1. Military industries create wars and use funds that should be appropriated to national/municipal projects e.g. buildings (schools, hospitals, etc.), roadways, railways, airports, etc.

2. MOXXON does not want you riding anything but your SUV/mini van and they have the means to coerce U.S. auto corporations to keep fuel efficiency low and keep them selling you SUVs and mini vans.

3. Our soldiers have been sacrificed in Mesopotamia to take control the huge proven petroleum reserves there, to continue the use of hydrocarbon energy and create wealth for the military industrialists .

4. The rape of M1 by Wall St. “investment” con artists has been designed to “fleece the flock,” which in turn causes us to borrow the money to replace what they stole which will create rampant inflation and a financial panic, which in turn creates a cowering flock (you & I) unable to revolt against the injustice and theft of our money supply, which btw, is just worthless paper, thanks to the Federal Reserve Bank (a private corporation).

The implications of this kind of home-based education becoming available more widely (with, of course, occasional trips to the various university campuses) at both undergraduate and graduate levels are enormous for all of us living here, not just in terms of jobs for us and opportunities for our kids, but in terms of the opening of a blue highway rural area to multilevel, readily accessible educational and cultural opportunities that would be difficult for many to have access to otherwise. This is probably being done in other rural areas but it’s the first time I’ve seen it up close and friendly. I’m impressed by what this joint effort has achieved so far as well as by its potential.

In a recent op-ed in Engineering News Record, I argued that a “Bridge 2.0 approach, in which we’d use Web 2.0 tools such as wikis and RSS feeds could dramatically reduce the amount of time needed for the regulatory processes (while actually increasing opportunities for public participation in environmental reviews, etc.!), improve scheduling, and make the process transparent, to rebuild public faith in government. It’s an approach that I believe is essential given the need to simultaneously create jobs quickly while reducing spending.
W. David Stephenson
Stephenson Strategies

For example, in an affluant community south of Boston, with the aid of a wind turbine, solar panels, and geothermic wells there are homes going completely self sustainable and nearly carbon-free. Although extremely expensive at the moment, as we have seen with other technological breakthroughs, a greater investment into these ideals will equate to eventual lower costs making this and similar technology more of a viable option for both residential and commercial applications.

Listening to this very important discussion I noticed that the focus of the infrustucture was in urban areas. Rual America need to be caught up and brought into this century. High Speed internet to every house in America; Cell phone coverage reaching deep in to the woods, an options for rual commuters to get to work.

Living in a rual state, Vermont, I would like to know if there are conversations about infrustucture spending in rual America.

Peter McLyman

Some would argue that FDR did not rebuild the US economy after The Great Depression by use of his policies of intervention and government spending. But most will agree that FDR managed to keep the US afloat until The Next Great Task of WWII arrived — FDR got the country to the launchpad. It was WWII and the process of building manufacturing capacity that retooled the US economy and transformed it into the economic and military power it became.

In my view the Next Great Task is to help the US cross the bridges necessary to greet a New Energy Age while protecting and repairing the environment and taking care of peoples throughout the globe — plenty of potential jobs there. Increasing funding to states and local authorities is the best way to concentrate on domestic priorities and develop the multiple models we will need to find success. So we need to jump-start the economy and rebuild infrastructure along these lines.

I have proposed US tax policy changes to achieve more funding for states and local authorities in my October 2008 report, “Reshaping Government Spending”. In most state and local governments, the wheels are coming off the bus because of unfunded domestic needs. The cohesiveness of communities is part of the process of rebuilding infrastructure, and neglect is causing increasing damage to a basic micro-economic building block. President Elect Obama’s team seems to be searching for a way to deliver on this agenda. My policy suggestions provide an avenue to reach their goals. Please visit my website and comment.

George
Milton, Massachusetts
Gemand Consulting LLC
http://www.GemandConsulting.com

To do that, we need to think beyond “green” — we need to give the American consumer reason and incentive to CONSERVE resources, so that we all support rather than scoff at, or more likely fight, new initiatives.

The best, simplest and smartest way to do that is to raise the federal gasoline tax, which currently is a token 18.4 PENNIES. And we need to raise it now as plummeting gas prices will barely be noticed by the average driver. If this proves too great a jolt to the American psyche, a tax increase could be phased in, to give us this nation the shot across the bow and the wake-up call we all desperately seem to need. But whatever the plan, we need to start the process now or suffer the consequences of postponing the inevitable.

Thank you,

Joanne Jastatt

Thanks for your excellent program,

Mary Agee