In case anyone hasn’t been paying attention, the worst threat Palin poses on a White House ticket is the threat she poses to the environment.
Palin doesn’t believe humans are responsible for global warming, even though her state has a front row seat as the Artic melts away.
Palin wants to drill through Alaskan wilderness for oil even though scientists have long concluded that the presumed oil there is negligible and wouldn’t become available at least ten years after discovery.
Palin has fought successfully against imposing stricter regulations on mining operations which pollute Alaskan streams and destroy the state’s most important international export: salmon. … If you like “wild caught Alaskan Salmon” you had better eat up now before Palin’s policies have you munching on iron ore and smelt.
And oh yeah, Palin is on record refusing to believe the polar bear is endangered.
Palin personifies the forces behind global warming and pollution: beaurocrats with their heads in the sand and pockets full of oil money.
Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention tonight highlighted the Alaska Governor’s complete incomprehension of the crisis our country is in.
Our economy is tanking. Our environment and transportation sector are held hostage by Big Oil. Our monopolies on innovation, technology and hope are crumbling. Our military is spread so thin that we have no way to check Iranian and Russian aggression, let alone catch Osama bin Laden. Our poverty and unemployment rates are increasing. Our middle class is evaporating. Our housing market is worse than it was during the Great Depression. Americans are homeless, jobless and penniless.
Did Palin mention ANY of this tonight? NO!
Palin offered nothing of substance except that parents of special needs kids would have an advocate in the White House in her.
Palin stuck to her already tiresome narrative of PTA meglomaniac.
And let’s call it like it is: Palin did not oppose the “bridge to nowhere” until she realized that Alaskans weren’t interested.
Palin has an abominable economic background, as the governor of the only state bordering two foreign countries, she has never engaged her neighbors in trade or sought to build economic partnerships — she’s never even visited her neighbors Canada and Russia.
And Palin has fought hard to make sure that Alaska doesn’t tap into its human resources and only exploits its natural resources even as pools of melted Artic water wash over her boots.
And just one more thing on this note — Palin has served as the governor of less than 700,000 people all of whom rely on Washington handouts to survive for less than two years. Barack Obama has represented at least 3.5 million Americans who live in the second most important city economy in the US and the fourth most important city economy in the world: Chicago — for six years at the state level and two on the national. And Obama doesn’t have to beg Washington for anything because his constituents do it themselves.
Palin as a Vice Presidential candidate is a joke. But it’s the Republican party who will end up having the last laugh if they’re able to pull the wool over voters eyes and move this circus into the White House.
Republicans — the party of Abraham Lincoln — should be mortified that McCain picked Palin to be his running mate. Mortified and ashamed. Deeply and incredibly ashamed.
Financial blowhards are tar-and-feathering the Rockefellers for suggesting that ExxonMobil start thinking outside the box. The founding family (of ExxonMobil’s predecessor Standard Oil) wants the oil behemoth to increase its accountability to shareholders, streamline corporate governance, be more transparent and most importantly: cast its focus on the future — a greener future.
Wall Streeters lose themselves when looking at ExxonMobil’s numbers. The company makes more money than the GDP of 2/3’s of the world’s economies. And these corporate lapdogs are lashing out at the Rockefellers for daring to suggest that ExxonMobil change course in any way. They’re thinking: “The company is raking in the cash - why change anything?”
But Wall Street is blinded by the dollar sign, naturally.
The Rockefellers are not.
The oil-rich family is thinking about ExxonMobil’s future returns, not current. Because they understand that this is the key to real and lasting wealth.
Oil is 20th Century. And we are living in the 21st.
The Rockefellers want ExxonMobil, along with streamlining its operations, to start investing in green technology. We should be celebrating this visionary leadership. The Rockefellers see all too clearly that oil is a losing game. The times may be fat now, but wait till the oil dries up, or simply becomes too expensive to harvest and refine for your average consumer to purchase as we have become accostomed.
Right-wing corporate lobbyists have called the Rockefellers out-of-touch veggie-heads for suggesting an investment in green tech. This accusation is laughable.
Here, Wall Street is blinded by the word “green”, foolishly equating the word with money-pit.
Again, the Rockefellers are not so blinded.
They understand that future is in green technology. So, the family is wondering why ExxonMobil shouldn’t position itself to lead the way. It seems like a no-brainer.
At the end of the day, green tech and green energy is going to march us into the 22nd Century - not oil. And the Rockefellers are thinking to themselves: “We might as well make a buck.”
What could Hillary Clinton be thinking? Aligning herself with John McCain around some pie-in-the-sky
ponzi scheme their calling a “gas tax break”? Honestly.
We are at such a critical juncture, the moment so pivotal, with concern to our economy, our environment and our way-of-life: this is not the time to be coaxing Americans to the gas station.
This is a time for visionary leadership. This is a time for revolutionary ideas and innovation! We have to come up with alternative sources of energy and transportation. We cannot remain dependent and addicted to oil and gas.
Clinton is proving that she is nothing more than another oil industry lap dog with this backwards move.
The Brown University students who threw pies at Thomas Friedman this week are juvenile not only in deed, but juvenile in thought. Quite frankly, the students couldn’t see their asses if they were in front of their faces.
Anyone who follows Friedman’s columns in the New York Times and reads his books should
know that Friedman is about as pro-planet as humanly possible. Humanly possible because he tirelessly advocates bridging the gap between what is good for the planet with what will still advance civilization and progress peoples around the globe no matter their socio-economic pedigree.
Friedman doesn’t demonize business or globalization because he understands that they are necessary and inevitable.
Friedman caustiously supported the War in Iraq because he (mistakenly) believed the Bush Administration’s stated intentions of bringing democracy to the Middle East - which Friedman agreed was a good and necessary thing for the advancement of humanity and for global security.
But, Friedman spoke out every step of the way as he (and everyone else) watched the Bush Administration do everything in its power to prevent democracy from flourishing in Baghdad.
Friedman’s columns are a literary evolution from optimism to disillusion regarding the White House’s supposed “War on Terror”. Reading his columns, you see Friedman watching the Titanic’s celebrated launching to when the super-liner hit the iceberg. And now we are all watching the ship slowly sink.
Friedman refuses to get caught up in the “coulda/woulda/shoulda” of what plagues humanity and our government and environment - he only searches for solutions. He constantly writes about the silver lining to every cloud.
The irony of this entire episode is that Thomas Friedman is one of the few journalists out there who goes out of his way to be objective and honest with every word he writes. Friedman transcends political lines. He listens to every opinion, every view, every story.
So, my advice to those students at Brown: you picked the wrong guy at which to throw the pie. Do you your homework next time. I wonder if Harvard students would have made the same mistake. I bet even Cornell students would have known better.
Global Warming - to - changing environments and landscapes - to - changing human behavior - to - emerging tribal and regional conflicts - to - shrinking energy and food supplies. Haiti feels the pain today. Who tomorrow?