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.
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.
Well, nothing shocking here: If you put money in McCain’s pocket he will help you push through questionable real estate transactions. Just a little old-fashioned politics from an old-fashioned guy.
But, hey: you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. That’s okay, right?
WRONG! Not in public office it’s not!
When are Americans going to start demanding a little more fair and balanced approach to governance?
Down. Despite the nosedive the US economy seems to be taking, Wall Street Hedge Fund kings are raking in billions. The thing is that the only other time in the history of the United States in which there was such dramatic economic inequality was in 1928. … 1928: the year before the stock market crash. Which was followed by the Great Depression. You follow? Uh-huh.
Now, everyone has been talking about this recession we are in - or about to be in - but what no one seems to want to talk about is the glaring inequality of the distribution of wealth in the United States. As the super-rich get super-duper-rich, the poor are getting desperately poor and the middle class is joining the bread line.
A depression isn’t inevitable, but something drastic has to change. And it’s going to take more than government intervention, it’s going to take an awakening of the American conscious.