President Obama Tries to Get the Momentum Back on Health Care Reform

Skip, one question for you. Do you believe it was a coincidence that GM filed for bankruptcy? I'd say the people--the Free Market-- spoke.

With all due respect, do you even understand the Free Market?

And James I'd like to make one last comment about the 'free market'.

When GM closed it's electric car plant and bought Hummer instead they demanded the return of all the electric cars they had leased. The customers pleaded with them to let them buy the cars but were forced at lawyers pen-point in some cases to return them so GM could crush them all. They destroyed perfectly good working electric cars -and why? So nobody would find out how good they were. They didn't want people to find out about them because everybody would want one, and that's not what they wanted to sell us. They wanted us to buy big gas guzzling pieces of junk. What on Earth is free market about that? And BTW: the best patents for batteries are owned by the oil companies and they're sitting on them and challenging anyone in court that makes anything close. Don't tell me that if we just want to buy something that the 'free market' will make it available. They are fighting against the electric car.

"You do realize there is not enough capacity/excess electricity to handle this demand, correct?"

Not exactly. Of course we will need to use more fuel to generate more electricity for the cars. We may not need to build many more power plants however. Even though we use more lights at night our peak usage of electric power is during the day. Since there is no such thing as storage at this level most of the power plants cut back during the night, but that's when most people will be charging their electric cars, so the plants will just have to run at a higher output at night than they do now.

"Sorry, he's a dictator in the mold of Castro, Chavez, and Ortega."

Castro was not popularly elected.

If the world could put up with the US electing a complete idiot like George Bush, we can respect other countries decisions in regards to their leaders.

"Evo Morales is not a dictator. He's an indigenous Bolivian, and he and the indigenous of Bolivia have every right to control their own resources."

Sorry, he's a dictator in the mold of Castro, Chavez, and Ortega.

"Where is the electricity going to come from to power your electric car utopia?"

Response from Skip: We use existing sources for now.

You do realize there is not enough capacity/excess electricity to handle this demand, correct? So your response will be to build more capacity. Coal-fired plants? Libs won't allow it. Nuclear? Ditto. Natural gas? Doubtful (but with GE's Jeff Immelt acting at Obama's lap-boy, it is a possibility). What's left?

"Danita wrote: "Curious how the right chooses to label democratically-elected leaders 'dictators' whenever it suits their self-centered agenda."

Did you condemn the Left when they called President George W. Bush a dictator?
_____________________________________

Of course I did, but now that the Cheney revelations are coming out, I may have been wrong.

Danita wrote: "Curious how the right chooses to label democratically-elected leaders 'dictators' whenever it suits their self-centered agenda."

Did you condemn the Left when they called President George W. Bush a dictator?

Curious how the right chooses to label democratically-elected leaders 'dictators' whenever it suits their self-centered agenda.

Evo Morales is the democratically elected leader of a democratic country, not a dictator. Manipulative use of incorrect language, again - and as usual - in an attempt to smear the target.

Mike_C

If you remember the marketing of the SUV, it was pushed as 'freedom to go anywhere' and usually featured mountain top vistas, clean air and 'freedom'. Sold to the American public just like that - everybody is suddenly an 'adventurer' whereas in reality they're locked in traffic, burning up their own money and polluting the environment.

How many singles and couples without children bought SUV's Mike? For the 'image'. Any idea?

At any rate, they're dinosaurs now. Same with the Hummer and the other 'self-indulgent' image builders.

The future in automobiles is pretty obvious. Hell, even the dinosaurs know that now!

tip612: "Do you realize that Bolivian's leader (Evo Morales) is a Hugo Chavez crony who has nationalized most/all significant industries within Bolivia? Aren't we just trading one group of dictators for another?"

Evo Morales is not a dictator. He's an indigenous Bolivian, and he and the indigenous of Bolivia have every right to control their own resources.

For 500 years people of European heritage think that they have the right to steal and exploit the natural resources of the Americas, including human labor.

Whenever a president in Latin America wants to help his own people he is called a "threat." But Latin American countries where the people are brutally exploited by their governments, such as Mexico and Colombia, are called our "allies."

"Where is the electricity going to come from to power your electric car utopia?"

We use existing sources for now. It's way more efficient to produce power at a plant and put that energy into the existing grid than it is to refine the fuel into gas and then use more fuel to drive millions of gallons all over the place to gas stations. Some studies have estimated that electric cars may get the equivalent of 100mpg or more because of this increased efficiency. Power companies have stated that as more electric cars come online they will be able to ramp up output to meet the demands. It's also easier to maintain clean emissions at a large plant rather than trying to regulate the emissions of millions of individual vehicles.

SUV's are hardly marketable anymore. Thousands of SUV's have been sitting unsold on car lots around the country, and have for well over a year, because people finally began to wise up that they didn't really provide 'freedom to go anywhere!' - they just sucked up a whole lotta gas while you sit waiting in commuter traffic.

"Where is the electricity going to come from to power your electric car utopia?"

Magical rainbows and unicorns. Duh!

@ Skip,

Do you know what one of the primary component of batteries for electric vehicles? Lithium. Do you know what country controls 50% of lithium deposits in the world? Bolivia. Do you realize that Bolivian's leader (Evo Morales) is a Hugo Chavez crony who has nationalized most/all significant industries within Bolivia? Aren't we just trading one group of dictators for another?

BTW - Still waiting for an answer to prior question: Where is the electricity going to come from to power your electric car utopia?

I'm not trying to be a naysayer - I'm just pointing out that reality often differs significantly from your liberal utopia.

"If a company makes a product that doesn't fit the needs of the consumer, sales are slow or non-existent; and if that company doesn't change their product they will eventually go out of business."

That's all true except for the 'eventually' part. Our car companies crashed before they had time to change their products. You guys should look into electric car design more before comparing them to two seater golf carts. We could be driving real electric sedans, station wagons and minivans now that outperform gas cars in most ways except for range--but that will improve with battery design--if our auto industry had some foresight. The piston engine car is at a technological dead end, it's only a matter of time now.

@ Skip,

Where is the electricity going to come from to power your electric car utopia?

(think before you reflexively respond "renewables such as wind, solar, and biofuels" as these fuel sources each have serious limitations, especially on a large scale)

Hey Skip,

The car companies did not "kill" the electric car. No one really took any of this seriously until gas went to $4-$5 per gallon. As long as gas was cheap, the extremely mobile society that we have was not going to give up their freedom to be chained down to a golf cart! Limited distance/speed in an affordable, mass producable vehicle is what killed the electric car.

If the vehicle was accepted by the masses, it would have been successful years ago. Just look at the Dodge Caravan as a simple example of a vehicle that the masses took to. It helped to spawn the whole modern "SUV" market.

Electric cars are still not something that the masses are going to run out and buy right now.

Skip wrote: "No it's really the right who wants to dictate the products you will buy by not offering alternatives and letting markets alone drive the choices."

With all due respect, do you even understand the Free Market? In the Free Market, it is the people who decide what products they want. If a company makes a product that doesn't fit the needs of the consumer, sales are slow or non-existent; and if that company doesn't change their product they will eventually go out of business. If a company produces a great product, one that meets the needs of the consumer then sales are great.

The people know what cars they need. If you have 4-6 children, you don't want a two-seat electric car that only goes 40 mph and needs to be plugged in to recharge every 100 miles. THAT is why the SUV is so popular. You make an electric car that will hold 8 people, go 75 mph and can run 8 hours before needing to be plugged in for charging, sales will go through the roof.

Even the hybrids are not selling all that well because there are limitations. As soon as an auto manufacturer makes a hybrid that will run on the battery up to 45 mph, instead of 25 mph, before the gas engine takes over, then sales will skyrocket.

"The Left wants to be able to dictate the products that we will buy...

And eventually you may be forced to give up your SUV for an electric car."

No it's really the right who wants to dictate the products you will buy by not offering alternatives and letting markets alone drive the choices. Clear evidence of that is how the car companies killed the electric car projects so that we can buy many types of gas guzzling SUVs easily enough but we can't really buy a true electric car yet.