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Subject: The Gas Tax and Pending Loss of Alternative Energy Incentives
I'm not running for office so I have the luxury of speaking the truth about what people need to hear instead of what they want to hear.
We have three problems: lack of jobs and money coupled with skyrocketing fuel costs. How do we address all three with some intelligence and common sense solutions?
The proposal being floated to cut the gas tax for the summer is not a solution - the gas tax barely pays for road maintenance, so that move would cut the money available for road repairs (not to mention new roads that are needed). And a gas tax cut would also encourage even more consumption instead of people cutting their energy use by buying more fuel efficient vehicles. It's just a gimmick that only makes matters worse without any real relief. "Pumping more oil" is like giving the alcoholic more booze; it won't fix the underlying problem.
We fix it by making some changes in existing law and structuring incentives to grow both energy sources and jobs that are created with new technology and clean, alternative fuels.
According to Rep. Nick Lampson (TX) at a recent meeting I attended, the current tax incentives for solar/wind are due to lapse in December, which will CUT our energy expansion. Solar and wind farms will not be built until incentives are re-authorized. In Germany such incentives are good for 20 years. Our incentives have been too limited --to only two years. Rep. Lampson wants something like Germany has-incentives long enough to get banks willing to fund these valuable alternative energy projects. With the incentives, the projects will make money and the loan is secure. Renewing our alternative energy incentives will boost the economy, get banking moving again, create jobs and produce more clean energy, with zero carbon emissions. It's a win-win-win.
But we need changes in current policy also. I believe Ethanol based on corn should be frozen - it takes more energy to produce it than it generates -- and it is why we have a 40% spike in food prices worldwide that is throwing 100 million people from having enough to eat to not enough to eat. THAT impacts our national (and global) security. For example, in Afghanistan, a family now must spend an entire month's wages just on food. Money that bought a 50 lb. bag now buys less than 10. The resentment over food could collapse the U.S.-supported Karzai government. The lack of food could lead to a new, unfriendly Afghan government with Taliban ties. And that is just one country where the food crisis ties directly to our security.
We need to switch to Ethanol based on sugar (not corn), since it produces more energy than it takes to make --and there is a surplus of it in the world if we could import it. But the U.S. sugar lobby has restricted imports, which has kept sugar prices inflated and cost you dearly for everything from cereal to a Mars bar to cheaper transportation. If we could buy sugar at world prices to make ethanol both the cost of candy and ethanol would fall. And it won't take away a human/animal food crop. Even the U.S. sugar producers would benefit from the new market.
I'd like to see the President and Congress put energy above politics and make these needed changes this year, and avoid the gas tax gimmicks that won't really help us generate new energy sources and cut our oil addiction.
These proposed changes would diminish the food crisis and improve our clean energy abundance.
Michael Fjetland
[BuzzFlash Note: Perhaps a related news item is that ADM today reported "a 42 percent increase in fiscal third-quarter profit ... driven by an almost sevenfold increase in profit at ADM's agricultural services division ... ADM is the country's second-largest producer of ethanol ...": Strong grain prices boost ADM earnings.] [2]Subject: Swiftboating Obama
Re: Barack Obama, Rev. Wright, and Racism, America Responds: We’re Not Done With You Yet -- The BuzzFlash Editor's Blog [2]
BuzzFlash,
Thanks to your readers for the excellent letters in the April 29 Mailbag. [2] I would only like to add that what this Wright controversy shows is that the control of the media by the right-wing is so powerful they can "Swiftboat" anyone. If an opponent lived on the same block 40 years ago as someone who got a ticket for jay-walking, that is all they need. That power comes from a combination of the Storm Troopers on right-wing talk radio and the fear and complicity of MSM. To get higher ratings MSM emphasizes entertainment; to avoid the Storm Troopers they avoid saying anything negative about the right-wing Bush administration. This leaves nothing but a mindless frenzy of polling and analyzing the views of the uninformed public that they and the right-wing have created.
The soft-on-torture liberal
Subject: Democrats
For what it's worth...you need to lighten up on the Clinton-bashing. We saw quite enough of that for eight years (and plus!) from the RepubliKKKans.
Personally, I've been an Obama supporter almost since he first announced that he was running for President. However, that doesn't mean that I want to join the Clinton-bashing bandwagon. She must be doing something right if the corporate jerks who tried to destroy her husband continue to hound her, too.
Just cut out the constant attacks on Clinton. She may very well end up with the nomination. And then you're either going to have to support her, or join the Republicans like Joe Lieberman has done.
James Smith
Matthews, NC
Subject: Top Ten Reasons Not To Endorse On May Day
Does your name appear on the superdelegate undeclared list? Are you being accused of sitting back and watching as your party self destructs? Is your message as unclear as it is irrelevant? Need to justify your silence? Maybe this will help:
Top Ten Reasons Not To Endorse On May Day.
10. I love chatting with Chelsea and Michelle on the cell phone.
9. I giggle at the idea of Hillary and Rush in bed together with the common purpose of bombing the convention.
8. As a super delegate it is my super patriotic duty to provide a super distraction for the earth's remaining super power to start a super duper war with Iran.
7. I just can't believe my party would actually nominate a black man.
6. I'm having difficulty resetting my political compass relative to the Clinton-Murdoch-Scaife axis.
5. If Clinton really does accept McCain's V.P. offer, I am definitely voting Obama, but I have to wait and see.
4. I'm waiting for a bounce. Definitely need a bounce. Get Diebold on the phone. Tell them we need a bounce.
3. I've heard that 2024 is a magic number. Is that the delegate count or the year?
2. Has my candidate been thoroughly Huckabized yet?
1. It's too late now, baby, it's too late, though we really did try to make it.
Larry Allen
Oakland, CA
Subject: A Couple Of Things ...
Hi, Buzz!!
P.M. Carpenter quotes a Republican official saying Obama is the weaker of the two Democratic candidates for President. If this is so, why are so many right-wingers touting Hillary? Ann Coulter says she'd rather vote for Hillary than McCain. Rush Limbaugh encouraged his ditto-heads to vote for Hillary in the PA primary. If Obama is so weak, why don't they want him to be their opponent in November? I smell a rat ...
Concerning the "elitist" charge against Obama, I've said it before, I say it again: I want a President who's smarter than I am. I don't care if he can bowl (I'm a lousy bowler myself, although I enjoy it). I don't care if he has arugula in his salad. I don't care if he's the type of guy you'd like to have a beer with. That's the guy we've got now, and look what happened!
For the Washington-beltway-Ivy-League types to label Obama as "elitist" is yet another instance of right-wing hypocrisy, and we must call them on it over and over and OVER.
Finally, Pete Walsh, [2] you are right: McCain is so WRONG about so many things that we should stick with those and not try to hit him where he's right. That will only blow up in our faces. Whatever we may think of his politics, the man is a war veteran and deserves his benefits. But he's given us plenty of other issues to attack him on; I'm sure we'll keep busy till the election.
Jane Hawes (red-state Democrat)
Emporia, KS
Subject: Morning Joe on MSNBC
I'd like to recommend that someone who's interested and able to do this, monitor Morning Joe until the election. Right now, at 5:45 central time, Joe said, it is hard to know a person who's been in D.C. for 1 year (meaning Obama) rather than someone who's been in D.C. for 30 years (meaning Hillary). Neither of these statements is true, both exaggerated.
This is daily, and often gets repeated over and over throughout the day.
And Mika [Brzezinski]? [3]... Her own father is helping Obama's campaign, yet she plays both ways often (i.e., agrees with Joe too easily).
And Joe [4]? He frequently calls her "a Marxist" when he is not coming across as a silly little boy-king.
The problem? They have 3 hours of an early morning conservative radio-type show, with Mika supposedly playing the coy lesser, unequal, very submissive voice of the liberal view.
Anyone want to monitor this show until the election? (I can't due to health and caring for elderly parent.) I believe this lengthy morning show is more subtle than Limbaugh, and more powerful than FOX these days. It looks mainstream, but it isn't. (Whatever happened to Scarborough's case regarding the female intern found dead in his office one morning? Nevermind.)
North Texas BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: Your Latest Communication About Obama's Pastor
I have been reading Buzz since the day it started. I have not contributed lately because I have been really put off by your lack of balance. I don't read Buzz for your opinions. I thought that we actually have always agreed ... that everyone gets a say.
Buzz -- we don't need you to tell us what you want us to think. I logged on tonight to send you some money and was greeted by your rant about Obama's pastor and who paid for him.
Buzz -- I watched Obama's pastor's speech and found him to be an incredible person actually believing in the separation of church and state and willing to be what he is -- a pastor who is a person.
I have to wonder who you have sold out to.
You have changed so much that I have to wonder to whom you are indebted.
Suzanne
Warfordsburg, PA
Subject: The Rev. Jeremiah Wright
One would think that this man is running for the highest office in the land. If he does not stop Obama...it will not be because the people trying to STOP Obama have not tried, enough and constantly!!! Funny Country...when your past experiences with your own church Pastor can stir up such s***.., right?
I am still for the Democrat that can stop McCain...but, I think some of this crap they use to try to hold them back...is such malarkey. Makes me think of every single thing they used against the Clintons...good grief! They pilfered through every single check they had ever written...every conversation where they might be able to catch someone is a little tiny lie... Shouldn't the Democrats be out there trying to tell this country what McCain is going to do to us if he is elected?????? Do you know, there are still Republicans out there who will tell you that Bill and Hill did everything that the Republicans brought against them...even though...KENNETH STARR PRONOUNCED THEM INNOCENT OF ANYTHING OTHER THAN A LIE TO THE GRAND JURY ABOUT MONICA....!!
And, I above all...wish they would stop trying to diss each other...both are better than Bush!!! Now, maybe if we all just relax...and wait... and do not even think about what the Rev. Wright has said in the past...Obama has denounced some of that already...we all know that...we just need to concentrate on what we can do to get this country back to what it was in the 90's!!
Remember...anyone...1.00 a gallon gas...or on holidays...1.25 gas??? What a trip! Remember when groceries were something that everyone could afford...when stores were not closing down by the dozens...really...it is depressing that the nearest mall to me, is almost 75% empty...we need to think about the needless deaths in Iraq...and perhaps the ones in New York...we have never, ever known the real truth about any of it...may never! Remember, more than anything affordable health care...it is frightening to me to even think about it at my age...and with my husband retiring this year, after working much too long. Bush has fixed it so that many of us cannot even dream of a relaxed retirement...I would like to try...and I want us all to try...and I know that the Republicans are trying to fix things so that elderly, minorities and many cannot even vote without a picture ID...what the hell has this country come to? Where is GOD...Have the evil of this country used him in such a way that he will not even be here for anyone anymore?
Oh well...we have to think positively...and I hope it works...and we have to do what we can to make it work!! It would be nice if the Supreme Court would help, though! I hope everyone out there who voted for this regime...who might have crossed the line because they thought Clinton was so evil...and Bush was such a good Christian... hope you all look into the mirror and ask forgiveness...because I cannot do it for you, not yet.
Shirley ... St. Louis
Subject: The Undoing Of Racism
"We elect a president who ends the Iraq War, negotiates with Iran plus turning things around here at home."
"How will that undo racism?"
"After that it'll be up to us, the what sort of world."
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: Limbaugh Again
Hi, Buzz!!
Just wanted to say thanks to the Buzzer who provided addresses for the FCC [4] and legislative branch. I have written to the FCC and my Congress critters about Limbaugh's incitement to riot, expressing my disgust and asking for an investigation.
I hope lots and lots of you will do the same. The man has GOT TO BE HELD TO ACCOUNT.
Jane Hawes (red-state Democrat)
Emporia, KS
Subject: How Was The Iran War Aborted?
"The Bush Administration overplayed its hand."
"What happened was that at the same time as reports were made public which proved that the media build-up to the Iraq War had been scripted and staged by the Pentagon, guess what?"
"The Pentagon was at it again."
"By doing what?"
"Trying to trick the public into believing that Iran was behind most if not all of the violence in Iran."
"Shades of those nonexistent weapons of mass destruction."
"Did the Pentagon repeat with war-pimping General David Petraeus as its leading pitch man?"
"This time said role was assigned to the top uniformed officer in the U.S. Navy, Adm. Michael G. Mullen."
"What did he say?"
"That the military had new and conclusive evidence that Iran is behind the recent flare-up in violence that so far this month has taken the lives of thirty-four U.S. soldiers."
"A reprise of the new and conclusive evidence that Colin Powell presented to The U.N. Security Council five yaars ago."
"Where he said 'See these trailers parked out there in the desert? Well, those aren't recreation vehicles, they're mobile factories manufacturing biological weapons of mass destruction.'"
"Except the Pentagon didn't get away with it this time."
"Why not?"
"The public wasn't buying."
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subject: Clintons Provide Wright A Platform
Man, you guys will go a looooong way to tar the Clinton campaign with dirty tricks. Is Reverend Wright an Obama supporter? Isn't his inability to govern his own remarks much more important than the fact that a woman who voted for Clinton in a primary sits on the selection committee? The Reverend spoke at the largest sit down dinner ever held two days before his Press Club talk, speaking to the nation's most prominent African-American group. He's newsworthy. It doesn't take a Clinton voter to recognize that.
Why, if the Reverend's remarks are so "outrageous" and "appalling," did it take Obama a month to denounce them? Do you suppose it could be a political consideration, rather than a deeply held personal one? I do. Do you suppose polls, the same polls read by the superdelegates, are telling him Reverend Wright is a big part of the reason his candidacy is predicted to lose to McCain in November? I do. Do you think Sean Hannity and Chris Matthews will be able to say, "Senator Obama would lick the bathroom floor to beome president...look what he did to his lifelong friend and pastor when it was expedient?" I do.
Face it, friends. Obama is no less driven by political needs than is Clinton.
Peter Young
Ann Arbor, Michigan
[BuzzFlash Note: The AP and Newsweek McCain match-up polls differ. [5] As to Wright, Obama criticized Wright's words and views 3/18/08 in his "More Perfect Union" [6] speech but gave the man the benefit of the doubt. Wright's conduct this week prompted Obama also to repudiate the relationship. You call it politics, but there appears to be a highly personal element here. From the Obama press conference transcript [7]: "Yesterday, I think he caricatured himself and that was -- as I said, that made me angry, but also made me sad. ... I do not see that relationship being the same after this ... one thing that he said was true was that he was never my, quote/unquote spiritual adviser, he was never my spiritual mentor ..."]
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