Views from Politics to Electronics My Way

Bigot Christian Principle Suspends Student for Being.. Gay?

2008-08-22T15:57:00.003-05:00

In today's WTF!?

Many support ex-principal in gay rights case

The Associated Press

PONCE DE LEON - When a high school senior told her principal that students were
taunting her for being a lesbian, he told her homosexuality is wrong, outed her to her parents and ordered her to stay away from children.
He suspended some of her friends who expressed their outrage by wearing gay pride T-shirts and buttons at Ponce de Leon High School, according to court records. And he asked dozens of students whether they were gay or associated with gay students.
The American Civil Liberties Union successfully sued the district on behalf of a girl who protested against Principal David Davis, and a federal judge reprimanded Davis for conducting a "witch hunt" against gays. Davis was demoted, and school employees must now go through sensitivity training.
And despite all that, many in this conservative Panhandle community still wonder what, exactly, Davis did wrong.
"We are a small, rural district in the Bible Belt with strong Christian beliefs and feel like homosexuality is wrong," said Steve Griffin, Holmes County's school superintendent, who keeps a Bible on his desk and framed Scriptures on his office walls.
Holmes County, on the Alabama line, has about 20,000 residents. There is some agriculture, but most people are employed either by prisons or schools; some commute to the Gulf Coast to work in tourism.
Ponce de Leon, with fewer than 500 residents, has a cafe, a post office and an antique store.
Many in the community support Davis and feel outsiders are forcing their beliefs on them. Griffin, who kicked Davis out of the principal's office but allowed him to continue teaching at the school, said high schoolers here aren't exposed to the same things as kids in Atlanta or Chicago.
"I don't think we are that different from a lot of districts, at least in the Panhandle, that have beliefs that maybe are different from societal changes," Griffin said.
Gay rights activists said that's no excuse for what Davis did.
The problems began last fall when Davis, who did not return phone messages from The Associated Press, admonished the senior, who is identified only as "Jane Doe" in
court records and whose friends say she doesn't want to talk about the experience.
The friends donned gay pride T-shirts and rainbow-colored clothing when they found out how Davis had treated her, and he questioned many of them about their sexuality and association with gay students. Some were suspended.
"Davis embarked on what can only be characterized as a 'witch hunt' to identify students who were homosexual and their supporters, further adding fuel to the fire," U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak recounted in his ruling. "He went so far as to lift the shirts of female students to insure the letters 'GP' or the words 'Gay Pride' were not written on their bodies."
Heather Gillman, an 11th-grader who took part in the protests, complained to her mother, Ardena, a 40-year-old corrections officer and mother of three. Ardena Gillman called the ACLU, even though she knew people would be angry.
"I just felt like I had to stand up for the kids. Heather wanted to do this, and I had to back her," she said.
Ardena hoped to protect the students' freedom of speech - whether it was the freedom to wear Confederate flag T-shirts to show Southern pride or the freedom to wear rainbow T-shirts to support gay rights.
Courts have repeatedly ruled that similar student protests are constitutional as long as they are not disruptive.
"I think a shirt that says 'I support gays' is very different from a shirt that says 'Gays are going to hell,'" said Benjamin Stevenson, an ACLU attorney. "One can be very disruptive for a child's self-esteem; the other supports other people and their ideas."
Ardena Gillman also knew some of the students would need to learn to be tolerant.
"What happens when these kids get out in the real world after they leave Ponce de Leon and they have a black, homosexual supervisor at their job?" she said.
The ACLU sued in January, and Smoak ruled this summer that Davis violated Heather Gillman's rights.
"I emphasize that Davis's personal and religious views about homosexuality are not issues in this case.
Indeed, Davis's opinions and views are consistent with the beliefs of many in Holmes County, in Florida, and in the country," Smoak wrote in an opinion released last month.
"Where Davis went wrong was when he endeavored to silence the opinions of his dissenters."
As Ardena Gillman suspected, the lawsuit created hard feelings in town.
A Wal-Mart worker yelled at her, accusing her of trying to "bankrupt" the school district, which was ordered to pay $325,000 in ACLU attorney fees. One of her friends has refused to talk to her because the lawsuit conflicted with the woman's religious beliefs.
Others flatly hail Davis as a hero.
"David Davis is a fine man and good principal, and we are a gentle, peaceful, Christian, family-oriented community," said Bill Griffin, 73 and a lifelong Ponce de Leon resident who is no relation to the district superintendent. "We aren't out to tar and feather anyone."
The lawsuit could reflect a division between the high school students who have grown up in an era of gay tolerance and the community's elders, said Gary Scott, a school board member.
"But I think that's less of an issue here than in Miami or Minnesota," he said.
The judge's scathing rebuke left Scott questioning how his community's beliefs could be so different from the judge's opinion.
"I guess I didn't realize we were this bad," Scott said

.

I am so glad I am out of the ultra-hypocritical religiously intolerant Florida Panhandle area. The people there are as much as intolerant to dissent as liberal left-wing nut birds are. I have been to church all my life and too studied the bible and for some reason I could remember something of the teachings that God forgives all and love thy neighbor.

Check what this PHIB (pan handle in-bred) said, "David Davis is a fine man and good principal, and we are a gentle, peaceful, Christian, family-oriented community," said Bill Griffin, 73 and a lifelong Ponce de Leon resident who is no relation to the district superintendent. "We aren't out to tar and feather anyone."

Arent out to tar and feather?! Are you kidding me!
No, you just want to burn all gays to hell and kick out little girls in school for being gay! And thier friends for supporting her!
Yeah he's such a fine man and principle.
Awesome! That is so awesomely Christian.
Fucking retarded.
Being gay is not a choice, sorry bigots. Some people are just gay, get over it, and love them for who and what they are.

Finally!

2008-08-22T15:38:00.002-05:00

Sorry Troofers! Now please shut the EFF up!

Feds: Fires took down building next to twin towers

DEVLIN BARRETT ASSOCIATED PRESS

GAITHERSBURG, MD. (AP) - Federal investigators said Thursday they have solved a mystery of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks: the collapse of World Trade Center building 7, a source of long-running conspiracy theories.
The 47-story trapezoid-shaped building sat north of the World Trade Center towers, across Vesey Street in lower Manhattan. On Sept. 11, it was set on fire by falling debris from the burning towers, but skeptics have long argued that fire and debris alone should not have brought down such a big steel-and-concrete structure.
Scientists with the National Institute of Standards and Technology say their three-year investigation of the collapse determined the demise of WTC 7 was actually the first time in the world a fire caused the total failure of a skyscraper.
"The reason for the collapse of World Trade Center 7 is no longer a mystery," said Dr. Shyam Sunder, the lead investigator on the NIST team.
Investigators also concluded that the collapse of the nearby towers broke the city water main, leaving the sprinkler system in the bottom half of the building without water.
The building has been the subject of a wide range of conspiracy theories for the last seven years, partly because the collapse occurred about seven hours after the twin towers came down. That fueled suspicion that someone intentionally blew up the building in a controlled demolition.
Critics like Mike Berger of the group 9/11 Truth said he wasn't
buying the government's explanation.
"Their explanation simply isn't sufficient. We're being lied to," he said, arguing that there is other evidence suggesting explosives were used on the building.
Sunder said his team investigated the possibility that an explosion inside the building brought it down, but found there was no large boom or other noise that would have occurred with such a detonation. Investigators also created a giant computer model of the collapse, based partly on news footage from CBS News, that they say shows
internal column failure brought down the building.
Investigators also ruled out the possibility that the collapse was caused by fires from a substantial amount of diesel fuel that was stored in the building, most of it for generators for the city's emergency operations command center.
The 77-page report concluded that the fatal blow to the building came when the 13th floor collapsed, weakening a critical steel support column that led to catastrophic
failure.
"When this critical column buckled due to lack of floor supports, it was the first domino in the chain," said Sunder.
The NIST investigators issued more than a dozen building recommendations as a result of their inquiry, most of which repeat earlier recommendations from their investigation into the collapse of the two large towers.
In both instances, investigators concluded that extreme heat caused some steel beams to lose strength, causing further failures throughout the buildings until the entire structure succumbed.
The recommendations include building skyscrapers with stronger connections and
framing systems to resist the effects of thermal expansion, and structural systems designed to prevent damage to one part of a building from spreading to other parts.
A spokeswoman for the leaseholder of the World Trade Center, developer Larry Silverstein, praised the government's work.
"Hopefully this thorough report puts to rest the various 9/11 conspiracy theories, which dishonor the men and women who lost their lives on that terrible day," said
Silverstein spokeswoman Dara McQuillen.
In discussing the findings, the investigator Sunder acknowledged that some may still not be convinced, but insisted the science behind their findings is "incredibly conclusive."
"The public should really recognize the science is really behind what we have said,"
he said, adding: "The obvious stares you in the face."

Bedroom Olympics

2008-08-22T14:16:00.005-05:00

Ahhh Yes! I remember my younger days going for gold. Running like Usain Bolt's speed and agility to..... girl to girl? lol
[ed. note] Click on the link below retards.

Sex and the Olympic City

Yeah the article was a little long but so what. The eroticism in this article from the author and his description of the hot bodied women of the Olympics never before had enthralled me so. Playboy has nothing on this dude. For instance:

"And then there were the female athletes - literally thousands of them - strutting, shimmying, sashaying and jogging around the village, clad in Lycra and exposing yard upon yard of shiny, toned, rippling and unimaginably exotic flesh. Women from all the countries of the world: muscular, virile, athletic and oozing oestrogen. I spent so much time in a state of lust that I could have passed out."

I almost passed out reading this part!
Time to hit the Gold Club. Who's in!

Save the Last Dance for Me

2008-08-21T23:05:00.002-05:00

The title of this post has nothing pertaining to what I am going to write.
But in a way it does.
The Last dance is near.
And I'm all in it.
So yeah, it's been like friggin forever that the great LRO has posted anything.
As I said a couple times before, this election process has wore me the eff out!
Obama! Obama! Obama!
So damn annoying.
So the chunky tuna with Obama!
I'm back.
CP, get back in it homie too.
Election Day is around the corner.

Obama's "friend" Pastor Wright

2008-03-17T16:07:00.005-05:00

So Obama has been calling his Pastor (Pastor Wright) the old uncle that he disagrees with. He has tried to distance himself from Pastor Wrights political standing by saying he is just his "spiritual adviser".
In the following video it sure seems otherwise, since he is going OUT of his way to point to his Pastor and calls him a friend and that he "councils" Obama.

Link: sevenload.com

But the plot thickens even more:
Via NewsMax

Contrary to Senator Barack Obama’s claim that he never heard his pastor Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. preach hatred of America, Obama was in the pews last July 22 when the minister blamed the “white arrogance” of America’s Caucasian majority for the world’s suffering, especially the oppression of blacks.

Senator Obama has sought to separate himself from his pastor’s incendiary remarks, issuing a statement Friday rejecting them as “inflammatory and appalling” but failing to renounce Wright himself for his venomous and paranoid denunciations of America.

In his press release, Obama claimed, “The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity [United Church of Christ] or heard him utter in private conversation.”

Appearing on cable news shows this past weekend, Obama claimed when he saw recent videos that have Wright making such comments as “God damn America,” he was “shocked.” Obama implied that the reverend had not used such derogatory language in any of the church services Obama attended over the past two decades.

If Obama’s claims are true that he was completely unaware that Wright’s trademark preaching style at the Trinity United Church of Christ has targeted “white” America and Israel, he would have been one of the few people in Chicago to be so uninformed. Wright’s reputation for spewing hate is well known.

In fact, Obama was present in the South Side Chicago church on July 22 last year when Jim Davis, a freelance correspondent for Newsmax, attended services along with Obama.

In his sermon that day, Wright tore into America, referring to the “United States of White America” and lacing his sermon with expletives as Obama listened. Hearing Wright’s attacks on his own country, Obama had the opportunity to walk out, but Davis said the senator sat in his pew and nodded in agreement.

Addressing the Iraq war, Wright thundered, “Young African-American men” were “dying for nothing.” The “illegal war,” he shouted, was “based on Bush’s lies” and is being “fought for oil money.”

Obama’s most famous celebrity backer, Oprah Winfrey began attending Wright’s church in 1984. Last year, Newsmax magazine reported that Winfrey abruptly stopped attending years ago, and suggested that she did so to distance herself from Wright’s inflammatory rhetoric. She soon found herself a target of Wright, who excoriated her for having broken with “traditional faith.”

The Reverend Wright’s anti-white theology that Senator Obama expressed surprise over is evident on the church’s website. The site says the congregation subscribes to what it calls the Black Value System, which is described as a disavowal of “our racist competitive society” and the pursuit of “middle-classness.” That is defined as a way for American society to “snare” blacks rather than “killing them off directly” or “placing them in concentration camps,” just as the country structures “an economic environment that induces captive youth to fill the jails and prisons.”

“In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01,” Wright wrote in the church-affiliated magazine Trumpet four years after the attacks. “White America and the western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.”

Even Oprah knew but Barack didn't?
Sure, you folks keep believing that one.
Back in 2007 Newsmax reported on this very issue. Its getting attention now as the "Messiah Obama" is on a Presidential run.

Dollar plunge

2008-03-17T12:20:00.002-05:00

Ben S. Bernanke's interest-rate cuts have touched off a vicious circle of doom for the dollar.

The Federal Reserve reduced the rate on direct loans to commercial banks by a quarter-point to 3.25 percent before Asian financial markets opened today. It will likely lower its target rate for overnight loans between banks tomorrow to at least 2 percent from 3 percent, according to futures traded on the Chicago Board of Trade. Lower borrowing costs work against the dollar by making fixed-income securities issued by the government less appealing to global investors.

``The relative return on U.S. assets is not attractive enough and we have moved back into looking for dollar weakness,'' said Robert Robis, a bond fund manager in New York at OppenheimerFunds Inc., which oversees $260 billion. Robis last month was betting the dollar would rally versus the euro.

If that weren't enough to make bears out of bulls, the weakest dollar since at least 1971 based on a Fed trade-weighted index is helping push oil, grains and metals, which are priced in the U.S. currency, to record highs. That in turn is causing economists to lower growth forecasts for the U.S. and preventing central banks concerned that inflation is accelerating from cutting interest rates, further undermining the dollar.

``The whole world feels there's inflation when a good part of that is the weak dollar itself,'' said Stephen Jen, head of global foreign-exchange research at Morgan Stanley in London. ``Watching the dollar plummet like this is very dangerous.''

Picking Up Steam

The dollar tumbled 6 percent in the past month against a basket of six major trading partners, the fastest pace of decline since May 2006. It fell to a record low against the euro of $1.5903 today, before trading at $1.5714, and depreciated to 95.76 against the yen, the weakest since 1995.

Barclays Capital Inc., BNP Paribas SA, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered Plc, Bank of America Corp. and Credit Suisse Group cut their forecasts for the dollar in the last two weeks.

European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said last week in interviews the plunge is ``concerning'' and ``undesirable'' for growth. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley strategists say that coordinated action by policy makers to stem the currency's slide is increasingly likely. In intervention, central banks buy and sell currencies to influence exchange rates.

`Down the Tubes'

``It's hard to stimulate an economy when the currency is going down the tubes,'' said David Malpass, the chief economist at Bear Stearns & Co. The New York-based firm expects the dollar will fall to $1.60 per euro in 12 months.

The U.S. economy may expand 1.4 percent this year, according to the median estimate of 82 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News this month. The median in March was for growth of 1.7 percent. As recently as September the Fed's target rate was 5.25 percent.

Global investors see little reason to own U.S. financial assets with the two-year Treasury yielding 1.28 percent today, or 1.97 percentage points less than similar-maturity German bunds. The gap is the widest since September 1993. Foreign purchases of U.S. financial assets slowed in each of the final three months of 2007, to a net $56.5 billion from $113.9 billion, according to the latest Treasury Department data.

As the currency fell, the UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index of 26 commodities ranging from energy, metals, agriculture and live stock rose 43 percent in the past 12 months, the biggest increase since the index's inception in 1998. The price of a barrel of crude oil surged 96 percent in a year to an all-time high of $111.80 today.

Commodities Hedge

``A lot of people out there are using oil and other commodities as hedge against a falling dollar,'' said Simon Wardell, manager of energy research at Global Insight Inc. in London. ``We could get to $120 in oil if we continue to see weakness in the U.S. dollar.''

The drop in the currency is responsible for about a third of the 230 percent rise in commodities since 2002, with the rest mainly attributable to demand from developing nations such as China, according to Morgan Stanley. The ICE Dollar Index moved in unison with the price of crude oil more than 97 percent of the time in the last year, according to Bloomberg data.

Relief may be in sight. The International Monetary Fund in Washington said last month that oil prices may be peaking as growth slows. The median forecast of 34 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg is for the dollar to gain about 10 percent against the euro this year and 8 percent versus the yen as the Fed's rate cuts spark the economy in the second half of 2008.

``If the U.S. dollar turns higher or if the crude oil market reverses then we have a spiral working the other way,'' said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. in New York. The price of crude oil will at $70 by September, Evans said.

`Major Concern'

The ECB is one of more than 12 central banks that cited faster inflation as the reason for raising or keeping rates unchanged this year.

``The surge in oil prices is a major concern and I don't think it leaves us any room for a loosening of our monetary policy,'' said Axel Weber, member of the ECB's Governing Council, in Frankfurt on March 11.

Inflation in the euro zone rose at a 3.3 percent annualized pace last month, the fastest in 14 years, the European Union's statistics office in Luxembourg said March 14. Consumer prices in the U.S. were unchanged in February, the Labor Department said.

Kenneth Rogoff, the former chief economist at the IMF and now a professor at Harvard University, said the greenback may drop another 12 percent on a trade-weighted basis.

``This recession will be long and deep and when we get out of it, we'll have inflation,'' Rogoff said in an interview. ``Confidence in the dollar is down.''

My biggest fear with Ben has been coming true so far.
That he would be more of a politician than the economist we need.
To me, every time I hear him talk he talks more like a politician, carefully wording his responses to divert blame from himself. The current run on the dollar, ISN'T totally his fault but a large part is. His actions lowering the interest rate are more and more pushing us towards the dreaded STAGFLATION.

Part of the problem I also see here is that there are LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS of speculators right now jumping on gold, jumping on oil and jumping on other commodities to hedge their bets on the dollar. These folks are pushing the price up significantly on all commodities. There is a saying that stuck with me from a real estate mogul (the name completely escapes me), but, "When there are lots of rookies playing in a polo match, its time to get out."

The same went for the mortgage market, lots and lots of rookies, that took the advice of infomercials and bought and sold homes like it was ebay, are to blame for these high prices that the market is seeking to level itself back to. They are to blame for the radical increase that we have seen that banks were all to willing to jump onto and finance growth that was unrealistic. Now what we are seeing is the market seeking balance. Housing prices seeking to fall to realistic values for a 3 bedroom home in a brand new community.

The same I see going on with Oil, Gold and Corn. People are jumping onto these things like its the latest fad. Pushing the Oil prices higher, and couple that with the falling dollar it only exacerbates the problem. When the Oil plummets none of us will be complaining, but I do think it will happen. Not $20 per barrel as has been suggested by a Fox Business News contributor, but back to the $50-$60 per barrel level.

I can't say if we are in a recession or not, I am not that good, but I believe if we are NOT there yet, we are going to go there sooner rather than later. That being the case, our focus needs to be how do we weather this storm, and how long do we have to weather it for?

Today I received a letter from the IRS, stating that I will be getting money from part of the stimulus package. Part of it also includes more money depending on how many kids you have. My guess is that lots of this money will not be used back into the economy as the fed had planned. And the funniest part of all of this is, that the Fed has used MORE MONEY in the last week to put liquidity into the market then legislators gave to tax payers. To the Tune of $250+ Million to JP Morgan to purchase Bear Sterns.

Then, recently the house voted to increase taxes on people that make more than $31K for singles $65K for married couples. How truly ridiculous is it of the (Democrat controlled) House, to pass a stimulus package to put more money in the hands of the people this year, and then turn around and for the following year, not only ask for that money back, but then charge them MORE in taxes!

Geniuses they are not.

Court Will Examine Profanity Rules

2008-03-17T12:10:00.001-05:00

he Supreme Court on Monday stepped into a legal fight over the use of curse words on the airwaves, the high court's first major case on broadcast indecency in 30 years.

The case concerns a Federal Communications Commission policy that allows for fines against broadcasters for so-called "fleeting expletives," one-time uses of the F-word or its close cousins.

Fox Broadcasting Co., along with ABC, CBS and NBC, challenged the new policy after the commission said broadcasts of entertainment awards shows in 2002 and 2003 were indecent because of profanity uttered by Bono, Cher and Nicole Richie.

A federal appeals court said the new policy was invalid and could violate the First Amendment.

No fines were issued in the incidents, but the FCC could impose fines for future violations of the policy.

The case before the court technically involves only two airings on Fox of the "Billboard Music Awards" in which celebrities' expletives were broadcast over the airwaves. NBC is separately challenging an FCC decision that rapped the network for airing Bono's use of the F-word during a Golden Globes awards show in 2003.

The case will be argued in the fall.

The FCC appealed to the Supreme Court after the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York nullified the agency's enforcement regime regarding "fleeting expletives." By a 2-1 vote, the appeals court said the FCC had changed its policy and failed to adequately explain why it had done so.

The appeals court, acting on a complaint by the networks, nullified the policy until the agency could return with a better explanation for the change. In the same opinion, the court also said the agency's position was probably unconstitutional.

The court rejected the FCC's policy on procedural grounds, but was "skeptical that the commission can provide a reasoned explanation for its fleeting expletive regime that would pass constitutional muster."

Solicitor General Paul Clement, representing the FCC and the Bush administration, argued that the decision "places the commission in an untenable position," powerless to stop the airing of expletives even when children are watching.

The FCC has pending before it "hundreds of thousands of complaints" regarding the broadcast of expletives, Clement said. He argued that the appeals court decision has left the agency "accountable for the coarsening of the airwaves while simultaneously denying it effective tools to address the problem."

The appeal also argued that the FCC's explanation of its policy was well reasoned and that the appeals court decision was at odds with the landmark 1978 indecency case, FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, the last broadcast indecency case heard by the Supreme Court.

Lawyers for the networks said the old policy worked well for 30 years and that broadcasters had no reason suddenly to allow for an explosion of expletives.

Separately, CBS is challenging a $550,000 fine the FCC imposed for the "wardrobe malfunction" that bared Janet Jackson's breast during a televised 2004 Super Bowl halftime show. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia is considering whether the incident was indecent or merely a fleeting and accidental glitch that shouldn't be punished.

The case is the second recent test of the federal government's powers to regulate broadcast indecency. Last June, a federal appeals court in New York invalidated the government's policy on fleeting profanities uttered over the airwaves.

The new policy was put in place after a January 2003 broadcast of the Golden Globes awards show by NBC when U2 lead singer Bono uttered the phrase "f------ brilliant." The FCC said the "F-word" in any context "inherently has a sexual connotation" and can trigger enforcement.

The Fox programs at issue are a Dec. 9, 2002, broadcast of the Billboard Music Awards in which singer Cher used the phrase "F--- 'em" and a Dec. 10, 2003, Billboard awards show in which reality show star Nicole Richie said, "Have you ever tried to get cow s--- out of a Prada purse? It's not so f------ simple."

The case will be argued in the fall.

Should be rather interesting to see their ruling.
After the whole Nappy Headed Hoe's fiasco, this ruling could set some precedent that some are not ready to accept. One that I have stated numerous times.

Lets see where the court takes us this time next year.

New Economics Blog to check out.

2008-03-17T08:50:00.002-05:00

Found a new Blog that would be of great interest to any frequent visitors.
James Phillip over at http://capitalhacker.com/ has a great site set up giving commentary on Economics and Technology.

We seem to share lots of the same views on the current "capitalistic" US economy.
One that caught my attention was:

The United States is being scared into a Recession »
(Truer words have never been spoken!)

Bear Sterns fire sale

2008-03-17T08:38:00.002-05:00

JPMorgan Chase said Sunday it will acquire rival Bear Stearns in a deal valued at $236.2 million — or $2 a share — a stunning collapse for one of the world's largest and most venerable investment banks.

The last-minute buyout was aimed at averting a Bear Stearns bankruptcy and a spreading crisis of confidence in the global financial system.

The Federal Reserve and the U.S. government swiftly approved the all-stock deal, showing the urgency of completing the deal before world markets opened.

Bear Stearns shares close Friday at $30 a share. At their peak, the shares traded at $159.36.

The Fed will provide special financing to JPMorgan Chase for the deal, JPMorgan Chase said. The central bank has agreed to fund up to $30 billion of Bear Stearns' less liquid assets. Risky bets on securities tied to subprime mortgages — loans given to customers with poor credit history — crippled Bear Stearns, the nations' fifth-largest investment bank.

At almost the same time as the deal for control of Bear Stearns was announced, the Federal Reserve said it approved a cut in its lending rate to banks to 3.25 percent from 3.50 percent and created another lending facility for big investment banks. The central bank's official meeting is on Tuesday. Before the emergency move to lower the discount rate, which is the rate at which banks lend each other money, the Fed was widely expected to again cut its headline rate by as much as a full point to 2 percent.

The announcements from both the Fed and JPMorgan come ahead of what some analysts expected to be a brutal day for global stocks. Already, before the announcements, New Zealand's markets opened drastically lower — then began to recover after the deal was unveiled.

"This is going to go down in very historic terms," said Peter Dunay, chief investment strategist for New York-based Meridian Equity Partners. "This is about credit being overextended, and how bad it is for major financial institutions and for individuals. This is why we're probably heading into a recession."

A collapse of Bear Stearns could have created a further crisis of confidence in world financial markets amid a deepening credit crunch. JPMorgan's acquisition of Bear Stearns represents roughly 1 percent of what the investment bank was worth just 16 days ago.

The deal marked a 93.3 percent discount to Bear Stearns' market capitalization as of Friday, and roughly a 98.8 percent discount to its book value as of Feb. 29.

"The past week has been an incredibly difficult time for Bear Stearns," said Bear Stearns Chief Executive Alan Schwartz in a statement. "This represents the best outcome for all of our constituencies based upon the current circumstances."

Wall Street analysts say the bid to rescue Bear Stearns was more than just saving one of the world's largest investments bank — it was a prop for the U.S. economy and the global financial system. An outright collapse could cause huge losses for banks, hedge funds and other investors to which Bear Stearns is connected.

The government, led by the Treasury Department and the Fed, was reported to have closely monitored the talks between JPMorgan and Bear Stearns. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, former chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., "has been in nearly continuous consultations all weekend," said Brookly McLaughlin, a Treasury Department spokeswoman.

After days of denials that it had liquidity problems, Bear was forced into a JPMorgan-led, government-backed bailout on Friday. The arrangement, the first of its kind since the 1930s, resulted in Bear getting a 28-day loan from JPMorgan with the government's guarantee that JPMorgan would not suffer any losses on the deal.

This is not the first time Bear Stearns has earned a place in Wall Street history. A decade ago, Bear Stearns refused to help bail out a hedge fund that was deemed "too big to fail." On Friday, the tables had turned, with the now-struggling investment bank in need of the same kind of aid.

Bear Stearns was founded in 1923 and in recent years was best known for its aggressive investing in mortgage-backed securities — and what was once a cash cow turned into the investment bank's undoing.

In June, two Bear-managed hedge funds worth billions of dollars collapsed. The funds were heavily invested in securities backed by subprime mortgages. Until that point, subprime mortgage-backed securities were immensely popular with investors because of their profitability.

The funds' collapse and subsequent problems in the credit markets called into question Bear Stearns' ability to manage its own risk and the leadership ability of then-Chief Executive James Cayne. Critics of the company said Cayne spent too much time away from the office last year playing golf and bridge as the problems unfolded.

Cayne is the same executive who refused to let Bear Stearns provide support as part of a Federal Reserve-led plan to rescue Long-Term Capital Management in 1998. His reticence was said to deeply anger some of his fellow Wall Street CEOs, and the episode came up every time Bear was reported to be in trouble in recent months.

Cayne took over from the legendary Alan "Ace" Greenberg in 1993. Greenberg joined Bear Stearns as a clerk, working his way up through the ranks to eventually take over as CEO in 1978. Greenberg was known for his irreverent style, and his regular memos to employees were turned into a book called "Memos from the Chairman."

Before Greenberg's ascendancy to CEO, Bear Stearns began to expand from its New York roots throughout the 1950s and 1960s, opening international offices and expanding its U.S. operations.

The company was opened in 1923 as an equity trading shop. Today, it has subsidiaries providing a wide array of financial services products for individuals, corporations, institutions and governments. Generally, it provides capital markets, wealth management and global clearing services to its customers.

You know what gets me from all of this is that from what I understand, from friends back at Morgan, and Goldman, Bear Sterns wasn't in all that bad a shape. It seems like a rather desperate move by both the fed and Bear Sterns.

In any case, I wonder if shareholders will approve the buy?
That is the few that are left that still need to approve it.

This is the clearest example of a run on the "bank" that we have seen in the last 50 years. Bear Sterns was at $170 per share last year. Sold for $2? That doesn't even make ANY SENSE! Their corporate building in NY is valued at over 1 billion dollars! Its brand new!

Two things went through my mind on my way in to work this morning and hearing more about this. First Asian markets dropped 4% on this news, which tells me markets today in the US will do about the same. That being the case, the feds moves are striking MORE FEAR in markets on US liquidity then helping. Which makes me wonder, is the fed doing more harm then good dropping these rates so low? Its making buyers wonder, what does the fed know that we do not that they are dropping rates at now an expected 2% tomorrow!

2 FLIPPIN%! Seriously?!

Second thing, again, is why are we bailing out a failing company? JP morgan is buying Bear Sterns with money they are borrowing from the fed? So its guaranteed money that is coming from our tax dollars to save a financial company with JP as the intermediary. Why?

There has to either be WAY to much over thinking at the fed over all of this OR there is far more at play here then simple mortgage foreclosures. There is no way that 1% of Households in the US can have this far a reach on market liquidity.

Barack Obama's Pastor

2008-03-13T11:45:00.003-05:00

In light of these recent discoveries.
Does this or should this have any bearing on Barack Obama?
The media went after Mit Romney on his religion. So much so that he had to make a statement about it. So should this also be fair game?

Does it or should it effect the outcome of Baracks presidential bid when he has been a member of a church for 20 years where the pastor is clearly racist. You can spin it however you want, but the man is a racist. Or are you only a racist if you are white and say something like this.

If any other Church in America or if Hillary's Church pastor would have said this he would be deemed a racist VERY VERY QUICKLY! If you were at any other Church or white Church and the preacher would say that they teach "White Values" they would be called a racist. So what is so different with this man?

Further to accept Louis Farrakhan into your church and give that man a LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD is flat out ridiculous. Farrakhan has said some very racist things, known to be an anti-semit as well as completely racist towards whites.

Does this effect Obama?
Should it effect Obama and his Presidential run?

I would have to say YES!

Standing by your man

2008-03-12T10:17:00.011-05:00

In light of the recent scandals of both Republicans and Democrats, I ask the question why do women stand by their men? Sure some of these scandals that have come out did not involve sex cases like that of Eliot Spitzer. Some involved federal crimes that I guess shouldn't have any bearing on a marriage. But what does it take for a woman to leave her man?

Is it loyalty that keeps the woman there? Even though she has just been humiliated by a person she trusted? Is it power, like many believe is the case with Hillary and Bill Clinton? Is it just you have no where else to go so you stay?

So here is a picture break down (courtesy of NPR) of public officials that have been caught in scandals and the women that have stood by them:

Senator Edward Kennedy and his wife Joan July 25, 1965. Kennedy had just plead guilty to fleeing the scene of a auto accident that claimed the life of 28 year old Mary Jo Kopechne, who was a passenger of Kennedy's car. (AP photo)

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President Nixon and his wife Pat on Aug 9th, 1974 making a farewell speech following the Watergate scandal. (Charlie Harrity AP)

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Marion Barry, then Mayor of Washington DC and his wife Effi at a news conference where Barry was facing charges of drug possession. He was caught with his former girl friend at DC's Vista Hotel. (Robert Sherbow/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

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Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary (now running for president) on December 18th 1998. Bill was under impeachment for having sex with an intern, Monica Lewinsky in the oval office. (Susan Walsh, AP)

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Connecticut Governor John Rowland and his wife Patty as John announces his resignation on June 21st, 2004. Rowland resigned during a corruption investigation, and later pleaded guilty in federal court to mail fraud and tax fraud. (Bob Child, AP)

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New Jersey Governor James McGreevey and his wife Dina at a News conference on August, 12th 2004. McGreevey announced he had an affair with another man and would resign. McGreevey later wrote a book on how he would seek out other men at Truck Stops and restrooms around the state.

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Senator David Vitter and his wife Wendy at a news conference on July 16th, 2007. Vitter has not resigned after his name came up in the DC Madam case from Washington. Vitter was also accused in 2004 by his opponent to have had sex with a Louisiana prostitute which Vitter denied. (Bill Haber/AP)

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Senator Larry Craig and his wife Suzanne at a news conference on August 28th, 2007. Craig was under investigation accused of lewd conduct in an airport bathroom. Crag has yet to resign from the incident. (Mike Vogt,AP Idaho Press-Tribune)

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New York Governor Elliot Spitzer with his wife Silda holding a news conference March 10th, 2008. Spitzer has apologized for his actions and is expected to resign today or Monday. (Timothy A. Clary,AFP/Getty Images)

------------------------

Here is a list of Public officials caught with prostitutes:

1974: Future television host Jerry Springer, then a city councilman in Cincinnati, resigned from office after it was revealed that he met a prostitute in a health club and paid her by personal check. The incident became an issue again in 1982, when Springer ran for governor. His campaign ran television ads in which Springer explained the incident and proclaimed that he was "not afraid" of the truth.

1976: Rep. Joe Waggonner, a Louisiana Democrat, was arrested in a Washington, D.C., prostitution sting. He was re-elected that fall and retired in 1978.

1976: Rep. Allan Howe, a Utah Democrat, was arrested after he approached two undercover policewomen for sex. He did not resign but lost his bid for re-election that fall.

1978: Rep. Fred Richmond, a New York Democrat, was arrested when he solicited sex from an underage male prostitute. He avoided prosecution by going into psychiatric counseling. His district re-elected him twice more, but he resigned in 1982 after pleading guilty to drug possession.

1980: Rep. Robert Bauman, a Maryland Republican, was arrested after patronizing an underage male prostitute. He blamed his actions on addictions to alcohol and sex. A month later, Bauman lost his bid for re-election.

1990: Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, was reprimanded for his relations with prostitute Stephen Gobie. Years earlier, Frank had paid Gobie for sex; he eventually hired him as his assistant. Gobie was later accused of running a sex business out of Frank's home. Frank was censured by the House for writing a letter on his behalf. He has since won re-election. Frank apologized to his constituents: "I did not handle the pressures of having a public life, of being a closeted gay man, nearly as well as I should have."

1996: Clinton political strategist Dick Morris submitted his resignation after the Star tabloid revealed that he had engaged in a yearlong affair with a Washington-area prostitute. The woman, Sherry Ann Rowlands, claimed that Morris had allowed her to listen in on a telephone call from the president.

2001: Philip Giordano, the Republican mayor of Waterbury, Conn., was arrested for sexually abusing children after he was charged with paying a prostitute to arrange encounters with her underage daughter and niece. Giordano was convicted on federal and state charges. Now in federal prison, he recently filed his fifth appeal of his conviction.

2007: Sen. David Vitter, a Lousiana Republican, issued a public apology after his name was linked to a Washington escort service run by Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called D.C. Madam. Earlier in his career, Vitter had been accused of seeing a prostitute in New Orleans, a charge which he denied.

2008: Federal investigators discover that Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic governor of New York, has been a client of an exclusive prostitution ring. It is alleged that he paid several thousand dollars for sexual services.

So why exactly do these women for the most part stay with these men?
Its one thing to have a girl friend and cheat, especially at a young age. But to be married with children? What ever happened to the sanctity of marriage for these people? At least in the case of Larry Craig it was straight bullshit that you are caught in a sex sting for using a restroom. But these other guys DAMN!

Take out the trash, walk the dog, shoot up the neighborhood . . .

2008-03-12T08:34:00.002-05:00

So you are minding your own business, taking out the trash at night, or checking some suspicious noise outside in the middle of the night. Don't forget this little handy tool.

The Magpul FMG9 could be a nasty surprise for that carload of gangbangers you meet on your way to the garbage can. Nice technical exercise, getting an automatic weapon down to pocket size, but you gotta wonder about the state of paranoia that drives these inventions.

Auditors: Iraq Faces Budget Surplus

2008-03-12T08:19:00.001-05:00

Iraq isn't spending much of its own money, despite soaring oil revenues that are pushing the country toward a massive budget surplus, auditors told Congress on Tuesday.

The expected surplus comes as the U.S. continues to invest billions of dollars in rebuilding Iraq and faces a financial squeeze domestically because of record oil prices.

"The Iraqis have a budget surplus," said U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. "We have a huge budget deficit. . . . One of the questions is who should be paying."

Walker and the other auditors did not give a figure as to the likely surplus. U.S. officials contend that Iraq's lack of spending is due primarily to Baghdad's inability to determine where its money is needed most and how to allocate it efficiently. Two senators have called for an investigation into the matter.

Democrats say the assessment is proof that the Iraq war as a waste of time and money. The U.S. has spent more than $45 billion on rebuilding Iraq. And while officials in Iraq contend that much progress is being made, many projects remain unfinished and U.S. troops are still needed to provide security.

"They ought to be able to use some of their oil to pay for their own costs and not keep sending the bill to the United States," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

In recent months, Iraq experienced its highest oil production and export levels since the war began five years ago, said Stuart Bowen, special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

That spike in revenue combined with the highest oil prices in history, "coalesce into an enormous revenue windfall for the Iraqi government," Bowen told the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Whereas Iraqi officials estimated $35 billion in oil revenues last fall, Bowen said the final number is likely to be closer to $60 billion.

"That certainly gives them resources to carry forward with an extensive reconstruction plan," Bowen said.

But according to other U.S. officials, a major problem is that Iraq does not have the capacity to allocate the money without it being wasted or pocketed by corrupt officials.

"I think they are beginning to do more," particularly in improving its military and buying new weapon systems, said Claude Kicklighter, the Pentagon's inspector general. "And I think that's certainly the trend that we should be following."

The Government Accountability Office estimates that the U.S. has designated $6 billion to rebuild Iraq's energy sector and $300 million to develop Iraq's government ministries. But GAO contends that the U.S. doesn't have a strategic plan on how to accomplish either goal.

The State Department told investigators it believes the Iraqis should be responsible for devising such a plan. GAO disagreed.

"In our view, it's a shared responsibility. U.S. taxpayer money is involved," Walker said.

Last week, Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John Warner, R-Va., asked GAO to investigate what Iraq is doing with its oil revenue. The senators estimated that Iraq will realize "at least $100 billion in oil revenues in 2007 and 2008."

This is good news is my horse blinders wearing lefty friends.
It means that the Iraqis can soon (if not now) take over funding for their own security, their own infrastructure rebuilding.

It means that those efforts may not have been in vain.
It means that despite your hate for Bush, that things are working.
That the surge is working.
That the money can now start coming from Iraqi's to rebuild Iraq.
Its been the goal for some time right?

You left wing "folks" have complained for some time that the Iraqi's need to take things over for themselves. That they need to fund the effort themselves. Well here you have something that says they are capable of doing so economically and yet you still bitch about it.

As the saying goes, you just can't satisfy everyone huh?

Bank Scrutinize Even Routine Transactions

2008-03-12T08:01:00.001-05:00

Federal investigators have been looking into money transfers made by New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who's been tied to a prostitution ring. Bank officials noticed frequent cash transfers from several accounts and it triggered a money laundering investigation. Banks use software to spot patterns in routine transactions.

The Irony cannot get any better than this.
You need to listen to this, its classic stuff.

The general thinking has been for some time that if you spend less than 10K it wont get reported to the Feds. People have been doing this for years. Its how some people smuggle/launder money into other countries, by simply carrying LESS than 10K on airplanes or by transferring less than 10K into accounts. Turns it takes far less to raise suspicion's.

Most do not know that every transaction you make no matter how mundane it may be, is tracked by your bank. From simple things like buying coffee and donuts to buying a stereo.

Banks monitor everything and give it a score. There is a company that sells this software to banks. Banks monitor your transactions based on your profile. Yes banks profile you. They take what you make per year, your credit score, where you live, where do you come from, who do you associate with, are you on a terror watch list, are you on list of felons and your transaction patters into consideration and give every transaction you do a score, from 0 to 100. Its an effort to stop money laundering, which people that do these things do so in small transactions sometimes.

Part of the implementation process includes giving specific scrutiny to the PEP List (Politically Exposed Peoples List). These people are anyone from foreign leaders with US accounts to Senators. These people are actually monitored more closely.

This was all implemented apparently within the last 10 years. Particularly following 2001. Some of it has to do with 9/11 and the patriot act mandating it but a large amount stems from the Attorney General of New York in 2001, forcing/mandating that wall street banks monitor account transactions.

Guess who the Attorney General for New York was in 2001! LMFAO...
Elliot Spitzer's

Spitzer was brought down by his own mandate as AG.
I could not help but to laugh on the way to work this morning hearing this.

Ending Africa's commodity concerns

2008-03-11T12:11:00.001-05:00

This could bring the much needed stability over food supplies in Africa that many have been praying for. I won't hold my breath though, but its a step in the right direction.

Lisa Napoli: A different sort of commodity is always at issue in Africa. From South Africa, Terry FitzPatrick says this isn't about growing grain, but rather trading against it.

Terry Fitzpatrick: Farming in Africa is tough enough without the risk that bureaucrats or middlemen will cheat you when you sell your crop.

Economist Mohammad Karaan says commodity exchanges are needed to ensure stable markets.

Mohammad Karaan: African agriculture in particular is exposed to volatility, which then affects or brings us an uncertainty.

That uncertainty could end in Ethiopia, when the nation's first exchange opens in March. Farmers will know the daily price for crops, and can negotiate future contracts. It's part of a push throughout Africa to deregulate agriculture and let markets determine prices.

Chris Sturgess at the Johannesburg exchange thinks more trading centers are coming:

Chris Sturgess: If government is going to be setting the price of your commodities, you don't need an exchange. Because government will say fine, your price today is $100, you acknowledge all your corn, and that's it.

Experts say free-market exchanges can generate better incomes for farmers, bringing food security to Africa.

Foreclosure 'crisis' is overblown

2008-03-11T11:53:00.002-05:00

This has been my sentiment for some time now.
Along with

-Picture Courtesy of Michelle Malkin

A recent list of year-end mortgage foreclosure rates in 100 top metropolitan areas drew a lot of attention. Released by RealtyTrac, a company that compiles data on home foreclosures, the list showed the number of foreclosure filings in each metro area, the percentage of homes being foreclosed and the percentage change from the previous year.

Though the report had some dismal news -- such as the nearly 4.9% foreclosure rate in the Stockton, Calif., area -- a close look at the data also provides some reassuring information. It tells me, for instance, that the foreclosure crisis is a regional problem, not a systemic one. It could become a systemic problem, of course, but we're a long way from that now.

This news will disappoint the gloom-and-doom crew and all those seeking the excitement of financial upheaval. But it may be time to temper our worry and take a closer look at some of the year-over-year foreclosure statistics:

* Though the national rate of foreclosure increased by a whopping 79% between December 2006 and December 2007, the rate was still only 1.033%. Because about 30% of all homes are owned mortgage-free, this means that for all the noise about a crisis, only seven-tenths of 1% of all homes were in foreclosure.

* In the top 100 housing markets, the average foreclosure rate was somewhat higher -- 1.38% -- and it was up 78% over the previous year. But if you rank-ordered the list of the top 100 areas, only 34 had foreclosure rates above the group average. Fifty-one areas had rates of 1% or less.

* Foreclosure rates actually fell in 14 of the 100 areas. More important, many of the areas with the highest increases in foreclosure rates were rising off rates that were tiny. The Bethesda, Md., area, to offer the most extreme case, saw foreclosures rise 1,288% -- to a rate of 0.682%. In other words, foreclosures there were virtually nonexistent the year before. Today they are still well below the national average. The same can be said for the Albany, N.Y., area (up 638% to 0.25%), the Baltimore area (up 544% to 0.73%) and the Providence, R.I., area (up 354% to 0.41%).

Seven of the top 10 foreclosure areas had experienced major price spikes in the past five years. Three of the top 10 foreclosure areas had experienced price increases that were dramatically lower than the national average. That pattern continues when you examine the top 25 foreclosure areas.

A tale of two extremes:Metro area Foreclosure rate, December 2007 Year-over-year increase of foreclosures 5-year home-appreciation rate

Detroit/Livonia/Dearborn, Mich.

4.92%

68.15%

-0.92%

Stockton, Calif.

4.87%

271.3%

65.07%

Las Vegas/Paradise, Nev.

4.23%

169.11%

88.33%

Riverside/San Bernardino, Calif.

3.83%

186.14%

107.80%

Sacramento, Calif.

3.12%

272.54%

56.9%

Cleveland/Lorain/Elyria/Mentor, Ohio

2.97%

112.43%

9.36%

Bakersfield, Calif.

2.96%

244.82%

113.82%

Miami

2.72%

106.13%

114.98%

Denver/Aurora, Colo.

2.64%

27.19%

10.83%

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

2.63%

110.05%

94.29%

National average

1.03%

79.21%

46.92%

Average of top 100 metro areas

1.38%

78.23%

Not available

Sources: RealtyTrac, OFHEO

The seven areas with the top price appreciation for the past five years averaged a stunning 91.6% increase, nearly double the national average. The national average, in turn, was about triple the inflation rate for the period.

Small wonder the foreclosure rate is booming as well. Anyone who bought in the past few years with a 5% or 10% down payment has a good chance of being upside down as froth comes off the market. In those areas the problem is about irrational price spikes and the hazards they bring to homeownership.

Some would call this "a Cadillac problem" -- a great problem to have, like having more boats than you have water-skiers. Though 5% of the homeowners may be losing their homes, most of the other 95% probably feel significantly richer.

How much richer? Try this. Suppose you paid three times your income for a house and it nearly doubled in value over five years. What does that mean? It means your net worth grew by nearly three years of income. Try achieving that with your 401(k) plan. Even if you bought halfway through the surge, your gain is likely to be well more than one year of income. However you cut it, the change compares quite favorably with working and saving.

The three metro areas with low price appreciations are a different matter. Homeowners in Detroit have actually lost money on their homes over the past five years. That, in turn, has limited their ability to make up for income shortfalls by borrowing against home equity. Add a shrinking job market, and places such as Detroit are coping with a perpetual surplus of sellers over buyers.

One indication is the cost of renting a U-Haul truck. It recently cost $1,447 to rent a 26-foot truck to move from Detroit to Dallas but only $521 to rent the same truck to move from Dallas to Detroit. The real economic problem, for the most people, isn't the price-spike states. It's the deflation states.

That really puts a damper on the doom and gloomers no?

International experts foresee collapse of U.S. economy

2008-03-11T07:50:00.002-05:00

in 12 steps, outlines how the losses of the American financial system will grow to more than $1 trillion - that's one million times $1 million. That amount is equal to all the assets of all American banks.

I read this and called BULLSHIT!
So like I usually do I fact checked.

Assets Ranking as of 2007:

1. Bank of America 1.4 Trillion
2. JP Morgan 1.15 Trillion
3. CitiBank 907 Billion (Banking Assets) Total Assets 2.02 Trillion
4. Wachovia 496 Billion
5. Wells Fargo 415 Billion
6. WAMU 347 Billion
7. BanCorp 208 Billion
8. SunTrust 178 Billion

Forget the top 8 Banks in the US, the #1 Bank in the US totally blows apart the first paragraph of this article.

"The end of the third quarter of 2008 (thus late September, a mere seven months from now) will be marked by a new tipping point in the unfolding of the global systemic crisis.

"At that time indeed, the cumulated impact of the various sequences of the crisis will reach its maximum strength and affect decisively the very heart of the systems concerned, on the front line of which (is) the United States, epicentre of the current crisis.

"In the United States, this new tipping point will translate into - get this - a collapse of the real economy, (the) final socio-economic stage of the serial bursting of the housing and financial bubbles and of the pursuance of the U.S. dollar fall. The collapse of U.S. real economy means the virtual freeze of the American economic machinery: private and public bankruptcies in large numbers, companies and public services closing down."

Mark down your Calendars folks.
I am.
I'll be reporting back on how accurate this was in September.

Seeee you, in September.....see you....when the summers through......

I have seen some doom and gloom in the last few years, but DAMN, seriously to call for a coming Depression? Come on. For real?

In this article it also talks about the GEAB report for 200 dollars.
Its free here. Thank me later.

Obama Mania hitting a new level?

2008-03-06T09:08:00.002-05:00

I spoke to good friend about this set of videos and wanted to get her take on it. She is rather moderate in some respects but also left on many others. The response given was that things are very divided and that Obama may be the one to make that Change towards unity. I responded to that with the following:

There are some things I agree with you on, this country is VERY divided, and its divided mainly by party lines. Obama to ME and to many conservatives that I talk to, does not signify the unity that conservatives are seeking. He isn't even remotely moderate on any position I can think of. Not one. His views are so far left that its almost like replacing a right wing president with a far left wing president. How the opposite extreme is unifying I do not know.

The divide will still be there, only it will be a louder voice from the right than what we see now from the left. Obama for all his great speeches he gives, to me is not the great unifier that people are believing him to be. His positions are nothing short of socialist, his idols include Lenin and Karl Marx, his foreign policy is one that failed miserably for Carter. Hell his foreign policy advisor is the same guy that Carter USED, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Robert Malley. Few people know this, just like few people actually know or listen to his positions because they get so wrapped up in his speech. There is NO DOUBT AT ALL, that the man can speak like no other president that I can think of EVER could. There is no doubt that he has this magical ability to gather people to hear him speak like no other. So great that people swoon and faint hearing him speak, they applaud when he blows his nose. That sounds more like a cult than a political movement. He is able to give a great speech about change of policy and about change of direction, but he gives me little on substance that makes me agree with the direction he wants to go in.

Yes for a president to be successful, he needs to have the power of the House and the Senate behind him. For him to move his agenda forward he has to be able to accomplish this. THIS is the reason that I will vote for Obama. Democrats will be in the position for the first time since the 70's (and we remember how great that was) to have control of both Congress and the Presidency. They will have all the support they need to move the country in whatever direction they want. I am one of those that wants to SEE that direction, and if my gut is correct, it will not be pretty. But I want to see it for my cynicism, to show people (mainly liberals) that the Socialist direction that they seek is not one that will benefit the US in any way. That jobs will leave at an exponential rate to other countries and the change people seek is all a rouse.

The majority of the people that are swaying towards him are the youth of America, and sadly the youth of this country, the 18 year old through college are not very good political decision makers and rarely are as informed as people make them out to be. They are mostly misguided in a mind set that is pushed into their minds of mush by their professors. You saw it in college, you see it now, the kids walking around with che shirts like its cute, embracing socialism and Marxism like its actually a viable system, meanwhile living in a capitalistic sytem that they despise and most of the time they don't even know why, just that they hate corporations and hate rich people.

I'll end it here. To me the video is of no surprise of how captivating this Obama Mania is. Hollywood has had this admiration for socialism and leftist policies for some time now. What is going to be rather stunning is how things develop after he is the nominee. When people start to peal away the bark on Obama, will they really bring themselves to vote for something that is damn near like a French system of government, where corporations are government owned, unions grow in power, and social services are the norm. Something inside me tells me yes, that a growing number of people want the government to take care of them. Its going to be rather amazing to see that shift, but I think we as Americans have fostered this, "someone else take care of me attitude". The way some have chosen to raise their kids, the way we have become ever so dependent on the federal government and seeking them for solutions to local and state problems only leads me further to believe that people in the general election WILL vote for Obama over McCain.

It will be an interesting 4 years.

Feds’ Health Spending to Double in a Decade

2008-02-26T09:32:00.002-05:00

NOTHING and I mean NOTHING that the government has been a part of in funding HAS EVER facilitated in the lowering of its costs. NOTHING. If the idea that you liberals want to facilitate is one of price controls, and nationalizing all hospitals in the country then there are other countries out there for you.

But more to the point is the ever increasing cost of health care, which will NEVER EVER be lowered through increased government intervention.

EXAMPLE:

The federal government will spend twice as much on health care in 2017 as it did in 2007, as costs keep going up and as Boomers enroll in Medicare. The toll: federal outlays for Medicare and Medicaid will hit $1.5 trillion, up from $750 billion last year, according to an estimate published today in Health Affairs.

The estimates don?t take into account the expanded role the feds would play under the Democratic presidential candidates health care proposals, which would cost about $100 billion a year, the WSJ notes. But once you?re at $1.5 trillion, the leap to $1.6 trillion doesn?t seem so vast.

The nation?s overall spending on health care ? including federal, state and private payers ? will continue its long tradition of growing faster than the overall economy, and health will account for nearly one fifth of the GDP by 2017, according to the estimate, by analysts from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Meanwhile, the higher-ups in Washington are fighting over how to slow the growth of Medicare spending. President Bush has proposed freezing reimbursement rates for health care providers such as hospitals, nursing homes and home health centers, the Associated Press points out. Bush also proposed making wealthier seniors pay more for Medicare drug coverage.

The Dems have suggested cutting payments to privately run Medicare plans, which cost the government more than traditional Medicare. That difference will become increasingly costly in the years to come ? the Health Affairs paper estimated that one in four Medicare beneficiaries will be enrolled in private plans by 2017, up from about one in six today.

Government intervention and funding will only INCREASE its costs. Unless of course you want a Nationalized system in which the Hospitals are all controlled by the federal government in which case you WILL SEE a large exodus of Medical Research companies with high paying jobs to other countries. They are already itching to leave this will only increase their incentive.

That supposed 100 Billion is also a very SMALL estimate on what the actual cost will be. Right now as it stands Canada spends over 100 Billion on only 30 million people. The US has 10 times that many people. To assume that the cost overruns and increases in health coverage under this Universal Health plan will be anything near 100 Billion is a fallacy. Try upwards of 1 Trillion or more.

Why we are trying to adopt failed Socialist medicinal practices in the US is beyond my comprehension I guess. Other then the fact that more and more people believe that the government should be their sole provider of everything.

People out there are concerned with Privacy rights on Trains but ignore the massive violation of privacy rights that will come as the Health Department will get more authority to look into your medical records to better facilitate "preventative" measures for you. Which is part of the Obama plan on Health Care. To have more "preventative" health care. Which only means that a government agency will start to recommend to you what YOU should be doing with your health. Not your doctor. Which I guess in this Universal Health care plan would be one in the same. As doctors will wind up being employees of the federal government eventually.

Should be a fun 4 years after November.

Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age

2008-02-25T12:36:00.000-05:00

Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.

The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January "was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average."

China is surviving its most brutal winter in a century. Temperatures in the normally balmy south were so low for so long that some middle-sized cities went days and even weeks without electricity because once power lines had toppled it was too cold or too icy to repair them.

There have been so many snow and ice storms in Ontario and Quebec in the past two months that the real estate market has felt the pinch as home buyers have stayed home rather than venturing out looking for new houses.

In just the first two weeks of February, Toronto received 70 cm of snow, smashing the record of 66.6 cm for the entire month set back in the pre-SUV, pre-Kyoto, pre-carbon footprint days of 1950.

And remember the Arctic Sea ice? The ice we were told so hysterically last fall had melted to its "lowest levels on record? Never mind that those records only date back as far as 1972 and that there is anthropological and geological evidence of much greater melts in the past.

The ice is back.

Gilles Langis, a senior forecaster with the Canadian Ice Service in Ottawa, says the Arctic winter has been so severe the ice has not only recovered, it is actually 10 to 20 cm thicker in many places than at this time last year.

OK, so one winter does not a climate make. It would be premature to claim an Ice Age is looming just because we have had one of our most brutal winters in decades.

But if environmentalists and environment reporters can run around shrieking about the manmade destruction of the natural order every time a robin shows up on Georgian Bay two weeks early, then it is at least fair game to use this winter's weather stories to wonder whether the alarmist are being a tad premature.

And it's not just anecdotal evidence that is piling up against the climate-change dogma.

According to Robert Toggweiler of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton University and Joellen Russell, assistant professor of biogeochemical dynamics at the University of Arizona -- two prominent climate modellers -- the computer models that show polar ice-melt cooling the oceans, stopping the circulation of warm equatorial water to northern latitudes and triggering another Ice Age (a la the movie The Day After Tomorrow) are all wrong.

"We missed what was right in front of our eyes," says Prof. Russell. It's not ice melt but rather wind circulation that drives ocean currents northward from the tropics. Climate models until now have not properly accounted for the wind's effects on ocean circulation, so researchers have compensated by over-emphasizing the role of manmade warming on polar ice melt.

But when Profs. Toggweiler and Russell rejigged their model to include the 40-year cycle of winds away from the equator (then back towards it again), the role of ocean currents bringing warm southern waters to the north was obvious in the current Arctic warming.

Last month, Oleg Sorokhtin, a fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, shrugged off manmade climate change as "a drop in the bucket." Showing that solar activity has entered an inactive phase, Prof. Sorokhtin advised people to "stock up on fur coats."

He is not alone. Kenneth Tapping of our own National Research Council, who oversees a giant radio telescope focused on the sun, is convinced we are in for a long period of severely cold weather if sunspot activity does not pick up soon.

The last time the sun was this inactive, Earth suffered the Little Ice Age that lasted about five centuries and ended in 1850. Crops failed through killer frosts and drought. Famine, plague and war were widespread. Harbours froze, so did rivers, and trade ceased.

It's way too early to claim the same is about to happen again, but then it's way too early for the hysteria of the global warmers, too.

Yeah Global Warming. LOL...
Fucking tards!@

Democrats campaign expenditures

2008-02-22T13:14:00.004-05:00

Now even though this article is about Hillary there are parts here that show how similar the spending was with Obama's campaign.

People have tried to argue that it was better "money management" by Obama that has given him this lead monetarily which clearly from this article is a flat out wrong assumption. That somehow Obama spent his money more wisely and from what I can tell they spent it the same. The difference is that he received more in donations from a larger pool of people.

Considering if they both spent about the same then they BOTH are HORRIBLE at money management like I had stated in another thread. Leading me to believe that money management with Trillions of dollars won't be any better. But I am sure there are those that will say otherwise that "attorneys" are all great money managers, that Obama is the great "economic savior" etc etc.

Deny or accept as you wish.

Clinton Donors Worried by Campaign’s Spending
By MICHAEL LUO, JO BECKER and PATRICK HEALY

This article was reported by Michael Luo, Jo Becker and Patrick Healy and was written by Mr. Healy.

Nearly $100,000 went for party platters and groceries before the Iowa caucuses, even though the partying mood evaporated quickly. Rooms at the Bellagio luxury hotel in Las Vegas consumed more than $25,000; the Four Seasons, another $5,000. And top consultants collected about $5 million in January, a month of crucial expenses and tough fund-raising.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s latest campaign finance report, published Wednesday night, appeared even to her most stalwart supporters and donors to be a road map of her political and management failings. Several of them, echoing political analysts, expressed concerns that Mrs. Clinton’s spending priorities amounted to costly errors in judgment that have hamstrung her competitiveness against Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

“We didn’t raise all of this money to keep paying consultants who have pursued basically the wrong strategy for a year now,” said a prominent New York donor. “So much about her campaign needs to change — but it may be too late.”

The high-priced senior consultants to Mrs. Clinton, of New York, have emerged as particular targets of complaints, given that they conceived and executed a political strategy that has thus far proved unsuccessful.

The firm that includes Mark Penn, Mrs. Clinton’s chief strategist and pollster, and his team collected $3.8 million for fees and expenses in January; in total, including what the campaign still owes, the firm has billed more than $10 million for consulting, direct mail and other services, an amount other Democratic strategists who are not affiliated with either campaign called stunning.

Howard Wolfson, the communications director and a senior member of the advertising team, earned nearly $267,000 in January. His total, including the campaign’s debt to him, tops $730,000.

The advertising firm owned by Mandy Grunwald, the longtime media strategist for both Mrs. Clinton and Bill Clinton, the former president, has collected $2.3 million in fees and expenses, and is still owed another $240,000.

“Fees and payments are in line with industry standards,” Mr. Wolfson said. “Spending priorities have been consistent with overall strategic goals.”

But some Democrats are now asking if the money spent on a campaign that appears to be sputtering — $106 million so far — was worth it.

“It’s easy to be critical, but had she won Iowa, none of this would have mattered. It wouldn’t have mattered what she spent because money would have come pouring in,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant and a veteran of Mr. Clinton’s successful 1996 re-election bid. “But the fact that she did not has made everyone focus on where the dollars went — and where they think the money should’ve gone.”

Mrs. Clinton came into January with a cash advantage over Mr. Obama, with about $19 million available for the primary, compared with about $13 million for him. She wound up spending at roughly the same rate as Mr. Obama, about a million dollars a day, but because she performed dismally compared to him in raising money, she ended the month essentially in the red and was forced to lend her campaign $5 million, while he had $19 million for the coming contests.

Over all, Mrs. Clinton has spent more than $35 million on media, polling and consulting. A comparison with Mr. Obama’s spending is difficult because of the ways the campaigns labeled expenses, but it appears he spent about $40 million in those areas.

In other notable expenditures during the lean month of January, Mrs. Clinton paid $275,000 to Sunrise Communications, a South Carolina firm that was supposed to turn out black voters for her and collected nearly $800,000 in total. She lost that state to Mr. Obama by a wide margin. Even small expenses piled up in January: the campaign spent more than $11,000 on pizza and $1,200 on Dunkin’ Donuts runs.

Mr. Penn, the chief strategist, said in an interview that, since 2001, he no longer owned any of the political consulting firm of Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates. He said the firm’s fees were capped at $20,000 a month and that the “great bulk” of the payments went for direct mail.

Joe Trippi, who was a senior adviser to John Edwards’s presidential campaign, said he believed that the Clinton team had made two fundamental errors.

First, he argued, Mrs. Clinton built a top-down fund-raising operation that relied on a core group of donors to write checks early on for the maximum amount, $4,600 for the primary and the general election, which left few of them to go back to when money became tight. Mr. Obama, by contrast, focused on building a network of small donors whose continued ability to give has been essential to his success this winter.

And second, Mr. Trippi said, the Clinton campaign spent money as though the race were going to be over after a handful of states had voted and was not prepared for a contest that would stretch for months.

“The problem is she ran a campaign like they were staying at the Ritz-Carlton,” Mr. Trippi said. “Everything was the best. The most expensive draping at events. The biggest charter. It was like, ‘We’re going to show you how presidential we are by making our events look presidential.’ ”

For instance, during the week before the Jan. 19 caucuses in Nevada, the Clinton campaign spent more than $25,000 for rooms at the Bellagio in Las Vegas; nearly $5,000 was spent at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas that week. Some staff members also stayed at Planet Hollywood nearby.

From the start of the campaign, some donors had concerns about the Clinton team’s ability to manage money.

Patti Solis Doyle, Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign manager until she was replaced on Feb. 10, also ran her Senate re-election bid in 2006. That campaign spent about $30 million even though Mrs. Clinton faced only token Democratic and Republican opposition.

“The Senate race spending in 2006 was an omen for a lot of us inside the campaign, but Hillary assured us that her presidential bid would be the best run in history,” said one major Clinton fund-raiser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations within the campaign.

Yet the Clinton campaign at times found itself spending money on items that were not ultimately helpful. As part of their get-out-the-vote effort in Iowa, the campaign came up with a plan to have a local supermarket deliver sandwich platters to pre-caucus parties. It spent more than $95,384 on Jan. 1 at Hy-Vee Inc., a local grocery chain in West Des Moines, Iowa, in addition to buying loads of snow shovels to clear the walks for caucusgoers. Mrs. Clinton came in third in the Jan. 3 caucus. It did not snow.

Mr. Obama’s fund-raising surged after his Iowa victory. In January, he brought in more than $2.50 for every $1 she was given, and from Jan. 5 to Feb. 5, Mr. Obama spent nearly $16 million on political advertisements — more than $4 million more than Mrs. Clinton, according to a survey by the Campaign Media Analysis Group at TNS Media Intelligence. Mr. Obama broadcast 3,000 more advertisements than she did, and he was able to air those ads not only in the states that were immediately up for grabs but also in contests on Feb. 5 and beyond.

For instance, Mr. Obama spent nearly $480,000 on 1,331 spots in Missouri; he won the state’s primary, a closely fought contest and a national political bellwether, by one percentage point.

Mr. Obama’s campaign is not without highly paid consultants. His top media strategist is David Axelrod, whose firm received $175,000 in January and has collected $1.2 million over all. Mr. Obama’s polling is spread among four firms that have received $2.8 million collectively.

“Obviously, some campaigns are more careful and wise with their money than others,” Jim Jordan, a Democratic consultant who ran John Kerry’s presidential campaign until November 2003. “But these budgetary post-mortems tend to follow a familiar pattern; winners are by definition smart, and losers are dumb and wasteful. In truth, campaign budgeting is hard and complicated and three-dimensional and just impossible to understand without the full time-and-place context of the whole race.”

If they are both this bad at money management with a couple Million then wait till the endless pool of tax dollars is under their control and how quickly that money will be wasted on all sorts of social programs.

If Obama wins, which is what I suspect and he begins to implement these Socialist ideals that were posted before. He will destroy this economy. The worst thing you can do during an economic slow down is increase taxes. Something which I am sure Obama will be doing as he said in his speech within the first year!

Can't wait.

Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills

2008-02-21T11:56:00.001-05:00

I heard this in the morning on NPR and found it rather interesting. Thought I would share.

On October 3, 1955, the Mickey Mouse Club debuted on television. As we all now know, the show quickly became a cultural icon, one of those phenomena that helped define an era.

What is less remembered but equally, if not more, important, is that another transformative cultural event happened that day: The Mattel toy company began advertising a gun called the "Thunder Burp."

I know — who's ever heard of the Thunder Burp?

Well, no one.

The reason the advertisement is significant is because it marked the first time that any toy company had attempted to peddle merchandise on television outside of the Christmas season. Until 1955, ad budgets at toy companies were minuscule, so the only time they could afford to hawk their wares on TV was during Christmas. But then came Mattel and the Thunder Burp, which, according to Howard Chudacoff, a cultural historian at Brown University, was a kind of historical watershed. Almost overnight, children's play became focused, as never before, on things — the toys themselves.

"It's interesting to me that when we talk about play today, the first thing that comes to mind are toys," says Chudacoff. "Whereas when I would think of play in the 19th century, I would think of activity rather than an object."

Chudacoff's recently published history of child's play argues that for most of human history what children did when they played was roam in packs large or small, more or less unsupervised, and engage in freewheeling imaginative play. They were pirates and princesses, aristocrats and action heroes. Basically, says Chudacoff, they spent most of their time doing what looked like nothing much at all.

"They improvised play, whether it was in the outdoors… or whether it was on a street corner or somebody's back yard," Chudacoff says. "They improvised their own play; they regulated their play; they made up their own rules."

But during the second half of the 20th century, Chudacoff argues, play changed radically. Instead of spending their time in autonomous shifting make-believe, children were supplied with ever more specific toys for play and predetermined scripts. Essentially, instead of playing pirate with a tree branch they played Star Wars with a toy light saber. Chudacoff calls this the commercialization and co-optation of child's play — a trend which begins to shrink the size of children's imaginative space.

But commercialization isn't the only reason imagination comes under siege. In the second half of the 20th century, Chudacoff says, parents became increasingly concerned about safety, and were driven to create play environments that were secure and could not be penetrated by threats of the outside world. Karate classes, gymnastics, summer camps — these create safe environments for children, Chudacoff says. And they also do something more: for middle-class parents increasingly worried about achievement, they offer to enrich a child's mind.

The best thing #43 ever did!

2008-02-19T21:32:00.002-05:00

What has been the best thing G.W. has ever done?
Appoint Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito! That's what!

Court Rejects ACLU Challenge to Wiretaps

WASHINGTON (AP) - The SupremeCourt dealt a setback Tuesday to civil rights and privacy advocates who oppose the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. The justices, without comment, turned down an appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union to let it pursue a lawsuit against the program that began shortly after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Awesome!

Bad Moon Rising

2008-02-19T18:27:00.003-05:00

Wednesday night, February 29, 2008 the Western Hemisphere will experience a total Lunar Eclipse. That is, the Moon will be completely covered by Earth's umbra, or shadow. The Earth will briefly be directly in between the Sun and Moon. The Moon will still be visible to us Earthlings because of the refraction of light rays escaping the atmosphere. Because of the atmosphere acting like a filter, the only rays that will be able to escape is of the red spectrum. The Moon will appear blood red or brownish in color. Here is what is interesting about this: many religions associate the Moon turning blood red as a bad omen; even the bible. Read it here and here.

Interestingly, Cristopher Columbus used the Lunar Eclipse to his advantage.

Rewind to 504 years ago!

The story goes in 1504, Columbus was stranded and badly needing supplies in Jamaica. The locals were fed up and warring (perhaps mad as hell they were on their land, but that is another hisotry lesson) with these foreigners from Europe. They refused to give Columbus and crew anything.

Columbus looked to his almanac and discovered a mathematicians lunar prediction. Ding, goes off in the bold explorer's head!

He goes to the tribesman and tells them if they do not give him what he requires he will hide the moon!

Okay, I bet the tribesman were telling Colombus to get his white Euro-trash ass back on his dingy and fuck-off right? Yep! So Colombus says beware! (Disclaimer! These words are not actual conversation!)

That night I'm sure Colombus prayed his ass off that this pencil-necked mathematician from Berlin, or wherever, better had his numbers right!

Low and behold Colombus' bet paid off and the locals begged for him to return the moon!!!

Of course Colombus did so, but not before getting what supplies he and his crew needed!

Now that is genius!

Now what I'm getting at here is, how many times have you seen this happen today? Today as in our present time.

Me? I see it every freakin' day when Senators Obama and Clinton take the stage and make their threats to tax the evil rich and empty promises to the ignorant, uneducated, and emotional (make me faint when I hear Obama speak) liberals.

P.S. Thanks Breibart for a bit of the actual historical reference on Columbus' story. Read it here if you like.

P.S.S. Uhhh, let us also hope that Wed. night's shootdown of some supposedly bazzilion dollar satellite goes well and doesn't shootdown the Moon!

P.S.S.S. Just kidding NAVY!!! LOL

Obama’s Big-Government Vision

2008-02-19T12:07:00.000-05:00

Sen. Barack Obama is very gloomy about America, and he’s aligning himself with the liberal wing of the Democratic party in hopes of coming to the nation’s rescue. His proposal? Big-government planning, spending, and taxing — exactly what the nation and the stock market do not want to hear.

Obama unveiled much of his economic strategy in Wisconsin this week: He wants to spend $150 billion on a green-energy plan. He wants to establish an infrastructure investment bank to the tune of $60 billion. He wants to expand health insurance by roughly $65 billion. He wants to “reopen” trade deals, which is another way of saying he wants to raise the barriers to free trade. He intends to regulate the profits for drug companies, health insurers, and energy firms. He wants to establish a mortgage-interest tax credit. He wants to double the number of workers receiving the earned-income tax credit and triple this benefit for minimum-wage workers.

The Obama spend-o-meter is now up around $800 billion. And tax hikes on the rich won’t pay for it. It’s the middle class that will ultimately shoulder this fiscal burden in terms of higher taxes and lower growth.

This isn’t free enterprise. It’s old-fashioned-liberal tax, spend, and regulate. It’s plain ol’ big government. The only people who will benefit are the central planners in Washington.

Obama would like voters to believe that he’s the second coming of JFK. But with his unbelievable spending and new-government-agency proposals he’s looking more and more like Jimmy Carter. His is a “Grow the Government Bureaucracy Plan,” and it’s totally at odds with investment and business.

Obama says he wants U.S. corporations to stop “shipping jobs overseas” and bring their cash back home. But if he really wanted U.S. companies to keep more of their profits in the states he’d be calling for a reduction in the corporate tax rate. Why isn’t he demanding an end to the double-taxation of corporate earnings? It’s simple: He wants higher taxes, too.

The Wall Street Journal’s Steve Moore has done the math on Obama’s tax plan. He says it will add up to a 39.6 percent personal income tax, a 52.2 percent combined income and payroll tax, a 28 percent capital-gains tax, a 39.6 percent dividends tax, and a 55 percent estate tax.

Not only is Obama the big-spending candidate, he’s also the very-high-tax candidate. And what he wants to tax is capital.

Doesn’t Obama understand the vital role of capital formation in creating businesses and jobs? Doesn’t he understand that without capital, businesses can’t expand their operations and hire more workers?

Dan Henninger, writing in Thursday’s Wall Street Journal, notes that Obama’s is a profoundly pessimistic message. “Strip away the new coat of paint from the Obama message and what you find is not only familiar,” writes Henninger. “It’s a downer.”

Obama wants you to believe that America is in trouble, and that it can only be cured with a big lurch to the left. Take from the rich and give to the non-rich. Redistribute income and wealth. It’s an age-old recipe for economic disaster. It completely ignores incentives for entrepreneurs, small family-owned businesses, and investors. You can’t have capitalism without capital. But Obama would penalize capital, be it capital from corporations or investors. This will only harm, and not advance, opportunities for middle-class workers.

Obama believes he can use government, and not free markets, to drive the economy. But on taxes, trade, and regulation, Obama’s program is anti-growth. A President Obama would steer us in the social-market direction of Western Europe, which has produced only stagnant economies down through the years. It would be quite an irony. While newly emerging nations in Eastern Europe and Asia are lowering the tax penalties on capital — and reaping the economic rewards — Obama would raise them. Low-rate flat-tax plans are proliferating around the world. Yet Obama completely ignores this. American competitiveness would suffer enormously under Obama, as would job opportunities, productivity, and real wages.

Imitate the failures of Germany, Norway, and Sweden? That’s no way to run economic policy.

I have so far been soft on Obama this election season. In many respects he is a breath of fresh air. He’s an attractive candidate with an appealing approach to politics. Obama is likeable, and sometimes he gets it — such as when he opposed Hillary Clinton’s five-year rate-freeze on mortgages.

But his message is pessimism, not hope. And behind the charm and charisma is a big-government bureaucrat who would take us down the wrong economic road.

Its going to be an interesting 4 years after he wins.

Obama’s International Socialist Connections

2008-02-19T11:57:00.002-05:00

There are those on the internet, and in Obamaland that refuse to believe that Obama is a Socialist at heart. That when you scratch the surface of pressed suit and great speeches you get a person bent on swinging America HARD LEFT. Then you have those that agree with those steps. Fine.

But for the earlier group swallow this:

Campaign workers for Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama are under fire for displaying a flag featuring communist hero Che Guevara. But Obama has his own controversial socialist connections. He is, in fact, an associate of a Chicago-based Marxist group with access to millions of labor union dollars and connections to expert political consultants, including a convicted swindler.

Obama's socialist backing goes back at least to 1996, when he received the endorsement of the Chicago branch of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) for an Illinois state senate seat. Later, the Chicago DSA newsletter reported that Obama, as a state senator, showed up to eulogize Saul Mendelson, one of the "champions" of "Chicago's democratic left" and a long-time socialist activist. Obama's stint as a "community organizer" in Chicago has gotten some attention, but his relationship with the DSA socialists, who groomed and backed him, has been generally ignored.

Blogger Steve Bartin, who has been following Obama's career and involvement with the Chicago socialists, has uncovered a fascinating video showing Obama campaigning for openly socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Interestingly, Sanders, who won his seat in 2006, called Obama "one of the great leaders of the United States Senate," even though Obama had only been in the body for about two years. In 2007, the National Journal said that Obama had established himself as "the most liberal Senator." More liberal than Sanders? That is quite a feat. Does this make Obama a socialist, too?

DSA describes itself as the largest socialist organization in the United States and the principal U.S. affiliate of the Socialist International. The Socialist International (SI) has what is called "consultative status" with the United Nations. In other words, it works hand-in-glove with the world body.

The international connection is important and significant because an Obama bill, "The Global Poverty Act," has just been rushed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with the assistance of Democratic Senator Joe Biden, the chairman, and Republican Senator Richard Lugar. The legislation (S.2433) commits the U.S. to spending hundreds of billions of dollars more in foreign aid on the rest of the world, in order to comply with the "Millennium Goals" established by the United Nations. Conservative members of the committee were largely caught off-guard by the move to pass the Obama bill but are putting a "hold" on it, in order to try to prevent the legislation, which also quickly passed the House, from being quickly brought up for a full Senate vote. But observers think that Senate Democrats may try to pass it quickly anyway, in order to give Obama a precious legislative "victory" that he could run on.

Another group associated with the SI is the Party of European Socialists (PES), which heard from Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, back in 2006. Dean's speech is posted on the official Democratic Party website, although the European socialist parties are referred to as "progressive." Democrats, Dean said, want to be "good citizens of the world community." He spoke at a session on "Global Challenges for Progressive Politics."

Following up, in April 2007, PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen reported that European socialists held a meeting "in the Democrats HQ in Washington," met with officials of the party and Democratic members of Congress, and agreed that "PES activist groups" in various U.S. cities would start working together. The photos of the trip show Rasmussen meeting with such figures as Senator Ben Cardin, Senator Bernie Sanders, officials of the Brookings Institution, Howard Dean, and AFL-CIO President John W. Sweeney, a member of the DSA. The Brookings Institution is headed by former Clinton State Department official Strobe Talbott, a proponent of world government who was recently identified in the book Comrade J as having been a pawn of the Russian intelligence service.

The socialist connections of Obama and the Democratic Party have certainly not been featured in the Washington Post columns of Harold Meyerson, who happens not only to be a member but a vice-chair of the DSA. Meyerson, the subject of our 2005 column, "A Socialist at the Washington Post," has praised convicted inside-trader George Soros for manipulating campaign finance laws to benefit the far-left elements of the Democratic Party. Obama's success in the Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses is further evidence of Soros's success. Indeed, Soros has financially contributed to the Obama campaign.

It is not surprising that the Chicago Democrat, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, has endorsed Obama. Schakowsky, who endorsed Howard Dean for president in 2004, was honored in 2000 at a dinner sponsored by the Chicago chapter of the DSA. Her husband, Robert Creamer, emerged from federal prison in November 2006 after serving five months for financial crimes. He pleaded guilty to ripping off financial institutions while running a non-profit group. Before he was convicted but under indictment, Creamer was hired by the Soros-funded Open Society Policy Center to sabotage John Bolton's nomination as Ambassador to the U.N.

After his release from prison, Creamer released a book, Listen to Your Mother: Stand up Straight: How Progressives Can Win, described by one blogger as the book that was "penned in the pen." A blurb for the book declares, "Some people think that in order to win, Democrats need to move to the political center by adopting conservative values and splitting the difference between progressive and conservative positions. History shows they are wrong. To win the next election and to win in the long term, we need to redefine the political center."

In addition to writing the book, Creamer is back in business, running his firm, Strategic Consulting Group, and advertising himself as "a consultant to the campaigns to end the war in Iraq, pass universal health care, change America's budget priorities and enact comprehensive immigration reform." His clients have included the AFL-CIO and MoveOn.org. In fact, his client list is a virtual who's who of the Democratic Party, organized labor, and Democratic Party constituency groups.

Creamer's list of testimonials comes from such figures as Democratic Senators Dick Durbin (Ill.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Harold Meyerson, MoveOn.org founder Wes Boyd, and David Axelrod, a "Democratic political consultant."

Axelrod, of course, is much more than just a "Democratic political consultant." He helped State Senator Barack Obama win his U.S. Senate seat in 2004 and currently serves as strategist and media advisor to Obama's presidential campaign.

Obama and El Che.

2008-02-19T11:45:00.002-05:00

Now this is fairly old on the Blogosphere but I felt it necessary to capture most of the important things here. Val from Babalu Blog has done a PHENOMENAL job of getting everything pertaining to Obama and the the Che flag.
So here is a small recap.

Obama Campaign office had a flag of El Che during a recent local news report.
A Fox Affiliate had the report with Video.

The Obama Campaign issued a statement about the Flag:

Statement from the Barack Obama Campaign over Inappropriate Use of Flag
February 13, 2008

"Senator Obama has made it clear that we will maintain the embargo as a way to leverage meaningful democratic change in Cuba. The office featured in this video is funded by volunteers of the Barack Obama Campaign and is not an official headquarters for his campaign."

And a more recent updated more PC version:

"This is a volunteer office that is not in any way controlled by the Obama campaign. We were disappointed to see this picture because it is both offensive to many Cuban-Americans -- and Americans of all backgrounds -- and because it does not reflect Senator Obama’s views. Barack Obama has been very clear in putting forward a Cuba policy that is based on one principle: freedom for the Cuban people." -- Obama Campaign

That was a steaming pile of Bull Shit!
Video proof of Otherwise:

Seeing as every campaign involves "volunteers" except for the upper echelon of a campaign its pretty silly to just say this is an outside effort. But lets talk about this Houston "volunteer" for a minute.

Maria Isabel is a precinct captain for Obama. She is also co-chair of a volunteer group called Houston Obama Leadership Team (HOLT). She has pictures of herself with both Obama and his wife on her Flickr page. She is obviously very active in both the campaign and the Democratic party. Just because she's not a paid employ does not exonerate her or the campaign. Almost everyone except the very top people on a campaign are volunteers.

While Obama may try to distance himself from any Socialists ties NOW. The following post will open some eyes on that front.

Default Senior benefit costs up 24%

2008-02-14T12:49:00.001-05:00

This is going to be rather interesting in the next 4-5 years as we slowly see the crawl towards more "Nationalized" health care.

The cost of government benefits for seniors soared to a record $27,289 per senior in 2007, according to a USA TODAY analysis.

That's a 24% increase above the inflation rate since 2000. Medical costs are the biggest reason. Last year, for the first time, health care and nursing homes cost the government more than Social Security payments for seniors age 65 and older. The average Social Security benefit per senior in 2007 was $13,184.

"We have a health care crisis. We don't have an entitlement crisis," says David Certner, legislative policy director of the AARP, which represents seniors.

He says seniors shouldn't be blamed for the growing cost of government retirement programs.

The federal government spent $952 billion in 2007 on elderly benefits, up from $601 billion in 2000. It's the biggest function of the federal government. States chipped in $27 billion more in 2007, mostly for nursing homes.

All three major senior programs � Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid � experienced dramatically escalating costs that outstripped inflation and the growth in the senior population.

Benefits per senior are soaring at a time when the senior population is not. The portion of the U.S. population ages 65 and older has been constant at 12% since 2000.

The senior boom, however, starts big time in 2011, when the first baby boomers � 79 million people born between 1946 and 1964 � turn 65 and qualify for Medicare health insurance. The oldest baby boomers turn 62 this year and qualify for Social Security at reduced benefits.

USA TODAY used a variety of government data to calculate the cost of providing Social Security, medical benefits and long-term care to an aging population. Billions of dollars paid to non-seniors � the disabled, children and others in the programs � were removed to create an estimate that focuses exclusively on seniors.

Findings include:

•Medicare experienced the most explosive growth from 2000 to 2007. The Medicare prescription-drug benefit, started in 2006, accounts for about one-fourth of the increase in Medicare, which provides health benefits for people 65 and older.

•Long-term care costs per senior have declined slightly in the past three years because of a move away from nursing homes to less expensive home care.

•The cost of senior benefits is equal to $10,673 for every non-senior household.

•About 35% of the federal budget is spent on senior benefits, up from 32% in 2004.

Eugene Steuerle, a senior fellow at the non-partisan Urban Institute, notes that the full cost of senior benefits goes beyond Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. A complete estimate would include other programs for retirees, such as military and civil servant pensions and medical benefits, he says.

The Urban Institute estimates that kids receive an average of about $4,000 per child in benefits, including the child tax credit and other indirect assistance.

Economist Dean Baker calls it "granny bashing" to focus on the cost of senior benefits. The elderly paid a designated tax for Social Security and Medicare taxes during their decades of working to support these programs when they retired, says Baker, co-director of the liberal Center for Economic Policy and Research.

Remember folks the SOLUTION is to have a NATIONAL government program that will make things..... cheaper....

Yeah thats it....

Its only going to get worse with time people.

Reason #1,324,987 to Secure the F-in Borders!!!

2008-02-14T11:51:00.002-05:00

Has anybody seen this story on the MSM sites???
On any of them??
Nyet. Me either

Three Afghan nationals held at Nedumbaserry Airport Kochi,

Feb 13 (UNI) Three Afghan nationals were arrested at the Nedumbaserry International Airport, near here, today for travelling on fake Mexican passports, Immigration officials said.
The three were earlier in the day deported from Kuwait after authorities there doubted their claim to be Mexican nationals.
Immigration and other security officials interrogated the three for several hours and finally arrested them on charges of travelling on forged passports.According to
Immgiration officials, they were Afghan nationals trying to go to France. However, their real names have not been disclosed so far.
The Mexican passports which they were carrying identified them as Antonio Lopez Juan (42), Javier Sanchez Alberto (20) and Atonio Lopez Ernesto (16). They had left from Nedumbaserry Airport on February 11 for Kuwait en route to France.
However, the emigration officials at Kuwait had found them to be suspects as they reportedly could not understand any Spanish. They also suspected the passports to be forged. The three were then deported to Nedumbaserry today.
The three had reportedly arrived in New Delhi on January 23 this year, as per the stamps on their passports. However, there was some doubt about the authenticity of the arrival stamps on the passports also, emigration officials said.

The Merida Initiative

2008-02-12T11:19:00.000-05:00

Thank God for Americans like Michelle Malkin. Please read this report from her about Bush plan to fund the southern Mexican border with American taxpayer money with security resouces so they control thier illegal immigration problems.

Yeah you heard me! America is going to help Mexico's border problem! HEEELLLLLOOOO!!
Is Bush Serious???

Read MM's story here pronto!

Get Boortz's brilliant take on this what I like to call this Meirda Initiative. Meirda means shit by the way... just so you know.

Honestly folks. I'm really speechless here. Half the time I really don't understand Bush and Co.

America will not last long, as a sovereign nation, with continual harmful initiatives like this.

The Sun Also Sets

2008-02-08T15:20:00.001-05:00

Climate Change: Not every scientist is part of Al Gore's mythical "consensus." Scientists worried about a new ice age seek funding to better observe something bigger than your SUV — the sun.

Back in 1991, before Al Gore first shouted that the Earth was in the balance, the Danish Meteorological Institute released a study using data that went back centuries that showed that global temperatures closely tracked solar cycles.

To many, those data were convincing. Now, Canadian scientists are seeking additional funding for more and better "eyes" with which to observe our sun, which has a bigger impact on Earth's climate than all the tailpipes and smokestacks on our planet combined.

And they're worried about global cooling, not warming.

Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada's National Research Council, is among those looking at the sun for evidence of an increase in sunspot activity.

Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century.

Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no 11-year cycle.

This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715. Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe.

Tapping reports no change in the sun's magnetic field so far this cycle and warns that if the sun remains quiet for another year or two, it may indicate a repeat of that period of drastic cooling of the Earth, bringing massive snowfall and severe weather to the Northern Hemisphere.

Tapping oversees the operation of a 60-year-old radio telescope that he calls a "stethoscope for the sun." But he and his colleagues need better equipment.

In Canada, where radio-telescopic monitoring of the sun has been conducted since the end of World War II, a new instrument, the next-generation solar flux monitor, could measure the sun's emissions more rapidly and accurately.

As we have noted many times, perhaps the biggest impact on the Earth's climate over time has been the sun.

For instance, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solar Research in Germany report the sun has been burning more brightly over the last 60 years, accounting for the 1 degree Celsius increase in Earth's temperature over the last 100 years.

R. Timothy Patterson, professor of geology and director of the Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Center of Canada's Carleton University, says that "CO2 variations show little correlation with our planet's climate on long, medium and even short time scales."

Rather, he says, "I and the first-class scientists I work with are consistently finding excellent correlations between the regular fluctuations of the sun and earthly climate. This is not surprising. The sun and the stars are the ultimate source of energy on this planet."

Patterson, sharing Tapping's concern, says: "Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe cycle of the past two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth."

"Solar activity has overpowered any effect that CO2 has had before, and it most likely will again," Patterson says. "If we were to have even a medium-sized solar minimum, we could be looking at a lot more bad effects than 'global warming' would have had."

In 2005, Russian astronomer Khabibullo Abdusamatov made some waves — and not a few enemies in the global warming "community" — by predicting that the sun would reach a peak of activity about three years from now, to be accompanied by "dramatic changes" in temperatures.

A Hoover Institution Study a few years back examined historical data and came to a similar conclusion.

"The effects of solar activity and volcanoes are impossible to miss. Temperatures fluctuated exactly as expected, and the pattern was so clear that, statistically, the odds of the correlation existing by chance were one in 100," according to Hoover fellow Bruce Berkowitz.

The study says that "try as we might, we simply could not find any relationship between industrial activity, energy consumption and changes in global temperatures."

The study concludes that if you shut down all the world's power plants and factories, "there would not be much effect on temperatures."

But if the sun shuts down, we've got a problem. It is the sun, not the Earth, that's hanging in the balance.

Undocumented Fleeing Az for Texas

2008-02-06T08:36:00.000-05:00

All this Bull about enforcement not working?
That its impossible to deport illegals is sure not being covered by major news outlets.
Funny why that is.

Most of illegal immigration opponents like myself have stated this clearly.
If you ENFORCE the laws, and make it harder for illegals to get jobs, get housing, and free education then watch as they all leave willingly. You won't need a single deportation bus.

Now we see how true that is:

Undocumented immigrants are coming into Texas, but not from where one might think.

The rush is coming from Arizona, Oklahoma and other states, places that recently passed tough anti immigrant laws.
The two toughest measures are in Arizona and Oklahoma.

Effective January 1, the Arizona law suspended the business license of employers who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants. On a second offense, the license is revoked.

The Oklahoma statute, which took effect in November, makes it a crime to transport, harbor or hire undocumented immigrants.
Anecdotal information seems to indicate undocumented immigrants are leaving these states in growing numbers.

"They're really tightening the screws," said Mario Ortiz, an undocumented Mexican worker who came to Houston after leaving Phoenix last year." There have been a lot coming. It could be 100 a day."

In Tulsa, Okla., the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has estimated 15,000 to 25,000 undocumented immigrants have left the area. One builder estimated 30 percent of the Hispanic work force left Tulsa.

"There's been a tremendous impact in Oklahoma City," said David Castillo, the executive director of the Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "We've had several companies close shop and leave the state. Banks have called us and say they're closing 30 accounts per week."

Enrique Hubbard, Mexico's consul general in Dallas, said a dozen Mexican families from Oklahoma have applied for consular documents listing their new homes in the Dallas area.

Texas' reputation as a welcoming destination has experts predicting more immigrants will come to Houston and other cities in the state. Texas has not passed a state wide law targeting the employment of undocumented immigrants.

"Texas is still very much an entrepreneurial place where you can find your place in this economy," said James Hollifield, a Southern Methodist University professor and migration expert.

Ortiz, a native of he southern Mexican state of Tabasco, said he left Phoenix eight months ago after working 60 to 70 hours a week at a plant nursery. While now he can only pick up two to three days a week of yard work and barely earns enough to send back to his family, he prefers Texas to Arizona.

"Here, they let you work. Over there, they won't. There is a lot of racism, but here there isn't - it's better," Ortiz said of Houston.

And the issue has NOTHING to do with racism.
But with the damn LAW!

And the Oscar goes to.....

2008-02-05T12:31:00.001-05:00

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - There she goes again.

It was another two-hanky day on the campaign trail yesterday, as Hillary Rodham Clinton teared up at an event targeting female voters on the eve of the Super Tuesday elections.

After she got a warm introduction from an old friend, Clinton's eyes welled up and glistened under TV camera lights. She paused and gathered her composure.

She didn't choke up - as she did at a similar event on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, a moment that Clinton now says may have helped her snag a critical victory last month by making her appear human and vulnerable.

But there were enough similarities between the two teary instances that skeptics wondered whether the whole thing was contrived.

"Whenever [Barack] Obama picks up steam, she seems to open up the waterworks," said one Democratic operative.

It all started yesterday, when Clinton got a moving introduction from one of her mentors, Penn Rhodeen, who supervised her at a Legal Aid Society while Clinton was a student at Yale Law School.

Rhodeen called Clinton "our incomparable Hillary," after describing the day when, "You appeared at my door, dressed mostly in purple" in a sheepskin coat with bellbottoms.

"You looked wonderful - and so 1972," he said.

Rhodeen himself choked up during his remarks, and Clinton came to the brink of losing her composure. Tears welled up in her eyes as she gathered herself to address 12 preselected women sitting around a table at the Yale Child Study Center, where she once worked.

"Well, I said I would not tear up. Already, we're not exactly on that path," Clinton said, evoking laughs from the crowd.

"She controlled it, but at the table you could see [the tears in her eyes]," said Erin Phillips, a second-year law student, who said Clinton "did great."

Later on, Clinton conducted a town-hall meeting on the Hallmark Channel with audiences from 22 Super Tuesday states. Her campaign paid Hallmark $500,000 for the hour of airtime.

She also appeared on CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman," where the talk-show host asked her if she had ordered hubby Bill to "ease up" on attacking Obama.

She acknowledged talking to her husband, but said, "It was more like, 'We have to get on the positive here.' "

Meanwhile, Obama campaigned with Sen. Ted Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy at the Izod Center arena in New Jersey, next to the home of the champion Giants.

"Sometimes the underdog pulls it out," Obama said. "You can't always believe the pundits and prognosticators."

BRAVO.. right on cue.
Its was PERFECT. Didn't even skip a beat.
Almost as good as this one:

Notice the words, "I have so many opportunities for this country" damn if that is not Stalinist I don't know what is. Also what is this we have to reverse it thing? You mean reverse the growth in the economy? Well yeah if you ask Mr. Clinton. You know we have to stop Global Warming and all and to do that you have to destroy the US economy. Its the only way.

Jesus why is no one else seeing this garbage?
I PRAY she wins the general elections. God I do.
I want people to realize what a FANTASTIC mistake that will be.

Pretty convienient cough attack....

2008-02-05T12:29:00.000-05:00

Especially since the question dealt with her husband which has been a bit of a thorn in the recent Billary campaign with his off the cuff remarks.

U.S. sees Russia, China, OPEC financial threat

2008-02-05T12:26:00.000-05:00

Seriously? You are just now seeing this?

Russia, China and OPEC oil-producing countries have a worrisome potential to use their growing financial clout to exert political pressure, the top U.S. spy chief told Congress on Tuesday.

U.S. National Director of Intelligence Michael McConnell voiced the concern to Congress in his annual assessment of potential security threats to the United States.

McConnell also told the Senate Intelligence Committee in prepared testimony that the global threat of terrorism remained, but that al Qaeda had suffered setbacks and its international reputation was diminishing.

He voiced continued concern over Iran's potential to develop nuclear weapons despite its halt to nuclear warhead design, and said political uncertainty in Pakistan had not threatened the military's control of that country's nuclear arsenal.

In listing top threats, McConnell cited "concerns about the financial capabilities of Russia, China and OPEC countries and the potential use of their market access to exert financial leverage to political ends."

Russia was positioning itself to control an energy supply and transportation network spanning from Europe to East Asia, and China's global engagement was driven by a need to access markets and resources, McConnell said.

He voiced concerns about the impact of a weaker U.S. dollar on global oil suppliers, some of whom have asked to be paid in currencies other than dollars, or delinked their currency pegs to the dollar.

"Continued concerns about dollar depreciation could tempt other producers to follow suit," McConnell said.

The dollar devaluation has its pros and its cons.
The pro being more exports from the US.
One of the cons are the supposed removing of the dollar from Oil purchases, but that is probably not going to happen. The world economy is way to invested in it to take that kind of hit.

Clinton's Grand Health Care Plan Enforcement Revealed

2008-02-04T11:08:00.000-05:00

UGH!

Bravo to George Stephonopolous this weekend for hammering Clinton on this issue. Here's the gist of it:

The New York senator has criticized presidential rival Barack Obama for pushing a health plan that would not require universal coverage. Clinton has not always pecified the enforcement measures she would embrace, but when pressed on ABC's "This Week," she said: "I think there are a number of mechanisms" that are possible, including "going after people's wages, automatic enrollment."

Please don't be an idiot and vote for this woman.
Need I say more.

New York Giants Defeat Mighty Mighty Patriots in Superbowl XLII

2008-02-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

Last night I couldn't believe my eyes.
They did it.
The NY Giants won the Super Bowl.
I am a Giant fan and even I didn't think they would even make the playoffs nor win the Superbowl!
Nethier did many many many many other people.
Niether did the Patriots.
They came in undefeated.
They were heavily favored.
They were supposed to easily annihialate the G-men into obilivion for even daring to try and take their Superbowl win.
HA!
HA HA HA!
How do you like them apples Bostonians!

llegal Alien Costs to the County of San Diego

2008-01-31T14:00:00.000-05:00

This month, I received the results of a called-for study detailing the costs of services delivered to illegal aliens. The estimated drain on County services and community medical providers is more than $250 million a year.

The numbers only confirm my suspicions, but the findings are worse than I could have imagined because the estimates are likely on the low-side. While more than $100 million in taxpayer’s dollars is drained from our budget every year to provide services to people who are in this country illegally, there is another $154 million in costs for un-reimbursed emergency medical care. This is not a direct County cost; however, it is a huge hit on the community.

I asked for action to determine the financial impact of illegal aliens to County services in my State of the County Address as Chairman of the Board in 2006. Now we have the numbers that show how much money is being diverted that could be used to do such things as fix roads and provide better public safety. This is a hidden redistribution of taxpayer’s dollars amounting to $100 for every citizen in our County.

I am preparing a response to the study and will present findings to the entire Board of Supervisors at our meeting on September 25, 2007. I would welcome your comment any time and at that public meeting. If you would like to have a copy of the Undocumented Immigrant Study, please go to our website at http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/cnty/bos/sup5/.

Holy CRAP!

250 MILLION in just 1 County!
Full Study

Conservatism dead?

2008-01-31T11:34:00.001-05:00

I have been trying my best at not blogging about the current primary elections.
Mostly because I believe that every one of them suck.

Rudy has bowed out and even though Rudy was one of the reasons I realized I am a conservative I am glad he did. He ran a horrible campaign and really had no vision that resounded well with the rest of America.

McCain is the "new front runner" after Huckabee went from BOOM to BUST in 1 state.
I guess people really started looking at Hucakabee's actual record instead of the fact that he goes to church every week. Go figure.

With McCain as the new front runner I am really concerned about the fact that conservatism in America as we know it may be dead. The days of Regan Conservatism is passing and is being replaced with this new liberal-conservatism. McCain along with the likes of Mel Martinez and Crist who both endorsed McCain in the final hours of the Primaries in Florida made me realize its dead. Floridas primaries this year seem to be the defining moment on when I realized that its all but dead folks.

The Primaries were open only to registered Republicans so I could not vote as I have no part affiliation. And McCain won! I was in total shock to be honest. How the hell did Floridians decide that McCain can now be called a Conservative is beyond me. There isn't anything that he believes in that would even come close to being called Conservative, yet here they are choosing him as the nominee.

For Christs sake he backed McCain/Feingold and McCain/Kennedy and you wonder WTF is so Conservative about that?

People talk about how McCain can reach across party lines and negotiate. But that is BULLSHIT. He doesn't negotiate, he flat out gives liberals what they want. How the hell was the Immigration bill this last summer even remotely a negotiation. It was a damn Amnesty plan.

Romney is the other front runner. I have stated before "I do not trust this guy". Romney makes John Kerry look consistent!

What is wrong with the conservative part of the Republican party?
Mits Romneywho switches opinions like he is changing underwear and John I concede everything to liberals McCain? Really?

At LEAST Romney understands economics. Even though he is a complete corporate welfare type of guy.

McCain on the other hand can't even answer a question about economics without saying he will have "OTHERS" with him in his administration that will know about it. WTF IS THAT? Leadership is one thing, sure its a good thing to have, but what good is leadership if you don't have a CLUE on WTF you are leading on. Its like a bring great leader and in a war on the front lines, but not having a clue about military operations.

He didn't even answer the question!
Just that he'll have OTHER GUYS making those decisions pretty much!

Sigh....
I digress.

I fear I will have no one that I can put my real support behind.

If McCain in fact if ANYONE of the front runners for the Republican Party win the nomination I will vote for Obama or Hillary. As I have stated countless times on forums. I will NOT vote for the Devil I know over the Devil I don't any longer. I figure if we are going to go down the toilet, lets flush this shit down quickly. Obama and Clinton being so close together on actual issues are just the people to take us there quick!

Let liberals and Americans see what it is like when you have Congress and the White house under Democratic/Liberal rule.

You need a Carter to get a Reagan!
Bring it on then!

Antarctic volcanoes identified as a possible culprit in glacier melting

2008-01-21T10:14:00.000-05:00

This is what kills me about these damn Global Warming freaks, they totally brush off these findings and continue down this path that somehow humans are so powerful that we effect global temperatures. When in reality just 1 volcano makes a century of our activity seem like a grain of sand on the beach.

So no Gore, the debate is not over:

Another factor might be contributing to the thinning of some of the Antarctica's glaciers: volcanoes.

In an article published Sunday on the Web site of the journal Nature Geoscience, Hugh Corr and David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey report the identification of a layer of volcanic ash and glass shards frozen within an ice sheet in western Antarctica.

"This is the first time we have seen a volcano beneath the ice sheet punch a hole through the ice sheet" in Antarctica, Vaughan said.

Volcanic heat could still be melting ice to water and contributing to thinning and speeding up of the Pine Island glacier, which passes nearby, but Vaughan said he doubted that it could be affecting other glaciers in western Antarctica, which have also thinned in recent years. Most glaciologists, including Vaughan, say that warmer ocean water is the primary cause of thinning.

Volcanically, Antarctica is a fairly quiet place. But sometime around 325 B.C., the researchers said, a hidden and still active volcano erupted, puncturing several hundred yards of ice above it. Ash and shards from the volcano carried through the air and settled onto the surrounding landscape. That layer is now out of sight, hidden beneath the snows that fell during the next 2,300 years.

Still, the layer showed up clearly in airborne radar surveys conducted over the region in 2004 and 2005 by American and British scientists. The reflected radio waves over an elliptical area about 110 miles, or 176 kilometers, wide were so strong that earlier radar surveys had mistakenly identified it as bedrock. Better radar techniques now can detect a second echo from the actual bedrock farther down.

The thickness of ice above the ash layer provided an estimate of the date of the eruption: 207 B.C., give or take 240 years. "It's probably within Alexander the Great's lifetime, but not more precise than that," Vaughan said.

Bundle up folks.....

2008-01-03T13:04:00.001-05:00

What not Global Warming?
Get outa town! Really?

MOSCOW. (Oleg Sorokhtin for RIA Novosti) – Stock up on fur coats and felt boots! This is my paradoxical advice to the warm world.

Earth is now at the peak of one of its passing warm spells. It started in the 17th century when there was no industrial influence on the climate to speak of and no such thing as the hothouse effect. The current warming is evidently a natural process and utterly independent of hothouse gases.

The real reasons for climate changes are uneven solar radiation, terrestrial precession (that is, axis gyration), instability of oceanic currents, regular salinity fluctuations of the Arctic Ocean surface waters, etc. There is another, principal reason—solar activity and luminosity. The greater they are the warmer is our climate.

Astrophysics knows two solar activity cycles, of 11 and 200 years. Both are caused by changes in the radius and area of the irradiating solar surface. The latest data, obtained by Habibullah Abdusamatov, head of the Pulkovo Observatory space research laboratory, say that Earth has passed the peak of its warmer period, and a fairly cold spell will set in quite soon, by 2012. Real cold will come when solar activity reaches its minimum, by 2041, and will last for 50-60 years or even longer.

This is my point, which environmentalists hotly dispute as they cling to the hothouse theory. As we know, hothouse gases, in particular, nitrogen peroxide, warm up the atmosphere by keeping heat close to the ground. Advanced in the late 19th century by Svante A. Arrhenius, a Swedish physical chemist and Nobel Prize winner, this theory is taken for granted to this day and has not undergone any serious check.

It determines decisions and instruments of major international organizations—in particular, the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Signed by 150 countries, it exemplifies the impact of scientific delusion on big politics and economics. The authors and enthusiasts of the Kyoto Protocol based their assumptions on an erroneous idea. As a result, developed countries waste huge amounts of money to fight industrial pollution of the atmosphere. What if it is a Don Quixote’s duel with the windmill?

Hothouse gases may not be to blame for global warming. At any rate, there is no scientific evidence to their guilt. The classic hothouse effect scenario is too simple to be true. As things really are, much more sophisticated processes are on in the atmosphere, especially in its dense layer. For instance, heat is not so much radiated in space as carried by air currents—an entirely different mechanism, which cannot cause global warming.

The temperature of the troposphere, the lowest and densest portion of the atmosphere, does not depend on the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions—a point proved theoretically and empirically. True, probes of Antarctic ice shield, taken with bore specimens in the vicinity of the Russian research station Vostok, show that there are close links between atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide and temperature changes. Here, however, we cannot be quite sure which is the cause and which the effect.

Temperature fluctuations always run somewhat ahead of carbon dioxide concentration changes. This means that warming is primary. The ocean is the greatest carbon dioxide depository, with concentrations 60-90 times larger than in the atmosphere. When the ocean’s surface warms up, it produces the “champagne effect.” Compare a foamy spurt out of a warm bottle with wine pouring smoothly when served properly cold.

Likewise, warm ocean water exudes greater amounts of carbonic acid, which evaporates to add to industrial pollution—a factor we cannot deny. However, man-caused pollution is negligible here. If industrial pollution with carbon dioxide keeps at its present-day 5-7 billion metric tons a year, it will not change global temperatures up to the year 2100. The change will be too small for humans to feel even if the concentration of greenhouse gas emissions doubles.

Carbon dioxide cannot be bad for the climate. On the contrary, it is food for plants, and so is beneficial to life on Earth. Bearing out this point was the Green Revolution—the phenomenal global increase in farm yields in the mid-20th century. Numerous experiments also prove a direct proportion between harvest and carbon dioxide concentration in the air.

Carbon dioxide has quite a different pernicious influence—not on the climate but on synoptic activity. It absorbs infrared radiation. When tropospheric air is warm enough for complete absorption, radiation energy passes into gas fluctuations. Gas expands and dissolves to send warm air up to the stratosphere, where it clashes with cold currents coming down. With no noticeable temperature changes, synoptic activity skyrockets to whip up cyclones and anticyclones. Hence we get hurricanes, storms, tornados and other natural disasters, whose intensity largely depends on carbon dioxide concentration. In this sense, reducing its concentration in the air will have a positive effect.

Carbon dioxide is not to blame for global climate change. Solar activity is many times more powerful than the energy produced by the whole of humankind. Man’s influence on nature is a drop in the ocean.

Earth is unlikely to ever face a temperature disaster. Of all the planets in the solar system, only Earth has an atmosphere beneficial to life. There are many factors that account for development of life on Earth: Sun is a calm star, Earth is located an optimum distance from it, it has the Moon as a massive satellite, and many others. Earth owes its friendly climate also to dynamic feedback between biotic and atmospheric evolution.

The principal among those diverse links is Earth’s reflective power, which regulates its temperature. A warm period, as the present, increases oceanic evaporation to produce a great amount of clouds, which filter solar radiation and so bring heat down. Things take the contrary turn in a cold period.

What can’t be cured must be endured. It is wise to accept the natural course of things. We have no reason to panic about allegations that ice in the Arctic Ocean is thawing rapidly and will soon vanish altogether. As it really is, scientists say the Arctic and Antarctic ice shields are growing. Physical and mathematical calculations predict a new Ice Age. It will come in 100,000 years, at the earliest, and will be much worse than the previous. Europe will be ice-bound, with glaciers reaching south of Moscow.

Meanwhile, Europeans can rest assured. The Gulf Stream will change its course only if some evil magic robs it of power to reach the north—but Mother Nature is unlikely to do that.

Dr. Oleg Sorokhtin, Merited Scientist of Russia and fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, is staff researcher of the Oceanology Institute.

Bhutto Interview with David Frost

2008-01-03T08:30:00.000-05:00

As usual with most things on the internet, the far left will get 1 sound byte and RUN WITH IT. Without even looking at anything else and completely ignoring the rest of the conversation that she was having with David Frost, the fringe left took the words "the man Sheik Omar who murdered Bin Laden" and took it to every corner of the internet to start their usual conspiracy theory riddled crap.

The fringe left or hell in some cases just the left:

believe that Osama Bin Laden was killed in the bombings along the Pakistan border after 9/11. Despite him releasing tapes afterwards.

Well of course, it takes some research to see that CLEARLY she was taken completely out of context and misspoke. In her conversation she was talking about the western journalists that were murdered by orders of Bin Laden to Sheik Omar, that journalist was Daniel Pearle who was killed in 2002.

Also to note is the fact that Omar Sheik was taken into captivity in July of 2002, Bin Laden released video after that date and audio. His right hand Ayman al-Zawahiri man has never once made any mention of OBL being dead or dying.

However for some this is not enough so to further squash this conspiracy theory right out of existence there are two interviews with Bhutto that should end this nonsense.

First this is part of the transcript of her interview on CNN 1 day after the Frost interview on November 3rd 2007 in which she says:

WHITFIELD: So, Ms. Bhutto, am I hearing you correctly in saying that you almost directly blame General Pervez Musharraf for helping to produce these safe havens in Pakistan, where there is terrorist activity, where, perhaps, in these safe havens someone like the Osama bin Laden, the most-wanted terrorist in the world, just might be taking refuge?

BHUTTO: I wouldn't like to go so far as to blame General Musharraf directly, but I would certainly say that many people in his administration and his security apparatus responsible for internal security make me feel very uneasy. And I believe that tribal areas of Pakistan could not have become safe havens without collusion of some of the elements in the present administration. And this is why I believe that regime change is very important.

I had hoped --

WHITFIELD: Do you Musharraf -- I'm sorry. Do you think General Musharraf knows where Osama bin Laden is?

BHUTTO: I don't think General Musharraf personally knows where Osama bin Laden is, but I do feel that people around him are many who are associated with the earlier military dictatorship of the '80s. That military dictatorship formed the Iran Mujahideen.

If she did not misspeak LITERALLY the day before with Mr. Frost, then why would she not even MENTION that Omar Sheik murdered OBL so "knowing where he is", is irrelevant?

But to solidify it some more. Since there are those on the left that believe that CNN is part of the conspiracy. I turn now to NPR, and Mrs Bhutto's interview on NPR with Steve Insky, which can hardly be part of any conspiracy. This interview was on November 13th 2007. Its audio so you lefties reading this now don't think that its been altered in anyway.

STEVE: What is your Freedom of movement like if any?

BHUTTO: I have freedom of movement within the house. I don't have freedom of movement outside the house. We've got a heavy police force inside the house, and we've got a very heavy police force -- 4,000 policemen around the four walls of my house, 1,000 on each. We've even entered the neighbor's house and I was just telling one of the policemen, I said, should you be here after us? Shouldn't you be looking for Osama bin Laden? And he said I'm sorry, ma'am, this is our job. We're just doing what we're told.

Again why would she tell NPR that she told a soldier to go look for Osama when she knows that OBL is dead? Probably folks because she misspoke in the Frost interview.

I am sure even this is not enough to convince the lefty morons/moonbats (as Michelle Malkin likes to call them) that still believe the the US government is covering up OBL's supposed death. As though Bush would not announce it and SILENCE his critics and be part of the history books as the one that took out Osama.

So I'll give it another shot with this, almost a full month later on October 1, 2007 where she then says the following: Bhutto says she might allow U.S. strike on bin Laden

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto said on Monday that she might allow a U.S. military strike inside Pakistan to eliminate al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden if she were the country's leader.

"I would hope that I would be able to take Osama bin Laden myself without depending on the Americans. But if I couldn't do it, of course we are fighting this war together and (I) would seek their cooperation in eliminating him," Bhutto said in an interview on BBC World News America.

Again if she believed he was dead, and did not misspeak why would she say this to Reuters?

So once again the left has failed, and in her death began to circulate things about her that she cannot refute, pretty convenient no? The Left doesn't care what image it tarnishes, it just cares about its ridiculous conspiracy theories and its fascination with Bush and supposed cover ups.

Death and Taxes 2008

2007-12-28T11:03:00.000-05:00

This is by far the coolest and most comprehensive visual break down I have ever seen on how the Govt uses your taxes throughout the system.

What Ron Paul is going against is Mt Olympus on top of Mt. Everest on top of Mt, St Helen and through about a continents width of Lava. Good Luck Paul.

Bhutto Assassinated

2007-12-28T09:22:00.000-05:00

Real talk from McCarthy on CNN:

A recent CNN poll showed that 46 percent of Pakistanis approve of Osama bin Laden. Aspirants to the American presidency should hope to score so highly in the United States. In Pakistan, though, the al-Qaeda emir easily beat out that country’s current president, Pervez Musharraf, who polled at 38 percent.

President George Bush, the face of a campaign to bring democracy — or, at least, some form of sharia-lite that might pass for democracy — to the Islamic world, registered nine percent. Nine!

If you want to know what to make of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s murder today in Pakistan, ponder that.

There is the Pakistan of our fantasy. The burgeoning democracy in whose vanguard are judges and lawyers and human rights activists using the “rule of law” as a cudgel to bring down a military junta. In the fantasy, Bhutto, an attractive, American-educated socialist whose prominent family made common cause with Soviets and whose tenures were rife with corruption, was somehow the second coming of James Madison.

Then there is the real Pakistan: an enemy of the United States and the West.

Ok some people really don't know WTF they are talking about. Its sad to see people comment that have not a clue about Pakistan or Bhutto. I am seeing this all over the net. What McCarthy is saying is SPOT ON.

First of all in her presidency she was NOT the savior that all of you are claiming she was, she was popular, like royalty because of her father before her, but she was corrupt, very much so. But she was a better alternative to Musharraf which as has been said prior by others was playing both sides for his own gain. A Norega if you will. The US govt knew what Musharraf was/is doing, they didn't like it, so they wanted Bhutto back since she is popular enough to take the lead as PM without much effort.

SECOND, why the hell would the CIA be part of an attack on killing her (as has been suggested by idiots around the net), when it was WASHINGTON that was pushing for her to come back to Pakistan and be the better alternative then Musharraf has been, which by the way, he has to lead a tight rope of sorts. He has to balance his allegiance with the US meanwhile acknowledging that he needs to keep the radical elements at arms length as well, since his military in some cases is loyal to these tribal areas. We saw that a few weeks back with the police stations that were taken over easily to the North.

These accusations that somehow the CIA was involved in Bhutto's assassinations are OUT THERE, to say the least, but who they come from as no surprise to me. Even Bhutto acknowledges in a interview with Parade Magazine that she "is terrorists biggest nightmare" since she promotes moderate positions. Positions that radical elements do not like, they need desperation and strife to keep their movement going.

Third, the reason we are doing this is because unfortunately we HAVE TO. We don't have any choice BUT to support Musharraf because the alternative is to shun him and have the same problems we had in the late 90's where nuclear technology are being spread like candy on Halloween throughout the middle east. Libya proved how wide spread this program was. People were asleep at the wheel in the 90's when Pakistan was developing nukes in response to Indias development. And now moving forward we have to suffer the consequences of those incompetent actions.

If we do NOT support him, he can let the nation plunge further into radicalism and then the obvious target is the US. We are not liked in Pakistan by no means, we never have been, even when we were helping the Mujahadeen we were not liked, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so they accepted the arms and the support.

Our BEST SHOT ant getting things to turn was to have a a very popular person take the hard line that is needed on the radicalism. AQ knew this, they knew Bhutto was a threat and needed to take her out ASAP. NOW we have no choice but to go back to the status quo OR the even worst alternative of going to war with the northern region of Pakistan (which I think may be inevitable) if Musharraf does nothing about the growing radicalism in his nation.

Pakistan again has NEVER been a true ally.

People need to understand something, that IF a nuke hits a US city it CHANGES EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING is changed and if you think that laws were being abused, and civil rights are being taken away (which I don't) then you wait and see what will happen if we let AQ get a nuke and it goes off here.

EU cross border health care now...

2007-12-19T10:53:00.000-05:00

So we need a National Health Care system right?
That is what is being touted by democrats and liberals alike.
I can't tell the difference anymore.

This case was brought forth by a woman that had to wait 1 year or more for hip replacement. Nice right? What an efficient system. Instead she went to France and wanted the bill to be paid by Britain.

The EU court decided that she is correct.

Anyway, hear this in the morning on NPR, thought I would post it.

The European Commission made a new health care proposal allowing people to travel to another E.U. country to get treatment and bring the bill home. Scott Jagow talks to European report Megan Williams about why.

Listen here

So who are we going to cross borders with when National Health Care takes hold here? Canada? Mexico? Seriously? Even Clinton's buddies are coming over here for health care.

The worst implication comes for the UK which already has a crappy system and one that is already becoming under funded and its paying too much as it is. Now they have to pay for those people that opt to go to another country for the procedure. Nice... Should be interesting to see the impact of this moving forward.

Year of global cooling

2007-12-19T10:50:00.000-05:00

By David Deming
December 19, 2007

Al Gore says global warming is a planetary emergency. It is difficult to see how this can be so when record low temperatures are being set all over the world. In 2007, hundreds of people died, not from global warming, but from cold weather hazards.

Since the mid-19th century, the mean global temperature has increased by 0.7 degrees Celsius. This slight warming is not unusual, and lies well within the range of natural variation. Carbon dioxide continues to build in the atmosphere, but the mean planetary temperature hasn't increased significantly for nearly nine years. Antarctica is getting colder. Neither the intensity nor the frequency of hurricanes has increased. The 2007 season was the third-quietest since 1966. In 2006 not a single hurricane made landfall in the U.S.

South America this year experienced one of its coldest winters in decades. In Buenos Aires, snow fell for the first time since the year 1918. Dozens of homeless people died from exposure. In Peru, 200 people died from the cold and thousands more became infected with respiratory diseases. Crops failed, livestock perished, and the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency.

Unexpected bitter cold swept the entire Southern Hemisphere in 2007. Johannesburg, South Africa, had the first significant snowfall in 26 years. Australia experienced the coldest June ever. In northeastern Australia, the city of Townsville underwent the longest period of continuously cold weather since 1941. In New Zealand, the weather turned so cold that vineyards were endangered.

Last January, $1.42 billion worth of California produce was lost to a devastating five-day freeze. Thousands of agricultural employees were thrown out of work. At the supermarket, citrus prices soared. In the wake of the freeze, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked President Bush to issue a disaster declaration for affected counties. A few months earlier, Mr. Schwarzenegger had enthusiastically signed the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, a law designed to cool the climate. California Sen. Barbara Boxer continues to push for similar legislation in the U.S. Senate.

In April, a killing freeze destroyed 95 percent of South Carolina's peach crop, and 90 percent of North Carolina's apple harvest. At Charlotte, N.C., a record low temperature of 21 degrees Fahrenheit on April 8 was the coldest ever recorded for April, breaking a record set in 1923. On June 8, Denver recorded a new low of 31 degrees Fahrenheit. Denver's temperature records extend back to 1872.

Recent weeks have seen the return of unusually cold conditions to the Northern Hemisphere. On Dec. 7, St. Cloud, Minn., set a new record low of minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit. On the same date, record low temperatures were also recorded in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Extreme cold weather is occurring worldwide. On Dec. 4, in Seoul, Korea, the temperature was a record minus 5 degrees Celsius. Nov. 24, in Meacham, Ore., the minimum temperature was 12 degrees Fahrenheit colder than the previous record low set in 1952. The Canadian government warns that this winter is likely to be the coldest in 15 years.

Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri are just emerging from a destructive ice storm that left at least 36 people dead and a million without electric power. People worldwide are being reminded of what used to be common sense: Cold temperatures are inimical to human welfare and warm weather is beneficial. Left in the dark and cold, Oklahomans rushed out to buy electric generators powered by gasoline, not solar cells. No one seemed particularly concerned about the welfare of polar bears, penguins or walruses. Fossil fuels don't seem so awful when you're in the cold and dark.

If you think any of the preceding facts can falsify global warming, you're hopelessly naive. Nothing creates cognitive dissonance in the mind of a true believer. In 2005, a Canadian Greenpeace representative explained “global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter.” In other words, all weather variations are evidence for global warming. I can't make this stuff up.

Global warming has long since passed from scientific hypothesis to the realm of pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo.

Its cause he's black.....

2007-12-19T08:50:00.000-05:00

With a hidden FBI camera rolling inside a New York hotel suite in 2003, an unsuspecting Rev. Al Sharpton, Democratic candidate for president, spoke candidly.

Sharpton offered to help Philadelphia fund-raiser Ronald A. White win a multimillion-dollar business deal, if White helped him raise $50,000 for politics.

White offered $25,000. "If you bring my guys up on this hedge fund, and I have the right conversation," White said, "I'll give you what you need."

"Cool," Sharpton said.

YES I was being sarcastic.
I think Al is an opportunist, leaching of the poor black communities in America and lending a hand to be in the spot light. I would even go as far as to say that Al is narcissistic. He has done nothing to change what Black America has become and if anything has been at the forefront of its slow self loathing. As more and more people take the BLAME the white man route instead of solving the problems within themselves and their own communities.

WHY DO I CARE?
Perhaps because I would like to see a world where there is less blame on the man and more people taking responsibility for their own fucking actions. As opposed to not getting anywhere in life and seeking some external factor as the cause, instead of their own incompetence.

I'll take a page from Whitlock and Cosby......

Minorities have failed the Civil Rights activists of the 50's-60's and have many have squandered the opportunities given with a self loathing attitude that won't be corrected by continuing down the same fucking path.

Silly me wanting such a world or rather country.
There will always be self loathers I guess. Just not as many as it is quickly becoming the trend.

But Sharpton has helped so many.
That is great, so Sharpton has helped people that have been victims of a racist bunch. But Sharpton has not helped the black people that are killing themselves. NEVER HAS, NEVER WILL. To Sharpton and his supporters the problem lies in white America, not in the FACT that black Americans kill each other at a far higher rate then white Americans either kill each other or hell kill black folks.

The inherent problem is as I have stated thousands of times before, is that we are killing each other on our city streets, we are slowly turning our areas into battle grounds for gangs and a cesspools of violence bred from the lack of parenting by many parents, the lack of care by the kids, and the hip hop culture that admires and pushes out the thug life as a lifestyle.

Gangs are on the increase in America, and its not from white folks interloping, its from our own self hate, our own lack of moral responsibility and loss of reality.

Look racist fuckers exist, we know this. But they are not the problem, they are not TODAY what is destroying our inner cities. Folks getting all upset over shit like nooses hanging on doors are fucking stupid, those nooses from whites aren't the damned problem, the ones that we tie around out own necks is! Sharpton and Jesse both focus on problems that have no real deep effect on black America or for that matter Latino American issues. The NAACP is a joke as its only purpose has been to help black folks meanwhile completely disregarding the other "colored" people that exist in the US.

Not that we need it. I rather not have their help personally but that is just me.
That being said, its kinda ridiculous that Sharpton and Jesse are the self appointed black leaders of today, as though a leadership is needed for a race of people? Why is that? If so many express that they do not like them (blacks that is), or what they stand for, how do they keep getting into the spot light? I'll tell you why, because they SEEK IT. They relish in this spot light and know that the donations continue to flow with the spot light.

Go ahead blame the "media" for giving them the spot light.
After all its what you folks do, you blame someone ELSE for the problem.

Global Carbon Tax Urged at UN Climate Conference

2007-12-14T15:39:00.000-05:00

Anyone still have any doubt that the whole purpose of this Global Warming thing is to redistribute wealth globally? Anyone?

A global tax on carbon dioxide emissions was urged to help save the Earth from catastrophic man-made global warming at the United Nations climate conference. A panel of UN participants on Thursday urged the adoption of a tax that would represent “a global burden sharing system, fair, with solidarity, and legally binding to all nations.”

“Finally someone will pay for these [climate related] costs,” Othmar Schwank, a global tax advocate, told Inhofe EPW Press Blog following the panel discussion titled “A Global CO2 Tax.” Schwank is a consultant with the Switzerland based Mauch Consulting firm

Schwank said at least “$10-$40 billion dollars per year” could be generated by the tax, and wealthy nations like the U.S. would bear the biggest burden based on the “polluters pay principle.”

The U.S. and other wealthy nations need to “contribute significantly more to this global fund,” Schwank explained. He also added, “It is very essential to tax coal.”

The UN was presented with a new report from the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment titled “Global Solidarity in Financing Adaptation.” The report stated there was an “urgent need” for a global tax in order for “damages [from climate change] to be kept from growing to truly catastrophic levels, especially in vulnerable countries of the developing world.”

The tens of billions of dollars per year generated by a global tax would “flow into a global Multilateral Adaptation Fund” to help nations cope with global warming, according to the report.

Schwank said a global carbon dioxide tax is an idea long overdue that is urgently needed to establish “a funding scheme which generates the resources required to address the dimension of challenge with regard to climate change costs.”

'Diminish future prosperity'

However, ideas like a global tax and the overall UN climate agenda met strong opposition Thursday from a team of over 100 prominent international scientists who warned the UN that attempting to control the Earth's climate was "ultimately futile."

The scientists wrote, “The IPCC's conclusions are quite inadequate as justification for implementing policies that will markedly diminish future prosperity. In particular, it is not established that it is possible to significantly alter global climate through cuts in human greenhouse gas emissions." The scientists, many of whom are current or former members of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), sent the December 13 letter to the UN Secretary-General. (See: Over 100 Prominent Scientists Warn UN Against 'Futile' Climate Control Efforts – LINK)

‘Redistribution of wealth’

The environmental group Friends of the Earth, in attendance in Bali, also advocated the transfer of money from rich to poor nations on Wednesday.

“A climate change response must have at its heart a redistribution of wealth and resources,” said Emma Brindal, a climate justice campaigner coordinator for Friends of the Earth. (LINK)

Calls for global regulations and taxes are not new at the UN. Former Vice President Al Gore, who arrived Thursday at the Bali conference, reiterated this week his call to place a price on carbon dioxide emissions. (LINK)

In 2000, then French President Jacques Chirac said the UN’s Kyoto Protocol represented "the first component of an authentic global governance." Former EU Environment Minister Margot Wallstrom said, "Kyoto is about the economy, about leveling the playing field for big businesses worldwide." Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper once dismissed Kyoto as a “socialist scheme.” (LINK)

'A bureaucrat's dream'

MIT climate scientist Dr. Richard Lindzen warned about these types of carbon regulations earlier this year. "Controlling carbon is a bureaucrat's dream. If you control carbon, you control life," Lindzen said in March 2007. (LINK)

In addition, many critics have often charged that proposed tax and regulatory “solutions” were more important to the promoters of man-made climate fears than the accuracy of their science.

Former Colorado Senator Tim Wirth reportedly said in 1990, "We've got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing — in terms of economic policy and environmental policy." (LINK)

Yeah its all about controlling the CO2 and saving the "Earth". You keep believing that and I'll go bring you some Kool Aide. BRB...

Dumb down education for the poor...

2007-12-14T11:06:00.000-05:00

That is the message a HS principal is giving to his teachers in a Memo sent last week.
Its great to see how the staff meetings really go now.

Have teachers at an East Harlem school been ordered to lower their standards because many students there are poor?

That's the impression some got from their principal's memo.

And now City Hall has stepped in.

The weather was gloomy Thursday outside Central Park East High School, but the talk was about a controversial memo from the school's principal.

"I don't think he thinks we're dumb," 12th grader Crystal Scarlett said. "He just thinks we can do much better than we're doing."

But not everyone agreed.

Last month, Principal Bennett Lieberman sent off a stern memo to teachers.

"If you are not passing more than 65 percent of your students in a class, then you are not designing your expectations to meet their abilities, and you are setting your students up for failure, which, in turn, limits your success as a professional."

Was he ordering teachers to dumb down their classes?

The memo continued:

"Most of our students come from the lowest third percentile in academic achievement, have difficult home lives, and struggle with life in general. They DO NOT have a similar upbringing nor a similar school experience to our experiences growing up."

Some students took offense.

"That's not the way to pass," 12th grader Richard Palacios said. "That's not the way to get your education, so you're basically cheating yourself."

CBS 2 HD made several requests to speak with the principal and he refused. But he is standing by his comments.

Lieberman told a newspaper Thursday he "confidently stands by" his words.

But late Thursday, the Department of Education weighed in. It sent him a letter demanding he clarify his views and state that he is not ordering his teachers to lower their standards.

No word back yet from the principal.

Teachers at the school stand to receive $3,000 bonuses if their school improves.

Seems like even money isn't a motivating factor for shitty teachers.
Thank goodness for teachers unions right? Riiiight....

The Ron Paul Craze

2007-12-14T09:22:00.000-05:00

Here is an interview with Paul back in June I believe.
It was a Google interview. Below is my synopsis on Paul's positions.

=====================================================
On War
- Doesn't like a war in ANY situation. (To me that would include not getting involved in a war unless we are attacked literally on our shores)
- Would have voted against Going into Afghanistan or declaring a war on Afghanistan even though AQ and OBL are there.
- Would bring the Troops back immediately. Next DAY.
- Unsustainable to continue welfare and warfare.
- Wants to be similar to Switzerland in terms of engagement and in the form of their military.
- Wants Excise taxes to fund the military much like was done before 1913.
- Reverse the trend of defending another nations. ALL nations.

Personal right
- Believes that Habeous Corpus has been slowly gotten rid of (?????)
- Supports prostitution and any or all forms of contracts between any two people or companies. If its an agreement govt should not regulate it.
- Supports Gun laws to the MAX
- Wants people to even be able to carry a gun on a plane, where that is regulated by the airline company not by the govt or its restrictions of doing so.
- Doesn't believe in gay rights or african american rights just PEOPLES rights. In that form you would not need all these additional protectionist forms of regulation.

Taxes
-Getting rid of the Income tax completely

Environment
- Believes that Global Warming is Overblown
- That the problem should be taken care of by corporations NOT by governments.

Immigration
- Like immigration, with a free market more immigration would flow into the nation just legally.
- Get rid of all illegals - No citizenship for them at ALL.

Foreign Trade
- Wants to lift the Cuban Embargo
- Wants to conduct business with Venezuela openly
- Wants low tariffs but was against NAFTA because it created more govt control over trade.

People Protectionism
- No safety net for people.
- No welfare
- No unemployment payments from the federal govt.
- Get rid of Social Security and its govt collecting of that money
- Get rid of Medicare

Licensing and corporations
- Get rid of Govt Licensing practices. (So your neighbor can prescribe to you prozac)
- Believes that you cannot have monopolies without Govt assistance. Basically if you own 99% of the market share its because you are putting out a product the people want.

Education
- Doesn't want to get rid of public education but wants to get rid of federal control of the govt. (Basically no funding for public schools from the federal govt)
- Believes that public schools are better off with local inequalities in schools then federally created measure to stop it.
- Opposed to student loans.
- Believes that in a free market you would not need student loans.
- Said "The best schools came from private institutions and churches not govt."

Wants to get rid of the following agencies
- Dept of Education
- Dept of Homeland Security
- Dept of Commerce
- Dept of Energy
- Dept of Environment
- IRS
- FCC

=====================================================

Seems to me like he wants something where its Corporations that rule everything. Hell it seems like in some cases he may be in agreement with a Corporation starting its own military or militia and have its own standing army.

After listening to him, I can honestly say that SOME (and its only a hand full if that) things I agree with but other things I think he has lost his flippn mind.

I also wonder does he want to get rid of NORAD or the CIA, or the FBI?

If you for a SECOND believe that he can get rid of all those departments.
Can destroy decades of trade deals by simply being president you are very very mistaken. There is not WAY democrats are going to stand for their POWER to be removed from them in education. And no WAY republicans in the senate are going to let go of their Commerce department. NO WAY!

I like Paul, I really do. I think he really means what he says. But his ideals are in no way up with the times. I like his talk of removing the military from all countries. I LOVE that in fact. I like his illegal immigration talk. But on everything else he looses me, by a mile. And I would be that demographic he is looking for being only 27.

I fail to see how ANYONE can logically support Paul with some of these positions. I would like to know from those that do HOW they can.

When in doubt... TAX

2007-12-14T09:07:00.000-05:00

Democrats in Debate Urge Taxes on Rich

Democratic presidential hopefuls called for higher taxes on the highest-paid Americans and on big corporations Thursday and agreed in an unusually cordial debate that any thought of balancing the federal budget would have to wait.

"We're not going to be able to dig ourselves out" of Bush-era deficits in the next year or two, said Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, one of six Democratic rivals sharing a stage for the final time before Iowa's leadoff Jan. 3 caucuses.

Asked about the importance of eliminating deficits, Democrats responded by criticizing President Bush's economic policies, including some of his tax cuts.

"I want to keep the middle class tax cuts" that Congress passed during President Bush's tenure, said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. But she said she favors raising taxes for the wealthiest.

Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina readily agreed. "The truth of the matter is the tax policy has been established by the big corporations and the wealthiest Americans," he said. "What we ought to be doing instead is getting rid of those tax breaks."

Across 90 minutes, the fierce competition between the two Iowa front-runners shone through only once - when Obama was asked how he could offer a new type of foreign policy since several of his advisers once worked for President Clinton.

Talking of raising taxes during an economic slow down as was said this week by the Fed is both irresponsible and stupid. Of course there is a part of this whole talk of raising taxes as part of a way to pander for votes from people that feel like the rich don't pay enough in taxes. Those that think that way are complete blithering idiots, seeing as most taxes in the nation are paid by the top 10% of wage earners with the remainder coming from Corporate Taxes.

Its funny how NO BODY and Republicans included are not talking about the ENORMOUS PINK ELEPHANT in the room, Social Security. Perhaps the largest problem that is facing the future of this country and no one wants to mention it.

The proverbial shit is going to hit the fan really soon as more of these Baby Boomers start to collect. Its coming fast folks. Really fast, and the solution is not to raise more income taxes, the solution lies in privatizing the system.

Baby tax needed to save planet, claims expert

2007-12-10T11:34:00.001-05:00

This is what the fringe left has reduced itself to on this supposed Climate Change thing. Notice how I said Climate change, it has changed from Global Warming to Global Climate Change, as though the earth has an average temperature it should stay at forever or something.

Anyway, now we get this claim from a "professor" on how we should halt all child bearing essentially and tax people to even have a child. For this guy even breathing is a problem:

"Every newborn baby in Australia represents a potent source of
greenhouse gas emissions for an average of 80 years, not simply by breathing but by the profligate consumption of resources typical of our society," he wrote.

"Far from showering financial booty on new mothers and rewarding greenhouse-unfriendly behaviour, a 'baby levy' in the form of a carbon tax should apply, in line with the 'polluter pays' principle."

Now before I start getting comments about well this is just the ramblings of 1 left wing cook, consider the woman that recently sterilized herself in an effort to save on Global Carbon emissions.

This is why I call this Global Climate scare thing a very BIG cult.
These folks truly believe that their BREATHING is bad for the earth, that somehow BILLIONS of years of earth creation is at risk by some humans. LOL.. WOW, talk about being arrogant as hell.

But at the very least we can take comfort in one thing, this moron wont be procreating more morons. NOW THAT is worth its carbon foot print in spades!

Bill Clinton back to whinning.

2007-12-04T16:18:00.000-05:00

Bill Clinton said Tuesday that if reporters covered the candidates' public records better, his wife's presidential bid would be far ahead of her rivals.

During a campaign stop on behalf of his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former president said he can't understand why so much of the media coverage of the campaign ignores her experience—and, without naming him, the relative lack of experience of her closest Democratic rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

"One percent of the press coverage was devoted to their record in public life. No wonder people think experience is irrelevant. A lot of the people covering the race think it is (irrelevant)," Clinton said to students at Keene State College.

Clinton referenced a study from the Project for Excellence in Journalism that indicated much of the coverage of the race is dominated by daily horse race reporting rather than about policy issues.

"Sixty-seven percent of the coverage is pure politics. That stuff has a half life of about 15 seconds. It won't matter tomorrow. It is very vulnerable to being slanted and rude. And it won't affect your life," Clinton said.

Clinton also said his wife's bipartisan work in the Senate proves she can accomplish her campaign's message of change, and that records matter more than rhetoric. He said that when voters look at records and accomplishments, they will see clear choices between the New York senator and her rivals.

"I would pick her and be here if we weren't married," Clinton said.

Clinton recalled that this western New Hampshire town was the place he first thought he stood a chance of winning his Democratic Party's presidential nomination. He did not win the 1992 New Hampshire primary, but his second-place finish helped him position himself as "the Comeback Kid."

Hillary Rodham Clinton began the current campaign as the Democratic front-runner, but now faces a tightening race here and in Iowa. Her husband is one of several marquee surrogates trekking through snowy New Hampshire. Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling planned to join Republican Sen. John McCain on Wednesday. Oprah Winfrey planned to join Obama on Sunday.

You know for years I wondered who was the woman in the relationship?
And for the life of me I simply cannot tell.

The reality is that Hillary has literally done NOTHING while holding the senate seat in NY. NOTHING. She has not put forth any bills, she has not been the head of any committees and in her life prior to this senate run she didn't even have experience in the business world. She has never run anything. I can't find any experience on this lady at all. And even at this talk Bill had he didn't mention any experience she had in any capacity.

This is where the Religious Right looses me

2007-12-04T10:36:00.000-05:00

Christian groups slam new Kidman children's movie

Christian groups are up in arms here over a new children's film starring Nicole Kidman and based on an award-winning novel by British author Philip Pullman, accusing it of being anti-religious.

"The Golden Compass" which opens here Friday is the film version of "The Northern Lights," the first book in Pullman's "Dark Materials" fantasy trilogy aimed at teenage readers.

The books by confirmed agnostic Pullman trace the fate of a young girl, Lyra, as she becomes drawn into an apocalyptic battle of good against evil, meeting a host of strange characters along the way including a polar bear, voiced in the film by Ian McKellan.

Evil in Pullman's books is represented by the church, called the Magisterium, whose acolytes kidnap orphans across England to subject them to horrible experiments in the frozen northern wastelands.

"The Northern Lights" won Pullman the 1995 Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in Britain, and the final volume in his trilogy, "The Amber Spyglass" was the first ever children's novel to be awarded the prestigious British Whitbread Book of the Year award in 2002.

With its 180-million-dollar big budget movie, New Line studios is hoping to repeat the box-office success of its "Lord of the Rings" series.

And it aims to tap into the young audiences of cinema-goers who flocked to the five "Harry Potter" films making them big earners for Warner Bros.

But already "The Golden Compass" is whipping up the same controversy which saw the "Harry Potter" series based on the novels by British author J. K Rowling, accused by some on the religious right of promoting witchcraft.

The author's attack on organized religion has been toned down for the film, in a bid to attract as wide as audience as possible, something director Chris Weitz has acknowledged.

"In the books the Magisterium is a version of the Catholic Church gone wildly astray from its roots," Weitz wrote in the British Daily Telegraph.

But "if that's what you want in the film, you'll be disappointed," he warned.

However, the sanitized version of Pullman's book has failed to appease the Catholic League, which gathers some 350,000 members, and which has already been sending out leaflets denouncing the film.

"The Catholic League wants Christians to stay away from this movie precisely because it knows that the film is bait for the books," said president William Donohue.

"Unsuspecting parents who take their children to see the movie may be impelled to buy the three books as a Christmas present. And no parent who wants to bring their children up in the faith will want any part of these books," he added.

The League already took on the movie world in 2006 to denounce the blockbuster "The Da Vinci Code" and its central tenant that Jesus Christ had a child by Mary Magdalene whose descendants still survive today.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops however has been more nuanced in its approach warning in a review of "The Golden Compass" of its "anti-clerical subtext, standard genre occult elements, character born out of wedlock, a whiskey-guzzling bear."

But it adds that "taken purely on its own cinematic terms, (it) can be viewed as an exciting adventure story with a traditional struggle between good and evil, and a generalized rejection of authoritarianism."

"The Golden Compass" will be released in some 3,000 cinemas and only 60 have so far refused to screen it, according to the industry daily Variety.

"It's this undisguised anti-religious theme that has numerous groups in a lather, but perhaps more of an issue for some ... will be the film's lack of exciting uplift and the almost unrelievedly nasty treatment of the young characters by a host of aggressively unpleasant elders," Variety added.

I mean seriously its just a book.
There is no depiction of Jesus in the book. Hell (excuse the pun) for that matter I don't even think it mentions any religious denomination in the book. But religious fundamentalists are up in arms over it.

Same way they were up in arms over the Harry Potter Books.
I mean REALLY! Harry Potter is a problem? Witch craft is the problem afflicting the faith? Seriously?

The Church has lost its way long before this book or Potter came along.
Perhaps instead of dealing with superficial things like the fictitious books that writers with vivid imaginations are writers, they should be dealing with the problems of Priests that are not allowed to marry, Priests abusing kids and the dwindling number of faithful that are going to church.

It has little to do with Books and Movies.

Its not at the level of the Sudan problems over a Teddy Bear. But its still pretty overblown.

Murtha finds military progress in trip to Iraq

2007-11-30T11:15:00.000-05:00

Well well well.
Seems like Murtha is eating crow.

Thursday, November 29, 2007
By Jerome L. Sherman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. John Murtha today said he saw signs of military progress during a brief trip to Iraq last week, but he warned that Iraqis need to play a larger role in providing their own security and the Bush administration still must develop an exit strategy.

"I think the 'surge' is working," the Democrat said in a videoconference from his Johnstown office, describing the president's decision to commit more than 20,000 additional combat troops this year. But the Iraqis "have got to take care of themselves."

Violence has dropped significantly in recent months, but Mr. Murtha said he was most encouraged by changes in the once-volatile Anbar province, where locals have started working closely with U.S. forces to isolate insurgents linked to Al Qaeda.

He said Iraqis need to duplicate that success at the national level, but the central government in Baghdad is "dysfunctional."

Mr. Murtha's four day-trip took him to a Thanksgiving dinner with troops in Kuwait last Thursday, and he then made stops in Iraq, Turkey and Belgium.

Murtha conceding that progress is being made?
I thought the troop surge was not going to work Murtha? Hmmm.... Guess once again you were wrong.

This is going to be an interesting election season as more progress is made in Iraq. So much so that even the New York Times could not ignore it last week in an article. The rest of the MSM media has not jumped on board yet. But eventually they will have no choice BUT to take notice and actually report on it.

Slowly we will start to see the shift of posturing by the Democrats on this issue.
Watch as they move the bar now from Military solutions they said were not possible to the new tactic of BUT LOOK there is not political triumph. To that I say. NOT YET!

Much like many conservatives have been saying. You need to provide SECURITY FIRST in order to let the political take hold. Now that security has taken hold of the country, the new focus is on seeing that talks resume and that the political process in Iraq brings the nation forward.

Now I just will go ape shit when Dingy Harry Reid actually acknowledges that the troop surge has worked!

In book, FBI agent says Saddam Hussein cried at last meeting

2007-11-13T12:43:00.000-05:00

The crying part was not what got to me in this story. I personally think he should rot in hell. What did however was the following:

Until 9/11, Saddam thought UN sanctions would go away and he could make a nuclear bomb. His prewar weapons of mass destruction deceptions were a ruse to convince Iran - whom he feared - that he had an arsenal.

This is exactly what I have been saying since the war began back in 2003.
Saddam had kicked out the inspectors to hide the weapons somewhere in that country and or move them into Syria then invite the inspectors back to then reconstitute his Nuclear Program.

With the watching eye of the US and the UN sanctions he could not start that program up again. The last thing Saddam wanted to do was loose power of his country. He wanted to hold it as long as possible.

My contention then as it is now is that the War should NEVER have happened and continuing Sanctions were all the deterrent needed to keep Saddam in check.

What is worrisome however is the fact that he did have plans to start up the nuclear plan again. But we know it would have been decades for him to acquire them if at all with continuing sanctions.

Also of note is the fact that the news media has focused VERY VERY little on Iraq in the last few months. Positive news is NO NEWS.

Guberment skools rule!

2007-10-30T09:32:00.000-05:00

I told you once, i told you twice, I told you a thousands times! So-called public schools are failing our kids!
Instead of teaching our children the fundamentals we have school admins distributing condoms and birth control pills, diversity/multicutural classes, a now yoga and de-stress periods!
Give me a break!

Now an article shows that goverment school are "dropout factories." Gotta love it folks.

1 in 10 Schools Are 'Dropout Factories'

WASHINGTON- It's a nickname no principal could be proud of: "Dropout Factory," a high school where no more than 60 percent of the students who start as freshmen
make it to their senior year. That description fits more than one in 10 high schools across America.
"If you're born in a neighborhood or town where the only high school is one where graduation is not the norm, how is this living in the land of equal opportunity?" asks Bob Balfanz, the Johns Hopkins researcher who coined the term "dropout factory."
There are about 1,700 regular or vocational high schools nationwide that fit that description, according to an analysis of Education Department data conducted by Johns Hopkins for The Associated Press. That's 12 percent of all such schools, about the same level as a decade ago.
While some of the missing students transferred, most dropped out, says Balfanz. The data look at senior classes for three years in a row to make sure local events like plant closures aren't to blame for the low retention rates.
The highest concentration of dropout factories is in large cities or high-poverty rural areas in the South and Southwest. Most have high proportions of minority students. These schools are tougher to turn around because their students face challenges well beyond the academic ones - the need to work as well as go to school, for example, or a need for social services.
Utah, which has low poverty rates and fewer minorities than most states, is the only state without a dropout factory. Florida and South Carolina have the highest percentages.
"Part of the problem we've had here is, we live in a state that culturally and traditionally has not valued a high school education," said Jim Foster, a spokesman for the South Carolina department of education. He noted that residents in that state previously could get good jobs in textile mills without a high school degree, but that those jobs are gone today.
Washington hasn't focused much attention on the problem. The No Child Left Behind Act, for example, pays much more attention to educating younger students. But that
appears to be changing.
House and Senate proposals to renew the 5-year-old No Child law would give high schools more federal money and put more pressure on them to improve on graduation performance, and the Bush administration supports that idea.
The current NCLB law imposes serious consequences on schools that report low scores on math and reading tests, and this fallout can include replacement of teachers or principals - or both. But the law doesn't have the same kind of enforcement teeth when it comes to graduation rates.
Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a regular diploma. For Hispanic and black students, the proportion drops to about half.
The legislative proposals circulating in Congress would:
-Make sure schools report their graduation rates by racial, ethnic, and other subgroups and are judged on those results. That's to ensure that schools aren't just graduating white students in high numbers, but also are working to ensure that minority students get diplomas.
-Get states to build data systems to keep track of students throughout their school years and more accurately measure graduation and dropout rates.
-Ensure that states count graduation rates in a uniform way. States have used a variety of formulas, including counting the percentage of entering seniors who get a diploma. That measurement ignores the obvious fact that kids who drop out typically do so before their senior year.
-Create strong progress goals for graduation rates and impose sanctions on schools that miss those benchmarks. Most states currently lack meaningful goals, according to The Education Trust, a nonprofit group that advocates for poor and minority
children.
The current law requires testing in reading and math once in high school, and those tests take on added importance because of the serious consequences for a school of failure. Critics say that creates a perverse incentive for schools to encourage kids to drop out before they bring down a school's scores.
"The vast majority of educators do not want to push out kids, but the pressures to raise test scores above all else are intense," said Bethany Little, vice president for policy at the Alliance for Excellent Education, an advocacy group focused on high schools. "To know if a high school is doing its job, we need to consider test scores and graduation rates equally."
Little said some students pushed out of high schools are encouraged to enroll in programs that prepare them to take the GED exam. People who pass that test get certificates indicating they have high-school level academic skills. But the research shows that getting a GED doesn't lead to the kind of job or college success associated with a regular diploma.
Loretta Singletary, 17, enrolled in a GED program after dropping out of a Washington, D.C. high school that she describes as huge, chaotic and violent. "Girls got jumped. Boys got jumped, teachers (were) fighting and hitting students," she said.
She said teachers had low expectations for students, which led to dull classes.
"They were teaching me stuff I already knew ... basic nouns, simple adjectives."
Singletary said a subject she loved was science but she wasn't offered it, and complaints to administrators went unanswered. "I was interested in experiments," she said. "I didn't have science in 9th or 10th grade."
A GED classmate of Singletary's is 23-year-old Dontike Miller, who attended and
left two D.C. high schools on the dropout factory list. Miller was brought up by a single mother who used drugs, and he says teachers and counselors seemed oblivious to what was going on in his life.
He would have liked for someone to sit him down and say, "'You really need to go to class. We're going to work with you. We're going to help you'," Miller said. Instead,"I had nobody."
Teachers and administrators at Baltimore Talent Development High School, where 90 percent of kids are on track toward graduating on time, are working hard to make sure students don't have an experience like Miller's.
The school, which sits in the middle of a high-crime, impoverished neighborhood two miles west of downtown Baltimore, was founded by Balfanz and others four years ago as a laboratory for getting kids out on time with a diploma and ready for college.
Teachers, students and administrators at the school know each other well.
"I know teachers that have knocked on people's doors. They want us to succeed," 12th-grader Jasmine Coleman said during a lunchtime chat in the cafeteria.
Fellow senior Victoria Haynes says she likes the way the school organizes teachers in teams of four, with each team of teachers assigned to a group of 75 students. The teachers work across subject areas, meaning English and math teachers, for example, collaborate on lessons and discuss individual students' needs.
"They all concentrate on what's best for us together," Haynes said. "It's very family oriented. We feel really close to them."
Teachers, too, say it works.
"I know the students a lot better, because I know the teachers who teach them," said 10th-grade English teacher Jenni Williams. "Everyone's on the same page, so it's not like you're alone in your mission."
That mission can be daunting. The majority of students who enter Baltimore Talent Development in ninth grade are reading at a fifth- or sixth-grade level.
To get caught up, students have 80-minute lessons in reading and math, instead of the typical 45 minutes. They also get additional time with specialists if needed.
The fact that kids are entering high schools with such poor literacy skills raises questions about how much catch-up work high schools can be expected to do and whether more pressure should be placed on middle schools and even elementary schools, say some high-school principals.
"We're at the end of the process," says Mel Riddile, principal of T.C. Williams High School, a large public school in Alexandria, Va. "People don't walk into 9th grade and suddenly have a reading problem."
Other challenges to high schools come from outside the school system. In high-poverty districts, some students believe it's more important to work than to stay in school, or they are lured away by gang activity or other kinds of peer or family pressure.
At Baltimore Talent Development, administrators try to set mini-milestones and celebrations for students so they stay motivated. These include more fashionable uniforms with each promotion to the next grade, pins for completing special programs and pizza parties to celebrate good attendance records.
"The kids are just starved for recognition and attention. Little social rewards matter to them," said Balfanz.
Balfanz says, however, that students understand the biggest reward they can collect is the piece of paper handed to them on graduation day.
Without it, "there's not much work for you anymore," he said. "There's no way out of the cycle of poverty if you don't have a high school diploma."

Where are all the hurricanes?

2007-10-15T11:44:00.000-05:00

We were getting life altering world ending predictions for the hurricane season again this year and yet it was TAME to say the least. Not that I was not greatful for mother nature to bless us with a calmer season but all the alarmists in the MSM media were calling for a dire season.

So this year was one of the warmest years on record right?
Several records broken just last week in North East and The Chicago Marathon was canceled because it was too hot.

Yet where are all the Hurricanes.
Dr. Gray made his annual predictions for Hurricanes back at the beginning of the year. It was also revised downward from 17 named storms, nine hurricanes and five high-intensity storms to 13 named storms, 8 Hurricanes and 3 High intensity storms.

So far Gray has not gotten it all right after all. Mind you however, Dr. Gray is the leading Hurricane forecaster in the US if not the world and he got it wrong even with years of research and analysis.

Yet just last week Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize. Which is an absolute joke and a mockery of such a prestigious award. An award that is supposed to embody great scientific work for the betterment of man kind and in some ways bringing more peace to the world and you give it Al Gore? Who's only real accomplishment is making OODLES of money touting Junk Science Global Warming.

I didn't get it.
In Gores film (An Inconvenient Truth) he talked about the intensity of Hurricanes being directly related to Global Warming and how many more Katrina's are waiting to happen. He made it sound so factual despite there being no real correlation to that notion.

In fact a Judge in the UK Ruled the film had 9 errors that it touts as facts. And that is just the proverbial tip of the ice berg.

In a stinging rebuttal to Gores claims of man made global warming and on the day of Gores announcement of winning the Peace Prize, Dr. Gray ripped Gore and his film a new one:

ONE of the world's foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize "ridiculous" and the product of "people who don't understand how the atmosphere works".

"We're brainwashing our children," said Dr Gray, 78, a long-time professor at Colorado State University. "They're going to the Gore movie [An Inconvenient Truth] and being fed all this. It's ridiculous."

"The human impact on the atmosphere is simply too small to have a major effect on global temperatures," Dr Gray said.

He said his beliefs had made him an outsider in popular science.

"It bothers me that my fellow scientists are not speaking out against something they know is wrong," he said. "But they also know that they'd never get any grants if they spoke out. I don't care about grants."

So far gores winning of the Peace Prize has been seen as ridiculous and getting plenty of flak. Soon the rest of Al's message will ring as just as ridiculous to folks as well.

But not yet, lets wait till after the Hurricane season this year is over. Watch all the light bulbs go off in peoples heads, hopefully they are Fluorescents.

Want to stop Global Warming... Eat Kangaroo's

2007-10-11T09:47:00.000-05:00

Yes folks, as though the Global warming BS could not get any weirder not Greenpeace wants everyone to eat more Kangaroo's. I am shaking my head here too folks.

MORE kangaroos should be slaughtered and eaten to help save the world from global warming, environmental activists say.
The controversial call to cut down on beef and serve more of the national symbol on our dinner plates follows a report on curbing greenhouse gas emissions damaging the planet.

Greenpeace energy campaigner Mark Wakeham urged Aussies to substitute some red meat for roo to help reduce land clearing and the release of methane gas from flatulent cattle and sheep.

"It is one of the lifestyle changes we can make," Mr Wakeham said.

"Changing our meat consumption habits is a small way to make an impact."

The eat roo recommendation is contained in a report, Paths to a Low-Carbon Future, commissioned by Greenpeace and released today.

It also coincides with recent calls from climate change experts for people in rich countries to reduce red meat and switch to chicken and fish because land-clearing and burping and farting cattle and sheep were damaging the environment.

Canada cuts power lines to battle cannabis

2007-10-11T09:40:00.000-05:00

Hey the DEA should take some pointers from the Canadians.
Makes perfect sense to me. But I am sure the ACLU would be all over this here in the US as some sort of right infringement here.

It's not hard for police to identify the pot growers in this western Canada town: They merely scan residents' utility bills to determine who is using a lot more power than the average homeowner.

Armed with that information, local authorities cut the power off to the home of the suspected offender, often leaving scores of pot growers without the artifical light and water needed to cultivate their home-grown cash crop.

British Columbia, with a population of four million, has an estimated 20,000 inhabitants who raise a potent local marijuana known here as "B.C. Bud."

The plants, collectively worth nearly seven billion dollars each year, account for a whopping six percent of this province's power consumption.

The labor-intensive crop is an energy sponge thanks in large part to the 1,000 watt halogen lights, fans, irrigation pumps and other equipment needed for their cultivation. As a result, the pot growers' energy bills are about three times that of the average consumer.

Those energy consumption patterns drew the notice of authorities, who have benefitted from a 2006 law allowing BC Hydro, the area's main power company, to share its residential power consumption records with local officials.

Armed with a list of likely offenders, a team of inspectors -- including a firefighter, an electrician, an admistrative employee and two policmen -- is dispatched to each suspect residence.

"We inspect between 70 and 80 homes a month, said Len Garis, head of firefighters in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver.

Inspectors are looking to verify, first and foremost, that the power lines' insulation coating is in good condition and that the circuit breakers are working properly.

About 90 percent of the time, this is not the case: Inspections often reveal serious problems in the electrical connections as a result of the high demands placed on them. According to the city, pot growers' homes have a 24 times greater chance than the average home of catching fire and burning down.

In the event of electrical problems, the current to the home is cut and cannot be reestablished until repairs are made.

The inspection team rarely sees the real target of the operation -- the pot plants -- because authorities are obliged by law to notify residents at least 48 hours prior to an inspection. The early tip usually gives the home pot grower more that adequate time to stow away his illicit crop.

"It's not about a criminal operation, but simply a means of insuring security for the people," said Joel Giebelhaus, an aide to Surrey's mayor.

Since the beginning of inspections in 2006, the number of home cannabis plantations has dropped by 65 percent in Surrey and 14 other towns in the province participating in the power-cutoff approach to the war on drugs.

"I'm afraid of these inspections," one local marijuana farmer told AFP, under condition of anonymity, acknowledging that without power, it would be impossible to operate the powerful lights he has going 18 hours a day to keep his pot plants growing.

It is not a one-sided battle however.

Marc Emery, who heads the "BC Marijuana Party," a small political group pushing for the legalization of pot, insisted that the province's offensive will prove futile, as growers figure out new methods to grow their crops without overtaxing the power infrastructure.

For example, one company selling hydroponic crop equipment also stocks a lamp that consumes 80 percent less energy than the traditional grow lamps.

In a counter-punch however, officials in some localities decided in late September to impose tighter restrictions on the companies selling hydroponic growing equipment.

Whoopie Called on Sharpton to Appologize to Duke Players

2007-10-10T12:47:00.000-05:00

Wow I am like Totally Shocked.....

Few things I agree with Whoopi on an and this is one of them.

Sharpton responds to Whoopi's demand for Duke lax apology

Blogger Spins Facts.

2007-10-10T08:42:00.000-05:00

I stumbled across another bloggers post about Michael Medveds recent Townhall.com article.

Round of applause for the Spin of the blog. Nice indeed. The Blogger falls WAY short of being anywhere near coherent or for that matter factual. In fact his liberal spin starts from the very Tittle of the post.
White conservative says slavery is exaggerated

Here are the basic FACTS that Medved lays out.

FACT:
SLAVERY WAS AN ANCIENT AND UNIVERSAL INSTITUTION, NOT A DISTINCTIVELY AMERICAN INNOVATION.

FACT:
SLAVERY EXISTED ONLY BRIEFLY, AND IN LIMITED LOCALES, IN THE HISTORY OF THE REPUBLIC – INVOLVING ONLY A TINY PERCENTAGE OF THE ANCESTORS OF TODAY’S AMERICANS.

FACT:
THOUGH BRUTAL, SLAVERY WASN’T GENOCIDAL: LIVE SLAVES WERE VALUABLE BUT DEAD CAPTIVES BROUGHT NO PROFIT.

FACT X100!:
IT’S NOT TRUE THAT THE U.S. BECAME A WEALTHY NATION THROUGH THE ABUSE OF SLAVE LABOR: THE MOST PROSPEROUS STATES IN THE COUNTRY WERE THOSE THAT FIRST FREED THEIR SLAVES.

FACT:
WHILE AMERICA DESERVES NO UNIQUE BLAME FOR THE EXISTENCE OF SLAVERY, THE UNITED STATES MERITS SPECIAL CREDIT FOR ITS RAPID ABOLITION.

Arbitrary:
THERE IS NO REASON TO BELIEVE THAT TODAY’S AFRICAN-AMERICANS WOULD BE BETTER OFF IF THEIR ANCESTORS HAD REMAINED BEHIND IN AFRICA.

---But if you are one of those African Americans that feel you would be there is always expedia.com---

Medved also lays out facts to his points made.
At no point in time does he even TRY to say that the horrors of slavery were exaggerated. Simply that the exaggeration is Americas complete and sole culpability in slavery as it is made out to seem by liberals and those seeking reparations.

I find the blog interesting in that in Point 2 he wants to point to the beginning of slavery from the point of the BRITISH COLONIES and not from the point of the US emancipation from Britain. Interesting indeed. Also interesting how Britain is never held culpable by any African Americans that are so gung-ho about the slave trade in the Americas. No blame rests ever on the Portugese that enslaves millions, none on the Spaniards either. Just on America itself but only to point the finger at America.

Fact is that the colonies were extensions of the British Empire and it is FACTUALLY correct and Historically correct to talk about America from the point of its emancipation from Britain.

LMFAO.... In the blog in part 3 he says basically that Medved used the true definition of genocide and then in part 4 blames him for not defining wealthy. LMFAO... This blogger is a moron.

In part 5 he solidifies his stupidity in this blog. Again discounting the fact that Slavery was not a American invention yet says it should not have happened. Fact is that again it did happen and happened often throughout history from the Sumerians all the way till TODAY with the sex slave trade around the globe. All are deplorable but America was the FIRST of the western Nations to stop Slavery in its tracks. Which is again Medveds point but the blogger loves to spin. Residual problems persisted in it yes as in Indentured Servitude and Civil Rights violations but that again has been sped up by Americans when even in Latin America and even in African countries being too dark is shun and those folks are treated differently.

On point 6. Africa MAY have been a different continent today had it not been for Slavery but it would PROBABLY I would venture to say it would be almost as savage as it is today. Probably more so. Still to this day you have tribes and regions killing each other but don't believe me just look at Rwanda, Somalia and the Congo.

2 weeks 1300 arrested

2007-10-08T12:14:00.000-05:00

:eek2::eek2::eek2:

Federal officers in Southern California over the last two weeks have arrested more than 1,300 immigrants, most of whom either have criminal records or have failed to abide by deportation orders -- part of an intensifying but controversial effort across the nation to remove such violators.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which plans to announce the operation at a news conference in Los Angeles today, called the sweep the largest of its kind in the U.S. Nearly 600 of those arrested at homes, workplaces and in jails have already been deported.

"Where these laws may not have been enforced in the past, that has changed," said Jim Hayes, Los Angeles field office director for ICE.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, pressure has been growing on the federal government to crack down on illegal immigrants, especially those who have committed crimes. And ICE has been waging a public relations battle to show that it is addressing the problem.

In the recent ICE operation, nearly 90% of the immigrants arrested had criminal records, deportation orders or had reentered the United States after being removed. The rest, 146, were "collateral" arrests -- people who encountered the agents and could not prove they were in the United States legally. Officers arrested 530 immigrants in their homes and workplaces and took custody of nearly 800 others from jails in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The 1,327 arrests surpassed the 1,297 undocumented immigrants arrested by ICE agents at meat processing plants in six states last December, part of an investigation into identity theft.

The enforcement is the latest example of the how some local law enforcement agencies are cooperating with federal authorities to ensure that criminals are identified and deported, rather than simply released from jail. ICE recently created a 24-hour command center, complete with a specific e-mail address and phone number, where local law enforcement officers can exchange information with immigration agents to identify possible deportees.

Though Los Angeles police, under a controversial policy, do not routinely inquire about suspects' immigration status, Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties have formal agreements with ICE that allow local sheriff's officials to check the immigration status of inmates. ICE agents also work in some city jails, including Costa Mesa and Anaheim.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca called the partnership between ICE and jail personnel "very successful." He said his department had identified and interviewed 8,000 illegal immigrant inmates in the county jail system between January and September.

"It shows the volume in Los Angeles County is significant when it comes to the managing of illegal immigrants that have committed local crimes," Baca said.

In Orange County, officials found that about 10% of the 46,000 inmates that have gone through the system since mid-January were illegal immigrants.

"It's exceeding our expectations," Sheriff Michael S. Carona said of the screening program. "The communities are slowly but surely" buying into it. "We are not going down the street asking people for their immigration status."

In many cities, there has been a rising backlash to special treatment of illegal immigrants, including in Los Angeles, where officers have long interpreted the department's Special Order 40 as prohibiting them from asking the immigration status of suspects in most routine cases. Anti-illegal immigrant groups are suing to overturn the order.

The federal arrests also signal a change in how Immigration and Customs Enforcement deals with absconders and violators. In the past, most immigrants simply ignored their deportation orders, knowing there was little chance of arrest. Even those who were detained often posted bond and hid in plain sight in the community.

"There is no question that the immigration problems that our country is facing are problems that have grown over a long period of time," said ICE Assistant Secretary Julie L. Myers. "Historically, the agency was not aggressively focused on detaining those who posed a risk of flight."

But Myers said the agency is expanding bed space, detaining more immigrants and increasingly using alternatives to detention, such as electronic monitoring.

In 2003, ICE created 17 fugitive operations teams to target specific immigrants. As of this week, there are 75 such teams around the nation, including five in the Los Angeles area. Since the program's inception, ICE teams have arrested more than 61,000 immigrants, including 17,331 who had criminal convictions.

Overall, there are an estimated 595,000 immigration fugitives in the United States, down 37,000 from a year ago -- marking the first-ever decline, ICE authorities said.

About 1,100 of the recent arrestees were from Mexico. An additional 170 were from Central America, and others were from countries including Vietnam, Indonesia and Ireland. They had committed crimes such as burglary, domestic violence, assault and transportation of drugs, agents said. Some of them were legal, permanent residents who were deportable because of the crimes they committed.

The U.S. attorney's office plans to prosecute more than 45 of the arrestees for reentry after deportation, a felony that could land them in prison for up to 20 years.

"These are people who, No. 1 , have no right to be in the United States legally and they've exacerbated that crime by committing additional crimes," Hayes said. "These aren't people that we want in our communities. These aren't just people looking for work."

At 5:15 a.m. last Thursday, several armed officers wearing bullet-proof vests met at a Food 4 Less parking lot in Maywood. Supervisory Agent Jorge Field ran through the list of targets they were seeking.

Among them was Ramon Yac Mahik. Field showed the officers his photo and recited his information: Male from Guatemala. Thirty-five years old. Previous convictions for vehicle theft and domestic violence. An Immigration Court ruled against him. His appeal was denied by the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Several ICE vehicles pulled up quietly on his street in Los Angeles and within seconds the officers had surrounded the house. They knocked on the front door, but the people living at the apartment didn't know him. Then a woman came down a side stairway leading to an upstairs apartment.

Field asked her name and her husband's name. After getting permission to go inside, officers found Mahik. Field told him that he had an immigration warrant for his arrest. After the Guatemalan said goodbye to his children and gave his wife his boss' phone number, he was handcuffed and escorted to a van.

Later that morning, he sat on a metal bench at an immigration processing center in Santa Ana. In an interview, he acknowledged his criminal record but said it was from years earlier and that he deserved to have a chance to stay in the United States. Mahik said he was ordered deported in 1999 after posting bond and then failing to show up in court.

He works in the garment industry and has three U.S.-born children, ages 16, 10 and 5. His wife was injured in a recent car accident and can't work, he said.

"I don't consider myself a criminal," he said in Spanish. "I would like to fight to see if they let me stay here with my children. To leave them abandoned would be horrible for me. . . . And I don't want them to suffer."

The arrests break up families and create an unfair and inaccurate impression of the immigrant community, which is by and large law-abiding, said Reshma Shamasunder, director of the California Immigrant Policy Center. Enforcement actions also cause fear in immigrant neighborhoods and families that may include U.S. citizens.

"It directs public attention away from the real need to reform the immigration system overall," she said. "This is not going to solve our problems. . . . This is just one narrow-minded, mean-spirited way of trying to fix the immigration problem."

Anti-illegal immigration groups, however, said the action showed what the government can do when it is motivated to enforce the law.

"I hate to sound ungrateful, because we're grateful for any enforcement," said Rick Oltman with Californians for Population Stabilization. "But at this point, we're wondering what took so long."

Online Videos May Be Conduits for Viruses

2007-10-02T10:29:00.000-05:00

An FYI for all readers.

Online videos aren't just for bloopers and rants - some might also be conduits for malicious code that can infect your computer.

As anti-spam technology improves, hackers are finding new vehicles to deliver their malicious code. And some could be embedded in online video players, according to a report on Internet threats released Tuesday by the Georgia Tech Information Security Center as it holds its annual summit.

The summit is gathering more than 300 scholars and security experts to discuss emerging threats for 2008 - and their countermeasures.

Among their biggest foes are the ever-changing vehicles that hackers use to deliver "malware," which can silently install viruses, probe for confidential info or even hijack a computer.

"Just as we see an evolution in messaging, we also see an evolution in threats," said Chris Rouland, the chief technology officer for IBM Corp.'s Internet Security Systems unit and a member of the group that helped draft the report. "As companies have gotten better blocking e-mails, we see people move to more creative techniques."

With computer users getting wiser to e-mail scams, malicious hackers are looking for sneakier ways to spread the codes. Over the past few years, hackers have moved from sending their spam in text-based messages to more devious means, embedding them in images or disguised as Portable Document Format, or PDF, files.

"The next logical step seems to be the media players," Rouland said.

There have only been a few cases of video-related hacking so far.

One worm discovered in November 2006 launches a corrupt Web site without prompting after a user opens a media file in a player. Another program silently installs spyware when a video file is opened. Attackers have also tried to spread fake video links via postings on YouTube.

That reflects the lowered guard many computer users would have on such popular forums.

"People are accustomed to not clicking on messages from banks, but they all want to see videos from YouTube," Rouland said.

Another soft spot involves social networking sites, blogs and wikis. These community-focused sites, which are driving the next generation of Web applications, are also becoming one of the juiciest targets for malicious hackers.

Computers surfing the sites silently communicate with a Web application in the background, but hackers sometimes secretly embed malicious code when they edit the open sites, and a Web browser will unknowingly execute the code. These chinks in the armor could let hackers steal private data, hijack Web transactions or spy on users.

Tuesday's forum gathers experts from around the globe to "try to get ahead of emerging threats rather than having to chase them," said Mustaque Ahamad, director of the Georgia Tech center.

They are expected to discuss new countermeasures, including tighter validation standards and programs that analyze malicious code. Ahamad also hopes the summit will be a launching pad of sorts for an informal network of security-minded programmers.

Reid is kidding me right!

2007-10-02T10:13:00.000-05:00

I mean really he is joking with this garbage about being unpatriotic.
One of the most unpatriotic senators in recent history, joining the ranks of Kerry, Murtha and Schumer, Reid has got to be quite simply on crack!

Here is what he said:

Last week, Rush Limbaugh went way over the line, way over the line. While I respect his right to say anything he likes, his unpatriotic comments I cannot ignore. During his show last Wednesday, Limbaugh was engaged in one of his typical rants. This one was unremarkable, indistinguishable from his usual drivel, which has been steadily losing listeners for years, [sic] until he crossed that line by calling our men and women in uniform who oppose the war in Iraq, and I quote, "phony soldiers." [sic] This comment was so beyond the pale of decency, and we can't leave it alone. And yet he followed it up with denials and an attack on Congressman Jack Murtha, who was a 37-year active member of the Marine Corps, combat veteran.

What Rush was talking about when he said Phony Soldiers was Jesse MacBeth. A man that faked his time in Iraq and his service in order to downplay and break apart the war effort.

Details:

MacBeth, 23, of Tacoma, claimed to have killed more than 200 people, many at close range, some as they prayed in a mosque. He spoke at an anti-war rally in Tacoma and appeared in a 20-minute anti-war video that circulated widely on the Internet.

Trouble is, none of MacBeth's claims was true. He made it through only six weeks of Army basic training, was never a Ranger and never set foot in Iraq.

Reid seems to be confused with his own words that have waived the white flag for our troops from the comfort of a press conference earlier this year, in which Reid declared that the surge only 1 week old had failed and that the war in Iraq "Was Lost, the surge has failed".

Here stands Reid condemning Rush but saying ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to Moveon.org for their attack on a decorated war hero in General Patraeus! With their General Betrayus ad that was in the paper. A move which Republicans in the Senate condemned, but Reid and his ILK have not.

The double standard here is clear folks.
Its also very clear now that the Democratic party has been taken over by the Moveon.org crowd, seeing as they get daily conference calls with democrats.

Shame on you Reid, but then again it is what is expected of you now, since you do not have a brain of your own but follow the drum beat of defeatists and appeasers.

Oak Lawn Schools May Cancel Holiday Traditions

2007-10-02T08:32:00.000-05:00

You know I wish I could say I was shocked by this but its a growing trend around the US to remove any form of the Christian religion from the foundation of the nation.

OAK LAWN, Ill. A southwest suburban school district has taken action, responding to the concerns of a parent who is Arabic.

But now, as CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports, other parents are angry that traditional school holidays will be renamed or even eliminated.

"That does not represent all the Muslims, all of the Arabs at that school," said Qais Nofel, the father of a student in Ridgeland School District 122.

There was some heated discussion between parents outside Columbus Manor Elementary School in Oak Lawn on Friday. The thought of no more traditional holiday celebrations has many parents really upset.

For now, children in Ridgeland School District 122 will celebrate fall festival instead of Halloween and winter festival instead of Christmas.

Brenda Elvidge said, "It's not fair to our kids. This is America and that's an American tradition."

The decision affects the children at four elementary schools in Oak Lawn and one junior high school in Bridgeview.

The district has a 30 percent Arabic population. The superintendent says the reason for the change in tradition comes after one parent wanted Ramadan decorations put up inside Columbus Manor Elementary. They were taken down.

Superintendent Tom Smyth said, "I go back to our policy which says that public schools are to remain neutral in this respect."

Meantime, Arab children are being allowed to pray during what's being called their own time, that's lunch time, during Ramadan.

Parent June Quigley said, "They get to pray in our schools. That is religion in a public school."

Arab-American parents have different views on the issue.

Sala Abour said, "To take away Halloween and Christmas from little kids, that is very wrong."

Nofel said, "We go and we celebrate the holidays and traditions here, but we do have the right to be Muslims as well."

Other parents say the controversy is overshadowing what really needs to be addressed at all five schools in the district.

Ronnie Carroll said, "The fact that they are cash strapped. Our classroom size is way above the average mean, 38 children in our first grade classroom. The concern should be our school, not the whole holiday issues."

Those issues along with the holiday controversy are going to be addressed at a school board meeting on Tuesday. Members will decide if holidays will be celebrated or not.

Meantime, the Illinois PTA district director says the state is now investigating this issue and there's a meeting with the superintendent next week.

Its really simple folks, for the people that want a complete secular nation they need to start young. What better way to get this done then by having kids believe that celebrating Christmas is wrong and a dumbed down version of it is okay.

You have got to love the appeasement mentality.

Callers support Irving's deportation policy

2007-10-02T08:27:00.000-05:00

Round of applause for Dallas Texas!

The phone calls started pouring in at Irving City Hall on Thursday morning.

They were prompted by activists who implored a crowd of more than 1,000 people at a rally Wednesday night to call for an end to a program that turns over arrested illegal immigrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But most callers weren't asking for an end to the program – they were voicing their support.

"It was ringing over and over, and by far, the biggest percent was in favor," City Secretary Janice Carroll said Thursday afternoon.

Irving police last year began using what's called the 24/7 Criminal Alien Program. It provides for around-the-clock communication with federal authorities and is designed to detain illegal immigrants who have been accused of a crime. It's the latest tool being used by local governments in the absence of a federal overhaul of immigration laws. So far, Irving police have turned over more than 1,600 people to immigration officials.

Mayor Herbert Gears estimates that about 300 people in Irving are being turned over each month – more than in any other city in the nation. He said city officials are obligated to uphold the law and will continue to use the program, which is available to any city that wishes to participate.

"Of the 200 e-mails I've read so far, one is negative and all the rest are positive," Mr. Gears said Thursday afternoon. "People are very overwhelmingly supporting what we are doing."

This program should be something that runs nationally.
Its the only way to solve the illegal immigration problem. Seeing as the Federal Govt isn't doing much about it Local and State govts need to start taking matters into their own hands.

Obama: Reappraise Wall Street Values

2007-09-18T09:36:00.000-05:00

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told Wall Street investors Monday that several of them have been too focused on their own gain at the expense of struggling Americans and echoed Franklin Delano Roosevelt's call for a "reappraisal of values."

Obama prides himself on delivering tough messages directly to the source, and his address at the NASDAQ Marketsite was another example. He said a "what's good for me is good enough" mentality has crept into parts of the business world while working men and women toil longer hours and still struggle to pay for health care, tuition and taxes.

"If we are honest, I think we must admit that those who have benefited from the new global marketplace—and that includes almost everyone in this room—have not always concerned themselves with the losers in this new economy," the Illinois senator said.

"The danger with this mentality isn't just that it offends our morals, it's that it endangers our markets," Obama said.

Economic experts including former Commerce secretary Bill Daley, former Fannie Mae CEO Jim Johnson and University of Chicago economist Austan D. Goolsbee helped Obama with the speech, which risks alienating some Wall Street supporters. But Obama said in a recent interview with The Associated Press that he is determined not just to campaign by telling people what they want to hear, but to win support for an agenda for change.

Other examples include Obama's lecture to Detroit automakers that they need to build more fuel efficient vehicles and his support for performance-based merit pay before the teacher's union that opposes it.

Obama blamed Wall Street for wasteful and unethical anti-market practices such as corporate boards that allow executives to set the price of stock options to guarantee they'll make money regardless of performance and CEOs who get massive severance packages or perks even when workers lose their jobs or pensions. But he also accused the Bush administration of approving mergers with little scrutiny and maintaining more than $1 trillion worth of corporate tax loopholes.

"This administration has accelerated these trends through its tax policies and spending priorities to the point where there is greater income inequality now than at any time since the Gilded Age," Obama said. He also compared the situation to the Great Depression, when Roosevelt challenged the cynicism by calling for faith in the United States and its institutions.

"We certainly do not face a test of the magnitude that Roosevelt's generation did, but we are tested still," Obama said.

"I am asking you to join me in ushering in a new era of mutual responsibility in America," he said. He said he believes Wall Street leaders want to be part of building a more just nation, but they haven't been asked before.

He used the subprime mortgage crisis as an example, saying it started as a good idea until some lenders and brokers began lowering their standards as they saw how much money could be made. It was tempting to look the other way, he said.

"The consequences are now clear: nearly 2.5 million homeowners could lose their homes" and millions of others could see their homes devalued, Obama said.

Obama said markets need to be more open and transparent to keep the trust of investors and the public. He said that trust can be restored by federal action like:

—New mortgage rules with tough penalties for lenders who trick homeowners into loans they can't afford;

—An investigation of the relationship and business practices of rating agencies and their clients;

—A five-star credit card rating system to inform consumers about the level of risk for their credit card, including how easily the company can change the interest rate;

—A request that lenders show some flexibility to people trying to sell or refinance their homes.

Lets break this down a bit shall we.

• New mortgage rules with tough penalties for lenders who trick homeowners into loans they can't afford;

As a Mortgage Broker myself I can honestly say that people are not TRICKED into anything when it comes to a Mortgage. or should I say 99.99% of the time they are not. EVERYTHING is spelled out in the contract even before closing. On the Good Faith Estimate EVERYTHING is gone over and clients want to know everything about their loan. I get stopped every time like clock work on the APR rate. Every time I need to tell them that this is not your actual rate. Everything is explained to these folks that take out ARMS. How their rate WILL go up a X amount of time and how there are penalties for paying off the loan too soon in some instances.

What a joke. Another way for Democrats to remove blame from the individual and blame companies for offering a service that like it or not has served the market VERY WELL. No one wants to look at the the positive numbers of RECORD number of home owners living in their homes right now.

Here is the reality for this FOOL Obama. John Hope Bryant, founder of Operation Hope says it clearly that Healthy and Responsible Sub-prime lending has lifted more poor people out of poverty then anything in the last 50 years!

That is a reality! Liberals don't get that.

A request that lenders show some flexibility to people trying to sell or refinance their homes.

LOL. What now he wants to make it easier for flippers to get out of property as well?
Hell they are part of the problem with the real estate market. Some of these Foreclosures you are seeing are flippers that are STUCK in their purchases that they can't flip as quickly as they thought. That is the risk with the investment.

—A five-star credit card rating system to inform consumers about the level of risk for their credit card, including how easily the company can change the interest rate;

Give me a damn break.
People need to show fiscal restraint. Can't afford that pair of shoes at the mall. DON'T BUY IT. People know how their interest rates can go up on Credit Cards. They aren't THAT NAIVE, they just act like they are when shit hits the fan.

Florida's Welfare Rate Is Lowest In The Nation

2007-09-18T08:59:00.001-05:00

This is what true conservatism is like.
You adjust things accordingly through the legislature to make people NOT depend on the govt for their living. You then couple that with proper fiscal restraint in the state govt and promote small business and large business. The result is fewer people living off the Govt and taking responsibility for their own lively hood.

What a far out concept!

TAMPA - Florida had the nation's lowest rate of households on welfare last year, according to figures recently released by the U.S. Census.

Just 1.3 percent of Florida households reported receiving welfare payments in the 2006 American Community Survey, a yearly demographic portrait of the nation set to replace the once-a-decade Census long form in 2010.

Welfare experts such as Ron Haskins, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, aren't surprised to find Florida ranked so low.

There are a number of reasons for it, they say. Florida has had higher job growth, tougher welfare eligibility rules and lower welfare payments than many states. And it lies in the South, where tradition - and legislation - more often attaches a greater stigma to welfare than other regions do.

"The South has always been more conservative than the rest of the country, so they're less encouraging to people about welfare … especially as compared to the New England states," said Haskins, author of "Work Over Welfare: The Inside Story of the 1996 Welfare Reform."

"The Southern states also tend to have the lower benefits [and] the lower the benefits, the easier to earn your way off welfare."

Florida has ranked low in the category for years. The survey lists it 51st among the states and the District of Columbia. In addition to Florida, there were six other Southern states rounding out the eight with the nation's lowest welfare participation rates: Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia. Wisconsin was the only non-Southern state. In all those states, less than 2 percent of households reported receiving welfare benefits in the survey.

Alaska had the highest rate of households receiving public cash assistance - 6.3 percent - followed by Maine; Washington, D.C.; Oklahoma; and Hawaii.

"Alaska and Hawaii have benefits that are off the scale, because cost of living there is so high," Haskins said. "D.C. and Maine have probably among the lowest-income populations in the country. Oklahoma's kind of surprising."

A U.S. Department of Health & Human Services survey of 2002 welfare benefits for a family of three lists Alaska and Hawaii with the highest monthly payments nationwide: $923 and $712, respectively. Alabama offered the lowest monthly benefit at $164.

Florida's monthly benefit of $303 ranked 43rd in the nation. That is still the maximum benefit today for a family of three, according to Don Winstead, deputy secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families, which determines eligibility for welfare payments, also known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Winstead thinks the lower payments have helped maintain the state's standing among those with the lowest rates for welfare recipients.

"That absolutely plays a role. Depending on the audience, I say Florida has among the lowest benefits in the country, or among the highest in the Southeast," Winstead said.

"Historically, Florida is a state with low benefits. Largely [it's the state] just not wanting to set benefits too high to encourage people to be on welfare rather than working. It's basically a legislative decision."

The federal welfare reform law, passed by Congress in 1996, made changes intended to make welfare more of a temporary benefit. The revamped program required states to set a five-year limit on the time families with an adult could receive cash benefits, with some exceptions. Florida set a stricter limit: four years.

The federal law said beneficiaries had to start working no later than two years after they first receive welfare benefits. Florida requires beneficiaries to start working right away.

Winstead said the tough standards of Florida's 1996 welfare plan, passed in anticipation of the broad federal reforms, require able-bodied adults to get jobs right away. Florida also will cut off all benefits, after 10 days' notice, if an adult in the household refuses to work without a good reason. The federal law allows a partial cut-off.

"The combination of a policy structure that rigorously enforces the requirement for work has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the welfare caseload," Winstead said.

"In 1996, there were over 200,000 families on welfare in Florida. There are less than 50,000 now."

We can all give a round of applause to Jeb Bush and the State Legislature in Florida for a Good Job. Now lets see if Christ can keep that momentum going.

10,000 Black men to patrol the streets

2007-09-14T07:45:00.001-05:00

This seems like the type of plan that could work.
Its long been my stance that it takes the PEOPLE of the community to fix and correct the problem inside of poor communities.
Only through the people taking a firm stance and saying NO MORE can things truly take hold. No other way is possible for long lasting calm and peace. You can throw a cop on every street corner but till the PEOPLE come together to turn their HOOD into a Neighborhood, nothing will last.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The city's embattled police chief, acknowledging that police alone cannot quell a run of deadly violence, has called on 10,000 black men to patrol the streets to reduce crime.

Sylvester Johnson, says black men have a duty to protect more vulnerable residents. He wants each volunteer to pledge to work three hours a day for at least 90 days.

"It's time for African-American men to stand up," Johnson told the Philadelphia Daily News, which first reported the story Wednesday. "We have an obligation to protect our women, our children and our elderly. We're going to put men on the street. We're going to train them in conflict resolution."

The program's backers include Dennis Muhammad, a former Nation of Islam official who has been hired by police departments in Detroit, Syracuse, N.Y., and other cities to conduct community-sensitivity training.

Philadelphia, the nation's sixth-largest city, has nearly 1.5 million residents, 44 percent of them black. It has notched 294 homicides this year. More than 80 percent of the slayings involve handguns, and most involve young black males.

Johnson plans to introduce the "Call to Action: 10,000 Men, It's a New Day" program on Oct. 21, three months before his planned retirement.

"He won't get anywhere near that number. If he gets 1,000 people, it will be great," said Heather DeRussy, who leads a local Guardian Angels chapter that has recruited just seven members in the past two years. Given its size, the group focuses on a single north Philadelphia park plagued by prostitution and drug use.

DeRussy lauded Johnson for his effort but said she fears the volunteers will find it dangerous to patrol their home turf.

"In their own neighborhoods, with the 'Don't snitch' mentality, they're kind of putting themselves in harm's way, because there are going to be people who disagree with what they're doing," DeRussy said.

The men who join Johnson's program will not carry weapons or make arrests but will instead emphasize conflict resolution, similar to the Guardian Angels' ground rules.

Police in other cities have hired Muhammad in recent years to provide sensitivity training to officers and community members, but it was not immediately clear whether any have deployed a volunteer patrol force.

Johnson, who had led the police department for seven years, appears increasingly frustrated by the daily gun violence. He and other city leaders have blamed the Legislature for not passing gun-control measures.

Mayor John F. Street, whose term is up at the beginning of 2008, has voiced support for the program, but it was not clear whether he would become involved. His office did not return a call for comment Thursday, nor did Johnson's office.

Street and Johnson have both endured withering criticism from frustrated residents and community leaders who say they should do more to halt the violence.

One gun-violence researcher said the idea of putting citizens on patrol had the potential to show children that adults care.

"A steady exposure to violence just creates this toxic environment for children and youth. As adults, we don't want them to think they have to handle it on their own," said Rose Cheney, executive director of the Firearm and Injury Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

"If, by putting people out there — not just as a town watch, but as resources who connect them to what they need from adults — that can be very promising," she said.

There was another program in I think St Louis that sought to bring in dozens of black leaders or black male role models for the local Junior High and High School black teens. I think coupling this effort with the one that the Police Chief has, real change can take hold.

The problems that are effecting Philly are SERIOUS.
They have today 294 murders so far this year. Its only September.
I applaud the actions of this Police Chief.
More should follow suit.

HEAVILY Discounted Rate for Moveon.org

2007-09-13T15:33:00.000-05:00

Very interesting.
And people that the audacity to say that the NY Times is NOT a liberal News Paper. Or that the Media is not run by liberals.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An ad criticizing the top U.S. general in Iraq raised charges on Thursday that The New York Times slashed its advertising rates for political reasons -- an accusation denied by the paper.

The ad by liberal anti-war group moveon.org ran on Monday, the day of Gen. David Petraeus' testimony to Congress about the war and how long U.S. forces will stay in Iraq.

Moveon.org confirmed it paid $65,000 for the full page ad headlined "General Petraeus or General Betray Us."

The New York Post ran a story on Thursday asking why the basic rate of $181,692 for such an ad was discounted.

"Times Gives Lefties a Hefty Discount for 'Betray Us' Ad," was the headline in the Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis denied the rate charged indicated a political bias and said it was the paper's policy not to disclose the rate paid by any advertiser.

"We do not distinguish the advertising rates based on the political content of the ad," Mathis told Reuters.

"The advertising folks did not see the content of the ad before the rate was quoted," she said, adding that there were over 30 different categories of ads with varying rates.

Mathis confirmed the open rate for an ad of that size and type was around $181,000. Among reasons for lower rates are advertisers buying in bulk or taking a standby rate, she said.

"There are many instances when we have published opinion advertisements that run counter to the stance we take on our own editorial pages," she said.

The ad in the main news section of the Times accused Petraeus of "cooking the books for the White House."

It angered Republicans, including Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, a presidential candidate who brought it to the Petraeus hearing on Monday and waved the ad in the air, telling lawmakers he was "irritated" by it and other criticism by Democrats.

Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor who blogs on media at buzzmachine.com, said the key question for the Times was could any other political or advocacy group get the same rate under the same circumstances.

"The quandary the Times gets stuck in is they don't want to admit you can buy an ad for that rate, no matter who you are," Jarvis said, noting that with print advertising revenues in decline newspapers generally did offer big discounts.

On a more general note, Jarvis said U.S. papers should emulate their counterparts in Britain where, for example, The Guardian makes no effort to hide its liberal stance.

"In the U.S., I would argue newspapers should be more transparent and open about the views taken ... and the (New York) Times is liberal," he said.

That is a pretty damn sweet deal. Only 65 K to get that much attention nationally and on top of that, commit a drive by character assassination of a war hero. NICE.

I wonder if they'll give Rudy that same discounted price for his ad?

I doubt it though. If anything Rudy better be ready, following this stunt by him the NY TIMES may REALLY go after him.

Federal Deficit Running Lower This Year

2007-09-13T15:30:00.000-05:00

Where do you see this blazing across in headlines in national news papers?

WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal deficit is running sharply lower than last year even though spending in August set an all-time high, the government reported Thursday.

The Treasury Department said that the deficit through the first 11 months of this budget year totaled $274.4 billion, down 9.8 percent from the same period a year ago.

Analysts believe the deficit for all of 2007 will actually be even lower because they are forecasting a sizable surplus in the final month, reflecting in part timing issues that caused about $44 billion in Social Security and Medicare payments that normally would have been made in September to be shifted into August.

The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting that when this budget year wraps up on Sept. 30, the deficit will total $158 billion, down by 36.2 percent from last year's $248.2 billion deficit.

The government's books have been helped this year by record flows of tax receipts, which have continued even though economic growth has been reduced by a serious slump in housing.

A deficit of $158 billion would be the best showing since the budget was actually in balance for four years. The last surplus was in 2001, President Bush's first year in office.

While forecasts had projected that government surpluses would total $5.6 trillion over the next decade, the 2001 recession, spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the president's first-term tax cuts all combined to wipe out those surpluses.

Republicans contend that Bush's tax cuts are a major reason that government receipts are so strong now, but Democrats contend that the tax cuts are providing very little economic stimulus and that revenues are simply rebounding to more normal levels after slumping earlier in the decade.

The deficit hit an all-time high in dollar terms in 2004 at $413 billion and has been declining since then. The administration is projecting that the government's books will be in surplus by 2012 if Congress follows Bush's recommendations on spending restraint. However, the Democratic-controlled Congress is pushing for higher spending for the budget year that begins Oct. 1. Bush has pledged to veto spending bills that exceed his requests.

For August, the deficit totaled $116.9 billion. However, about $44 billion of that figure reflected payments for Social Security and Medicare that were mailed in August because Sept. 1 fell on a Saturday and Labor Day came on Sept. 3.

Through the first 11 months of the current budget year, receipts total a record $2.282 trillion, up 7.5 percent from last year, while outlays totaled a record $2.557 trillion, up 5.3 percent from last year.

Or better yet where are the doom and gloomers on the economy?

Unions are a joke

2007-09-13T15:11:00.000-05:00

It used to be that Unions served a purpose. They were protecting American workers from unsafe working conditions, and from outside tariffs and economic impacts.
They used to actually work to improve conditions of the people say in Steal Factories, Car Manufacturing etc. But over the years it seems like Unions have become nothing more then cash revenue streams for the Unions themselves.

Now comes the ultimate slap in the face to the American worker.
Unions that are in support of Illegal immigration:

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - A union representing workers at six Swift & Co. meatpacking plants sued federal immigration authorities Wednesday, alleging agents violated the workers' rights during raids by roughly handling even those not suspected of crimes.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and the eight workers named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit seek unspecified damages and an order to stop U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from conducting what the union says are illegal raids.

ICE officials investigating identity theft arrested 1,297 workers at the plants in December, but union officials have said that more than 12,000 workers were detained against their will during the raids. Swift has estimated the financial impact at up to $50 million.

Union president Joseph Hansen said workers were handcuffed and held for hours and denied access to phones, bathrooms, legal counsel and their families.

"What happened to the Swift workers ... is absolutely an outrage," Hansen said Tuesday.

According to ICE, 274 of those arrested during the raids were charged with identity theft or other crimes unrelated to immigration law. Nearly all were convicted, ICE spokesman Tim Counts said Tuesday. He disputed the claim that workers weren't allowed access to phones.

Of those arrested for being in the country illegally, 649 had been deported as of March 1, according to the most recent numbers available from ICE. All were sent to Latin American countries.

ICE returned to the plants in July and arrested 20 more people, including a human resources manager and a union representative on charges of recruiting and harboring illegal immigrants. The latter two cases are pending.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Amarillo, Texas, names as defendants Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Assistant Secretary Julie Myers, the two agencies and unnamed federal agents who conducted the raids.

A Department of Homeland Security official referred questions to ICE. Counts said ICE attorneys had not yet seen the lawsuit but planned to fight it.

"From what we've heard from the complaints, they are baseless," Counts said.

Counts said civil search warrants gave the agency the right to fully search the plants and question everyone there. Workers were allowed to use their cell phones, company phones and even the phones of federal agents during the operation, he said.

The Food and Commercial Workers union represents 1.3 million workers in the United States, including 250,000 workers in packing and food processing. The plants raided were in Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Greeley, Colo.; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn.

Officials at Swift, which is not named as a defendant, did not immediately return a message left Wednesday seeking comment on the lawsuit. Brazilian firm JBS S.A. acquired Swift from a private equity firm for about $1.5 billion in July, making the company the world's largest beef processor.

Its a damn shame.

Over 500 scientists published studies countering global warming fears.

2007-09-12T12:34:00.000-05:00

This was way too good to pass up.

Challenge to Scientific Consensus on Global Warming: Analysis Finds Hundreds of Scientists Have Published Evidence Countering Man-Made Global Warming Fears.

A new analysis of peer-reviewed literature reveals that more than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting at least one element of current man-made global warming scares. More than 300 of the scientists found evidence that 1) a natural moderate 1,500-year climate cycle has produced more than a dozen global warmings similar to ours since the last Ice Age and/or that 2) our Modern Warming is linked strongly to variations in the sun's irradiance. "This data and the list of scientists make a mockery of recent claims that a scientific consensus blames humans as the primary cause of global temperature increases since 1850," said Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Dennis Avery.

Other researchers found evidence that 3) sea levels are failing to rise importantly; 4) that our storms and droughts are becoming fewer and milder with this warming as they did during previous global warmings; 5) that human deaths will be reduced with warming because cold kills twice as many people as heat; and 6) that corals, trees, birds, mammals, and butterflies are adapting well to the routine reality of changing climate.

Despite being published in such journals such as Science, Nature and Geophysical Review Letters, these scientists have gotten little media attention. "Not all of these researchers would describe themselves as global warming skeptics," said Avery, "but the evidence in their studies is there for all to see."

The names were compiled by Avery and climate physicist S. Fred Singer, the co-authors of the new book Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years, mainly from the peer-reviewed studies cited in their book. The researchers' specialties include tree rings, sea levels, stalagmites, lichens, pollen, plankton, insects, public health, Chinese history and astrophysics.

"We have had a Greenhouse Theory with no evidence to support it-except a moderate warming turned into a scare by computer models whose results have never been verified with real-world events," said co-author Singer. "On the other hand, we have compelling evidence of a real-world climate cycle averaging 1470 years (plus or minus 500) running through the last million years of history. The climate cycle has above all been moderate, and the trees, bears, birds, and humans have quietly adapted."

"Two thousand years of published human histories say that the warm periods were good for people," says Avery. "It was the harsh, unstable Dark Ages and Little Ice Age that brought bigger storms, untimely frost, widespread famine and plagues of disease." "There may have been a consensus of guesses among climate model-builders," says Singer. "However, the models only reflect the warming, not its cause." He noted that about 70 percent of the earth's post-1850 warming came before 1940, and thus was probably not caused by human-emitted greenhouse gases. The net post-1940 warming totals only a tiny 0.2 degrees C.

The historic evidence of the natural cycle includes the 5000-year record of Nile floods, 1st-century Roman wine production in Britain, and thousands of museum paintings that portrayed sunnier skies during the Medieval Warming and more cloudiness during the Little Ice Age. The physical evidence comes from oxygen isotopes, beryllium ions, tiny sea and pollen fossils, and ancient tree rings. The evidence recovered from ice cores, sea and lake sediments, cave stalagmites and glaciers has been analyzed by electron microscopes, satellites, and computers. Temperatures during the Medieval Warming Period on California's Whitewing Mountain must have been 3.2 degrees warmer than today, says Constance Millar of the U.S. Forest Service, based on her study of seven species of relict trees that grew above today's tree line.

Singer emphasized, "Humans have known since the invention of the telescope that the earth's climate variations were linked to the sunspot cycle, but we had not understood how. Recent experiments have demonstrated that more or fewer cosmic rays hitting the earth create more or fewer of the low, cooling clouds that deflect solar heat back into space-amplifying small variations in the intensity of the sun.

Avery and Singer noted that there are hundreds of additional peer-reviewed studies that have found cycle evidence, and that they will publish additional researchers' names and studies. They also noted that their book was funded by Wallace O. Sellers, a Hudson board member, without any corporate contributions.

Man Made Global Warming right Al?
Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure......

Biofuels may harm more than help

2007-09-11T15:25:00.000-05:00

Funny I said the same thing not 1 month ago.

PARIS (Reuters) - Biofuels, championed for reducing energy reliance, boosting farm revenues and helping fight climate change, may in fact hurt the environment and push up food prices, a study suggested on Tuesday.

In a report on the impact of biofuels, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said biofuels may "offer a cure that is worse than the disease they seek to heal".

"The current push to expand the use of biofuels is creating unsustainable tensions that will disrupt markets without generating significant environmental benefits," the OECD said.

"When acidification, fertilizer use, biodiversity loss and toxicity of agricultural pesticides are taken into account, the overall environmental impacts of ethanol and biodiesel can very easily exceed those of petrol and mineral diesel," it added.

The OECD therefore called on governments to cut their subsidies for the sector and instead encourage research into technologies that would avoid competing for land use with food production.

"Governments should cease to create new mandates for biofuels and investigate ways to phase them out," it said.

The OECD said tax incentives put in place in many regions, including the European Union and the United States, to encourage biofuel output could hide other objectives.

"Biofuel policies may appear to be an easy way to support domestic agriculture against the backdrop of international negotiations to liberalize agricultural trade," it said.

CUT DEMAND

Instead it encouraged members of the World Trade Organization to step efforts to lower barriers to biofuel imports to allow developing countries that have ecological and climate systems more suited to biomass production.

The OECD also encouraged government to work on cutting demand for transport fuel rather than encouraging production of so-called "green" fuels.

"A liter of gasoline or diesel conserved because a person walks, rides a bicycles, carpools or tunes up his or her vehicle's engine more often is a full liter of gasoline or diesel saved at a much lower cost to the economy than subsidizing inefficient new sources of supply," it said.

Biofuels, made mainly from grains, oilseeds and sugar, have been accused of being responsible for a recent surge in farm commodities prices, along with other factors such as lower output and tight stocks.

The OECD, which said in July that it saw biofuels keeping prices at high levels into the next decade, said it would lead to an unavoidable "food-versus-fuel" debate.

"Any diversion of land from food or feed production to production of energy biomass will influence food prices from the start, as both compete for the same input," it said.

That is the realty. You will force people to choose to eat or drive a car in terms of their fuel production.

As noted in the above research as well as in the Mcclatchy article from Just last month, the rising cost of our food prices is directly related to the increased use of these bio fuels to run cars.

Sure its "cleaner" burning but its also less productive, it doesn't burn at the same rate inside of vehicles as regular Gasoline or Diesel. As this study also mentions it also generates large amounts of pollutants from the methodology in growing these foods which are now fuel.

But alas those that think Biofuel is the way to go will stay die hard on this position. No matter how much more Milk Prices rise (13%) or Beef and Chicekn (10% and 9% respectively).

The solution is again Hydrogen to run your car, but I am sure when we really take off on that the eco freaks will then say we are draining our oceans dry so we need to stop this and do something else.

Almanac Calls for Warmest Year in 100

2007-09-11T15:17:00.000-05:00

I am sure some way they will find a way to blame this on Global Warming despite the Farmers Almanac going back a two hundred years. Either that or say that The Almanac is part of the Oil Companies conspiracy.

DUBLIN, N.H. (AP) - The Old Farmer's Almanac says it used time-honored, complex calculations to predict that 2008 will be the warmest year in a century, along with a bit of folklore—years that end in "8" have weird weather.

People still talk about the frigid winters of 1748 and 1888, tornadoes of 1908, Northwest floods and the Northeast hurricane of 1938.

"At the very least, we expect it to be the warmest year in the last century overall, so people will talk about it for that reason alone," said publisher John Pierce.

This year's edition, on newsstands Wednesday, predicts a warmer than average winter in much of the country. Believers can look for below- average snowfall, except for a narrow swath extending from northeast Texas to northern New England.

Claiming a secret formula based on sunspots as well as meteorology, the almanac forecasts a hot summer in most areas, but cool and dry in the upper Midwest. It says there will be more rain than normal—except in Florida and the already dry West.

The Almanac, established in 1792, is North America's oldest continuously published periodical. The little yellow magazine still comes with the hole in the corner so it can be hung in outhouses for leisurely reading. It boasts 18.5 million readers.

The Old Farmer's Almanac is not to be confused with the Maine-based Farmer's Almanac, published only since 1818. The 2008 edition of that publication, which went on sale in late August, forecasts plenty of snow this winter across the Northeast, temperatures averaging as much as 3 degrees below normal along most of the Atlantic Coast, and four major frosts as far south as Florida, but with tamer weather in the West.

This year, for the first time, the entire issue of the Old Farmer's Almanac is available electronically.

Editor-in-Chief Jud Hale said incorporating technology should not be surprising.

"If (founder) Robert B. Thomas was alive today, he'd be in the forefront of high tech," Hale said. "He'd want to have the very latest abilities to communicate and do the weather and be involved with science."

Colin Powell interview

2007-09-11T12:23:00.000-05:00

An interesting interview with Colin Powell. A man that I respect immensely. After reading his book Soldier I grew to respect the man even more. I think Powell is a smart man that holds true to his beliefs.

Today GQ posted an interview about him that was very telling
I like his take on this and I generally agree particularly with this part:

Isn’t the new global threat we face even more dangerous?
What is the greatest threat facing us now? People will say it’s terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the great threat we are facing?

I would approach this differently, in almost Marshall-like terms. What are the great opportunities out there—ones that we can take advantage of? It should not be just about creating alliances to deal with a guy in a cave in Pakistan. It should be about how do we create institutions that keep the world moving down a path of wealth creation, of increasing respect for human rights, creating democratic institutions, and increasing the efficiency and power of market economies? This is perhaps the most effective way to go after terrorists.

I also see his point on this:

So you think we are getting too hunkered down and scared?
Yes! We are taking too much counsel of our fears.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t a terrorist threat. There is a threat. And we should send in military forces when we have a target to deal with. We should also secure our airports, if that makes us safer. But let’s welcome every foreign student we can get our hands on. Let’s make sure that foreigners come to the Mayo Clinic here, and not the Mayo facility in Dubai or somewhere else. Let’s make sure people come to Disney World and not throw them up against the wall in Orlando simply because they have a Muslim name. Let’s also remember that this country was created by immigrants and thrives as a result of immigration, and we need a sound immigration policy.

Let’s show the world a face of openness and what a democratic system can do. That’s why I want to see Guantánamo closed. It’s so harmful to what we stand for. We literally bang ourselves in the head by having that place. What are we doing this to ourselves for? Because we’re worried about the 380 guys there? Bring them here! Give them lawyers and habeas corpus. We can deal with them. We are paying a price when the rest of the world sees an America that seems to be afraid and is not the America they remember.

You can drive up the road from here and come to a spot where there is a megachurch over here, a little Episcopal church over there, a Catholic church around the corner that’s almost cathedral-size, and between them is a huge Hindu temple. There are no police needed to guard any of this. There are not many places in the world where you would see that. Yes, there are a few dangerous nuts in Brooklyn and New Jersey who want to blow up Kennedy Airport and Fort Dix. These are dangerous criminals, and we must deal with them. But come on, this is not a threat to our survival! The only thing that can really destroy us is us. We shouldn’t do it to ourselves, and we shouldn’t use fear for political purposes—scaring people to death so they will vote for you, or scaring people to death so that we create a terror-industrial complex.

Trust but verify.
That is what we need to abide by. Trust the foreign student but VERIFY that he/she is who they say they are.

Trust Muslims but don't disregard research like this from the PEW research center. Research that paints a disturbing image of acceptance of these terrorist acts.

But I ask, how are we supposed to gain intelligence from these captured terrorists if we put them through our legal system and give them a lawyer on our tax dollars. Its seems a bit odd to me that we would give them rights that they seek to destroy in this nation. Especially since many even in the UK are calling for Sharia Law to take hold. It may be a far cry but letting this sort of crap fester may take hold.

America is unique and perhaps the only thing that can destroy us is ourselves but that does not mean that we should discount the threat that these crazy bastards pose. Its not that clear cut and dry.

And I disagree with General Powell on things like this:

Do you still support affirmative action?
I have always supported affirmative action. I believe there is still a place for it. I spoke at the 1996 Republican convention in San Diego with my friend Ward Connerly [a black opponent of affirmative action] sitting in the audience. He had warned me that he would walk out if I made any reference to affirmative action. And when I did express my support for it, I looked right at him, and he didn’t move. Affirmative action is a concept that is probably not a growth industry. I’m glad it will eventually go away. But when I go to these inner-city neighborhoods, including across the street here in the Washington area, you can’t tell me these kids have the same opportunity that other kids have or that my kids have. Is it because they’re black that these kids are at a disadvantage? To some extent no, to some extent yes. We can’t deny it. Therefore, to the extent that we still believe it appropriate to provide some way of balancing the legacy of the past, I think we have an obligation to do so.

Honestly I believe that their may be SOME parts of this nation that AA is needed but OVERALL what keeps these black kids and other minorities in these areas are their own background and upbringing. Their own social problems within their areas and the victim mentality that keeps them there.

9 times out of 10 its not outside forces that keep you within a community or a perpetual state of poverty. Its your own mentality that keeps you there, generation after generation. Its a problem that we need to confront similar to what Cosby is doing around the nation now.

That is the sort of leadership that is needed. A leadership that will BREAK the cycle not create another system within a govt to fix a problem.

And I animately disagree with Mr Powell here:

America could not survive without immigration. Even the undocumented immigrants are contributing to our economy. That’s the country my parents came to. That’s the image we have to portray to the rest of the world: kind, generous, a nation of nations, touched by every nation, and we touch every nation in return.

Yes sir they are contributing to this economy but not to the great positive that many choose to believe. Just ask the Border states that are seeing hospitals close, Crime rate increases, and in with the additional cost and need that is being taken on by cities around the nation that need to now pay for more police, more fire departments for the flood of new illegal immigrants into this country.

There is a reason that there are caps on immigration To control the explosion of population growth and slowly gradually as a nation or as a city grow with the increase in population. But when you have an open border you cannot do this. You have to expand quickly or do like Hazelton PA did and get rid of them. But of course you will have judges legislating from the bench as usual.

As I mentioned before in other posts. I came here as a First Generation Immigrant, but my parents took the legal steps to come here not the illegal ones. I wish others like Powell would get that.

Its one thing to have the economic impact from legal immigration growth but its another to have it unbridled population growth like we see with illegal immigrants.

Kanye catches a Tantrum....again

2007-09-10T08:25:00.001-05:00

What a little girl.
The dude catches a Tantrum whenever he doesn't win.
What ever happened to being humble?

LAS VEGAS - Sour grapes from Kanye West — again. Shut out at the Video Music Awards, Kanye West threw a tantrum Sunday night in front of media and crew backstage as the MTV show was ending.

West, waiting for an elevator in a crowded hallway, began yelling about losing all five categories for which he was nominated.

"That's two years in a row, man ... give a black man a chance," West said, stomping around his entourage and directing his comments at a reporter. "I'm trying hard man, I have the ... number one record, man."

West said he never will return to MTV.

The rapper was nomination for five awards, including male artist of the year. This is the latest in a series of awards show outburst for West. Last year, he crashed the stage at the MTV Europe Awards after not winning for best video.

This is not the first time that Kanye does this crap.
He's done it before at a Radio Station. Acting like a little bitch when he didn't get an award last year in Europe. Its his MO.

I heard of being coddled growing up but this cat is ridiculous.
Kanye do us all a favor man, if you can't take an award or lack off properly stop making records man. You wont be missed.

Not a Crime Rudy!?

2007-09-07T16:02:00.000-05:00

Are you flipping kidding me!

GLENN BECK PROGRAM
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

GLENN: Welcome to the program. Mayor Giuliani, how are you?

GIULIANI: Nice to talk to you.

GLENN: Rudy, first of all, loved you in the debate. I saw the polls and people disagree with me. They thought you were talking about New York too much. I personally thought you won the night the other night. I thought you were very clear. The reason why you were talking about New York is you're not hanging your hat on September 11th. You're hanging your hat on all kinds of things. You have vast amounts of experience and I just thought you did a great job, but I want to go a little deeper on a couple of things and if you done mind, I'd like to start with immigration.

GIULIANI: Sure.

GLENN: You're being attacked on immigration. Correct me where I'm wrong. You say you took over the policy that was in place before you. You basically said you can't ask for immigration status if they come in to report a crime, get medical care, use in school. You didn't start the policy, but you didn't stop it, either, right?

GIULIANI: Also I did two things about the policy. The policy as it's described by some of my opponents. The fairness to my predecessors, the policy was to report all criminals, not just all criminals. It says right in the executive order the police are instructed to report all people who are illegal who are suspected of a crime. So we reported all people who were suspected of a crime or who committed a crime to the immigration service.

GLENN: All right. Which executive order was that?

GIULIANI: It was the executive order that was signed originally by Mayor Koch, continued by Mayor Dinkins and then by me and it sets up the following situation. You have to report all illegal immigrants or anybody with a questionable status who is suspected of committing a crime. However, there are three exceptions, only three exceptions to it. One is if they're putting children in school; two is if they are reporting a crime; three is if they're going to a hospital for healthcare which, by the way, was mandated by the federal government. So the first two, even the third were necessary for public safety. New York had 400,000 illegal immigrants. The federal government never deported more than 2,000 a year. If the illegal immigrants who were in New York and not going to be removed, even though their names were being turned over when they committed crimes, then you wanted their children to go to school. Otherwise there was a real chance there would be even more crime in New York City with 70,000 children at home, with nobody to take care of them.

GLENN: All right.

GIULIANI: So the point that I make is, the way to evaluate my policy, was it a good one or a bad one was, what was the end result of my policy. The end result was the safest large city in America, safer than any cities than any of my opponents came from or had responsibility for.

GLENN: Well, okay. I agree with that, but then you've got this quote from '94 and you give me the context on this. Quote: If you come here, you work hard. You happen to be an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city. You're somebody that we want to protect. We want you to get out from under what is often a life of being a fugitive, which is really unfair.

GIULIANI: The context of that was for people to come forward to report crimes because we needed their help and we didn't want them to be afraid of coming forward. The context of that was we wanted them to put their children in school not to be afraid to do that. Even with the policy that I pointed, I continued it was probably seven, eight years old, there were still people, illegal immigrants, who would not report crimes. But we wanted them to.

GLENN: Right. But isn't illegal immigration a crime in and of itself?

GIULIANI: No.

GLENN: Aren't you saying --

GIULIANI: Glenn --

GLENN: You're protecting criminals by saying that being treated as a criminal is unfair.

GIULIANI: Glenn, it's not a crime. I know that's very hard for people to understand, but it's not a federal crime.

GLENN: It's a misdemeanor but if you've been nailed, it is a crime. If you've been nailed, ship back and come back, it is a crime.

GIULIANI: Glenn, being an illegal immigrant, the 400,000 were not prosecuted for crimes by the federal government, nor could they be. I was U.S. attorney in the southern district of New York. So believe me, I know this. In fact, when you throw an immigrant out of the country, it's not a criminal proceeding. It's a civil proceeding.

GLENN: Is it --

GIULIANI: One of the things that congress wanted to do a year ago is to make it a crime, which indicates that it isn't.

GLENN: Should it be?

GIULIANI: Should it be? No, it shouldn't be because the government wouldn't be able to prosecute it. We couldn't prosecute 12 million people. We have only 2 million people in jail right now for all the crimes that are committed in the country, 2.5 million. If you were to make it a crime, you would have to take the resources of the criminal justice system and increase it by about 6. In other words, you'd have to take all the 800,000 police, and who knows how many police we would have to have.

GLENN: So what's your solution?

GIULIANI: My solution is close the border to illegal immigration.

GLENN: How do you do that?

GIULIANI: You do that by building a fence, a physical fence and a technological fence, and the technological fence is more important than the physical fence. The technological fence would alert you to illegals approaching the border well in advance so the border patrol can get there and stop them. You deploy the border patrol every 50 miles along the border. I've already outlined this on a map. I did this in detail about two weeks ago. And then you have the border patrol stop people from coming in, literally stop them from coming in. If you did that for a year or two, you would end it. You also have a tamperproof ID card that every person from a foreign country should have that comes into the United States. The goal has to be, yes, you're allowed to come to the United States but you have to identify yourself before we let you in, and we have to be sure you're a safe person. And then if you come in, you'll be in the computer base, you'll be able to work, you will have to pay your fair share, you'll have to pay taxes but we have to end it right at the border by having the resources to stop people from just walking into this country and not identifying themselves. Only the federal government can do this. If the federal government doesn't do this, there is no way that the local governments in this country can handle it other than in a practical way. If you make people that are just going to be here for the next 20 years, if you put them in a situation of danger and risk, you're going to have more crime in your communities.

GLENN: There are two things that jump to mind here, and I don't -- I mean this with all respect, I gotta tell you. As I watched you the other night -- I mean, I really, truly think that we're in real trouble in this country --

GIULIANI: We are in trouble.

GLENN: -- on so many fronts.

GIULIANI: There was an article in Time magazine, I don't know if it was a week ago or two weeks ago and it's highly critical of me. Believe it or not, I'm very proud of it. The article says I am exaggerating the Islamic terrorist threat.

GLENN: No, you're not.

GIULIANI: And I have to tell you in all honesty and good conscience, I'm understating it because I don't know how to exaggerate it. It is a real threat. I wish it wasn't. All you have to do is look at what's going on in Germany right this minute with those people that were, you know, planning to attack American soldiers. All you have to do is look at what happened in New Jersey a few months ago with the people who were planning to attack Fort Dix or in Queens with the people that were going to attack Kennedy airport. This is going on all the time and we have to be on offense against it --

GLENN: Hang on.

GIULIANI: America has never --

GLENN: I don't think there's a soul -- honestly I don't think there's a soul in the audience that doesn't think you are going to be extraordinarily tough. I admire you for what you did with Yasser Arafat in the 1990s, I admire you for what you did during 9/11 with the Saudi prince and after. However, what you just said about immigration, you missed -- there is no ramification that you just mentioned for the companies and that's the supply -- or that's the desire side. And the other thing is, and I hear this all the time and it drives me crazy. These tamperproof ID cards. Have you noticed how many times we've changed our money in the last five years? There's no such thing as tamperproof ID.

GIULIANI: Well, first of all, I didn't mean to leave out the companies. Anyone who is engaged in illegal activity should be penalized. The more you have a system that has one single ID card and you have a tamperproof ID card, the penalties can be enforced. The problem with it is not that the penalties don't exist. They are very hard to enforce. Now, you are absolutely correct, Glenn. There is no such thing as a 100% tamperproof ID card, but where you're wrong is there are considerably better cards and identification systems than we presently have.

First of all, if you made it just one identification card, that would help instead of six or seven. Number two, if you just introduced some biometric data on it like a fingerprint, you'd probably get it to -- I don't want to do this statistically but you'd get it to 98%, 99%. That's a heck of a lot better than where we are now. We have an ancient system of identification for immigrants who come to this country. Credit card companies do a better job of collecting data and removing fraud than the United States government.

GLENN: But what a surprise. It's the capitalist system. Let me -- because we've only got a couple of minutes. Let me switch gears with you. Another thing that I'm very concerned about that I think Americans are -- I think everybody is understating this problem, the economy with the subprime nonsense. We are in real trouble here. Bush is now talking about bailing out these homeowners, but the homeowners aren't losing much. A lot of them came in with zero down. This is just a bailout and the company. Shouldn't we just let companies fail and if you took a risky loan, you bet, you bet wrong; move on?

GIULIANI: To a very large extend, that's correct, particularly from the point of view of the federal government and the President. The President has to focus on the pillars of our economy and make sure that those are being handled correctly and if they are, the market will straighten out the rest. The pillars of our economy are low taxes, smaller government, moderate regulation, and a sound monetary policy. So on this question of how much help should the market in general be given, that should really be determined by the Fed through the supply of money, and they have shown that they can do a pretty darn good job of that. That should not be the function of the congress and the President. And what the congress and the President should be working on, you know what would be really helpful right now for our economy? How about a tax cut? A tax cut would stimulate our economy in general and help it get through some of the dislocation that are being created in what is just a portion of our economy.

If you try to do a bailout, Glenn, what you are likely to do is have the problem spread beyond now where it is to the entire company. You don't with a that. There is a book out right now, The Forgotten Man, it would be great for everybody to read it because it shows and it's sort of a reanalysis of the history of the Great Depression, and the premise of the book basically is of course there was a depression and it was a really bad one, but it extended for a decade because of the wrong decisions made by Hoover and Roosevelt.

GLENN: We've been talking about it on this program for a couple of weeks.

GIULIANI: Intervening too much, creating massive government bureaucracies, raising taxes, putting in high tariffs. Sure as heck sounds like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards to me. All three of them have promised to raise taxes, they all want to raise protectionist duties and regulation. So I think that would be the worst thing to do and I hope the President relies on an area where he's had great strength actually since he's been President, which is sticking with the fundamentals of the economy: Low taxes, reduce the burden of government, and see what you can do -- maybe a revision of Sarbanes-Oxley wouldn't be a bad idea. That would bring all kinds of IPO money to the United States, all kinds of investment money to the United States.

You know, if you are having trouble in one part of the economy, you shore up the entire economy so it remains just in one part of the economy, they work it out and you don't spread it to the rest.

GLENN: Mayor Giuliani, I know you have to run. Let me just leave you with this real quick. Every month we take a poll of all the guys on the staff, the radio and the television and my magazine. We took it yesterday. You won in a landslide, landslide.

GIULIANI: Well, I like that poll. I'm in Florida right now. We're trying to accomplish the same thing in Florida.

GLENN: Well, best of luck to you and we'll talk to you again, sir.

GIULIANI: Thank you.

END TRANSCRIPT

You know, I had my heart set on voting for Rudy if he was to be the nominee, but THIS RIGHT HERE, throws that all out of whack. There is no way I would ever vote for him just because of this one issue. How the hell can you say its not a crime? Its been a crime since 1929!

This could be it right here folks. The downfall of Rudy in this very interview.

Sorry Rudy you lost my support.
Now I just have to hope Thompson can show me something!

Ohh the Hypocrisy!

2007-09-07T15:35:00.000-05:00

Via Drudge:

'GREEN' GORE GOES GULFSTREAM: VIDEO CATCHES ECO-WARRIOR ON LUXURY PRIVATE JET
Fri Sep 07 2007 07:48:23 ET

**Exclusive**

As former Vice President Al Gore waits to hear if he has won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless effort on climate change, a new video will air this weekend capturing Gore on a fuel-guzzling private jet!

FOXNEWS host Sean Hannity is set to unleash the damning video this Sunday night, network sources reveal.

So the surge isn't working?

2007-09-06T14:15:00.001-05:00

But Hillary Clinton just said it was!

Damn undermining the Generals findings before its even presented. Close minded much?
Well, Reid declared the surge lost even before it began. I guess being surprised by this latest "preemptive" strike by the Dems is not a complete shock. Its their forte.

Congressional Democrats are trying to undermine U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus' credibility before he delivers a report on the Iraq war next week, saying the general is a mouthpiece for President Bush and his findings can't be trusted.

"The Bush report?" Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin said when asked about the upcoming report from Gen. Petraeus, U.S. commander in Iraq.

"We know what is going to be in it. It's clear. I think the president's trip over to Iraq makes it very obvious," the Illinois Democrat said. "I expect the Bush report to say, 'The surge is working. Let's have more of the same.' "

The top Democrats — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California — also referred to the general's briefing as the "Bush report."

Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Gen. Petraeus' report was potentially compromised by the White House's involvement in drafting it.

"If the same people who were so wrong about this war from the start are writing substantial portions of this report, that raises credibility questions," he said.

Republicans bristled at the pre-emptive strike against the report.

"Are these leaders asking the American people to believe that the testimony of a commanding four-star general in the U.S. Army should be discarded before it's even delivered?" said Brian Kennedy, spokesman for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican.

"If so, these statements completely ignore what's truly at stake in this war and suggest that neither the commander in chief nor our chief commander on the ground have any regard for the lives of the men and women fighting for this country," he said. "It's appallng, and I think the American people — rightfully — will continue to stick by the decisions of our commanders and troops on the ground when it comes to what is best for their safety and security."

Mr. Bush's surprise visit Monday to Iraq's Anbar province showcased success in the one-time al Qaeda stronghold where Sunni tribal leaders teamed with U.S. troops to drive out the terrorists and rapidly improve security.

Despite continued bloodshed in Iraq, the president's visit was one of several recent signs of U.S. military success in Iraq that blunted antiwar momentum leading up to the September progress report.

The congressionally mandated report from the administration, which will be delivered in two parts by Gen. Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker, is expected to show some U.S. military advances, but limited progress from the fledgling Iraqi government toward ending sectarian fighting.

Democrats said they put more faith in a report Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office that showed Iraq failed to meet 11 of 18 political and security benchmarks set by Congress.

They also favored an analysis due today by Gen. James L. Jones, former U.S. commander in Europe, that is expected to say security gains have been "uneven" and Iraqi security forces are ill-prepared to stand alone, according to a CNN report.

"We will see what the Bush report will be at the end of next week," Mrs. Pelosi said. "The facts are self-evident that the progress is not being made. They might want to find one or two places where there has been progress but the plural of anecdote is not data."

She said Democrats were determined to uncover "the ground truth in Iraq."

I wonder if they'll step down?

2007-09-06T12:15:00.000-05:00

Seeing as Democrats have a history of not stepping down even after being arrested.

Gary Siplin - Orlando State Democratic Senator (Only left office after Governor Bush FORCED him out)
Barney Frank - Male Prostitution (Still in office)
William Jefferson - 90K Cold Hard Cash in Fridge. (Holds a seat on Homeland Security)

TRENTON — Eleven public officials from across New Jersey, including Passaic Mayor Samuel Rivera, were arrested Thursday morning in a federal corruption sting, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Trenton said.

Three other politicians from Passaic County — Assemblyman and Passaic County Undersheriff Alfred E. Steele, D-Paterson and Passaic city Councilman Marcellus Jackson and former Passaic city Councilman Jonathan Soto — were also arrested for demanding and taking cash bribes for the awarding of public contracts. Steele is also the pastor at Seminary Baptist Church in Paterson and has been in the state Assembly since 1996. He has served as deputy speaker since 2002.

Also arrested were Orange Mayor and the Democratic state Assemblyman Mims Hackett Jr.; Keith O. Reid, the chief of staff to Newark’s City Council president; and five Pleasantville school board members. The officials allegedly demanded and accepted bribes ranging from $1,500 to $17,500 at any one time, the spokesman, Michael Drewniak, said in a statement.

Each of the officials and one associate took bribes from companies that offered insurance brokerage or roofing services to school districts and municipalities, Drewniak said.

The yearlong investigation began amid evidence of corruption in the Pleasantville School District.

In response, the FBI established an undercover insurance brokerage company purporting to employ the government’s two cooperating witnesses and undercover agents, Drewniak said, adding that criminal complaints against the 12 defendants will be unsealed at 12:30 p.m.

Initial court appearances will take place at about 1:30 p.m., in the federal courthouse in Trenton before U.S. Magistrate Judge Tonianne Bongiovanni, Drewniak said. A news conference is scheduled to take place at about 3:30 p.m. in front of the courthouse in Trenton with U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie, FBI Special Agent Weysan Dun and Atlantic County Prosecutor Theodore F.L. Housel. Jenna Pollard, who answered the phone at Steele's Paterson office and identified herself as his chief of staff, declined to comment and said she didn't know if Steele had a lawyer.

The arrests are the latest in an anti-corruption campaign waged by Christie's office, and mark the second major corruption roundup this year.

Two Democratic senators, Wayne Bryant of Lawnside and Sharpe James of Newark, are facing pending federal corruption charges. Both pleaded not guilty.

More than 100 public officials in the state have been convicted on federal corruption charges in the last five years, the A.P. reported.

How Poor are Americans?

2007-09-04T12:24:00.001-05:00

If you listened to John Edwards and particularly those on the left we are all wallowing in complete destitution. But when you break down the numbers and look at the reality of it all, it paints a completely different picture.

The following are facts about persons defined as "poor" by the Census Bureau, taken from various government reports:

* Forty-three percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

* Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

* Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.

* The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)

* Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.

* Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

* Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

* Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.

That right there is the reality of the "poor" in this country folks.
This is why I truly honestly laugh when people talk of poverty in America and better yet the argument that somehow Socialism is the answer for that when its even compared to our European counter parts.

Robert E. Rector has more here.

Drudge Moves Internet Traffic like no other.

2007-09-04T09:52:00.000-05:00

You gotta give the man his credit.
He has done to News information on the internet what Rush Limbaugh has done to radio. Completely transformed it from multiple sites and lots of searching to 1 place to find your daily headlines that are of importance and skip the smaller news.

Its so basic its scary how successful it has become and continues to be. I myself go to Drudge before I go to any other site for news. Its just that convenient.

Internet news pioneer Matt Drudge and the Daily Mail make an unlikely alliance. But the mercurial founder of influential US website the Drudge Report has played a pivotal, if unwitting, role in the overnight success of dailymail.co.uk, which last month shocked many on Fleet Street by taking second place in its first appearance in the ABCe online readership figures.

The Mail's 11.8 million unique users in July put it ahead of telegraph.co.uk and Times Online, but behind Guardian Unlimited - owned by The Observer's parent company, Guardian Media Group.

The measure was introduced to provide advertisers with an accurate guide to the popularity of Britain's growing newspaper websites. But the Mail's rivals claim around a third of traffic was generated by referrals from the Drudge Report, which shot to prominence when it broke stories about the Monica Lewinsky affair a decade ago.

'We counted 36 Daily Mail stories on Drudge during July,' says Edward Roussel, the Telegraph's digital editor. Publicity for the Mail on Sunday's free Prince CD pushed huge numbers of users towards dailymail.co.uk, while other popular stories, including several about David and Victoria Beckham's move to LA, also played well with the US audience. 'It's testament to the power of Drudge,' says Roussel. It is also a tribute to the power of the Mail's journalism, of course, as Roussel readily concedes. 'They write stories with global appeal - terror stories and showbiz stories in particular.'

But the Mail's ABCe success has reignited a fierce war of words among media owners about the way news site figures are measured. The three main ratings agencies - Nielsen NetRatings, Hitwise and ABCe - all measure slightly different things, and it was only the Mail's popularity abroad that catapulted it to second spot; UK users accounted for just 22 per cent of hits. The Daily Telegraph prefers to trumpet Hitwise's data, which bases its figures on UK users and defines a news site more narrowly, arguing that it is more accurate. Hitwise also happens to be the only one that consistently places telegraph.co.uk at the top of its rankings, which allows the paper to run adverts claiming it is the most popular news website in the country.

Guardian Unlimited has long published figures for advertisers to scrutinise and Tim Brooks, managing direction of Guardian Newspapers Ltd, says: 'Everybody in the internet business knows the Telegraph's claim to be the most popular news website in the UK is nonsense.'

The Mail's Martin Clarke, who launched London Lite, Associated's free evening paper in the capital and is tipped as a possible successor to Mail editor Paul Dacre, is in charge of the web operation. He says UK users are far more valuable than overseas readers, despite the fact that 78 per cent of page impressions come from abroad (the equivalent figure for the Telegraph is around 40 per cent). 'Advertisers at the moment are most concerned with UK traffic. Its great to have international visitors and its great the internet's such an international phenomenon, but in economic terms you can't [convert] it into revenue. It's pointless everyone judging themselves by traffic that no one can quite work out how to monetise.'

But Clarke points out that dailymail.co.uk's domestic growth has also been impressive, increasing by 14 per cent in July compared with the same month last year. Crucially, it is just not just silver surfers that account for its success. 'The website is expanding the Mail's demographic reach: 60 per cent of visitors are ABC1s, and over half are aged 18-24. It's the market advertisers want - affluent and young. We also have a female bias, as you'd expect given our heritage.'

The Mail site now boasts 2.55 million unique users in the UK, although that places it well below the Telegraph, Times and Guardian on most measurements. As one senior industry figure concedes: 'It's very confusing for advertisers when they see two - or indeed three - separate [analyses] being bandied around. And media owners' understandable habit of shouting about the numbers which show them in the best light doesn't help.'

What is beyond dispute, however, is that the overall market is growing and British papers are finding a new audience in the English-speaking world. After years of gloom about falling circulations, one senior industry source says that, at least, is welcome news. 'Britain doesn't lead the world at much. We should celebrate our success in this field.'

Any collective euphoria is likely to prove short-lived in a notoriously competitive industry. The Mail's performance in the ABCe index alarmed rivals, which had always felt its parent Associated had been slow to innovate online. 'In isolation it's a slightly shocking figure,' Clarke concedes, but he says there has been 'solid, steady growth' since the Mail and its Sunday sister title started to integrate its online operation into the newsroom last spring.

Placing Clarke, who remains associate editor at the Daily Mail, in charge of the group's internet operation last year was a statement of intent. Although Associated has invested heavily in the digital world, buying several websites to hold on to advertising revenue that is migrating online, Clarke says: 'Editorially we were a bit slower. But we have always kept a watching brief and the economics of the digital world have changed.'

A new site built from scratch will launch in a few months and it will make use of video footage and user-generated content, he adds, but the Mail's approach will continue to be low-key. 'We tend to just get on with the job. We don't show tourists round our news hub,' he says.

That is a thinly disguised dig at the Telegraph, which has invested heavily in its state-of-the-art newsroom and is happy to show it off to industry executives. Clarke's assertion that Associated's 'market-leading' papers will always be given priority over the website could also be construed as a shot across the bows of his rivals: 'You don't want to distract a specialist reporter from covering a story to record a podcast that will be listened to by one man and his dog. It's important not to do things just because the technology allows you to.'

The Telegraph's Roussel retorts: 'We had a global growth rate of 63 per cent year on year in July and 78 per cent year on year in the UK. If we hadn't been so evangelical we wouldn't have those figures.' But he agrees with Clarke that UK users are the only ones that count. 'That's really where the value of the business resides and that's what will pay journalists' salaries and meet the cost of newsrooms. We need to get [foreign hits] in perspective. The idea that British newspapers can take on the best US newspapers in their home market is hubristic and misplaced. We're minor brands in the US and we will remain minor brands.'

Overseas readers are, at the very least, an added bonus, but the domestic market continues to grow rapidly and in a sense everyone is winning at the moment. The real battle will commence in 18 months time, when the growth of broadband penetration begins to slow down - as in the US - and the established players begin a fight to protect their online readership in a more mature market.

'We're 18 months behind the US and we will fight voraciously when that time comes,' says the same senior industry source. In the meantime, he argues, British papers should be thankful they are making an impact on a global scale - even if some of them may have Matt Drudge to thank for it.

Global leaders

British newspaper websites are popular overseas because they enjoy a reputation for fearless journalism. But they also have another obvious advantage - they are written in English. The Guardian was one of the first newspapers to enthusiastically embrace the new medium, and has established a significant lead over its domestic rivals. In the US, the New York Times is the second most popular news website behind CNN.com, according to web information company Alexa, and the 30th most popular website. The internet versions of upmarket British newspapers are also popular in America - the Telegraph is the 11th most popular news site in the US . But the BBC News website is only just behind the NYT and the corporation's strength in its domestic market continues to pose the biggest challenge to UK newspapers.

Gods will Mr. Richardson?

2007-09-04T09:46:00.000-05:00

Nice way to try and get that Iowa Caucus swing into the front of the pack.

God's will is for Iowa to have the first-in-the-nation caucus, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson told a crowd here Monday.

"Iowa, for good reason, for constitutional reasons, for reasons related to the Lord, should be the first caucus and primary," Richardson, New Mexico's governor, said at the Northwest Iowa Labor Council Picnic. "And I want you to know who was the first candidate to sign a pledge not to campaign anywhere if they got ahead of Iowa. It was Bill Richardson."

Several people in the crowd snickered after Richardson made the comment.

"That was a little weird," said Sioux City resident Joe Shufro. "I don't know what God had to do with choosing Iowa among other states. I found that a little strange."

Other states have been jockeying to beat Iowa to hold the first presidential caucus. Many Democratic candidates have promised to skip campaigning in states that try to position themselves before Iowa.

Sioux City resident Jan Hodge agreed that Richardson's statement was odd.

"It's the kind of thing that would make me wince if, for instance, George Bush said it," Hodge said. "Richardson has the saving grace of not taking himself too seriously. It was one of those off-the-cuff remarks that can't be taken as seriously as the punsters will make it."

Much of the crowd that had gathered earlier to hear Hillary and Bill Clinton had left by 1 p.m. when Richardson took the stage. During a roughly 15-minute speech, he highlighted many of his key campaign points and professed his commitment to unions.

Part of Richardson's promises includes a goal to reduce the age for Medicare eligibility from 65 to 55.

Now that is a brilliant idea. Medicare will be insolvent in 2018 so the SOLUTION is to make it more available to more people sooner! Wow, why didn't I think of that! Ohh I know, cause I not a dumb ass!

The work place of tomorrow.

2007-08-28T15:35:00.001-05:00

I can't be the only shuck still taking flights on business trips am I?
Well maybe I guess.

Imagine a work world with no commute, no corporate headquarters and perhaps not even an office in the physical world at all.

For Bob Flavin, a computer scientist at IBM; Janet Hoffman, an executive at a management consulting firm; and Joseph Jaffe, a marketing entrepreneur, the future is already here.

"These days we do so much by teleconference it really doesn't matter where you are," Flavin said.

Like 42 percent of IBM's 350,000 employees, Flavin rarely comes in to an IBM office.

"We don't care where and how you get your work done," said Dan Pelino, general manager of IBM's global health care and life sciences business. "We care that you get your work done."

IBM says it saves $100 million a year in real estate costs because it doesn't need the offices.

Head to Work, in Cyberspace

On the day we met Flavin, he was collaborating with computer scientists in British Columbia and Beijing from the on-call room of the local ambulance corps where he works as a volunteer.

The work force at the Accenture management consulting firm is so mobile not even the CEO has an office with his name on the door.

With no corporate headquarters, if you need a work space, you reserve it like a hotel room — checking in and out at a kiosk.

"Having a big desk as a sign of status with lots of family photos and you know, carpeting that's fluffy and nice, that is a vision of the past," said Hoffman, executive vice president of Accenture.

In the future, more companies with scattered work forces and clients may do what the marketing firm Crayon is doing: making its headquarters in cyberspace.

Crayon's workers rarely meet in the physical world — some are in Boston, others are in Nutley, N.J. — but their online alter egos in the virtual world gather once a week.

We never met Crayon's CEO in person but we spent a couple of hours together in cyberspace.

"Our belief is if we bring like minds together no matter where they are in the world we can actually create that connectedness as if we're actually at the same place at the same time," said Jaffe, Crayon's CEO.

The future is rapidly approaching and the move towards a real true GLOBAL enterprise with action flowing and work being done on all levels around the globe is getting closer and closer. Great stuff.