Politics:

There is a very interesting and revealing story in the Washington Post about why the wealthy appear to be more likely to support President Bush's adventure in colonialism than the less affluent. It appears, though no scientific studies have been made, that the wealthy have less to lose as their children are not likely to actually be in the military.

This gets back to my whole rant about the Rebulican Party of our times (since the mid-1960s anyway); that they are a huge collection of hypocrites. Hypocrisy really pisses me off. It is hypocrisy for Pat Robertson to claim he's a Christian and yet call for the assasination of Venezeula's President Chavez. It is hypocrisy for Bob Marshall to claim he is supporting families by attacking homosexuals. It is hypocrisy for Jerry Kilgore to claim a good record as attorney general of Virginia when his office is being investigated for criminal activity and he has hired criminals to run his campaign. It is hypocrisy for President Bush to claim that we should stay in Iraq to "honor the fallen" when they would not have fallen at all if he had not sent our troops there to make his supporters wealthier. The hypocrites need to be expelled from our great nation and in some cases tried for their crimes against humanity.

We have less than 90 days until Virginia's November 8th election! Please come out to meet Bruce Roemmelt this Friday night, August 26th, at my house from 6:30pm until 10:30pm. Directions are online.

Environment:

100mpg+!!! So I've already decided that my next car will be an PZEV rated CVT driving gas-electric hybrid, but now I hear people are modifying their hybrids so that they can plug them in to make the first few miles of any trip on battaries alone! An article on Yahoo descibes a few people doing this, there are always lots of facts over at HybridCars.com, and there is a Yahoo Group called Prius+ for those who are modifying their own Prius hybrids to be plug-in hybrids to be ultra-clean. Check out California Cars Initiative for photos and more technical details of modified hybrids.

Politics and Crime:

When will voters in this country wake up to the tight relationship between the Republican party and criminals?

The Republican National Committee is paying for the legal defense of James Tobin (more that $722,000 to date!!!). Tobin has been indicted for suppressing voter turnout and using auto-dialers to block get out the vote efforts. He is suspected of working with people here in Virginia to do the same thing. Of course the races in Virginia last November did not look that close, but in New Hampshire, Republican Rep. John Sununu narrowly won the race, possibibly in part because voters were prevented from getting to the polls. Waldo Jaquith is busy connecting the dots on a similar situation in Virginia, though as yet it is only an investigation.

Then there is the case of Jack Abramoff, indicted yesterday in a fraud scheme and under investigation for campaign finance scandals in the Delay and Bush and Ney campaigns. Abramoff has also drummed up donations for the "Capital Athletic Foundation" by saying donors would get access to Tom Delay and contribute to urban youth participation in sports, but the sports turned out to be arming Isreali militias to terrorist Palestinians. This list goes on, and on, and on... Google it yourself.

So even if you did vote for George W. Bush, why the heck aren't you ashamed of that now? Carefully remove your "W04" sticker and replace it with these: