This morning I heard a Newt (an appropriate name : an amphibious lizard-like creature) Gingrich ad talking about rising gas prices under Obama and how he would increase drilling and approve the Keystone XL Pipeline to lower gas prices to $2.00 a gallon. This is absolutely absurd!
First off, even Fox News says - or used to say when the President was a Republican - that the President can't control gas prices. High gas prices are due, mostly, to wall street speculation - which is when people buy oil or gas without ever intending to actually take delivery, instead they sell, at a high profit, the commodity. So how is it that now, all of a sudden, in the Republican mind, the President has total control over gas prices?
The Keystone XL Pipeline is a horrible idea! First, when (not if) another oil spill happens, what damage will it do and how much will it cost taxpayers to clean it up? Yes, another tar sands oil spill, like the one that has damaged the Kalamazoo river in Michigan - and it has already been more than two years of attempts to clean it up!
I think... no, I know that it is insane and irresponsible to risk that kind of damage to that many lives just for a little profit and short term jobs - even if there are a few permanent jobs. Especially when we won't get to use any of the oil - they plan to export all of it. Look at how the Republicans reject amendments to say all the oil must stay in the U.S. and even ones that say 90% of workers must be U.S. citizens and materials must be U.S. sourced. They don't want U.S. based jobs - they want their pockets lined with profits above all else. They don't care about the lives and livelihoods of people living around the path of the pipeline or those served by the aquifers and farmland the pipeline will destroy when it spills. (Remember, its not a question of "if," but a question of "when.")
I would like to point out Newt's hypocrisy, but Colbert did it better... Newt says Biofuel from algae is nuts, but a moon colony is totally doable.
Look, take a few minutes to clear your head of all the Fox News propaganda and really look back at 2000 to 2008. Bush and the GOP had total majority control of all branches of government for six of those eight years. 9/11 gave them carte blanch to pretty much do whatever they wanted - and they did. In 2007, the economy was collapsing and the debt had skyrocketed, gas prices had soared and in 2008, the reaping of the Republican policy binge was $4.00 a gallon gas! So gas at $3.40 is a DROP since Obama took office. The debt has gone up under Obama, no doubt - but we are trying to pull out of a GOP Recession! Look what happened to get us out of the Great Depression! It is expensive to pull us out of the Republican's mess.
Then we have Rick Santorum - which my spell check wants to change to sanatorium and I find that appropriate. He is running on an agenda to basically strip away rights and freedoms from women and those less privileged. He wants to end abortion because it is His Religious Belief that life begins at conception. No matter where you stand on the abortion issue, what should scare everyone is the GOP's desire to force their religious beliefs onto everyone else - a total violation of the First Amendment. This country was founded as a place to escape the religious tyranny of the Church of England, as a place where every individual could exercise their religious beliefs - or lack thereof - without interference from the government. Now the GOP wants to, by default, establish an official religion for the United States, making us like Iran and all the other religiously controlled countries - third world. Or, perhaps, like Ireland with the Catholic vs. Protestant wars.
In looking around about Santorum, I found a site on his religious belief. It tells of how they found out in 1996 that the child his wife was carrying had a fatal defect and how they chose to not have an abortion. Which I find terribly barbaric and cruel - to force a child to be born into suffering only to die after hours of untold agony. I find that sadistic and disturbing. I, unlike him and others, would not consider passing laws to force him to have a compassionate abortion, just as I would not pass laws that would force someone to give birth.
Then you have Mitt Romney - what kind of name is "Mitt" anyway? ( Though I must admit the mental image of him catching a baseball with his face is fleetingly amusing. ) One place says that Romney is focused on undoing what Obama has done. So, since 2009, Obama has the unemployment shrinking, jobs increasing, stock market hitting high points and retail sales picking up.
The bottom line is that their rhetoric rarely matches up with reality in any sphere - political, social, economic, religious. A party whose luminaries are willing to tell outright untruths to gain political favor, does not deserve any vote. Anyone who makes under $100,000 per year or happens to be female should not even consider voting Republican. Finally, the modern Republican party is the biggest threat to Democracy, our Country and our Economy since the Great Depression.
I look forward to comments.
Now, read my more recent post : Don't vote Republican!! and even newer Republicans pass law to close Private Business
First off, even Fox News says - or used to say when the President was a Republican - that the President can't control gas prices. High gas prices are due, mostly, to wall street speculation - which is when people buy oil or gas without ever intending to actually take delivery, instead they sell, at a high profit, the commodity. So how is it that now, all of a sudden, in the Republican mind, the President has total control over gas prices?
The Keystone XL Pipeline is a horrible idea! First, when (not if) another oil spill happens, what damage will it do and how much will it cost taxpayers to clean it up? Yes, another tar sands oil spill, like the one that has damaged the Kalamazoo river in Michigan - and it has already been more than two years of attempts to clean it up!
I think... no, I know that it is insane and irresponsible to risk that kind of damage to that many lives just for a little profit and short term jobs - even if there are a few permanent jobs. Especially when we won't get to use any of the oil - they plan to export all of it. Look at how the Republicans reject amendments to say all the oil must stay in the U.S. and even ones that say 90% of workers must be U.S. citizens and materials must be U.S. sourced. They don't want U.S. based jobs - they want their pockets lined with profits above all else. They don't care about the lives and livelihoods of people living around the path of the pipeline or those served by the aquifers and farmland the pipeline will destroy when it spills. (Remember, its not a question of "if," but a question of "when.")
"In just its first year of operation, the first Keystone pipeline operated by TransCanada has spilled 35 times in the United States and Canada in 2010. This spill frequency is 100 times higher than forecast by TransCanada."Another question about Keystone - why bypass Michigan and other states where they need jobs to take all that extra risk of spills all the way down to Texas? The ports used to export it are closer! They won't even allow us Truck Driver jobs to transport the refined product! It is more of a job killer than job creator.
I would like to point out Newt's hypocrisy, but Colbert did it better... Newt says Biofuel from algae is nuts, but a moon colony is totally doable.
Look, take a few minutes to clear your head of all the Fox News propaganda and really look back at 2000 to 2008. Bush and the GOP had total majority control of all branches of government for six of those eight years. 9/11 gave them carte blanch to pretty much do whatever they wanted - and they did. In 2007, the economy was collapsing and the debt had skyrocketed, gas prices had soared and in 2008, the reaping of the Republican policy binge was $4.00 a gallon gas! So gas at $3.40 is a DROP since Obama took office. The debt has gone up under Obama, no doubt - but we are trying to pull out of a GOP Recession! Look what happened to get us out of the Great Depression! It is expensive to pull us out of the Republican's mess.
Then we have Rick Santorum - which my spell check wants to change to sanatorium and I find that appropriate. He is running on an agenda to basically strip away rights and freedoms from women and those less privileged. He wants to end abortion because it is His Religious Belief that life begins at conception. No matter where you stand on the abortion issue, what should scare everyone is the GOP's desire to force their religious beliefs onto everyone else - a total violation of the First Amendment. This country was founded as a place to escape the religious tyranny of the Church of England, as a place where every individual could exercise their religious beliefs - or lack thereof - without interference from the government. Now the GOP wants to, by default, establish an official religion for the United States, making us like Iran and all the other religiously controlled countries - third world. Or, perhaps, like Ireland with the Catholic vs. Protestant wars.
In looking around about Santorum, I found a site on his religious belief. It tells of how they found out in 1996 that the child his wife was carrying had a fatal defect and how they chose to not have an abortion. Which I find terribly barbaric and cruel - to force a child to be born into suffering only to die after hours of untold agony. I find that sadistic and disturbing. I, unlike him and others, would not consider passing laws to force him to have a compassionate abortion, just as I would not pass laws that would force someone to give birth.
Then you have Mitt Romney - what kind of name is "Mitt" anyway? ( Though I must admit the mental image of him catching a baseball with his face is fleetingly amusing. ) One place says that Romney is focused on undoing what Obama has done. So, since 2009, Obama has the unemployment shrinking, jobs increasing, stock market hitting high points and retail sales picking up.
"the Nasdaq Composite hit 3,019.12, its highest mark since December 2000." - 3/13/2012Following the Bush years, that is amazing! But Romney wants to take us back, to undo it all. Their 'shrinking' government will automatically spike the unemployment rate as they close offices and shrink budgets - leaving hundreds of thousands unemployed - and they have told you they want to do this! From his time at Bane... oops, Bain Capital, Mitt knows if you fire everyone, your profits soar! The problem is, there are real people who lose their jobs, their livelihoods and possibly their homes and families. I do not believe that is an acceptable trade-off.
The bottom line is that their rhetoric rarely matches up with reality in any sphere - political, social, economic, religious. A party whose luminaries are willing to tell outright untruths to gain political favor, does not deserve any vote. Anyone who makes under $100,000 per year or happens to be female should not even consider voting Republican. Finally, the modern Republican party is the biggest threat to Democracy, our Country and our Economy since the Great Depression.
I look forward to comments.
Now, read my more recent post : Don't vote Republican!! and even newer Republicans pass law to close Private Business
