years now and it is looking like we will all have to adjust our energy use for a long time to come.

In the long run, what the military invests in today for renewable energy will be in our homes in five to ten years at the latest. Be it solar, wind, or even pulling energy out of the air in a Tesla type experiment, the end result is the expenses in research and developed applications of our military today will be in our homes in the not so distant future. I would not be surprised to see solar energy conversion go from 30% to 80% in less than five years. Battery technology breaking new barriers and charges that last for days or weeks. Electric powered cars that can run for a week on just one charge. The possibilities are extreme and it will take the power of the U.S. military budget dollars to make the change in our energy sources and usage possible. They alone have the purchasing power to move renewable energy beyond what it is today as a science.

Papamoka

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McCain Oxymoron

This next Presidential election can make or break this country when you really think about it. America is about looking forward, it isn’t about looking back other than learning from our mistakes. John McCain is running for President based on his life experience and not on the possibility of what we can be as a people. I have enormous respect for Senator McCain but his vision of the future of America scares the hell out of me. Where he sees progress in Iraq, I see a quagmire that could never end if he is elected and then 100 years of American troops dying in Iraq would in fact be a reality.

Is that a promise of change or is that a guarantee of more of the same in thinking that the body bag factory will be in the black for another hundred years? Red state or Blue state, your children are in our military and that is just to high a price to pay for a war that was a lie to begin with. Afghanistan, hell yes! That is where the Taliban and the scum bag Osama Bin Laden were in co-hoots. One hundred years more in Afghanistan, no! Just like Iraq, Afghanistan must stand on its own and defend itself against scum like Al-Quaida and any other terrorist threat. Our nation can not be the police for the world. If that is what the world expects of us then the United Nations needs to fork over a check for one trillion dollars every year to the U.S. Treasury.

Getting past all of that war crap and the lies that go with it, our nation is broken, busted, out of sink, and on a downward spiral. The damage of W is done and it will take a decade to recover from it. While our government is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to defend a people that really don’t want freedom, our own people are falling by the wayside. Do you think that the billions of dollars allocated for the war in Iraq could have paid for a national health care plan times five?

How about making higher education free for all children in America? How far would a hundred billion tax dollars go to pay for that and actually for the American people every three months? How about taking care of our elderly that need nursing home care? How far would a couple hundred billion every three months go to pay for that? What about our infrastructure and roads and bridges that are in serious disrepair? What about putting one hundred billion into Social Security to make sure it is funded past the year 2100? This list could go on and on but McBush is more of the same and I can’t honestly see even one reason to vote for him for President. George Bush is all about spending billions of our tax dollars overseas and claiming to be a conservative when it comes to any spending bill when it comes to real life Americans. John McCain has voted in favor of every Bush intitiative for spending more overseas and against anything for American's including Veteran benefits and care. Billions for Iraq, nothing for Americans?

Hope, change, and a different perspective is coming from a new generation of Americans and if the message of Obama is change then his plans to make it happen can be a reality if he is elected President. Hope is a funny word, it means that better days are ahead and better times are coming. Isn’t that what all parents want for their children and their future? Given what President Bush has done to this economy, John McCain pointing his campaign of four more years of the same just isn’t selling well. Or he just can’t sell it as a candidate for President.

Many folks in the Libertarian and Conservative movement are abandoning McCain because his message is just weak. You can’t sell a policy of more of the same that busts the treasury and still claim to be a conservative. That is an oxymoron and you just can't sell a message that busts the federal budget when you claim to be a budget hawk.

Papamoka

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How Healthy Is Globalization For National Security?

BY MICHAEL LINN JONES

Today Matthew O'Keefe at PAPAMOKA STRAIGHT TALK has a piece, It's The Economy, Stupid.....Again! It's well worth a read, and the last two paragraphs sent me off in another direction.

When Barack and Hillary figure out who is a racist and who is a bitch then somebody please pass a note or tell them that “It’s the damn economy!” Vote for change or fight for your bread in the next economy.

Maybe the problem we as Americans have is we keep electing millionaires as President that have forgotten what it is truly like to be hungry. Not politically hungry, stomach pain, have not eaten hungry.

I would differ in that I would qualify one statement in that we don't need, nor can afford, any more UNCARING millionaires in the White House. Or in Congress, either. Economically, the United States has been cutting off its nose to feed its face. If you think the geniuses on Wall Street or on the board of the Federal Reserve have any more common wisdom than some poor slob trying to balance a checkbook you're badly mistaken.

The experts possess a great deal of knowledge. Knowledge, as the saying goes, is power. That does not denote wisdom. And one must wonder how much of the decades-old push to de-industrialize America is advanced by stupid greed.

Don't misunderstand me: greed is part and parcel of capitalism and there is NO other economic system that beats it. Capitalism has one glaring drawback, though. It's corrosive, like living in a 100% oxygen environment is corrosive. It's the inert gases in our atmosphere that prevent everything from going up in flames.

Globalization is a very oxygen-rich capitalistic phenomenon. We're told that globalization is here to stay, so deal with it. I've been told the same thing about hurricanes. Difference is; you can avoid a hurricane if you have the economic mobility. In that, hurricanes and globalization are similar.

We can argue all the livelong day about the negative aspects of globalization, but it will not affect the ongoing process of it. What is NOT discussed is how far does globalization go before the economic and military security of the United States is compromised? I've read where workers in the new economic scheme of things will be part of the process of "innovation." Blue collar jobs were to be the only casualty of this changing order. Then white collar jobs started flying way like leaves on the wind.

But not to worry. The economy of the United States will be based on "innovation." Okay, here's a question: how many 'innovators" are there in Iraq and Afghanistan? How many divisions of "innovators" can we send into combat should the United States find itself under direct threat from another nation?

In the race to send as much manufacturing abroad as possible, to look with disdain upon a low-brow "old" economic base, corporate America has lost sight of the fact that there IS a United States. That might be understandable in that most corporations have no loyalty to anything but themselves, but for the government to lose sight of the importance of certain industries' role in national security is inexcusable.

There are little things and big things. For U.S. Special Forces to have their berets made in China is absurd. If you think, "It's only cloth" then you have no concept of what those volunteers go through to wear such an item.

Perhaps I am a throwback, a person concerned with the capability of the United States to maintain the economic and military strength required in a very hostile world. So be it. Should, God forbid, the United States find itself dealing with a belligerent Russia, China, India, or Pakistan......aircraft, bombs, tanks, soldiers and rifles cannot be overcome by innovation in the form of briefcase-toting experts.

Look back, and you will find that prior to any major war there is a period where war itself is declared obsolete. It won't ever happen again; that modern forms of diplomacy and economic interaction preclude any possibility of war. Prior to Hitler invading the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviet Union's largest trading partner was.....Germany.

I have deliberately used the words "the United States" because this nation is, after all, an experiemnt. And an ideal. Being American is a frame of mind. It should precede any global identity.

A dissolved or diluted United States should not be our reward for this global economy.
***************************
Cross-posted at Michaellinnjones.com

Des Moines Register Sold Out…

If I were an Iowan I would put the Des Moines Register for Hillary Clinton up there with wrapping fish with the pages it is was written on. For that matter so goes the endorsement of McCain. Let’s just say that they are skewed to follow the money and leave it at that. Second tier or third tier candidates did not spend enough money to get the endorsement with the paper. And they wonder why people read blogs like this one for political opinion. We blog for the truth and not the almighty dollar and that is where endorsements like this one come from. Some editor or accountant is looking at the bottom line and money talks over real substance.

You can not talk about true leadership and experience and not even mention Senator Joe Biden. You can not mention working across party politics and not include Joe Biden. You can however have a ton of checks from the Clinton campaign that you might just be obligated too endorse. Don’t even follow the money, follow the style of the sponsored debates.

The Des Moines Register's editorial board has endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Iowa caucuses.

The Register, Iowa's statewide newspaper, said McCain, who represents Arizona, and Clinton, who represents New York, have two essential two qualities — competence and "readiness to lead."

In endorsing McCain, who tied for fifth in the Register's November poll of likely caucus-goers, the editorial board wrote Saturday night:

"Time after time, McCain has stuck to his beliefs in the face of opposition from other elected leaders and the public... A year ago, in the face of growing criticism, he staunchly supported President Bush's decision to increase troop strength in Iraq... He knows war, something we believe would make him reluctant to start one. He's also a fierce defender of civil liberties. As a survivor of torture, he has stood resolutely against it. He pledges to start rebuilding America's image abroad."

The Register's endorsement of Clinton comes as polls show she has slipped behind Sen. Barack Obama in Iowa. - USA Today.com

Even former President Clinton has no clue how to get us out of Iraq and his wife Hillary is flipping and flopping on what the latest political polls are offering. Joe Biden is not. We do not need flip floppers on any issue and when it comes to our military we need a realistic plan to get the hell out of Baghdad!

I’m amazed that the children and grandchildren of the Vietnam War are backing any of the front runners knowing the sacrifices that were made to just get out of Vietnam. We shamed our Veterans, people spat on them for just doing their duty. It took thirty plus years for our nation to recognize them as a true American hero. John McCain is two elections away from his time in the sun. Yes, I respect him for his service to our nation during the war and all of his time in public service. I just don’t get his anger when confronted on the serious issues our nation must face. That is where the Des Moines Register lost their credibility. In the same respects, Hillary Clinton has no clue as to what real life is all about having lived in the bubble of her husband the former President. She has no ability to talk one on one with an Iowan if there is not ten dozen cameras present to record it and sell it. Joe Biden does not even need one camera present to talk to the people. His message is consistent and believable.

Real issues are facing this nation and we do not need the biggest check cashed to be our nations next leader. We need someone that can deal with foreign policy in one heart beat and someone that can deal with a Teamsters strike in the next. We need someone that believes in all Americans first. Not just the folks that donate and contribute at the King and Queens court for the highest office in our land.

A friend of mine spoke of Irish funerals and how that was the only time to praise them for all they had done in life. It didn’t matter if you were the worst monster in the clan. I choose to defend and support Joe Biden not because his epitaph would look great on a head stone but I believe his experience and vision is far better than anyone from both political parties.

Hillary Clinton does not deserve the White House and neither does John McCain. One is running on the latest polls to get votes and the other is forgetting who he was two elections past that made him a true hero. The Des Moines Registers endorsement has failed the people but that is just my political opinion. Vote realistically and vote for Senator Joseph Biden for President in 2008. Common sense is what it is all about and not the money spent by any candidate.

Papamoka

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