banana peels and carrot peelings

http://www.apollochallenge.org/about.html

Let's take the Apollo Challenge. Thanks Rob!


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http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/06/30/divesting_from_our_future.php

"... Conservatives running Congress removed $12 billion dollars from the student loan program that should have gone to grants; failed to extend the college tuition tax deduction, instead opting for tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations; and cut grant aid in last year’s budget."

I was lucky to not have to take on student loans by living at home and having parents who scraped every penny. My friends who lived in apartments far from home will end up paying thousands more in interest. And the lower/middle class in America will be less able to afford a college education. Horrible news.


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MEANwhile, our armed madhouse (white house) is spending almost $500 billion on a failed Iraq war.

Imagine what we could have done with $500 billion dollars for...

college education
job training
universal healthcare for ALL Americans
ACTUALLY rebuilding New Orleans
expanding renewable energy
expanding mass transit through better transportation/land use connections
raising the federal minimum wage ($5.15/hour or $10k/year) for the first time in over NINE (9, VI) years (Blocked by Republicans)

But Nooo, RepubliCONs and the Grand Oil Party *perverts* will distract you with:

"tax and spend liberals,
"sushi eating limosuine riding liberal mainstream media liars (although the media rolls over and plays dog for cheneybush),
"bush is macho cowboy man (although he bought his 'crawford ranch' in 1999 just for the 2000 election),
"support our troops (but let's give the corporate contractors more protection, much higher pay and nice hotel rooms, versus the bare cots in the desert our troops get, plus not enough armor/supplies for troops)
"fuck gays, fuck swarthy immigrants, and 'weak' lying Democrats (don't forget about our CON job swiftboat campaign)
"buy a GM heavy truck/SUV (although secretly, we could give a fuck about Ford/GM laying off thousands of workers, but we still won't raise CAFE mileage standards, enjoy paying higher gas prices suckaz!)
"Al Qeaida members found in FLORIDA (just as Bush's poll numbers drop, and they don't have any connection to al qaeida (sp?)),
"Let's arm the southern border with 4,500 National Guard! keep out the swarthy immigrants (just after Bush's poll numbers drop),
"electronic voting machines owned by companies in bed with the RepubliCON party without a paper trail are NOT hackable (2000, 2002, 2004...),
"and we were just getting rid of 80,000 felons (voting while black) from the Florida rosters,
"we don't need extra voting machines in Ohio's liberal districts, who cares if liberals have to wait all day in line to vote? (but we put in plenty for the conservative districts)
"let's put a man on Mars in 2020 (but screw New Orleans residents, enjoy the global warming boys)"

etc...

Let's vote out the republiCON fucktards this November.

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LESS bitching, MORE planning

http://www.mtc.ca.gov/planning/2030_plan/index.htm

check out the Metro Transp Commission's 2030 bay area regional plan. Good to know what the plan is and where to jump in.

my comments...

one off the cuff comment i have is that the fruitvale village concept is great. can they build these villages taller next time? at least 15 stories? that would get some real density around each station. and BART really needs dedicated express trains!! so you can actually get from San Jose to Oakland in the same time (or faster) than by car!

HOT lanes are a good idea. link the cost of driving to drivers, not to the general public. this is how it's done in S'pore and Japan. you pay $1 per mile driven on a fast expressway in japan. All the times I drove there, there was only one time when the expressway was jammed.

less suburban sprawl, more density please!