Can some one please tell me why anyone in the US needs an H2?
If you do have a reason why someone needs one, have you seen someone using it for that reason?
If your reason is like the last H2 commercial that I saw; that you need one so the kids at school will not beat up your kid because you dropped him off at school in the H2, you would have been better off spending the $60K on therapy for yourself than on the H2! Plus, in reality, after you spend the $60K, they'll still beat up your kid!
I haven't seen one H2 going on a safari.
I think that a new H2 should come with a 2 year tour of duty in Iraq. Because that is what the troops in Iraq are really fighting for, so you can still drive a gas guzzling behemouth, and the oil companies can keep raking in the profits!
Disagree? What countries were the 9/11 hijackers from? From what industry did the money that financed them come from?
You need four wheel drive? Take a look at a ten year old Ford Explorer, the best selling SUV, and a new one. Which is bigger?
The marketing people figured out a long time ago that it wasn't about NEEDS, it was about WANTS. And the marketing people said, "Make them bigger and tint the windows." And we bought them and financed the "terrorist". But more importantly, we increased the DEMAND (enriching the oil companies and our enemies at the same time.)
Our new energy policy does nothing to decrease DEMAND. Nor does it invest in new alternatives. It gives big tax breaks to the oil companies who are making record profits. If it takes $6.00/ gal. for the US to wake up, I hope it goes to $10.00/ gal. to really wake them up.
Because that is not the only thing that we need to be waken up about. We have an administration that ignores science. We have a president who promotes "creationism" and says "climate change" , not global warming is not happening. While China is producing scientist and engineers, we're producing lawyers.
Which states have the lowest graduation rates? Which states have the lowest scores on standardized test? Which states have the highest teen pregnancy rates? Which states are the leaders of our country from? If you have kids in school, thank God that you are living in New England and not in the Red states.
While this country is racing to the bottom, the rest of the world is racing to the top.
Gas prices? That's the least of out worries.

[quote]
Can some one please tell me why anyone in the US needs an H2?
If you do have a reason why someone needs one, have you seen someone using it for that reason?
If your reason is like the last H2 commercial that I saw; that you need one so the kids at school will not beat up your kid because you dropped him off at school in the H2, you would have been better off spending the $60K on therapy for yourself than on the H2! Plus, in reality, after you spend the $60K, they'll still beat up your kid!
I haven't seen one H2 going on a safari.
I think that a new H2 should come with a 2 year tour of duty in Iraq. Because that is what the troops in Iraq are really fighting for, so you can still drive a gas guzzling behemouth, and the oil companies can keep raking in the profits!
Disagree? What countries were the 9/11 hijackers from? From what industry did the money that financed them come from?
You need four wheel drive? Take a look at a ten year old Ford Explorer, the best selling SUV, and a new one. Which is bigger?
The marketing people figured out a long time ago that it wasn't about NEEDS, it was about WANTS. And the marketing people said, "Make them bigger and tint the windows." And we bought them and financed the "terrorist". But more importantly, we increased the DEMAND (enriching the oil companies and our enemies at the same time.)
Our new energy policy does nothing to decrease DEMAND. Nor does it invest in new alternatives. It gives big tax breaks to the oil companies who are making record profits. If it takes $6.00/ gal. for the US to wake up, I hope it goes to $10.00/ gal. to really wake them up.
Because that is not the only thing that we need to be waken up about. We have an administration that ignores science. We have a president who promotes "creationism" and says "climate change" , not global warming is not happening. While China is producing scientist and engineers, we're producing lawyers.
Which states have the lowest graduation rates? Which states have the lowest scores on standardized test? Which states have the highest teen pregnancy rates? Which states are the leaders of our country from? If you have kids in school, thank God that you are living in New England and not in the Red states.
While this country is racing to the bottom, the rest of the world is racing to the top.
Gas prices? That's the least of out worries.

Woah, sounds like a Michael Moore movie

Only time will tell if "W" is the worst president in history. ............. Take away the two major events during his term that were beyond his control and what would people say about him?.... wow, have we ever gotten off the point!

i can't even imagine what would happen if i was ever in an accident with one of those bohemoths.

While I am no fan of H2's, lets not forget that their owners are pumping alot of money into the local economy wherever they go (ie, ski resorts)
As for this country headed for the gutter? That's nonsense. It's still the best country on earth and I wouldn't move from it no matter who was president.
Only time will tell if "W" is the worst president in history. I voted for him and while he hasn't been perfect, no president ever is. Take away the two major events during his term that were beyond his control and what would people say about him?.... wow, have we ever gotten off the point!

It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.
 
But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however—the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.
 
The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.
 
Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.
 
When did this calamity happen? It hasn't—yet. But the doomsday scenario is not far-fetched. The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great.

The more foreign oil we use, the more we empower the bad guys like Chavez and Zarqawi. It is just fundamental.

The truth isn't always pleasant to swallow. Worst President in US history IMHO.

[quote]The truth isn't always pleasant to swallow. Worst President in US history IMHO.

[quote]I think that a new H2 should come with a 2 year tour of duty in Iraq. Because that is what the troops in Iraq are really fighting for.

The shortsightness of this US Administration is amazing. This administration ignores World Opinion and Wisedom, ignores treaties and judgements against them. Is this country a good world citizen, I don't think so. Then the US wonders why so many people are anti-American. No it's not because it #1. Only in the US is this not news. I'm sad when I hear George Bush said that no one knew that the levee would give way, this is perfect example of what I'm saying.

I second Treebeard "Right On" for the previous rant.

The shortsightness of this US Administration is amazing. This administration ignores World Opinion and Wisedom, ignores treaties and judgements against them. Is this country a good world citizen, I don't think so. Then the US wonders why so many people are anti-American. No it's not because it #1. Only in the US is this not news. I'm sad when I hear George Bush said that no one knew that the levee would give way, this is perfect example of what I'm saying.

I second Treebeard "Right On" for the previous rant.

George Bush not knowing the levee would give way? Why don't you ask Clinton and HW Bush. They too thought it would hold. It was supposed to hold against a catagory 3. The storm that hit New Orleans was a catagory 3.

The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs.

There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:

"That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount. But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said."

The Senate was seeking to restore some of the SELA funding cuts for 2006. But now it's too late.

One project that a contractor had been racing to finish this summer: a bridge and levee job right at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach on Monday.

The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night observed, "The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast, only to be opposed by the White House. ... In its budget, the Bush administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they need."

Local officials are now saying, the article reported, that had Washington heeded their warnings about the dire need for hurricane protection, including building up levees and repairing barrier islands, "the damage might not have been nearly as bad as it turned out to be."

A few things...
Katrina hit the coast as a level 4, just downgraded from level 5. I don't think anyone is blaming Bush for the Hurricane, but he is responsible for the poor reaction to the devistation. When the ship runs aground, the Captain is responsible. FEMA is headed by one of his kronies now who has no disaster experience, and the Guard troops FEMA was waiting for are in Iraq (duh). GWB only reacted when he began to suffer politically, not because he percieved human suffering.

I'm wondering if he will declare a "War on Weather".

As for 9-11 and the war in Iraq, they are two completely unrelated issues that Mr.Bush has masterfully muddled together and convinced a large portion of the sheep-like public that somehow invading an oil rich country that possed NO THREAT to our safety (remember 9-11 had nothing to do with Iraq, that was Al Qida) is patriotic duty. It's not, it's an abuse of power. I feel for those troops that had to go because they were already enlisted at the time. I'm not sure what I feel for anyone who has signed up knowing they would go.

I feel like we're all living on the Titanic right now. Some of us are locked below in flooding cabins, while others are swaying to the dance band waiting to board a privite life boat pretending that everything is fine because they can't hear, or arn't listening to, the screams.

I think I'll dig out my life jacket.