Category: Politics

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Where is our Apollo program for energy independence?

In the early 1960’s America was in crises.

The Soviets was beating us in the space race having put up Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, and the government worried they would win the so-called space race.

President John Kennedy proposed a massive undertaking so that the US could put be first to put a man on the Moon, which was seen as a national security issue.

In an address to Congress he said:

First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations–explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon–if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs

And in a speech at Rice Stadium in 1962 he said:

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

Rice Stadium Sept 12 1962

The goal of being first to the Moon led to a massive national project involving thousands of people and billions of dollars and on July 20th 1969, Neil Armstrong officially made the US the winner of the Space Race.

The Apollo project wasn’t the first national project to develop something new in the interests of national security.

During World War II, the federal government hired thousands of people and spent billions of dollars and came up with the Atom bomb within 3 years. While the use of the bomb is debatable, the point is a massive effort led by the government help address an immediate problem.

Starting in the 1950’s, massive federal spending created the Interstate Highway System that was not only for economic development but also seen as having national security implications.

Why can’t we do the same for the dependence on foreign oil?

I’m not talking about welfare for oil companies or more drilling, but a massive research and development program to come up with a host of alternative energy systems for transportation, home, and business use.

The US uses 26% of the world’s oil production and it is much higher than it was during the gas crises of the 1970’s.

It has to stop and it can be stopped if we want to protect our country from our enemies.

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What is wrong with Payday lending?

Here in Ohio a group funded by the payday lending business is pushing to get a measure on the ballot to repeal HB 545, which when signed in the spring capped the interest rate that can be charged on payday loans to 28%.

A payday loan is where someone needs some quick cash – under $800 – and goes to a payday lender. The user writes a check for the amount plus the fee for the loan that the lender then either cashes in 14 days or the borrow returns to the store and buys the check back. The fee amount is usually $15 per $100 loaned. It works out to be a 391% yearly interest rate.

The lenders are upset because HB 545 will cut into those fees and we’re told that they will have to close their stores – hurting the working poor who are the primary users of the service.

Pro HB 545 people counter that 391% is an outrage and the “service” can lead people in financial trouble into a worse cycle – needing to get more loans to pay off the previous ones. They equate payday lenders to predatory mortgage lenders that have caused all kinds of economic issues for many people.

I sit in the middle of the debate. Both sides have good arguments.

I too, think that 391% interest is inhuman no matter the reason but on the other hand it should be a person’s choice to either get the loan or for a lender to lend the money. $15 per $100 loaned is a lot better than $35 or more for a bounced check.

Could someone get stuck in a cycle of loans? Sure. I know from personal experience that it easy to do it. There was a time when I almost got sucked in, but I went 2 weeks without getting another loan and broke out. It was very hard to do – I remember it meant a lot of mac and cheese dinners and no outside entertainment.

On the other hand – crap happens. Sometimes bills come up outside of your pay check and I don’t know too many creditors who will wait until your next pay day. Many people only get paid every 2 weeks or maybe only once a month – in those circumstances if you already budgeted your money for current expenses – you can’t afford something unexpected.

Try to get a small loan from a bank. They put you through the same checks as if you were borrowing money for a house.

Traditional banks have overdraft protection but you have to have good credit to get it. Writing a bad check isn’t just dangerous fee wise but if you do it too many times you can get into legal trouble.

Also the fees associated with bouncing a check are outrageous – I know this from experience.

Several years ago I missed calculated my balance in my checking account by $3. Seven – yes I said seven – checks were bounced at $35 a pop putting me on the hook for $245 in fees alone besides the $180 in bounced checks. They took the small amount I had left in my savings account and closed my checking account, conveniently after the 7 bounces with through. I refused to pay the fees and they put me on the bad risk list keeping me from even getting a savings account. I figured I would wait them out the five years the black mark would be on my report but then they reissued the black mark after four years by sending another report to Chex Systems.

Payday lenders also provide other important services for those who don’t have bank accounts. Many of the lenders operate check cashing services. For those years I couldn’t open another bank account, payday lenders helped me by cashing my payroll check and letting me buy money orders to pay bills.

While I do think some regulation of payday lenders are needed, HB 545 hurts the consumer.

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4th of July Diminished

The 4th of July use to be one of my favorite holidays when I was younger. Back in Findlay, the holiday was a community event. Some years there would be kid games and BBQ at Riverside Park. Along with the cascade of flags and a parade it was a fun time. Other years my Uncle Bob would have a shindig at his place which ended with shooting off the illegal fireworks he had bought during the year. Other years we would drive over to the Fort Findlay Mall parking lot and watch the firework show sponsored by the old Hill’s Department Store.

Much like the discount retailer, the show was low brow. It seemed they could only afford one fire tube so we would have to wait minutes for a shell to go up. Then more often than not it was dud – with the loud *BOOM* but no works. Later when I moved to Columbus, their Red White and Boom show blew me away and I knew I could never watch a show like the one at Hill’s again.

In recent years, my fondness for the 4th of July has diminished.

I think it has all to do with our principles and the lack of acting on those principles and in some cases doing the complete opposite.

My disillusionment started when learning that even though the founding fathers said at the start of the United States Declaration of Independence

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That it wasn’t until the mid 1960’s that a majority of people were finally treated as equal humans. But even today there are still segments of citizens, such as homosexual and atheists, who are still treated unequally.

While the United States Constitution had a Bill of Rights, those rights didn’t start being applied equally until after the Civil War and again there are segments of society who don’t enjoy all of those rights today.

Then there was the government supporting dictators in other countries as long as they were anti-communists. This was done with money or training death squads at US bases like the School of the Americas. In some cases the CIA would encourage and finance dissent groups who would overthrow an unfriendly leader like Iranian Prime Minister Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953.

Then there was using the FBI to infiltrate and disrupt so-called dissent groups in the US under the COINTELPRO project from the 1950’s to the 1970’s. As stated in the article linked to here:

In the Final Report of the Select Committee COINTELPRO was castigated in no uncertain terms:

“Many of the techniques used would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all of the targets had been involved in violent activity, but COINTELPRO went far beyond that…the Bureau conducted a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association, on the theory that preventing the growth of dangerous groups and the propagation of dangerous ideas would protect the national security and deter violence.”

The Church Committee documented a history of FBI directors’ using the agency for purposes of political repression as far back as World War I, through the 1920s, when they were charged with rounding up “anarchists and revolutionaries” for deportation, and then building from 1936 through 1976.

And today we have a President who doesn’t think twice to using warrantless wiretaps and inhumane interrogation techniques along with a a compliant Congress to further gut our basic principles of democracy and freedoms.

To me, the 4th of July is mere symbolism and until we return to the principles that led to the Declaration of Independence we are just a large body of hypocrisy.

In an illustration of the difference is this quote I heard during the recent HBO series John Adams. Adams is arguing for the passage of the resolution that would lead to our Declaration of Independence. He says to the Congress:

I believe sirs the hour has come… My judgement approves this measure and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life I am now ready to stake upon it. While I now live, let me have a country. A free country.

Adams and the other men gathered in Philadelphia during that hot summer were ready to die for the principles spelled out in the Declaration. King George III had already proclaimed that if the colonists insisted on their course of action they would be tried for treason and hanged.

Today I don’t see men or women with that kind of principle. Too many politicians are worried about being re-elected and too many people take their rights for granted or don’t think giving them up will harm them in the long run. It seems there are few if any people willing to stand up for what our country is suppose to stand for.

Until I see a return to our founding principles, the 4th of July means nothing other than a day off of work.

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Findlay write up in the Washington Post

This morning was an article titled In Flag City USA, False Obama Rumors Are Flying in the Washington Post newspaper.

It profiled Jim Peterman, from Findlay, a retired worker at Cooper Tire, a father of two, an Air Force veteran and a self-described patriot, who as the paper states is “a swing voter who entered this election leaning Democratic” and the difficulties the Obama campaign has to dispel the false rumors percolating about the candidate. The article talked about Findlay itself and how most citizens hate change. Unfortunately the paper failed to mention that Peterman is a minority in Hancock county. The county is so GOP that a Democrat hasn’t won the presidential election in the county since the time of Woodrow Wilson.

I guess they were trying to show that Findlay is a battle ground when the battle there is over and has been for sometime. The false rumors will never be refuted in the minds of most Findlay people because the local radio station airs all the GOP flacks who reinforced them and Obama is left to place adverts in the paper which doesn’t convince anyone with their mind made up.

“I’ll admit that I probably don’t follow all of the election news like maybe I should,” Peterman said. “I haven’t read his books or studied up more than a little bit. But it’s hard to ignore what you hear when everybody you know is saying it. These are good people, smart people, so can they really all be wrong?”

In Flag City USA, False Obama Rumors Are Flying

People rarely change their mind in Findlay – just check the The Courier news archive on the topic of sidewalks…. That argument has been going on for more than 20 years now.

The article is yet another way the mainstream media is sweet on the GOP and McCain. If they wanted to do a balanced piece they would have gone to a more balanced district or found real swing voters.

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Can’t we all just get along

After reading some left leaning blogs this primary campaign season, you kind of have to remind yourself that people don’t all think alike. You don’t want to draw some false conclusions that paint everyone in a particular group with too wide a brush. It has been pretty tough for me to read those blogs.

The stars seem to be aligning for the Democrats in 2008. They have two history making candidates wanting to be the next President, a current President whose approval rating puts him in league with some nasty people like Nixon and Hitler, and some of the largest turn outs for a primary in decades.

It all seems good so what is the problem?

At least from a blog perspective the problem is too much of a good thing and internal strife is threatening to sour people on the whole mess.

What do I mean?

Well I expected to see and read negative stories and treatment of Hillary Clinton in the mainstream press (MSM) since that has been their bread and butter since the Clinton administration. From “stories” about her pantsuits to repeating invectives as news, the MSM has shown no love for Hillary.

I just didn’t expect to read those negative stories in left leaning blogs like Daily Kos as well as local the Buckeye State Blog.

Just today 2/29/2008, there were three negative Hillary stories on the front page of Daily Kos. Clinton allies threaten “imminent” lawsuit over Texas caucuses and The Dog That Hasn’t Barked and Ickes and Penn, After School, Behind the Bike Racks

On Buckeye State it had Ted Steps In With The Hail Marry Clinton Ad, Toledo Blade Loves That Obama Guy and Note To The Clinton Campaign on its front page today.

And don’t get me started on some of the comments to articles on those blogs. One would think you came across a right wing blog with all the b and c words used about Hillary and the Clinton’s in general and watch out if you try to post a negative Obama story or comment.

I get it. I know that these blogs and the regular contributors have taken sides. I know they don’t write in the subtle manner of the conservative loving MSM. I understand that some people are very passionate and have put in many hours of labor and love to promote their candidate. What bothers me is the personal attacks.

Sure complain about the person’s views or previous votes but stop with the personal attacks. Stop with the irrelevant look at campaign tactics and strategy. Both candidates are going to do everything to win. Just because you don’t like a particular candidate doesn’t make their tactic any better or worse. I need to point out that Bill Clinton was popular and won reelection because he out Republicaned the GOP and took the Democrats to the center. John Kerry, in 2004, stayed with the Northeastern liberal elites and lost.

And what does that say about those readers and writers who take right wing talking points that have been used in the past and pass them off as proof that Hillary is no good yet dismiss talking points that paint Obama in a negative light.

It has come to the point that I have practically stopped reading those blogs. I skim the titles and skip about 80%. I still read Cheers and Jeers on Daily Kos.

This year it looks like no matter who is the Democratic candidate this will be the year for change in the White House. My fear is these inter-family squabbles might upset the apple cart and the Democrats will miss out again like they did in 2000.

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