Chapter Summary
Introduction: Failures of Politics
There is a common threat to the widening inequality and insecurity affecting American families and the catastrophic risks afflicting America's financial markets. That is the steady dismantling of the managed form of capitalism that served both opportunity and security-and economic dynamism--in the decades after World War II. The wreckage of the mixed economy reflects the power of conservative ideology and financial elites, who exercise disproportionate influence on both political parties. As a consequence, the instruments of broadly distributed prosperity are largely outside mainstream legislative debate. Instead, too many leaders of both parties are focused on such elite issues as budget balance, the alleged financial crisis of Social Security, further deregulation of finance and trade - policies that will do nothing to relieve the economic stress on ordinary voters. When politics does not deliver for people, the people give up on politics. So, if the Democrats are once again to be champions of regular Americans rather than a second party of Wall Street, they need to again embrace a progressive economics. And for that to occur, the people need to take back our democracy from financial elites.
Chapter One: A Hidden Depression
Although the economy on recent decades has had good economic growth on average, the fruits of that growth have been astonishingly concentrated among the top one percent, and more narrowly, the top one-hundredth of one percent. The median American family, adjusting for hours worked, has suffered a decline in living standards over the past three decades, despite a near doubling of GDP. Among the more subtle and insidious dynamics of the hidden depression are:
Families working longer hours to maintain income levels, which is really a reduction in *living standards.
Higher-than-average price increases in the basics that allow people to join the secure middle class - college tuition, health insurance premiums, homeownership.
Eroding retirement protection, as large corporations shift from real pension plans to tax-sheltered savings devices like 401k plans that are grossly inadequate.
A shifting of risks to workers and families once borne by government and large employers - risks of job loss, of inadequate health coverage, or retirement security.
Chapter Two: The Assault on the Good Society
The period during and after World War II was politically exceptional. The business elite had been discredited by the Great Crash. Government enjoyed broad prestige, having led the economy to a recovery from the Depression and to victory in WWII. Citizens were in a mood of engagement with their democracy. In this climate, government sponsored several successful equalizing institutions - regulation of the excesses of capitalism, progressive taxation, social investment, broadened public education, government guarantee of the rights of collective bargaining, and programs of social insurance such as Social Security and Medicare. As a result, the society became more equal during the period between the 1930s and the 1970s. But as financial elites recovered their usual power, each of these instruments of broad opportunity and security was weakened. Rising inequality has little to do with shifting skills requirements, and everything to do with shifts in political power.
Chapter Three: Wall Street Rules
The dismantling of financial regulation is at the core of the power shift from ordinary citizens to economic elites. As in the 1920s, today's financial economy is rife with both conflicts of interest that enrich insiders, and escalating systemic risks. The very same speculative excesses that lead to the Great Crash of 1929 are repeating themselves. The buying and selling of entire corporations and the stripping of assets for the benefit of middlemen is advertised as a form of corporate accountability. This is a kind of bogus populism, for it merely enriches financial engineers at the expense of ordinary workers and families. The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, enacted in the aftermath of the Enron scandal and the dot-com crash, addresses only minor aspects of the deeper systemic corruption. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, in 1999, invites worse conflicts of interest and deeper risks to the entire economy.
Chapter Four: Financial Engineering and Systemic Risks
Two of the new players increasing risks to the system are hedge funds and private equity. Hedge funds are private pools of capital that now exceed 1.5 trillion dollars. They are exempt from the usual disclosures to investors and to the SEC due to a loophole in the securities laws. They rely heavily on borrowed money, and take large risks. One hedge fund collapse, LTCM, required intervention by the Federal Reserve, which pressured big banks to buy the fund. Private equity can be a source of capital and management expertise, but increasingly "private equity" is actually based on debt and trading profits that extract assets. Private equity deals also are thick with conflicts of interest. This brand of financial engineering is advertised as a way of holding corporate executives accountable, but is a poor substitute for better forms of accountability, such as more independent boards, and more power for shareholders and other stakeholders. Mainly, the new forms of financial engineering, of which the sub-prime collapse is only the latest example, add more risk.
Chapter Five: The Casino Continues
Until the sub-prime crash, the Bush administration and many in Congress were working to further weaken what remains of financial regulation. However, new excesses such as securitized mortgage abuses, conflicts of interest by bond-rating agencies, off-balance sheet affiliates of big banks, exorbitant fees by mutual funds, suggest the need for more regulation, not less. In all of these abuses, the Federal Reserve plays the role of prime enabler. Because of the huge risks of a systemic crash, the Fed has bailed out speculators on several occasions in the past twenty years. It did so in the 1980s, when banks lost fortunes in third world loans; again in the 1990s, when banks and investment banks lost big speculating in currencies. Though Greenspan warned against a stock market bubble, he kept flooding markets with cheap money to repair damage of previous bubbles. Greenspan opposed regulation, on the grounds that markets corrected themselves. But the Fed's own actions proved that markets required government intervention. It would be far better for the Fed to intervene before the damage is done-with regulation-than after the fact with bailouts that only invite new bubbles.
Chapter Six: Budget Anxiety and Rubinomics
Rather than addressing the very real risks generated by deregulation and financial engineering, financial elites and ideological conservatives exaggerate bogus risks, such as the federal budget deficit, Social Security, and Medicare. This is a rightwing agenda of even more radical privatization disguised as concern for the common good. In fact, Social Security's accounts are very close to 75-year balance, and can be balanced with modest adjustments. Medicare's financial problems are a function of our failure to get the waste and middleman profit out of the larger healthcare system-via universal health insurance. Rubinomics - the claim that budget balance was the key to prosperity in the 1990s-is mostly wrong. The prosperity of the 1990s was the fruit of rising productivity, and the Fed's cheap money policy, which ended in a stock market bubble. More public investment would have produced even more economic benefit. Yet Robert Rubin continues to be a voice of fiscal conservatism and financial deregulation, epitomizing the unsavory influence of Wall Street on both parties. In the case of the Democrats, these policies distance the party from the interests of its potential base, and weaken the Democrats' electoral appeal.
Chapter Seven: Equality, Efficiency, and Globalism
Globalization of commerce undercuts the model of managed capitalism in multiple ways. Corporations set up global production chains, and locate in areas with relatively weak labor and regulatory standards, as well as low taxes. This undercuts the ability of mixed economies to deliver for citizens, and triggers a race to the bottom. Moreover, the rules of the trading system, written largely by and for financial elites, facilitates this undercutting of managed capitalism. For example, trade rules protect property rights, but not labor rights. However, some nations in Europe are trying to reconcile relatively open trade with a dynamic welfare state, through very significant investments in their workforces. Yet the deregulation of global money markets threatens to destabilize the ability of nations that want to be free traders to have both their trade and their social investments. The US version of this balance involves such meager sums for trade adjustment and investment in workers that the model isn't given a real test and is not politically serious. It remains to be seen whether deregulated global commerce is consistent with a mixed economy at home, and the broader challenge is the regulation of a market system on a global scale.
Chapter Eight: Trade and the National Interest
The U.S. government has behaved perversely when it comes to defending the national interest in trade negotiations. Successive trade rounds have used the trading system to undermine the domestic system of managed capitalism. The government has not made it a priority to challenge the mercantilism of other nations, and military objectives have often crowded out economic ones. This seemingly perverse behavior is easily explained once we grasp that the government is pursuing corporate interests, not national ones. Thus, it is in the interest of financial firms to set up shop worldwide, and in the interest of manufacturing firms to outsource production. U.S. trade policy facilitates both of these goals, even if it results in a massive trade imbalance, a dangerously weak dollar, dependence on foreign banks, and the loss of good jobs. The emerging economies of East Asia, most notable Japan, Korea, and China, have been particularly adroit at exploiting lour government's failure to defend the domestic economy. What's needed is a trade policy that serves national interests, not corporate ones; this is how most other nations define their goals for the trading system.
Chapter Nine: The Return of Speculative Global Finance
In the years after World War II, the international financial system was tightly regulated so that national economies could pursue domestic policies of full employment, and money movements would not be the plaything of speculators. This system was built deliberately to prevent another great depression. In the past three decades, just as the domestic economy has become more speculative, so has the international economy. As banks become global and as they are permitted to engage in ever more speculative behavior, they outrun the reach of nation-bound regulators. This is a potential hazard for the stability of the system. At the same time, speculation in currencies both allows the US to run a chronic trade deficit, but also sets the dollar up for a crash and leads to a dangerous financial dependence on nations like China, whose economic and geopolitical interests are not identical to our own. This international borrowing to maintain prosperity can not continue indefinitely. Even a "soft landing," in which the dollar lost substantial value over time, would contribute to a severe reduction in U.S. living standards.
Chapter Ten: The Squandering of Democracy
There is a dramatically different economic path than the one that America is on, a path that would allow most ordinary people much greater economic opportunity and security, and a fairer sharing of prosperity. This is the path of managed capitalism. For the most part, the elements of this approach are beyond mainstream political debate, even though polls show that large majorities of Americans support such policies as national health insurance, more investment in better jobs, work and family policies, better financial regulation. This whole approach is of the table because out democracy has been weakened, and there are fewer countervailing popular institutions to offset the immense political power of economic elites to set agendas. On the Republican side, supposed conservatives have abandoned their traditional sense of noblesse oblige, or of concern for financial solvency. The Democrats' appeal to ordinary people has been weakened by their alliance with Wall Street. The dependence of both parties on political fundraising from very wealthy people and business interest groups is one major part of the problem. Yet the success of Democrats who do run as pocketbook progressives shows the immense appeal of a different path. The victories of progressive House and Senate candidates in 2006 suggest a hopeful trend.
Epilogue: Redeeming America
All of the threats outlined in this book have solutions. They simply require a different politics. There is nothing about the internet economy that prevents us from devising a new set of equalizing institutions for a new era-if we can reclaim our democracy.
http://www.obamaschallenge.com/
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
McCain’s Radical Agenda on Health-care
OH, Did You Really Need Health-care?
By BOB HERBERT
Talk about a shock to the system. Has anyone bothered to notice the radical changes that John McCain and Sarah Palin are planning for the nation’s health insurance system? These are changes that will set in motion nothing less than the dismantling of the employer-based coverage that protects most American families.
A study coming out Tuesday from scholars at Columbia, Harvard, Purdue and Michigan projects that 20 million Americans who have employment-based health insurance would lose it under the McCain plan.
There is nothing secret about Senator McCain’s far-reaching proposals, but they haven’t gotten much attention because the chatter in this campaign has mostly been about nonsense — lipstick, celebrities and “Drill, baby, drill!”
For starters, the McCain health plan would treat employer-paid health benefits as income that employees would have to pay taxes on. “
It means your employer is going to have to make an estimate on how much the employer is paying for health insurance on your behalf, and you are going to have to pay taxes on that money,” said Sherry Glied, an economist who chairs the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Ms. Glied is one of the four scholars who have just completed an independent joint study of the plan. Their findings are being published on the Web site of the policy journal, Health Affairs.
According to the study: “The McCain plan will force millions of Americans into the weakest segment of the private insurance system — the nongroup market — where cost-sharing is high, covered services are limited and people will lose access to benefits they have now.”
The net effect of the plan, the study said, “almost certainly will be to increase family costs for medical care.”
Under the McCain plan (now the McCain-Palin plan) employees who continue to receive employer-paid health benefits would look at their pay stubs each week or each month and find that additional money had been withheld to cover the taxes on the value of their benefits.
While there might be less money in the paycheck, that would not be anything to worry about, according to Senator McCain. That’s because the government would be offering all taxpayers a refundable tax credit — $2,500 for a single worker and $5,000 per family — to be used “to help pay for your health care.”
You may think this is a good move or a bad one — but it’s a monumental change in the way health coverage would be provided to scores of millions of Americans. Why not more attention?
The whole idea of the McCain plan is to get families out of employer-paid health coverage and into the health insurance marketplace, where naked competition is supposed to take care of all ills. (We’re seeing in the Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch fiascos just how well the unfettered marketplace has been working.)
Taxing employer-paid health benefits is the first step in this transition, the equivalent of injecting poison into the system. It’s the beginning of the end.
When younger, healthier workers start seeing additional taxes taken out of their paychecks, some (perhaps many) will opt out of the employer-based plans — either to buy cheaper insurance on their own or to go without coverage.
That will leave employers with a pool of older, less healthy workers to cover. That coverage will necessarily be more expensive, which will encourage more and more employers to give up on the idea of providing coverage at all.
The upshot is that many more Americans — millions more — will find themselves on their own in the bewildering and often treacherous health insurance marketplace. As Senator McCain has said: “I believe the key to real reform is to restore control over our health care system to the patients themselves.”
Yet another radical element of McCain’s plan is his proposal to undermine state health insurance regulations by allowing consumers to buy insurance from sellers anywhere in the country. So a requirement in one state that insurers cover, for example, vaccinations, or annual physicals, or breast examinations, would essentially be meaningless.
In a refrain we’ve heard many times in recent years, Mr. McCain said he is committed to ridding the market of these “needless and costly” insurance regulations.
This entire McCain health insurance transformation is right out of the right-wing Republicans’ ideological playbook: fewer regulations; let the market decide; and send unsophisticated consumers into the crucible alone.
You would think that with some of the most venerable houses on Wall Street crumbling like sand castles right before our eyes, we’d be a little wary about spreading this toxic formula even further into the health care system.
But we’re not even paying much attention.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/opinion/16herbert.html?_r=1&em=&exprod=myyahoo&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
By BOB HERBERT
Talk about a shock to the system. Has anyone bothered to notice the radical changes that John McCain and Sarah Palin are planning for the nation’s health insurance system? These are changes that will set in motion nothing less than the dismantling of the employer-based coverage that protects most American families.
A study coming out Tuesday from scholars at Columbia, Harvard, Purdue and Michigan projects that 20 million Americans who have employment-based health insurance would lose it under the McCain plan.
There is nothing secret about Senator McCain’s far-reaching proposals, but they haven’t gotten much attention because the chatter in this campaign has mostly been about nonsense — lipstick, celebrities and “Drill, baby, drill!”
For starters, the McCain health plan would treat employer-paid health benefits as income that employees would have to pay taxes on. “
It means your employer is going to have to make an estimate on how much the employer is paying for health insurance on your behalf, and you are going to have to pay taxes on that money,” said Sherry Glied, an economist who chairs the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Ms. Glied is one of the four scholars who have just completed an independent joint study of the plan. Their findings are being published on the Web site of the policy journal, Health Affairs.
According to the study: “The McCain plan will force millions of Americans into the weakest segment of the private insurance system — the nongroup market — where cost-sharing is high, covered services are limited and people will lose access to benefits they have now.”
The net effect of the plan, the study said, “almost certainly will be to increase family costs for medical care.”
Under the McCain plan (now the McCain-Palin plan) employees who continue to receive employer-paid health benefits would look at their pay stubs each week or each month and find that additional money had been withheld to cover the taxes on the value of their benefits.
While there might be less money in the paycheck, that would not be anything to worry about, according to Senator McCain. That’s because the government would be offering all taxpayers a refundable tax credit — $2,500 for a single worker and $5,000 per family — to be used “to help pay for your health care.”
You may think this is a good move or a bad one — but it’s a monumental change in the way health coverage would be provided to scores of millions of Americans. Why not more attention?
The whole idea of the McCain plan is to get families out of employer-paid health coverage and into the health insurance marketplace, where naked competition is supposed to take care of all ills. (We’re seeing in the Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch fiascos just how well the unfettered marketplace has been working.)
Taxing employer-paid health benefits is the first step in this transition, the equivalent of injecting poison into the system. It’s the beginning of the end.
When younger, healthier workers start seeing additional taxes taken out of their paychecks, some (perhaps many) will opt out of the employer-based plans — either to buy cheaper insurance on their own or to go without coverage.
That will leave employers with a pool of older, less healthy workers to cover. That coverage will necessarily be more expensive, which will encourage more and more employers to give up on the idea of providing coverage at all.
The upshot is that many more Americans — millions more — will find themselves on their own in the bewildering and often treacherous health insurance marketplace. As Senator McCain has said: “I believe the key to real reform is to restore control over our health care system to the patients themselves.”
Yet another radical element of McCain’s plan is his proposal to undermine state health insurance regulations by allowing consumers to buy insurance from sellers anywhere in the country. So a requirement in one state that insurers cover, for example, vaccinations, or annual physicals, or breast examinations, would essentially be meaningless.
In a refrain we’ve heard many times in recent years, Mr. McCain said he is committed to ridding the market of these “needless and costly” insurance regulations.
This entire McCain health insurance transformation is right out of the right-wing Republicans’ ideological playbook: fewer regulations; let the market decide; and send unsophisticated consumers into the crucible alone.
You would think that with some of the most venerable houses on Wall Street crumbling like sand castles right before our eyes, we’d be a little wary about spreading this toxic formula even further into the health care system.
But we’re not even paying much attention.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/opinion/16herbert.html?_r=1&em=&exprod=myyahoo&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
I Endorse the Pickens Plan
I am endorsing the Pickens Plan as the most effective alternative to the energy crisis. I favor biofuel research to provide the eventual energy source until fuel cells become feasible. In the mean time natural gas will provide fuel for transportation as wind energy provides for power plants. I believe the waste water from gas well drilling needs to be used with blue green algae farming in West Texas to both clean the water and grow blue green algae. This use of non agricultural land, non usable water, and non agricultural crop producing would not only clean the water, provide energy, and use previous unproductive acreage to give America true energy independence and green jobs.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Hurricane Ike Relief
Today we had scheduled an email announcing the success of our ongoing dollar-for-dollar fundraising match program. With the events of this past weekend and the destruction left by Hurricane Ike, we thought it better to ask our friends and supporters to help our neighbors in need.
With that said, we have compiled a list of contact numbers and websites for aid organizations throughout our great state. With storm damage affecting multiple counties and millions of people, plus tens of thousands of evacuees in places that may be unfamiliar and far from home, our help is needed in every corner of Texas. We would ask that you please consider donating money, time, clothing and/or food to any of these organizations.
Working together, as neighbors and as Texans, we will repair and rebuild.
Best regards,
Texas State House Democrats
State Rep. Jim Dunnam
State Rep. Garnet Coleman
State Rep. Pete Gallego
State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amarillo/Panhandle
Red Cross
(806) 376-6309
1800 S. Harrison, Amarillo, TX 79102
Austin/Central Texas
Red Cross
(512) 928-4271
2218 Pershing Drive, Austin, TX 78723
Capital Area Food Bank
(512) 282-2111
8201 S. Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78745
Bay City
Red Cross
(979) 245-3056
2200 7th St., Bay City, TX 77414
Beaumont
Red Cross
(409) 832-1644
350 Magnolia Ave, Beaumont, TX 77701
Southeast Texas Food Bank
(409) 839-8777
3845 S MLK Jr Pkwy, Beaumont, TX 77705
Brazos Valley/Bryan/College Station
Brazos Valley Food Bank
(979) 779-3663
PO Box 74, Bryan, TX 77806
Brownwood
Red Cross
(325) 646-0196
600 East Adams, Brownwood, TX 76801
Corpus Christi/Coastal Bend
Red Cross
(361) 884-9991
PO Box 3429, Corpus Christi, TX 78463
Food Bank of Corpus Christi
(361) 887-6291
826 Krill St, Corpus Christi, TX 78408
Dallas
Red Cross
(214) 678-4800
4800 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, TX 75235
North Texas Food Bank
(214) 330-1396
4500 Cockrell Hill Rd, Dallas, TX 75236
El Paso
Red Cross
(915) 592-0208
3620 Admiral St, El Paso, TX 79997
Fort Worth
Red Cross
(817) 335-9137
1515 S. Sylvania, Fort Worth, TX 76111
Tarrant Area Food Bank
(817) 332-91772
600 Cullen St, Fort Worth, TX 76107 South Texas/Rio Grande Valley
Red Cross
(956) 423-0523
PO Box 2202, Harlingen, TX 78551
Houston
Red Cross
(713) 526-8300
2700 Southwest Fwy, Houston, TX 77098
Houston Area Urban League
(713) 393-8700
1301 Texas Ave, Houston TX 77002
Neighborhood Centers, Inc.
(713) 667-9400
Central Office:
4500 Bissonnet #200, Houston, TX 77005
United Way of Greater Houston
(713) 685-2300
50 Waugh Drive, Houston, Texas 77007
End Hunger Network
(713) 532-3663
2445 North Freeway , Houston, TX 77009
Midland/Odessa
West Texas Food Bank
(432) 580-6333
PO Box 4242, Odessa, TX 79761
Orange
Red Cross
(409) 883-2322
3901 IH-10 East, Orange, TX 77630
San Antonio
Red Cross
(210) 224-5151
3642 E Houston St, San Antonio, TX 78219
San Antonio Food Bank
(210) 337-3663
5200 Old Hwy 90 West. San Antonio, TX 78227
Texarkana
Red Cross
(903) 793-5602
821 Spruce St, Texarkana, TX 75501
Tyler
Red Cross
(903) 581-7981
320 E Rieck Rd, Tyler, TX 75711
East Texas Food Bank
(903) 597-3663
PO Box 6974, Tyler, TX 75711
Victoria
Red Cross
(361) 573-2671
2805 N Navarro St Ste 500, Victoria, TX 77901
Food Bank of the Golden Crest
(361) 578-0591
PO Box 5085, Victoria, TX, 77903
Waco
Red Cross
(888) 776-9226
4224 Cobbs Dr, Waco, TX 76710
With that said, we have compiled a list of contact numbers and websites for aid organizations throughout our great state. With storm damage affecting multiple counties and millions of people, plus tens of thousands of evacuees in places that may be unfamiliar and far from home, our help is needed in every corner of Texas. We would ask that you please consider donating money, time, clothing and/or food to any of these organizations.
Working together, as neighbors and as Texans, we will repair and rebuild.
Best regards,
Texas State House Democrats
State Rep. Jim Dunnam
State Rep. Garnet Coleman
State Rep. Pete Gallego
State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amarillo/Panhandle
Red Cross
(806) 376-6309
1800 S. Harrison, Amarillo, TX 79102
Austin/Central Texas
Red Cross
(512) 928-4271
2218 Pershing Drive, Austin, TX 78723
Capital Area Food Bank
(512) 282-2111
8201 S. Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78745
Bay City
Red Cross
(979) 245-3056
2200 7th St., Bay City, TX 77414
Beaumont
Red Cross
(409) 832-1644
350 Magnolia Ave, Beaumont, TX 77701
Southeast Texas Food Bank
(409) 839-8777
3845 S MLK Jr Pkwy, Beaumont, TX 77705
Brazos Valley/Bryan/College Station
Brazos Valley Food Bank
(979) 779-3663
PO Box 74, Bryan, TX 77806
Brownwood
Red Cross
(325) 646-0196
600 East Adams, Brownwood, TX 76801
Corpus Christi/Coastal Bend
Red Cross
(361) 884-9991
PO Box 3429, Corpus Christi, TX 78463
Food Bank of Corpus Christi
(361) 887-6291
826 Krill St, Corpus Christi, TX 78408
Dallas
Red Cross
(214) 678-4800
4800 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, TX 75235
North Texas Food Bank
(214) 330-1396
4500 Cockrell Hill Rd, Dallas, TX 75236
El Paso
Red Cross
(915) 592-0208
3620 Admiral St, El Paso, TX 79997
Fort Worth
Red Cross
(817) 335-9137
1515 S. Sylvania, Fort Worth, TX 76111
Tarrant Area Food Bank
(817) 332-91772
600 Cullen St, Fort Worth, TX 76107 South Texas/Rio Grande Valley
Red Cross
(956) 423-0523
PO Box 2202, Harlingen, TX 78551
Houston
Red Cross
(713) 526-8300
2700 Southwest Fwy, Houston, TX 77098
Houston Area Urban League
(713) 393-8700
1301 Texas Ave, Houston TX 77002
Neighborhood Centers, Inc.
(713) 667-9400
Central Office:
4500 Bissonnet #200, Houston, TX 77005
United Way of Greater Houston
(713) 685-2300
50 Waugh Drive, Houston, Texas 77007
End Hunger Network
(713) 532-3663
2445 North Freeway , Houston, TX 77009
Midland/Odessa
West Texas Food Bank
(432) 580-6333
PO Box 4242, Odessa, TX 79761
Orange
Red Cross
(409) 883-2322
3901 IH-10 East, Orange, TX 77630
San Antonio
Red Cross
(210) 224-5151
3642 E Houston St, San Antonio, TX 78219
San Antonio Food Bank
(210) 337-3663
5200 Old Hwy 90 West. San Antonio, TX 78227
Texarkana
Red Cross
(903) 793-5602
821 Spruce St, Texarkana, TX 75501
Tyler
Red Cross
(903) 581-7981
320 E Rieck Rd, Tyler, TX 75711
East Texas Food Bank
(903) 597-3663
PO Box 6974, Tyler, TX 75711
Victoria
Red Cross
(361) 573-2671
2805 N Navarro St Ste 500, Victoria, TX 77901
Food Bank of the Golden Crest
(361) 578-0591
PO Box 5085, Victoria, TX, 77903
Waco
Red Cross
(888) 776-9226
4224 Cobbs Dr, Waco, TX 76710
The Pickens Plan
America is addicted to foreign oil.
It's an addiction that threatens our economy, our environment and our national security. It touches every part of our daily lives and ties our hands as a nation and a people.
The addiction has worsened for decades and now it's reached a point of crisis.
In 1970, we imported 24% of our oil.
Today it's nearly 70% and growing.
As imports grow and world prices rise, the amount of money we send to foreign nations every year is soaring. At current oil prices, we will send $700 billion dollars out of the country this year alone — that's four times the annual cost of the Iraq war.
Projected over the next 10 years the cost will be $10 trillion — it will be the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind.
America uses a lot of oil. Every day 85 million barrels of oil are produced around the world. And 21 million of those are used here in the United States.
That's 25% of the world's oil demand. Used by just 4% of the world's population.
Can't we just produce more oil?
World oil production peaked in 2005. Despite growing demand and an unprecedented increase in prices, oil production has fallen over the last three years. Oil is getting more expensive to produce, harder to find and there just isn't enough of it to keep up with demand.
The simple truth is that cheap and easy oil is gone.
What's the good news?
The United States is the Saudi Arabia of wind power.
Studies from around the world show that the Great Plains States are home to the greatest wind energy potential in the world — by far.
The Department of Energy reports that 20% of America's electricity can come from wind. North Dakota alone has the potential to provide power for more than a quarter of the country.
Today's wind turbines stand up to 410 feet tall, with blades that stretch 148 feet in length. The blades collect the wind's kinetic energy. In one year, a 3-megawatt wind turbine produces as much energy as 12,000 barrels of imported oil.
Wind power currently accounts for 48 billion kWh of electricity a year in the United States — enough to serve more than 4.5 million households. That is still only about 1% of current demand, but the potential of wind is much greater.
A 2005 Stanford University study found that there is enough wind power worldwide to satisfy global demand 7 times over — even if only 20% of wind power could be captured.
Building wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota could produce 20% of the electricity for the United States at a cost of $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns.
That's a lot of money, but it's a one-time cost. And compared to the $700 billion we spend on foreign oil every year, it's a bargain.
An economic revival for rural America.
Developing wind power is an investment in rural America.
To witness the economic promise of wind energy, look no further than Sweetwater, Texas.
Sweetwater was typical of many small towns in middle-America. With a shortage of good jobs, the youth of Sweetwater were leaving in search of greater opportunities. And the town's population dropped from 12,000 to under 10,000.
When a large wind power facility was built outside of town, Sweetwater experienced a revival. New economic opportunity brought the town back to life and the population has grown back up to 12,000.
In the Texas panhandle, just north of Sweetwater, is the town of Pampa, where T. Boone Pickens' Mesa Power is currently building the largest wind farm in the world.
In addition to creating new construction and maintenance jobs, thousands of Americans will be employed to manufacture the turbines and blades. These are high skill jobs that pay on a scale comparable to aerospace jobs.
Plus, wind turbines don't interfere with farming and grazing, so they don't threaten food production or existing local economies.
A cheap new replacement for foreign oil.
The Honda Civic GX Natural Gas Vehicle is the cleanest internal-combustion vehicle in the world according to the EPA.
Natural gas and bio-fuels are the only domestic energy sources used for transportation.
Cleaner
Natural gas is the cleanest transportation fuel available today.
According to the California Energy Commission, critical greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas are 23% lower than diesel and 30% lower than gasoline.
Natural gas vehicles (NGV) are already available and combine top performance with low emissions. The natural gas Honda Civic GX is rated as the cleanest production vehicle in the world.
According to NGVAmerica, there are more than 7 million NGVs in use worldwide, but only 150,000 of those are in the United States.
The EPA estimates that vehicles on the road account for 60% of carbon monoxide pollution and around one-third of hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions in the United States. As federal and state emissions laws become more stringent, many requirements will be unattainable with conventionally fueled vehicles.
Since natural gas is significantly cleaner than petroleum, NGVs are increasing in popularity. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach recently announced that 16,800 old diesel trucks will be replaced, and half of the new vehicles will run on alternatives such as natural gas.
Cheaper
Natural gas is significantly less expensive than gasoline or diesel. In places like Utah and Oklahoma, prices are less than $1 a gallon. To see fueling stations and costs in your area, check out cngprices.com.
Domestic
Natural gas is our country's second largest energy resource and a vital component of our energy supply. 98% of the natural gas used in the United States is from North America. But 70% of our oil is purchased from foreign nations.
Natural gas is one of the cleanest, safest and most useful forms of energy — residentially, commercially and industrially. The natural gas industry has existed in the United States for over 100 years and continues to grow.
Domestic natural gas reserves are twice that of petroleum. And new discoveries of natural gas and ongoing development of renewable biogas are continually adding to existing reserves.
While it is a cheap, effective and versatile fuel, less than 1% of natural gas is currently used for transportation.
The Mechanics
We currently use natural gas to produce 22% of our electricity. Harnessing the power of wind to generate electricity will give us the flexibility to shift natural gas away from electricity generation and put it to use as a transportation fuel — reducing our dependence on foreign oil by more than one-third.
How do we get it done?
The Pickens Plan is a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives, and buy us time to develop even greater new technologies.
Building new wind generation facilities and better utilizing our natural gas resources can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports in 10 years. But it will take leadership.
On January 20th, 2009, a new President will take office.
We're organizing behind the Pickens Plan now to ensure our voices will be heard by the next administration.
Together we can raise a call for change and set a new course for America's energy future in the first hundred days of the new presidency — breaking the hammerlock of foreign oil and building a new domestic energy future for America with a focus on sustainability.
You can start changing America's future today by supporting the Pickens Plan. Join Now.
http://www.pickensplan.com/media/
http://www.pickensplan.com/thepledge/
It's an addiction that threatens our economy, our environment and our national security. It touches every part of our daily lives and ties our hands as a nation and a people.
The addiction has worsened for decades and now it's reached a point of crisis.
In 1970, we imported 24% of our oil.
Today it's nearly 70% and growing.
As imports grow and world prices rise, the amount of money we send to foreign nations every year is soaring. At current oil prices, we will send $700 billion dollars out of the country this year alone — that's four times the annual cost of the Iraq war.
Projected over the next 10 years the cost will be $10 trillion — it will be the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind.
America uses a lot of oil. Every day 85 million barrels of oil are produced around the world. And 21 million of those are used here in the United States.
That's 25% of the world's oil demand. Used by just 4% of the world's population.
Can't we just produce more oil?
World oil production peaked in 2005. Despite growing demand and an unprecedented increase in prices, oil production has fallen over the last three years. Oil is getting more expensive to produce, harder to find and there just isn't enough of it to keep up with demand.
The simple truth is that cheap and easy oil is gone.
What's the good news?
The United States is the Saudi Arabia of wind power.
Studies from around the world show that the Great Plains States are home to the greatest wind energy potential in the world — by far.
The Department of Energy reports that 20% of America's electricity can come from wind. North Dakota alone has the potential to provide power for more than a quarter of the country.
Today's wind turbines stand up to 410 feet tall, with blades that stretch 148 feet in length. The blades collect the wind's kinetic energy. In one year, a 3-megawatt wind turbine produces as much energy as 12,000 barrels of imported oil.
Wind power currently accounts for 48 billion kWh of electricity a year in the United States — enough to serve more than 4.5 million households. That is still only about 1% of current demand, but the potential of wind is much greater.
A 2005 Stanford University study found that there is enough wind power worldwide to satisfy global demand 7 times over — even if only 20% of wind power could be captured.
Building wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota could produce 20% of the electricity for the United States at a cost of $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns.
That's a lot of money, but it's a one-time cost. And compared to the $700 billion we spend on foreign oil every year, it's a bargain.
An economic revival for rural America.
Developing wind power is an investment in rural America.
To witness the economic promise of wind energy, look no further than Sweetwater, Texas.
Sweetwater was typical of many small towns in middle-America. With a shortage of good jobs, the youth of Sweetwater were leaving in search of greater opportunities. And the town's population dropped from 12,000 to under 10,000.
When a large wind power facility was built outside of town, Sweetwater experienced a revival. New economic opportunity brought the town back to life and the population has grown back up to 12,000.
In the Texas panhandle, just north of Sweetwater, is the town of Pampa, where T. Boone Pickens' Mesa Power is currently building the largest wind farm in the world.
In addition to creating new construction and maintenance jobs, thousands of Americans will be employed to manufacture the turbines and blades. These are high skill jobs that pay on a scale comparable to aerospace jobs.
Plus, wind turbines don't interfere with farming and grazing, so they don't threaten food production or existing local economies.
A cheap new replacement for foreign oil.
The Honda Civic GX Natural Gas Vehicle is the cleanest internal-combustion vehicle in the world according to the EPA.
Natural gas and bio-fuels are the only domestic energy sources used for transportation.
Cleaner
Natural gas is the cleanest transportation fuel available today.
According to the California Energy Commission, critical greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas are 23% lower than diesel and 30% lower than gasoline.
Natural gas vehicles (NGV) are already available and combine top performance with low emissions. The natural gas Honda Civic GX is rated as the cleanest production vehicle in the world.
According to NGVAmerica, there are more than 7 million NGVs in use worldwide, but only 150,000 of those are in the United States.
The EPA estimates that vehicles on the road account for 60% of carbon monoxide pollution and around one-third of hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions in the United States. As federal and state emissions laws become more stringent, many requirements will be unattainable with conventionally fueled vehicles.
Since natural gas is significantly cleaner than petroleum, NGVs are increasing in popularity. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach recently announced that 16,800 old diesel trucks will be replaced, and half of the new vehicles will run on alternatives such as natural gas.
Cheaper
Natural gas is significantly less expensive than gasoline or diesel. In places like Utah and Oklahoma, prices are less than $1 a gallon. To see fueling stations and costs in your area, check out cngprices.com.
Domestic
Natural gas is our country's second largest energy resource and a vital component of our energy supply. 98% of the natural gas used in the United States is from North America. But 70% of our oil is purchased from foreign nations.
Natural gas is one of the cleanest, safest and most useful forms of energy — residentially, commercially and industrially. The natural gas industry has existed in the United States for over 100 years and continues to grow.
Domestic natural gas reserves are twice that of petroleum. And new discoveries of natural gas and ongoing development of renewable biogas are continually adding to existing reserves.
While it is a cheap, effective and versatile fuel, less than 1% of natural gas is currently used for transportation.
The Mechanics
We currently use natural gas to produce 22% of our electricity. Harnessing the power of wind to generate electricity will give us the flexibility to shift natural gas away from electricity generation and put it to use as a transportation fuel — reducing our dependence on foreign oil by more than one-third.
How do we get it done?
The Pickens Plan is a bridge to the future — a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives, and buy us time to develop even greater new technologies.
Building new wind generation facilities and better utilizing our natural gas resources can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports in 10 years. But it will take leadership.
On January 20th, 2009, a new President will take office.
We're organizing behind the Pickens Plan now to ensure our voices will be heard by the next administration.
Together we can raise a call for change and set a new course for America's energy future in the first hundred days of the new presidency — breaking the hammerlock of foreign oil and building a new domestic energy future for America with a focus on sustainability.
You can start changing America's future today by supporting the Pickens Plan. Join Now.
http://www.pickensplan.com/media/
http://www.pickensplan.com/thepledge/
The pastor who clashed with Palin
Baptist minister Howard Bess, who wrote a book Palin wanted banned and who fought her on abortion and gay rights, says the country should fear her election.
By David Talbot
Sep. 16, 2008 | The Wasilla Assembly of God, the evangelical church where Sarah Palin came of age, was still charged with excitement on Sunday over Palin's sudden ascendance. Pastor Ed Kalnins warned his congregation not to talk with any journalists who might have been lurking in the pews -- and directly warned this reporter not to interview any of his flock. But Kalnins and other speakers at the service reveled in Palin's rise to global stardom.
It confirmed, they said, that God was making use of Wasilla. "She will take our message to the world!" rejoiced an Assembly of God youth ministry leader, as the church band rocked the high-vaulted wooden building with its electric gospel.
That is what scares the Rev. Howard Bess. A retired American Baptist minister who pastors a small congregation in nearby Palmer, Wasilla's twin town in Alaska's Matanuska Valley, Bess has been tangling with Palin and her fellow evangelical activists ever since she was a Wasilla City Council member in the 1990s. Recently, Bess again found himself in the spotlight with Palin, when it was reported that his 1995 book, "Pastor, I Am Gay," was among those Palin tried to have removed from the Wasilla Public Library when she was mayor.
"She scares me," said Bess. "She's Jerry Falwell with a pretty face.
"At this point, people in this country don't grasp what this person is all about. The key to understanding Sarah Palin is understanding her radical theology."
Bess -- a fit-looking, 80-year-old man in a gray University of Illinois sweatshirt and blue jeans – spoke with me over coffee at the Vagabond Blues, a cafe in Palmer with a stunning view of the nearby snow-capped Chugach Mountains. The retired minister moved to the Mat-Su Valley with his wife, Darlene, in 1987, after his outspoken defense of gay rights at Baptist churches in the Santa Barbara, Calif., area and Anchorage landed him in trouble with church officials. In the Mat-Su Valley, Bess plunged into community activism, helping launch an assortment of projects, from an arts council to a shelter for the mentally disabled.
Inevitably, his work brought him into conflict with Palin and other highly politicized Christian fundamentalists in the valley. "Things got very intense around here in the '90s -- the culture war was very hot here," Bess said. "The evangelicals were trying to take over the valley. They took over the school board, the community hospital board, even the local electric utility. And Sarah Palin was in the direct center of all these culture battles, along with the churches she belonged to."
Bess' first run-in with Palin's religious forces came when he decided to write his book, "Pastor, I Am Gay." The book was the result of a theological journey that began in the 1970s when Bess was asked for guidance by a closeted homosexual in his Santa Barbara congregation. After deep reflection on the subject, Bess came to the conclusion that "gay people were not sick, nor they were special sinners."
In his book, Bess suggests that gays have a divine mission. "Look back at the life of our Lord Jesus. He was misunderstood, deserted, unjustly accused, and cruelly killed. Yet we all confess that it was the will of God, for by his wounds we are healed ... Could it be that the homosexual, obedient to the will of God, might be the church's modern day healer-messiah?"
When it was published in 1995, Bess' book caused an immediate storm in the Mat-Su Valley, an evangelical stronghold dotted with storefront churches. Conservative ministers targeted the book, and the only bookstore in the valley that dared to stock it -- Shalom Christian Books and Gifts – soon dropped it after the owner was barraged with angry phone calls. The Frontiersman, the local newspaper that ran a column by Bess for seven years, fired him and ran a vicious cartoon that suggested even drooling child molesters would be welcomed by Bess' church.
And after she became mayor of Wasilla, according to Bess, Sarah Palin tried to get rid of his book from the local library. Palin now denies that she wanted to censor library books, but Bess insists that his book was on a "hit list" targeted by Palin. "I'm as certain of that as I am that I'm sitting here. This is a small town, we all know each other. People in city government have confirmed to me what Sarah was trying to do."
Soon after the book controversy, Bess found himself again at odds with Palin and her fellow evangelicals. In 1996, evangelical churches mounted a vigorous campaign to take over the local hospital's community board and ban abortion from the valley. When they succeeded, Bess and Dr. Susan Lemagie, a Palmer OB-GYN, fought back, filing suit on behalf of a local woman who had been forced to travel to Seattle for an abortion. The case was finally decided by the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled that the hospital must provide valley women with the abortion option.
At one point during the hospital battle, passions ran so hot that local antiabortion activists organized a boisterous picket line outside Dr. Lemagie's office, in an unassuming professional building across from Palmer's Little League field. According to Bess and another community activist, among the protesters trying to disrupt the physician's practice that day was Sarah Palin.
Another valley activist, Philip Munger, says that Palin also helped push the evangelical drive to take over the Mat-Su Borough school board. "She wanted to get people who believed in creationism on the board," said Munger, a music composer and teacher. "I bumped into her once after my band played at a graduation ceremony at the Assembly of God. I said, 'Sarah, how can you believe in creationism -- your father's a science teacher.' And she said, 'We don't have to agree on everything.'
"I pushed her on the earth's creation, whether it was really less than 7,000 years old and whether dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. And she said yes, she'd seen images somewhere of dinosaur fossils with human footprints in them."
Munger also asked Palin if she truly believed in the End of Days, the doomsday scenario when the Messiah will return. "She looked in my eyes and said, 'Yes, I think I will see Jesus come back to earth in my lifetime.'"
Bess is unnerved by the prospect of Palin -- a woman whose mind is given to dogmatic certitude -- standing one step away from the Oval Office. "It's truly frightening that someone like Sarah has risen to the national level," Bess said. "Like all religious fundamentalists -- Christian, Jewish, Muslim -- she is a dualist. They view life as an ongoing struggle to the finish between good and evil. Their mind-set is that you do not do business with evil -- you destroy it. Talking with the enemy is not part of their plan. That puts someone like Obama on the side of evil.
"Forget all this chatter about whether or not she knows what the Bush doctrine is. That's trivial. The real disturbing thing about Sarah is her mind-set. It's her underlying belief system that will influence how she responds in an international crisis, if she's ever in that position, and has the full might of the U.S. military in her hands. She gave some indication of that thinking in her ABC interview, when she suggested how willing she would be to go to war with Russia.
"Alaskans liked that certitude when she was dealing with corrupt politicians and the oil industry -- and there is something admirable about it. But when you're dealing with a complex and dangerous world as commander in chief, that's a different story."
Bess said that he and fellow valley residents have long been charmed by the Sarah Palin who is now dazzling the American public. Despite their strong political differences, "she always has a warm greeting for me when we bump into each other. She's the most charming person you'll ever know."
"But," Bess adds, "this person's election would be a disaster for the country and the world."
-- By David Talbot
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/15/bess/print.html
By David Talbot
Sep. 16, 2008 | The Wasilla Assembly of God, the evangelical church where Sarah Palin came of age, was still charged with excitement on Sunday over Palin's sudden ascendance. Pastor Ed Kalnins warned his congregation not to talk with any journalists who might have been lurking in the pews -- and directly warned this reporter not to interview any of his flock. But Kalnins and other speakers at the service reveled in Palin's rise to global stardom.
It confirmed, they said, that God was making use of Wasilla. "She will take our message to the world!" rejoiced an Assembly of God youth ministry leader, as the church band rocked the high-vaulted wooden building with its electric gospel.
That is what scares the Rev. Howard Bess. A retired American Baptist minister who pastors a small congregation in nearby Palmer, Wasilla's twin town in Alaska's Matanuska Valley, Bess has been tangling with Palin and her fellow evangelical activists ever since she was a Wasilla City Council member in the 1990s. Recently, Bess again found himself in the spotlight with Palin, when it was reported that his 1995 book, "Pastor, I Am Gay," was among those Palin tried to have removed from the Wasilla Public Library when she was mayor.
"She scares me," said Bess. "She's Jerry Falwell with a pretty face.
"At this point, people in this country don't grasp what this person is all about. The key to understanding Sarah Palin is understanding her radical theology."
Bess -- a fit-looking, 80-year-old man in a gray University of Illinois sweatshirt and blue jeans – spoke with me over coffee at the Vagabond Blues, a cafe in Palmer with a stunning view of the nearby snow-capped Chugach Mountains. The retired minister moved to the Mat-Su Valley with his wife, Darlene, in 1987, after his outspoken defense of gay rights at Baptist churches in the Santa Barbara, Calif., area and Anchorage landed him in trouble with church officials. In the Mat-Su Valley, Bess plunged into community activism, helping launch an assortment of projects, from an arts council to a shelter for the mentally disabled.
Inevitably, his work brought him into conflict with Palin and other highly politicized Christian fundamentalists in the valley. "Things got very intense around here in the '90s -- the culture war was very hot here," Bess said. "The evangelicals were trying to take over the valley. They took over the school board, the community hospital board, even the local electric utility. And Sarah Palin was in the direct center of all these culture battles, along with the churches she belonged to."
Bess' first run-in with Palin's religious forces came when he decided to write his book, "Pastor, I Am Gay." The book was the result of a theological journey that began in the 1970s when Bess was asked for guidance by a closeted homosexual in his Santa Barbara congregation. After deep reflection on the subject, Bess came to the conclusion that "gay people were not sick, nor they were special sinners."
In his book, Bess suggests that gays have a divine mission. "Look back at the life of our Lord Jesus. He was misunderstood, deserted, unjustly accused, and cruelly killed. Yet we all confess that it was the will of God, for by his wounds we are healed ... Could it be that the homosexual, obedient to the will of God, might be the church's modern day healer-messiah?"
When it was published in 1995, Bess' book caused an immediate storm in the Mat-Su Valley, an evangelical stronghold dotted with storefront churches. Conservative ministers targeted the book, and the only bookstore in the valley that dared to stock it -- Shalom Christian Books and Gifts – soon dropped it after the owner was barraged with angry phone calls. The Frontiersman, the local newspaper that ran a column by Bess for seven years, fired him and ran a vicious cartoon that suggested even drooling child molesters would be welcomed by Bess' church.
And after she became mayor of Wasilla, according to Bess, Sarah Palin tried to get rid of his book from the local library. Palin now denies that she wanted to censor library books, but Bess insists that his book was on a "hit list" targeted by Palin. "I'm as certain of that as I am that I'm sitting here. This is a small town, we all know each other. People in city government have confirmed to me what Sarah was trying to do."
Soon after the book controversy, Bess found himself again at odds with Palin and her fellow evangelicals. In 1996, evangelical churches mounted a vigorous campaign to take over the local hospital's community board and ban abortion from the valley. When they succeeded, Bess and Dr. Susan Lemagie, a Palmer OB-GYN, fought back, filing suit on behalf of a local woman who had been forced to travel to Seattle for an abortion. The case was finally decided by the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled that the hospital must provide valley women with the abortion option.
At one point during the hospital battle, passions ran so hot that local antiabortion activists organized a boisterous picket line outside Dr. Lemagie's office, in an unassuming professional building across from Palmer's Little League field. According to Bess and another community activist, among the protesters trying to disrupt the physician's practice that day was Sarah Palin.
Another valley activist, Philip Munger, says that Palin also helped push the evangelical drive to take over the Mat-Su Borough school board. "She wanted to get people who believed in creationism on the board," said Munger, a music composer and teacher. "I bumped into her once after my band played at a graduation ceremony at the Assembly of God. I said, 'Sarah, how can you believe in creationism -- your father's a science teacher.' And she said, 'We don't have to agree on everything.'
"I pushed her on the earth's creation, whether it was really less than 7,000 years old and whether dinosaurs and humans walked the earth at the same time. And she said yes, she'd seen images somewhere of dinosaur fossils with human footprints in them."
Munger also asked Palin if she truly believed in the End of Days, the doomsday scenario when the Messiah will return. "She looked in my eyes and said, 'Yes, I think I will see Jesus come back to earth in my lifetime.'"
Bess is unnerved by the prospect of Palin -- a woman whose mind is given to dogmatic certitude -- standing one step away from the Oval Office. "It's truly frightening that someone like Sarah has risen to the national level," Bess said. "Like all religious fundamentalists -- Christian, Jewish, Muslim -- she is a dualist. They view life as an ongoing struggle to the finish between good and evil. Their mind-set is that you do not do business with evil -- you destroy it. Talking with the enemy is not part of their plan. That puts someone like Obama on the side of evil.
"Forget all this chatter about whether or not she knows what the Bush doctrine is. That's trivial. The real disturbing thing about Sarah is her mind-set. It's her underlying belief system that will influence how she responds in an international crisis, if she's ever in that position, and has the full might of the U.S. military in her hands. She gave some indication of that thinking in her ABC interview, when she suggested how willing she would be to go to war with Russia.
"Alaskans liked that certitude when she was dealing with corrupt politicians and the oil industry -- and there is something admirable about it. But when you're dealing with a complex and dangerous world as commander in chief, that's a different story."
Bess said that he and fellow valley residents have long been charmed by the Sarah Palin who is now dazzling the American public. Despite their strong political differences, "she always has a warm greeting for me when we bump into each other. She's the most charming person you'll ever know."
"But," Bess adds, "this person's election would be a disaster for the country and the world."
-- By David Talbot
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/15/bess/print.html
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Texas Hurricane Relief
To paraphrase John Kennedy, "Ask not what the State of Texas can do for you, but ask what you can do for your state." Galveston, Houston and the Texas Coast have suffered a terrible tragedy this weekend from Hurricane Ike. We need as Texans to open our hearts and minds to provide for those who have suffered much, had terrible tragedy, and hardships. Please help with relief efforts, give money, time, and blood for those less fortunate than you.
Tom
Tom
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)