You know I have to be honest; I have no confidence in either presidential candidate to do anything about anything. I know you’re all out there with your Obama shirts, chanting his name in unison (which sounds an awful like the word “change,”) while an almost equal amount of you are out there chanting McCain’s name as if he were your choice for president all along. The reality is, folks, neither of these guys got any kind of mandate their respective parties; they both won by the skin of their dicks.
The thing that bothers me about both candidates is that their agenda’s are so complicated, and so convoluted, the average American must really rely on who they like better to cast a vote … Well either that, or who has the better catch phrase. I’m serious this election might as well come down which song you like better, “You Deserve A Break Today,” or “Have It Your Way.” You’d think that wouldn’t be true, but it is. The debates sound like nothing more than a grade school election where each candidate is promising us less homework, and longer recesses. I have no idea what either of this guy’s health plans are, because you have what they say, and then what their opposition say, and either of those things sound even a bit similar. I’d be curious what would happen if we had presidential candidates that actually promised things they could actually do.
Like this energy thing we’ve got going on. I’ve heard about this crap for years now, and nothing ever gets done about it. According to this month’s edition of Popular Science almost 100 percent of transportation is being provided by petroleum-based products. I was flipping through the channels the other night because I couldn’t get to sleep, and there was an All In The Family episode where Archie was complaining about the “Arabs” having us over the barrel, literary and figuratively. All In The Family was show set in the early 1970’s! We were having an energy crisis in the early 70’s and we did nothing about it. In this same edition of Popular Science there was an article about the new Volt car by GM. Now before I write what I’m about to write, I want to state my own one guy’s opinion: Anything we can do to rid ourselves of gasoline and greenhouse emissions is a check in the plus column.
The battery for the GM Volt weighs 400 pounds, stood on end reaches a height of over feet tall, it costs about 10,000 dollars, and it is kept from overheating by a very elaborate cooling system, which is regulated by a very expensive computer system. It is toxic, probably the most advanced energy storage device very invented, and it can run the 3500 pound volt forty miles on one charge. Pretty impressive in modern standards, but keep in mind, the Volt can do all this, but then so can a gallon of gasoline.
So we’ve got both political candidates out there talking about drilling, nuclear power (and now both of these guys are for that … seems to me Obama wasn’t a couple months ago), and other means of generating electrical power, when hardly any of our electrical power comes from oil … actually most of it comes from coal, which we currently have plenty of (and there is no such thing as clean coal, by the way … the tech isn’t there yet, and just for the record, when we are talking about clean coal, we’re talking about zero carbon, not the smut we’re all used to being emitted from these plants, cause they CAN solve that). Why aren’t we talking about ways to use this energy they’re talking about creating from wind and solar and other renewable sources (which I don’t really think is going to happen, by the way). Why aren’t we talking about increasing our infrastructure to provide for commuter trains in western cities (were you aware that because of the subway system in NYC, that city is one of the greenest cities in the world?), or high-speed trains. Right now there is only one route from Washington D.C. to Boston. We have the technology for that right now. If Southwest Airlines can do a flight we can do a train. I had a friend once tell me that it’s hard to make your money back on trains, thus the government doesn’t invest in them … I asked her the same question back about roads … how much money do roads generate?
Why are none of the candidates talking about changing building codes to increase power efficiency, or mandate car companies to get better mileage? In China they require that all new construction get a certain amount of their energy off the grid, why don’t we do that in this country? I can’t do the math, but just taking 10% of energy off the grid would probably save this country at least a couple new power plants? And also save consumers a ton of money.
You know I get a lot of shit for being on a side when I have a conversation … people call me judgmental and opinionated, but I learned something long ago. In order to have a conversation you have to SAY SOMETHING! I urge the candidates to do just that … if you want to be the president, say something. Be clear, and promise things you can actually do.
