McCotter is... somewhere

I love this series of videos. It shows what happens when you really want to meet people like Rep. McCotter and can't. I've met my state reps and senators regularly. They have coffee hours you can find them. Not so with someone you send to D.C. it would seem. In fact, until Thad came out about wanting to run for President, I've never seen him in public. Seems he's gotten over that issue. Perhaps he watched the King's Speech?

The world is just too F-d up

You know, the world is just too crazy not to blog about it. Ten years ago headlines like these would make people fall from their chair or nominate Darwin awards. Now we're so jaded we just don't give a frack.

For example:

Teen raped by church leader forced to stand in front of congregation and apologize. - Say WHAT?

World wide war amendment is tucked into National Defense Authorization Act. - Did Cheney come back?

John Bolton's car

Pakistan will have US troops deploy if their nuclear stockpiles are threatened from extremists.- Remember the movie 'War Games'? I'll bet the WHOPPER never had this one as a scenario.

Sadly this is just a fast run at things I've seen this evening. I could probably keep this all day.

Makes you wonder what we'll be like in another 10 years. Will we be completely uncaring?

As they dug through the waste of ages past...

Here's one of those sci-fi related plotlines that I've been tossing around for some time. You watched Wall-E right? You know how they had those city high piles of waste and they couldn't clean it fast enough? Well that wouldn't happen. Why? Because, at some point the scale tips and the waste becomes a resource.

Kinda like here in Sweden. A town of 80,000 powers itself completely on the waste it makes. Biogas is cool that way. It's all going to decompose anyway, so why not make fuel of it?

I have visions of the people of the next 100 yrs actually working in reverse and slowly eating up those massive landfills to fuel their power plants. Sure, it's nothing compared to the power of the Sun but like I said, at some point the scale tips. People will be digging down to the bottom of the 1960s and 70s... pulling up plastic for oil, metal for minerals... So much easier than digging down deep in the earth for it or going to the asteroids.

You know why they don't start with that stuff here? Capitalism. Nobody wants to be the first person to lose money on it. The 2nd and 3rd person might break even. Then finally someone gets the costs down to where the choosy American bites. Sadly, then we employ the Chinese to build all the parts.... sigh.

Education - the way to win or lose the future

I've been saying this one for years. Much like Detroit fell fast because of poor education, I think whole countries can become backward hicks if you let education fall apart. If you slack on that responsibility then all you have in one generation is a bunch of people on welfare or working low pay jobs.

As you can see here, it's just the tip of the iceberg of Chinese dominance in this area. You pump out hundreds of millions of honor students and our kids will be wanting to go there for college. They'll be exporting their specialists all over the globe. Too soon to tell if everyone in Africa will speak Chinese as a second language but I'm just throwing that out there so you're not surprised.

So as John Boehner cries about the kids and their future, his party votes to cut education spending even further. I think one missle defense system could go unfunded to pay for something this important, don't you?

I'll find a reason!

Poor old crotchety John McCain. He's mavericky... and he's basically against gays. For months and months he would give reasons on why he didn't want gays open in the military. Then he points to the study being done... Give it time! he'd say. We have to know what might happen!

Then John's wife says she's against Don't Ask, Don't Tell. A day later, she's backpedalling that she supports John.

Then the study is done. The polls say people are for it! John's still against it. It's flawed! It would be a bad time during war! (he's running low on excuses)

Give it up John. We know the future scares you. That bimbo they pushed on you during the election, another minority to be scared of. Beaten by a black man for office. Even more.

Why is the world so scary John? Because it's not the same. You're old and you want easy answers. There are none. So just give up, admit that you know nothing about this whole thing and let the nation move forward to a bit more equality. M'kay?

Pleeeease

Oh please. This guy is too much. Rep. Barton wants to be the head of the House Energy and Commerce Panel. He says he wants to be General Patton and shoot down the Obama Administration. Seriously?? He has to make some primitive 10th grade slideshow about how rugged and daring he is? Is this how they do it in the GOP? Bang on their chests to earn a chairman's role?

If you recall, he was the guy that apologized to BP because we were being too hard on them. Uh huh, you wreck the coastline of several states but don't come down hard on them. Sheesh.

In other news, a Christian woman is sentenced to death... for something she said. Yeah, it's Pakistan but you'd think we were dealing with the Middle ages here. Perhaps we are. This is what we deal with in this section of the world. A backwards, unlearned crowd that still behave like witch trials are every day news. Where science is barely knowing washing your hands is a good thing. Can we ever 'win' with these people and show them what a democracy is? They are barely more than feudal. It's like going back in time and trying to convince the South that slavery is bad. They wouldn't get it.

Honestly, we're better off throwing billions of dollars at these countries with the caveat that they promise to just build modern schools. Perhaps in a generation we can talk to these people again. Give them some pride but also give them some smarts.

We simply need more time.

Why does the GOP hate our planet?

I don't quite understand why the forces of the militant-right all hate the Environmental Protection Agency. They hate the sheer idea of climate change. They hate having anyone regulate them in regards to pollution, to even recommending that they use lower wattage light bulbs. You don't have to look far there's evidence all around. Just do a Google search on 'hates EPA' and you'll find more than your fair share of crap.

See the short answer is they are fed by lobbyists. There is a ton of money being fed to these animals to destroy the planet because if we spent any time regulating businesses for pollution, they would lose money. Better to wave that big flag of 'Your jobs will go away' and make people fear change. Don't use good lightbulbs, don't change your buying habits... wreck the planet.

It's the America way!

It's gonna be Obama's fault

It honestly doesn't matter what Obama does in the next two years. The Republicans already know the only hold part of a hand... they can't push their agenda with just the House.

Oh yeah! Right! The GOP didn't take over the world this month... only our House of Representatives!! Obama has his veto. The Senate is still a morass for legislation. Nothing's going through there. Of course the new talking point will be that Obama isn't 'cooperating'. If nothing gets done, and it won't, then Obama will be the hyper-partisan.

The next two years really comes down to framing your argument. That and a race to show the people that you're doing the best for them. Obama will be running around building cred by adding jobs, to push for tax cuts for the middle class only, to expand on the health care bill through explaining what is going into effect,etc.

The GOP on the other hand will take the business route. They will give every cut and expansion they can for Big Oil and Wall Street. Sure! Go ahead and screw the environment again, we're in charge! And along the way keep shoving bills that looks like they are for the people but are probably 66% filled with giveaways to their friends.

Meanwhile, the Teabaggers will become the biggest pain in the ass in government. They will start going off message with the GOP. They will make promises they can't keep as well as expect harsh new ways that their conservative overlords won't want. At some point they will tip over and the GOP will start pushing them back out. Assuming of course they don't need the seats they hold or they can swap them out for main-line folks.