Post Scripts

Posted by Tina

Feinstein: Don’t Spoil Our Desert With Solar Panels FOX News

** WASHINGTON — California’s Mojave Desert may seem ideally suited for solar energy production, but concern over what several proposed projects might do to the aesthetics of the region and its tortoise population is setting up a potential clash between conservationists and companies seeking to develop renewable energy. *** Nineteen companies have submitted applications to build solar or wind facilities on a parcel of 500,000 desert acres, but Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Friday such development would violate the spirit of what conservationists had intended when they donated much of the land to the public. *** Feinstein said Friday she intends to push legislation that would turn the land into a national monument, which would allow for existing uses to continue while preventing future development. *** The Wildlands Conservancy orchestrated the government’s purchase of the land between 1999-2004. It negotiated a discount sale from the real estate arm of the former Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroad and then contributed $40 million to help pay for the purchase. David Myers, the conservancy’s executive director, said the solar projects would do great harm to the region’s desert tortoise population. *** “It would destroy the entire Mojave Desert ecosystem,” said David Myers, executive director of The Wildlands Conservancy. **

Continue reading “Earth in the Balance” »

Posted by Tina

Two important films have recently caught my attention. The first was the HBO movie, Taking Chance, with Kevin Bacon. The story is based on a journal kept by Michael Stroble, a Desert Storm veteran who agreed to accompany the body of a fallen Marine on the journey back to his family:

Kevin Bacon taken with HBO’s ‘Taking Chance’ movie, by Mark Dawidziak/Plain Dealer Television Critic

** Strobl began noticing the deeply personal responses to his mission at the Dover Port Mortuary. *** “During the two days I was at Dover, I think they had about a dozen departures of remains,” said Strobl, now retired from the Marines. “And every time the remains would leave, these construction workers would stop their work, put their hard hats over their hearts, and stand at their version of attention. And seeing that, I realized I want to remember this because there’s really some goodness there, these people doing this every time the remains depart. **

Continue reading “We Cant Do Enough For Our Veterans” »

Posted by Tina

The EU Says ‘Enough’ – IBD

** On Friday, the EU resisted pressure from the pork-happy U.S. to pump more cash into its recession-hit economies. It had already shoveled out a $270 billion stimulus package of its own, and came up with a $67 billion bailout fund for Eastern Europe. With all that done, the EU wanted to end it. *** “You can’t think you can solve everything with taxpayers’ money. Stimulus packages are already in place and taking us through this challenging time,” said Fredrik Reinfeldt, the prime minister of, brace yourself, Sweden. *** “There is no alternative to globalization as a motor for growth and employment, thus fostering prosperity worldwide,” wrote German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende in Der Spiegel on March 19, arguing against spending for its own sake. *** After more than 100 years of socialism…most of Europe has a pretty good idea what socialism is, where it leads and what its limits are. *** While not keen on killing such a central part of their culture, they’re also not blind to its ill effects. These include high unemployment, lack of job mobility, failure to foster business startups, talent flight, hyperinflation and generally slow economic growth. *** All of that comes from the kind of government spending that exceeds the productive capacity of a private sector to finance it. It’s the very stuff Democrats, still steeped in 1940s nostalgia, are gunning for as they spend beyond what they can imagine. **

I used to wonder why so many gullible people have jumped on the global warming bandwagon. Then, it dawned on me. Primarily, its because theyre only getting half of the story. If the general public is fed doom and gloom that the sky is falling, eventually everyone in the barnyard will be parading to see the king demanding that he stop the falling sky by whatever means necessary.

Where are the news storiesin print and on network TV.covering all the scientists who claim global warming is just hogwash? The media simply ignores em. As a consequence, only one side is spoon-fed to the general public. According to the latest Gallup poll, Americans generally believe global warming is real and its all caused by mankind. And why not? Thats all theyve heard and read about.

Over 70 scientists were speakers at the 2009 International Conference on Climate change last week in New York. You didnt read or hear about it, did you? And yet, one of the speakers was former astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who walked on the moon during the Apollo 17 mission. He said scientists are being intimidated if they disagree with the idea that humans are causing global warming. He says hes seen too many colleagues lose grant funding when they havent gone along with the so-called political consensus that were in a human-caused global warming.

Besides the scientists at the conference, more than 650 scientists worldwide have expressed skepticism, but their skepticism simply doesnt make a good news story. Doom and gloom sells. And as we will all see down the road, it also generates moneylots of itbut not FOR you. FROM YOU!

The former astronaut said the global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making. The President of the Czech republic, Vaclav Klaus was also one of the speakers and he calls manmade global warming a myth. He calls the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change a group with a one-sided political agenda.

Ah, but John Kerry made the news over the weekend by warning that deferring potentially costly actions to combat global warming because of the economic slump amounts to a suicide pact. However, Patrick Michaels research professor of environmental sciences interviewed by Newsmax says Its amazing how many BIG-MOUTH GLOBAL WARMING ALARMIST GET MEDIA ATTENTION who were never trained as climatologists.

And speaking of big mouth global warming alarmists, Al Gore was asked to debate global warming with real scientists. He declined saying Its silly to debate it. The science is settled. Well now, apparently not. You see, Al Gore has added a series of photographs to his public talks about global warming. The photos and graphs were of disasters thatve occurred recently for which he attributes to global warming.

Ah, but now he has removed those graphs after being admonished and sharply criticized by Roger A Pielke, Jr, an environmental scientist at the University of Colorado who pointed out that none of the disasters Gore was promoting had anything to do with global warming.

As the late Paul Harvey used to say and now you know the rest of the story. Unfortunately, the general public DOESNT know the rest of the story. The mainstream media, politicians, and big-mouth global warming alarmists are seeing to that.

(Editors Note: A slight was correction was made to the above article. Roger A. Pielke Jr is an Environmental Scientist at the University…not a political scientist as originally posted.)

Posted by Tina

Wal-Mart awards $2 billion to U.S. hourly employees, by y Nicole Maestri

** CHICAGO (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc is awarding approximately $2 billion to its U.S. hourly employees through financial incentives, including handing out $933.6 million in bonuses on Thursday, after the world’s largest retailer gained market share amid a recession. *** In a memo to Wal-Mart employees obtained by Reuters, Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke said the retailer is awarding roughly $2 billion to U.S. hourly employees, which includes $933.6 million in bonuses, $788.8 million in profit sharing and 401(k) contributions, millions of dollars in merchandise discounts, and contributions to its employee stock purchase plan. **

Posted by Tina

** New York – The world’s 20 most advanced economies should discuss investment of 1 per cent of global gross domestic product – about 750 billion dollars – into five sectors to build an environmentally sustainable global economy, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said Thursday. Such an amount could finance a ‘Global Green New Deal,’ drawing on the idea of the New Deal launched by US president Franklin D Roosevelt. Deutch Presse Agentur **

How long will the American people tolerate theft of their hard earned money by a bunch of characters doing nothing more than acting important while sitting on their royal rear ends? How long will we continue to give them absolute power over our pockets, our futures, and our very lives.

Posted by Tina

** Geneva – A top-ranked Iranian defector told the United States that Iran was financing North Korean moves to make Syria into a nuclear weapons power, leading to the Israeli air strike that destroyed a suspected secret reactor, a report said Thursday. The article in the daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung goes into detail about an Iranian connection *** U.S. intelligence had detected North Korean ship deliveries of construction supplies to Syria that started in 2002 AP **

Posted by Tina

This isnt a trail of breadcrumbs; this audit trail is lit up like an airport runway. You can see it a mile off. Subpoena e-mails. Find out who spread false rumors and also shorted the stock and youve got your manipulators. Irving Pollack, former SEC regulator

Naked Short Sales Hint Fraud in Bringing Down Lehman (Update1), by Gary Matsumoto – Bloomberg

** The biggest bankruptcy in history might have been avoided if Wall Street had been prevented from practicing one of its darkest arts. *** As Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. struggled to survive last year, as many as 32.8 million shares in the company were sold and not delivered to buyers on time as of Sept. 11, according to data compiled by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Bloomberg. That was a more than 57-fold increase over the prior years peak of 567,518 failed trades on July 30. *** The SEC has linked such so-called fails-to-deliver to naked short selling, a strategy that can be used to manipulate markets. **

Continue reading “Fraud Suspected in Lehman and Bear Stearns Failures” »

** WASHINGTON At least 13 firms receiving billions of dollars in bailout money owe a total of more than $220 million in unpaid federal taxes, a key lawmaker said Thursday.Rep. John Lewis, chairman of a House subcommittee overseeing the federal bailout, said two firms owe more than $100 million apiece.”This is shameful. It is a disgrace,” said Lewis, D-Ga. “We are going to get to the bottom of what is going on here.” – AP **

Tax dodging is rampant…tax simplificatin and smaller government is the remedy.

By Tina Grazier

When did we lose the ideal that wealth is possible for anyone in America who is willing to sacrifice and work hard? How did we get to the place where so many of us believe that people who have money acquired what they have by cheating or just being extremely lucky? And when did Americans decide that money and wealth comes from a big pot of gold in Washington that flows to the wealthy or the poor depending on policies of the government?

** COSTA MESA, Calif., March 18 — Striking a sharp populist tone, President Obama used a town hall meeting here Wednesday to argue that he is “trying to bring balance back to our economy” after years when only the wealthiest Americans benefited from government policy and lack of regulation. Washington Post **

Continue reading “The Presidents Pot of Gold” »