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DON'T BELIEVE LYING LIBERALS!
LET ALL CONSERVATIVES PUT ASIDE THEIR DIFFERENCES AND BAND TOGETHER TO
STOP THIS TYRANNY IN D.C.!
Remember what Ben Franklin said:
"We must
hang together, gentlemen...else, we shall most assuredly hang
separately."
I am mad as hell about the oil crisis and not for reasons that most people are.
My anger was fueled when I was made aware of the true reasons oil prices are rising and America is being put in a crunch by its politicians. And how we COULD do something about it.
I was informed that, much like the diamond industry, oil-providing nations are holding back on the productions of oil to generate a price frenzy which is then spurred by speculation. That part makes sense to me,
What doesn’t make sense to me is how our politicians can let this happen when we have the resources here to prevent such a crises. In the case of the diamonds, it was obviously a limited market with resources and De Beers was able to capitalize on that. The original upheaval of the diamond market cost people their lives and caused political uproar.
People, just in case you are not aware, the cost of diamonds was driven up because they were made into a rare commodity. Therefore, the harder they were to get, the more they cost. With oil, foreign sources are making it more difficult to acquire a barrel of oil by driving the price up, therefore giving the impression that it is a precious commodity.
Question – how can it be a precious commodity when we have our own?We just have to get off our butts and develop it! When we have our own, foreign sources can’t out price us and we will be able to enter the world oil market, bypassing China, Venezuela and Mexico,
And, Mr. Governor of California – if we had taken care of it 5 years ago, we wouldn’t have to wait 5 years from now for the results of what we do now. Actually, if we had had the best interest of the United States in tow in the 70’s and 80’s, there would not be this problem now. We had a chance back then to free ourselves from the stronghold of foreign oil – obviously an unwelcome staple in our lives then and now.
I was always taught to take care of home first – Politicians, do you hear me???
As prices soar here in the US, we have a recourse. We can utilize our own resources to keep our country from being driven into the ground.
HELLO!!!???!!! Do I need to repeat myself. And guess what, it just might create jobs – spurring our economy. Developing our oil resources here in the US. And these are jobs that NAFTA can’t take to another country! NAFTA is a sore spot with me.
At what point will the politicians realize (if they haven’t already) that the astronomical oil prices will be the downfall of the US. When Americans are spending all their money on gas, there may be no turning back.
And, for those who are reading, do not comment back on gas prices and renewable energy when we know that petroleum production involves more than just gas. My argument here just involves gas. Don’t forget about the other parts to the car that utilize petroleum products and the other parts of our lives that utilize petroleum products.
Renewable energy cannot make that hood to the car and it cannot be used to mix with the pavement to make more stable roads. Renewable energy cannot make the tires for my car, my bicycle or your motorcycle. Petroleum products can. And guess what, we have those resources right here in the United States. Damn the caribou. And, pristine spaces can be maintained if it means giving up some land or water space for the salvation of our country. [Caribou, like the Spotted Owl adapt very readily to man made structures. This has been proven. ---ed]
Arnold needs to get a clue. Of course the lobbyist are having a good time with him. And, don’t get me started on Al Gore. Poor people UNITE!. He’s making millions off fueling your fears.
Let’s talk about global warming.
I only have one question – Does anyone have an almanac?
Did you know that polar bears swim up to 60 miles a day and that it is the law of the land that a huge numbers of species (plant and animal) only have limited numbers of days on this earth. Yes, we as humans do contribute to the pluses and minuses of our environment, but I guarantee you that everyone alive now, will NOT die from the effects of global warming any time soon and that your great-grand children will NOT be saying “Thank You, Grandma for hugging that tree for my benefit.”
Americans, get a clue! The quality of your lives is being threatened by the choices of a few with power who actually benefit either financially or politically from that is going on in our world today. And, getting you to rebel is what they want while they sit on their thrones and profit.
And, don’t get me started on terrorism….. I will say this, though. How can we expect to fix a problem that has been going on since BC (before Christ? And, how can we not recognize that if a true Muslim follows the dictates of the Koran, He has to kill me? [This is the belief of only 8% to 10% of Muslims. ---ed]
Huh?
Huh?
Let me end with this. I love my country. It has been the land of opportunity. That is why people break the law to get here. They want what my forefathers fought for. They want my future. But guess what? I want my future. too.
And as a card carrying American, I deserve it!
[Please welcome this new Contributor with your comments! Emphasis mine. ---ed]
The Second Amendment to the Constitution as written by our nation’s Founding Fathers states that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” James Madison, the author, praised “the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost any nation.”
A look at the history of gun control confirms their insight.
In 1911, Turkey established gun control; 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were exterminated.
In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control; more than 20 million dissidents were annihilated.
In 1935, China established gun control and 20 million political dissidents were slaughtered.
In 1938, Germany established gun control; 13 million Jews and others were killed.
In 1956, Cambodia established gun control; 1 million people exterminated.
In 1964, Guatemala established gun control; 100,000 Mayan Indians were killed.
In 1970, Uganda established gun control; 300,000 Christians were slaughtered.
Violent crime has increased in Australia, Canada, and Great Britain following adoption of legislation restricting firearms.
Contrast this with the fact that gun ownership of U.S. citizens is at an all-time high, and “right to carry” laws have been implemented in 40 states. Violent crimes have fallen dramatically.
The most flagrant exception to this trend is in Washington, D.C., the murder capital of the U.S., and New York City, where you have the most restrictive gun control laws in the country.
The Supreme Court finally got something right this week. Yes, the founding fathers knew exactly what they were doing when they wrote the Second Amendment. Here’s what they said:
Thomas Jefferson – Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants,” an admonition made possible by the right to bear arms of parity with those of the standing army. “On every occasion of Constitutional interpretation, let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying to force what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, instead let us conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”
Samuel Adams – The said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms.
Alexander Hamilton – If circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their rights and those of their fellow citizens.
Patrick Henry – The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun. Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.
George Mason – To disarm the people is the best and most effective way to enslave them.
Justice Joseph Story – Consider the right to keep and bear arms “the palladium of the liberties of the republic,” which enables the citizenry to deter tyranny.
James Madison – “The advantage of being armed, the Americans possess over the people of all other nations. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several Kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”
Noah Webster – “Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every Kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power.”
Benjamin Franklin – Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Richard Henry Lee, Senator – “A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves, and include all men capable of bearing arms.”
Presbyterians in America held a week-long conference this past week.
The meeting of Christians provided an opportunity for political radicals to continue their campaign against the Biblically-promised rebirth of Israel and the return of “His Chosen People” to “their Promised Land”.
The story is reported by the NY Sun in a piece headlined:
Presbyterian Church Proposals Could Reopen Wounds With Jews
“At least 19 Jewish organizations, ranging from Americans for Peace Now to the Zionist Organization of America, have spoken out against some of the so-called overtures to be debated at the week long biennial meeting of Presbyterians in America.” -more
So then, let’s have a look and see if we actually can try and find a way to cut back on the use of power from coal fired plants.
One of the problems you have with electricity is that it cannot be transmitted over vast distances, because the voltage diminishes and there is no way to bring it back up to the required level. It just has to be a constantly regulated set level, and cannot, just cannot vary from that level. to that end, you need power plants all over the place to supply the grid for that area. Even though the grid might stretch across the Continent, local plants supply power for the grid in that area, so the idea that you can cover a couple of thousand square miles of desert in Death Valley with trillions of mirrors to run the Country is not only impossible, and totally out of the question, it’s what makes electrical engineers burst out laughing. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE.
There are twelve States in the Midwest where, even though the population of some might be quite high, they are still a lot less populated than some of those larger and more populous States. The Electric power in those States is calculated pretty fine, so if you were to take out one large coal fired power plant in each of those States, that would mean taking those States into deficit, and the remaining plants just could not take up the slack, even connected to a large grid as they are. Also, they are out there in those ‘wide open spaces’ where, because it is such a vast size in actual area, then those coal fired plants are sparsely situated, so the emissions would be spread out over virtually half the US area and nowhere near as concentrated as they would be in the North East or on the West Coast in California. Those emissions would be quite an incidental and even secondary thing really, because in those States, that amount of power just could not be removed from the grid. It would result in complete breakdown of the whole system, and who would be the one to select who would have access to electrical power and who would be doing without, and in reality if anybody was to do without, then it most probably come from the residential sector, so commercial and industrial workplaces could still support actually having people at work, and if that sector was cut back, chaos would undoubtedly ensue.
The same would apply for those five States in the North East with tiny populations and small areas as well, not in the case of emissions, but the actual fact those States are most probably net importers of electrical power from those surrounding larger States.
So, here I have effectively taken 17 States out of the 50 mainland States, leaving 33 States. We now can see that those 50 coal fired power plants need to be decommissioned from those States.
The most important two things that need to be taken into account are baseload power, and the fact that baseload power is needed for the commercial and industrial sectors.
The two main arms of Government, the Federal and State Governments, need to take the lead here and to lead by example. Because their facilities are from the commercial and industrial sector, and they have control over huge budgets, then they are the ones that need to stand up and show the way.
As I said in a previous post, Combined Heating and Power (CHP) is an excellent replacement instead of running the facility straight off the power grid. The original outlay might seem to be large, but considering all things, it is not really all that big an imposition. Why I say that is that after a period of time, it will have paid for itself, because, generating your own power, you’re not connected to the grid, and paying the power provider for that power. All you will be paying for is the fuel element.
Had you watched the video I linked to in an earlier post regarding CHP, you would see that a major city in the UK, Bath, is already running with CHP, and currently, there is planning in train to slowly convert London to the same thing, and if it’s a feasible thing for London to be doing, then the same would also apply for major cities within the US. As with London, this is not something that can be accomplished overnight, but in the time limits talked about, this actually is something that can be achieved.
The Federal and State Governments can slowly convert their facilities to CHP, effectively removing those facilities from the grid. Working in concert with engineers, scientists and mathematicians, after a set number of State facilities, Federal facilities, or both, within that State have implemented CHP and removed themselves from the grid, then coal fired plants can start to be decommissioned. I’m not talking wholesale plant closures here, just one at a time for that State over the period it takes for those facilities to be converted to CHP.
Baseload plants will still need to kept on line for that residential sector and the existing commercial and industrial workplaces where it might be problematic, but the residential sector only consumes just more than one third of the total, so you’re looking at commercial and industrial enterprises here in the main. Then, every time a new commercial enterprise or an industrial complex is planned, it should be mandated that they produce all their own electricity requirements from CHP. Again, it becomes revenue neutral after a period of time, and that enterprise, be it commercial or industrial increases their bottom line because they are not paying an electric company for grid power.
When you think of it really, it sounds like it is too simple to believe, and some of you would say I have a sanguine outlook on it, but considering the alternatives, it actually IS a surprising solution. Read the rest of this entry »
The Straight Talk Express bus has become a symbol of my campaign’s openness, honesty and access – true democracy at work. Some of my favorite memories of the campaign so far are of riding on the Straight Talk Express across this great country, enjoying unscripted, spirited conversation about the issues with members of the press and other passengers. I believe voters deserve a close examination of our presidential candidates. This give-and-take of ideas is a true example of democracy in action.
I’d like to take the opportunity today to invite you to join me on the Straight Talk Express for a day of conversation and campaigning.
Our last “Ride the Bus” contest was such a success, we’ve decided to launch it again. As a token of my appreciation for your financial support, with any donation you make between today and next Monday at midnight, will qualify you to win a seat aboard the Straight Talk Express. I hope you’ll consider joining me by making a donation right away.
If I am given the great honor of serving as the next President of the United States, I will make certain that my administration is open and forthright about the issues facing this country, and I will keep this great conversation going that began on the Straight Talk Express.
I’ve said before that I’m running to be president of all Americans and the Straight Talk Express enables me to travel around our great country to meet directly with Americans to discuss their thoughts, ideas and concerns. We’re facing many great challenges as a nation, and I am running for President to solve these challenges through government reform.
I hope you will join my campaign for reform today and make a contribution before next Monday. Remember, with any donation you make you’ll be entered to win a trip aboard the Straight Talk Express for the day. Thank you, as always, for your tireless support.
Sincerely,
John McCain
P.S. I’ve never been afraid to do things a little differently on the campaign trail. I’ve never been afraid to hold town hall forums, engaging Americans in a discussion on the issues. My campaign bus, the Straight Talk Express, has taken me to every corner of our great country to meet with Americans who agree we need reform. Today, you have the chance to win a day with me on the Straight Talk Express. You will be entered to ride the bus with me by making a donation of any amount before next Monday. Please follow this link to enter today. Thank you.
John McCain 2008
P.O. Box 16118, Arlington, VA 22215
Phone: (703) 418-2008
“It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth-and listen to the song of that syren, till she transforms us into beasts.” -Patrick Henry
THE DEMO-GOGUES
Nothing like broken promises: “We’ve made the decision not to participate in the public-financing system for the general election. This means we’ll be forgoing more than $80 million in public funds during the final months of this election. It’s not an easy decision, especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections. The public financing of presidential elections as it exists today is broken, and we face opponents who have become masters at gaming this broken system. John McCain’s campaign and the Republican National Committee are fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs. We’ve already seen that he’s not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations.” -Barack Obama, taking the high road
Campaign victimitis: “We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black? He’s got a feisty wife.” -Barack Hussein Obama, who, speaking of race, happens to be half white
More victimitis: “I’m a victim of sexism myself all the time, but I just think it goes with the territory.” -the most powerful woman in America, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Speaking of heads in the sand: “The president has a tin ear to the voice of the American people. They spoke. He didn’t care. He has a blind eye to what’s happening on the ground in Iraq. He’s got his head in the sand. … It’s the main issue. Everything else is eclipsed by the war. All of our accomplishments are eclipsed by the war, because we didn’t end the war. And the war has an impact on other issues.” -Nancy Pelosi
DEZINFORMATSIA
Nailing Obama for his broken promise: “In late November, Obama responded to, and then signed, a questionnaire stating, ‘I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly-financed general election.’ John McCain… does have a political issue. Barack Obama has flip-flopped on public campaign financing.” -CNN’s Candy Crowley Defending Obama’s broken promise: “[Barack Obama is] opting out of the [public financing] system to have enough money to fight the unlimited spending and what he called the ‘smears’ from unregulated Republican-allied organizations.” -CBS’s Dean Reynolds
Race bait: “[Barack Obama] bluntly says Republicans will try to make an issue of his race… Have you ever heard him talk out on the campaign trail about race like this?” -CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to Candy Crowley **No! A Democrat would never make race an issue!
Gender bait: “[Y]ou’ve got some weak men on the conservative side who, frankly, don’t like strong women. I mean, we saw the exact same thing take place for Hillary Clinton back in 1992… All of a sudden… Michelle Obama is this angry black woman, when in fact, she’s an accomplished woman, a mother, a wife. And so, they are trying to define her in that way, because they don’t want to deal with the reality.” -CNN’s Roland Martin
From the Leftmedia sycophant files: “The most important reason [Al] Gore should be vice president is that he’s suffered and learned. He has the temperament some of us reach on our death beds. … If there’s anything we need to rescue us from the last eight years, it’s brains, good judgment and experience. Obama has the first two. Gore has all three.” -Bloomberg columnist Margaret Carlson
Keen Sense of the Obvious: “The conventional view that women embrace commitment more eagerly than men is playing out in the unconventional new world of same-sex matrimony, judging from the growing stack of marriage licenses in Sacramento County…60 percent of the same-sex newlyweds this week are lesbians and 40 percent are gay men. Among heterosexual couples-to no one’s surprise-the gender breakdown is 50-50.” -The Sacramento Bee
Newspulper Headlines:
We Blame George W. Bush: “Gerbil’s Escape >From Cage Blamed for Accident” -Associated Press
Thumbs Down on ‘An Inconvenient Truth’: “Gratuitous Gore Sells, but It’s Bad Filmmaking” -DeseretNews (Salt Lake City)
And They Said the Surge Wouldn’t Work: “Jobless Claims Decline by 5,000 Following Surge” -Associated Press
And if It Is, He’s in Big Trouble: “Iowa Flooding Could Be Man’s Fault, Experts Say” -MSNBC.com
Help Wanted: “Police Seek Trash Picker” -Grand Rapids (MI) Press
News You Can Use: “Locked Door Thwarts Robber” -Press-Register (Mobile, AL)
Bottom Stories of the Day: “Don’t Expect Gore on Campaign Trail” -Politico (Thanks to TheWall Street Journal’s James Taranto)
UPRIGHT
“When the terrorists attack again-as Homeland Security has repeatedly warned us they will-how many survivors will be consoled because the Supreme Court and the State Department looked out for the ‘rights’ of terrorists before the rights of their dead loved ones?” -Cal Thomas
“Obama would bring us back to September 10th America. And September 10th is sure to be followed by September 11th.” -Andrew McCarthy
As July 1 draws near, those in the highest ranks of the Executive Branch are bracing for word from the front office: “Where can you cut $X million so we can wrap up this budget?”
Schools, which face penalties if they do not adopt their budgets without knowing how much they will get from the state, are on the line for budget cuts. Senate Republicans cut by 41% the increase proposed by Gov. Ed Rendell, which was the only information schools had to create their budgets. State government faces no penalties for its repeated failures to enact budgets on time.
Human service programs, which are never adequately funded, pick and choose how long to extend waiting lists for services and how much longer staff who provide services can go without a raise. The highest state officials, including even the most useless of rank-and-file lawmakers, get a COLA every year. Yes, even when they repealed the pay raise, they made sure they would still get their COLA every December 1.
So the question, “Where can you cut…” has two significant parts. First, it’s a question that the legislative branch does not ask itself, and there’s no indication that the judicial branch does either. Second, if the legislative branch did ask that question, there may be no need to raid the Citizens’ Nest Egg (otherwise known as the Rainy Day Fund) or force cuts in education or vital services.
Where do we think we are today? It’s hard to tell. Budget talks are secret. But we know a few things:
The legislature has a $241.5 million surplus.
The Rainy Day Fund contains anywhere from $724 million to $875 million, depending on which news reports you believe.
This year’s state revenues have a surplus of about $200 million, down from original projections of about $450 million.
Earlier this year, Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Montgomery, released the latest report on the legislature’s surplus as chair of the Legislative Audit Advisory Commission. This commission, which consists of four lawmakers and four others appointed by lawmakers, has never issued an audit that measures up to professional auditing standards. So it’s safe to assume that $241.5 million is the minimum surplus, not the maximum.
At the time, Shapiro and others solemnly predicted that the legislature would give up some of its enormous surplus to support next year’s budget. Shapiro said the legislature should keep $80 million and use $160 million for a combination of tax cuts and health care programs.
Not to be outdone, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, and Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, also talked about using $75 million of the surplus for tax cuts.
Click here for a March story by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Brad Bumsted. Click here for the March 25, 2008 edition of DR News.
What were they thinking? Whatever it was, they haven’t been thinking of it since, and neither has anyone else.
Some are counting on the Rainy Day Fund to plug the hole of the lower-than-expected surplus from this year. House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans, D-Phila., proclaimed, “It’s raining in Pennsylvania.”
Questions: When is it going to rain in the General Assembly? How much will the legislature’s budget be? Will lawmakers cut their budgets, or will they feather their own nests with another unwarranted increase while raiding the Citizens’ Nest Egg?
Is it raining in PA (everywhere except in the legislature and the courts, of course) because rank-and-file lawmakers follow, without a word of dissent, their leaders’ tax-and-hoard practices?
Will citizens and the media get to see the budget with enough time to express their opinion about it? (Answer: No. It’s already too late. We should have been able to see it at least a week ago.)
Will rank-and-file lawmakers get to see the budget, or will they be forced once again to shut up and vote for something they haven’t had time to read and consider (with counsel from their constituents)?
Will any rank-and-file lawmakers have the nerve (dare we say integrity?) to stand up to their leaders and insist that they feel some of the citizens’ pain by surrendering their surplus?
Will any rank-and-file lawmakers vote to raise taxes, fees or debt without first surrendering their surplus?
I can understand particularly how readers in the US might bristle a little at some guy from far off Australia suggesting how they might be able to go about replacing their own coal fired powered plants, so I humbly apologise for doing that, but I want you to think about this.
All those doomsayers within the US have latched onto the cause, and not one of them has actually grasped just what it really means to those of us who will be the ones who will be the most affected. They will put on their serious face and point at receding polar ice caps, polar bears, and rising sea levels, and gloomily tell us just what is going to happen, but very few of them, if any at all, will tell you just what needs to be done, other than for those of us who live in those Western World Countries having to cut back on the production of greenhouse gases.
I didn’t want to repeat that error. What I wanted to do was to point out the consequences to everyman, and in so doing to actually try and find solutions.
However, as is always the case there is a sting in the tail. Well two stings actually, but I’ll get to them later.
I still want you to keep in mind those boring old things, statistics, because in this case, they do actually mean something.
Statistic 1. The pie chart for the US shows just a tad under 50% of the total power produced from the burning of coal, whilst for the rest of the Planet, that number sits at close to half as much again, 72%.
Statistic 2. If the Kyoto Protocol is to be implemented, there needs to be cutbacks in the US coal fired sector of 30%, or 15% of the total US power production, while the vast remainder of the Planet, called ‘Developing Countries’ by that erstwhile body, the UN, are immune from cutting back, just because they are developing Countries.
Statistic 3. 62% of the total US power is used by the Industrial and Commercial sector, the remaining 38% for the residential sector, and I don’t know about you guys there in the US, but if there are ever any problems with electrical supply, could you guess the sector where those brown outs and cutbacks will be felt the most. Ummm!!!!
So, I’ve said often enough that 50 huge baseload coal fired power plants will need to be decommissioned and replaced, so let’s look at that closely now.
This will not be something that one guy can draw up a plan for. Vast teams of engineers will have to work in concert across State borders to plan something like this. Luckily, there will be a time element in all of this. It won’t be that you wake up one morning and just turn off the switch. No, these plants can be decommissioned over time. Due to attrition rates, these plants will be slowly coming to the end of their licensed life span anyway, so these engineers, scientists, and mathematicians, will need to sit down and work out replacements, because this will be something that needs to be planned very, very, carefully, and in intricate detail. They will need to work in concert with town planners, and this is where politicians need to be brought to the table also.
Politicians know one thing. Politics. What you are going to need here are politicians with the actual will to implement what engineers tell them. First thing is that they need to be FORCED to actually understand what is needed, and WHY it is needed. Then they, as politicians, need to actually engage in a personal task of making the people understand why it is needed. This alone will be the hard part. Finding politicians with the actual WILL to do something like this. To make the hard decisions and then to stand by them. Not just give in to the political expedient. For this they will need engineering understanding, and to help with that, the media need to understand what is going on, and also why it is happening. All sides need to engage with each other, and not just reduce it to the lowest common political denominator.
What will also be needed is for people other than rabid environmentalists to take the lead. To come out and make the sorts of stands that those environmentalists do. For too long, these people have waited in the background, because the very second that they do come out and say something, those environmentalists shout them down, because it somehow disagrees with their agenda. These are the people whose message needs to be heard, because this is the way I see it. People are actually hungering for a reason to do the right thing, the good thing. When they see these environmentalists, it actually turns them off.
I have an opinion that if the correct and rational thought process was explained to the public, there would be a turn around in public opinion, because people would see the reasoning behind it, instead of seeing a bunch of noisy radicals pushing their own version of an unattainable utopia.
With a correctly managed campaign, people’s opinions will undoubtedly change.
This is the thing that we need to be doing right now. Starting a flat out media blitz of engineers and scientists telling people what needs to be done, and why we need to do it. Those years and years of environmental bullshit that concentrate on radical extremism have turned the public away from even listening to something like this. THAT is what needs to be turned around.
We need rational explanation of the ramifications, and solutions, not rampant scaremongering for the purpose of making a small clique very rich, when they rush around like Henny Penny saying that the sky is falling without offering solutions that people can actually identify with.
I’m just one voice swamped by those who will preach doom and gloom.
What is needed is engineers and scientists to band together and make a stand. Tell the people what they just have to hear. They need to get the media on side, not just for a thirty second sound bite, but for half hour slots on every channel in prime time for weeks, something that will just never happen.
If the people can start to see WHY we need to do this, then the politicians will actually come around.
I understand that this sounds like a bit of a rant from the soapbox, but if something isn’t done soon, it just becomes more difficult.
Not the doing part of it all, the telling of the people part of it.
I’m just back from 10 days in America, where I found that my uneasiness about Obama was shared by lots of folks that I met. But given the circles I was moving in I was picking up the vibes of the post midlife crisis crowd.
In the cartoon Mr. Shuldig makes a magnanimous, but insincere, suggestion that his nervousness might be related to his age.
So tell me, what’s your take on this feeling about Obama? and give us your age please.
If you don’t know what ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is all about, you better bone up. This left-wing group takes in 40 percent of its revenues from American taxpayers — you and me — and has leveraged nearly four decades of government subsidies to fund affiliates that promote the welfare state and undermine capitalism and self-reliance, some of which have been implicated in perpetuating illegal immigration and encouraging voter fraud. A new whistleblower report from the Consumer Rights League claims that Chicago-based ACORN has commingled public tax dollars with political projects.
Who in Washington will fight to ensure that your money isn’t being spent on these radical activities?
Don’t bother asking Barack Obama. He cut his ideological teeth working with ACORN as a “community organizer” and legal representative. Naturally, ACORN’s political action committee has warmly endorsed his presidential candidacy. ACORN head Maude Hurd gushes that Obama is the candidate who “best understands and can affect change on the issues ACORN cares about” — like ensuring their massive pipeline to your hard-earned money. Let’s take a closer look at the ACORN Obama knows.
Last July, ACORN settled the largest case of voter fraud in the history of Washington State. Seven ACORN workers had submitted nearly 2,000 bogus voter registration forms. According to case records, they flipped through phone books for names to use on the forms, including “Leon Spinks,” “Frekkie Magoal” and “Fruto Boy Crispila.” Three ACORN election hoaxers pleaded guilty in October. A King County prosecutor called ACORN’s criminal sabotage “an act of vandalism upon the voter rolls.”
The group’s vandalism on electoral integrity is systemic. ACORN has been implicated in similar voter fraud schemes in Missouri, Ohio and at least 12 other states. The Wall Street Journal noted: “In Ohio in 2004, a worker for one affiliate was given crack cocaine in exchange for fraudulent registrations that included underage voters, dead voters and pillars of the community named Mary Poppins, Dick Tracy and Jive Turkey. During a congressional hearing in Ohio in the aftermath of the 2004 election, officials from several counties in the state explained ACORN’s practice of dumping thousands of registration forms in their lap on the submission deadline, even though the forms had been collected months earlier.”
In March, Philadelphia elections officials accused the nonprofit advocacy group of filing fraudulent voter registrations in advance of the April 22nd Pennsylvania primary. The charges have been forwarded to the city district attorney’s office.
Under the guise of “consumer advocacy,” ACORN has received money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD funds hundreds, if not thousands, of left-wing “anti-poverty” groups across the country led by ACORN. Last October, HUD announced more than $44 million in new housing counseling grants to over 400 state and local efforts. The White House has increased funding for housing counseling by 150 percent since taking office in 2001, despite the role most of these recipients play as activist satellites of the Democratic Party. The AARP scored nearly $400,000 for training; the National Council of La Raza (“The Race”) scooped up more than $1.3 million; the National Urban League raked in nearly $1 million; and the ACORN Housing Corporation received more than $1.6 million.
As the Consumer Rights League points out in its new expose, the ACORN Housing Corporation has worked to obtain mortgages for illegal aliens in partnership with Citibank. It relies on undocumented income, “under the table” money, which may not be reported to the Internal Revenue Service. Moreover, the group’s “financial justice” operations attack lenders for “exotic” loans, while recommending 10-year interest-only loans (which deny equity to the buyer) and risky reverse mortgages. Whistleblower documents reveal internal discussions among the group that blur the lines between its tax-exempt housing work and its aggressive electioneering activities. The group appears to shake down corporate interests with relentless PR attacks, and then enters “no lobby” agreements with targeted corporations after receiving payment.
Republicans have largely looked the other way as ACORN has expanded its government-funded empire. But finally, a few conservative voices in Congress have called for investigation of the group’s apparent extortion schemes. This week, GOP Reps. Tom Feeney, Jeb Hensarling and Ed Royce called on Democrat Barney Frank, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, to convene a hearing to probe potential illegalities and abuse of taxpayer funds by ACORN’s management and minions alike.
Where does the candidate of Hope and Change — the candidate of Reform and New Politics — stand on the issue? Barack Obama, ACORN’s senator, is for more of the same old, same old subsidizing of far-left politics in the name of fighting for the poor while enriching ideological cronies. It’s the Chicago way.
Communist North Korea invaded South Korea, killing thousands.
General Douglas MacArthur was given command of the UN forces and after a daring landing of troops at Inchon, he recaptured the city of Seoul.
Political involvement prolonged the war, resulting in high casualties.
President Truman stated in his 1952 Christmas Message:
“Our hearts turn first of all to our brave men and women in Korea.
They are fighting and suffering and even dying that we may preserve the chance of peace in the world.”
President Truman continued: “Let us remember always to try to act…in the spirit of the Prince of Peace. He bore in His heart no hate and no malice-nothing but love for all mankind. We should…follow His example…
As we pray for our men and women in Korea…let us also pray for our enemies…Through Jesus Christ the world will yet be a better and a fairer place.”
To the Salvation Army, December 12, 1951, General Douglas MacArthur
said:
“History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline.
There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster.“
“[W]e are so going to kick your a__ this season…then we will be able to prosecute nut cases like you”
-E-mail From An Obama Supporter
I wish I could tell you that the above quote from an e-mail we received was an insolated incident… an aberration from some “nutcase.”
It’s not! IT’S TYPICAL of so much of the hate mail we receive!
But it ISN’T the hatefulness that makes it typical.
Two of the common themes that run through many of the hateful e-mails we receive are; an overt hatred of patriotism and Christianity, and a desire that there actually be LAWS against people who ask legitimate questions or tell the truth when it comes to Barack Hussein Obama!
Here are some more:
“[Y]ou are a racist. I wish there was a law to stop people like you.” [Emphasis Mine]
“I personally would like to see you keep your religious B.S. out of this.”
“Obama a Muslim. Yeah, right. Better probably than a fundamentalist, hypocritical Jesus-freak who is a probably a closet fascist…”
“I am covering www.exposeobama.com for the duration of the campaign for a prominent news organization anonymously, and will be researching all publicly available information about the authors of this website… Good luck, you’ll have personal background checks for yourselves.” [Emphasis Mine]
Our own Floyd Brown recently issued a challenge to the Obama campaign to CONDEMN this thuggery — thuggery that Obama has the power to STOP with a just a word from his campaign!
But instead of calling off the attack dogs, Obama reacted days later by REPUDIATING his earlier support of “public financing” for his campaign — and in the process rejected some $80 million dollars of “public money” — so he could raise a larger amount of “private money” in order to counter what his campaign called the “smears and attacks” against him.
And just who is he talking about? Whose influence is he trying to counter?
According to Politico.com:
“Pressed to name an independent effort, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs cited Floyd Brown, an obscure Republican operative who has produced Web videos attacking Obama’s religion and his record…”
That’s right! THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT YOU!
But that’s not all! The Obama campaign also published a highly misleading written wanted-poster of our own Floyd Brown on its website… an obvious attempt to telegraph to the minions that Floyd Brown is the man to go after.
It reads in part:
“Floyd Brown… once bragged he was part of the ‘the heart and soul of the right-wing conspiracy’ (sic) has a history of surfacing every four years to make right-wing attacks against Democrats in presidential elections. Most infamously, Brown was responsible for the racist 1988 ‘Willie Horton’ ad against Michael Dukakis. Brown harassed the Clintons throughout Bill Clinton’s administration…”
No… Obama isn’t calling off his attack dogs. He’s taking off the gloves!
Join us in this effort and we will send faxes from YOU to the Obama campaign and the editors of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune and The Wall Street Journal — newspapers with a combined circulation of over 9 million — DEMANDING that Obama condemn the thuggish behavior of his partisans.
Obama can’t have it both ways. He can’t say that he wants a clean campaign and then turn his back when people resort to threats and intimidation in his name. And as for the media; they have an obligation to stop distorting and start reporting. If Obama continues to allow surrogates to make threats and intimidation in his name, the media must report it!
Let me ask you a couple of questions:
Does this type of thuggery being committed in Obama’s name remind you of any other Leftist political movements of the 20th Century?
And is toleration of this type of thuggery and anti-Christian and anti-American bigotry an indication of what is yet to come?
When we announced the release of our latest ad — which asks a very simple yet legitimate question, “Was Barack Obama A Muslim” — Obama’s attack-dog minions and supporters obtained Floyd Brown’s home telephone number and deluged him AND HIS FAMILY with obscene and threatening phone calls.
Several more questions:
When you disagree with radical and misleading statements made by George Soros’ MoveOn.org, would you ever even remotely consider calling his home and threatening his family with violence and unspeakable acts?
Of course not!
Would you immediately CONDEMN any person who thought he or she was acting in your behalf and did such vile things?
Of course you would!
Would you act immediately to STOP or CONDEMN such vile acts being perpetrated in your name lest others reasonably accuse you of condoning those acts?
Of course you would!
So what’s STOPPING Barack Hussein Obama from CONDEMNING this thuggery going on in his name?
Obama could easily call upon his minions and supporters to stop. He could do it with a word. But he HASN’T!
Floyd Brown issued the following public challenge to the Obama campaign:
“I challenge Senator Obama to denounce the thuggish behavior of his partisans. Threats of violence and intimidation are not a mature response to any campaign advertisement. Senator Obama cannot say out of one side of his mouth he wants a clean campaign and then allow his people to threaten me to ‘watch my back.’”
Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Facility Pennsylvania.Image courtesy FirstEnergy Corp. Click on image to open in a larger window.
SOLEL Solar Thermal Plant Kramer Valley California.Image courtesy Alan Radecki is a Commons Image. Click on image to open in a larger window.
SOLUTIONS
In the previous post I mentioned statistics and economics with respect to actual comparisons. Sometimes things like that are greeted by disbelief, because no matter how logically the argument may be made, it just doesn’t sound quite right.
So to further emphasise the point, I’ve included two images here to accentuate the differences. It may look as if I’m making a case for Nuclear power at the expense of the others, but this is not the truth. The point I want to make with this is that cheap and endless power from the Sun is far from the truth that environmentalists sanguinely believe and then try to impress that belief upon us. What I try to do here is to place the actuality in front of your eyes, so that there is no doubt about it.
So, to the comparison.
That image on the left is the Nuclear Power facility at Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania. It produces power from two reactors, heating water to steam to drive a turbine and a generator for each reactor. The total Power produced is 1850 MW and the plant hums along day and night at 95% production, one unit since 1976, and the second since 1987. The plant has a licensed life of 40 years and that license can be extended. The facility can be closed at that time and refurbished possibly for a further twenty years or so. The plant is situated on 500 acres of land. Because it consistently produces this power, it can be used for baseload power.
The second image is that of the SOLEL plant in the Mojave Desert at Kramer Junction in California.
This plant works by focussing the Sun via usage of parabolic dished mirrors onto a central area. The mirrors are arranged in rows and along that focal point’s length runs a pipe carrying water. The Sun heats the water to steam which then runs a turbine to drive a generator. This is one version of a Solar Thermal plant. There are close to one million mirrors, and there are 5 separate areas shown in this one image. The total power produced here is 165MW. Why it has been placed here in the Mojave Desert is that here, there are 330 days in the year of full Sun, the ideal place for a plant of this nature. This plant covers an area of 1600 Acres. The Company, in its own description for the plant, state that the plant can be used for peaking power. It is licensed to produce power for Southern California Edison for 30 years, the expected lifetime of the mirrors, which as is their nature, are subject to breakage during their life and some images I have seen show just that.
The comparison here is that production of power. For the solar plant to produce a similar total, you would need between 11 and 12 of these similarly sized facilities, and they could still not be able to be used for baseload power. That would mean an area covered equating to 19200 Acres, or 30 square miles.
The cost for this equality would also be around the same ratio.
That is why Power Companies are not rushing into producing Solar power, because those costs would have to be passed onto the consumer.
NASA scientist James Hansen has again spoken how the burning of coal for electrical power is a major cause in production of greenhouse gases. As with everyone else, the realisation of just saying it is easier than the explaining the end result, and people read reports like this from credentialed Scientists and mistakenly get fixated upon the cause rather than the solution. Then the theory gets propounded that somehow coal will be okay if we capture the CO2 from the exhausts, and when a renowned Scientist says it like that, people again get the false impression that this is easy, and within reach when the theory is just that, a theory, and if proven is still close on thirty years away into the future.
If we so desperately need to replace coal fired power plants, just what do we replace them with?
Again I must stress that here we need to replace baseload power with baseload power, and where this is most important is for the sector that uses the greater percentage of that electricity, that being the Commercial and Industrial sector which uses 62% of the produced electricity within the US. If you really think about it, the remaining 38% of power used for residential purposes is in the main Peaking power, which is the spike first thing in the morning before everyone leaves for work and school, and then again at the time everyone gets home from work around the early evening.
Baseload power hums along all day for the sector where everyone works and Peaking power comes on line to top this up at those spike times. Baseload power is those really large plants that can by their very nature hum along all day every day for nigh on half a century and more. Peaking power is provided by all those smaller plants that can come on line for shorter periods.
Large baseload plants are mainly in three categories, Coal fired, which provide the bulk, Nuclear plants, and to a lesser extent Hydro electric plants. Those latter two, Nuclear and Hydro plants are in the main designed specifically to be baseload plants. There’s no such thing as a small nuclear plant that only comes on line for peaking power, because the nuclear reaction needs to be constant, so the plants are designed as large from the getgo. The same applies for the Hydro plants. I mean who ever heard of a small dam on a small creek to occasionally run up to speed. No, they are both designed big to run all the time as baseload power producers.
With coal fired plants, they can be designed large, medium and small, for baseload and peaking power. They are also small when used for Combined Heating and Power for individual uses in commercial and industrial use.
So what we have to do is to replace those huge coal fired power plants that supply in the region of 2000 MW or more, those plants that use 10,000 tons of coal on average each and every day, and what we have to do to comply with the recommendations laid out in the Kyoto Protocol is to close 50 of these huge coal fired power plants across the US.
Remember, you can only replace baseload with baseload. You cannot run those smaller plants at full speed continuously.
Now perhaps the enormity of the situation can be seen.
When Scientists explain the situation, they are limited by one thing, The Media Sound Bite. It has to be explained in the simplest possible manner in the shortest possible time, so when a Scientist is asked by the Media to explain the implications, all he has time to say, is we need to cut back on producing greenhouses gases and these are caused in the main by the burning of coal. That’s all he has time to say, and non technical, non scientific minds latch onto that 30 second sound bite and the simplicity of the whole thing gets perpetuated.
It is not that simple.
I was wondering if you could post and comment on either this short op-ed or the video on the Housing Bailout Bill provision for mandatory credit card transaction reports to the IRS from businesses.
This is a gross violation and overreaching of the Federal Government. Please help out!
Thanks so much!
Michael Mruk
Freedom Works
Ed, Wonderful! Yes, by all means, distribute the article and the video far and wide, telling taxpayers everywhere that now is the time to call your senators demanding that this Housing Bailout BillCANNOT be tolerated!
This Housing Bill is a moral hazard and contains provisions for finger-printing and credit card reporting to the Federal government!
Thank you for your assistance in helping to keep America free!
Michael Mruk Freedom Works
Senate Housing Bill Requires eBay, Amazon, Google, and All Credit Card Companies to Report Transactions to the Government
Broad, invasive provision touches nearly every aspect of American commerce.
Contact: Adam Brandon
Phone: 202-942-7612
Email: abrandon@freedomworks.org
Washington, DC - Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd’s 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping provision that affects the privacy and operation of nearly all of America’s small businesses. The provision, which was added by the bill’s managers without debate this week, would require the nation’s payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.
Call Congress and Tell Them to Oppose The eBay Reporting Provision in the Housing Bill: 1-866-928-3035
FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey commented: “This is a provision with astonishing reach, and it was slipped into the bill just this week. Not only does it affect nearly every credit card transaction in America, such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express, but the bill specifically targets payment systems like eBay’s PayPal, Amazon, and Google Checkout that are used by many small online businesses. The privacy implications for America’s small businesses are breathtaking.”
“Privacy groups like the Center for Democracy and Technology and small business organizations like the NFIB sharply criticized this idea when it first appeared earlier this year. What is the federal government’s purpose with this kind of detailed data? How will this database be secured, and who will have access? Many small proprietors use their Social Security number as their tax ID. How will their privacy be protected? What compliance costs will this impose on businesses? Why is Sen. Chris Dodd putting this provision in a housing bailout bill? The bill also includes the creation of a new national fingerprint registry for mortgage brokers.
“At a time when concerns about both identity theft and government spying are paramount, Congress wants to create a new honey pot of private data that includes Social Security numbers. This bill reduces privacy across America’s payment processing systems and treats every American small business or eBay power seller like a criminal on parole by requiring an unprecedented level of reporting to the federal government. This outrageous idea is another reason to delay the housing bailout legislation so that Senators and the public at large have time to examine its full implications.”
Payment Card and Third Party Network Information Reporting.
The proposal requires information reporting on payment card and third party network transactions.
Payment settlement entities, including merchant acquiring banks and third party settlement organizations, or third party payment facilitators acting on their behalf, will be required to report the annual gross amount of reportable transactions to the IRS and to the participating payee.
Reportable transactions include any payment card transaction and any third party network transaction.
Participating payees include persons who accept a payment card as payment and third party networks who accept payment from a third party settlement organization in settlement of transactions. A payment card means any card issued pursuant to an agreement or arrangement which provides for standards and mechanisms for settling the transactions. Use of an account number or other indicia associated with a payment card will be treated in the same manner as a payment card. A de minimis exception for transactions of $10,000 or less and 200 transactions or less applies to payments by third party settlement organizations. The proposal applies to returns for calendar years beginning after December 31, 2010. Back-up withholding provisions apply to amounts paid after December 31, 2011. This proposal is estimated to raise $9.802 billion over ten years.
Stop Senator Charles Grassley from Snooping on America!
Grassley plans to create a new government database that tracks businesses online sales. His law would require companies to report sensitive detailed information about millions of online purchases.
Help us stop Grassley from snooping on America. Keep the internet safe from big brother and Charles Grassley.
Indians along the Delaware River called themselves “Lenape,” meaning in Algonquin “the people,” and were in three clans: Turtle, Wolf and Turkey. William Penn, called “Miquon” meaning quill, and Turtle chief Tamanend made a peace treaty JUNE 23, 1683, under an elm tree in what was to be Philadelphia. The Peace Treaty with the peaceful Quakers lasted 70 years. In 1697, Tamanend’s last message before he died was “We and Christians of this river have always had a free roadway to one another, and though sometimes a tree has fallen cross the road, yet we have removed it again and kept the path clear.” During the French and Indian War, the Turkey clan attacked English settlers. In 1778, Turtle clan chief Gelelemend signed the first Indian treaty with the U.S. Government and later was converted to Christianity by German Moravian missionaries. The Wolf clan converted, being called Christian Munsee, but were mistakenly confused with hostile Indians and tragically many were killed. The Lenape Indians fled to Canada, Oklahoma and Kansas, where in 1861, John Henry Killbuck, great-grandson of Chief Gelelemend, was born. John attended the Moravian Seminary and in 1884 was one of the first Christian missionaries to the Yupik Indians in Alaska.
As oil prices continue their climb to new heights, the only remaining OPEC country able to increase production is feeling political and economic pressure to do so-although not in the way expected by Congress. Saudi Arabia will add another 500,000 barrels of daily output to raise its production to the kingdom’s highest level in 25 years, in an attempt to allay unrest and to continue its client countries’ economic growth so they will continue to purchase additional oil.
Left unsaid by the Saudis is that current oil prices have rekindled alternative-energy efforts, which eventually would destroy their oil market altogether. The major auto manufacturers are well along in their development of hydrogen and electric vehicles, and the cost of producing oil from shale located in the United States is about half the current cost of a barrel of oil. Some projections say that the U.S. has enough oil shale to meet its current needs for the next 400 years.
Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil is unloading its 800 company-owned gas stations in addition to 1,400 dealer-operated locations. While in 2007 American oil companies turned in an 8.3 percent profit (which is seven-tenths of a percent below the average for all U.S. manufacturing), Exxon’s divestiture is unlikely to affect oil and gas prices as the largest American oil and gas companies produce only three percent of global oil production and six percent of global refining capacity. Selling marginally unprofitable retail outlets will carry nowhere near the same price impact as drilling for more oil (such as in ANWR, which happens to be located merely 60 miles from the 15 billion barrels of oil already sent by Alaska through the pipeline in Prudhoe Bay).
The price of gas even has GOP presidential nominee John McCain reversing his stance on offshore drilling. Both he and President Bush have called on Congress to allow such drilling. (President Bush could start by rescinding his father’s executive order reinforcing the offshore drilling ban.) Unfortunately, this is the same Congress controlled by Democrats who are on record calling for the nationalization of oil companies and refineries. First it was Maxine Waters (S-CA), and now it’s Maurice Hinchey (S-NY): “We [the government] should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market.”
Speaking of refineries, the first such facility built in the U.S. since the 1970s is in the works in South Dakota. The refinery would process about 400,000 barrels per day of Canadian oil, meeting the combined demands of South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska.
This week’s Braying Jackass’ award
“[O]pening our coastlines to offshore drilling would take at least a decade to produce any oil at all, and the effect on gasoline prices would be negligible at best since America only has three percent of the world’s oil. It’s another example of short-term political posturing from Washington, not the long-term leadership we need to solve our dependence on oil.” -Barack Obama, kowtowing to his party’s environmental extremists at the expense of average Americans
Floods will raise food prices
Consumers worldwide can expect to pay more for staples-particularly corn-due to the recent devastating floods in the Midwest. This week, corn prices rose above $8 a bushel, reaching a new record high-and no immediate relief is in sight. Experts estimate that, in Iowa alone, floodwaters have destroyed over a million acres of corn and two million acres of soybean for total grain loss of 20 percent of the state’s production. Throughout the entire flooded area, as many as five million acres may be un-farmable.
While President Bush has promised to send federal dollars to the flood-stricken zone, and the House of Representatives has added $2 billion in aid to a spending bill for consideration, we’re wondering when the Democrats are going to propose a windfall-profits tax on farmers. After all, if such a tax on oil companies would result in lower gas prices, as the Democrats fantasize, wouldn’t the same be true for farmers and food prices?
Perhaps, in the end, even the Democrats don’t believe their own propaganda. More likely, however, they realize that targeting America’s hardworking farmers simply doesn’t have the same political appeal as beating down “Big Oil.”
Cheer up-it’s not that bad
Even The Washington Post can admit that the economy is not as bad as some would lead us to believe: “Ask Americans how the economy is doing, and their answer is stark: It’s not just bad, it’s run-for-the-hills terrible. Consumer confidence is at its lowest level in almost 30 years. Only 12 percent of Americans think the economy is in good shape. On the Internet, comparisons to the Great Depression are widespread. But the reality is different. According to most broad measures of how the economy is doing, it’s not all that grim.”
There are numerous reasons that Americans view the economy through dingy, tinted glasses, not least of which is the incessant drone of Leftmedia doomsaying. Additionally, it’s an election year in which Democrats threaten to win the White House and significantly increase their control of Congress, always a cause for depression. One obvious economic reason, however, is gas prices. As economist Michael Feroli points out, “If the unemployment rate goes from five to seven percent, that affects two percent of the population. If gas prices go up, almost 100 percent of the population feels terrible.” Keep in mind that the unemployment rate is 5.5 percent (five percent is considered full employment) and inflation is at 4.2 percent. Both are much lower than during other times of economic hardship in our history. Thus, in our view, the economic glass is half full.
Veritas vos Liberabit-Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot’s editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm’s way around the world, and for their families-especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday, a spokesman said. He was 71.
Before deciding on replacements, and then deciding on where they need to be constructed, let’s look at some of the economics, and I know that just by saying that, some readers will probably turn away, but if you ask me, this is not only interesting, it throws up some very surprising information.
First we need to look at efficiency, and this is very important no matter what those who lean in the environmental direction would like to tell you, because after all, if the Government, the Electric Authority or the Private Company find that the cost is just too great, then that process of construction will not even be commenced, no matter how loud the protestations might be. Altruism does not enter the environmental equation if the cost is too high. The reason for that is the howls of protest when the huge costs are passed on to the end consumer of the electricity. Even considering the process will be connected onto a grid consisting of power from numerous sources, those costs will still add to the end price of the electricity, and considerably so.
When you again look back at the pie chart for current sources of electricity, generation, you see that the one titled ‘Others’ produces only 3% of the total power in the US. This 3% is made up from five sources. Two of these sources make up just on half of the total, those being Wood (and wood derivatives) and waste (including gas generated from the landfill from household trash). The other three are from the three newer technologies, Geothermal, Wind and the two versions of Solar Power. (Photovoltaic panels, and solar thermal, both processes coming under the one heading, Solar.)
Of this 50 percent that Solar sector only makes up only 1.2% of that total, or 0.6% of the total production from all those other sources When extrapolated out to the total power production for the whole of the US, Solar power makes up just slightly more than one hundredth of one percent or 0.000125 of the total.
Why is that?
Because the technology is not yet perfected. What technology there is in existence right now is so costly that ramping up in this solar sector is just not viable. It can be done on small scales and even on a small scale the plants are extremely costly, cover a fairly large area, produce variable power and cannot yet be used to replace baseload power. There is the capability that they can be connected to the grid as one source among many, but for whole areas to be powered by solar power alone is still a long way off into the future. The use of solar power by focusing mirrors onto a collector, and then using this to heat salt to a molten stage, and then using this molten salt to boil water to produce steam to drive a turbine sounds a promising new direction, but again, the cost right now is astronomical when compared to the other processes, and so far it has not been used to produce the huge numbers needed for baseload power. Whether or not this process can in actual fact be made economically viable, that waits to be seen.
However, while the production of solar power is slowly increasing, and Geothermal power stays relatively constant, what is ramping up is the production of wind generated power. This alone has been effectively doubling every two years, and in forward estimates, there are as many plans for wind turbine power plants as there are for those combined cycle turbine plants using Natural Gas. This alone is what is driving that small segment of the overall power production pie chart to show an increase more than double in the US compared to the rest of the Planet.
The economics will be hotly debated by those who have interests in one camp or another, but when viewed dispassionately, numbers can show some surprising things.
It all depends upon efficiency, and I know I keep mentioning it, but this is a most important factor. Efficiency decrees if it can be used for baseload power.
A huge 2000MW coal fired power plant can hum along at close to 90% of its maximum nameplate capacity.
You can total up a number of solar panels in an array that have a total name plate capacity of 2000MW, but the killer thing here is that efficiency rating. Currently solar panels have an efficiency of close to 20% and that’s on the up side of conservative. What that means is to achieve the same amount of power as that coal fired plant, you’ll need five of these solar plants. The efficiency is creeping up, and so for this case here, I’ll quote on the upside of that efficiency and go for around 30%, an efficiency rate they have hopes of reaching within ten years or so. Using the latest state of the art technology as the plant powering Nellis AFB in Nevada, currently the largest solar array in the US, then it would require close on 31 million similar solar panels, and cover an area of nearly 100 square miles, and that is just to replace ONE large coal fired plant. The cost would also be prohibitive going on the Nellis cost, making this proposed replacement plant cost around $43 Billion.
As Presidential candidate Barack Obama banters about campaign rhetoric regarding the foreign policy of the United States, liberal pundits abound are hoping aboard the, “Let’s engage Iran” train. He noted in a recent campaign speech that the United States should shift its course by taking the following kinds of actions:
“Strong countries and strong presidents talk to their adversaries. That’s what. That’s what. Now that’s uh, what Kennedy did with Kruzchev. That’s what Regan did what Gorbechov. That’s what Nixon did with Mao. I mean think about it, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela…these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way that the Soviet Union posed a threat to us and yet we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, “We’re going to wipe you off the planet.” And ultimately, that direct engagement lead to a series of measure that helped prevent nuclear war and over time allowed the kind of opening that brought down the Berlin Wall. Now, that, that has to be the kind of approach that we take. We shouldn’t, you know, Iran they spend 1/100th of what we spend on the military. I mean, if Iran ever tried to pose a serious threat to us, they wouldn’t stand a chance and we should use that position of strength that we have, to be bold enough to go ahead and listen. That doesn’t mean that we agree with them on anything. We might not compromise on any issues but, at least we should find out, are there any areas of potential common interest and we can reduce some of the tensions that have caused us problems around the world.” [1]
This is not an original idea and everyone other than the anti-Iranian hardliners and the Israeli lobby in Washington D.C. seems to be on this band wagon. Even in the department of Defense with Secretary Gaites and Admiral Michael Mullen noted that the United States should engage Iran diplomatically. [2] In a recent 2008 article in Der Speigel, U.S. Senator Chuck Hegel noted something similar. [3] This idea has been bantered about by the Iraq study group and via the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. [4]. In this political climate few people are asking why this would be a good idea, and even fewer are screaming why this would be a bad idea. The Bush administration in the face of this has taken significant criticism from these same folks regarding the Iranian issue.
The United States has a terrible history with the government of Persia and any engagement with the United States will be viewed by hardliners in both countries with negative results. Given the 1953 CIA supported coupe codenamed: Ajax, [5] the Untied States was successful in toppling an Iranian government that was obsessed with building a regional war machine and was courting the Soviet Union for arms and weapons at the time when the fight for the free world was on. During that time frame the United States and Iran were engaged diplomatically and at the height of the cold-war our actions in Iran prevented Iran from becoming a Soviet State.
Recall, that Russia and England had invaded Iran only a few years earlier. It is in this context that most of what the United States, the U.K., China, Korea, and other states can view their dialogues with Iran. Iran sees diplomacy between these states as ‘international meddling’ in the interests of an Islamic and revolutionary Iran. State actions that limit the intent of Iran to influence other state entities in the region, such as those currently in Iraq, are not issues that the hard-liners who run the government in Tehran are very willing to negotiate on.
While Presidential candidate talks about engaging our adversaries in such a diplomatic way, please remember that it was the CIA’s actions not talk that created 30 years of pro-American government in former Persian empire in the last century. It was the efforts of Kermit Roosevelt that allowed the United States to have more influence in the region during that time frame than the United States. While there was talk after the fact, we should remember that it was talk following our actions.
Further examination of this notes that the government of Tehran is meddling in the affairs of its neighboring Muslim state, Iraq. The Iranian government has been training insurgents[6] to operate from Syria and Iran in Iraq that has created anything but political problems for the emerging democratic state. Iran is in large part responsible for the civil unrest in Iraq. While presidential candidates are quick to criticize the administration for not bringing enough security forces into the region, relating to the initial invasion, they are now espousing the doctrine of engagement. While the fledgling state of Iraq is engaging in diplomatic talks with its neighbors about curbing its influence, its supply of fighters, weapon and training, more Iraqis, Americans and their allies in the fight are dying.
Furthermore, the insurgents in Iraq are receiving money [7] and weapons[8] from the Iranian government. Some of this support is being funneled through Syria. A recent article notes that Iranian rockets were found in a U.S. military raid in the providence of Muhmudiyah. [9] This wasn’t a recent phenomenon either. In 2004, when Fox Company 2/24 Marines were in Iraq operating in the same providence, they discovered similar weapons cashes.[10]. When the Iranian government perceives that there is an opportunity to capitalize on in the region it takes action. Notice that the government of Iran is operating not from a position of engagement but in the training and equipment of Iraqi insurgents while presidential candidate Barack Omaba is arguing that we should talk with our adversaries.
Defending Obama’s broken promise: “[Barack Obama is] opting out of the [public financing] system to have enough money to fight the unlimited spending and what he called the ‘smears’ from unregulated Republican-allied organizations.” -CBS’s Dean Reynolds
“[W]e are so going to kick your a__ this season…then we will be able to prosecute nut cases like you” 
