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Obama Announces for President, Boosts Broadband

Posted by kdawson on from the ethanol-and-fat-pipes-for-all dept.

Arlen writes "As many as 17,000 people (according to police estimates) watched Senator Barack Obama officially announce his candidacy for President in Springfield, Illinois today. He mentioned several things that will interest readers of Slashdot. The Senator said he wanted to free America from 'the tyranny of oil' and went on to promote alternative energy sources such as ethanol — a popular stance in the Midwest where he announced, because of all the corn farmers. He also talked about using science and technology to help those with chronic diseases, which is likely to have been an allusion to his staunch support for stem cell research. Perhaps most of interest to readers here is the following statement halfway through Obama's speech: 'Let's invest in scientific research, and let's lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America. We can do that.' Like nearly everything in his speech, this was met with robust applause from the crowd. You can watch a video of the entire speech at Obama's website."

5 of 846 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I notice he didn't mention... by Xonstantine · · Score: 5, Informative

    besides, in large urban centers and suburban areas Gun Control LOWERS crime rates, not increases them.

    You mean like in Washington D.C.?

    Or maybe you mean Chicago

    Both cities have what is considered to be fairly draconian gun control laws by US standards. Both have violent crime rates well in excess of the national average.

  2. Re:So... by splodus · · Score: 5, Informative
    The Privacy Candidate

    Bill Would Extend Online Obscenity Laws to Blogs, Mailing Lists

  3. Because Obama is Jesus Christ 2.0 by RichPowers · · Score: 5, Informative

    Slate currently has an "Obama Messiah Watch" column that chronicles the media's excessive praise of the would-be-president.

    http://www.slate.com/id/2159502/?nav=navoa

    1. Re:Because Obama is Jesus Christ 2.0 by paganizer · · Score: 5, Informative

      They won't if he wins the election. He's against private gun ownership.
      For example, in 2003, Obama voted in support of SB1195, which, if passed, would have banned most of the privately held hunting shotguns, target rifles, and black powder rifles in the state. If the ban was enacted, law enforcement officials would have been authorized to forcibly enter private homes to confiscate newly banned firearms.
      (copied from caosblog.com, but I verified it)
      Enough to get me to vote for whoever isn't him.

      --
      Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
  4. Re:Midwest by tap · · Score: 5, Informative

    The negative side of ethanol is that the net positive side is very small to non-existant. It takes a lot of nearly as much oil to produce the ethanol from corn as the ethanol saves. The best figured I've seen is it takes 1 barrel of oil to produce the ethanol equivalent of 1.2 barrels of oil. And then you have to take into account the other side effects of corn production, the pesticides, the fertilizer run-off, the phosphate use, etc. Ethanol from corn is more of a government gift to to corn farmers than it is an effective means of reducing dependence on foreign oil or CO2 emissions. It would be far more cost effective to spend the money in a way that reduces energy use, like replacing incandescent light bulbs with compact-flourescent or funding ways of making cities less car dependent.