Friday, September 9, 2011

September 11

     As we approach the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2011, I continue to be extremely frustrated and aggravated by the so-called leaders in Washington.  We continue to pump billions of dollars to OPEC, funding the people who hate us the most.  And we continue to participate in not one, not two, but three wars in the Middle East and North Africa, at the cost of at least $10 Billion a month.  And for what?  Is our country really an safer?  Are the people of Iraq or Afghanistan any better off than they were 10 years ago?  I think the answer to both questions is probably no!

     True, there have been no more successful attacks in the US since 9/11, but we continue to receive threats, like the current one that there will be a significant car bombing in NYC or DC on 9/11.  Why do we continue to fuel the fire?  Why do we stir the hornet's nest?

     Mainly it's because our country is adrift, and our leaders have no idea what to do to fix the problems in this country, and so we go around acting as police to the world, as if that will make things better.  Our economy is in an absolute shambles, and our government is completely paralyzed by the polarization from the Tea Party on the Right and the Progressives on the Left.  No-one wants to compromise, because to do so is to show weakness, and to prevent re-election.  Our so-called leaders are more concerned about November 2012 than they are about September 2011!

     With some enlightened leadership, we could easily fix the economy and national security at the same time. In my first rave, I wrote about solar energy.  Now, more than ever, we need a strong energy policy which brings the utility companies to buying large numbers of solar panels and leasing them to homeowners and small businesses.  By doing it this way, the customer's total power bill goes down and the utilities have a solution to their capacity and transmission problems.  We wouldn't have blackouts like the Southwestern US right now or the Northeast in 2003!  Couple with solar panels, we need storage solutions, so that the excess capacity generated during the day can be stored, reducing demand for generating capacity at night.  This would then reduce the demand for coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power generating plants.

     If we could get a good program going for biodiesel, through biomass, cellulosic waste, weed-oil plant crops etc (not corn, soybean and other food sources) we could stop using petroleum, or at least greatly reduce the need for it.  What we do not need for energy independence is more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico or Alaska.

     Ultimately the problem remains that the large oil companies, utilities, etc, have great (too much) power over Congress, so we won't see any progressive legislation like this.  It's really too bad, because the types of programs I've described could put so many Americans back to work in jobs that actually involve production of things.

     I pray for the day when we get a third party in our country, so the Repbulicrats and the Demublicans no longer have so much power.  I pray for the day when we have leaders who serve their constituents instead of themselves and their corporate owners.  I pray for the day when we have leaders who show leadership by taking as much pain as their constituents have.  I pray for the day we can tell OPEC to find new customers and defenders.  All of these things could happen if we only had decent leadership in our country.  The sad thing is that I don't see any good choice for President next year, and sadly I expect we'll just have four more years of the same old thing, irrespective of who gets elected next year.

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