Dear Senator Obama,
My Policy concerning this critical area matches yours accept in one important area, biofuels. We need to honestly assess and correct the misinformation and hype associated with Biofuels. I strongly believe in "Green Energy" concepts including the use of alternative forms of energy (solar, wind, geothermal, EVs, etc.) and energy conservation, but the "promise" of biofuels (Ethanol and Biodiesel) is false. The Biofuel Scam must be shut down so we can focus on viable alternatives.
I am an electrical engineer with degrees in engineering and biology and a strong background in chemistry and physics. All scientific and and economic information I have waded through indicates that biofuels are expensive to produce (require government subsidies), increase rather than decrease atmospheric CO2, increase the cost of food in the 3rd world, and can not significantly reduce our dependency on foreign oil. The thermodynamics, chemistry and economics of biofuel production make it a poor choice as a replacement for gasoline and diesel.
More critically, I am deeply disturbed with how all the political campaigns (including ours) promise to eliminate our dependence on foreign energy (oil and gas). This, to me, is a massive delusion of the American electorate using their fear of escalating energy costs and dependency on OPEC to get votes. As Robert Bryce intelligently illustrates in his book, 'Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of "Energy Independence"', the US and the world are energy interdependent and have foreign dependencies for many other critical commodities. We need to accept the fact that we are interdependent with the rest of the world and stop harping about energy independence.
Energy is traded on a global marketplace and no matter how effective we are in moving away from fossil fuel usage we will continue to remain dependent on foreign oil and gas for decades. We need to move forward on "real" solutions and avoid spending on money and resources on dead-end ideas like biofuels. Please read Robert Bryce's book and take the politically difficult position using knowledge rather than fear to determine our future national energy policy.
Respectfully yours,
Richard Gibbs
Libertyville, IL
Northern Illinois Obama Supporters,
The polls show that we are in a dead heat with Clinton in Indiana. Many of the voters I met canvassing in Gary and Lafayette were undecided. Please join me in in our efforts to try to help these undecided voters understand who Obama is and how he can help them. Please join one of the local events Phone Banking and/or going to Indiana this next weekend. We have less than 1 week till the Indiana Primary, so let's make the final push.
GO OBAMA!!!
My family and I moved to Libertyville in 2003 so I could be closer to my job as a Software Engineer at Motorola. As an Air Force Brat, I've lived all over the country and have a hard time answering people when they ask me, "Where are you from?" I usually tell them, "I was born in Montana, but only lived there 2 weeks.", and then tell them that I consider Idaho my ancestral home, but I really don't know where home is. I never expected to end up in the midwest, but my wife is from the Chicago South Side and so we moved to Chicago soon after our son was born.
My wife and I were married by Rev. Wright at Trinity United Church of Christ (yes, Obama's church) in 1998 and lived in Hyde Park before moving out to Libertyville. We really enjoyed living in Hyde Park, but have discovered the charms of Libertyville after moving here. At first, Libertyville seemed to be a nice but fairly conservative town, but we discovered there was a fair amount of progressives when Obama ran for the Senate.
Now, I'm discovering there is a growing progressive movement in Libertyville and other towns in Lake County. I'm also discovering other members of Trinity even though we are a long way from its Chicago South Side location on 95th Street.
When I first got involved with the Obama campaign back in Sept. 2007, I worked in the Volunteer Headquarters downtown and traveled to other states; Iowa, Nevada, California and Indiana to do my volunteer work. Since Illinois was a shoe-in for Obama I didn't see much point in getting involved locally. More recently, I've been attending some Obama events in Lake County and have discovered many people like myself in the area.
Just this week, I met Dan Seals for the first time and decided I wanted to get more active locally. I created 2 local Obama events and started this group (Libertyville for Obama). I'm finding an interesting group of Obama supporters here in LV and look forward to meeting and learning about each of you.
My challenge to each member of this group is to do what you can to get involved. Donating money is great, but getting involved with people in the campaign is much more rewarding. Please create your own blog to express you hopes and dreams for America and about what excites you about Obama and what we can do to promote his message and get him elected.
"Change We Can Believe In"
Obama '08
Americans should be Outraged by the Outsourcing of American jobs.
If you share my Outrage or or are concerned with the future security of the U.S. or are concerned about the future of the American Middle Class then continue reading and check out the following website:
http://outsourceoutrage.com/
We have been exporting our high tech. knowledge and jobs for the past 20 years, and the rate rapidly increased during George W.'s administration. I am a recent victim of this unfortunate trend after training 1000's of software engineers in Russia, China, India, Brazil, France and other countries to do my job, developing wireless phone software.
I was "laid off" from Motorola's Mobile Device division in Nov. 2007 while performing critical work required to develop furure mobile phones. The Russian contractors in our team (working in Russia), who had almost no written or verbal knowledge of English AND had mediocre to poor software engineering skills, were kept on because they were much cheaper. I spent the last 2 years attempting to train these people to become decent engineers and to help them improve their English skill level.
Not surprisingly, Motorola is now failing to develop new phones that the customer wants to buy. Creative problem solving and inovation have been seriously stifled by the loss of much of the good talent and by the fear experienced by most of the remaining employees within the US.
More recently, a major controversy has been reported by Lou Dobbs and others about the Outsourcing of Military contracts. Please watch the following video to learn about the US Air Force's decision to award a major contract to Airbus (France) rather than Boeing (US). This Outsourcing trend in not only hurting our economy and jobs, it is also risking our security.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/03/06/intv.murray.outsourcing.defense.cnn?iref=videosearch
Obama:197,444 70.4%Clinton:83,084 29.6%
Here's part of the email I received:
Dear MoveOn member,
With hundreds of thousands of ballots cast across the country, for the first time in MoveOn's history, we've voted together to endorse a presidential candidate in the primary. That candidate is Barack Obama.
Something big is clearly happening. A few weeks ago, MoveOn members we surveyed were split. But with John Edwards bowing out, progressives are coming together. Obama won over 70% of the vote yesterday, and he's moving up in polls nationwide.1 As comments poured in from MoveOn members across the country, the sense of hope was inspiring. Here's how Christine Y. in New Jersey put it:
"I've never felt so strongly about any one candidate in my entire life. He's truly an inspiration to all of us—especially the younger generation. I will stand by him 100% for as long as he's willing to stand up and fight for this country!"
What does MoveOn's endorsement mean? People-power. Together, we are 3.2 million Americans who care about our country and want change. Half of us live in states with primaries or caucuses this coming "Super Tuesday."
We know how to roll up our sleeves and win elections, and if we all pitch in together between now and Tuesday, we can help Sen. Obama win the biggest primary day in American history. Think about it:volunteering during the next four days could mean four years of a progressive president. Can you sign up right now to volunteer for Obama's campaign? Click here:
http://pol.moveon.org/volunteerforobama/?id=12015-3874443-Ydy2_c&t=535
