Thanks for the corrections to the errors. I enjoyed the response. You are fortunate to have several electrical power providers in your area to choose from, instead of a monopoly as many of us in other areas of the country have. While we differ in political views I believe that is one of the great things about this country, the freedom to express our different opinions.
I do not agree with Bush being a fascist, however I do agree that I should not have refered to liberals as fascist.
Lets put our political differences aside for a moment and look at the bigger picture. What this nation has is a broken political system. Whether a person be a Democrat or Republican, none of us are getting propper representation in the House and Senate. The vast majority of politicians are puppets to whoever is in control of the purse strings. What happened to PUBLIC SERVICE?
I believe politicians are now, and have been for a very long time SELF SERVING. Even our current administration, in my opinion, are self serving. We as tax paying citizens deserve better and propper representation by men and women who are committed to our best interest, not political agendas.
Perhaps with the technology we have available today we really don’t need the politicians as our forefathers did. Many of the issues that we entrust the Congress and Senate to decide on could actually be voted on today by the people of this nation? It would certainly cut down on political corruption and wasteful spending. Oops, that would get into someones pockets.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+do+i+switch+electric+companies%3F

>They can’t, the utility company which supplies a specific area with
>electricity is what you have. No changing. Therefore the additional costs
>to the companies or coops which supply electricity will be passed along
>to the consumer. End of story.

Perhaps in your area this is true, but it isn’t that way everywhere. I live
in North Central Texas, which was traditionally controlled by T.U. Electric,
which later became T.X.U., but currently, I use Reliant, and am about to
switch to Green Mountain Energy, which uses wind farms to generate
their power. They all use a company called OnCor to connect and dis-
connect customers. I guess in some states or areas within states, their
is still no de-regulation of utilities. I think if we can get more solar and
wind and hydrodynamic systems going, and more companies can deliver
energy to customers from clean, renewable sources at competitive rates,
more and more people will switch, starting with those who actually care
about protecting the environment for “our children and grandchildren”,
followed later by those who want to seem conscientious or appear trendy,
and finally, at some point, the people who love oil and coal but get
tired of paying extra to help destroy the planet.

>As far as the bailouts and bonuses, you are so focused on what the liberal
>administration and media want you to concentrate on you are not seeing
>the entire picture.

I am an Independent. I only trust or believe the Democrats about 1/2 to 1%
more than the Republicans, because the Democrats at least tell the poor
and middle classes what they want to hear, rather than blatantly ignoring
their needs. However, I take everything I hear in the media with a grain of
salt, whether it’s liberal or conservative, because, over time, as fewer
corporations control all of the media outlets, the news becomes subject
to more censorship by advertising interests. I spend a great deal of time
researching and contemplating, and see more of the big picture than
most people do, thank you very much!

>First of all, most of the current crisis stemmed from the liberals pushing
>for everyone to own a home.

Damn liberals, trying to make things where the normal people can enjoy
“the American Dream” which should only be a reality for the exploitative
rich…

>This began with the Clinton administration and further escalated once the
>Democrats gained control of the House and Senate. As a result we ended
>up with people buying homes with ARM mortgages that when the rates
>went up they could not afford.

I should think that opportunistic companies are more to blame for this
than politicians, wouldn’t you think? Or do you blame Democrats for slick
talking used car salesmen who sweet talk and bullshit people into cars
that they can’t afford, only to repossess them and make more interest
off of several other people without ever losing controlling interest in
their product?

>Then we get the foreclosures beginning followed by the financial demise
>of the banks who either made or bought the sub prime notes.

This wasn’t Democrats or Liberals; this was corporate greed, personal
(over)optimism, and de-regulation by Bush era Conservative Republicans.

>Then the mortgage insurers have to start picking up the tab on all the
>defaulted loans which carried mortgage insurance, such as AIG. The
>financial industry is not blind and sees the inevitable coming, hence
>the decline in the entire financial industry as a whole.

Our current economic crisis is a direct result of the hands-off approach
of Conservative Republicans that allowed cheating and stealing and bad
decisions, and now the same people don’t want the government to get
involved to fix things, as if, somehow, magically, the executives and
companies who have screwed everyone with their short-sighted greed
are going to all of a sudden change their ways without oversight.

>Unfortunately many of our entrusted Congressmen and Senators as well
>as other high ranking government officials have constituents and financial
>ties in the financial industry and therefore voted for bailing out these
>doomed institutions. They should have let it run its course, the strong
>survive, the weak and greedy fail.

On this we agree. Democrats and Republicans are both, as a group, but
possibly (not probably) with personal exceptions, corrupted and OWNED
by big business. And in free market capitalism, which is what Conservatives
give lip-service to, the companies would have failed and better ones would
have taken their places.

>Would it have impacted us? Most certainly, but yet with the TRILLIONS of
>dollars being spent I and millions of Americans are still unemployed.

I too am unemployed. But I think if trillions are being spent on the “War
on Terror”, and the “War on Drugs” and the “War on Big Corporate Failure”,
I don’t see why we should spend some trillions on stopping global warming,
stopping our dependence on foreign oil, and helping our working people
with new jobs, and affordable education and healthcare…

>Why is this? One reason is the banks have not released the money they
>recieved. Everyone was in such a hurry to pass this garbage they call a
>stimulus package that they did not even read it.

I’m sure the Republicans and Democrats knew that there was no provision
on how the money was to be spent, and I am also sure that the people
that they are giving hundreds of billions to greased their palms with some
millions to make it that way.

>There is a provision in it for the AIG bonuses. The bonuses at AIG totalled
>65 million, how about the 40 BILLION that was channeled through the AIG
>bailouts, unknown to most of you, to foreign banks.

If that was the provision for bonuses, then they have already exceeded it
by 100 million, according to most news sources. As for the billions to foreign
banks, I have heard of that, and assume that is because this country is
being sold out from under us to overseas entrepreneurs. In Texas, our
Conservative Republican Governer Rick Perry, who is practically a clone
of George W. Bush, both in action and in head bobs and squints as he
lies, is selling our tollways to other countries, and I am sure he makes
money on the deals.

>This is what big government and government control gets you.
As I have said, the Bush administration did a LOT of financial
de-regulation, and that contributed to the monkey business that has
caused the crash. If the government, which is big anyway, had been
big enough to police the rich the way they police the rest of us, tapping
our phones without warrants, harassing us on the streets, abducting and
torturing us, and basically gagging us, handcuffing us, and shoving lights
up our asses on a hunch, then they couldn’t have gotten away with the
Credit Default Swap and Ponzi Scheming nonsense!

>The economy was in worse shape during and immediately following the
>Carter administration.

Primarily due to the oil crisis, which was caused by OPEC artificially
limiting supply to increase demand and price, as they always do. Carter
had solar panels on the White House to provide some power. Reagan
removed them. Bush Sr. left them off. Clinton replaced them. Bush Jr.
took them off. I assume that Obama will replace them, if he hasn’t already.
I think this is a small sign of which party is more in big oil’s pockets.

>It was on when Ronald Reagan implimented decreasing the size of
>government and major tax cuts to individuals and businesses did it turn
>around.

It was also Reagan who helped big agri-business to put farmers out of work.
It seems Republicans like big government when it helps the big (rich) guy,
and likes little government interference when it will help the little (poor) guy.

>FDR actually prolonged the great depression by increasing taxes to
>business and industry and creating more government programs to
>supposedly help the economy. Sound familiar?

Yes, it sounds very familiar. This is the nonsense that Fox News and
Conservative bloggers were talking about last week. It’s the latest in a
string of half-truths designed to comfort conservative thinkers and to
convert liberals (but that’s not working). If you want some more info
on the FDR “New Deal didn’t work” concept, read New Republic
magazine. It explains that for the first year only of his presidency,
unemployment grew, and that was because he caved to pressure
from Conservative advisors. The next year, he made more Liberal
changes with more reform programs, and the economy recovered.

>Perhaps you and the rest of the liberals, socialists, fascists and
>communists, including the current administration could learn from
>history.

I obviously have learned much more from history than you; fascists
are not the same as socialists and communists. It is fair to label
Liberal Democrats as socialist or communist as they desire to spread
the wealth from the rich to the poor, as the rich got wealthy by
exploiting the labor and consumerism of the poor (the money didn’t
come from out of nowhere, did it?). However, it is Conservative
Republicans who are the fascists. Fascism consists of a strong dictator,
like Bush, who acts without the approval of congress, and makes
war in the name of nationalism, while exploiting and neglecting the
unfortunate. Bush, like Hitler, is a fascist. I guess if you wanted to
compare Obama to Hitler, you could point out that Hitler took wealth
from the Jews, and Obama plans to take wealth from the rich, Jews
or not, but this is a stretch. Obama isn’t planning on taking all of the
wealth from the wealthy and putting them in ghettos, then work camps,
then death camps, then gas chambers. He only plans on taking enough
to get the poor back to working for the rich. And Obama isn’t acting
without the approval of Congress, like Bush did.

I hope you have learned something from me today. By the way, I
fixed your spelling and grammatical and punctuation errors. You are
welcome.

As far as the bailouts and bonuses, you are so focused on what the liberal administration and media want you to concentrate on you are not seeing the entire picture. First of all, most of the current crisis stemmed from the liberals pushing for everyone to own a home. This began with the Clinton administration and further escalated once the democrats gained controled the house and senate. As a result we ended up with people buying homes with ARM mortgages that when the rates went up they could not afford. Then we get the forclosures beginning followed by the financial demise of the banks who either made or bought the sub prime notes. Then the mortgage insurers have to start picking up the tab on all the defaulted loans which carried mortgage insurance, such as AIG. The financial industry is not blind and sees the inevitable coming, hence the decline in the entire financial idustry as a whole. Unfortunately many of our entrusted Congressmen and Senators as well as other high ranking government officials have constituants and finacial ties in the financial industry and threfore voted for bailing out these doomed institutions. They should have let it run its course, the strong survive, the weak and greedy fail. Would it have impacted us? Most certainly, but yet with the TRILLIONS of dollars being spent I and millions of Americans are still unemployed. Why is this? One reason is the banks have not released the money they recieved. Everyone was in such a hurry to pass this garbage they call a stimulus package that they did not even read it. There is a provision in it for the AIG bonuses. The bonuses at AIG totalled 65 million, how about the 40 BILLION that was channeled through the AIG bailouts, unknown to most of you, to foreign banks. This is what big government and government control gets you. The enconomy was in worse shape during and immediately following the Carter administration. It was on when Ronald Reagan implimented decreasing the size of government and major tax cuts to individuals and businesses did it turn around. FDR actually prolonged the great depression by increasing taxes to business and industry and creating more government programs to supposedly help the economy. Sound familiar?
Perhaps you and the rest of the liberals, socialist, fascist and communist, including the current administration could learn from history.

I don’t know of many small businesses right now that are hiring anybody, do you?

What I see is the wealthy getting bailouts and bonuses but still making reductions in work forces and increasing prices for their customers, so it would seem that the only solution to prevent the majority of the middle class from becoming homeless and hungry as more and more of them become unemployed is to take some of the candy from the rich kid’s overflowing pumpkins and share it with the poor kids they stole it from.

This might be true, but doesn’t it also mean that Americans will switch to energy companies that use non polluting sources, and thus more energy companies will switch to clean, renewable sources?