Old Hippie Chic's Rants

Someone more famous than moi' once said something along the lines of: "Never underestimate the power of the pen (to make change)". Well, welcome to the world of cyber-politics, 21st century style -- maybe, JUST MAYBE, so long as the lights stay on and the net stays up, we CAN, one responsible voter/citizen at a time, rattle the beltway long enough and hard enough to bring about positive changes to what is now a very one-sided form of government. to-wit, from John Kerry:

"Yesterday, we saw a relentless Republican attack on one of our most treasured natural wonders sneak through the Senate on a 51 to 49 vote. But, we also saw more than 260,000 Americans act in less than 24 hours to add their names to our Citizens' Roll Call in favor of protecting the Arctic Refuge.

It was the first time ever that I or anyone else could stand on the Senate floor and announce that, in a day's time, a quarter of a million Americans had gone online to express their passionate support for a given course of action.

That awesome display of grassroots power rattled our opponents. They even railed against my e-mail message on the Senate floor and entered its text into the Senate record. So, think of it this way. The Republican leaders of the Senate have 51 reasons to celebrate today, but you and I have 260,000 reasons to do the same.

If we keep working together - committed pro-environment Senators and a powerful grassroots movement all pulling in the same direction - we can still stop the plan for drilling in the Arctic from making it the rest of the way through Congress. And we can win the larger battle over two very different visions of America's energy future.

George W. Bush and the Washington Republicans have a plan to sell off our public lands to powerful special interests. As a result of their ruthless drive to undermine America's most beautiful natural treasures, the oil rigs are closer to the Arctic Refuge than they have ever been. But, the Bush administration's own scientists and economists admit that the Republicans' plan will not make us less dependent on foreign oil and will not lower prices at the pump. We have to put America's energy future in the hands of Americans - by inventing our way to real energy independence and having energy sources that create jobs and lower prices.

With your help, we will continue to wholeheartedly resist their special interest-funded partisan agenda. And, if we act with the same energy and determination as we have on this critical Arctic Refuge vote, sooner than later, our power and commitment will carry the day. I know you will be with me every step of the way and I thank you for the passion and energy that you bring to our work together.

P.S. I told you that more than a quarter of a million people signed our Citizens' Roll Call in the first 24 hours after we launched it. Actually the news is even more impressive. As of this moment, there are over 400,000 signers to our Roll Call, including tens of thousands who signed after the vote to express their determination to keep fighting. Let's keep working.

Drive 'em cheap while you can. Won't last.

Many analysts have estimated when the earth will reach its peak oil production. Others have done estimates on when individual countries will hit their peaks. Herold is the first Wall Street firm to predict when specific energy companies will hit their peaks.

Since last fall, Herold has done peak estimates on about two dozen oil companies. Herold believes that the French oil company, Total S.A., will reach its peak production in 2007. Herold expects 2008 to be critical, with Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., BP, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and the Italian producer, Eni S.p.A., all hitting their peaks. In 2009, Herold expects ChevronTexaco Corp. to peak. In Herold's view, each of the world's seven largest publicly traded oil companies will begin seeing production declines within the next 48 months or so.

Another energy industry veteran, John Olson, co-manager of Houston Energy Partners, an energy hedge fund, agrees. Olson believes that Herold's predictions about peak production are "very significant. It is perhaps the first cannon ball over the bow of a big tanker."

Last week, the Department of Energy issued a report saying that it expects prices to stay near or above $50 per barrel for the rest of this year.

David Pursell, a partner at Pickering Energy Partners, a Houston brokerage, along with virtually everyone else in the oil industry -- agrees that the era of cheap energy is over and that America must begin adapting to the new geopolitical realities that come with that fact.

Former CIA director James Woolsey, a key backer of the war in Iraq,, along with neocons like Frank Gaffney are arguing that energy conservation is simply smart strategy when dealing with the Muslim extremists who reside in the oil-rich countries of the Persian Gulf. But so far, the neocons haven't been able to get Bush's ear.

Bushie's "compassion"

This in from ADA source -- read more about it by googling "Joanne Wilson resigns".

President Bush issued his budget proposal on February 7. The
head of the largest federal job-training program for people with
disabilities quit on February 8.

Joanne Wilson -- head of the $2.7 billion-a-year Rehabilitation
Services Administration at the Education Department -- left
quietly. She sent out a standard-issue "the-time-has-come"
resignation letter, wrapped up loose ends at the office, and
packed her things to move back to Louisiana. Among advocates for
the disabled, rumors percolated that Wilson had resigned in
protest, but she kept her mouth shut until after her resignation
became official on March 1.

Then, there's bushie's slashing ot Medicaid funding (proposed): LARGE MEDICAID CUTS IN CONGRESS WILL DEVASTATE THE STATES ABILITY TO PROVIDE
GROWING MEDICAID SERVICES TO WOMEN, CHILDREN, PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES AND
OLDER AMERICANS. THIS MEANS POTENTIAL CUTS
IN NEEDED HEALTH SERVICES FOR POOR FAMILIES AND LONGER WAITING LISTS FOR HOME
AND COMMUNITY SERVICES.

There are Medicaid cuts of at least $15 billion (that's billion with a "B") in both
the House and Senate budget resolutions. Our only hope of minimizing Medicaid
cuts in the federal budget this year now rests with an amendment that Senators
Smith and Bingaman will offer to strike Medicaid cuts from the Senate budget
resolution. The vote on that amendment-the Medicaid vote of our times-could
happen as early as next Tuesday (tomorrow march l5).

If you wanna voice your opinion, email your Senators NOW ~! Calling the 1-800 line to D.C. will only get you a busy signal ~!

Pharisee Nation...

from: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8113.htm -- this is an excellent article -- just a snippet here. very worthwhile to read and "think on" imho.

A Culture of Pharisees

We have become a culture of Pharisees. Instead of practicing an authentic spirituality of compassion, nonviolence, love and peace, we as a collective people have become self-righteous, arrogant, powerful, murderous hypocrites who dominate and kill others in the name of God. The Pharisees supported the brutal Roman rulers and soldiers, and lived off the comforts of the empire by running an elaborate banking system which charged an exorbitant fee for ordinary people just to worship God in the Temple. Since they taught that God was present only in the Temple, they were able to control the entire population. If anyone opposed their power or violated their law, the Pharisees could kill them on the spot, even in the holy sanctuary.

Most North American Christians are now becoming more and more like these hypocritical Pharisees. We side with the rulers, the bankers, and the corporate millionaires and billionaires. We run the Pentagon, bless the bombing raids, support executions, make nuclear weapons and seek global domination for America as if that was what the nonviolent Jesus wants. And we dismiss anyone who disagrees with us.

We have become a mean, vicious people, what the bible calls “stiff-necked people.” And we do it all with the mistaken belief that we have the blessing of God.

Every religion, including Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism, is rooted in nonviolence, but I submit that the only thing we know for sure about Jesus is that he was nonviolent and so, nonviolence is the hallmark of Christianity and the measure of authentic Christian living. Jesus commands that we love one another, love our neighbors, seek justice, forgive those who hurt us, pray for our persecutors, and be as compassionate as God. But at the center of his teaching is the most radical declaration ever uttered: “love your enemies.”

It's all about oil...

I oppose the BLM's current preferred alternative plan for the Great Divide, which would allow the industrialization of wildlands that contain irreplaceable natural and cultural treasures. I urge you to revise your proposal to include the Western Heritage Alternative in order to balance industrial uses of public lands with the needs of public recreation, clean air and water and desert wildlife.

The Western Heritage Alternative would protect unique and sensitive resources, including wilderness quality lands in the Pedro Mountains, Wild Cow Creek and all of the Citizens' Proposed Adobe Town Wilderness. The alternative also would ensure "no surface occupancy" requirements for Native American sacred sites, historic sites and the most important wildlife habitats such as crucial big game winter ranges, prairie dog colonies, mountain plover habitat and within three miles of sage grouse breeding grounds or one mile of raptor nests.

I also support the Western Heritage Alternative because many sensitive streamside habitats are currently suffering from overgrazing in the valleys that descend from the slopes of the Sierra Madres, and it is critical that the BLM reduce livestock grazing on rangeland in fair or poor quality. I also urge your agency to protect air quality in this beautiful area by limiting development that contributes to acid rain and smog. Finally, I ask you to protect clean water by prohibiting surface discharge of wastewater produced from coalbed methane drilling in the North Platte River drainage area and the Red Desert, carefully regulating coalbed methane development and requiring "best management practices" for the control of water pollution.

The BLM should protect those few remaining places in our western wildlands that are too special to drill. Please preserve our natural heritage for future generations by adopting the Western Heritage Alternative for the Great Divide.

Number 1 ???

America by the numbers

No. 1?

by Michael Ventura
February 23, 2005

No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in:

The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).
"The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).
Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!
"The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).
"Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).
Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).
Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be anymore.
The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.
"The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.
Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (That's six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)
"U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet it's the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.
Twelve million American families--more than 10 percent of all U.S. households--"continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed themselves." Families that "had members who actually went hungry at some point last year" numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).
The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).
"Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its workforce in the 1980s.... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1 percent" (The European Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other industrialized country, and get less vacation time.
"Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies" (The European Dream, p.66). "In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies, conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European" (The European Dream, p.69).
"Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are European.... In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is the world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are European.... The two others are Japanese. Not a single American engineering and construction company is included among the world's top nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestlé and Unilever, two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the world. In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies...are first and second, and European companies make up five of the top ten. Only four U.S. companies are on the list" (The European Dream, p.68).
The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).
U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan. 14, 2005).
Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of unemployment insurance last year; 1.8 million--one in five--unemployed workers are jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 2005).
Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40 percent of our government debt. (That's why we talk nice to them.) "By helping keep mortgage rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom" (NYT, Dec. 4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom to China, because they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture.
Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S. as the world's largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world's largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world's largest beef producer. (Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we bear record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of eligible voters who didn't show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004). That's more than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don't show for their election, no country in the world will think that election legitimate.
One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).
"Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined" (The European Dream, p.28).
"Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that using violence to get what they want is acceptable" (The European Dream, p.32).
Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).
"Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).
"The International Association of Chiefs of Police said that cuts by the [Bush] administration in federal aid to local police agencies have left the nation more vulnerable than ever" (USA Today, Nov. 17, 2004).

No. 1? In most important categories we're not even in the Top 10 anymore. Not even close.

The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.

Reprinted from the Austin Chronicle.

I wasn't gonna do this...

...sorta stuff AGAIN -- but i just can't seem to hep myself ~! sadly, hindsight doesn't help the current situation (facets of same below that i don't like) but IF bushie, sr. had been high behind alternate energy development, neither of these posts would have gotten posted -- and they ARE "related" or correlated -- how much energy development do you 'spose $250 Billion would buy us vs. buying Iraq for the bush-team???

Oil leaps as Opec hints $80 barrel is on the way
Opec said that it could cost $80 a barrel in the next two years. New York crude was up $1.40 at $54.45.

http://www.money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/03/04/cnopec04.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/03/04/ixfrontcity.html

Mushrooming depleted uranium (DU) scandal

Arthur N. Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, stated, “The real reason for Mr. Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi’s departure was really never given, however a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of the ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the US Military.”

Bernklau continued, “This malady (from uranium munitions), that thousands of our military have suffered and died from, has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth is now being revealed.”

He added, “Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of ‘Disabled Vets’ means that a decade later, 56% of those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems!” Compare this with the disability rate for the wars of the last century was 5 percent and 10 percent, in Viet Nam.

“The VA Secretary (Principi) was aware of this fact as far back as 2000,” wrote Bernklau. “He, and the Bush administration have been hiding these facts.

“Terry Jamison, Public Affairs Specialist, Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Department of Veterans Affairs, at the VA Central Office, recently reported that ‘Gulf Era Veterans’ now on medical disability, since 1991, number 518,739 Veterans,” said Berklau.

"Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist, who retired from the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, and was also involved with the Manhattan Project, interprets the new and rapid malignancies in the soldiers (from the 2003 Iraq War) as ‘spectacular … and a matter of concern!’”

Source via Pat Thompson

http://www.sfbayview.com/012605/headsroll012605.shtml

“The VA Secretary (Principi) was aware of this fact as far back as 2000,” wrote Bernklau. “He, and the Bush administration have been hiding these facts.

Source via Pat Thompson

http://www.sfbayview.com/012605/headsroll012605.shtml

ahhhhh, yes, our boy makes us all proud ~! NOT

Homeland Security

Health Care

Education

Other Priorities

And Bush's irresponsible budget is a record $427 billion in the red, increasing each Texas family's share of the federal debt by $36,536.

Take Action

Take action today to help stop Bush's disastrous budget in its tracks. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper explaining why Bush's budget is such a disaster for America.

And be sure to tell your friends to join in. Forward this email to all your friends in Texas, or tell them to find the report for their own state here:

And I thought...

and i thought there wouldn't be enough 'fodder' to continue this blog after another non-election... NOT ~!

Action alert: Urge senators to oppose Negroponte as intelligence chief

President Bush has nominated John D. Negroponte to the new post of national
intelligence chief. As intelligence chief, he will wield enormous power, and
will be President Bush's closest advisor on intelligence issues.

Mr. Negroponte was notorious throughout the 1980s for his support for the
Honduran death squads when he served as ambassador in that country. If he is
confirmed for this position, the use of torture and terror by our
intelligence services will be given free rein.

Contact your senators now to strongly oppose the nomination of John
Negroponte. For an action alert, visit:
http://www.uusc.org/news/alert021805.html.

I'm baaaaaaack ~!

Well, I turned my back for a coupla months and Howard changed this whole thing (blog editor) up and now I'll have to learn it all up, again ~! Took myself a 60-day hiatus from the blog -- rested up from all that politickin - so now will also have to grow a whole new readership i guess ~! oh well.

Much HAS changed in 2 plus months -- i think i'm pooped out on bush-bashing -- building a whole new website tho, and will feature it here from time to time, and vice versa -- and get to promoing both.

We'uns vs. THEM ~!!