After the recent spate of suicide bombings, the Pres. still espouses the establishment of a Palestinian homeland. This is shameless attempt at currying favor with the oil producing arab countries. The Palestinians want a homeland allright. It's called Israel! And Jews are not welcome. In this instance, the US should BUTT OUT! Colin Powell is mighty quiet. Wonder why?

Well Dog, nobody wants to play on the Politics or Sports boards anymore 😞 They're too busy elsewhere. Maybe we can get LGC to add some comments here...I miss RICKAMAVEN!!!!

No apparent solution to the problem ... even more complex than the "Irish problem" the Brits have in Ulster ... no one, absolutely NO one will be happy with any solution you can name ... shameless favor-currying? ... well, the presence of oil in the oil-rich countries that don't much care for Israel is a fact of life ... we've been jacked around by OPEC plenty but in the process, have learned that it's imperative we maintain the flow of that oil ... if we in our modest little forum here can come up with something even remotely workable, the entire bunch of world powers will beat the path to our door ... who among us will then be Pres? who SecState? ... who gets which jobs? ... no rush for the VICE pres job now, we've all got vices and plenty of 'em, I've noticed ... Someone has to take all the other jobs now ... who are the volunteers? ... sign up below

I get to be Monica...

In that case, I want to be Pres !!!!!!

E-chick, if Bill has seen this board, he WISHES you were Monica. I think RICKMAVEN may be held hostage in the basement of Rush Limbaugh's house. Hang in there Rick! I'm holding up your end here! Oh! And if the gov. would encourage the development of alternative energy sources we could collectively thumb our noses at OPEC.

"encourage the development of alternative energy sources" In other words:"Force". Why should the consumer market have to wait to be forced? If someone had a concept that would eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels, don't you think they'd patent it and go to market? In this day and age of loose venture capital (although somewhat tightened by the dot com fiascos) there surely would be somebody willing to dole out the necessary cash to fund such an idea. And if our tax dollars did go into the development of such a concept, then you'd probably complain about the New "Oil" companies that are inevitable with such a device. Don't get me wrong, I would truly love to eliminate our dependence of oil. But I just don't see how the government needs to play a role other than to incentivize renewable energy sources, which they already do in many areas.

My American-made 'Vette will never run on electricity (Gore can go to H*LL)...it does need premium gas though, but I'm doing my part with synthetic oil, LOL! Isn't there enough oil in barrels somewhere to last 100's of years? Personally, I'm not a tree-hugging, bleeding heart. I wouldn't mind seeing 1000's of offshore oil rigs if it would mean flipping the bird at the A-RABS...in this case, flying the (Army,Navy, AF,USMC) bird OVER the stinking scum towelheads and dropping a load! I live near the ocean and enjoy it when I can, but if push comes to shove as it apparently is...is there anyone of us that would actually consider giving up our heating source, driving and whatever else 'oil' entails? Not me...

Echick, how could you say bad things about Al Gore (almost our President, but with the Grace of God he lost) when he wants to be everything for everybody? He would most surely be for a place called Palestine! And at the same time be bilking money from Israel and anybody else that would be stupid enough to listen to him! I am going to smoke a cigar and praise God that GWB won that election! Charlie

In my wildest imagination, I cannot begin to imagine what the US would have done following 9/11 or what we'd be doing to prevent further attacks ... but the bleating that can be heard coming from the bleeding heart liberals, really frightens me ... I don't know what it will take for some of these people to get it through their heads, but obviously, direct attacks on our people and cities are not enough for some of them ... I must tell you, that Berkeley is the absolute ultimate in spouting the liberal line of BS ... their congresswoman cast the single vote against the president taking action, they removed flags from the city vehicles, including police and fire vehicles, saying they were "too militaristic" ... following these events, I began a boycott of all businesses in that city ... I will not eat, shop, or go to events of any sort there ... I know it's not the fault of the people who own those businesses, but part of my money would go in taxes to the city and I will not allow that to happen ... I have a small flag on my jacket lapel, I have one installed on the car (but not being tattered in the wind) and I put one up at home each day ... I do not consider myself a superpatriot, but simply as an ordinary American citizen ... I am in full and complete support of the actions of the President and his entire administration and am completely and utterly dumfounded by anyone who isn't ... I know GWB isn't perfect, but no president I've seen in my lifetime has been ... and Geo is a DAMN sight closer to perfect than most any other pres I can think of in my adult lifetime ... he knows his limitations, has surrounded himself with highly competent advisors and is taking positive action rather than wating to take some piddly reaction to others actions as others have done too many times in the past ... oddly enough, I only remember one other president who fit that description ... JFK ... and while he is widely well thought of now, was far from it right up until the hour of his death ... history will be the ultimate judge, but I'm confident how this era will turn out ...

Don't forget! If it wasn't for Al Gore's ingenuity, we all would not be able to communicate with each other on the great Internet!

In Al Gore's dreams, maybe ... I've been SO disappointed by the choices we've had in candidates for President the last several elections ... gotta admit, GWB has stepped up and shown me something ... we got lucky he was elected instead of Al who can go right on dreaming about what he's accomplished ...

SteveS, didn't Al Gore invent or create the Spotted Owl and I believe he helped found Microsoft!? Charlie

You're absolutely right, Al DID help to invent the Spotted Owl but was not part of the group responsible for the creation of Microsoft but was part of the group trying to destroy them.

I am nervous about all the former oil company execs in the current administration. I freely admit that. If they were all from the solar energy industry and were trying to jam that down our throats, I would also cry foul. The appearance of government in collusion with industry for the perpetuation of profits is there. I emphasize, APPEARANCE. Perhaps Bush and Cheney really DO have our interests at heart. I guess we can tell by how the country is doing economically by 2004. And by where Ken Lay is in 2004. My other point is: That by relying almost soley on the oil industry for energy production. By encouraging relations with other governments mainly for the production and transportation of oil. The Government EFFECTIVELY DISCOURAGES alternatives energy production sources.

My electric company is seeking to put 140 wind turbines off the coast of Cape Cod to provide electricity. The government isn't discouraging that. Huge pipelines for the transport and distribution of natural gas are being installed in the northern seas outside the coast of Nova Scotia. The government isn't discouraging that either. Although solar energy is of limited use in the northeast US, I believe most areas are given a tax incentive to convert their residential hot water to solar. How is that "discouraging" alternative sources? I agree with your comments regarding the "appearance" of potential indescretions, but don't understand the implication that current economic decisions should be viewed as a monopolistic push by Uncle Sam in favor of Big Oil. Enron would have collapsed with or with ****** Cheney as VP. Big Oil is big because of our national dependency on fossil fuels. Not because of the governmental good ol' boy network.

Well....yeah! We have a national dependancy on fossil fuels. Right. Man my head hurts! The collusion runs so deep and so wide and so far back in time that is hard for one mind to grasp the scope. I don't use the word conspiracy because that implies something hidden. And it's not. Consider this: The technology may exist for every home to have its own independant power source using hydrogen fuel cells. Augmented by solar panels perhaps. In the long run individual energy costs would be much lower. There are internal combustion engines which can burn hydrogen. Water is the only emission. The guys running the show say that if we are not all sucking from the same teat, the economy will collapse. That is the rationale driving the oil economy. It has been put forth that if alternative energy sources were really that great, the oil companies would market them. It is more cost efficient for them to squelch new technology and to keep pumping oil. Okay, that was not very well put but I'm not going to start over. It's off topic too. Someone start a new thread!

I just thought of something what if we found out we could run auto engines on urine and then found out only Arab urine works, just a thought. LOL JonR

Tailgater, I disagree about Enron. My theory(unproven) is that the Bush administration set the stage by allowing Enron to make oil tankers full of money from the California energy crisis. The big execs then sent the tankers to the Cayman Islands where the $$ was loaded into their personal secret accounts. Later they said: DAMN! Where did all that money go? We are supposed to believe that it never existed except on paper. Ken Lay got his. Didn't he? Maybe ****** Cheney did too. I know, baseless accusation. Just connecting those dots, filling in those blanks.

You have been reading to many Robert Ludlom and Ken Follet novels! Charlie