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April 12, 2004
Open Thread
Happy 67th Birthday to the National Labor Relations Act! Also, 50 years ago, Bill Haley and the Comets recorded Rock Around the Clock. All this and more, on today's Open Thread.April 12, 2004 in Open Thread | Permalink
Comments
Wheeeeeeee open threeeeeaaaaddddd!!!!
Whew... that was fun.
Posted by: Marcus at May 13, 2004 5:55:08 PM
What seperates Doug from the other Candidates, why should I vote for Doug over say John Barrow who has raised the most money or any of the other Democrats in the Primary. Why should I pick Doug?
Posted by: John Rayburn at May 13, 2004 10:01:40 PM
Doug's the best candidate for a number of reasons. I'm voting for Doug because he's the only candidate who is making any kind of effort to reach out to voters. For instance, where is Barrow's blog? Why haven't any of the other candidates bothered to do something like the education forum?
Bottom line: Doug cares.
Posted by: Tall Glass of Reality at May 14, 2004 9:57:23 AM
Full disclosure, I work for Doug, so it's no secret who I'll be voting for.
Here's what separates Doug from the other candidates.
First, Doug is the only candidate in this race who has written and passed legislation on the issues that matter: jobs, health care, and education. In this political climate, with all the damage that George W. Bush and Max Burns have done to our country, the U.S. House of Representatives is not a place for on-the-job training.
Second, Doug is the only candidate with a real committment to running a grassroots campaign. Our volunteers (thanks to all of you!) are out there every day contacting voters.
Most importantly, Doug is in this race for the right reasons. We're all angry at the way George Bush and Max burns are running this country into the ground, no one more so than Doug. The war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, No Child left Behind; these things are destroying our country. They are also things that some Democrats went the wrong way on. We need Democrats who aren't afraid to stand up to George Bush on the tough issues. It's time for a change.
Posted by: Martin Matheny at May 14, 2004 10:53:59 AM
What has Doug proposed to do about the rising cost of gas, which looks like its going to be a problem for quite a while now and could have very serious economic impacts?
Posted by: Yellow Dog Dem at May 14, 2004 12:56:05 PM
Good question! First, we need to get an administration that is not beholden to the oil industry.
I'm not beholden to the oil industry, but I'm also not running for President, so let's talk about what I can do in Congress.
We need to talk about energy policy in this country. I have two broad proposals that I am going to be introducing and pushing for in Congress. We must get the change we need in Washington. George Bush and his cronies like Max Burns are selling us out to the oil companies.
First, we need to increase the availability and variety of hybrid and fuel cell vehicles. The problem here is that Detroit isn't making very many energy-efficient vehicles because people aren't buying them. People aren't buying them because Detroit isn't making enough to make them competitive in price with non-hybrid equivalents. I propose we introduce a temporary series of tax credits to consumers who purchase a hybrid or -in the near future- a fuel cell vehicle, in order to make the energy efficient cars competitive in price. Think about it. If you had a choice between two identical cars, one of which will cost you hundreds of dollars more a year in gas, which would you buy?
The second part of this proposal involves getting auto manufacturers, government, consumer groups, and environmentalists to sit down together and figure out how we can raise CAFE standards and roll out more energy efficient vehicles.
This will solve part of the problem, but it is going to take time to ramp up hybrid production (especially in the economy George Bush has given us.) We've got to also increase production of alternate fuels.
I propose a new investment into production of ethanol and bio-diesel. Pretty much every state in the US produces corn. Ethanol and bio-diesel will lower gas prices, and we can produce them right here at home.
The added benefit of these proposals is that they help our communities succeed economically. The value-added agricultural aspects of alternative fuel production will help family farmers in the 12th District. Alternative fuel production and increased production of energy-efficient vehicles will create new manufacturing jobs.
Thanks for the question!
Posted by: Doug Haines at May 14, 2004 1:32:24 PM