Energy Independence (by Anonymous, on July 1, 2009)
Id do a bit of everything (never happen in DC though unfortunately). Drill on the coasts and in Alaska (a stopgap at best but realistically it would be temporary and eventually the land would return to normal after the oil is harvested), Mine Uranium and Coal (stopgap as well), use natural gas from us (another stopgap), build wind power / solar (Id make it all tax deductable big time), and build nuclear power plants (a stopgap as well but longer term than oil since Canada US and Australia have most of the uranium), and look into oil shale (us has huge reserve) as a last ditch item. Id make Nuclear Power tax free as well (or subsidized by government). Anything to improve overall balance of trade and keep our cashflow here in the U.S. I would Invest in electric cars (like the Tesla company) but Id lean towards make buying them tax free with a hefty tax credit to boot. I feel the answer with alternative is tax credits and tax freedom/incentives, not government splurging and taxing. If you go with the method i propose the market will decide which alternative energy company succeeds. I feel cap and trade is just a way for the congress to find another source of revenue without calling it a tax. A more pie in the sky approach would be to continue to Fund fusion research (National Ignition facility etc and the European one). The problem there is materials science to find materials that can contain the heat of the fusion reaction in the reaction chamber. Id work on that first before building the fusion reactor. On the crazy side, Id move toward for zero population growth (yeah that will be popular LOL) since fundamentally people are the environmental problem when you get down to it. If you really buy into global warming thats the ultimate solution. Nobody will touch that with a 10 foot pole though as it would be political suicide. But I feel methods like cap and trade are just smoke and mirrors for the true environmental issue - we have too many people on the earth.

Waiting times as a function of voting equipment (by jones172, on January 25, 2009)
Dear Mr. Bittle and Mr. Rochkind: From Thomas L. Jones DrJones@alum.MIT.edu Date: January 26, 2009 First, congratulations on your excellent survey of Voter experiences in the November 4 election. Would you consider providing some information about voting place lines as a function of voting equipment? Specifically, what fraction of respondents: (1) Reported that they had to wait far too long in line, and also: (2) Voted with hand-marked paper ballots, or voted with touch-screen machines? The hypothesis is that hand-marked paper ballots (for able-bodied voters), often with optical-scan technology, are FAR more resistant to voting place lines, because of the ease with with election officials can expand capacity at modest cost, merely by adding voting stations which cost about $200 each. By contrast, adding a DRE machine costs about $3,000 and has roughly the same throughput capacity. All the best, Tom Jones

Native Americans today (by Anonymous, on August 23, 2009)
I am German and I have been taught a lot about native Americans in my English lessons, from an American teacher! Yes, we are partially involved as the majority of U.S. and ourselves are both of European origin. What has happened to the native Americans during the 19th century is comparable with the Holocaust. The fate of the Jews and native American during the 19th century is comparable in the point that treatment reached from persecution to trying to assimilate them into the mainstream society. Non-Jewish citizens had also crude stereotypes towards them. By the end of the 19th century the Jews have taken a courageous decision: To work on getting back their homeland, but even more important: To revive the Hebrew language and with it their ancient identity from what has remained of the past. Native Americans can learn from the Jews. They have to take a decision what they want for the future: Rebuilding their culture and reviving their languages in order to preserve their distinct identity or assimilate into the mainstream society. This question will certainly be answered different by each native American. I think that the key to preserve and rebuild the distinct identity lies in the economic development of the reservations in order to recollect members of the tribe. Nobody wants to abolish the U.S. in order give the whole of America back to the native Americans. It would furthermore be impossible. But it is possible to enlarge the reservations in order to improve their economic and infrastructural possibilities. The mainstream society has to consider if:they really want to continue to live with the debt from the past and work towards a monotonous English-only culture. A true reconciliation and rebuilding thriving native American communities will certainly of use for the whole nation. The non-native Americans should acknowledge native American culture as heritage of the country and native Americans should develope the will to rebuild their identity. Teaching about history and contemporaty life of native Americans in schools should also include the option to learn a local native American language. Last but not least native Americans ought to be prepared to forgive the whites what had happened. Forgiving is an important base for peace in general.

It's unfortunate how we (by Anonymous, on March 17, 2009)
It's unfortunate how we treat Native Americans in the country anymore. It's kind of a cliche to say this, but the Native Americans were once a proud and mighty people. Now, because of what we've done to them, they are just a stereotype. Now in America we're more concerned about athletes on teams named after Native Americans doing drugs than we are with actual Native Americans doing drugs. They have such a high rate of drug abuse and crime and I had no idea until I read this report. It's upsetting to know how they've been living all these years. How people have criticized them for doing things like running casinos, when really we should e the ones criticized after performing a mass genocide to them. We just need to try to help save the culture of the Native Americans. It should be save the Indian, and the man.