by Brian Burns

It’s difficult to stimulate our nation’s economy when most of what our leaders collect from our earnings is immediately sent to foreign nations. One might think that investing in our nation, the $700 billion that the Bush Administration has spent so far in the Middle East, could have had a positive effect on our rotting job market, our failing health care, and our overly packed public schools. Maybe it would help to reinvest some of the war-money in private sector incentives to remedy our headache over energy costs, and our insatiable desire for alternative fuels. One would hope that eight years in office would buy the time needed to enact any pro-American policy, but domestic policy was seemingly another one of those things George W. Bush forgot back at the ranch.

It has been eight years of arguably the worst policy making in the history of our country, and the American ignorance towards that fact is astounding. Even though the majority of Americans have accepted that Bush’s presidential run was as close to an utter failure as anyone could imagine, the desire to rid ourselves of an administration whose partisan politics, corporatist policies, and self-serving ideals was seemingly short lived. Now, with presidential hopeful John McCain gaining enough support to where he is running a close race against a man whose campaign slogan includes the word “change”, it’s apparent that a great number of Americans would choose to forego changing our country’s policies for the better, and simply find happiness in knowing the name Bush is no longer carrying the tag ‘Commander in Chief’.

With regard to America’s economic situation, it seems that we’re stuck floating slowly downward like a feather in an abyss. Last Tuesday, the Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, gave us the forecast in which we were told we would be continuing our descent right around the time our president announced that our economy is stable. This is important to note because John McCain agrees with the president’s assessment, and his campaign co-chairman went so far as to call Americans a “nation of whiners” who were stuck in a “mental recession”. They listen to Wall Street, and their economic advisors who believe that our degenerating housing market has already hit the bottom, and say that it will undoubtedly take a u-turn. They use the logic behind economics that shows how bad can actually be good. They say that our plummet to the housing market floor will bring out those who want to buy homes at rock-bottom prices. Consequently, the housing market will reverse itself and will once again grow strong. Their logic only works when employment opportunities are strong, however, since it takes a steady income to maintain the cost of owning a home. But with our job market being dragged down by our failing economy, and the misguided trust in free-trade policies, it seems our economists are either reporting their aspirations, or have lost the ability to think beyond step 1 in the process of coming to a realistic conclusion when thinking through a problem. Though both are things we should be used to after listening to the predictions from the Republicans over the past eight years.

We were told that our troops would be celebrated as liberators, and that they would be greeted with roses in Baghdad, while we were pointing out step 2 in the process of thinking that showed what happened to Russia when they tried occupying a Middle East nation. We were told Bush’s tax cuts would stimulate the economy, while we again pointed to step 2 which clearly shows that his Republican predecessors, both Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr., helped drive our economy further into recessions with tax cuts. We were told NAFTA and CAFTA are beneficial for Americans, but once again, that pesky step 2 is showing that the federal government has regulations enacted that make it more expensive for foreign companies to operate here than in nations where they can setup shop without providing healthcare benefits, a safe work environment, and where they can pay the worker a pittance in comparison. Therefore, their prediction that there would be as much insourcing as there is outsourcing seems to be one dream through which John McCain seems to still be sleeping.

The problem Americans now face is who to choose to hasten the upswing. Barack Obama chants, “Change,” while John McCain claims he’s the “Best to lead since day one.” And though it appears McCain wants to continue upon the same trail from which Bush is preparing to flee, his supporters are coming out of the Kudzu in droves. The citizens are feeling the pressure from the cost of living, and are aware that it’s one of the few things on the rise. They’ve lost sight of our children’s education as it fell from their view of the price at the gas pump. They’ve forgotten about our troops in the Middle East because they can’t take their eyes off the price stamped on a milk jug. John McCain is fully aware of this and so he is doing what most Republicans do during their presidential campaigns - they avoid talking about their policy and scare the American public by threatening that their opponent in the donkey costume will raise their taxes. Judging by the numbers of supporters McCain has managed to recruit, the scare tactic apparently works well. 

John McCain’s plan on spending trillions of dollars in an attempt at occupying Iraq, for what he said could be a hundred years, is a wad of spit in the eyes of Americans who want the war to end and for our troops to return home safely. It’s an upturned middle finger aimed at the faces of us who want to reinvest our earnings into bettering our own country, and who can read where step 2 tells that the best method of securing our nation is not by trying to eliminate everyone who opposes our views. And like his predecessor, McCain has no plan on how to go about occupying Iraq. He avoids telling us that the money could only come from raising taxes, or by borrowing from foreign nations like the $150 billion loan Bush took from China. While we lose jobs, and watch the economy break beneath our feet, they spend our money building walls in Baghdad in their efforts to keep the local Muslim factions separated from each other. We’re led to believe that we’re giving them freedom, but creating tiny enclaves and setting up Baghdad to look like Algernon’s maze is hardly the blueprint for a free land.

It’s apparent the Republicans are back to their old selves - those who refuse to think their way through to step 2. If they read further to where it says that ending the war in Iraq would help our economy a great deal, even if it means the corporations backing the war having to lose out on hundreds of millions in annual profit, they might see that John McCain’s ‘tax and spend on foreign nations’ policy has no way of helping to regrow our economy. If they were to find a true sense of patriotism, unlike those they hang from flagpoles or stick to their bumpers, they might find that it’s best to vote for the candidate who is not wearing the elephant costume, but for the donkey-guy who at least wants to end the war and reinvest that money and our tax dollars into our own nation.

Rock Port, Missouri celebrated becoming the first town being fully powered by the wind. With 4 wind turbines erected on farmland, the town of 1,300 residents will be able to receive 16 million killowatt hours of electricity annually. Since they currently only use 13 million killowatt hours they will be able to sell what they don’t use to the Missouri Joint Municipal Utilities to be used elsewhere. This bodes well for the agricultural community, for farmland usually carries high property taxes in comparison to the income from the yield produced. Now the residents will see additional income, as they can lease a portion of their land to wind-energy developers such as the St. Louis based Wind Capital Group, who currently leases land in Rock Port for their 4 turbines.

Jim Crawford, a natural resource engineer at the University of Missouri Extension, stated that “Anybody who is currently using Rock Port utilities can expect no increase in rates for the next 15 to 20 years.” With 20 years being the lifespan of a wind turbine the residents would then have to have them replaced, but with recycling technology gaining ground in the field of heavy machinery, the cost could be substantially less for turbines 20 years from now.

Oddly enough even more income is coming by way of tourism, since the town has noticed an influx of “outsiders” funnelling in to catch a glimpse of the spectacle in their fields.

With a heap of issues to talk about, the G8 leaders are proving their annual summit is a waste of jet fuel and travel expenses. In what could be an annual meeting through video-conferencing, the leaders would rather spend their people’s money to gather for 3 days to bicker and cut business deals.

President Bush, a lone trooper on the issue of war, played out his usual childishness when he told the world that he will not help cut back on global pollution unless China and India agree to do the same. And as the job market in the U.S. continues to shrink he reiterated his belief that the only way to help the impoverished in the world is through free trade agreements.

Though he was able to boost the value of a buck by speaking highly of the world’s need of a strong dollar, the boost was less than one-hundredth of a cent against the Euro. And though he spoke out against the situation in Zimbabwe, calling Robert Mugabe’s election a “sham,” he is pushing for India to accelerate their nuclear development program, without signing anti-proliferation agreements, to where it can be in full swing before Bush leaves office.

With more issues yet to talk about, like the inflated cost of food and oil and the loss of wildlife and the environment, it appears that the G8 leaders are taking care of business the hard way. When they could be at home prioritizing their seemingly screwed up policies and taking action, they instead waste more time and money with words. Of course, that is assuming that government leaders can do more than setup walls of red tape and botch the processes in addressing global concerns.

Click here to read how mixed up the gene pool could be in the evolution toward a One World Government.

By Brian A. Burns

Back in 1999 John McCain lambasted the special interest groups who tried to secure offshore drilling contracts, saying he swore he would “…never lose sight of the fundamental principle that federal land management decisions affecting local communities must be made in cooperation with the Americans who call those communities home.” Now, with his proposal to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling, it appears he’d rather forego the health concerns of U.S. citizens so he could sell our environment for votes and campaign dollars. Meanwhile, the pots have shifted on McCain’s stovetop and our need for a new source of sustainable energy has been pushed to the back burner.

Even with George W. Bush admitting that offshore drilling would take years to produce any noticeable effect, John McCain’s plan to cure our energy crisis is to go ahead and drill. If we were to wait what most experts say would be close to 5 years for a price cut at the gas pumps, during which time we will still be relying on oil as our primary fuel source, we could be in serious trouble. When we consider the steady increase in population, which will undoubtedly have a large impact on reserves, and the rate at which our oil supply declines, it is easy to see why focusing on drilling offshore is coming only from the eyes of the profiteers. There is only so much oil we can reap from the Earth, and the gas companies have no intention of lowering their prices, but are increasing them instead on a day by day basis.

While it’s obvious that something as simple as the rebirth of the electric car would take a long time to overrun gas powered vehicles as our primary source of transportation, it is stupid to think we should run serious health risks by potentially poisoning our shorelines and nature preserves. The people are screaming for an alternative energy resource, and we want it yesterday. But with billions invested in their production equipment, and billions returned in profits the oil-giants refuse to change their focus, and will do anything they can to continue squashing alternatives to their cash-cattle until they have run completely dry.

With the same reluctance the Republicans have shown toward caring about the health and welfare of the American population, they are now scrambling to secure their personal investments before their time in absolute power runs out. Being nothing more than the Corporatist Party of kick-backs and cronyism, the non-conservative neo-Republicans have only ever cared about their foreign policy. Through 8 years Bush and his staff focused very little on domestic issues, to the point where he even turned a blind eye to the situation in New Orleans directly after Hurricane Katrina left bodies floating in the streets and women being raped at the Superdome. He had nothing to say when Dick Cheney ordered workers, who fought to restore power to hospitals, to divert their attention to restoring the oil supply from a downed pipeline that runs through Mississippi.

Republicans have a knack for losing focus on the American priority - whatever it may be at the time. In Iraq they sent the troops in without ever securing the border, then came back saying, “Hindsight is 20/20.” They repeated the adage after warnings from our climatologists told of the devastation that would befall New Orleans if and when a category 5 hurricane hit. “Hindsight is 20/20,” was repeated after the Iraqi population formed an insurgency, and even again when they realized that Bush Senior and his predecessor were responsible for arming the Taliban in Afghanistan. Mostly they tried passing the buck, but the beneath-the-breath-mumblings of ‘Hindsight is 20/20′ was heard after we found out that a week prior to 9/11 Condoleezza Rice was given a warning of imminent attack from Osama Bin Laden. From Kim Jong Il and “Bring it on!”, to Saddam Hussein and “They’ll greet us a liberators,” the Bush Administration seems to have less hindsight than a bat.

John McCain is following in Bush’s footsteps to where one could swear he stole the president’s cowboy boots. While Barack Obama speaks of a progressive America with a progressive energy policy, John McCain is stuck in the mud trying to score points for his cronies, while overlooking the potential disaster of an oil spill along our coastlines, and the serious health issues that would accompany such a catastrophe. John McCain would gladly risk the lives of Americans to build oil platforms off our coasts for what he believes would produce enough to alleviate the headache we currently face at the pump. It sure would be a sad day if our coasts turned black with crude muck and we had to watch our food and water supplies turn to poison only to hear John McCain speak half-brained about hindsight being 20/20. And in 5 years from now, when the gas prices are at $9.80 a gallon, just when we would begin to feel the effect of having lifted the offshore drilling ban, I would imagine that we won’t find much headache relief in the price cut from $9.80 to $9.50 per gallon. So, to John McCain, thanks but no thanks. I’d rather we spend our tax dollars on contracts that will go directly toward finding a truly sustainable energy source.