Michael Koby

As I find myself moving away from the republican side of things and more towards the libertarian views on the political line, I find that I still do not really like the democrats way of thinking.  However, it is “lefters” like Arianna Huffington that give me hope that not all democrats are mindless drones of their party.  Today, Arianna wrote a nice little editorial on the state of the GOP and Bush politics.  While I don’t agree with everything she has to say, she does make a couple of good points when it comes to the numbers what people think with regards to the track this country is currently headed down.

While there are some areas I feel that this country is doing right, I can’t agree with our foreign policy as of late.  We seem to have gotten away from our isolationist point of view which kept us on many people’s good side for a long time.  However, I do not believe Bush to be entirely at fault on this.  I think he will be nothing more than the fall guy for Cheney’s idiotic politic-ing.  But this is merely an opinion at the moment and only history will really reveal if my foresight on that matter was accurate.

I was raised conservative my whole life and as I have grown up I have accepted many of the conservative stances as my own. Not simply because I was raised on them but because I understand the the other side just as well and I dislike it a bunch. However, after being introduced to the concept of Ron Paul, I have finally seen a politician that I am willing to donate money to. And when I get paid on Saturday, I will be donating to Ron Paul’s campaign fund. I encourage anyone who has not looked at Ron Paul, to watch the video below and then go look at his voting record. He has actually voted for what he says he believes and that right there means a lot to a guy like me.

Recently I have had several discussions about Al Gore, his movie “An Inconveniant Truth”, and the issue of global warming in general. While I will not go into extreme detail on my opinions, simply pointing out that that one should look up Global Cooling and see how long that was being talked about before global warming, I do want to bring up something that was brought to my attention. I received the following in a email and it was verified via Snopes.com to be true.

From the email:

You can check this out on Snopes.com under “The Story of Two Houses”
House #1 A 20 room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern “snow belt” area. It’s in the South.

House #2 Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every “green” feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet ( 4 bedrooms ) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F. ) heats the house in the winter and cools it i n the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE #1 is outside of Nashville, Tennessee; it is the abode of the “environmentalist” Al Gore.

HOUSE #2 is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas; it is the residence the of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

So there you have it.  Everyone’s favorite environmentalist is using “20 times” (some reports put the actual number around 14% more) the energy of the average American home while the ever hated President of the United States is using up to 25 percent less.  Sure, Mr. Gore might off set some of it, but that’s still a lot of energy he is using.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has announced the formation of a Presidential exploratory committee. Her intention is to be nominated and to run for President of the United States for 2008 presidential elections. If nominated, Mrs. Clinton will be the first female to be nominated by a major party for president.

As Republican, I recognize that this announcement could eventually lead to something ground breaking. However, as a Republican, I have severe issues with the Clinton family. I believe that a woman could be president, I believe that a woman could even be a successful president. We have female representatives and female senators, so why not a female president?

Why has there never been a female president before? I do not think there is a real answer to that question. I think a lot of it has to do with tradition. As much as people in this country like to change traditions that were in place for centuries, the unwritten rule of male-only presidents does not seem to be in any danger. At least not until now. I think that a qualified woman could in fact be something this country might need to kind of shake things up a little. A little outside of the box thinking might do wonders for this country.

Though, Hillary’s bid for president has a long way to go. There are party nominations, party primaries, and then finally the actual presidential election. I think that first and foremost, we should get away from the Clinton/Bush swapping idea. To go from Clinton to Bush and back to a Clinton, seems a little odd to me. I also think that all those third party supporters should get their wish for one term, let us see how badly a third party president can screw the country up. Heck, it seems to be everyone’s opinion anyway that each president just screws things up more.

What do the readers think? Are we ready for a female president?

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