Tao’s 2 Cents

agree with Barack that getting rid of the gas tax isn’t going to do crap for us. All the oil companies will do is say, hey, now we can charge 6 cents more. I don’t necessarily agree that we need to develop alternative fuels, we need rearrange our lifestyles and change the fact that we need so many cars. Just the idea of a fuel to burn is wrong, even hydrogen is stupid. We’d be wasting energy converting electricity into a liquid form when we could just NOT turn it into hydrogen and save all of that energy. We don’t need alternative fuels, we need alternative energy and to be more efficient energy in general. We need to be smart. (sigh)

It’s not that great of an ad except for that last line. “And you thought no one could be worse than George Bush”, that kills me.

This is phenomenal. Put a price on carbon!

Gore is passionate, convincing and inspiring. Now I understand what he’s going to do with his new ad campaign. I’m going carbon neutral. I want a footprint so light you can’t make it out in the sand. I want to be a part of the hero generation. Let’s save this planet people!

By the way, you should definitely check out more of the TED talks. They have amazing speakers that give really interesting presentations, performances, etc.

I’ve been following the Tibet protests with interest and especially now that they’re following the Olympic torch. One thing that I’ve noticed that China and it’s supporters are saying is that this about sports not politics. Essentially, they say this is not the time or place to discuss human rights.

It’s so incredibly hypocritical for China to say that the Olympics have nothing to do with politics. Does anyone really believe that China isn’t trying to show itself off as a world power with these Olympics? What they really mean to say is no one can use the Olympics for politics except them.

So I say, yes, the Olympics are sporting event AND they are a political event. To say they are merely a sporting event is simply wishful thinking. When sports teams are divided up by nation states, political entities, and then pitted against each other, how can than not be political?

I believe that this guy, Richard Heinberg, is absolutely 100% right on the money. I haven’t seen someone sum up everything I’ve read this well yet and I’m so glad I found it. This is why I’d like to start an organic permaculture farm and live a sustainable lifestyle. After I get myself taken care of I want to start working on a local level around the farm to teach others and help the community work on larger community projects that can’t be done by individuals.

Anyway, watch these videos. They’re important. You may not want to hear it, but it may be the most important thing you’ve ever watched.

Click to continue reading this entry and view the other 5 parts to this talk.

Now I’m sure Obama has some skeletons in the closet, but Hillary has a cemetery.

Continue reading this post to watch Part 2.

Three main things happened that made my decision to support Obama and it’s not because he won Iowa, it’s HOW he won Iowa. I like him before, but wasn’t sure.

The first thing that happened chronologically was Dennis Kucinich, the smart man’s candidate, told the caucuses that if he wasn’t viable, i.e. he didn’t get the 15% necessary, to support Obama instead. That made me take a better look at his stand on the issues and I liked what I saw.

The second thing that made me believe was the turnout. Something like twice as many people showed up to vote in democratic primaries in Iowa than did last year. Those are people who are inspired.

The third thing which occurred to me last night was why the polls were so wrong about Obama in Iowa. It was supposed to be a 3 way tie with 30% all around, so where did Obama’s extra 7% come from?

I’ll tell you where. It came from the people that aren’t being included in polls. People with cell phones. So, who are people with cell phones? Young people. If he’s getting that kind of turnout among young people I think he has a real chance.

I don’t like Hillary because I think she’s sold out too much. I think she thought she had to do it to make it this far, and maybe she did. The other reason I don’t like her is that I think she wants to be president for the wrong reasons. I have no doubt she would be far better than any Republican, but is that really saying very much? She seems like she just wants the history of being the first woman president. Not to mention I just plain don’t believe her when she talks.

I believe Edwards more than Clinton, but he still just doesn’t have as much passion or believability as Obama does to me. There’s also the fact that I feel like he’s already has his shot and he blew it. Granted it wasn’t entirely his fault, but I want something completely different.

Obama does seem like he steals some plays from Martin Luther King’s play book. The way he talks in the souther preacher way, but I have to say, that’s a good play. It’s inspiring and the things he says seem timeless. I don’t get the feeling that most politicians speeches will be remembered through history, but I get that feeling with Obama’s speeches.

Anyway, I’m supporting him. I donated $50 last night and I’ll probably give more. Next week a group from Baltimore is driving down to South Carolina next week to canvassing and just helping out and I think I’m going to join them. I’m excited to finely know where I stand and have a direction to push.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the nature of democracy ever since the Burma protests happened. It seems to me that the push from democracy only happens when a lot of people’s lives are impacted negatively enough that they can not be ignored and unite people behind a mutual front.

The thing that sparked the Burmese protests was initially a very large increase imposed on cooking fuel by the government. The stamp tax united Americans against the British. Now clearly those were just the last straw in their respective circumstances, but it’s something to think about.

Democracy also appears to have a flaw similar to the boom and bust market cycles that caused the recessions in the past. As democracy succeeds and many of the things that were negatively impacting the people subside, people begin to lose cohesion and begin focusing on their personal lives and lose site of the civic responsibilities necessary for the continuation of the democracy. This process is facilitated with advertising that tells us to focus on ourselves by buying product x.

It reminds me of what happened to the romans. The generation of Pax Romana did not know suffering and life without democracy so they let it crumble around them. I think we’re in a similar period today as depressing as it may sound. I would like to think we could learn from the past, but that may be simply naive.

I was watching a clip from Politically Incorrect the other night. Bill Maher was interviewing Robert Draper, the guy who wrote the biography about George Bush called “Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush”. The guy seemed to buy a lot of what Bush says and does but was critical of his stubborness. He said that Bush seemed to be waiting on things as if a miracle were going to occur.

Normally I would just chock that up to the idea that Bush thinks he’s literally God’s gift to the U.S. of A, but I suddenly had a minor epiphany. I started thinking about Bush’s life pre-presidency…

I arrived in downtown D.C. in front of the White House about 30 minutes late for the protest. I was a little worried that the march would have already started but the speakers had only just started. The place was packed, it was an ocean of people. If I had to guess I’d say that there were 50-60,000 people (the organizers claimed 100,000) there when the march first started. However I think only about 20,000-30,000 ended up at Congress after the march.

I managed to get within about 50 feet of the stage and got to here Cindy Sheehan, Ramsey Clark, Adam Kokesh, Etan Thomas, and Ralph Nader speak. I think the largest applause was for the Iraq veterans, but calls for impeachment and ending the corporate dominated government also got big cheers…

Tomorrow morning, September 15th, around 10 a.m. I’m heading down to meet up with thousands of anti-war protesters on the lawn in front of the White House. At around noon we’re marching to congress, supposedly in the hopes that this will influence them into some form of action.

I’m not convinced of the power of mass demonstrations, but I know that it certainly can’t be hurting. Agressive resource wars against foreign nations will never solve the problem that there simply isn’t enough cheap energy/oil in the world. We could and should be spending our money to find some other type of energy source…

It seems that George Bush will appear to give in to overwhelming public opinion and withdraw troops from Iraq. Of course, he won’t withdraw any more than he put in for his so called “surge”. It’s quite a trick. Send more troops in so you can bring them home and appear generous? sympathetic? human? I don’t know any more.

It would have been near impossible for him to give in and bring troops home if we weren’t “winning” in Iraq. Thats why General Patraeus had to at least have some smidgen of good news…

I found this video clip on Alternet earlier and I was well…shocked. I knew that the republicans were using September 11th to push all kinds of radical and obscene legislation through congress but I hadn’t really thought about it being used as frequently as it has. Apparently, the video is a sort of introduction to a new book called “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” by Naomi Klein. It looks like she did a lot of really great research and connected a lot of dots. Its on my gotta have book list and I’ll get paid right before the September 18th when it gets released. Well, let me shut up and you watch the video for yourselves, we’ll talk after you’re done.

In a short synopsis she has on her web page about the book, she says that she tracked this trend back

If he insists on making his campaign solely about terrorism and 9/11 then maybe we should look at exactly what his resume entails. That’s exactly what these documentary makers have done with The Real Rudy: Command Center.

It’s taken awhile to actually get situated and to the point where I’ll get to do some of the political things I’ve been itching to but unable to do over the last few years. I found a job doing web designat a place just outside of Baltimore. That’ll take most of my weekdays but most protests are on the weekend anyway…