Ladies, and Gentlemen: The Time Has Come. We Must Do Something About Our American Press Corps.

Imposing tighter and more forceful controls on the “fourth estate”, requires serious consideration.  And such a proposal being in itself, “politically charged”, guarantees nothing will be done unless there is a single party in firm control of all three forms of government and that includes the courts…

There has to be a faster way, a better way.

That is what I am to propose.We have found (particularly in this election year) that to get things done quickly,  “We, The People” have to get involved.  It is what propelled Donald to the forefront of his party’s nomination over the stale platitudes of people who were competent.  It is also what gave Bernie’s campaign far more power than any insider could have ever considered as late as last December a mere 9 months ago.  So whether you like either of the two campaigns or not, it is “We, The People” who manifested them in our own two diverse images….

The problem with today’s press is not so much its partisanship. The reason calling out such partisanship from BOTH parties is justifiable, is because the press plays itself against BOTH sides.  Indeed in social issues it does tend to side with liberals and lambastes both conservatives and Tea Party Republicans. Most of our media is liberal on issues supportive of prisoners, gays, minorities, and women’s rights. But when it comes to a government using its power to get things done, the media’s business-identity takes over and it becomes strongly Libertarian. Here keeping government in a box seems to be its prime directive. Those of you with sharp minds can already see where this is going: both socially and governmentally our press is almost pure Libertarian. On the social side it mimics Liberalness while on the business side, it’s conservative. Both which are planks of the Libertarian party.

Because of this dichotomy,  both sides can and do look at the American media as its enemy…. while the same both sides ignore and dismiss the side which is a partial friend of it .Therefore for citizen’s groups to attack the media on its partisanship is probably a moot endeavor.  For if there is no partisanship actually there, one will come up empty handed. No, for any change to occur, there first

a) has to be a problem, then

b) that problem has to become common knowledge, then

c) movements towards change have to campaign to attract followers, and then

d) the number of “pros” has to outweigh the number of “cons”, and

e) only then, does change occur.  But is has to start with a real … problem.

We have a real problem.  Our fourth estate refuses to report real facts and lets lies slip by without comment every time those facts or lies fly in the face of its Libertarian nature.  Take the climate-change debate: since governments should not enforce Draconian rules upon private business so the press mitigated the compelling facts of global warming with opposing opinions funded by Big Oil.  Flip that over to the other side: gay marriage.  Government should not enforce Draconian rules upon private citizens; therefore it cast and painted those who were traditionalists into caricatures of silliness, to which most of “us” (long oppressed) took delight.  Take religion:  all those enforcing a “state’ religion, be they traditionalists of Muslim, Jewish, Old School Catholic, or Fundamentalist Christian get parodied and those actively involved in the “serving” nature of religion as in “creating good here on earth” get support… Take taxes: raising them though obviously the glaring solution to almost every problem and concern, also involves taking resources away from private citizens and putting them into the hands of a “government” … Hence, no commentary is ever given towards how raising taxes would swell the “people’s” economy, raise all wages, and allow us to all live much wealthier than we can today, despite all the evidence out there crying for it to be noticed and upheld… The trend has been consistent.

The point I’m making is that when progressives look at this monolith, and when conservatives look at this monolith, they both see the monolith fighting strictly against them.  They don’t see it actually is fighting against all government in general….

One could talk about this “problem” of the media for hours.  In just the few short minutes of typing I already have cooked up enough mental outlines and supporting examples to write a whole book. We don’t have time for that. Let’s accept step a) (There has to be a problem) is legit and move onward to where we need to go to make our stamp as We, The People, felt…

 

We need to quickly move over to step (b) (that problem has to become common knowledge), as well as setup the future stages of c) (movements towards change have to campaign to attract followers) and d) (the number of “pros” has to outweigh the number of “cons”…..) 

We know how to do this because we did it to Rush Limbaugh… We attack their advertisers… Both due diligence and concerted effort are needed as was bravely and methodically accomplished against Rush Limbaugh.

The plan simply involves holding advertisers accountable for the News shows they sponsor.  We write to advertisers supporting some of the most hateful one-sided shows and ask them if they were aware they were supporting bigotry, we ask them if they were aware they were supporting misogyny, we ask them if they were aware they were supporting a “state religion”, and we ask them if they were aware they were supporting climate change denial….

Make sure you offer the examples… quotes and times of what was directly said.(Twitter makes it easy).. Then politely inform them that for the life of you, you cannot conscientiously buy another of their products until you are sure they have changed …. and that one way for them to gain your future support, would be to take public action and combat those issues which by their association through their advertising, they seem to support.

We know this is effective…. The power of association is a very motivating human trait… “Ew, I don’t want people to think I’m with them….”

And we also know it does not take many such letters to make an impact… It is one of the reason true Conservatives appear almost equal in power though their numbers are a very minimal percentage of the population.(17%)… Because almost the full 100% of them write protests to businesses including those in the press themselves.. Therefore no matter how ridiculous is their claim, one needs to pay it respect to mitigate any financial impact to oneself.

The reason such small numbers can impact business is because businesses depend on revenue streams.  As you know profits are only the tip of the pyramid after all other expenses have been paid down and off. So by taking a block of two off the top, they who live or die by their profit dollars, are impacted immediately…  They cannot ignore your threat….

Now some may say that the press doesn’t matter.  Because to most people,  the press is just something out there… an irrelevant entity that no one seems to watch…  When we hear that 2.4 million watch Fox’s “The Five” we should also calculate to ourselves that means there were also an estimated 322 million who did not watch. And that does indeed correlate to the reality of our lives.. At work, no one comments on politics unless that happens to be all they live for.Sports, entertainment, family, problems with coworkers, traffic, all seem to take precedence in our lives over the fate of our county, state, or even federal electees…

But Brexit pointed out a glaring problem to ignoring this.  When Brits were asked from where they got most of their opinions prior to voting, a high majority responded with the BBC. And this makes psychological sense. When confused it is natural to turn to where your parents used to get their source of information.. which was the BBC.

Now throughout the argument of Brexit, the BBC as is today’s American media dealing with Trump, tried to play both sides evenhandedly; to do so they let tons of lies simply slide by without context which caused quite a few votes going Brexit’s way.  Brexit proponents made promises and charges that were completely unfounded, but due to any silence of a rebuttal by BBC, they were allowed to hang out on the line as truth.   Proof of of this being that the promise to transfer moneys being sent to the EU  (350 million each week) over to the NHS, was pulled less than 24 hours had expired since the vote went Brexit’s way… That misinformation bubble on which many used to cast their vote, could and should have easily been popped before the vote…

The BBC let down Britain, and today, we see our American press doing the exact same: letting down America to keep up the semblance of a tight horse race… We see click-bait headlines pushing “something’s very wrong” in a squeaky clean Clinton Foundation even when inside the same article they mention there was no wrongdoing found; on the other hand we see them completely ignoring outright bribery looking at them in the face…as in Trump paying off the Florida AG to make a “We, The People’s” investigation go away….

The press has the ability to spin an election cycle. This is very true.  This happened in 2000 and the USA is still digging out from that tragedy… All the facts back then said tax cuts and deregulation would cause immense economic trouble, but those effects were never publicly discussed by our press. Instead we were treated to media storms of:…”who would you rather have a beer with?”  Duh, the obvious answer would be a Texas Rangers baseball team owner over the other choice, one who’d been a governmental bureaucrat all his life.. But that shouldn’t have been the question!.. But solely because it was, and many more voters back then looked at the press for guidance than dare do today, it spun the election criteria out of the field of economics over into La, La, Land.  So instead of having our national debt completely paid off back in 2008 to which we were on track to do, we now have $16 trillion new dollars yet to pay.  So now instead maintaining certain regulations to keep businesses from immorally gouging consumers without consequences, we had a crash rivaling the Great Depression. So now instead of nipping Global Warming in the bud by 2004, we have oceans crashing into our houses, wiping out recreational shoreline yearly and species living 30,000 years disappearing without trace.

Elections have consequences and if “We, The People” are to truly remain in charge, we need to apply our control over this press as well as we apply it over our government… And our tool for that is economic. And it must start with you…. 

One… Personally comment somewhere every time you hear misjudgment made by the press.

Two… when you do hear a particular misleading comment, note the next three advertisers.

Three… do a search, find those advertisers’ customer service, click send email, and type a few sentences.  Like this..

“Did you know your company’s ad was the first thing I saw on Politico after its host seemed to support Trump’s misogynist agenda and did not comment against Donald Trump’s slur against women!  How can you advertise on such a vile channel?

Or..

“What are you trying to do!  Just saw your ad on ABC who just gave credence to Trumps’ immigration policy by not calling out the lies Trump spewed…especially that all Hispanics are rapists.   I will no longer support a company who indulges in prejudice and hate.. Good bye

Or…

Did you know that CBS just let Donald Trump’s assertion go unchallenged that there was no global warming? … Did you know your advertisement came immediately after cutting away from that?  I’m sorry but my dollars cannot go to a company who associates with networks who will not correct such lies and misinformation….

==========

It’s a start. The benefit is that we know it works…  “Rush who?” you ask.

 

 

 

Best Description of Government Ever

This is brief.

One can make all types of distinctions to explain things in simplier ways.  The best way to understand politics is to acknowledge that the two groups fighting each other over everything, are you, all of you, the people, and the interests of money, supported by all those who are supported by big investments…

So at every junction of domestic politics, we have to consider how a plan or action affects a) those who are people, and how it affects those who are business.

Business versus the People.  Obamacare, Taxes, and Israel.

Now take Obamacare.

Obamacare is good for the people. Not so good for those making money.  But if you are a average person, it is kind of hard for you to get to a microphone now isn’t it?  It is relatively easy for a business type to garner one.  That helps explains how all the talk is over how bad Obamacare is.  Because, face it, it is bad for those charging too much for you to get sick.  But if you are the ones on the buying end, it is good for you if you get sick.

Likewise higher tax rates are good for the majority of people. They create jobs, they cause money to flood into the economy in their dodge from the tax man. They cause ones wages to rise, and cause purchasing to increase…  They cause building and construction trades to boom.  Unfortunately they somewhat cost the financial world in commissions.  People have to put their money into factories now instead of commissions arising from the buying and selling of financial packages… But it is hard to get a microphone to express your view of a grateful public.  It is easy for an advertiser to demand air time for his cause, after all, “he paid for this microphone.”

Israel.  One must realize that Israel’s existence creates an world’s most expensive arms market involving Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, That is huge money for America’s defense industry as well as those of other nations.  However having peace and cooperation in the Holy Land would be far better for the American people. Just think: no terrorism. Telling Israel to stand down, would benefit all of the American people; doing so would cut into the profits of those arm’s dealers who readily exploit the fear of both sides to get supply contracts signed.  No fear; no contracts.

This explains the great disconnect from how you feel, and how America actually is… That gigantic gulf between the two is due to the fact that our media, you don’t matter as long as they can tell advertisers that you are watching.  No one cares what’s best for the people.  They matter now, only money matters…

So do something.  Don’t vote for anyone, Democrat, Republican, or Independent who puts the interest of (compounded) interest, over his interest in you… And stop watching any MSNBC, FOX, ABC, NBC, PBS, OR CBS NEWS….  There is a much better source of news and you can do other things, like drive, while you are listening…..

What The Media IS NOT Telling You About The Gingrich-Romney Fight

These charts were compiled by the St. Louis Federal Reserve. They have been the most active data collection agency to date, of economic data relative to different income levels…

These charts are most telling because they are all timelined with the Recessions and Depressions….

The Seven Charts That Show the Historical Effects of the Romney-Gingrich Policy…..

1. Unemployment is at the highest level since the Great Depression (with the exception of a brief blip in the early 1980s).

2. At the same time, corporate profits are at an all-time high, both in absolute dollars and as a share of the economy.

3. Wages as a percent of the economy are at an all-time low.

4. Income and wealth inequality in the US economy is near an all-time high: The owners of the country’s assets (capital) are winning, everyone else (labor) is losing.

5. CEO pay and corporate profits have skyrocketed in the past 20 years, “production worker” pay has risen 4%.

6, After adjusting for inflation, average earnings haven’t increased in 50 years.

I cannot do better than the Atlantic‘s summation of all these moving parts…

It’s worth noting that the US has been in a similar situation before: At the end of the “Roaring ’20s,” just before the start of the Great Depression. (See some of the charts above).

It took the country 15-20 years to pull out of that slump and fix the imbalances. But by the mid-1950s, employment, corporate profits, wages, and inequality had all returned to more normal levels. And the country enjoyed a couple of decades of relatively well-balanced prosperity. But now, everything’s out of whack again.

Importantly, the inequality that has developed in the economy over the past couple of decades is not just a moral issue. It’s a practical one. It is, as sociologists might say, “de-stabilizing.” It leads directly to the sort of social unrest that we’re seeing right now.

SO, WHY IS NO ONE TAKING REPUBLICANS TO TASK FOR THE RESULTS THEY MADE, INSTEAD, THEY GET TREATED LIKE THEIR PHILOSOPHY COULD BE A VIABLE OPTION?

Isn’t “someone” bending over backwards, NOT to report “All The News That’s Fit To Print?”

What I Want….

The recession has popped a lot of dreams… It has forced a re-evaluation of priorities. It has put reality in the forefront.

So wiping off the table of everything, everything, and sitting down to a blank space, and asking myself, … what do I want, by the time I die.

It is:

A country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home and secure their retirement,”

After watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” you can be sure it can’t happen on a Republican’s watch….. For that dream to happen, we need protection from corporations and Big Money; not giving them more and more of what we make.

We need more money funneled away from big business, to be reinvested into the Middle Class… Since they haven’t done it voluntarily, we’ll have to force it.

Republicans can’t force anyone to do anything. They are putz’s. It will take a government of all Democrats to make Americans who die, at least die happy that they were able to secure:

“A country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home and secure their retirement”.

America Media: FAIL

The Republican Debate.

Who frames it?

The team giving the moderator questions.

First the rules:

The candidates will make no opening statements and will have just a minute to answer.

Translated: Control the Message!!!!!!!!

So, lets look at what questions were given?

To Perry: You have touted your state’s low taxes, the lack of regulation, tough tort reform as the recipe for job growth in the Lone Star State Is that the kind of answer all Americans are looking for?

Perry: Duh..yes…

To Governor Romney: Massachusetts ranked only 47th in job creation during your tenure as governor. Your private-sector experience consisted of being “a buyout specialist.” Your response to that?

Romney: Duh,.. I will say that is not true.

Is it a disqualification to be in government all your career?

Romney: Duh… no.

To Santorium and Cain: Weigh in on what you’re hearing (ph).

Santorium: Duh, I’m great. i’ve done………”things”.
Cain: Duh, I’m greater..

Cain: Forget doing 69… Instead, go 999….

To Huntsman: Pick apart Romney’s plan…..

Huntsman: I’m the number one Job Creator…. I did it in 6 days and rested on the 7th…

To Bachmann: Which federal regulations have been most detrimental to your business?

Bachmann: Duh… Obamacare….

Harris: TIME!!

To Paul: What is not in the Constitution?

Paul: Federal Regulations; Let the Free Market decide their own rules. Let Rapists define rape, Let Murderers define what is murder, Let pornographers define what is pornography. Let child molesters define what is molestation. The free market can police themselves…. Regulations are stupid.

To Gingrich: You wrote Perry’s forward to his book?.

Gingrich: Yeah and I’ll write the next one too….. (And the fact that Obama didn’t do his homework here in the Reagan Library is proof he is not serious about jobs..)

To all: What I’d first like to do is ask if anyone else on this stage agrees that the Massachusetts example was a great opportunity for the rest of the country..

All: Duh….. No… (Hint to uninformed viewers: Massachusetts is a Democratic state and this is a Republican Presidential Debate.)

To Romney: Defend your role….

Romney: On day one, I will do the opposite of what i did in Massachusetts and order the annulment of Obamacare and the joyous return to insurers taking all your money and dropping you off their roles, at the first sign of you being sick.

To Perry: will you praise or trash you biggest opponents record on health care?

Perry: Duh…. trash him of course. I’m running against him you know… Oh? You didn’t know that? Oh My, Surprise, Surprise!

To Perry: Why are so many Texans under insured?

Perry: Duh, under my policy of offering very low wages with no benefits, Texas people can’t afford insurance… Duh,, what a dumb question….

Bachmann tires to interject: “John? John?”

HER INTERJECTIONS APPEAR TOTALLY IGNORED BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT IN SCRIPT…..

(Moderators look at script, look at each other, shake their heads side to side, and move on with the next scripted question.)

To Governor Huntsman: Since you are so important, even though you lost to Bachmann in the Iowa Straw Poll where she got 28.5% of the vote and you got… 0.42% of the vote, us moderators will diss her and go to you instead… Obviously she doesn’t warner any respect and certainly, no one cares what she thinks, for her horrible performance in Iowa… Who fuckin’ cares about Iowa anyway? Ha, ha….

Huntsman: Duh…. no one?

To Congresswoman Bachmann, let’s turn to you. Is Governor Romney’s support of an individual mandate…

Harris: TIME!

HARRIS: To Governor Huntsman, everybody would like $2 gas, but is it realistic for a president to promise that?

Huntsman: Duh….. no…..

To Paul: Would getting rid of minimum wage like Texas did, create more jobs?

Paul: Absolutely, and what’s good, is that those working below minimum wage are too poor to quit, so essentially the corporations have their own slave labor… Legalized slavery, and it’s not just about black people anymore… See how far the South has come?

(The debate is interrupted for 5 minutes by the now obligatory discussion of the rules of debate…)

Five minutes later:

To Perry: I saw you nod your head; were you really nodding your head?

Perry: Why, yes I was….. Thank you so much for noticing…

To Perry: You are so welcome… It was a sort a cute little nod too… btw… (laughter)…. And that is a nice outfit .. looks really good on you too… You look quite handsome today…

Perry: Why thank you Brian. You look handsome today too…. (wink, wink…)

Paul: Oh, I need an answer to that….

To Paul: you have 30 seconds….

Paul: The eighties weren’t all that… We had AIDS, a famine in Ethiopia, and were forced to listen to this…. Ronald Reagan had good ideas, but the eighties still weren’t all that…

To Paul: Funny thing about mail: Mail is forever…

To all: we are going to take a break, mostly to screen the data in order to keep anything worthy of debate, from finding a way to come up here and enter the discussion… ….

Overheard off camera: Williams to hot female assistant: I have to pee, can you help me….

(End of transcript: This viewer never returned.)

What We Need

We need a media that tells the truth…

I didn’t know this but up north in Canada, they actually have a law on their books, that says: “a licenser may not broadcast….any false or misleading news.”

Canada regulators today announced they would reject efforts by Canada’s right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news.

The provision has kept Fox News and right wing talk radio out of Canada.

The simple question we all must ask, has to be:….. why can’t Fox broadcast in Canada if everything said has to be truthful?

Apparently right wing news is nothing but lies….  I mean, if you have to change the law just so you can broadcast…….  and that law states: “a licenser may not broadcast….any false or misleading news”, well…. go figure.

From Dro at the Daily Kos:  “Because of this Canadian law, political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the U.S. airwaves. When Stephen Harper moved to abolish anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio. Harper’s proposal was timed to facilitate the launch of a new right wing network, “Sun TV News” which Canadians call “Fox News North.”

So when you require your news source to be accurate, you have civil discussions, sort of the way we all look back on politics and wish we still could, but when you remove the “Fairness Doctrine”, as was done by Ronald Reagan, you open the doors to Crazy Eileen, Birthers, Swift Boats, and Penis Heads running for office.

Hmmm.

I wish someone in the US had enough balls to at least submit a bill in the US Congress, requiring all news to be accurate in its reporting, whether it’s from the left or right, and then…. see which side rises up crying against it the most… I wonder which side that would be?

The downward trend makes sense if you think about it… It actually happens here on blogs as well.

If you have any assembly gathered together for discussion, and someone takes a big dump right in the middle of the floor, whenever it is that the assembly is finished, to the outside observers, everyone exiting the room through the door, still carries the sweet aroma of shit on their clothes… Allowing one person to falsify information, opens the door for all to….

We need a similar law. Not right, not left, just truth.

Delaware Dissed: Big Time

Tired of looking at CNN’s Larry Kings’s big old head, I switched to MSNBC just in time to hear this exchange…

Reporter: “I’m at the Delaware- Pennsylvania Inaugural Ball and there is no one here… After Obama stopped by everyone packed up and went home… These guy’s in Delaware (and Pennsylvania) don’t know how to party….I’m the only female in the room.”

Desk Host: “Hey someone just walked behind you pushing a broom… See if they will party with you”…. (laugh, laugh)…

We are then lamely entertained by having the host ask the custodian if he will dance with her… Obviously aware of the nagging he would receive once home… the custodian wisely said “no”….

We are then entertained by a panel who has never been to either a Blue Hen’s tailgate party, a Point to Point, or a previous century’s visit to the Stone Balloon…. Peppered with comments about the prissiness of Delaware’s citizens… and as an aside Pennsylvania is mentioned as well, I’m sure they failed to consider that two of last weeks championship football games were played by hard partying Pennsylvania teams, and that they have never been to an Eagle’s or Steeler’s Tailgate party… I’m sure they have never even heard of Penn State’s Nittany Lions….

How stupid can they get? Are they really that daft?

Being nosy main-stream news media employees they probably were unaware that the real partying takes place …. outside the venue… Contrary to what was being publicly portrayed, Delaware/ Pennsylvania was not calling it a wrap and hitting the sack… They were getting the real party started elsewhere….

Their poor reporter… just didn’t make the cut…..

NH is Diebold Country….In Part….At Least Where Hillary Won

Courtesy of Bradblog.com

There was shock and awe when Hillary Clinton won New Hampshire. Jaded as I am, anytime I hear of votes being different from the polls before and after the voting, I have to remember the election of 2004. And again of 2006. So of course when I heard that Hillary’s win came out of nowhere, I said “Hmmm. We haven’t heard from Karl Rove lately.”

Now I know most of you would never expect someone capable of manipulating votes in an election. Unfortunately I have seen it done in small down-to-earth local elections, and in other countries where winning takes precedence over playing fair.

So I was not very surprised when I saw this work come out, instead quietly muttered “right on time.” I was planning on spending my night tracking it down, but now……I don’t have to.

Once again it was the bloggers who intercepted this story. I listened on mass media for it all day, and instead heard media pundits trying to explain options that could have occurred that just might make sense of something that was an unexplainable anomaly.

Bottom line, in areas where the ballots were hand counted, Obama’s and Clinton’s results match the data from all the polls. It is only in those precincts where Diebold machines were used, does Hillary have votes that seem to come from nowhere, when compared to the polling data.

Odd. Where have we seen this before. Strange fluctuations where Diebold counts the ballots. Predictable results where people count the ballots.

Can it be possible that someone could throw a world-watched primary, electrically?

It can if you are Silvestro, president of LHS Associates. (Note to law enforcement officials, please check out the malicious code emanating from that sight. Careful, it’s powerful. For the rest of you, I dismantled that link.)

You will certainly believe so if you watch this part of the documentary Hacking Democracy. Earlier this fall, a court case to abolish the Diebolds before the New Hampshire primary, failed in that endeavor. Being a small state, all of the voting machines in New Hampshire, are in the hand of one man.

Again all the polling was dead on for every candidate but two. Hillary Clinton and Obama. They changed not statewide, but ONLY in those precincts where Diebolds were used.

The Ron Paul campaign is crying fowl as well. With New Hampshire being small enough, one can backtrack and determine whether the votes listed are accurate or not. In one precent, 0 Ron Paul ballots were logged and the author of this statement knows how he voted. He also knows others who voted the same way.

So we have an actual account of a machine not counting votes correctly. Furthermore we have video proof that the machine does not total votes using principals of mathematics, ie adding. Additionally we have the website of the company that services the Diebolds, giving out malicious code if one clicks on. Finally we have the owner of the same corporation, showing his contempt for the court, and presumably for the law which it is attempting to uphold…….

So putting all those together, with a win that really shouldn’t have happened based on all data accumulated beforehand, similar to the 2004 Presidential Election, you have a good reason never to trust the totals of a Diebold reader, again.

Which proves what I said last summer. All those corporate interests that supported Bush, long ago cast their lot with Ms Clinton. It’s a shame that New Hampshire does not border Illinois, otherwise an additional 120,000 votes could have helped Obama.

Delmarva Just Doesn’t “Get It”

In an effort to educate my children, quite often old National Geographics are left around the house in various places. Usually they are teasers, one only has a few minutes to spare, but in those few minutes, lot’s can be learned.

Today, the one on top was June 2007’s titled “The Big Thaw.” I finally got a chance to read the entire article and gaze at all the pictures. Later when I went online, somehow my first two clicks put me here, which covers exactly the same material, and interviews the same persons. The visuals are stunning; the implications are horrific.

We are losing ice at rates long past alarming. So alarming that perhaps in as short as 15 years, many of Delaware’s homes will have to be abandoned to the sea…….. That means the year 2022. To those entering kindergartens this this year, by the time they graduate (which goes very fast by the way), going to the beach will be more of a “mission trip”, than a romp in the sand………

It is against this back drop that Delmarva is playing games. As Nancy Willing show us, while we face the oblivion of a large part of our state, Delmarva has hired a “Fudge Factor” operation, to bother Delawareans with this question:

If private citizens were willing to pay X dollars for wind turbines, and the government was willing to pay the same amount for wind turbines, would you prefer that private citizens pay for the turbines or the government?

Two more questions that were exposed were these:

“Would you be willing to pay for wind energy if it cost: $3 extra/month, $6 extra/month, $9 extra/month, $12 extra/month, $15 extra/month, $18 extra/month, $21 extra/month, $24 extra/month, $27 extra/month,…all the way up to $30/month (stated as “$360/yr.), or more?”

And just to show how caring Delmarva really is about the environment, they pull this question:

“Do you prefer Delaware offshore wind or wind energy from Pennsylvania?”

Nancy nails it. They are fishing for any negative information they can find to scuttle the deal they do not want. As most of us, including Matt Denn, Blue Water Wind, and NRG, who have commented, know too well that even if the information culled from the Delaware public is directly opposite to what Delmarva wants to hear, there is no guarantee that this Fudge Factor company, otherwise know as “Issues and Answers,” has no qualms about manipulating whatever information they find out.

It will require independent collaboration and the subsequent dismissal of Delmarva’s statistics, to forge a deal forward in this truly planetary endeavor…….