WE Blog

Where state representative Otto is wrong … if the two coal-fired power plants are built, THEN THE PEOPLE OF KANSAS WILL BEGIN MOVING AWAY BECAUSE OF THE DANGER OF INCREASED AIR POLLUTION AND LOSS OF CLEAN, COOL AND UNREGURGITATED DRINKING WATER.

An effort seems to be underway to turn Kansas into an industrial state to serve the large growth of Colorado’s front-range cities and various large population areas of Texas.

I won’t bother with the time to hear the song.

“where seldom is heard a discouraging word because the people have all moved away.”

Uh yeah. Building unneeded polllution spewing, water gulping coal plants in the face of a growing water crisis is NOT gonna keep the people here.

I agree with Outlander. Otto’s song deserves a solid “5″. On a 100 point scale, of course.

Kansas Republicans have really been scraping the bottom of the barrel to come up with some of these people in state office.

Let’s see, a couple of carbon-spewing power plants that will use our water and ship 86% of product out of state. I don’t see the value to Kansas.
Seems like a no-brainer to me.

That guy looks like he must be an Oklahoman. Hope no Kansan sings that badly!

Hey Otto, if you’re reading about yourself today, come on the blog and we can have a discussion about your coal plants.

See what I mean, phantom?

WTF is the KDP doing to defeat these guys? They just concede the western half of the state to these hillbilly wingnuts and refuse to build any infrastructure out here to recruit and support decent candidates.

I mean, most days I think a yellow DOG could represent the interests of the west better than these mossbacks who go back year after year by default because the KDP doesnt GIVE a rat’s ass about getting them gone.

How’s that worked in THIS legislative session?

Talk all ya want about kansas being less red. Until there are changes made in the composition of the legislature, we are still as red as a baboon’s ass.

And we are about as accomplished…

I wonder how the obama votes went in the caucuses in the western half of the state? Was there an influx of new voters and crossovers? This might be a year to see if that “change” message can be applied to legislative races. Because as long as these butt wipes run unopposed, or token opposition, they gain seniority every year. And you know what THAT leads to, right?

melvin neufeld as speaker

I thought we had this type of discussion a few months ago. Something about progress or the lack thereof. Only then it was casinos. If memory serves, the overwhelming opinion at the time was basically ‘you lost, stop whining’

heheheh gster!

Kansas… as red assed as you think!

Kansas… as close to a baboon’s ass as you think?

Sounds like a thread topic to me!

Here’s a new chorus for you

Homeless, Homeless on the Range,
Where the steers and wind roam free,
Why’d I ever listen to Bob,
That dude cost me my job,
And, now I’ve nowhere to stay!

Oh there’s littl chance,
Sunflower will buy me that ranch,
Don’t matter I sold my soul,
so they could burn coal
And, the skies could be smoggy all day.

Didja notice that the audio didn’t sync with the video.
Hell, this guy’s so dumb, he can’t even lip-synch!

I want to know why everyone thinks the only way to power is through raping the earth and polluting and giving money to the big huge companies?

“JWink” –

I know less than enough about nuclear power plants but what I do know makes me think it’s a viable alternative.

I am concerned with nuclear waste. Except for the waste issue, nuclear power generation is a mature technology. Chernobyl was on-the-cheap technology which was long-rejected in the West. Three Mile Island was a plumbing problem. And I think, generally speaking, plumbing is a pretty mature technology, too.

But if there’s enough energy to kill people, why isn’t there technology that can deal with spent fuel? Is it not possible? Or just not profitable? So far…

I still have concerns about what might happen at Wolf Creek if it were to get a Greensburg-type direct hit from a tornado. Maybe the Neosho River would glow in the dark for 10,000 years. I dunno.

I think we could probably be energy-independent in America for a century with nuclear power (especially if we didn’t spend that money in Iraq, as McCain suggests) But by that time, there seems there should be some better way of dealing with nuclear waste than burying it in a hole like cavemen.

But…

It would involve a huge change in how society works.

A nuclear/wind/solar/etc (essentially a non-carbon-based) energy system), people would have to deal with electricity-based technologies. Put your Mustang in a museum. If you’re going from Wichita to El Dorado, you might take your plug-in electric car. But if you’re going to Kansas City, you’ll take the magnetic super-train.

And the thing is: no country is better equipped than the USA to develop those needed technologies (although India is getting close) if only people would get over their addiction to the internal combustion engine.

We’ve come a long way since the days of “What’s good for General Motors is good for America.” As it’s worked out, what’s good for General Motors is how we got into this mess. Energy, Climate Change, the Middle East, the price of fuel, the price of food… think about it.

About ten years ago I had a series of meetings with some brilliant researchers who were trying to work out the technology of a global electrical grid. The briefest way to explain it is to compare it to the Trans-Atlantic telegraph cable of the 19th Century.

Think about it:

Most people sleep at night, and don’t use a lot of electricity. On the other side of the planet, the sun is shining somewhere (and the wind’s always blowing in Kansas.

If we could harness more of the solar energy (in all its forms: solar, wind, tidal, — okay, that’s “lunar” energy — there’s plenty of ways to power civilization other than burning dead dinosaurs.

Turns out, there are a lot of technological problems that make the international electrical grid more complex than the Trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. But no one I talked to thought those couldn’t be overcome.

One of them cited the “Ice Cream” metaphor. If you are starving and have a gallon of ice cream, it’s tempting to dive into the ice cream. But if you can buy some cones you can sell your ice cream and earn enough to afford protein.

America chooses to eat the ice cream.