Monday, May 07, 2007

The Great Unraveling - the rats are leaving the sinking ship

Seems the rats, tired of bailing water, are heading for the exits!

"As rancor in the nation rises over handling of the war in Iraq, at least 20 senior aides have either retired or resigned from important posts at the White House, Pentagon and State Department in the past six months."

Nobody wants to be tarred with that brush. Bush may end up with Laura and Barney being the only ones left holding the bag after all.

The Great Unraveling - he can't veto an impeachment

I'm sick of these bastards - its time to go after them. Was a time when I thought impeachment would be too traumatic for the country. Now I think the greater trauma is in them continuing in office.

I mean - how many crimes and misdemeanors does one president have to commit before he's voted off the island? Imus was canned for insulting some basketball players. McCain jokes about killing thousands of innocent Iranians and people take him seriously as a presidential contender.

Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice/Feith/Wolfowitz get to kill 600,000+ Iraqis and 3500 Americans for a lie. When does Congress get the cajones to do its constitutional duty? End the war? End this presidency is more like it. They will never have the votes to override his veto, but guess what? He can't veto an impeachment.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

TAKE A STEP: SWITCH TO COMPACT FLUORESCENT BULBS.

23 Watt Soft White CFL, 1Pack

The EU recently passed a law banning the incandescent bulb by 2009. According to the Financial Times newspaper "The universal symbol of the bright idea is, by 21st century standards, a really dumb product. Only about 5 per cent of the energy it uses is emitted as light. Fluorescent bulbs deliver the same amount of light while using a fifth of the energy. If you tried to get funding today for a company selling Thomas Edison’s version of the telephone, you would be laughed out of the door. Yet General Electric, among others, makes a good business out of selling what is more or less his light bulb."

We don't drive model T's anymore so I guess its time to change our bulbs. I really dislike fluorescent light but I guess it's time to get over it. The Australians are banning the bulb too.

Replacing just one frequently used conventional lightbulb in our home with a compact fluorescent bulb can save us money on our utility bill and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. If every household in the United States replaced one incandescent light bulb in their home with a compact fluorescent, it would save a total of 90 million pounds of global warming pollution over the lifetime of the bulbs. This would be equal to taking 6.3 million cars off the road. Though compact fluorescent light bulbs are more expensive than conventional light bulbs, they last 10 times longer. One bulb can lower your energy bill by $15 annually and reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by 150 lbs.

Take a step and switch out a lightbulb.
According to Home Depot this bulb costs $7.99 and uses 75% less energy than a 100 watt incandescent equivalent and lasts 13 times longer.

Saves $308 over life of bulb... thats not chump change - use four or five and save $1500
Lasts 13 times longer than traditional incandescent bulb
Same appearance as incandescent bulb
Fits most fixtures an incandescent bulb will fit


Saturday, May 05, 2007

Looney Tunes


Holy Moly Batman! When three of the Republican candidates for PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES said evolution is a crock at this weeks "debate" at least the so-called front runners had enough sense to not join the loonie fundie crowd and kept their hands down. But now it seems that was a Pyhrric moment, at least where Mitt Romney is concerned.

But now we have the de facto front runner paying homage and obeisance to one of the the looniest right wing Christian fundies of them all. Yes boys and girls - it's the same Bat Time and same Bat Channel all over again that Ronald Reagan showed up on.

Mitt Romney goes to Fundieland! Check out the link where he says, and I quote “This university, its students, its alumni and the faculty serve as an example of Dr. Robertson’s dedication to strengthening and then nurturing the pillars of this community and our country: education, fellowship, and advancement.”

Cheesus K Riest! Education? Fellowship? Community? Read the piece linked above for quotes of the good "Dr." agreeing with another knuckle headed fundie Jerry Falwell when he said "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians, not to mention the A.C.L.U. and People for the American Way" were to blame for 9/11. Not to mention suggesting we put out a hit on the President of Venezuela, saying that towns struck by disaster have forsaken God (Sodom and Gomorrah anyone?), and the Federal Judiciary being a bigger threat to America than Al-Qaeda.

America - we can't take these guys seriously. They are absolutely freakin' looney tunes.

Friday, May 04, 2007

The new mass transit

I think if everyone who could, telecommuted one day a week congestion would decrease tremendously. Think about it - most or at least many people have computers at home now and decent internet connections and can log on to a company network to access files and email. A phone and a computer would be the new mass transit. How many office workers are there in LA County? One million, two million? Imagine each one of them working from home one day a week. Reduce congestion, reduce oil consumption and greenhouse gases and spend more time with your family. Whats not to like? We have the technology. Many studies show that people are at least as productive from home as they are at the office and sometimes more.

Obviously, this is not a new idea but no one is pushing it now and push it we should. With the price of gasoline at all time highs in LA County letting employees who can work from home would be like getting a small raise.

What about it Antonio? A little leadership from the Mayor's office on this would be great!