He rode his bicycle in the Napa Valley on Earth Day, and suddenly, he’s an alternative energy expert instead of part of the oil oligarchy. And, according to the evangelical book of Bush, hydrogen will save our economy. I don't mean to instruct, however, hydrogen is not a clean energy source because it requires energy to separate it from water and/or atmosphere in the first place. So, you need a second (not so clean) energy source to obtain it. What is this sudden grasping at straws? It demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of an alternative energy plan, which at a bare minimum should include the 7 items I list below. Additionally, WE MUST HAVE A FEDERAL INITIATIVE that adds incentives so that businesses and American families will achieve maximum use of all 7 within 10 years.

1. The use of ethanol to replace gasoline, and/or to be used with gasoline. It can be made from corn, sugar cane, and other crops. Brazil has cut its dependence on foreign oil by 45% through the use of ethanol.
2. Hybrid cars on the market now can more than double gas mileage obtained by most American cars today.
3. Rechargeable electric hybrid cars will triple and quadruple gasoline efficiency.
4. Solar energy panels on the rooftops of one quarter of our buildings would reduce dependence on foreign oil by twenty percent.
5. Windmills supply more than 20% of Denmark’s electricity.
6. Hydroelectric power remains a viable alternative energy source, and provides 10% of our current electrical needs.
7. Methane gas obtained from our monstrous trash heaps might provide up to 5% of our energy needs.
8. When the technology and infrastructure that will allow us to use hydrogen can be obtained, it will also become an option to be added to this plan in the future.

Mr. Bush has proposed and initiated a plan to encourage the increased use of atomic energy as part of an alternative energy plan. France now uses atomic energy to supply more than 25% of its energy needs. However, atomic energy has associated risks as we all know. It produces extremely radioactive bi-products that must be stored in radioactive proof storage for many thousands of years. It is also an extremely expensive proposition to bring new nuclear fission plants on line in part because of public resistance. Finally, alternative energy sources by definition are clean sources, and so, atomic fission does not fit.

In conclusion, Mr. Bush’s idea to use hydrogen as an alternative fuel source is not practical in terms of our present technological development and current infrastructure. It is, however, something that should be considered as part of the future of alternative energy development. Instead, ethanol, hybrid cars, rechargeable electric hybrid cars, solar, and wind energy, hydroelectric power, and methane gas are the most feasible technologies available to us right now.

Yeah, right! And, while we’re at it, why not blame it on the U. S. Energy Department rules that require the removal of an additive that causes water pollution. Then the oil oligarchy can have the Republican Party blame liberal Democratic Party conservationists for the problem.

In actuality, holding tanks in Virginia and Massachusetts aren’t full because the oil producers didn’t start to remove the pollutant soon enough. This way producers can make even more money off the destruction of our middle-class for themselves and their buddies in the Middle East.

Why haven’t this Republican administration, congress, and senate created an “Alternative Energy Plan?” Where is the Democratic Party when we need them? Why hasn’t the Democratic Party stepped up to the plate and formulated a “National Alternative Energy Plan”, and the promise to implement it if the nation replaces the Republican Oil Oligarchy Machine in the November, 2006 elections?

Hello, is anyone home?

Wake up Democratic Party?

* Washington, Reuters, “Gas shortages hit the East Coast.” In CNN Money.com. http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/20/news/economy/gasoline.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes Friday, April 21 2006: 8:45AM EDT. Viewed, April 21, 2006: 10:16 AM EDT.

We must begin today to fight for a healthier, less divisive national focus

Perhaps I’m a pessimist. No, it’s far worse than that. I’m reconciled to 1006 more days of this administration, and this war. We’ve made our bed and now we must lie in it. So many of us supported this war at its inception four years ago. So many of us re-elected this president for a second term one and one-half years ago. Now there is nothing we can do to wake the sleeper from his fever pitched slumber. Instead, the American people have earned the penalties gathered by Mr. Bush and the Neo-con invasion of the Middle East. Yes, we, each shoulder the penalty imposed on our national conscience for the 3678 Americans who have died so far in this, the wrong war against terrorism. We each share in the responsibility for the 18,000 to 48,000 Iraqis who have died. We share the $3.97 per gallon gas price punishment, and we will all share the penalty incurred by the soaring national debt. Additionally, we, the people will have to pay the piper to clean up the mess after this administration leaves office! No amount of fussing about Secretary Rumsfeld will change the fact that the war was wrong from inception. No amount of staff changes in Mr. Bush’s administration will fix the Neo-con failures and mistakes.

So, Isaac, we must make a conscious decision to return to the American Dream that most Democratic Party members know is at the core of our real shared national values.

There is a laundry list of things that the Democratic Party and all Americans have traditionally valued. We know the list in our hearts, minds, and souls. It includes those basic God given rights obtained for all men and women by our constitution. And, it is based on the understanding that the constitution is the instrument established by our forefathers to achieve those rights for all people. In order to get back to our list of real values we must fight for a healthier, less divisive national focus. We must look toward a spiritual America that includes all religions and spiritual positions, and all Americans. We must each of us work toward achieving a society that encourages growth through education, creativity, and hard work. We must stop choosing groups of people to stigmatize. Suffice it to say that it is necessary for each of us to reafirm actual American and real liberal Christian and family values instead of the false evangelical Christian and family values substituted and increasingly forced upon the American psyche over time. We must do so by fighting for Democratic Party candidates everywhere in November 2006.

We must regain control of Congress and Senate in order to start the nation on a path to recovery from this nightmare of warmongers.

Just in case anyone is still interested 2,359 Americans have died and 17,269 have been wounded in Iraq since the war began March 19, 2003. Somewhere between 18,000 and 48,000 Iraqis have lost their lives in the war. You can check the information on American deaths at AntiWar.com, and get more exact numbers for Iraqi casualties at Iraq Body Count.

At the same time, I read in Words From Iraq April 10, 2006 entry that, according to Seymore Hersch in the New Yorker, the Bush Administration is planning an invasion of Iran. The Washington Post also published a report that described an attack on Iran as not immanent, but that none-the -less listed possible targets for limited air strikes planned by the CIA and Pentagon.

These jokers think they're playing comic book games, when in actuality they’re working on

War Games for Armageddon

!!!

Have a nice day everyone. And may God bless each and everyone.


*“Words From Iraq,” http://www.wordsfromiraq.com/. April 10, 2006, 8:30 AM. Viewed April 12, 2006, 5:37 PM EDT.

Thank goodness!

Of course, corruption runs rampant in politics at various times in our history, more than not, I suppose. However, this gang is particularly vicious, and I’m sure by cutting off this particular snake’s head, the rest of the Republican Party hopes to distance itself from censure. While we watch the headless snake writhe on the floor of the house during the next couple of weeks, let’s not forget the investigation into Jack Abramoff’s ties to other members of congress and to Mr. Bush continues.

Then there is Mr. Bush’s use of the NSA to illegally wiretap American citizens. Of course the Republican dominated Senate voted down Senator Feingold’s call for censure over the issue, though it is the worst abuse of presidential power since Watergate. We must remember that all three branches of our government are now totally dominated by that well-oiled and greased Republican machine.

I can’t imagine why the middle class has yet to recognize that it is being totally boondoggled by this administration and government.

For further reading on these subjects go to

1. Richard >Reinke’s article at the Madison, Wisconsin Capital Times.
2. William Sweet’s article at Spectrum Online.
3. “Senate Panel Nixes Bush Surveillance Probe” UPI, March 8, 2006
4. article by Erik Ebsen in Collegian and Juice.
5. ”Three Cheers for Delay” by Howard Kurtz in The Washington Post.

Part III

Illegal Immigration Versus Legal Immigration

Immigration is the history of the United States of America. Native Americans are the only true Americans. The rest of us are immigrants. Wave after wave came to the Americas beginning with the 17th century, a total of 18 million immigrants from all over the world up to the year 2000. The first wave included African, English, Scotch-Irish, Scottish, and German immigrants. During the early 19th century immigrants came from the German Empire, Ireland, Britain, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Canada, China and Africa. Later in the 19th and 20th centuries millions more immigrants came from Southern and Eastern Europe, many Spanish speaking nations of the world, including Spain itself, the orient, and India . My own family, on my mother’s side came to Philadelphia in 1683. The most recent members of our family to immigrate came in 1907.

Restriction of immigration began in the 1880’s but became significant in the 1920’s and with that came an increase in illegal immigration. Thus illegal immigration of oriental, Latino, and others of various ethnic origins is a direct result of our attempt to limit the number of immigrants entering the United States during the Twentieth Century. As such, the entrance of these people under incredably harsh conditions is a tribute to the quality of life, belief system, ideals, and economic prosperity of the United States of America during that same period.

Xenophobia

How then is it possible that a nation of immigrants are so fearful of new immigrants as to make it illegal for them to enter in the first place, and in the second, to deny that they serve a useful function in our society?

19th century fears of llegal immigration were similar to those that 21st Century Americans have of illegal immigration. Donna Gabaccia director of University of Minnesota Immigration History Center states that these fears included the following.

1. Southern and Eastern Europeans would take American’s jobs.
2. Europeans would out produce Americans already here and thus gain dominance over the culture.
3. European immigrants would depress wages.
4. Southern and Eastern Europeans would bring dangerous and radical ideas, not those of Islam, rather anarchism, socialism, and communist internationalism.*

My personal experience here in South Florida is that people of Latin origins do everyone’s gardening, including city, county, and state. The men do much of the highway and other infrastructure work. They also do the heavy grunt work that us Northern European former immigrant types won’t do in building and construction. Men and Women serve in restaurants on kitchen staffs everywhere. They work in sweat shops to make the clothing we wear and they make it less expensive to buy. If we deny them and say that they take our jobs, we are telling tales to ourselves. I personally do not want to dig holes in someone’s garden, nor along a highway in the hot blazing sun 8 hours a day. I do not want to be the guy, weeding, edging, and mulching, and zapping garden plants with bug spray, unless it be in my own garden.

Quite frankly I’m tired of the ugly Curmudgeon American, including Lou Dobbs complaining about this divisive issue. Yes, by all means, tighten the borders by enforcing existing laws George W. Bush! Yes, do give the 11 million existing illegal immigrants the opportunity to become American citizens, even if you do make them indentured servants for the next 6 to 7 years. Yes, stop moaning and groaning, and demand that your government serve the people again, instead of itself.

While you’re at it, you might want to check out the following.

1. the University of Minnesota Center of Immigration History
2. The Statue of Libery – Ellis Island Foundation


Sources

United Mine Workers,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Mine_Workers. Modified 23:48, 15 March 2006. Viewed 10:48 EST, Tuesday, March 28, 2006.

The Social Studies Help Center. “The Labor Union Movement in America,” http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/Eco_Unionization.htm. © 2001-2006. Viewed 10:51 EST, Tuesday, March 28, 2006.

The National Learning Curve. “Trade Unions,” http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAtu.htm. Viewed 9:44 AM EDT, Tuesday, April 4, 2006.

Labor Arts. “About Us,” http://www.laborarts.org/about/. ©, Labor Arts Inc. Viewed 10:13 AM EST, Friday March 31, 2006.

Montgomery County Public Schools (Montgomery, Maryland). “Social Studies: An Apprenticeship in Liberty.” http://mcps.k12.md.us/curriculum/socialstd/curriculum/ushist.html. © 2003. Viewed 10:18 AM, Friday, March 31, 2006.

Public Schools of North Carolina, Standard Courses of Study, Social Studies :: 2003:: Eleventh Grade Social Studies. http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/socialstudies/scos/2003-04/067eleventhgrade. No copyright. Viewed 10:30 AM EST, Friday

“University of Minnesota Moment, Friday, 1/27/06.” University of Minnesota, Center of Immigration History, University of Minnesota Website, http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/. Viewed Friday, April 7, 2006, 10:08 AM EDT.(*The 4 points listed above are Donna Gabaccia's, Director of the Center of Immigratin History at the University of Minnesota.)

“The Peopling of America: a timeline…” The Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation. http://webcenter.ellisisland.netscape.com/immexp/wseix_4_3.asp. © 2000, The Stature of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation. Viewed Friday, April 7, 2006, 10:21 AM EDT.

Part II:

Painful Conflict in Labor History is Laundered by School Curricula

I searched Public School courses of study on line, and have found a plethora of facts, names and dates concerning union organization, but little detail about violence perpetrated at the hands of industrial barons, as well as local, state and Federal governments. Violence included was understated, and cautiously presented so as to avoid upsetting implications. It has evidently become politically incorrect (as in so many things) for our schools to teach a balanced view of union organization in the United States of America. Thus, students entering the Twenty-first Century work force do not have a thorough knowledge about the struggles that laborers in the past have endured in order to ensure the decent wages and conditions we enjoy today.

Conclusions

The following views are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of any other person, group of persons or organization. However, having stated the obvious, I would hope that Americans would demand that educators begin to teach toward a more thorough understanding of our history. Such a thorough understanding also implies affective/emotive content and the appreciation that teacher and students will all have individual positions concerning their reception of the facts to debate.

We in America enjoy freedom and our creature comforts because of the struggles of those who went before us. We must continue to earn our freedom and wealth, and we will do so only if we knowingly debate current labor issues. We must also fight to have local, state, and national governments that champion all the people, that is each individual person whenever possible, instead of the stereotyped and partitioned blocks of population our off-putting contemporary demographic oriented culture has led us to see. Additionally, those who own the corporations, and those at the top of corporate management must not be allowed to dominate the American and global economies at the expense of laborers. In actuality, the miracle of a truly global economy based on the American/Western industrial model can be achieved only if workers in all nations are organized in labor unions in order to achieve equitable remuneration for their efforts everywhere.

Stay tuned for Part III: The Current National Discussion About Illegal immigrant workers and the proposed legislation?


Sources

Wikkepedia. “United Mine Workers,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Mine_Workers. Modified 23:48, 15 March 2006. Viewed 10:48 EST, Tuesday, March 28, 2006.

The Social Studies Help Center. “The Labor Union Movement in America,” http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/Eco_Unionization.htm. © 2001-2006. Viewed 10:51 EST, Tuesday, March 28, 2006.

The National Learning Curve. “Trade Unions,” http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAtu.htm. Viewed 9:44 AM EDT, Tuesday, April 4, 2006.

Labor Arts. “About Us,” http://www.laborarts.org/about/. ©, Labor Arts Inc. Viewed 10:13 AM EST, Friday March 31, 2006.

Montgomery County Public Schools (Montgomery, Maryland). “Social Studies: An Apprenticeship in Liberty.” http://mcps.k12.md.us/curriculum/socialstd/curriculum/ushist.html. © 2003. Viewed 10:18 AM, Friday, March 31, 2006.

Public Schools of North Carolina, Standard Courses of Study, Social Studies :: 2003:: Eleventh Grade Social Studies. http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/socialstudies/scos/2003-04/067eleventhgrade. No copyright. Viewed 10:30 AM EST, Friday, March 31, 2006.