Hi, Thom-- I just heard your near astonishment talking to a lucid-sounding progressive who says he might vote for Ron Paul. Even though you acknowledge merit to some of Paul's positions, you sound like the pile of reasons to oppose him massively outweighs reasons to support him. I'm less and less sure that's true. Yes, the bad pile is big and troubling. At the same time, Paul is the one and only anti-war anti-empire candidate, and the only candidate not dancing to the tune of Wall St banks (yes, I notice and like some of the President's rhetoric, and yes, there were pieces in the financial reg bill that were a little more than token...but he's also continuing prvate fundraising luncheons with Lloyd Blankfein and friends...what do you suppose they're talking about, the Mets?). That right there is a pretty damn big plus pile for Paul, given current times and what has to happen going forward.

This is NOT a no-brainer decision for true progressives. And, very crankily, I'm almost sure to end up voting for Obama.

One thing about Ron Paul. He can not be bought. He looks like a president, talks like a president and Dr. Paul is very intelligent. He has love for our freedoms and respects our freedoms and wants to keep it that way. He wants to put a stop on these military invasions.." No one is perfect . One does not have to agree with everything he says. But we need to start somewhere and turn this thing around, that is ending these wars pollutions, bring back law and order etc for our freedoms to ring once again now if not sooner. I can not imagine why anyone would not vote for Ron Paul. Its the times!

We have our heads in the sand. Nothing has ever occurred on the planet to compare to the meltdown at Fukashima. There is no science to explain what happened or to suggest what to do next. Everything is being invented on the fly. This is a possible global disaster and we are pretending it is only a local event. Before 1945 there was probably no more than 200 pounds of plutonium on the planet, now there are thousands of tons of this deadly element. Welcome to the nuclear age, the age of we don't care what we can't see. I hope that the top nuclear scientists in the world are quickly engaged to assist the Japanese to find a way to resolve this problem. In the meantime the Republican leaders want to build new nuclear profit plants, despite the dangers and the important questions we have no answers to, such as, what do we do with nuclear waste?

I began to produce solar power on a low level in 2007. My electricity bill declined a lot, although I only worked with AA batteries. Finally I worked with three panels, each 10 watts and a voltage regulator I had constructed myself. I tried to expand, but there wasn't anything on the market at my modest level. Presently I am watching the offers on the market, not producing any electricity. After laptops dropped in prices, solar panels actually should too -- but this didn't happen yet.

Personally I think, manufacturing solar panels shouldn't be a major argument for creating jobs. I hope this will be done by robots, so solar power will become very cheap and ergo even affordable for the majority....

I gave up in late summer 2009. As I said before, I'm watching the market. Well, I love my project (and my equipment, right now in the basement dumps) but it never was cost-effective. Not yet -- and this gotta change!

There is a natural phenomena called "Red Tide" that occurs sometimes which kills marine life. I saw this many years ago when a leopard shark had entered the marina and was swimming around and bumping into boats. I learned later that it was likely due to the Red Tide that was occurring at that time. But, I imagine marine biologist would be able to tell weather it was the Red Tide or radiation sickness that cause the seal's lesions and/or demise. I guess one would have to wait for a study to be done to determine this.

I know that everybody believes that nuclear energy is dirty and dangerous but that's simply not true. There is a very clean source of nuclear energy that comes from the element Thorium. Unlike uranium, thorium can be used in a much safer state which will not melt down. In fact, it can be used to burn off the dangerous radioactive waste that comes from uranium nuclear facilities. Russia and India have active facilities. The United States has an inactive facility from the 60's. There are 2 "problems" with this type of facility.

1) They don't produce weapon grade material. If you consider that a problem.

2) They used to be difficult to initiate. They used to need uranium for the intial fire up. There is a new technology base on particle accelerator technology that can create a safe nuclear plant the size of a McDonald's. It's called a pocket particle reactor.

There is enough thorium that we currently know of to power the earth for 1,000 years. There are several groups of scientists that have been trying to bring this to the forefront. It's difficult to find a negative narrative on the subject because of it's clean burning qualities. What little waste is left can be used in medical technology usage.

No fracking. No meltdowns.

Whether the seal problems are a result of the nuclear accidents or not may be an open question. However, that the world is clearly different now, post-Fukushima, is clear. In California we are taking steps to ensure that what happened in Japan doesn't happen on this side of the Pacific. We have a statewide initiative measure underway that would close all of our state's nuclear power plants. With enough signatures the issue will be before state voters in November 2012. Petitions are available for downloading and printing at californianuclearinitiative.com.