Month: October 2012
2012 Election Isues #3–Infrastructure
Sandy should make this issue a bit more important…….
Here is one that should make all concerned heads explode……..our infrastructure which use to be the envy of the world is old and decrepit …..our highways have potholes the size of Rhode Island, our bridges are falling apart slowly but methodically and our rail system is something out of the 1920’s and yet this was not important enough to talk about in the debates…..what will Mitt do? What will Obama do?
President Barack Obama has favored stimulus-style infrastructure spending plans, talking up highway, bridge and rail repairs as job creators, and pushed for innovations like high-speed rail and a national infrastructure bank to finance projects with the help of private capital. But Republican opposition to increased spending and taxes has blunted many such plans.
Mitt Romney favors less involvement by the federal government in infrastructure, preferring to let states lead the way. Romney shuns the idea that public-works spending is a good way to jumpstart the economy, saying decisions on worthy projects should be based on need and potential returns. Romney also wants to privatize Amtrak by ending federal subsidies for the money-losing passenger rail system. He’s OK with borrowing to pay for megaprojects if there’s a revenue stream to pay the money back, like tolls or port fees.
This is a simplistic answer to the question….but at least the voter now has at least an idea of the stances……this is another one of those issues that few people want to talk about but everyone uses them daily…..something we talk for granted but seldom want to do anything about the destruction of the system….
2012 Election Issue #2–Debt
I cannot wait to see the crap that will spread about the people effected by Sandy….I recall some of the bullsh*t that was put out by the whackadoodle fringe in 2005……but until then……….
We have had lots of lip service by the players in this drama that we call our political process……but all the time in front of the cameras and the audiences….very little has been said but either candidate…..about the best we can say is that both think the other guy’s ideas….SUCK!
But what about the national debt?
The budget deficit — the shortfall created when the government spends more in a given year than it collects in taxes and fees— is on track to top $1 trillion for the fourth straight year. When there’s not enough to pay current bills, the government borrows, mostly by selling interest-bearing Treasury bonds, bills and notes to investors and governments worldwide. It now borrows about 40 cents of every dollar it spends.
The national debt refers to the total amount the federal government owes; the deficit is just a one-year slice.
The U.S. has been borrowing since the 1700s, when it needed money to finance the American Revolution. The outstanding debt has since risen to a shade over $16 trillion. While there’s plenty of finger-pointing by politicians over who’s to blame, deficits historically surge during wars and deep recessions, and the U.S. has had both in the past decade.
What do our candidates think?
President Barack Obama has proposed bringing deficits down by slowing spending gradually, to avoid suddenly tipping the economy back into recession. To help, he would raise taxes on households earning more than $250,000 annually and impose a surcharge of 30 percent on those making more than $1 million.
He acknowledges his spending on recession-fighting stimulus, tax relief and bailout programs — much of it started under President George W. Bush — has contributed to the deficit. But so have bipartisan agreements to extend Bush-era tax cuts, and paying for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Also raising deficits: a drop in tax revenues as more people found themselves out of work and personal and corporate incomes that sagged in the deepest downturn since the Great Depression.
Republican candidate Mitt Romney would lower deficits mostly through deep spending cuts, including some of the reductions proposed by his conservative running mate Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Budget Committee. But many of the cuts they’re pushing would be partially negated by their proposals to lower top tax rates on both corporations and individuals.
Our cracker jack politicos need to man up and stop being cowards and face the music….the debt will be one of the first situations that they will have to handle in the 2013 Congress. They can play their games with non-issues but eventually someone will have to be a man/woman and take a stand and find a solution that all can agree on.
Personally, I do not see any of the boobs in DC as that person….and that means ALL of them.
2012 Election Issues #1–Energy
The debates are over (mercifully) and now the dash for the finish line….we will hear lots of slogans, spin and utter bovine fecal matter (that is bullsh*t in case you were confused)…..but what about the issues…you know those stances that were seldom spoken about during the debates…..if you could call them debates (that is a future post in the making)……..let me give you a few of the issues that I think should have been more important during the debates……
Energy–
President Barack Obama proposes an “all of the above” strategy that embraces traditional energy sources such as oil and coal, along with natural gas, nuclear power and renewable sources such as wind, solar and hydropower. Obama has spent billions to promote “green energy” and backs a tax credit for the wind industry that his Republican rival Mitt Romney opposes. While production of renewable energy has soared, critics point to several high-profile failures, including Solyndra, a California solar company that went bankrupt, costing taxpayers more than $500 million.
Romney pledges to make the U.S. independent of energy sources outside of North America by 2020, through more aggressive exploitation of domestic oil, gas, coal and other resources and quick approval of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas. Obama blocked the pipeline because of environmental concerns but supports approval of a segment of it.
Now this is something that needs attention……we can whine about a lot of things but some of us want more information…just keep in mind that academics are for sale……they strive for grant money and in doing so they become whores to special interests….just ask yourself….how funded that study…..and then you will know just who will benefit from the “findings”…….There needs to be a clarification by both candidates and their plans should be more informative.
For All You Star Wars Geeks
Do you remember Tatooine? The home of Anakin and Jabba the Hutt…….that desolate planet on the edge of known space that has a inhospitable climate and residents? Fiction is fun but there may be some credence to the idea of Tatooine.
(Newser) – Luke Skywalker would not consider this a big deal, but some of us earthlings are getting excited. Astronomers have discovered a Tatooine-like planet that orbits two suns and is also orbited by two other stars, Space.com reports. Called PH1, the gas giant is about six times bigger than Earth and resides roughly 5,000 light-years away in a planetary system with four stars—the first ever discovered, the Independent reports.
“It’s fascinating to try and imagine what it would be like to visit a planet with four suns in its sky, but this new world is confusing astronomers,” says one astronomer. “It’s not at all clear how it formed in such a busy environment.” A pair of amateur US skywatchers spotted the alien world in a project called Planet Hunters, launched by Yale University to help professional and armchair astronomers delve into data collected by NASA’s Kepler telescope.
Personally, I would like to think that it is more like Arrakis, the desert planet in Dune……..a more interesting planet that Tatooine…….
Should Predictions Have Consequences?
The weekend and time to lighten up the posts from the drudgery of politics and the 2012 election……
I have heard a lot of stuff that is illegal in other countries….like women driving or spitting in public or……..you get the idea….but I recently heard one that even I thought was moronic……
(Newser) – An Italian court has convicted six scientists for failing to predict a deadly earthquake, which, congratulations, puts it in the running for “dumbest court in the world,” reads the headline to a post by Elie Mystal at the Above the Law blog. Prosecutors blamed the six for providing “inaccurate, incomplete, and contradictory information” prior to the quake. “No, you freaking idiots, THE EARTH provided inaccurate, incomplete, and contradictory information about whether or not she was going to destroy your insignificant human settlement,” writes Mystal. “The scientists were just trying to make a guess.” He draws a comparison to the persecution of Galileo, which is a common refrain:
- Dan Murphy, Christian Science Monitor: “Rarely since a Catholic inquisition in Rome condemned Galileo Galilei to spend the remainder of his days under house arrest for the heresy of teaching that the Earth revolves around the sun, has an Italian court been so wrong about science.”
- Lord Robert May: “The verdict might have been understandable in the Dark Ages, standing alongside the persecution of Galileo, but in today’s world it simply is an embarrassment to the Italian government and anyone associated with it,” the Oxford professor tells AFP.
- Buzz Skyline, PhysicsCentral: “If the convictions stand, it will mean it’s dangerous for scientists to advise on science matters in Italy. Then all they will have left is tea leaves, Tarot cards, and psychics. What a way to waste the Renaissance.”
Now after I thought about it maybe we could use this as a template for global warming……thoughts?