I’m a 2008, Presidential candidate, and I can’t get my word out, I’m under educated, but I read well, I’m poor only because it’s a state of mine, meaning I’m rich depending on who I’m talking to, but I have high hopes, the 2008, presidential political forums have shut out the lesser known candidates, but I would like to prove a point, you don’t have to be rich, or be well educated to be president of the United States of America, and one person can change the world with a few good thoughts, I’m calling this thought, “HOW TO TAME A DESERT’, WATER RECOVERY FOR THE DESERT.

Most rivers never dry up, so put two pipes in a river, one intake to pull the water out of the river, and one outtake to put the water back into the river, put a few filters to keep the pipes clean, next pump water from the intake pipe to a reservoir that will holed a million gallons of water, cover the million gallon reservoir to control evaporation, next using solar power make something simple, the covered reservoir, put magnifying glasses on the cover and let nature do the rest, now the inside of the reservoir will heat up and the water well condense, then like a old whisky still, have coiled pipes to collect the condensed water, this is good drinking water in the middle of any desert, then build thousands of reservoirs for the new cities, farms, and help global warm.

Also, for generating electricity used the outtake pipe the water going back to the river, because the water will be cooler due to the magnifying glasses in the intake pipe to help condense the river water for drinking, put generators at different locations, so gravity can keep the reservoir water moving,[ ABOVE GROUND RESERVOIRS WITH PLUMMING AT THE BOTTOM OF RESERVOIR ], with a million gallons of water pressure the generators should run twenty-four a day.

How the generators work is pretty simple, first the water is siphoned from the main outtake pipe, second the siphoned water goes to a container reservoir using pressure and gravity, third as the water is returning to the main pipe the water turns a generator propeller blade creating electricity for cities, farms in the middle of any desert, and most of the water should return to the river, except for water used for farming.

In my opinion this is so simple, but our nations best and brightest who want to be Americas next President would not even dream of America trying to tame our deserts, or help solve Africa problems with water and farming.

Bob Leonard Forthan

Colonialism is replete with this dogma. Intervention is not to “civilize” or to provide “humanitarian” support, but to conquer when their is something material to be gained. Until we can truly look at those dead babies and children without limbs in Iraq with the empathy we reserve for our own and our neighbors, the pillaging of these nation’s resources will never be stopped by the American people – even with the growth of “minorities”.

When people state that we are in Iraq for resason’s other than oil, they truly don’t understand what oil means to the US capitalistic engine. Oil is everything. The stage has been set whereby there is nothing of capitalistic importance which is not oil based. And anyone, particularly people of color, who stand in the way of that resource, are simply walking dead (aka collateral damage). And if the government can get hispanics and African Americans to provide the human sacifice, all the better.

The sad part about the Iraq conflict is that it has revealed a majority of European Americans (white folks) as arrogant, bigoted, supercilious and totally insensitive to the feelings of others around the world. Oh yes, Mr. Bush has his ‘Ms. Rice’ and has had his ‘Mr. Powell’ in key, highly visible positions but – to use a truly hackneyed term – they were just ‘tokens’. How do we know? Just remember Cheney’s or Rove’s expression when they are/were around…

It seems like eons ago when I read the ‘Ugly American’ and saw the Brando movie of the same name. But sadly Euro-Americans haven’t changed. They are still that ‘Ugly American’. That is why this nation needs you, Dal. In the next 5-10yrs, America will need a new ‘face’ and new attitude if it is to compete effectively with China for Oil, Gas, Diamonds, etc. in Sub Sahara Africa and Central Asia.

Presently, China is forming ‘partnerships’ with African nations in exchange for their natural resources. What is the US doing? Financing leaders that secret the US aid dollars in private Swiss accounts, deprive their people and steal Oil/Gas revenues. When and wherever it can, the US creates a ‘failed state’, intervenes to preserve order and pillages the state’s natural resources. Or it uses ‘surrogate warriors’ to do its bidding such as Ethiopia in Somalia and Uganda in the eastern DR Congo.

Bush, Cheney and their ‘Trilateral Commission’ biddies must stop their noxious behavior. It’s certainly not ‘foreign policy’ as surely as the Bush response to Katrina was certainly not ‘domestic policy’. If he and his cohorts are so singularly driven to be and stay wealthy, I suggest they invest in a vehicle powered by the same energy system the Mars Rovers have used so successfully for 31/2yrs.! If each vehicle on Earth (800,000,000 est.) were reolaced with a subsidized $100,000 ‘Mars Rover’ car/van, that would be a $80,000,000,000,000 market!
But no…that’s too dig for Buch or Cheney to wrap their minds around…

I’m not, however, clear on any of the other issues Dal is addressing. I’m sure, given what I do know that they are his convictions and that they are thoughtful.

But, capitalism is an issue. You can put any kind of adjective you want in front of it and it’s still the system based on self-interest, greed, avarice… That kind of system has gone hand in hand with global hegemony. More importantly, there is really no reason to try to convert capitalism into some kinder and gentler crature than it, at bottom, is. It will always restort back to what it truly is. I would suggest tossing the word out and transforming our society around principles which are sustainable. Both communism and capitalism were based on out-moded notions of production. The whole concept needs a rethink. We live in a world being chewed up by global capitalism. Socialism – at least that practiced by the Chinese and particularly the Soviet Union – were just as detrimental to the planet.

So, whether we call it compassionate, or natural, or responsible capitalism is capitalism in the end. It functions on a set of core principles, and to change those is to change the very nature of its being. so, why use the term at all? Why treat it as if it is a sacred cow whose milk is the only sustenance we can imbibe?

Dal – keep up the great work – I just don’t think we’re out of Iraq anytime soon – maybe some time after 2010. And then it’s questionable, unless we’re bankrupt. The media won’t even cover your outstanding work, work that could get us out; but there are no serious plans to get out to match your efforts.