Liberal Democracy

Liberal Democracy
The Free State

Monday, September 16, 2013

James Miller Center: President Gerald Ford: Address on Energy Policy (1975)

Source:James Miller Center- President Gerald R. Ford (Republican, Michigan) speaking about energy policy in 1975.
Source:The FreeState

"President Gerald Ford proposes ways to address the growing energy crises, and criticizes the Democratic-led Congress for refusing to let him move on energy reform.

May 27th, 1975" 


"Gerald Ford

May 27, 1975

Source National Archives
President Ford addresses the American people to discuss his efforts to pass an energy policy bill. He points to a lack of cooperation by Congress to enact any legislation to make the United States less dependent on foreign oil, conserve energy, and increase domestic production. The President and Congres eventually reach an agreement in December 1975 with the passage of the Omnibus Energy Bill." 


President Ford, showing a lot of leadership in 1975, taking on energy policy and even energy independence, figuring out that the energy shortages of the early and mid 1970s were bad for the economy as a whole. Not just energy production, as well as our foreign policy having to rely on other countries that aren’t very dependable, to provide a huge superpower with energy. And that if America could produce more energy on our own, it would benefit both our economy as well as foreign policy. 

The Great Deflation, is how you could sum up the American economy in the 1970s. Part of that having to do with the fact that even though America has about the most natural resources in the world, perhaps only Russia, has the ability to produce more energy for their own country than America and yet we were dependent on other countries for our energy supply. Because we haven’t up until lately, the last few years, done a very good job of developing all of our energy industries. Oil, gas, natural gas, nuclear, solar and wind. 

We produce all of these resources and have the ability to be leaders in all of these resources in the world and become energy independent. But haven’t done a very good job of moving these energy resources along.

Movieman Trailers: Escape From Alcatraz (1979) Starring Clint Eastwood



Source:Movieman Trailers- Clint Eastwood's Escape From Alcatraz.

Source:The Daily Post

“Escape from Alcatraz Trailer [HQ] No Copyright Infringement Intended.”


If I had to put a short list, top 5-10 Clint Eastwood movies of all-time, (which are all great movies, by the way) Alcatraz would be on that list. Probably somewhere between 6-10, with Heartbreak Ridge and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot being at the top.

Escape From Alcatraz is of course about the 1962 escape of this famous prison by Frank Morris and two other career criminals that apparently no other prison in the country could hold. John Anglin and Clarence Anglin being the other two inmates. The movie shows how the inmates got out. The question did they survive and make it to San Francisco, or another island.

This movie also give viewers another look at Clint Eastwood who generally plays a no-nonsense, tough guy, who enforces the law and even uses controversial means to do that, but always gets the bad guy. In Alcatraz, he’s not only a bad guy, but he’s the chief bad guy that other bad guys look up to. He plays a criminal genius at least as far as IQ and intelligence in Frank Morris, who figures out how to escape from Alcatraz. And also happens to be friends in prison with two other men who are also experts in making prison escapes, the Anglin brothers.

Escape From Alcatraz not only shows you how these three inmates escaped from prison, but also gives you an inside look of what life inside of Alcatraz was for inmates and staff. How deadly boring it simply could be, unless you had a job as an inmate and how much time the inmates spent by themselves in individual cells. And what tactics, measures and extremes even the staff at Alcatraz would go to, to keep the prison secure. Like locking up inmates in solitary when they get into fights, but locking up in a completely dark dungeon twenty-four hours a day. And is very interesting and great movie.