T Boone gets my vote

[IWorkAsDirected]

Whataya think?

 

[over9five]

He's older than McCain!!!

 

[IWorkAsDirected]

And wiser than any other I've listened to. Maybe it comes with age....or experience.....or just down home common sense and true loyalty!

 

[tieguy]

Tboone makes some good points but don't forget he owns a company that specializes in alternative fuel sources.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

We are going through the development of several wind farms in our region. There have been a lot of tense negotiations leading up to the approval and construction of these farms, some of which have pitted neighbor against neighbor. It is an unfortunate coincidence that the area best suited for these farms, due to elevation and average wind speed, are among our more economically underdeveloped areas, due to their rural nature, so these wind farms come in, spend all sorts of money to support the schools, fix the roads and upgrade the infrastructure, and then make annual lease payments to the property owners who agree to let the companies install their windmills on their property. We are talking upwards of $10-15K/year for property owners who have more than 1 windmill on their property in an area where median income is just below $30K.

These windmills are state of the art. The housing which holds the blades rotates to catch as much wind as possible. The windmills are positioned to also catch as much wind as possible. These things are huge!! I have stood directly under one and you do hear the "swooshing" of the blades but the noise is such that you do get used to it after a while, much the same as living next to an airport and getting used to the noise from the planes.

I am a strong supporter for the development of alternative fuels, as obviously Mr. Pickens is (although, as Tie correctly pointed out, he just happens to have an interest in such a company), as I would love to both see us end our dependence on foreign oil while working to lessen and even reverse the effects of global warming.

 

[IWorkAsDirected]

We are going through the development of several wind farms in our region. There have been a lot of tense negotiations leading up to the approval and construction of these farms, some of which have pitted neighbor against neighbor. It is an unfortunate coincidence that the area best suited for these farms, due to elevation and average wind speed, are among our more economically underdeveloped areas, due to their rural nature, so these wind farms come in, spend all sorts of money to support the schools, fix the roads and upgrade the infrastructure, and then make annual lease payments to the property owners who agree to let the companies install their windmills on their property. We are talking upwards of $10-15K/year for property owners who have more than 1 windmill on their property in an area where median income is just below $30K.

These windmills are state of the art. The housing which holds the blades rotates to catch as much wind as possible. The windmills are positioned to also catch as much wind as possible. These things are huge!! I have stood directly under one and you do hear the "swooshing" of the blades but the noise is such that you do get used to it after a while, much the same as living next to an airport and getting used to the noise from the planes.

I am a strong supporter for the development of alternative fuels, as obviously Mr. Pickens is (although, as Tie correctly pointed out, he just happens to have an interest in such a company), as I would love to both see us end our dependence on foreign oil while working to lessen and even reverse the effects of global warming.

Uhh....and what interests do other candidates have? Not ones that will benefit the public in most cases, or the environment in almost all cases.

 

[IWorkAsDirected]

Oops..I gues T Boone really isn't an official candidate, but maybe that's a good thing, he won't be handicapped in that way.

 

[wkmac]

He's older than McCain!!!

I gotta share a funny on that point but before I do, Tie's point about Boone's ownership is very, very important. Although I've been big on alternative power for several decades (big fan of MotherEarth News in it's heyday and have been longtime advocate for HomePower Magazine) Boone wants to go forward with his plan but this is by no means a purely free market approach. He does advocate taxpayer funds to be used in this process.

Tie's warning was dead on the point IMO. Nice call Tie!

OK, now to the funny concerning McCain. A week ago yesterday (Saturday) my kids marched in a parade with a marching band. Well not far from our band was a group for Obama and of course encouraging people to vote Obama. Well one of the drummers keep yelling "Obama's gonna lose, McCain's gonna win!" Now at first the Obama folks just ignored him but he just kept it up and wouldn't stop. My daughter is lead snare and section leader and she couldn't get him to shut up. And he paid for it at the next practice with lots of laps and push ups too but finally the Obama folks had enough and came right up to this kid. Now I even stood up and walked over thinking this thing was about to go real bad when one of the Obama folks got right in his face and asked him, "What makes you so sure McCain will beat Obama?" And his reply was a gutbuster.

"Because McCain's a grand daddy and everyone loves grand daddies!"

Even the Obama folks fell out with the rest of us on that one! The best part was walking the parade and being in a heavy republican district their were numerous cries of Go McCain and the Obama folks would answer Go Obama and our loud mouth drummer would always chime in, "Go Granddaddy!" to which the Obama crowd would fall out laughing again to the clueless look of parade spectators.

After the parade the Obama folks were pretty good sports about the whole thing and several folks walked up and asked what was so funny and before they said anything I chimed up Obama if for legalization of marijuana and we've been smoking in the parade and they just had a heavy does of the giggles.

Even though I'm not gonna vote Obama we had a lot of good laughs and fun that day with about 30 or 40 of his local supporters. Very nice folks except for who they are gonna vote for.

 

[diesel96]

Wow.....this time I agree with T-Guy about T-Boone.
He does have a ton of money and is 80 years old and has a legacy and a pot of gold for his grandkids, so whats his motivation? Yes he has a financial stake on alternative energy, but I feel he has a genuine concern about America's future and a hatred for financing OPEC nations.

Pickens has met with both Barack Obama and John McCain, and surprised many analysts by going to the Democratic National Convention in Denver to push his energy plan. Pickens says that this time around, he is having no trouble working with Democrats. He says he is having more trouble working with some Republicans, who, he says, seem convinced they can "drill their way out" of the U.S. energy crisis by resuming offshore oil production in U.S waters.

By surprised by going to the DNC, it was four years ago Pickens funded debunked ads smearing John Kerry's vietnam experience.

 

[over9five]

By surprised by going to the DNC, it was four years ago Pickens funded debunked ads smearing John Kerry's vietnam experience.

If I remember right, he also offered like a million dollars to anyone who could prove his ads wrong. Several people (including Kerry) might have proved it, but Pickens would never pay up.

 

[wkmac]

I guess he couldn't get the gov't hand out sooooo anyone wanna buy a windmill cheap?


Interesting that this also came out today considering the Pickens story.