Nation Building at Home

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This morning on the Imus Show, Tom Friedman introduced a theme he says is vital and not being addressed by either party in this election campaign: nation building at home.

I guess he wasn't listening to Barack Obama's Invesco Field speech and Obama's plan for funding innovation and entrepreneurship and new energy technologies. Maybe Friedman was jet-porting somewhere between Beijing and HongKong or something.

This morning we're seeing already in George W. Bush's infomercial for the Republican "drill, drill, drill" mantra that the Rethug solution is NOT innovation and new technologies. Nope. The same ol' same ol' party ain't going to be the one to heed Friedman's message that innovative energy technology and nation-building-at-home are what this election should be about.

For those who are landlocked inside our borders, quaking in the corner while Lou Dobbs thunders about keeping the "out" out, nodding in agreement with Cokie's calling our 50th State foreign and exotic, for those who suck up everything the Limbaugh - Hannity - reichwing talk radio is pissin' the way their SUVs suck up gas, the Rethuglican party is right on point.

But for those who stop and actually analyze the problem and educate themselves and vote for their best interests instead of against, this is a pivotal moment.

Do we want more of the same ol' same ol' that keeps us with the hands of Putin and Saudi on America's cojones puttin' the squeeze...cause that's what oil dependence offers us.

Do we want more of the same ol' same ol' that leaves us playin' catch-up...or worse yet, sitting on the side of the road as the world passes us by?

Friedman put it about as succinctly and so vividly even the shallow thinkers oughta "get it"...flying from Shanghai to LaGuardia is like flying from The Jetsons to The Flintstones....

So pick your issues this year, folks...I've got my take. Scarborough&Mika pushing the Palin pregnant kid story in the typical "we're so offended this is being talked about that we're going to talk about it" phony fashion.

In the long run, I don't care diddly-doo about whether somebody's kid is knocked-up.

I do care that too many in what Friedman calls "brain dead Washington" are perpetuating knocking all of us down.

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Audio of Friedman not yet up on the website, but here's the page where Imus Show interviews appear as soon as available.
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