When will the politicians realize that it is time for dramatic change in our policies. We can not keep going into countries just for the sake of securing oil. It is a dismal failure and oil is up 400% since Bush took office. The only people making money off this are the oil companies themselves. We need to come up with a national plan to scale back oil consumption of this country in the next 5 years. I don’t think making a small change in mpg requirements for the auto manufacturers is going to cut it. That is like sticking your finger in the dam. We need to aggressively push solar and wind research and give tax credit to people who install them. We need to aggressively push diesel engines that can run off local oil made from plants.

There is just so much more we can do and yet our paralyzed government refuses to take the situation seriously.

As a country we are financially in dismal shape. We can’t pay our bills without using our credit cards, or in the feds case borrowing from Social Security. Yet, Bush refuses to scale back the Iraq war or acknowledge that it is a failure and going no where. He recently asked for another 40B to run the war and I doubt Congress will do that much to stop him. Ohh, I am sure they will put on a dog and pony show, but in the end, they will write the check and move on.

The mortgage sector is in the tank and is expected to get worse till the middle of next year. Countrywide is now offering help to its lendees to refinance their mortgages out of arms and into fixed rates.

We are a country of irresponsible borrowers, yet we can’t just blame our citizens. It is so ingrained in our culture at this point that few bother to save and less make good decisions about finances.

Al Gure just won the Nobel Peace Prize or at least the right half of it and a nice wad of sweaty cash. This is on top of his Emmy he won a few months back. I don’t think I have seen such a dramatic make over of a politician. 8 years ago he was looked at as dull, one dimensional, and lacking any real personality. That is probably why he lost the election ( and that Floridians are too dumb to figure out how to stick a hole in a chad).

Fast forward 8 years and he seems to be the hottest ticket around. He is the Fred Thompson of the Democratic part, he’s a rock star and I imagine the only thing really keeping him from entering the race is respect for his ex bosses’ wife Hillary. Of course that is just a guess. But for what ever reason he has not thrown his hat in the ring. Maybe he could be vp again for Hillary? Wouldn’t that be strange. But I don’t see him building all this momentum and not taking advantage of it. He’s a politician for god’s sake. Thats what they do, take advantage of any situation to push their agenda. The crazy thing is he has everyone thinking he’s a genius. Which he may as well be. If he throws his hat in the ring I think it will be around Thanksgiving and I think it will rattle the line up.

Gore was quoted as saying “I will be doing everything I can to try to understand how to best use the honor and recognition of this award as a way of speeding up the change in awareness and the change in urgency,” he said. “I’m going back to work right now. This is just the beginning.” What better way to do this than becoming POTUS.

Bush sends these young men to Iraq to protect his and his friends interest in oil.  They are told to seek and destroy the enemy. Problem is the enemy is living among the population hiding an AK47 under their garments and using remotes to detonate roadside bombs.

That puts these soldiers under incredible stress and is bound to mentally exhaust them. They don’t want to be the next statistic on the evening news here in the USA.  Some off them have had the misfortune of being attacked and then pursuing the attackers, only to shoot an inoccent bystander that is dressed and looks just like the attacker. Then these soldiers are shipped back to the US to stand trail for murder. Just for doing their job in horrific conditions.  And yet we continue to go down this Godless path that Bush thinks is the best way to bring democracy to the Middle East. Even though it is obvious the only thing that is being brought to the Middles East is the control over the oil.

Doing research on alternative fuels I came to realize just how easy it is to make ethanol. Essentially all you are doing is making a beer in a pot and boiling off the alcohol. You end up with an alcohol that runs around 104 well above the standard 93 rating that premium unleaded gas gets. Of course I am over simplifying it a bit.

What I see as the biggest issue is the waste. If you use corn as the mash to mix with the yeast then it appears that 100lb bag will generate about 20 gallons of white lighting ( for all you moon shiners). That is a lot of waste to get rid of. Where do you dump 100lbs on corn mash? Obviously not in my backyard. Maybe my neighbors?

You also have to get a license from the ATF, since you are making alcohol. THey expect you to denature it with gas so it becomes gasohol, otherwise I suppose you can go to jail.