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Did you know that those leftist hippies in the Vatican are trying to be the first Country to be powered exclusively by green technologies?

This got me wondering why it is in this country, that the Republican party has become this odd entity where all "true Republicans" must believe the exact same thing on all issues. Thus, honest debate on the Republican side of the fence seems to have ended. Perhaps it's a combination of the success of Newt Gingrich's Contract with America and Rush Limbaugh's strong numbers within the Republican core. Some would call this being "disciplined" but for me, there are just too many of these beliefs I just can't go along with. 

The democrat's are a completely different thing. There doesn't seem to be any single driving ideal within the Democratic party. On just about every issue, except perhaps Pro-Choice and pro-environment (and there's still outliers there), they are all over the place.

That's why the Dems can't get health-care reform passed. Too many different ideas.

I've always considered myself to be an independent but I've hated the Republican's more than the democrats for the last 10 years. At least the Democrats will engage in true debate rather than just toe-ing the party line dictated by Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh or whoever it is that's deciding that to be a true Republican you must think Global Warming is a hoax, all guns are great, Civil Unions are evil, the poor deserve what they got, Sarah Palin is wonderful, all regulation is bad and corporations wont abuse their power...

I'd rather vote for the folks that truly debate their ideas and never get anything done.
  

I wrote much of the below in response to a friend's post on Facebook. Figured it was worth sharing in a more public format... 

There is no credible dispute over the following facts: 1.) The Greenhouse effect is real and can be easily replicated through simple experiments, 2.) Humans are pouring Greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere at unprecedented levels, 3.) The planet is warming and has been since 1880.

What is much more difficult to know and remains under intense study and debate is exactly what impact humans are having on Climate Change. Based on all known evidence, the majority of Climate Scientists believe humans are playing a significant role in accelerating global warming. It's all very complex, too complex to be easily proven.

It is good that there is debate and intense study within the scientific community. That is the very foundation of science.

But to take that debate out of context and to present select tidbits to an ignorant public is just the same FUD techniques used by Cigarette companies, Dioxin manufactures, ...

Currently, the best science tells us it is real, we are causing it, and to continue the current trend could be catastrophic.

Perhaps in 10 years we'll have enough data and models to better access the anthropogenic impact. But for now, it would seem to me that the appropriate conservative approach would be to take the safe road and try to decrease our output of greenhouse gasses.

Even if it does turn out that humans have a minimal impact on climate change, we'll still be less dependent on foreign oil, our air and water will be healthier and lots of great jobs will have been created.
    

Americans pay more for bottled water per gallon than they do for gasoline... and this when they can get free, often times higher quality, water out of there taps. The environmental impact of the popularity of bottled water is staggering, between creation of bottles, transporting, and disposing the cost are huge... and for the most part completely unnecessary.

While certainly there are times when its necessary, it should be avoided whenever possible. Here's a link explaining in more depth.   Read More...

I'm still undecided on whether it was wise to invade Iraq. What I am certain of, is that how it was done was one of the most bungled attempts ever by the United States. Even assuming it is possible to create democracy in Iraq by force, the Bush administration blew its chance through a long string of miserable decisions: It rejected voluminous advance planning done by the State Department for a post-Saddam Iraq, disregarded military projections of force levels needed to maintain order, dismissed accurate CIA analyses of likely post-war ethnic and tribal conflicts, disbanded the Iraqi army, under-equipped U.S. troops and installed a hapless-to-corrupt provisional governing authority. And then there's the whole torture fiasco... It just doesn't seem the Bush administration is capable of planning for more than one possible outcome.

Tuesday's Los Angeles Times, for example, beefed up months of scattered news reports with a detailed account of the operations of Shiite paramilitary death squads within the Iraqi police force and Interior Ministry, including the use of torture in secret prisons and summary executions of Sunni opponents.
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But the world doesn't need to judge the U.S. solely on words. Other nations can hardly be expected to forget Muslim prisoners abused and humiliated at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq and Afghanistan, the web of internationally scattered CIA secret jails, the arbitrary imprisonment of prisoners without trial or even charges at Guantanamo, the administration's opposition to a statutory ban on inhumane treatment, the secret transport of prisoners to foreign countries for interrogation and, almost certainly, torture.

Do Bush, Cheney et al. believe these things have no effect on the credibility of the United States of America?   Read More...

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush's shortsighted actions have come back to haunt him. It'd be nice if this were an aberation but to me, this is just one small piece of a larger pattern...   Read More...

Ralph Nader may make a good president, I don't really know, I haven't spent any time looking at him because, in our current system, voting for anyone but John Kerry, would be a vote for Bush, and there's no way I'd risk that.

However, it doesn't have to be this way. There are alternative voting systems that could make voting, and therefore our country much better...   Read More...