"Moreover, he needs Hillary supporters to see that his aims are their aims."

The problem with that is it presupposes that the people you are talking to are rational.

Clinton supporters are anything but. One only has to read the forums where they hang out to realize how out of touch and irrational they are.

Michale.....

At this point, I think he needs fence-sitters to recognize his legitimacy rather than reading about whether or not he is the legitimate candidate yet or what kind of snowball's chance chain of events would have to pass in order to make the stubborn opponent who is behind get the nom instead. Moreover, he needs Hillary supporters to see that his aims are their aims.

I don't believe hybrids are the way to go. If we are going to do something we might as well go all the way. We need to move to a hydrogen based system. The industry already has the ability, the only road block right now is breaking the catch-22 that is happening with the auto industry and the fuel stations around the country. The car industry isn't going to make the cars until there are enough hydrogen pumps at stations and the fuel stations won't put in the pumps until there are enough cars.

Hydrogen is the best way to go. You can create hydrogen using high-temperature electrolysis (HTE), the best method is using the new generation of nuclear reactors.

One side benefit of a nuclear reactor that produces both electricity and hydrogen is that it can shift production between the two. The plant can produce electricity during the day and hydrogen at night, matching the daily variation in demand, and offloading the extra output at night into hydrogen.

For areas that are distant enough from nuclear plants, hydrogen can be produced locally from electricity, either off the grid or from solar. Fuel stations will use electric from the grid, while there are plans to make personal hydrogen generators that can run off solar, wind, or home electric outlets.

But to do this there would need to be a push to completely upgrade our infrastructure, especially the electric grid. We'd have to build hundreds of the next generation of nuclear reactors. We'd have to build wind turbines across the plains states, pacific northwest, and along our coastlines. We'd have to put solar and reflective solar plants across the south west. We'd have to harness geothermal where possible. We'd have to harness tidal and wave energy.

Mandate that 10% of all new cars must be hydrogen, fuel cell, or electric powered starting in 2011 and increasing by 10% per year till 100% by 2020. Mandate that all major fuel stations chains provide at least one hydrogen fuel pump at a number of stations starting 2011. Stations will be required to carry a hydrogen pump if another hydrogen pump within their franchise is not in service within 10 miles. That range will reduce 1 mile per year till 2020 when all stations will be required to carry at least one hydrogen pump.

Ambitious, expensive, but it can be done. Wouldn't be more ambitious than the national highway project in the 60's and 70's, and look at how that lead to significant improvements in this country.

Unless we do something drastic, nothing will ever get done.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/29/AR2008052904116_pf.html

One important point really leapt out at me..

Hayden, who has previously highlighted a gulf between Washington and its European allies on how to battle terrorism, said he is troubled that Congress and many in the media are "focused less on the threat and more on the tactics the nation has chosen to deal with the threat"

And therein lies the whole crux of the issue..

Democrats should be more concerned about the threat itself and less concerned about the steps taken to combat the threat...

In short, it follows an old saying from my early days with the USAF...

"LEAD, FOLLOW OR GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY"

Michale.....

I could definitely get behind something like that..

I have had another idea floating around in my head for a while..

Consider taking all the money spent of just studying "Human Caused Climate Change". Mind you, not doing anything about it, just STUDYING it.

Such an amount would HAVE to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 50+ BILLION dollars. Probably more.

Now, imagine taking all that money and buying nothing but HYBRID vehicles with it.. Using a rough estimate of $20K per car that would be about 2.5 MILLION Hybrid Cars...

Now, take all those Hybrid Cars and create a "Trade In Program".. Someone brings in a working and running gas powered vehicle and trades it in for a Hybrid Car...

In one fell swoop, it would put a HUGE dent in the alleged HCCC problem and also a huge dent in the oil-dependency problem..

Now, I am no economist or big wig scientist.. I am sure there would be some faults to the program..

But, I'll be damned if I could think of any...

Michale.....

"Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolution, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age. We mean to be a part of it--we mean to lead it.

Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are free, free from the dependence on other countries, and, therefore, we intend to be free. In short, our leadership in science and industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world's leading alternative renewable energy producing nation.

We choose to accomplish this task. We choose to accomplish this task in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to accomplish, that we must accomplish in order to be free.

It is for these reasons that I put forth that the decision to shift our efforts in alternative renewable energy from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency."

Well something like that. :) And yes, I took a bit of liberty with JFK's speech, but it's been in my head for months now.

--To function effectively and serve the needs of it's citizenry, a government MUST have secrets--

TRUE or FALSE

Michale

The kind of government you are proposing is a completely OPEN government whereas the government has NO secrets and EVERY ACTION of the government is open to scrutiny...

Let me ask you...

How long do you think such a government will last??

I give it "7 minutes"*... MAX.....

Michale

*Extra Quatloo if anyone can garner the reference... :D

Michale.....

...Stan