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You know those cars that are "flex fuel" capable? The ones that can run on gasoline OR M85, and some of them any combination of gasoline, ethanol, and methanol, Jimmy Carter was behind that.
Those darn fuel prices went down after he left office, though. Too bad all the free-market visionaries just dried up. They do seem to be reviving, though.
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During his term he pushed through legislation that gave auto makers a tax break for producing flex-fuel cars.
Can't call that a bad thing! Several dozen (modern) cars out there can actually use that stuff, but it's up to the people (that's us) to pay attention.
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He did a number of other things to push this nation towards energy independence, and if it hadn't been for Reagan, George Bush Sr., and George Bush Jr. undoing much of what he did, we would be sending our kids to die in Iraq, 9/11 probably would not have happened, and we wouldn't be paying $3/gallon for gasoline.
I strongly suspect that if Carter had been a bit more (okay, a LOT more) forceful in dealing with the terrorist kidnappers, there wouldn't be such a mess to clean up today. The silly goober (goober! goober!) basically just kept asking sweetly for them to be nice and return the poor Americans.
9/11 might not have happened if W's predecessor had dealt strongly with those people who only understand force and might, and who have declared since the 1970s, openly and publicly, that their goal is to bring the ENTIRE WORLD under Islam. I do believe they will fight until they are either completely killed off (like cancer), or they win. Ain't no negotiatin' with cancer!
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Jimmy Carter also pushed through the Freedom of Information act, which for the first time actually gave us some visibility of what our government was doing.
A straight honest administration wouldn't have a problem with it's citizens knowing what it was doing, but Reagan and both Bushes gutted the act. Bush Jr. even went so far as to re-classify previously de-classified documents.
Mostly true. There are some instances, though, when it's good to let the professionals who are committed to national security go about their business. When all Americans know which suspected terror cells are being spied upon, so do the terrorists. I'd rather get rid of those roaches. (Terrorists, not citizens.)
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Now what we got is a government of the people by the oil oligarchies for the oil oligarchies.
I'm not really in love with big oil, but I don't think the Alaskan tundra (f'rinstance) will be doomed by drilling. Foreign oil could be a disappearing act really soon now. Individuals need to take responsibility for their consumption of whatever they consume, be it food, oil or late night television. We're a really self-centered society.
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Jimmy Carter didn't have much in the way of political savvy and that's too bad because he was the only honest president that actually put the interests of this country first, that we've had in my lifetime
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Hmmmm. Funny, I feel that way about Reagan! I expect that no human could be a perfect president. Didn't seem quite right that he (Carter & friends) kicked out all those innocent Iranians in November of '79. Reminds me somewhat of the Japanese internment during WW2. Not highly humanitarian!
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Yes, the attempted rescue of the Iranian hostages failed, but it was a lot better than trading weapons for the hostages ala Reagan.
You bet! Go in there and kick their butts to the moon is more like it. Doggone politicians....trying to use diplomacy and barter instead of blaze on in.
Funny how the terrorists released the hostages in the same hour that Reagan took office.
Still, I can only rant about past presidential baloney for so long before I need a nap. Or a beer. I'll have to settle for a nap this time, since I'm fresh outta beer
Tara