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June 30, 2008
Defining Collectivism
Posted by Tina
As we head into the election season it would be smart to keep in mind the motivations behind the ideas and utterings of our progressive friends. I decided it might be of interest to consider the definition of a word. This is a word that is at the heart of progressive thought. It lays the foundation for progressive policy. Get to know this word so that when you hear the lovely promises of hope and change you will not be fooled by the pretty sounding words. The real objective is:
collectivism:
1 a : a politico-economic system characterized by collective control especially over production and distribution of goods and services in contrast to free enterprise *forces that have led to individualism have in the last fifty years been successfully opposed by the forces of collectivism— M.R.Cohen* b : extreme control of the economic, political, and social life of its subjects by an authoritarian state (as under communism or fascism) c : a doctrine or system that makes the group or the state actively responsible for the social and economic welfare of its members
2 : a social theory or doctrine that emphasizes the importance of the collective (as the society or state) in contrast to the individual and that tends to analyze society in terms of collective behavior
Pay attention as you hear the candidates speak of their plans for America...vote wisely in November.
Posted by Post Scripts at 11:06 PM | Comments (10)
NEWSFLASH
Posted by Tina
Chicago - Wheat plunged the most in 10 weeks after a government report showed U.S. growers seeded more acres with spring crops to take advantage of prices that rallied to a record this year. - AP
MORE WHEAT = LOWER PRICES
Gee, do you suppose it might work for oil?
Hmmmm…Meanwhile:
House Democrats will use a President Bush impersonator in a new radio advertising campaign that seeks to link 13 incumbent Republicans to rising gas prices as the country heads into the Fourth of July holiday. CNS News
Their claim is as phony as their ad's messenger.
Posted by Post Scripts at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)
Protesters – “Don’t Fence Me In!!”
Posted by Tina
by Tina Grazier
The Democrat Convention will be held in Denver this year. It’s entirely possible it will either become a spinning carnival act…or a riot zone. The feudin’ and fightin’ has apparently already begun:
“DNCprotests will be behind fence,” by Felisa Cardona – The Denver Post
The fence around the public demonstration zone outside the Democratic National Convention will be chicken wire or chain link, authorities revealed in U.S. District Court today. *** But the American Civil Liberties Union and several advocacy groups have filed an amended complaint to their lawsuit against the U.S. Secret Service and the city and county of Denver that says protestors and demonstrators may have their First Amendment rights violated by security restrictions. *** The ACLU has said it wants to avoid the conditions that existed during the 2004 convention in Boston, where protesters were caged, infuriating First Amendment advocates.
Democrats once again demonstrate their own incredibly hypocritical attitudes. Protest is good…“it’s free speech man”…apparently not! Not when Dem elites are the target.
Posted by Post Scripts at 04:24 PM | Comments (0)
Thank Them, Our Firefighting Heroes
Thanks is never enough but they might appreciate hearing it anyway.
Sang Kim with Butte County says Las Plumas High School and The Neighborhood Church in Chico will be closed as shelters. He says the two sites will remain on standby in the event that an immediate threat evacuation advisory is issued. *** Fire officials are asking that as July 4th approaches citizens exercise extra caution to prevent new fires. Citizens should be aware of any legal fire restrictions and regulations in their area. *** As a result of poor visibility due to smoke and the increased volume of emergency vehicles on the roadways citizens are asked to use diligence and caution when traveling throughout the affected areas. *** Officials would like to thank the residents for their continued cooperation and preparedness during this natural disaster. Residents should remain aware of the situation.
Fire Update courtesy of KPAY
Posted by Post Scripts at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)
Flame-Out!!
Breaking News...this just in from Nick Freitas: The ultra-new conflict resolution method known as "Flame Out" has been suggested to ensure a peaceful end to the current crisis in California
Several liberal activist groups have opposed "fighting" the fires. Apparently fighting is not the answer and will only perpetuate more "fire fighting". *** The groups have called for more dialog with the fires in order to arrive at a peaceful solution.
“Emergency Fire Conflict Resolutionists” are being jet-setted in by Al Gore who has generously agreed to shoulder the burden of carbon credit costs with Guvna Awnuld.
Special note to Nick, I've heard this program always brings firefighters home...is that true?
Posted by Post Scripts at 02:10 PM | Comments (5)
Governor Vetoes Pay Hikes!
Posted by Tina
Keep your eye on Bobby Jindal! He’s the very successful Republican governor of Louisiana who has gained the attention of his party in recent months by governing with courage, integrity and a steady conservative hand:
BATON ROUGE - Gov. Bobby Jindal announced today that he has vetoed the legislative pay raise. *** Lawmakers in the most recent session voted to raise their annual base salary from $16,800 to $37,500. The raise was to go into effect Tuesday. - Times-Picayune
Posted by Post Scripts at 10:49 AM | Comments (6)
June 29, 2008
Gun Rights Decision
Posted by Tina
As promised the following are excerpts from the opinion by Justice Scalia on the right to keep and bear arms:
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. DICK ANTHONY HELLER
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
JUSTICE SCALIA delivered the opinion of the Court.
We consider whether a District of Columbia prohibition on the possession of usable handguns in the home violates the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
The Second Amendment provides: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be
infringed.”
In interpreting this text, we are guided by the principle that “[t]he Constitution was written to be understood by the voters; its words and phrases were used in
their normal and ordinary as distinguished from technical meaning.”
United States v. Sprague, 282 U. S. 716, 731
(1931); see also Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, 188 (1824).
Normal meaning may of course include an idiomatic meaning, but it excludes secret or technical meanings that would not have been known to ordinary citizens in the
founding generation.
The two sides in this case have set out very different interpretations of the Amendment. Petitioners and today’s dissenting Justices believe that it protects only the
right to possess and carry a firearm in connection with militia service.
See Brief for Petitioners 11–12; post, at 1 (STEVENS, J., dissenting).
Respondent argues that it protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected
with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.
See Brief for Respondent 2–4.
The Second Amendment is naturally divided into two parts: its prefatory clause and its operative clause. The former does not limit the latter grammatically, but rather
announces a purpose. The Amendment could be rephrased, “Because a well regulated Militia is necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep
and bear Arms shall not be infringed.”
See J. Tiffany, A
Treatise on Government and Constitutional Law §585, p. 394 (1867); Brief for Professors of Linguistics and English as Amici Curiae 3 (hereinafter Linguists’ Brief).
Although this structure of the Second Amendment is unique in our Constitution, other legal documents of the founding era, particularly individual-rights provisions of
state constitutions, commonly included a prefatory statement of purpose.
See generally Volokh, The Commonplace Second Amendment, 73 N. Y. U. L. Rev. 793, 814–821 4 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER Opinion of the Court (1998).
Logic demands that there be a link between the stated purpose and the command. The Second Amendment would be nonsensical if it read, “A well regulated Militia,
being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to petition for redress of grievances shall not be infringed.”
1. Operative Clause.
a. “Right of the People.” The first salient feature of the operative clause is that it codifies a “right of the people.” The unamended Constitution and the Bill of Rights
use the phrase “right of the people” two other times, in the First Amendment’s Assembly-and-Petition Clause and in the Fourth Amendment’s Search-and-Seizure Clause. The
Ninth Amendment uses very similar terminology (“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by
the people”). All three of these instances unambiguously refer to individual rights, not “collective” rights, or rights that may be exercised only through participation in some
corporate body.5
Three provisions of the Constitution refer to “the people” in a context other than “rights”—the famous preamble (“We the people”), §2 of Article I (providing that “the people” will choose members of the House), and the Tenth Amendment (providing that those powers not given the Federal Government remain with “the States” or “the
people”). Those provisions arguably refer to “the people” acting collectively—but they deal with the exercise or reservation of powers, not rights. Nowhere else in the
Constitution does a “right” attributed to “the people” refer to anything other than an individual right.6
What is more, in all six other provisions of the Constitution that mention “the people,” the term unambiguously refers to all members of the political community, not an
unspecified subset.
b. “Keep and bear Arms.” We move now from the holder of the right—“the people”—to the substance of the right: “to keep and bear Arms.”
Before addressing the verbs “keep” and “bear,” we interpret their object: “Arms.” The 18th-century meaning is no different from the meaning today. The 1773 edition of
Samuel Johnson’s dictionary defined “arms” as “weapons of offence, or armour of defence.”
1 Dictionary of the English Language 107 (4th ed.) (hereinafter Johnson).Timothy Cunningham’s important 1771 legal dictionary defined “arms” as “any thing that a man wears for his defence, or takes into his hands, or useth in wrath to cast at or strike another.” 1 A New and Complete Law Dictionary (1771); see also N. Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828) (reprinted 1989) (hereinafter Webster) (similar).
The term was applied, then as now, to weapons that were not specifically designed for military use and were not employed in a military capacity. For instance, Cunningham’s
legal dictionary gave as an example of usage: “Servants and labourers shall use bows and arrows on Sundays, &c. and not bear other arms.”
Some have made the argument, bordering on the frivolous, that only those arms in existence in the 18th century are protected by the Second Amendment. We do not interpret constitutional rights that way. Just as the First Amendment protects modern forms of communications,
e.g., Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U. S. 844, 849 (1997), and the Fourth Amendment applies to modern forms of search, e.g., Kyllo v. United States, 533 U. S. 27,
35–36 (2001),
the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding.
We turn to the phrases “keep arms” and “bear arms.”
Johnson defined “keep” as, most relevantly, “[t]o retain; not to lose,” and “[t]o have in custody.” Johnson 1095.
Webster defined it as “[t]o hold; to retain in one’s power or possession.” No party has apprised us of an idiomatic meaning of “keep Arms.” Thus, the most natural reading
of “keep Arms” in the Second Amendment is to “have weapons.”
The phrase “keep arms” was not prevalent in the written documents of the founding period that we have found, but there are a few examples, all of which favor viewing
the right to “keep Arms” as an individual right unconnected with militia service. William Blackstone, for example, wrote that Catholics convicted of not attending service in the Church of England suffered certain penalties, one of which was that they were not permitted to “keep arms in their houses.”
At the time of the founding, as now, to “bear” meant to “carry.”
See Johnson 161; Webster; T. Sheridan, A Complete Dictionary of the English Language (1796); 2 Oxford English Dictionary 20 (2d ed. 1989) (hereinafter Oxford).
When used with “arms,” however, the term has a meaning that refers to carrying for a particular purpose—confrontation. In Muscarello v. United States, 524 U. S. 125 (1998), in the course of analyzing the meaning of “carries a firearm” in a federal criminal statute, JUSTICE GINSBURG wrote that “[s]urely a most familiar meaning is, as the Constitution’s Second Amendment . . . indicate[s]: ‘wear, bear, or carry . . . upon the person or in the clothing or in a pocket, for the purpose . . . of being armed and
ready for offensive or defensive action in a case of conflict with another person.’ ”
We think that JUSTICE GINSBURG accurately captured the natural meaning of “bear arms.” Although the phrase implies that the carrying of the weapon is for the purpose
of “offensive or defensive action,” it in no way connotes participation in a structured military organization. From our review of founding-era sources, we conclude
that this natural meaning was also the meaning that “bear arms” had in the 18th century. In numerous instances, “bear arms” was unambiguously used to refer to the carrying of weapons outside of an organized militia. The most prominent examples are those most relevant to the Second Amendment: Nine state constitutional provisions written in the 18th century or the first two decades of the 19th, which enshrined a right of citizens to “bear arms in defense of themselves and the state” or “bear arms in defense of himself and the state.” 8 It is clear from those formulations that “bear arms” did not refer only to carrying a weapon in an organized military unit. Justice James Wilson interpreted the Pennsylvania Constitution’s armsbearing right, for example, as a recognition of the natural right of defense “of one’s person or house”—what he called the law of “self preservation.”
The phrase “bear Arms” also had at the time of the founding an idiomatic meaning that was significantly different from its natural meaning: “to serve as a soldier, do military service, fight” or “to wage war.”
See Linguists’ Brief 18; post, at 11 (STEVENS, J., dissenting).
But it unequivocally bore that idiomatic meaning only when followed by the preposition “against,” which was in turn followed by the target of the hostilities.
See 2 Oxford 21.
(That is how, for example, our Declaration of Independence 28, used the phrase: “He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms
against their Country . . . .”) Every example given by petitioners’ amici for the idiomatic meaning of “bear arms”
In any event, the meaning of “bear arms” that petitioners and JUSTICE STEVENS propose is not even the (sometimes) idiomatic meaning. Rather, they manufacture a
hybrid definition, whereby “bear arms” connotes the actual carrying of arms (and therefore is not really an idiom) but only in the service of an organized militia. No
dictionary has ever adopted that definition, and we have been apprised of no source that indicates that it carried that meaning at the time of the founding. But it is easy
to see why petitioners and the dissent are driven to the hybrid definition. Giving “bear Arms” its idiomatic meaning would cause the protected right to consist of the right
to be a soldier or to wage war—an absurdity that no commentator has ever endorsed.
See L. Levy, Origins of the Bill of Rights 135 (1999).
Worse still, the phrase “keep and bear Arms” would be incoherent. The word “Arms” would have two different meanings at once: “weapons” (as the object of “keep”) and (as the object of “bear”) one-half of an idiom. It would be rather like saying “He filled and kicked the bucket” to mean “He filled the bucket and died.” Grotesque
On that note…if you are still with me dear reader, I encourage you to search out the full 64 page brief…we have posted interesting excerpts only…and only up to page 12.
I also reformated to make it easier to read.
Posted by Post Scripts at 12:01 AM | Comments (2)
June 28, 2008
Millionaires Amendment Struck Down
Posted by Tina
“Justices for Free Speech” Wall Street Journal
In Davis v. FEC, a 5-4 majority overturned a portion of the 2002 McCain-Feingold law that exempted the political opponents of rich candidates from the usual fund-raising limits in order to "level the playing field. ** Millionaires had to report expenditures within 24 hours, while their opponents were allowed greater coordination with political parties and could raise three times the usual $2,300 limit on individual contributions. ** Reformers justify the special rules for millionaires by crying fairness – an argument that Justice Samuel Alito dispatched in his majority opinion. ** "The argument that a candidate's speech may be restricted in order to 'level electoral opportunities' has ominous implications," he wrote, and is "antithetical to the First Amendment." ** If Congress can massage the rules to level the playing field for candidates of differing personal means, what's to stop Congress from doing it for other reasons and in other ways? Some candidates are celebrities, others have famous political names, and still others may be adored by the local newspaper. Should Congress level the field for their opponents too? No prior Court opinions, Justice Alito added, support the notion that reducing the "natural advantage" of rich candidates is a legitimate government objective.
Posted by Post Scripts at 09:24 PM | Comments (2)
Winning Political Strategy, Just Ask “The People”
Posted by Tina
Wow!!!
Polls usually don’t impress me all that much. Although the thought that they are sometimes (often!) used to drive the news can be troubling. The results of this poll, however, knocked my socks off…because...the numbers are staggering:
As the GOP in Congress appears about to be taking an "every man for himself" strategy for the fall elections, Gallup has just given the Republicans another gift (Americans Oppose Income Redistribution to Fix Economy). (Snip) The numbers in this poll are staggering. Overall, Americans are against the core principle behind Barack Obama's domestic economic policy -- income redistribution -- by an astounding 84% to 13%. Republicans oppose it 90%-9%, Independents oppose it 85% to 13%, and even Democrats oppose it 77% to 19%. ** To give you an idea of how important even Gallup thinks this poll is, the explanatory narrative that goes along with the results were written by Dennis Jacobe, Gallup's Chief Economist: PRINCETON, NJ -- When given a choice about how government should address the numerous economic difficulties facing today's consumer, Americans overwhelmingly -- by 84% to 13% -- prefer that the government focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation in the United States as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth more evenly among Americans.
Note: Gallup has been the favorite pollster of the Dem Party for decades according to Mr. Casey.
Posted by Post Scripts at 04:28 PM | Comments (6)
Debunking Leftist Security Lies
Posted by Tina
I hope you’ll take a gander at the following story in the New York Post. I’ve posted one of the lies and rebuttals just ‘cause it’s so darned good!
“Liars Round-up on Security, Facts Matter,” by Ralph Peters
Whopper No. 6: As president, Barack Obama would bring positive change to our foreign policy - and John McCain's too old to get it. ** Hmm: Take a gander at Obama's senior foreign-policy advisers: Madeleine Albright (71), Warren Christopher (82), Anthony Lake (69), Lee Hamilton (77), Richard Clarke (57) . . .If you added up their ages and fed the number into a time-machine, you'd land in Europe in the middle of the Black Death. ** More important: These are the people whose watch saw the first attack on the World Trade Center, Mogadishu, Rwanda, the Srebrenica massacre, a pass for the Russians on Chechnya, the Khobar Towers bombing, the attacks on our embassies in Africa, the near-sinking of the USS Cole - oh, and the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. ** Their legacy climaxed on 9/11. You couldn't assemble a team in Washington with more strategic failures to its credit.
Posted by Post Scripts at 04:19 PM | Comments (9)
Hello From Fire Central
by Jack Lee
Today was the lull between the storms for me. There was the rush to get mobilized and prepare to fight the existing fires and then there is the anticipated fires due soon if we have more lightning strikes. Because of this brief down time my C/O just advised me I have about 20 hours leave…. effective immediately! After a quick debriefing I made a bee-line back to my home in Chico and right into more smoke!
I've been in Sacramento working on “Operation Lightning Strike”, which represents the sum of the California forest fires and it’s been, well, …intense. My duty station is in the National Guard Joint Forces Headquarters and although I’ve only been on active duty for 4+ days it sure seems longer since I’ve been working 12 on and 12 off which really is more like 15-16 hours “on”... by the time you ad in all the briefings and prep time.
Unfortunately, some of our best fire fighting weapons, like tanker drops, have been restrained by a warm air inversion that has caused this throat burning layer of thick smoke that seems to be covering most of the state. We can't use the air units when visibility is so severely limited. This has impacted a portion of the ground crews in some areas too who can't access remote areas safely without backup from air support.
Downstairs from our office is the JOC which is the Joint Operations Command and this is a real high tech war room with illuminated maps, massive TV screens, rows of computers and lots of satellite equipment. The short version of what they do goes like this, they use the fire intel to communicate with various commands to get the right resources to where they will do the most good. Sounds simple, but it’s not.
Back on my side at mobilization, we're processing in a fairly steady flow of soldiers coming from as far away as Southern California and Nevada. I ran into four guys from Chico yesterday who were on their way to the OES building about 4 blocks away and then they were heading to a fire line.
I've got to tell you this one personal story. This is about a young man who just enlisted... his first day in uniform was about 16 hours long because of the fire emergency. Since then he has been pulling shifts every day. I've been using him as assistant for our in IN-MOB section. Between the rush of incoming personnel and the quiet times I have been giving him a crash course on military protocols. Yesterday I asked him how he liked it so far and his reply was a genuine, "I love it!" Then he was grabbed by another unit who needed his civilian job expertise. the poor guy had to leave so fast he left with only the uniform on his back. But, don't worry, we’ll take care of him.
I mention this soldier's story not because his attitude was so motivated and exceptional, but more because it isn't. This is just the typical kind can-do attitude you're likely to find around here. I don't want to turn this into a sappy recruiting ad, but hey, if you are interested... we're looking for a few more good men and women. Or there's always the Red Cross, they need volunteers too.
You might want to check this out.
I'm not sure when I will be able to check in again, so I better wish you a happy and safe 4th of July now while I can. Oh, and when you see those fire trucks or our soldiers headed to the fire line, please give em a wave, it will be much appreciated.
Posted by Post Scripts at 04:19 PM | Comments (3)
June 27, 2008
Phil Gramm on CEO Remuneration
Posted by Tina
"When you help a company raise capital, to put its idea to work, and you create jobs, those jobs are the best housing program, education program, nutrition program, health program ever created.
Phil Gramm was my number one choice for president way back when he was running against Bob Dole in the Republican primary race. He dropped out shortly after tsomeone (left media) made a bigoted remark about his wife. I don’t know if that had anything to do with his decision to leave the rae but I wouldn’t blame him if it did…who needs that? He’s been away from politics for awhile but now he’s got his toe back in the water as an economic advisor to John McCain. I’ve missed him on the political scene; he has an amusing way of explaining serious economic matters.
CEO pay is one of those things few of us understand and too many of us have a hissy over on a regular basis. Mr. Gramm gives justification a shot in the following excerpt from an article in The Wall Street Journal. Go ahead…slap a smile on your face and prepare to expand your mind:
”Phil Gramm The Return of Dr. No,” by Stephen Moore – Wall Street Journal
Most of his former colleagues probably can't fathom why Wall Street bankers make tens of millions of dollars in salaries and bonuses each year. How would he justify these fat pay days? "It's simple," he lectures, sounding very much like the Texas A&M economics professor that he was in the 1970s: "In economics, we define labor exploitation as paying people less than their marginal value product. I recently told Ed Whitacre [former CEO of AT&T, who retired with a $158 million pay package] he was probably the most exploited worker in American history because he took Southwestern Bell, which was the smallest of the former Bell companies, and he turned it into the dominant phone company on earth. His severance package should have been billions." ** Mr. Gramm says that today there is "a lucrative premium for talent. When we were all hunters and gatherers, and you were better with a bow and arrow than I was, there were limits on how much more game you could kill than me. Today, CEO decisions about whether to acquire or not acquire a company, to shut down one part of the company or not shut it down, get into a market, get out of a market, where those decisions mean billions of dollars, is it surprising that people are willing to pay tremendous amounts of money for people who make those decisions right?" ** So what if a President Barack Obama were to impose 50% or 60% tax rates on these CEOs and other big earners? Mr. Gramm pounces: "When you help a company raise capital, to put its idea to work, and you create jobs, those jobs are the best housing program, education program, nutrition program, health program ever created. Look, if a man in one lifetime is responsible for creating 100 real jobs, permanent jobs, then he's done more than most do-gooders have ever achieved."
AMEN to that! People on the left say this all the time...they use a favorite aphorism":
Give a man a fish and you feed him for one day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
CEO's create a lot of opportunity for many men and women to feed themselves and their families. They deserve to be well compensated for this enourmous contribution to society.
Posted by Post Scripts at 09:49 PM | Comments (24)
June 26, 2008
Your English Teacher was Right – Knowledge and Use of the Language Matters
Ultimately, it is only the public that holds the power to enforce professional standards, and therefore each of us must accept this responsibility. - James Kerian
by Tina Grazier
Today as I pondered the latest Supreme Court decisions I was acutely aware of the importance of language and communication. I considered the great care taken by our founders to get each and every word, phrase, and punctuation mark exactly right so that the meaning would be clear. They did not run from debate and they did not affix their signatures until all could agree that the document was solid, resolute, defensible, and complete. Our Constitution was written by men with a profound respect for the written word. It has been lauded around the world for its greatness. Still, today, we find that Supreme Court Justices cannot agree on it’s meaning. I submit that the problem isn’t with the Constitution but with the layers of complex, often conflicting laws that confound and frustrate even the most highly educated men. Our laws, lacking in simplicity and clarity, have become unmanageable things, sometimes so complex that we find they contradict each other. It could be said that our laws have failed to serve us to the degree that lawmakers have failed to retain a similar healthy respect for the language.
But it isn’t lawmakers alone that participate in this colossal failure.
Language is used to educate our children and prepare young people to become responsible adults as they take their places in society. The failures in education have touched every area of society: business and the arts, science and the law, even the service we get from fast food workers and retailers. Likewise, language is used every day to bring information and facts to the American people through the media. A population that has not been adequately informed will fail to bring pressures to bear on elected officials that spring from a sense of clarity.
A revolution has been occurring in our nation; a revolution gaining in strength but facing fierce opposition. It is a revolution to reclaim the English language and to create healthy expectations for excellence in the use of our language. We wish to effect every area of our society but specifically in education, the writing of law and its interpretation, and in journalism.
A very fine and informative article helped to inspire these thoughts tonight. It was written by a mechanical engineer and small business owner living in Grafton, North Dakota. The quote at the top of the page, taken from the article, serves as a call to arms. The article touches on the effects that irresoinsible and inaccurate use of language has had on journalism and our society and the fact that it has now spread to the world of science. Those of you who are interested in the destruction that follows the loss of our language, a condition that permeates our society, will want to read “Yellow Science,” by James Kerian posted in The Wall Street Journal:
In the late 19th century, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer developed what would come to be known as yellow journalism. By disregarding what had been standard journalistic methods, particularly in regards to the verifying of sources, these two publishers were able both to push their country toward war with Spain and dramatically increase the circulation of their respective newspapers. ** Man has always had a healthy desire for knowledge, and it is the feeding of this hunger that ennobles journalism. Hearst and Pulitzer were acutely aware that man has a less healthy but no less voracious desire to believe that he has knowledge, particularly knowledge of something sensational. It is the feeding of this hunger that irreparably disgraced journalism, and a century later now threatens to do the same to science.
Posted by Post Scripts at 10:27 PM | Comments (10)
And He Didn’t Even Need a Gun
Posted by Tina
A criminal, is a criminal, is a criminal, is a criminal…get it?
YPSILANTI, Mich. - Police said an Ypsilanti man is accused of stabbing his mother with a fork and hitting another woman over the head with a frozen chicken. Frederick McKaney, 40, was arraigned in a Jackson courtroom on Thursday on two felony assault charges, one count of assault and battery and one count of resisting an officer. "He stabbed his mother in the back of the neck when she refused to give him money, and then, an hour later, he attacked a neighbor woman with a chicken," Jackson County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Mark Blumer told... - WDIV-TV Detroit
Posted by Post Scripts at 04:44 PM | Comments (2)
The Bad News & The Lie
by Tina Grazier
If you buy into this legislative bologna you deserve to pay through the nose:
"California's next great experiment starts today. The state Air Resources Board will outline this morning a plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2020 and prepare the state for much deeper cuts in the years beyond."
That’s the bad news…meddling will bring nothing productive and it will punish the public, including the poor, unmercifully. (The ongoing fires this year will set us back before we start).
"The bottom line for consumers, according to the agency's analysis: Electricity and fuel prices will rise. But improvements in efficiency should, on average, result in a net savings on household fuel and energy bills will drop."
Oh yeah…sure…and there’s the lie.
(quotes from The Sacramento Bee)
Posted by Post Scripts at 04:37 PM | Comments (3)
Uh Oh…There goes That “Falling Sky” Again
Posted by Tina
Imagine the damage…the pollution…the horror…the climate change…oh nooooooooo
The Arctic seabed is as explosive geologically as it is politically judging by the ''fountains'' of gas and molten lava that have been blasting out of underwater volcanoes near the North Pole. ** They returned with images and data showing that red-hot magma has been rising from deep inside the earth and blown the tops off dozens of submarine volcanoes, four kilometres below the ice. ''Jets or fountains of material were probably blasted one, maybe even two, kilometres up into the water,'' says geophysicist Robert Sohn of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution... CanWest News Service
Human beings and the "footprints" we leave are so incredibly insignificant...think about it.
Posted by Post Scripts at 04:33 PM | Comments (3)
Abortion – The Systematic Destruction of Innocent Human Life
by Nick Freitas
I pray that one day our youth will look back on these times the way we looked back on slavery. Astounded that there was ever a time when such a barbaric practice was ever accepted much less encouraged.
Our modern progressive friends will have some answering to do for this.
It has to be the most logically, moral and intellectually bankrupt position of our time.
And I challenge all of our local progressives to debate me on the scientific, legal, and morale points made in that statement.
Because after years of debating this, I have come to find, that those who support it have no intellectually supportable reason for their position.
Please...PLEASE, someone challenge me on this topic, and we will get to work!
I’ll even be nice, and put the sarcasm on hold for the usual suspects, if they are willing to honestly debate this issue.
Posted by Post Scripts at 03:37 PM | Comments (22)
President or King of the World?
Barack Obama has sponsered a “global” bill in the U.S. Senate to be administrated through the U.N. and funded by U.S. taxpayers to the tune of $8,000,000,000.00
Posted by Tina Grazier
Thank God for The American Thinker, we can’t count on the media to warn taxpayers about this. The bill states the following:
"To require the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the [U.N.] Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day."
Obama’s Opinion (from his wesite):
"With billions of people living on just dollars a day around the world, global poverty remains one of the greatest challenges and tragedies the international community faces," said Senator Obama. "It must be a priority of American foreign policy to commit to eliminating extreme poverty and ensuring every child has food, shelter, and clean drinking water. As we strive to rebuild America's standing in the world, this important bill will demonstrate our promise and commitment to those in the developing world. Our commitment to the global economy must extend beyond trade agreements that are more about increasing corporate profits than about helping workers and small farmers everywhere."
Previously passed in the house, The Senate bill will be up for a vote after the July recess:
“Obama’s Global TaxBill Coming Soon,” by Lee Cary – The American Thinker
The Global Poverty Act of 2007 (S.2433) is coming up for a Senate vote sometime after the July 4 recess, according the office of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Once Harry Reid and the Democrat leadership put it on the calendar, we could have as little as a week to prepare for the vote. ** The bill is sponsored in the Senate by Barack Obama. If passed, it will cost taxpayers $845,000,000,000 over the next 13 years, in addition to our current foreign aid expenditures.
The Democrat "War on Poverty" hasn't eliminated poverty in America in over 50 years. What makes them think this bill has a prayer of making worldwide poverty dissapear? More of our money tossed in the toilet to be wasted, or worse, stolen by bureaucrats as it was in the U.N. "Oil for Food" program.
Posted by Post Scripts at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)
"Individual Right"? ...YES!!
Posted by Tina
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms...shall not be infringed!"
strong>WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Washington D.C.'s sweeping ban on handguns is unconstitutional. The justices voted 5-4 against the ban with Justice Antonin Scalia writing the opinion for the majority. At issue in District of Columbia v. Heller was whether the city's ban violated the Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms" by preventing individuals -- as opposed to state militias -- from having guns in their homes. - CNN
Posted by Post Scripts at 08:44 AM | Comments (8)
Amnesty Leaves Something Out
Posted by Tina
Amnesty International USA brought a life-sized replica of a Guantanamo Bay prison cell to Washington on Wednesday. But amenities provided to prisoners -- bedding, toiletries, a copy of the Koran and three meals a day -- were nowhere mentioned. AIUSA says it timed its Washington, D.C., stop -- part of a national tour -- to coincide with a House Judiciary subcommittee's hearing on harsh interrogation techniques. – CNSNews
TYPICAL!
Posted by Post Scripts at 08:40 AM | Comments (0)
June 25, 2008
Good For Obama… & McCain
Posted by Tina
Notice who gets the headline in the AP article:
“Obama disagrees with high court on child rape case,” by SaraKuglar - AP
"I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in very narrow circumstances for the most egregious of crimes," Obama said at a news conference. "I think that the rape of a small child, 6 or 8 years old, is a heinous crime and if a state makes a decision that under narrow, limited, well-defined circumstances the death penalty is at least potentially applicable, that that does not violate our Constitution." - Barack Obama
(It’s) "an assault on law enforcement's efforts to punish these heinous felons for the most despicable crime." ** "That there is a judge anywhere in America who does not believe that the rape of a child represents the most heinous of crimes, which is deserving of the most serious of punishments, is profoundly disturbing," McCain said in a statement. - John McCain
Posted by Post Scripts at 10:36 PM | Comments (10)
Canada’s "Healthcare Architect" Has a Warning for America
Posted by Tina
Back in the 1960s, (Claude) Castonguay chaired a Canadian government committee studying health reform and recommended that his home province of Quebec — then the largest and most affluent in the country — adopt government-administered health care, covering all citizens through tax levies. ** Four decades later, as the chairman of a government committee reviewing Quebec health care this year, Castonguay concluded that the system is in "crisis." ** "We thought we could resolve the system's problems by rationing services or injecting massive amounts of new money into it," says Castonguay. But now he prescribes a radical overhaul: "We are proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice." ** Castonguay advocates contracting out services to the private sector, going so far as suggesting that public hospitals rent space during off-hours to entrepreneurial doctors. He supports co-pays for patients who want to see physicians. Castonguay, the man who championed public health insurance in Canada, now urges for the legalization of private health insurance.
IBD Editorial writer David Gratzer, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a physician licensed in both the U.S. and Canada, has written a book: "The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care," now available in paperback.
Posted by Post Scripts at 09:21 PM | Comments (0)
A Case of Betrayal & Bad Manners
Posted by Tina
There are a handful of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy, according to the ACLU, who object to prayer being served up with their mid-day meal:
The American Civil Liberties Union is threatening to sue the U.S. Naval Academy unless it abolishes its daily lunchtime prayer, saying that some midshipmen have felt pressured to participate. In a letter to the Naval Academy, Deborah Jeon, legal director for the ACLU of Maryland, said it was "long past time" for the academy to discontinue the tradition. She said the practice violates midshipmen's freedom. - Jacqueline L. Salmon, The Washington Post
What about the freedom of the several hundred others in the room? At the very least the midshipmen involved in this proposal have been taught to be extremely selfish and ill-mannered. But this is not just about tradition, it is a rabid assault on the Constitution:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
The ongoing attacks on prayer are a wicked betrayal to the very ideal of freedom.
Posted by Post Scripts at 09:09 PM | Comments (0)
Please Donate to Evacuation & Shelter Efforts
A “Donation Management Desk” has been established to channel donations of money, supplies and services for the effort to evacuate, shelter and protect Butte County residents during the current wildfire emergency operation.
Individuals, businesses or organizations who wish to make financial donations, or donations of materials and supplies, or of services, are asked to call 530-538-2760 beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 25. ** The Donation Management Desk will be manned from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day. When the desk is not attended, information can be left on a recording.
Hat Tip: KPAY
Posted by Post Scripts at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
Quotable Quote
Posted by Tina
Pro McCain reasoning:
I support John McCain for president. But that doesn't mean I support the Republican Party. Had the GOP nominated anyone else this year, I'd be struggling to rationalize a vote for the Democrats in November. I back McCain because we need integrity, experience and courage in our next president. I view the Democrats' candidate, Barack Obama, as a Ferrari without an engine, wonderfully shiny but with nothing under the hood. - Ralph Peters, USA Today
Posted by Post Scripts at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)
Obama & Baby Persons
Posted by Tina
Please note this is a statement of Barack Obama's record.
Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion presidential candidate ever. ** He is so pro-abortion that he refused as an Illinois state senator to support legislation to protect babies who survived late-term abortions because he did not want to concede -- as he explained in a cold-blooded speech on the Illinois Senate floor -- that these babies, fully outside their mothers' wombs, with their hearts beating and lungs heaving, were in fact "persons." ** "Persons," of course, are guaranteed equal protection of the law under the 14th Amendment. - Terence P. Jeffrey, CNSNews.com
Hat tip, NewsBusters: The Illinois bill that Obama refused to support had language identical to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act that passed the U.S. Senate 98-0, with such senators as Barbara Boxer voting in favor.
Posted by Post Scripts at 07:47 PM | Comments (1)
MAN OR BEAST?
Posted by Tina
MADRID - Spain's parliament voiced its support on Wednesday for the rights of great apes to life and freedom in what will apparently be the first time any national legislature has called for such rights for non-humans. Parliament's environmental committee approved resolutions urging Spain to comply with the Great Apes Project, devised by scientists and philosophers who say our closest genetic relatives deserve rights hitherto limited to humans. – Martin Roberts, Reuters
Does this mean if one accidentally kills another in a food fight (or over a woman) he will be tried for manslaughter? If found guilty will he be taken to Ape jail or people jail or ???
What say you?
Posted by Post Scripts at 07:40 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2008
Energy is Most Important Concern - Obama
by Tina Grazier
When asked, Barack Obama said that energy supply would be the most important concern for the next president:
"It's not a problem I think we can drill our way out of," said Obama. "It can be a drag on our economy for a very long time unless we take steps to innovate and invest in the research and development that's needed to find alternative fuels, to make our transportation system more energy efficient, retool our industry and our buildings."
What’s wrong with this statement? (besides the fact that all of it should be done privately with private funding rather than through government with taxes, grants and mandates)
Senator Obama wishes to be the leader of this nation. We are faced with high energy prices that are hurting families and American businesses and affecting economies all around the world. By his own acknowlegement, the number one priority is “the present” but his focus is on the “future”…on change, on new products and technology, on green solutions…many of which have yet to be discovered or invented.
Creating the infrastructures needed for as yet to be determined solutions and products would take considerable time. Rome wasn’t built in a day. This is the very essence of an agenda driven mindset. He isn’t interested in solving America’s energy crisis for you and I right now…he is interested in furthering the green agenda.
A true leader, even one with leftist tendencies, would look at solutions that will bring immediate relief as well as solutions for the future. What are Obama’s plans for immediate relief? Higher taxes on oil companies and continued restrictions on drilling are two of the things democrats in congress are in favor of…who knows what they will dream up tomorrow. Obama is in agreement with these policies going forward...he will not veto legislation that continues restrictions on drilling. Several congressmen have even suggested “taking over” the oil industry. Says Obama: "There is no doubt that in the short term, adapting to this new energy economy is going to carry some costs…”
Oh, it will cost all right...the American people be they rich or poor or middle class. We will pay and pay and pay. Obama is a dreamer…we need someone who’s feet are firmly planted in NOW.
DRILL HERE...DRILL NOW...and let tomorrow bring innovation and change as needed through the entrepreneurial spirit in America. Let Americans solve long term problems naturally through invention and industry. Governments only job is to get out of the way.
Posted by Post Scripts at 11:05 PM | Comments (19)
The Supreme Courts Courtly Bumble
Posted by Tina Grazier
They sit on the highest court in our land and command the respect of the entire nation but the men and women who serve on the Supreme Court are capable of making mistakes. As the dust settles on the case Boumediene v. Bush we may find that the court’s decision did more harm than good.
Fred Thompson, in a piece titled “Boumediene: A Supremely problematic Court Decision” posted at TownHall.com has enumerated the various rights provided to enemy prisoners that this decision has struck down:
The right to hear the bases of the charges against them including a summary of any classified evidence. ** The ability to challenge the bases of their detention before military tribunals modeled after Geneva Convention procedures. (38 detainees have been released as result of this process.) ** The right, before the tribunal, to testify, introduce evidence, including exculpatory evidence, call witnesses, cross examine the government witnesses and secure release if and when appropriate. ** The right to the aid of a personal representative in arranging and presenting their cases before the tribunal. ** The right to have the government search for and disclose to the detainee any evidence reasonably available to it tending to show that the detainee is not an enemy combatant. ** The right to appeal an adverse decision from the tribunal to the Federal DC Circuit Court along with the right to employ counsel and secure release if entitled to it. ** The right to petition the DC Circuit to remand a detainee’s case for new tribunal consideration if the petitioner comes up with newly discovered evidence. ** The right to require the Department of Defense (DOD) to conduct a yearly review of the status of each prisoner including the right to have the Secretary of Defense review any new evidence that may become available relating to the enemy combatant status of a detainee. ** As a part of that yearly review, the opportunity for the detainee to explain why he is no longer a threat to the United States, which could lead to his release. ** The DC Circuit can order release of the prisoner, and the head of the DOD Administrative Review Boards can, at the recommendation of those panels, order release upon an appropriate showing.
What the court has done is create a great deal of uncertainty and confusion while undermining the more than adequate, and in fact very generous, rights given to these men. If we were looking for justice or fairness this ruling has accomplished neither. I'd like to thank Fred Thompson...if our media were doing it's job we would have had this information long ago. I highly recommend this article.
Posted by Post Scripts at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)
SEE FIRE UPDATE BELOW
11:10 AM Update: Heavy smoke has caused Butte County Air Quality Management District officials to issue the highest ever air quality forecast. Officials say the 200-plus forecast for ozone and particulate matter is unhealthy for EVERYONE, and you should limit going outdoors, exercise and exertion.
10:15 AM Update: The Frey Fire, which is the largest blaze in Butte County, has grown to 1,300 acres. Crews continue to focus efforts on the fires in the Concow area. Crews continue to hold the line on the West Branch Fire which is burning in near the Feather River.
Posted by Post Scripts at 11:25 AM | Comments (1)
A Comparison of Two Floods and Two Kinds of Americans
Just a personal observation...as I watched the news coverage of the massive flooding in the Midwest with over 100 blocks of the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa under water, levees breaking, and the attention now turned downstream for when this massive amount of water hits the Mississippi, what amazed me is not what we saw, but what we didn't see...
1. We don't see looting.
2. We don't see street violence.
3. We don't see people sitting on their rooftops waiting for the government to come and save them.
4. We don't see people waiting on the government to do anything.
5. We don't see Hollywood organizing benefits to raise money for people to rebuild.
6. We don't see people blaming President Bush.
7. We don't see people ignoring evacuation orders.
8. We don't see people blaming a government conspiracy to blow up the levees as the reason some have not held.
9. We don't see the US Senators or the Governor of Iowa crying on TV.
10. We don't see the Mayors of any of these cities complaining about the lack of state or federal response.
11. We don't see or hear reports of the police going around confiscating personal firearms so only the criminal will be armed.
12. We don't see gangs of people going around and randomly shooting at the rescue workers.
13. You don't see some leaders in this country blaming the bad behavior of the Iowa flood victims on "society" (of course there are no wide spread reports of lawlessness to require excuses).
Re: Iowa vs. Louisiana:
Where are all of the Hollywood celebrities holding telethons asking for
help in restoring Iowa and helping the folks affected by the floods?
Where is all the media asking the tough questions about why the federal
government hasn't solved the problem? Asking where the FEMA trucks (and
trailers) are?
Why isn't the Federal Government relocating Iowa people to free hotels
in Chicago?
When will Spike Lee say that the Federal Government blew up the levees
that failed in Des Moines?
Where are Sean Penn and the Dixie Chicks?
Where are all the looters stealing high-end tennis shoes and big screen
television sets?
When will we hear Governor Chet Culver say that he wants to rebuild a
"vanilla" Iowa, because that's the way God wants it?
Where is the hysterical 24/7 media coverage complete with reports of
cannibalism?
Where are the people declaring that George Bush hates white, rural
people?
How come in 2 weeks, you will never hear about the Iowa flooding ever
again?
Posted by Post Scripts at 11:20 AM | Comments (5)
FIRE UPDATE - TUES 24 JUN 08
1110 hrs. Update: Heavy smoke has caused Butte County Air Quality Management District officials to issue the highest ever air quality forecast. Officials say the 200-plus forecast for ozone and particulate matter is unhealthy for EVERYONE, and you should limit going outdoors, exercise and exertion.
1015 hrs. Update: The Frey Fire, which is the largest blaze in Butte County, has grown to 1,300 acres. Crews continue to focus efforts on the fires in the Concow area. Crews continue to hold the line on the West Branch Fire which is burning in near the Feather River.
0800 hrs. Summary, over 840 fires still burning, mostly wild lands requiring air drops from Chico airport and in Sacramento. Worst fire is Concow in Butte County about 24 miles north of Oroville and 25 miles south west of Chico.
0700 hrs Update: The shelter at Spring Valley Elementary School has 150 beds, with 50 of them being occupied. However, the parking area has reached capacity due to the number of RV’s and trailers that evacuated. A new shelter has been opened up at Las Plumas High School, 2380 Las Plumas Ave, Oroville. Staff is redirecting vehicle traffic from the Spring Valley shelter to the Las Plumas shelter. Las Plumas High School shelter has 300 beds, and a large parking area to accommodate the overflow traffic.
0630 hrs.Update: (AP) - Firefighters from Nevada and Oregon are lending a hand in Northern California, where more than 840 lightning-sparked wildfires are burning. Oregon and Nevada are assisting in the battle, mostly with firefighting aircraft.
0500 hrs. Update: Flames continue to burn in Butte County…causing people to leave their homes in the Concow area.
Info relayed from KPAY and JOC CARNG
Posted by Post Scripts at 08:29 AM | Comments (0)
June 23, 2008
Sealife and Louisiana’s Oil Rigs
Posted by Tina
Offshore oil rigs are not dangerous to the environment. This isn’t just an opinion, it's backed up by 60 years of incredible success in Louisiana. Front Page Magazine offers the facts mixed with a fun look at Hollywood and environmental skeptics from LSU:
“Hollywood Once Hailed Offshore Drilling,” by Humberto Fontova
Louisiana has been well ahead of the learning curve for decades, and offers ready proof regarding its much-hyped "perils." The first offshore oil production platforms went up off the Louisiana coast in 1947.
By 1953 Hollywood (no less!) was already hailing the pioneering wildcatters who moved major mountains – technological, logistical, psychological, cultural – to tap and reap this source that today provides a quarter of America's domestic petroleum, without causing a single major oil spill in the process. This record stands despite dozens of hurricanes – including the two most destructive in North American history, Camille and Katrina – repeatedly battering the drilling and production structures, along with the 20,000 miles of pipeline that transport the oil shoreward. This is the most extensive offshore pipeline network in the world. ** Half a century later, with 3203 of the 3,729 offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico studding her coastal waters, Louisiana provides almost a third of North America's commercial fisheries. A study by LSU's sea grant college shows that 85 percent of Louisiana's offshore fishing trips involve fishing around these structures. The same study found 50 times more marine life around an oil production platform than in the surrounding mud bottoms. That this proliferation of seafood might come because – rather than in spite – of the oil production rattled many environmental cages and provoked a legion of scoffers. ** They scoffed as we rode in from the airport. They scoffed over raw oysters, grilled redfish and seafood gumbo that night. More scoffing through the Hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's. They scoffed even while suiting up in dive gear and checking the cameras as we tied up to an oil platform 20 miles in the Gulf. ** But they came out of the water bug-eyed and indeed produced and broadcast a program showcasing a panorama that turned on its head every environmental superstition against offshore oil drilling. Schools of fish filled the water column from top to bottom – from 6-inch blennies to 12-foot sharks. Fish by the thousands. Fish by the ton….
Posted by Post Scripts at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
THE DNA TRAIL - WE"RE ALL BASICALLY THE SAME
National Geographic....
Everybody loves a good story, and when it's finished, this will be the greatest one ever told. It begins in Africa with a group of hunter-gatherers, perhaps just a few hundred strong. It ends some 200,000 years later with their six and a half billion descendants spread across the Earth, living in peace or at war, believing in a thousand different deities or none at all, their faces aglow in the light of campfires and computer screens.
For more on this story click here.
Posted by Post Scripts at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)
To Criminalize Dissent and The Surveillance State
When will the alarmists who worried about "losing rights" because of Bush's wiretap method for defense of the nation start screaming foul about these lefty moves?
Posted by Tina
“A Desperate Man” – Investors Business Daily
Radicalism: In another example of junk science run amok, NASA scientist James Hansen wants oil executives put on trial for giving "misinformation" about his global warming theory. Is this where society is headed? ** If so, we are headed for a dangerous place. Only in totalitarian systems is dissent a criminal offense. ** Out of this has emerged a madness that has divided Westerners into "us," the believers, and "them," the skeptics who are looked down upon as socially irresponsible reprobates. ** That's not enough for Hansen, though. He now wants to ratchet his machine up a few notches. ** Put the oil men on trial, he says, because it's "a crime" for them to "have been putting out misinformation" that places doubt on his unproved — and unprovable — premise that man's use of fossil fuels is warming Earth. ** We wonder: Will it be up to NASA's secret police to make the arrests that will be necessary to drag these men before the tribunal?
“Congress's Fingerprint Fine Print,” by John Berlau – WSJ
Fingerprints have long been considered to be among the most personal of information. Proposals for creating fingerprint databases are usually controversial and often lead to a spirited public debate. Even when a fingerprint registry will likely help fight terrorism or crime, many still fear it will lead to a surveillance state. ** Yet this week a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security or violent crime may clear the Senate with little debate. The legislation would require thousands of individuals not suspected of any wrongdoing to send their prints to the feds. ** What issue is so important that it warrants creating a fingerprint database without public debate? Believe it or not, the housing slowdown. The database and fingerprint mandates are contained in the housing bailout bill that will likely come to a vote on Tuesday.
The answer, of course, is that they won't. It's up to us to notice the hypocrise.
Posted by Post Scripts at 08:20 PM | Comments (8)
Come Find Me Boys!
Posted by Tina
Berlin - An American hiker stranded in the Bavarian Alps for nearly three days was rescued after using her sports bra as a signal, police in southern Germany said Monday. Berchtesgaden police officer Lorenz Rasp said that he helped lift 24-year-old Jessica Bruinsma of Colorado state to safety by helicopter on Thursday after she attracted the attention of lumberjacks by attaching her sports bra to a cable used to move timber down the mountain. - AP
Clever lady!!
Posted by Post Scripts at 08:13 PM | Comments (0)
Another Great Picture - Perfectly Timed
Posted by Post Scripts at 04:54 PM | Comments (0)
History Revisited – Bill Clinton’s Iraq Problem
Posted by Tina
Events from days gone by are rarely remembered with clarity and as we’ve discovered, the press is often more interested in distorting past events than in keeping the historical record. It’s useful, therefore, to be reminded of past events in order to keep an accurate perspective in the present. Arthur Herman, history professor at Georgetown University, has written a great piece for Commentary Magazine outlining the realities and challenges of Saddam’s Iraq during the last years of Bill Clinton’s term as president and the democrat support of Clintons policies. I urge you to read the entire article…
In a February 17, 1998 speech at the Pentagon, Clinton focused on what in his State of the Union address a few weeks earlier he had called an “unholy axis” of rogue states and predatory powers threatening the world’s security. “There is no more clear example of this threat,” he asserted, “than Saddam Hussein’s Iraq,” and he added that the danger would grow many times worse if Saddam were able to realize his thoroughly documented ambition, going back decades and at one point close to accomplishment, of acquiring an arsenal of nuclear as well as chemical and biological weapons. The United States, Clinton said, “simply cannot allow this to happen.” ** On December 15, UNSCOM’s director, Richard Butler, reported that Iraq was engaged in systematic obstruction and deception of the internationally mandated inspection regime. Although the UN hesitated to invoke the technical term “material breach,” which would almost certainly have triggered a demand for a response with force by the world body, Clinton himself was determined to act. He had already received a letter from a formidable list of U.S. Senators, including fellow Democrats Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, and John Kerry, urging him to “respond effectively”—with air strikes if necessary—to the “threat posed by Iraq’s refusal to end its WMD programs.” After consulting with Great Britain and other allies, Clinton ordered Butler to pull out the remaining inspectors. On December 16, he launched Operation Desert Fox. ** …the attacks did virtually nothing to destroy facilities suspected of housing weapons, most of which were in unknown locations. The only way to find out where they might be was by reintroducing UN inspectors, something Saddam now adamantly refused to permit. ** Thus, in the end, Desert Fox proved a failure, not because of insufficient American firepower but because of Saddam’s defiance—and because of a lack of forceful follow-up. True, passage of the Iraq Liberation Act meant that the United States now had a regime-change resolution on the books and was providing a certain amount of money and aid for covert internal action against Saddam. True, too, Vice President Al Gore was a particularly strong supporter of these initiatives. But in the wake of Desert Fox, Saddam had conducted his own violent crackdown on potential opposition figures, which meant there was no hope for Iraqis to retake their country without massive outside help. ** Convincing Congress that the United States enjoyed a right of “anticipatory self-defense” against Saddam was hardly a difficult task. On the contrary, in September 2002 the Senate virtually arm-twisted Bush into giving it time to pass a new and more specific resolution than the Clinton-era one authorizing regime change in Iraq. In ringing the tocsin, moreover, leading Democrats spoke at least as assertively as leading Republicans. One of them was Charles Schumer: “Hussein’s vigorous pursuit of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons, and his present and potential future support for terrorist acts and organizations . . . make him a terrible danger to the people of the United States.” ** Another was Hillary Clinton: “My position is very clear. The time has come for decisive action to eliminate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s WMD’s.” ** John Edwards was still another: “Every day [Saddam] gets closer to his long-term goal of nuclear capability. ** Howard Dean, then the governor of Vermont, was of a similar mind: “There’s no question that Saddam Hussein is a threat to the U.S. and our allies. ** More than half of Senate Democrats, including John Kerry and Joseph Biden, joined with Republicans in authorizing the President “to defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq,” and in so doing to enforce all the relevant but ineffectual resolutions passed by the UN Security Council…the vote reflected nothing more than an affirmation of the old Clinton-era position, now urgently reinforced by the experience of 9/11.
Posted by Post Scripts at 01:02 PM | Comments (0)
Pump Prices About to Fall?
Monday - 23 Jun: A hedge fund manager and a top adviser to oil companies said Monday they believe oil prices could quickly fall by half if new regulatory changes limiting the role of speculators were adopted.
Michael Masters, of the Masters Capital Management fun, said that - with greater regulation - oil prices could drop to $65 or $70 within about 30 days.
"That's half of where prices are today, and gas prices would reflect that," he said.
Posted by Post Scripts at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2008
Exposed…“Bush Lied” Liars
by Tina Grazier
Bushco, as Libby calls them…the former BIG OIL men in the White House…went to war for OIL. They couldn’t wait to get their hands on the huge PROFITS they would make from taking Iraqi oil. They schemed and plotted and lied to make it happen. At least that has been the "Bushco theory".
Iraq will award contracts to 41 foreign oil firms in a bid to boost production that could give multinationals a potentially lucrative foothold in huge but underdeveloped oil fields, an official said on Sunday. "We chose 35 companies of international standard, according to their finances, environment and experience, and we granted them permission to extract oil," oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad told AFP.
Those who claimed President Bush's motive was oil were dang liars then and they are dang liars now. It should have been obvious to them when “Bushco” decided to assist the Iraqi’s in setting up their own government while continuing to defend the fledgling democracy, that “Bushco” was up to something quite different than self interest or money. It should have been obvious when 70% of the Iraqi’s proudly displayed purple fingers to show they had voted. It should have been obvious when Prime Minister Maliki visited Washington to praise and thank President Bush and the American people and spoke of the strides being made by his government. It should have been obvious when the Iraqi government requested that we stay in Iraq to defend their country. But their own twisted intentions were not so honorable.
Please note that Iraq is in charge of it's own affairs and is awarding contracts to companies in many nations. Contracts are legal agreements entered into by willing signatories...things like that often happen in free countries. George Bush’s intentions were always exactly what he said they were…period.
Posted by Post Scripts at 04:21 PM | Comments (5)
Yippee…Government Benefits!
In England laws instituted by the compassion crowd to assist those who cannot help themselves have become, in practice, just as nutty as ours are.
Posted by Tina
He was convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terror attacks in 1998, and of plotting to plant bombs during the Millennium-celebrations. Last week a judge freed the cleric on bail after ruling he would face an unfair trial if deported to Jordan. ** But the Special Immigration Appeals Commission imposed un-precedented conditions on his release, including a 22-hour curfew and wearing an electronic tag.
His name is Abu Qatada and he “has a bad back”.
The fanatical cleric, said to be Osama Bin Laden’s ambassador in Europe, will get £150 a week of taxpayer’s cash after being released from jail last week. ** He was granted the incapacity benefit because his condition makes him unfit to work – even though a curfew allows him out of his home for only two hours a day, meaning it would be almost impossible for him to get a job. ** Qatada left Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire after the Appeal Court blocked his deportation to Jordan. ** He is now living in an £800,000 four-bedroom Edwardian semi in a tree-lined street in West London. ** His wife has been claiming £45,000 a year in child benefit, income support, housing benefit and council tax credit for the past four years.
Posted by Post Scripts at 04:11 PM | Comments (0)
Outing a CIA Operative – New York Times Style
Posted by Tina
The media hoopla over the non-story of “outing” Valerie Plame and the susequent headhunting scheme that resulted in Scooter Libby’s outrageous conviction is made even more conspicuous today by the following story brought to us via “NewsBusters.”
“New York Times Outs CIA Operative,” by Mick Wright
In an astonishing stroke of irony, the New York Times has outed the name of the CIA operative who interrogated 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, over the objections of CIA Director Michael V. Hayden and a lawyer representing the operative. ** Agency officials and legal counsel told the Times that publishing the agent's name would "invade his privacy and put him at risk of retaliation from terrorists or harassment from critics of the agency." ** In an Editor's Note linked from the story on KSM's interrogation, the Times defended its decision by stating that "other government employees" had been "named publicly in books and published articles" or had chosen to go public themselves, by explaining that its policy "is to withhold the name of a news subject only very rarely," and by arguing the operative's name "was necessary for the credibility and completeness of the article." ** this is just the latest in a long string of Times articles that have leaked classified and guarded information critical to America's security and that of its people and public servants. Alert readers have long since stopped expecting any level of consistency from the same liberal media that was obsessed with the naming of Valerie Plame (though they've been considerably less obsessed with the actual source of Robert Novak's column, Richard Armitage).
The NewsBusters article provides links to the "editors note" and "KSM’s interrogation" for those who are interested.
Posted by Post Scripts at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)
Wake Up, or Lose Free Speech Rights
by Tina Grazier
Tehran, Iran - Authorities have shut down a Tehran newspaper ,the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday, after the paper published a story critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's stance on Israel.
The American people are quite used to news coming out of countries like Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and others where dictators rule with an iron fist denying a free press and punishing citizens who dare speak out against them but I’m somewhat amazed that we haven’t witnessed more concern about what’s happening to an extremely popular journalist and writer right next door in Canada:
“The End of Free Speech-Canadian Case An Omen For America” – DNRonline.com
A frightening “hate crimes” trial in Canada offers Americans a look at the future of the First Amendment if Muslim immigration to this country continues unabated. Conservative writer Mark Steyn, it seems, “offended” the Muslims *in British Columbia, and now not only the Muslims but also the Canadian diversity police want their pound of flesh. ** Steyn’s ongoing legal battle began in 2006, when Macleans magazine published an excerpt of his book, “America Alone.” The excerpt, “The Future Belongs To Islam” said nothing that anyone who reads the newspapers doesn’t know: Islam is conquering Europe. But it was “offensive” because it stated exactly that. ** Europe, Mr. Steyn wrote, is dying. The Christian faith is waning. Birth rates have collapsed. His reasonable conclusion is that the growing and angry Islamic horde in Europe is preparing the ground for violence, and, indeed, jihad: Aging Europeans, he wrote, are “being supplanted remorselessly by a young Muslim demographic. … [A]t the very minimum, this fast-moving demographic transformation provides a huge comfort zone for the jihad to move around in.” ** Thus did the Canadian Islamic Congress sharpen its legal scimitars and haul Steyn and Macleans before British Columbia’s human rights commission, a Stalinist kangaroo court that stops normal Canadians from expressing opinions the radical left does not like.
Maybe the reason people are inclined toward apathy is that an informed public willing to speak up brings the extremist element out of the shadows and into the light where it can become a more easily identified formadable force and where the evil they are perpetrating in the world is recognized. But awareness also makes choosing inevitabile. One must stand and fight, attempt to discredit those who do, or simply remain in apathy until such time that evil is overcome or overtakes and consumes. The Jews and many Germans too often chose apathy or allegiance to discredit those who would fight. Free Speech is one of many grand targets…a big prize for enemies at the gate.
Some of you might remember Mr. Steyn. I have featured some of his articles here on Post Scripts as well as the best selling book that has spawned this attack on free speech. Mr. Steyn has chosen to fight. In a similar circumstance what would your choice be?
Posted by Post Scripts at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)
CONGRESS MOVES TO CLOSE LOOP HOLE
From the BBC
US regulators have announced plans to impose limits on oil trades overseas (to slow speculators).
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission said the London-based electronic exchange would have to comply with US rules.
The move comes as oil prices notch up record highs, amid fears that speculators are distorting the market.
As a result, fuel costs have shot up hitting the global economy. Airlines have been hit badly, with near record losses expected for 2008 in the US.
The report goes on to say, "this surge is being blamed on speculation by large investors, including hedge funds and banking giants. They are being accused of pushing commodity prices way above the level they would trade at to satisfy supply and demand trends. "
Posted by Post Scripts at 10:36 AM | Comments (6)
King Abdullah Acts to Lower Oil Price
From the Wall Street Journal....
The cost of gasoline has also become a sore point in the U.S. presidential race, with President Bush and Republican candidate John McCain calling for lifting of a long-standing ban on offshore oil and gas drilling to increase domestic oil production. But Democratic candidate Barack Obama has said such steps will do nothing in the short term to ease American consumer's pain.
It was unclear if Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi's remarks Sunday at a closed-door session during the high-level oil summit in the port city of Jiddah would quell concerns. (Previously PS reported his comments blaming speculation)
Mr. Naimi, who was expected to formally make the announcements in a speech later Sunday, reiterated his government's position that the recent run-up in prices has not been caused by a supply shortage. But he said he also believes each country must do what it can "to alleviate these difficult conditions."
For the remainder of the year "Saudi Arabia is willing to produce additional barrels of crude oil above and beyond the 9.7 million barrels per day which we plan to produce during the month of July, if demand for such quantities materializes and our customers tell us they are needed," Mr. Naimi said in the speech, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press in advance.
The conference's final statement restated the participants' concern over volatile oil prices, but attempted to strike a balance over the cause. Producers, like Saudi Arabia say it is due to speculation. "There are several factors behind the unjustified, swift rise in oil prices and they are: speculators who play the market out of selfish interests, increased consumption by several developing economies and additional taxes on oil in several consuming countries," the king said.
Abdullah urged the summit's delegates to "uncover the truth" and dispel rumors to get the "real and full reasons" behind the skyrocketing price of oil.
Posted by Post Scripts at 10:24 AM | Comments (1)
Oil Speculators - McCain Gets Smart
Just in from Dick Morris....
The Saudis have made a fatal mistake in not forcing down the price of oil. We could have gone for decades as their hostage, letting their control over our oil supplies choke us while enriching them. But they got greedy and let the price skyrocket. The sudden shock which has sent America reeling is just the stimulus we need for a massive movement away from imported oil and toward new types of cars.
The political will for major change in our energy policy is now here and those, like Obama, who don’t get it need to rethink their positions. To quote FDR, “this great nation calls for action and action now” on the energy issue. What has been a back-burner problem now has moved onto center stage and McCain has put himself in the forefront.
The Democratic ambivalence stems from liberal concerns about climate change. The Party basically doesn’t believe in carbon based energy and, therefore, opposes oil exploration. That’s why Obama pushes the windfall profits tax on oil companies - a step that tells them “you drill, you find oil, and we’ll take away your profits.” But Americans have their priorities in order: more oil, more drilling AND alternative energy sources, flex-fuel cars, plug in vehicles and nuclear power.
With his willingness to respond to the gas price crisis with bold measures, McCain shows himself to be a pragmatist while Obama comes off as an ideologue to puts climate change ahead of making it possible for the average American to get to work.
Of course, the high price of gas makes it inevitable that the US will lead the world in fighting climate change. With $5 gas, Americans will switch en masse to cars that burn less gasoline. Already we have cut our oil consumption by 500,000 barrels a day in the past year (about a 3% cut). The move away from oil will be exponential from here on out, dooming radical Islam and reversing climate change at the same time. But while we are getting new cars, we need more oil and McCain has flanked Obama on this issue. Big time.
Posted by Post Scripts at 10:14 AM | Comments (1)
Zeroing In On The Bad Guys - Oil Speculators
by Jack Lee
In 2003 oil speculators controlled approximately 13 billion dollars worth of oil contracts, but they didn't like the rules in the USA, so they setup shop in England and today the speculators on England's exchange now control over 260 billion in oil contracts.
Who are these guys? They represent hedge funds, banks, pension funds and some of the key players are former Enron traders using the skills they acquired under the Enron model. Isn't that great? This is driving up the price of crude oil far beyond the supply and demand levels with unfair and illegal trade practices.
Back in the USA our oil companies use the speculators price to justify their crude price, they say, hey look at the price of oil (on paper) and they immediately jack up their crude price. Almost everywhere you look, be it in the USA or England, traders or producers, are cashing in. They (and this is a big number of diverse elements) are doing to us what they did back in the so-called energy crisis days where California paid through the kazoo for electricity until this state was nearly bankrupt. There was plenty of electricity, but the market was manipulated by contracts on paper that made it appear there just wasn't enough electricity to go around. And the energy producers just shrugged their shoulders and said well, if thats the price, thats the price and WE PAID. History repeats itself, just as there is plent of oil now, but the market is being manipulated by contracts, the price on paper and the oil producers, at least in the US, just shrug their shoulders and say well that's the spot price for crude so thats what we must charge you....and they feel so bad, I'm sure.
It's a sweat deal for our oil companies, for the traders, speculators and producers, but not for you at the pump. But oddly enough it's OPEC that is blowing the whistle on these guys because the long term effect on OPEC will be for other nations, especially the US, to develope alternative fuels and drill our own oil. On the other side of this one is our Democrats and their zealot friends, they have an interest in seeing us hurting at the pump and not drilling. They want green vehicles and alternative fuels now.
People, this is a complicated mess and if you threw a rock in Washington right now you're going to hit a lobbyist for somebody who had something to do with these high pump prices!
Last week the Commodity Futures Trading Commission revealed a wide-ranging investigation into crude oil trading practices "amid increasing congressional concern over the role of speculators in record energy prices." (FT.com) Commodities as an asset class have out-performed all other types of investing and this has attracted huge amounts of new money into this sector....and that is also driving up prices across the board. CFTC is coming under increasing pressure to explain how oil prices could have doubled since last June.
Oil was at $50 a barrel in January 2007, then $75 a barrel in August 2007. Now at $130 or so a barrel, it is clear that oil pricing is speculative activity, having very little to do with physical supply and demand.
What we have now in the commodity markets is another "super-bubble" that could result in the same kind of collapse we saw in the dot.coms, the same kind of collapse from the Enron energy era and most recently in housing bubble that has fleeced so many.
The end of a bubble always leads to economic instability.
What is now under consideration in Congress is to require the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to broaden it's authority to regulate trading of U.S. oil futures on foreign markets. Trying to close this loop hole is a new regulation that would require the CFTC to impose limits on oil futures trades by non-commercial, institutional investors, such as banks and pension funds, on foreign exchanges.
Posted by Post Scripts at 12:37 AM | Comments (8)
June 21, 2008
Matters of Assault and Denial
by Tina Grazier
The theory of global warming has been pushed on the American public over the last few decades with great fanfare, complete with “sky is falling” scare tactics, endearing Indian princesses and cute little penguins. Having accomplished the task of selling the dangers associated with global warming through the use of emotional entreaty, the environmental lobby has also successfully pressured government officials at the national, state, and local levels. The product of their lobbying is experienced as oppressive restrictions, bans, taxes, regulations, mandates, and costly delays in production or building, as well as higher prices for products. The movement has also forced the use of inferior products, like those twirley light bulbs that we now know have mercury in them and the gasoline additive that was later found to be more polluting than the original product. The worldwide banning of DDT…an incredibly stupid mandate resulting in millions of deaths from illness associated with malaria…is the deadliest sham of the environmental movement and one they refuse to acknowledge. All of this, and more, has been accomplished through an aggressive and intimidating movement that is sustained by blind faith and motivated by self-important notions of “making a difference,” the desire for absolute control, and, of course, greed.
One of the most insufferable methods for promulgating this theory is aimed at our children through the teaching of global warming as fact in public schools and through the entertainment industry in warm and fuzzy movies and television programs. I was quite amused, therefore, when I ran across the following New York Times Editorial that features leftist fears about what is called an “assault” on Darwin’s theory of Evolution:
“Louisiana’s Latest Assault on Darwin”
It comes as no surprise that the Louisiana State Legislature has overwhelmingly approved a bill that seeks to undercut the teaching of evolution in the public schools. The state, after all, has a sorry history as a hotbed of creationists’ efforts to inject religious views into science courses. All that stands in the way of this retrograde step is Gov. Bobby Jindal. ** In the 1980s, Louisiana passed an infamous Creationism Act” that prohibited the teaching of evolution unless it was accompanied by instruction in “creation science.” That effort to gain essentially equal time for creationism was slapped down by the United States Supreme Court as an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. State legislators, mimicking scattered efforts elsewhere, responded with a cagier, indirect approach. ** The new bill doesn’t mention either creationism or its close cousin, intelligent design. It explicitly disavows any intent to promote a religious doctrine. It doesn’t try to ban Darwin from the classroom or order schools to do anything. It simply requires the state board of education, if asked by local school districts, to help create an environment that promotes “critical thinking” and “objective discussion” about not only evolution and the origins of life but also about global warming and human cloning, two other bêtes noires of the right. Teachers would be required to teach the standard textbook but could use supplementary materials to critique it.
Wow! Now that is dangerous…and radical! The very idea!! Imagine…encouraging children to think for themselves, to question and consider alternative opinions and thought. How in the world can we allow teachers to introduce materials other than those approved by Darwinists and provided by “the state”…I mean…what can the Louisiana State Legislature be thinking?
Oh, I don’t know…perhaps improving the quality of education? Or, here’s an idea, making sure future generations of Americans can actually think for themselves? Bottom line…the global warming scam and the scam that is Darwinism both constitute the real assault on Americans…an assault on our children’s minds, on the way we conduct our businesses, on our culture, our pocketbooks, and our entire way of life.
Darwinism is not based on proven science, as the writer suggests, but on unproven theory. The editorial writer cannot bring himself to utter this damning word, however, referring to it instead as “the unchallenged central organizing principle for modern biology”. No matter what they chose to call it, it is a theory being taught as absolute truth by people who are unwilling to entertain competing theories and ideas, or to even allow them in the classroom. This is compelling evidence of incredibly closed minds, a condition that scientists would not and could not abide.
If an “assault” is being waged it’s pretty clear to me who the perps are. You will find them on the “left” in a closed minded state of denial.
Posted by Post Scripts at 10:30 PM | Comments (1)
Just Before the Pain! #1
Haven't you always wanted to run with the Bulls in Spain...it's lots of fun. See the tourist having fun?
Posted by Post Scripts at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)
Quote From the Past - Just a Whisper Away…
Posted by Tina
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of "liberalism," they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948
Socialism was rejected in the 1940’s…what will Americans do in 2008?
Hat tip: American Thinker – Please read the excellent article, “Why Do We Call Them Democrats?” by Lance Fairchok, from which I lifted the above quote.
Posted by Post Scripts at 03:03 PM | Comments (2)
Shell’s $44 Mil Investment Placed on Hold by BIG GREEN
by Tina Grazier
This story is an illustration of the stranglehold that BIG GREEN has on industry. It involves a legal tactic that is used again and again (and not just to oil companies). It’s time to stand in protest! Just say no…it’s costing too much and yielding very little benefit…if any.
Shell Oil spent $44 million dollars in 2005 to purchase leases in Alaska’s “Beaufort Sea” and was scheduled to begin drilling when the plan was delayed due to legal battles with environmentalists. Shell will continue performing the related work of collecting seismic data and performing other pre-drilling studies but this delay is a terrible waste:
“Shell delays Alaska drilling plan due legal dispute,” - Reuters
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is considering a lawsuit filed by environmentalists, whalers and the North Slope Borough to stop the drilling project due to concerns about its impact on whales and other marine mammals. ** Drilling on four wells had been delayed last year after the court ordered a temporary halt to Shell's drilling program. ** Juneau-based attorney Eric Jorgensen of the environmental legal group Earthjustice said the decision to delay this year's planned drilling was logical. ** "It makes no sense to march ahead with drilling that threatens bowhead whales and polar bears and the way of life of the people living in the region until the government meets its obligations to consider the full impacts," Jorgensen said.
How much of the BIG investment that oil companies must make to bring oil to the market is wasted and squandered when an investment of this size is placed on hold due to continuing legal battles? Is it any wonder they take every chance to increase their profit margin?
After decades of considering the environment in a variety of locations we should have a very good idea about how this industry effects the environment. We would, that is, if this issue was really important and critical. But constant legal pressure against the oil companies is not about preserving the environment…it is an harassment tactic used by hysterical extremist against industry. The American people pay the price for this egregious tactic not only at the pumps but in higher prices for all products and services.
Isn’t it time environmentalist, and the legal predators they enlist, had to show demonstrable justification for their audacious and continuous claims and harassment?
Posted by Post Scripts at 02:45 PM | Comments (0)
He Begins by Slandering the GOP
This sleazy campaign ploy suggests Obama lacks the character to be President
by Tina Grazier
The first black man who would be President of the United States has billed himself as someone with the capacity and talent to unite people… a peacemaker extraordinaire. He apparently believes this ability extends across all borders and boundries, a claim that has won him support from all around the world. How does a man who claims such sterling qualities and abilities deign to suggest the following:
“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. They're going to say you know what, ‘He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. Did I mention he's black?’" Barrack Obama featured on “CNN Election Center” with Wolf Blitzer
Senator Obama’s blatantly slanderous remark might be deemed clever and shrewd by campaign managers and advisors, or eccentric pastors, but it is unwise for him to begin this way considering the much bigger context of the office for which he aspires. As President, Obama would represent all Americans. He would become the face of our nation and our nation’s character. Unfounded accusations do not make a good start nor do they bode well for an Obama presidency. They do suggest the man is a fraud.
Please vote wisely in November
Hat tip: Newsbusters
Posted by Post Scripts at 12:20 PM | Comments (1)
That One In A Million - Photo Shot of Birds
Posted by Post Scripts at 10:59 AM | Comments (0)
Just Before the Pain #2 - Yeeee...ouch!
Note the ramp in the far right corner! Bet he wears a helmet now.
Posted by Post Scripts at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)
Knowing What Is Important in Life
When I was young, I always longed for a good BMW. Now, at my age I don't really care about the "W" anymore!
Posted by Post Scripts at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)
OBAMA HAS 143 DAYS OF EXPERIENCE
Pauline B. sent us this about Barack Obama's 143 Days of Senate Experience
Just how much Senate experience does Barack Obama have in terms of actual work days? Not much.
From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. That's how many days the Senate was actually in session and working.
After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World, and fill the shoes of Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan.
143 days -- My granson spent more time in pre-school getting ready for Kindergarten.
Think about IT!!!
Posted by Post Scripts at 10:19 AM | Comments (1)
June 20, 2008
A Quick Look At The Market - Some Stunning Info.
by Jack
It used to be said, "So goes GM, so goes the nation." Let's hope that isn't true anymore because GM stock closed today at a 20 year low... would you believe a share of GM is worth only $13.79? Back in 2000 it was $94 a share. I can remember GM trading around $50 a share in 1964. If you adjust the stock price for inflation from say 1964 that means GM is really worth about $2.65. That’s a huge fall no matter how you look at ...
it. Ford is worse off; their stock was $5.81 at the close today. In 1999 it was over $37 a share.
My, how the mighty have fallen, eh?
If you had invested in the broader market, say the NASDAQ composite market eight years ago...your investment would now yield minus 50%??? Hmmm...so much the long term buy and hold theory.
Looking at the relatively short term, the DOW has lost about 1200 points since January. It's dropped over 2400 points from its high in the last 12 months until now when it closed at 11,842 and that is significant. This is a major correction if not signs of slumping economy.
Let’s see how our financial institutions are doing! That is always a good litmus test for the health of an economy right? Wachovia Savings & Loan trades on the NYSE and it's typically in the mid $50's, a real steady Eddie sort of stock that is until recently and it's currently priced at $17.43 on the big board. Washington Mutual (WaMu) was right up there too and it down to a piddly $6.37 per share.
Our local mainstay is Bank of America, dare we even look after what has happened to WaMu? We dare...
Bank of America has spent the recent years trading very steady above the $40 mark and now...well, uh, get ready...its down to $27 on today's close.
$27 for a quality bank stock and that brings its Price to Earnings ratio down to a low of 11.87. That is a very low P/E for Bank of America! The drop in share price has pushed the dividend up over 14%. That's hard to imagine! However, B of A has lost 27% of its share value in the last 60 days, so if you think this is the time to buy, you better think real hard. And don't go chasing the fat dividend. B of A will probably cut its dividend soon, least that’s my guess. 14% is too simply too high to last and it's only 14% because the stock has been tanking unusually quick.
As long as I am guessing here, I'll say B of A stock will hit probably the high teens before it's over and then it will enter into a long flat period of modest recovery.
If this happens to good ol B of A then expect WaMu to be sub- $5 soon, a dangerous place to be, where mergers, buyouts and takeovers happen and credit ratings drop. Citigroup will fare worse than BAC, in my ever humble opinion. Citi (C) is just too heavily leveraged with debt that is akin to extortion thanks to Arab money lenders that have replaced the neighborhood loan sharks.
If you think the dividend for B of A is out of whack, check this out....(C) is yielding a 25% dividend and that’s just crazy. You know that will be adjusted down! (C) has lost over 22% of it's stock value in the last 60 days and a whopping 47% since last year! Look, I'm a bargain hunter, but believe me this stock won't be a bargain if they file Chapter 11 and I would be very careful about buying bargain bank stocks now. It's going to be touch and go for banks through 2008. They are still dealing with the housing implosion and now with speculators driving up crude oil price that is really damaging our economy, it could be the last nail in the coffin for some big banks and S&L's. But, don't just take my word for it, due your research and consult your broker.
This is all just my observations based on four decades of stock trading. However, I did warn you 6 months ago that we would see 11,000 on the DOW before we saw 14,000 and we're there now.
Posted by Post Scripts at 05:17 PM | Comments (0)
POLL
Posted by Post Scripts at 05:08 PM | Comments (0)
Playing Hard Ball With Oil Speculators
by Jack Lee
Dear Mr. President,
It is estimated at this time about 50-60% of the price of crude is due to oil speculators buying up virtually unlimited numbers future oil contracts; greed has caused a cascade effect ...driving up our oil prices far beyond supply and demand prices. In this current situation the more they speculate (buying future oil contracts with small dow