McCain's fellow P.O.W.: Why he will NOT vote for McCain

Phillip Butler was at the Naval Academy when John McCain was there. Butler was a Prisoner of War in Vietnam in the same prison camp as McCain (but was captured 2 1/2 years before McCain, so Butler spent 8 years as a P.O.W.). Butler has detailed why he cannot vote for John McCain.

The article (from Military.com):
Why I Will Not Vote for John McCain (by Phillip Butler)

McCain's latest lack of support for the troops

From Military.com:

If John McCain is  elected president, wounded veterans could be in for a world of  hurt...

full article

And one more excerpt from the article:

Virtually all veterans groups oppose McCain's plan.

As people begin to realize just how poor McCain's "support" of the troops really is, they will realize that despite his service years ago, John McCain is no friend to veterans today.

Great developments toward clean energy

I've been thinking and reading more and more about energy use and
how we can fix the current mess. A big part of that relies on changing
the kind of cars we drive, how we fuel them, and how we produce energy
in general. And there's good things happening. Oh, and ethanol and
hydrogen cars are NOT the answer!

GM plans the Volt electric car ...hopefully this time they won't collect the fleet of cars and then smash and shred them to prevent anyone from driving them!

Toyota will offer a plug-in hybrid by 2010. This will allow the user to do most daily commutes with no gas needed.

AirCar Factories is developing a car powered by compressed air (great video ) ...their hybrid version is projected to be able to travel from LA to New York on ONE tank of gas!

T. Boone Pickens can be a total schmuck. He heavily financed the inaccurately named Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), who lied
repeatedly about John Kerry's military service. Pickens then offered $1
million to anyone who could disprove these lies. A group of veterans
sent Pickens detailed military records disproving TEN points claimed by
the SVBT ...and Pickens refused to pay up. But his Pickens Plan
holds a LOT of promise. It's hard to trust the guy, but this is a very
good plan for renewable energy, and since Pickens stands to make a
bunch of money from it, I DO trust him on this one. Check the web site
and get familiar with the plan.

A FANTASTIC plan - perhaps the best option for saving our planet so far - comes from a company called better place.
The idea is to replace the current oil-dependent cars of the world with
electric cars. The cars have a range of about 120 miles on a current
charge. One could charge the cars at home and at many other locations,
and for longer trips, one would pull into one of the many stations at
which one swaps out the battery - fully automated station - in under 3
minutes. The idea is to treat cars like cell phones: you pick the model
you want, sign up for a pay-as-you-go plan or a set number of miles per
month or other options, and then that's it. The plan is to ensure that
user pay LESS for the electric car and usage than they do today for
gas. Sounds crazy, right? But Israel, Denmark, several other countries,
and the State of Hawaii are on board. Renault-Nissan Alliance is making
the cars. Go to the better place site and read about it. AND better place is ensuring that the energy used
to power the cars comes from renewable sources like wind and solar (NOT
nuclear ...Adam Putnam, who is the US House rep from my district, refers to nuclear power as 'renewable' ...I was
there at a candidate forum in Bartow Florida last week and heard him say it ...incredible ...nuclear
is NOT renewable energy!!!)

We have some great progressive candidates (Kevin Beckner - for County Commissioner, Doug Tudor for US Congress, Barack Obama) from the local level on up
to the Presidency. And there's a dramatically increasing number of
innovative and DOABLE ideas for reducing or eliminating our use of
fossil fuels, creating jobs, and cleaning up the environment.

Good things are happening.

New drink: Guava Lime Fizz

Hurricane (or Tropical Storm) Fay ...or maybe just some rain ...may be coming our way. It's tradition to have a drink during a hurricane. Or so they say. I think someone says that. Anyway, WE will have a drink if Fay comes through. Or if it doesn't. So to prepare for the possible storm, I was experimenting with our on-hand ingredients and came up with this drink that those in this house all agree is rather refreshing and enjoyable.

Guava Lime Fizz (in honor of the storm or hurricane named Fay that may or may not greet us):
Ingredients:

• Guava juice
• Limes
• Light rum
• Club soda
• Simple syrup (heat equal parts sugar and water until sugar is dissolved)
• Ice

Instructions:

1. Wash a lime and slice off the ends. Discard the ends.
2. Slice the lime thinly, and place the slices in the bottom of a tall glass
3. Add a healthy splash of sugar syrup
4. Muddle the lime slices and sugar (use a wooden spoon or other blunt instrument if you don't have a muddler) ...just squish it all up :)
5. Add a shot and a half of rum
6. Add about 1/4 cup of guava juice
7. Add 9 ice cubes (for good feng shui :)
8. Top with club soda and stir

Mmmmm....

Car powered by compressed air

Many very promising advances are being seen in various technologies. My Portland buddy Barry pointed out this one:

They're also working on a hybrid that would use the fossil fuel to compress air for the car's engine. The projected range of the hybrid vehicle would allow one to drive from Los Angeles to New York ...on a single tank of gas!