Honda Hydrogen Here

Honda has done what Detroit and the U.S. government
wouldn't do. Honda has a hydrogen only fully
efficient automobile coming off the assmbly lines
and being sent to the U.S.

It is the Honda Clarity. 200 will be sent to the
U.S. over the next three years and will only be
available in California, San Diego to be specific.

The car is silent running, non-polluting. It is
three times as efficient as our gasoline powered
cars. Moreover, the hydrogen power is equal to that
of the gasoline engines. The Clarity goes from
0 to 60 in 10 seconds, has a top speed of 100 mph,
and has a cruising range of 280 miles on a single
tank of hydrogen gas.

Without stating the cost of producing the cost, Honda
only says that right now because of the limited
number being produced it cost hundreds of thousands to
make just one. Honda forecasts that it will be a low
cost car. At present the car is only availiable under
a Honda lease agreement of $600 a month for three
years, which includes maintenance and insurance.

Hydrogen fuel technology has been available in the
U.S. since the 1960s. However, Texas(oil) and Michigan
(the Big Three Auto Makers) has prevented any development
of alternative energy automobiles. One would think that
Detroit would have learned back when VW, Toyota, Honda,
and Datsun entered the U.S. market with the compacts that
it had to change its production. But, no, they continued
to mass produce large cars and pick-ups and culminating
with the SUVs. The same is now true of the hydrogen car.
Here is the response to "drill, drill, drill." Much more
venting could be said here, but maybe we can do that in
the comments. Hydrogen is the source of the immediate
future in energy; it is available now, today. Cheap. Ah,
there you have it; it is too cheap. Greedy corporate
companies don't want cheap, fuel efficient energy anywhere.
They don't make money. They want coal gasification plants
and nuclear power plants that cost billions. Only one
entity can produce cheap energey for the 'general welfare'
of all the citizens of the U.S., the federal government.
Be it hydrogen of whatever the future power source is, it
should be owned and operated by the federal government.
Power is a necessity and a right, and, therefore, it ought
to be a government entity.

MS Fish Industry

The Mississippi fish industry is faltering. The
two main cash fishing products are shrimp and
catfish.

Catfish farming in MS supports some 10,000 workers.
On a 600 acre farm it takes about $500,000 on fed
alone. That same farmer is expected to spend twice
that amount this year. Catfish feed is made from
soybean, corn, and wheat. We know what has happened
to the price of those crops from what we see in the
grocery stores. However, as this shows the impact is
not just in the food stores. The price of these feed
crops is pushing many catfish farmers out. The farmers
are draining their ponds, drying them out, then
tilling to plant row crops that are paying more. What
is interesting is that many teachers left teaching to
be contract catfish farmers as it pays more than being
a teacher. Catfish are easy to raise, expecially in the
Deep South States like MS. Many homeowners have a little
pond, just as my folks use to have a small vegetable garden
in Toledo. MS catfish farming is also being impacted by
large importation of foreign catfish from Asia.

The Gulf Coast Shrimping industry is in dire straits as
well. In this industry the main problems are the runaway
gasoline prices for their shrimp boats and imports again.
Shrimp season recently open in all the pomp that is associated
with the bishop blessing the fleet. Despite the prayers
and the invocations of the bishop, the shrimpers are going
under. With diesel at $4 here it takes $10,000 to fill a
2,500 gallon fuel tank for a 20 day run. $3,500 for food
and other supplies. This shrimper "harvested" 6,100 pounds
of shrimp. He took it to the processor in Biloxi and
was paid enough to pay the above expenses plus expenses for
his boat(insurance,repairs), the crew workers, and share
owners. After all these deductions the shrimper took home
$550.00. Yep, thats it, $550.00! The processors are caught
too. They try to work with the shrimpers, but can't increase
prices to the shrimpers because of the imports. The leading
shrimp buyer and processor in Biloxi, Gollott of Golden Gulf
Seafood says, "we have raised prices as much as imports will
let us, but those imports are still right on top of us...The
Government is more interested in free trade than fair trade.
We are trying to help them out, because if they go, we're
next in line."

Come home, USA. Enough of these free trade agreements of the
Clintons, the Democrats and the Republicans. You'll have to
excuse me, I'm looking for my spade to go out back and dig a
hole to fill with our polluted city water and "plant" it with
catfish fingerlings. If we have a good "crop" ya'll will have
to come to Jackson and we'll do the "harvest" and the ladies
can fry them up as we sit on the patio with our beers.....

Heal the Warrior Before He Returns Home

Today I read with sadness that a soldier, recently deployed to Iraq, is being charged with the murder of his 3-year-old stepson. The Blade story begins:

FINDLAY - Displaying little emotion, the decorated Iraq war veteran stood before Judge Robert Fry in Findlay Municipal Court yesterday and agreed to be returned to central Ohio's Licking County to face charges that he killed his 3-year-old stepson.

Corey S. Flugga, 22, of Newark, Ohio, and formerly of Findlay, is charged with murder in the death Saturday of Carson Hanson at the apartment Mr. Flugga shared with his stepson; his wife, Heather, and the couple's 1-year-old son, Hunter. An autopsy concluded Carson died from blunt-force trauma to the abdomen.

I suspect that this man is one of many thousands of soldiers suffering from PTDS. I think I saw the number of estimated numbers suspected of that to be 250,000. Colateral damage from war trauma.

Joseph Campbell, writer and mythology professor, often wrote about The Warrior. In the book and TV series with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, Campbell often referred to the 'wounded warrior' that resides within men. He spoke of rituals in past times that were performed on returning warriors, fresh from the battles. He cautioned that these rituals were necessary for these men to make a healthy return to society. Sadly, the United States does not perform such healing rituals; that is why we see such distress and violence in many returning Iraq and Afghansistan warriors.

Heal the Warrior, Heal the Country is an article by Edward Tick in Yes! Magazine. Here is a paragraph which speaks to the theme:

Our troops do not enlist because they want to destroy or kill. No matter the political climate, most troops seek to serve traditional warrior values: to protect the country they love, its ideals, and especially their families, communities, and each other. If they must kill or be killed, they need transcendent reasons to do so. Throughout history, the only reason for fighting that has survived moral scrutiny is a direct attack with real, immediate threat to one’s people. PTSD is, in part, the tortured conscience of good people who did their best under conditions that would dehumanize anyone.

So many war hawks speak of victory, winning in Iraq. That matters little in the scheme of things. It was a war of choice, not necessity. Perhaps that realization adds to the PTSD of these returning soldiers. Whatever, the problem is severe and needs to be addressed and not swept under the carpet. Our society is greatly impacted by our returning warriors.

Will Has It Right

We have commented on the Supreme Court decision
concerning the Fourth Amendment, Habeas Corpus,
and Guantanamo. A decision that John McCain
said was "one of the worst decisions in the
history of this country." George Will responded
to McCain in his recent Op Ed.

Will asks, "Does it rank with Dred Scott...which
concocted a constitutional right, unmentioned in
the document, to own slaves and held that black
people have no rights that white people are bound
to respect? With Plessy v. Ferguson..which
affirmed the constitutionality of legally enforced
racial segregation?.....

"More likely, some clever ignoramus convinced him
that this decision could make the Supreme Court a
campaign issue." I suppose that this is the idea
that only a Republican can make the country safe
from terrorists.

Referring to McCain, Will continues, "He who wants
to reassure constitutionalist conservatives that he
understands the importance of limited government
should be reminded why the habeas right has long
been known as 'the great writ of liberty.' No state
power is more fearsome than the power to imprison.
Hence the habeas right has been at the heart of
the centuries-long struggle to constrain governments..."
The executive " cannot be the only judge of its own
judgment."

Will concludes his column, "In Marbury v. Madison..
which launched and validated judicial supervision of
America's democratic government, Chief Justice John
Marshall asked: 'To what purpose are powers limited,
and to what purpose is that limitation committed to
writing, if these limits may, at any time, be passed
by those intended to be restrained?' These are
pertinent questions for McCain, who aspires to take
the presidential oath to defend the Constitution."

This is an article that should be read by every student
in high school or college. There is much more in the
entire opinion. It is good to see a major conservative
journalist speak up and write to the traditional rights
found in the Constitution. This is a vindication of the
stand that the creator of this blog has taken on many
occasions that the Republican Party has been hijacked by
reactionaries and fundamentalists who cannot accept a
limited and secularist federal government as established
by the Founding Fathers in the Consititution. These
usurpers try to say now that they are traditional Republicans
and conservatives. The usurpers are the ones campaigning
against Consitutional, separation of powers, federal
government. They want to blur that line between what is a
legally written limited government and an authoritarian
government which would base its operation under some
supernatural power. There are very few traditional conservative
Republican Party members remaining. Spector of PA is one, and
he recently voted against the recent Surveillance Bill.
Hagel of NB would be another. No one else jumps out to me
at the moment. McCain has capitulated to the right wing and has
flip-flopped on most, if not all, of his pre-presidential
positions. BTW, Will entitled his opinion,"Don't flip over
habeas."