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Archive for May, 2007

So Long, My Friend & Hero

A True PatriotLast March, I travelled to DC to march on the Pentagon in protest of the war. While there, I met Cindy Sheehan, who is a true American patriot if ever there was one.

Cindy has tirelessly opposed the illegal and immoral war in Iraq for three years, ever since her son Casey was killed attempting to rescue some of his fellow soldiers in Sadr City.

Like many of us, when the Democrats took control of Congress in January, Cindy breathed a sigh of relief. The rubber-stamp approvals of reckless spending and abuse of power would stop, the President would be reigned in and the war would finally come to a close.

Last week, however, the Democrats reminded us why the right portrays them as being weak – because they are.

Among the many pieces of legislation put forth by this newly empowered congress, was a bill to make further funding of the war contigent upon troop withdrawal. It was something to be proud of – so long as you didn’t look at it too closely.

To the embarrassment of progressives everywhere, the bill also contained funding for more than $3.7 billion in farm subsidies, $2.9 billion in additional Gulf Coast hurricane relief and $2.4 billion for social programs such as money for rural Northwest school districts, health insurance for poor children, energy assistance for poor families and others.

To the surprise of…, well…, no one, the President pounced on them for it: “They have a responsibility to pass a clean bill that does not use funding for our troops as leverage to get special-interest spending for their districts…”

Then he vetoed it, telling them “They have a responsibility to get this bill to my desk without strings and without delay.”

So, after much blustering about the consequences of elections, Reid and Pelosi did what they have always done: They caved.

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Electric Gasbags

Clearing room for more condos? (photo courtesy of Orlando Weekly)Orlando Weekly columnist Billy Manes – who I generally like and even supported for Mayor of Orlando – disappointed me with his story on gasification, A Convenient Truth.

The story comes on the heels of recent revelations that – to the gleeful delight of neocons everywhere – the production of the electric motors used in the Toyota Prius is so energy intensive, that it effectively negates whatever carbon/energy savings its use provides.

The two stories are related in that they both point to unhealthy attitudes towards new technologies.

Somewhere in the past forty years, we as Americans became intolerant of the trial and error aspects of technological development (read: pathetic cry-babies). Were Thomas Edison alive today, he would be regarded as total loser for failing to produce a working light bulb the first 300 times he tried.

Don’t believe me? Let’s turn back 40 years to 1967, and the Apollo One mission.

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