Keystone pipeline edditorial

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-pipeline-20120119,0,3017097.story
 Evaluate the author’s intended audience, the author’s credibility, and their argument (including their claim, evidence, and logic
I think the author was trying to reach Americans scared about the job crisis. The job crisis is very real, and it affects Americans of all parties, one thing I know about growing up and working in South Texas is that oil brings jobs. I'm  all about alternative resources, but their just not an option yet, most likely because someone wants it that way. Oil is a staple that we need, and environmentalists have taken this one to the extreme. If the keystone pipeline never opens up, the oil will most likely end up here anyway. Barge ships will bring it to refineries because we're the only ones who have the equipment to process it. Has no one ever seen the ships go through the channel at port A????? they're not loaded down with bio-diesel let me tell you, we import 200million barrels of crude oil every single year from Canada anyway. I find it insane that china can pump oil right off the coast of Florida, but we refrain because of environmental issues. We literally buy oil from other countries that was pumped 50 miles off OUR Coast. STUPIDITY is what its called. Sixty percent of our oil is imported, many Americans KNOW it should be zero.  We would rather pay top dollar to oppressive and violent dictatorships the world over, and put our water ways in danger during importation , than prosper and fix our unemployment problems.  The U.S should focus on making pipe-lines safe so we can be self-reliant. Many people make it sound like these pipelines are not monitored, however they can detect a break in the pipe the second it happens. Also, these pipelines are encased more than once, to minimize damage. Thats more than you can do for a sinking vessel. Go to the beach, that black stuff seeping through the sand is the direct result of ships capsizing, and oil spills into Corpus-Christi bay. I believe we need those jobs right now. People don't understand that it's much more dangerous to import oil than it is drill for it ourselves, economically and environmentally. Kids in Hub-city's don't go to college for a good reason, they can make 70 thousand a year right out of freaking high school at the rigs. Try finding a stable job in South Austin right now, it's just not happening. Oil city's may not be beautiful, but even the village idiot makes ten buck an hour.  I'm not saying that we shouldn't focus on alternative resources, I'm saying we shouldn't be wasting money and giving jobs away, especially 250,000 of them. Bio-diesel isn't even a real option at the moment as WE HAVE TO IMPORT THE ONLY REAL RESOURCE(hemp) FROM CANADA, as they've put restriction on that to. We need to quit being so stubborn.

I believe that an electronic  direct democracy has potential to work , but i have a problem trusting machines. Mostly because their is always someone who can wire them to do whatever they want. I like the idea of having a say  on every issue, but I can't see it being possible  without some sort of electronic system. It sounds convenient for people who already spend time voting and taking part in government, and my problem with it isn't that I feel like one group would take suppress another, I actually think it would do the opposite, but not by much. Even if people could click a survey like window, and vote on bills, I still believe people would click out of them like a sears or target pop-up add unless they'd in the first place. I don't even think that its a big enough issue to even considering tackling, while some of our other issues still exist. I do think that this change is inevitable, but it should be done very carefully and slowly.