Obama's uncanny coincidence

Obama finds a sacrifice for budget gods

Excerpt:

The president has set an example for his Cabinet. He has ladled a trillion or so dollars hither and yon, but while ladling he has, or thinks he has, saved about $15 million by killing, or trying to kill, a tiny program that this year is enabling about 1,715 District of Columbia children (90 percent black, 9 percent Hispanic) to escape from D.C.'s failing public schools and enroll in private schools.

The mayor and school superintendent support the program. But the president has vowed to kill programs that "don't work." He has looked high and low and -- lo and behold -- has found one. By uncanny coincidence, it is detested by the teachers unions that gave approximately two times $15 million to Democratic candidates and liberal causes last year.

Comment: Obama's (liberal) doctrinaire approach to governing!

Henry Waxman pontificates

Comment: Sent to me by my Brother

Man stopped for not disobeying the law!

Police Stop Man For Carrying Gun Out In Open

Excerpt:

As WISN 12 News was interviewing a West Allis man about his past arrest for carrying a gun in the open, police confronted him again Tuesday night -- one day after the state's attorney general ruled it's legal.

"Somebody called the police that somebody was walking around with a gun on their hip," a West Allis police officer said.

"I would fit that description," Krause said.

"That would be you," a West Allis police officer said.

Police arrived up to investigate Krause while 12 News was interviewing him about his previous arrest for carrying a holstered gun on his hip outside his home. One officer saw Krause's gun and asked what agency he's affiliated with.

"I'm the same guy I was when you arrested me the last time," Krause said.

The officers asked for his name and called dispatch.

"The reason I'm checking is because felons can't have guns in Wisconsin," West Allis police said.

Krause is not a felon. He's a certified firearms instructor.

"Pretty much any time my pants are on, I'm armed," Krause said.

That includes carrying a gun outside his home as Wisconsin's attorney general has ruled is legal.

Comment: Video w the article

Honestly blasted!

Commentary: Miss California, thanks for being honest

Excerpt:

She opposes same-sex marriage. OK, fine. So what if she had said, "Hey, I'm in full support of same-sex marriage." Would she now be celebrated on gay-focused blogs, magazines and Web sites? Would her detractors actually be saying how open she is and that she's a great person?

Same-sex marriage is undoubtedly a hot button issue. And being from California, the site of Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that voters approved outlawing same-sex marriage, Prejean has surely had to hear the debate go back and forth. But her remark isn't outside the mainstream. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll shows that 55 percent of Americans are against same-sex marriage, and Proposition 8 did pass in her state 52-48 percent.

What's interesting about this is that many of the same folks who are slamming her for her remark voted for President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who both have the same belief: that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear that she has the same view, and it was her husband, President Bill Clinton, who signed the In Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law that forbids states from having to recognize gay marriage in other states.

In other words, four of the biggest liberals in the country have the same belief as Prejean, but a beauty pageant winner is being torn to shreds. Hello, hypocrisy!

Those who criticize Prejean have the same right as she does to express their viewpoints. But enough with all the political correctness, where someone says she should have danced around the issue, smiled and move on. iReport.com: 'Thank you, California!'

At the end of the day, we all have to be true to ourselves. Whether it's a gay gossip writer who favors same-sex marriage or a heterosexual woman who is against same-sex marriage. The day we condemn folks for speaking honestly is the day we become a bland society.

Maybe we're already there.

Comment: Weird when believing in traditional marriage (man & a women) which has been the view for all of recorded history is not politically correct!

Harbinger for bad Freddie Mac news?

Police: Death of Freddie Mac's Kellermann may be suicide

Excerpt:

he acting chief financial officer of mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac was found dead Wednesday morning at his home, police said.

David Kellermann was found dead of an apparent hanging, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN.

There were no signs of foul play when officers arrived at the home in Vienna shortly before 5 a.m., said Lucy Caldwell, a spokeswoman for police in Fairfax County, Virginia. She said the death "may have been an apparent suicide."

A second Fairfax County police spokesman, Eddie Azcarate, said Kellermann's body was found in the basement.

Comment: Makes one wonder if he knows something about Freddie Mac's finances that the general public will soon come to know! Very sad for his family!

Update: Friend says Freddie Mac exec chased success

A Bay City attorney says he is shocked that former high school classmate and Freddie Mac executive David Kellermann would commit suicide.

Jeffrey Martin described Kellermann as someone who worked hard to be successful.

They graduated in 1985 from T.L. Handy High School in Bay City, about 90 miles north of Detroit. Martin says Kellermann wanted to be "Alex P. Keaton," the television character played by Michael J. Fox on the 1980s sitcom "Family Ties."

He says Kellermann "knew he wanted to climb the corporate ladder, and he climbed the corporate ladder."

Comment without Christ: “ Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “ Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

Bulldozing Flint

An Effort to Save Flint, Mich., by Shrinking It

Excerpts:

Instead of waiting for houses to become abandoned and then pulling them down, local leaders are talking about demolishing entire blocks and even whole neighborhoods.

The population would be condensed into a few viable areas. So would stores and services. A city built to manufacture cars would be returned in large measure to the forest primeval.

“Decline in Flint is like gravity, a fact of life,” said Dan Kildee, the Genesee County treasurer and chief spokesman for the movement to shrink Flint. “We need to control it instead of letting it control us.”

...

While the shrinkage debate has been simmering in Flint for several years, it suddenly gained prominence last month with a blunt comment by the acting mayor, Michael K. Brown, who talked at a Rotary Club lunch about “shutting down quadrants of the city.”

Nothing will happen immediately, but Flint has begun updating its master plan, a complicated task last done in 1965. Then it was a prosperous city of 200,000 looking to grow to 350,000. It now has 110,000 people, about a third of whom live in poverty.

Flint has about 75 neighborhoods spread out over 34 square miles. It will be a delicate process to decide which to favor, Mr. Kildee acknowledged from the driver’s seat of his Grand Cherokee.

Comment: Truly sad! My Grandparents lived NW of there when I was a child.

Economy forcing Church budget cuts

Church budget-cutting: Prudent planning or excessive anxiety?

Excerpt:

As the nation’s economic crisis seeps further into congregations, budget cuts are the order of the day. But are churches reacting more to fear than facts?

The financial pain for churches is real. But evidence is mixed about how much member giving is suffering right now and how widespread -- or necessary -- budget cutting has become.

If you listen to the conversation between pastors, however, it’s clearly the topic on top of their minds.

“I know of one [church finance] committee that wanted to make 33 percent cuts based on computer projections,” reported Michael Smith of First Baptist Church of Murfreesboro, Tenn. “Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, the need was shared with the church, and the need for such a major cut evaporated.”

The majority of churches contacted for this article -- such as Emerywood Baptist in High Point, N.C., and River Road Church, Baptist, in Richmond, Va. -- have made significant budget cuts already this year, typically between 5 percent and 10 percent.

Comment: We need to 1) Be faithful to our local church!; 2.) Give faithfully; 3.) Pray

China: Nuke subs ... threat to Taiwan?

China to Unveil Nuclear Submarines

Excerpt:

A senior Chinese naval officer said that China would unveil its nuclear submarines to the public on Thursday as part of an international review of the country’s naval fleet “aimed at promoting understanding about China’s military development,” according to a report by Xinhua, the state news agency.

The appearance of the submarines, in the northeastern port city of Qingdao, would be the first time that China has publicly shown the vessels. They are among the most powerful ships in the Chinese Navy.

...

China’s main military concern, though, is Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island that China says must be reunited with the mainland and that the United States supports with arms sales. Some Taiwanese strongly advocate open independence, and at times China has threatened the island with violence, but relations between Beijing and Taipei have improved since the election last year of Ma Ying-jeou as president of Taiwan. Mr. Ma rejects any notion of declaring independence.

The Pentagon released a study on March 25 that said that the Chinese government is seeking weapons and technology to disrupt the traditional advantages of the American military, and that the veil of secrecy the Chinese government has thrown over its military could lead to a miscalculation or conflict between the two nations. According to the report, a main goal of China’s military buildup is to have sufficient forces on hand in the event of war across the Taiwan Strait.

Comment: More on China's military.

The wrong guy was placed on paid administrative leave

Principal on leave after words with Minneapolis board member

Excerpt:

A southwest Minneapolis school principal was placed on paid administrative leave Monday after an unannounced visit from a school board member escalated into an argument between the two men last week that included charges of racism, district parents said.

Board Member Chris Stewart made a surprise visit to Burroughs Elementary School on Friday during which he called Burroughs Principal Tim Cadotte and the entire school community racist, parents said.

Comment: If the facts stand, that board member called "the entire school community racist", then he should be forced to resign from the school board!

I'm "melting polar ice caps, raising sea levels and killing rain forests"

Fatties cause global warming

Excerpt:

Scientists warned that the increase in big-eaters means more food production — a major cause of CO2 gas emissions warming the planet.

Overweight people are also more likely to drive, adding to environmental damage.

Dr Phil Edwards, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “Moving about in a heavy body is like driving in a gas guzzler.”

Each fat person is said to be responsible for emitting a tonne more of climate-warming carbon dioxide per year than a thin one.

It means an extra BILLION TONNES of CO2 a year is created, according to World Health Organisation estimates of overweight people.

The scientists say providing extra grub for them to guzzle adds to carbon emissions that heat up the world, melting polar ice caps, raising sea levels and killing rain forests.

The environmental impact of fat humans is made even worse because they are more likely to travel by car — another major cause of carbon emissions.

Comment: I'm an eco-terrorist! You know if more of us would use Beano, there would be less CO2!

Not a dime's worth of difference

SPIN METER: Saving federal money the easy way

Excerpt:

Cut a latte or two out of your annual budget and you've just done as much belt-tightening as President Barack Obama asked of his Cabinet on Monday.

The thrifty measures Obama ordered for federal agencies are the equivalent of asking a family that spends $60,000 in a year to save $6.

Obama made his push for frugality the subject of his first Cabinet meeting, ensuring it would command the capital's attention. It also set off outbursts of mental math and scribbled calculations as political friend and foe tried to figure out its impact.

The bottom line: Not much.

The president gave his Cabinet 90 days to find $100 million in savings to achieve over time.

For all the trumpeting, the effort raised questions about why Obama set the bar so low, considering that $100 million amounts to:

• Less than one-quarter of the budget increase that Congress awarded to itself.
  
• 4 percent of the military aid the United States sends to Israel.
  
• Less than half the cost of one F-22 fighter plane.
  
• 7 percent of the federal subsidy for the money-losing Amtrak passenger rail system.
  
• 1/10,000th of the government's operating budgets for Cabinet agencies, excluding the Iraq and Afghan wars and the stimulus bill.
  

Link:

Comment: Painless, showy, smoke and mirrors!

TCF to rid itself of TARP

TCF Financial Corp. to return $361.2 million in federal bailout money

Excerpt:

TCF Financial Corp. said it received government approval to return $361.2 million in federal bailout money, and will cut its quarterly dividend by 80 percent.

The Wayzata-based regional bank, which has $16 billion in assets, originally received an investment from the U.S. Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program, TARP, last November. But after tighter restrictions were placed on banks receiving the funds, TCF chief executive Bill Cooper filed notice in March that he intended to return the funds.

On Monday, TCF said the U.S. Treasury gave the bank permission to buy back all the 361,172 shares of preferred stock it issued to the government under TARP, effectively enabling the bank to exit the bank bailout program.

The move will boost TCF's profits because it means the bank will not have to make dividend payments to the U.S. Treasury. The bank estimates its earnings per share will improve by over 14 cents per share annually as a result of the move.

"Participation in the TARP has created a competitive disadvantage for TCF and we believe it is in the best interest of our stockholders to repurchase these shares," Cooper said in a written statement.

Comment: Good for them!

China, Friend or Foe?

China, Friend or Foe?

Excerpt:

The Pentagon views China as the country most likely, at some point down the road, to acquire the capacity to challenge the U.S. military on a global scale. The U.S. in recent years has moved to strengthen its forces in the Pacific and urged its ally Japan to do the same. Washington and Tokyo are working together to boost anti-missile defenses, to defend against threats from both North Korea and China. And some in the Defense Department talk up the "China threat" to justify greater spending on new weapons systems.

This week, Adm. Wu Shengli, the top officer in China's navy -- officially known as the People's Liberation Army Navy -- said the service would move faster to modernize its arsenal and build larger and more capable warships "to boost the ability to fight in regional sea wars" using high-tech weaponry. In an interview with China's official Xinhua news agency ahead of the navy's 60th anniversary next week, he also said the navy would improve its ability to operate on the high seas. Other officials in recent months have talked about China building its first aircraft carrier, adding to U.S. concerns that China wants to project its power.

However, many observers, both in China and the U.S., say that fear of China is exaggerated. China's armed forces are still no match for U.S. firepower at sea, on land or in space. Many American security analysts -- including former senior military officers -- do not believe that China intends to take on the U.S., as the former Soviet Union once did. For now, China's military falls back on a mix of high-tech weaponry, such as its new Jin-class nuclear-missile submarines, and low-tech stealth and cunning.

Comment: My brother and I were talking about this yesterday. If China invaded Taiwan would / should the US defend?

Ethanol makes little economic sense

The Ethanol Bubble Pops in Iowa

Excerpt:

In September, ethanol giant VeraSun Energy opened a refinery on the outskirts of this eastern Iowa community. Among the largest biofuels facilities in the country, the Dyersville plant could process 39 million bushels of corn and produce 110 million gallons of ethanol annually. VeraSun boasted the plant could run 24 hours a day, seven days a week to meet the demand for home-grown energy.

But the only thing happening 24-7 at the Dyersville plant these days is nothing at all. Its doors are shut and corn deliveries are turned away. Touring the facility recently, I saw dozens of rail cars sitting idle. They've been there through the long, bleak winter. Two months after Dyersville opened, VeraSun filed for bankruptcy, closing many of its 14 plants and laying off hundreds of employees. VeraSun lost $476 million in the third quarter last year.

A town of 4,000, Dyersville is best known as the location of the 1989 film "Field of Dreams." In the film, a voice urges Kevin Costner to create a baseball diamond in a cornfield and the ghosts of baseball past emerge from the ether to play ball. Audiences suspended disbelief as they were charmed by a story that blurred the lines between fantasy and reality.

That's pretty much the story of ethanol. Consumers were asked to suspend disbelief as policy makers blurred the lines between economic reality and a business model built on fantasies of a better environment and energy independence through ethanol. Notwithstanding federal subsidies and mandates that force-feed the biofuel to the driving public, ethanol is proving to be a bust.

Comment: Last paragraph is key!

Five Ways to Use Plastic Wisely

Five Ways to Use Plastic Wisely

Excerpts:

1. Making larger purchases or ordering online: credit cards can protect consumers making larger purchases.
   
2. When traveling: credit is "safer than carrying all that currency around with you,"
   
3. When buying necessities: Plastic also can be helpful in emergency situations
   
4. When using a budget: Statements from credit cards can help with budgeting
   
5. When building up reward points: Using a card that earns reward points that you can redeem for merchandise, travel or something else puts extra money in your pocket -- especially if you pay off your bills each month.
   

Comment: A key, in my mind, is to pay it off every month!

Murtha's airport

Murtha’s $150 million in earmarks lift airport

Excerpt:

The John Murtha airport sits on a windy mountain two hours east of Pittsburgh, a 650-acre expanse of smooth tarmac, spacious buildings, a helicopter hangar and a National Guard training center.

Inside the terminal on a recent weekday, four passengers lined up to board a flight, outnumbered by seven security staff members and supervisors, all suited up in gloves and uniforms to screen six pieces of luggage. For three hours that day, no commercial or private planes took off or landed. Three commercial flights leave the airport on weekdays, all bound for Dulles International Airport.

The key to the airport's gleaming facilities -- and, indeed, its continued existence -- is $200 million in federal funds in the past decade and the powerful patron who steered most of that money here. Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) is credited with securing at least $150 million for the airport. It was among the first in the country to win funding from this year's stimulus package: $800,000 to repave a backup runway.

Comment: This is taxpayer money wasted to the nth degree!

The growing burden of student loans

In Grim Job Market, Student Loans Are a Costly Burden

Excerpt:

hey bought into the notion that if they went to college — never mind the debt — their degree would lead to a lucrative job. And repaying their student loans would never be a problem.

But the economic crisis has turned those assumptions on their ear as thousands of recent graduates have been unable to find jobs or are earning too little to cover the payments for loans that are sometimes as high as $50,000.

The result has been rising default rates for student loans. And unlike other debts, student loans cannot easily be renegotiated.

“You often hear the quote that you can’t put a price on ignorance,” said Ezra Kazee, who has $29,000 in student debt and has been unable to find a job since graduating from Winona State University in Minnesota last May. “But with the way higher education is going, ignorance is looking more and more affordable every day.”

About two-thirds of the students graduating from college next month, or an estimated 1.8 million, have taken on student loans to pay ever-rising tuition and room and board. The average cumulative debt among graduating seniors is about $22,500, according to FinAid.org, a Web site that specializes in financial aid.

Comment: Student loans are a good idea if you are going to be a Doctor .... otherwise avoid them!

Coleman & Franken: onto State Supreme Court

Minnesota's Missing Votes - Some Senate absentee ballots are more equal than others.

Excerpt:

[a] solution is to hold a special Senate election. Minnesota law does not specifically provide for such a runoff. However, the U.S. Constitution's 17th amendment does provide states with a roadmap for filling "vacancies," which might be a legal starting point for a do-over. Even before the shifting standards of the contest trial, the St. Paul Pioneer Press looked at the ballot-counting evidence and called for a revote. It could be that this is where the court case is leading in any event.

Democrats want to portray Mr. Coleman as a sore loser and make the Republican worry that he will ruin his chances for other political office. But Mr. Coleman has a legitimate grievance that not all votes have been treated equally. If the Franken standard of disparate absentee-voter treatment is allowed to stand, every close election will be settled by a legal scramble to change the vote-counting rules after Election Day. Minnesota should take the time to get this one right.

Comment: The problem with a revote is the cost to the State but that's my preference.

Maps.huge.info

http://maps.huge.info/


Comment: Cool zipcode mapping site I discovered. Search for zipcodes !

Oliver North: I am an Extremist

Oliver North Comments on the DHS "Rightwing Extremism'" Report: I Am an Extremist

Excerpt:

According to the U.S. Government, I am an extremist. I am a Christian – and meet regularly with other Christians to study God’s word. My faith convinces me the prophesies in the Holy Bible are true. I believe in the sanctity of human life, oppose abortion and want to preserve marriage as the union of a man and a woman. I am a veteran with skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. I own several firearms, frequently shoot them, buy ammunition and consider efforts to infringe on my 2nd Amendment rights to be wrong and unconstitutional. I fervently support the sovereignty of the United States, am deeply concerned about our economy, increasingly higher taxes, illegal immigration, soaring unemployment, and actions by our government that will bury my children beneath a mountain of debt.

Apparently, all this makes me a “rightwing extremist.” At least that’s what it says in the April 7, 2009 “Assessment” issued by the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The nine-page report, titled, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” is full of warnings about American citizens who share any of my background or subscribe to the beliefs above. It is one of the most alarming documents produced by our government that I have ever read.

Comment: I'm am too!

John Stumpf is CEO of the Year

Wells Fargo's John Stumpf is CEO of the Year

Excerpt:

Wells Fargo & Co. didn't merely survive the economic tsunami that wiped out prominent financial institutions and transformed the Wall Street landscape. The San Francisco bank rode the wave, playing the upheaval to its advantage by picking up a crippled, but substantial, competitor on the cheap.

The roughly $13 billion acquisition of Wachovia Corp., completed on the final day of last year, converted the super regional bank into one of the nation's largest. Based on preliminary first-quarter results released this month, it's also among the strongest.

For that, the bank's leader, John Stumpf, is The Chronicle's Chief Executive Officer of the Year for 2008.

His office declined an interview request for this article, citing SEC rules in advance of the company's scheduled earning announcement on Wednesday.

Stumpf became CEO of Wells Fargo, San Francisco's largest private employer and one of the biggest charitable contributors, in June 2007.

The company would not have been in a position to seize the opportunities presented by the economic meltdown last year had it not largely avoided the boom time behavior that would eventually doom so many of its peers. Specifically, it offered far fewer of the exotic and now toxic mortgages that wiped out credit markets and sparked the takeover or dissolution of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Bros., Bear Stearns, Countrywide Financial Corp., Washington Mutual and scores of other lenders.

"We were the No. 1 mortgage company in this country in the early part of this decade, and all of a sudden we started to see people do things that we didn't understand," Stumpf said in an interview earlier this year, citing negative-amortization and payment-option mortgages.

"We gave up tens of billions of dollars in loan-origination volume and millions and millions of dollars in profit," he said. "But we didn't see how doing this would help customers succeed financially. We don't think lending money to somebody who we know can't pay us back serves anybody. Others did that because they were interested in short-term profits, and they got nailed."

Comment: I've met John. Impressive guy!

Macs a smaller target

Macs Aren’t Safer, Just a Smaller Target

Excerpt:

It’s true that very few viruses have been written for Macs — and none are spreading actively right now. Similarly, hacker programs distributed by malicious Web sites typically run only on PCs.

Yet Macs’ relative safety is primarily due to their still-slim market share. They’re simply a waste of time for today’s attackers, who are trying to accomplish crime on a large scale by infiltrating millions of computers. And there’s nothing inherently more secure about a Mac. Researchers found 26 vulnerabilities in OS X in 2008, about the same as in Windows Vista (27), according to the security software maker Symantec. If its market share rises enough, the Mac will become a target and attacks will succeed.

Comment: And Linux yet a smaller target

Treasury won't let TCF return TARP

Treasury Allows New Bank to Return TARP Funds, Keeps Other Bank Waiting

Excerpts:

... the Treasury Department is allowing another bank to return money loaned to it under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), it is still keeping one institution – TCF Financial – in the lurch, declining to tell it or CNSNews.com why it has taken more than the required 30 days to process the money-return request.

...

TCF Financial, based in Wayzata, Minn., also thinks that Congress has changed the rules and would like to return taxpayers’ money as soon as possible. However, according to TCF spokesman Jason Korstange, the Treasury Department has not approved the return yet, nor have they told TCF why they are taking so long.

“Not yet, we’re hoping to hear any minute, any day,” Korstange told CNSNews.com. “We have not heard back. We have certainly talked to them, but we haven’t received an answer yet.”

Korstange said that Treasury had not provided a reason for the delay, but noted that TCF had given Treasury everything it asked for.

“No reasons,” he said. “We’ve given them a lot of information, any information they ask for, any information we thought was necessary.”

Korstange explained that Treasury had originally invited TCF to apply for TARP funds, saying it wanted the participation of healthy banks to mitigate the shock to the financial system from the failure of large firms like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns.

TCF agreed, wanting to do its civic duty by aiding the government in keeping the nation’s hobbled financial industry going.

“They came to all the banks,” said Korstange. “They did come to us and suggested that it would be a good idea, that if you didn’t take it you would be looked on as a bank that couldn’t get it, that you were too bad to get it.

“It made sense to do it at that time. We thought we were being good citizens. We didn’t need the money,” Korstange added.

The $700-billion TARP was passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush last fall.

The law says that the Treasury Secretary "is authorized to establish the Troubled Asset Relief Program (or ‘TARP’) to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, troubled assets from any financial institution, on such terms and conditions as are determined by the Secretary, and in accordance with this Act and the policies and procedures developed and published by the Secretary. ...

“The term ‘financial institution’ means any institution, including, but not limited to, any bank, savings association, credit union, security broker or dealer, or insurance company, established and regulated under the laws of the United States or any State, territory, or possession of the United States ...."

Korstange said that changing the rules of TARP and demonizing banks that participate in it ultimately hurts the government’s own efforts, because the TARP program is the best recovery program the government is offering.

“It’s the best thing the government has going for it right now, as a matter of fact, [because] it’s not given to the bank, it’s a loan,” Korstange told CNSNews.com. “We’re paying dividends on it. They’re getting 5 percent. To be perceived as this ogre that’s out there gobbling up all this tax money is just wrong.”

That negative perception, fueled by the actions of both the Obama administration and Congress, pushed TCF to get out of TARP. Korstange said that when the government decided it could tell banks how to do business, it had gone too far.

Comment: Once the government's hand get's in your pocket it's hard to get it out!

Great Depression parallels

IMF warns over parallels to Great Depression

Excerpts:

This recession is likely to be "unusually long and severe, and the recovery sluggish," said the Fund, releasing two advance chapters from its World Economic Outlook. However, it warned there is a risk that it could spiral down into a full-blown slump unless further action is taken to stop "feedback effects" gathering force.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the IMF, said millions of people risk being pushed back into poverty as the economic storm ravages the most vulnerable countries. "The human consequences could be absolutely devastating. This is a truly global crisis, and nobody is escaping," he said.

...

The IMF said the US is at the epicentre of this crisis just as it was in the Depression, setting the two episodes apart from normal downturns. However, the risks are greater this time. "While the credit boom in the 1920s was largely spec­ific to the US, the boom during 2004-2007 was global, with increased leverage and risk-taking in advanced economies and many emerging economies. Levels of integration are now much higher than during the inter-war period, so US financial shocks have a larger impact," it said.

The IMF said the global financial system is still under acute stress, with output tumbling and inflation falling towards zero in key nations. "The risks of debt deflation have increased," it said.

Abrupt halts in capital flows can have "dire consequences" for emerging economies, it said. Eastern Europe has already suffered the effects, with a 17.6pc fall in industrial production in February. The region is highly vulnerable to the credit crunch since it owes more than 50pc of its GDP to Western banks.

Comment: Exaggeration?

Declaration now ... regulations next .... then the taxes

EPA To Declare 6 Gases A Public Health Risk

Excerpt:

The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases are a danger to public health and welfare. It is the first step to regulating pollution linked to climate change.

Congressional sources told The Associated Press that EPA will announce its proposed finding Friday and begin a comment period before issuing a final ruling. The EPA also will say tailpipe emissions from motor vehicles contribute to climate change. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the finding hasn't been announced.

The action was prompted by a Supreme Court ruling two years that said greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act and must be regulated if found to be a human health danger.

Comment: Another seismic shift that will bring bigger government!

Why no uproar over this?

Comment: Do you remember this event and the media uproar over it?


Justice Department covers partially nude statues

Excerpt:

No longer will the attorney general be photographed in front of two partially nude statues in the Great Hall of the Department of Justice.

The department spent $8,000 on blue drapes that hide the two giant, aluminum art deco statues, said spokesman Shane Hix. For aesthetic reasons, he said, the drapes were occasionally hung in front of the statues before formal events. The department used to rent the drapes, but has now purchased them and left them hanging.

The drapes provide a nice background for television cameras, Hix said.

ABC News reported that Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered the statues covered because he didn't like being photographed in front of them.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Ashcroft has been photographed several times in front of the female statue that represents the Spirit of Justice. The 10- to 12-foot statue has its arms raised and a toga draped over its body, but a single breast is completely exposed.

Why no uproar about this:

Jesus Missing From Obama's Georgetown Speech - White House asked university to cover symbol

Excerpt:

The White House asked Georgetown to cover a monogram symbolizing Jesus' name in Gaston Hall, which Obama used for his speech, according to CNSNews.com.

The gold "IHS" monogram inscribed on a pediment in the hall was covered over by a piece of black-painted plywood, and remained covered over the next day, CNSNews.com reported.

Final comment: Why did Georgetown comply?

Caloplaca obamae

Lichen named after President Obama

Excerpt:

A newly discovered species of lichen — a plant-like growth that looks like moss or a dry leaf — has been named after President Obama.

Kerry Knudsen, lichen curator of the University of California, Riverside Herbarium, discovered the species in 2007 while doing a survey for lichen diversity on Santa Rosa Island in California.

"I named it Caloplaca obamae to show my appreciation for the president's support of science and science education," he said. "I made the final collections of C. obamae during the suspenseful final weeks of President Obama's campaign for the United States presidency."

Comment: Lichen

Meanwhile .... the DHS hit job on conservatives

The Obama DHS hit job on conservatives is real

Excerpt:

Yesterday, Roger Hedgecock and the Liberty Papers posted an unclassified DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis report titled:

Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.

The “report” (PDF file here) was one of the most embarrassingly shoddy pieces of propaganda I’d ever read out of DHS. I couldn’t believe it was real.

I spent the day chasing down DHS spokespeople, who have been tied up preparing for a very important homeland security event later today: The First Lady is coming to visit their Washington office. Priorities, you know.

Well, the press office got back to me and verified that the document is indeed for real.

They were very defensive — preemptively so — in asserting that it was not a politicized document and that DHS had done reports on “leftwing extremism” in the past. I have covered DHS for many years and am quite familiar with past assessments they and the FBI have done on animal rights terrorists and environmental terrorists. But those past reports have always been very specific in identifying the exact groups, causes, and targets of domestic terrorism, i.e., the ALF, ELF, and Stop Huntingdon wackos who have engaged in physical harassment, arson, vandalism, and worse against pharmaceutical companies, farms, labs, and university researchers.

By contrast, the piece of crap report issued on April 7 is a sweeping indictment of conservatives. And the intent is clear. As the two spokespeople I talked with on the phone today made clear: They both pinpointed the recent “economic downturn” and the “general state of the economy” for stoking “rightwing extremism.” One of the spokespeople said he was told that the report has been in the works for a year. My b.s. detector went off the chart, and yours will, too, if you read through the entire report — which asserts with no evidence that an unquantified “resurgence in rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalizations activity” is due to home foreclosures, job losses, and…the historical presidential election.

In Obama land, there are no coincidences. It is no coincidence that this report echoes Tea Party-bashing left-wing blogs (check this one out comparing the Tea Party movement to the Weather Underground!) and demonizes the very Americans who will be protesting in the thousands on Wednesday for the nationwide Tax Day Tea Party.

Comment: I guess being for gun rights and against abortion might someday put one on terrorist watch list! Wake up America. Our freedoms could soon be compromised!

Peaceful assembly and free speech called "despicable"

Schakowsky: Tea parties 'despicable'

Excerpt:

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) blasted "tea party" protests yesterday, labeling the activities "despicable" and shameful."

"The ‘tea parties’ being held today by groups of right-wing activists, and fueled by FOX News Channel, are an effort to mislead the public about the Obama economic plan that cuts taxes for 95 percent of Americans and creates 3.5 million jobs," Schakowsky said in a statement.

"It’s despicable that right-wing Republicans would attempt to cheapen a significant, honorable moment of American history with a shameful political stunt," she added. "Not a single American household or business will be taxed at a higher rate this year. Made to look like a grassroots uprising, this is an Obama bashing party promoted by corporate interests, as well as Republican lobbyists and politicians.”

Comment: Coincidentally I ordered Kathee tea from Peet's Coffee and Tea this week for her birthday (on Saturday)

Four uncomfortable questions that could bankrupt the country

Commentary: What's driving the U.S. over a cliff?

Excerpts:

1. First, why do we let people retire too early and then expect them to live so long without working? In 1910, the average retirement age in the United States was 74. In 2002, however, the average retirement age was 62. Average life expectancy in 1910 was around 55, while in 2002 it was 77.
   
2. Second, why do most Americans spend so much of their health care expenditures in the last three months of their life? Fully 27 percent of Medicare is devoted to spending on end-of-life health (in other words, health care that doesn't work), according to the Journal of the American Medical Association.
   
3. Third, why do so many people pay nothing in federal income taxes? According to the Tax Foundation, fully 32 percent of all Americans pay no federal income taxes while 42 percent of single Americans pay no federal income taxes. ... But at some point in time, squeezing the so-called rich will become counterproductive to economic growth, and the pie will start to shrink. It is not fair that so many Americans pay nothing in income taxes to their government.
   
4. Fourth, why is it more profitable to work in the government than to work in the private sector? According to one study, public employees earned benefits worth an average of $13.38 an hour in December 2008, while private-sector workers got benefits worth $7.98 an hour. Overall, total compensation for state and local workers was $39.25 an hour, $11.90 more than in the private sector.
   

Comments:

1. Employers don't want employees that at that old!
   
2. Dying medicine is expensive medicine.
   
3. We need a major revision of the tax code. I don't see it happening.
   
4. Government workers (this is a generalization) vote Democratic (like Union workers)
   

JPMorgan Chase: tired of being a "TARP baby"

Dimon Says He’s Eager to Repay ‘Scarlet Letter’ TARP

Excerpt:

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, who today reported first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ expectations, said his firm could repay U.S. government rescue funds “tomorrow.”

Dimon, calling money received through the Troubled Asset Relief Program “a scarlet letter,” and “the TARP baby,” said on a conference call today that the New York-based bank is awaiting guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department. “We could pay it back tomorrow,” he said.

The 53-year-old CEO took $25 billion in U.S. government rescue funds last year. He’s fared better than most of his rivals in guiding the company through the financial crisis, taking $33.3 billion in writedowns, losses and credit provisions through the fourth quarter. That compares with $88.3 billion at New York-based Citigroup Inc. and $55.9 billion at Merrill Lynch & Co., now part of Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. bank.

“We learned our lesson” about borrowing from the government, Dimon said.

Comment: We should all learn that lesson. That whenever the Federal Government "gives" it comes with a whole lot of strings and wires!

CPI down for first time since 1955!

Consumer prices fall

Excerpt:

On a year-over-year basis, consumer prices fell 0.4 percent in March, the first 12-month decline since August 1955

Comment: Good thing because even if people have jobs they are not getting raises!

Roger to Red River Valley

N.D., Minnesota Guard respond to Red River Valley flooding

Excerpt:

Meanwhile, in Moorhead, Minn., which sits on the opposite bank of the Red River from Fargo, about 200 Minnesota Guardmembers are working to raise levee heights, according to National Guard Bureau reports.

Comment: Roger left today for 1-3 weeks.

Still on strike in Elkhart

Sour notes still echo on an Elkhart picket line

Excerpt:

In a town with one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, being on strike is not going to get you much sympathy. And staying on strike for three years is going to earn you even less.

“People don’t respect us. They look at us like, ‘You are stupid because you’re on strike when you could have a good job,’” said David Kish, 62, who spent 40 years making trumpets, trombones and other musical instruments at Elkhart’s Vincent Bach plant before he and 230 fellow union members walked off their jobs April 1, 2006. About 130 workers remain on strike.

The strike has never officially ended, although production at the plant was disrupted only briefly before the company hired replacement workers. It later lured a number of strikers to cross the picket lines.

...

... union members meet up once a week at Elkhart’s Disabled American Veterans hall to collect their strike pay and share coffee and doughnuts. There they chat bitterly about Conn-Selmer, the Bach instrument line’s parent company, and the 70 or so replacement workers and strike-breakers they say are now working for far less than the average $20 an hour that was paid in the plant’s heyday.

Comment: NYTimes interactive graphic

Humor: Reminds me of a Seinfeld episode: The Strike

Roger called up to serve in Red River flooding area

Fargo, ND, to begin 2nd round of sandbagging

Excerpt:

Residents in Fargo, N.D., will resume sandbagging along a swollen river to prepare for a second crest expected in the next 10 days.

City officials are asking for volunteers to help make sandbags Wednesday morning at the Fargodome parking lot. They hope to bump up their inventory to 500,000 sandbags to be used to shore up dikes and fill leaks.

The National Weather Service is forecasting that the Red River will crest again at Fargo between 38 and 40 feet. That's due to occur between April 16 and 18.

The Red gave Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minn., a major scare last month before cresting just shy of 41 feet. The two cities largely escaped damage after a massive sandbagging effort that raised their dike protection to 43 feet.

Comment: Our son, Roger, was called up today (to leave on Monday) to serve for 2 weeks in the Red River valley. He is a Sgt in the MN National Guard (formerly 6 years in the USMC).

Under the name of "liberalism"

Norman Matton Thomas (November 20, 1884 - December 19, 1968) was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1911. As a candidate for President of the U. S., Norman Thomas said, in a 1944 epoch speech: "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." He went on to say: "I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform."

Comment: Happening before our eyes!

Blowhard Biden

Rove Calls Biden 'Liar' After VP Boasts of Scolding Bush

Excerpt:

Republican strategist Karl Rove called Vice President Biden a "liar" on Thursday, dramatically escalating a feud between Biden and aides to former President George W. Bush over Biden's claims to have rebuked Bush in private meetings.

"I hate to say this, but he's a serial exaggerator," Rove told FOX News. "If I was being unkind I would say liar. But it is a habit he ought to drop."

Rove added: "You should not exaggerate and lie like this when you are the Vice President of the United States."

Biden's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, although Biden spokesman Jay Carney told Fox on Wednesday: "The vice president stands by his remarks."

Comment: Hey Biden ... publish your calendar to prove you were alone with Bush for an hour.

States raise taxes

More States Look to Raise Taxes

Excerpt:

At least 10 states are considering some kind of major increase in sales or income taxes: Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin. California and New York lawmakers already have agreed on multibillion-dollar tax increases that went into effect earlier this year.

Comment: Our property taxes are up 14% over last year. Which way do you think the value of our home went? (Down!)

"Gunny" Ermey finds bag of cash

History Channel host finds bag of cash

Excerpt:

Actor R. Lee Ermey is living up to the Marine Corps' mantra: "A Few Good Men."

The former Marine drill instructor and host of The History Channel's "Mail Call" was in Missoula on Monday to film a segment for his upcoming series "Locked and Loaded" when he said he found some cash. A lot of cash.

Ermey, best known for playing the drill instructor in Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket," said he was driving with crew member Harlan Glenn to a museum when he spotted a black object on the road.

Ermey stopped the car and picked up the bag, which contained cash and checks that looked like they were meant for deposit in a Native American fund.

"Just on one deposit slip alone was, like, $3,700, and another one for $2,800," Glenn said. "There was easily $8,000 in cash and the rest in checks."

Ermey told the Missoulian newspaper he thought: "Some poor guy right now is probably getting fired, probably having the worst day of his life. So what we did was we went right down to the Wells Fargo bank and deposited it for him."

Don Luke, a business expert at the Wells Fargo branch, said he was surprised to see "The Gunny" stroll in.

Comment: Another USMC hero!

“Excess capacity, once entrenched, perpetuates itself"

Economy Falling Years Behind Full Speed

Excerpt:

As the recession grinds on, more and more of the nation’s means of production — its workers, its factories, its retail outlets, its freight lines, its bank lending, even its new inventions — are being mothballed.

This idled capacity, like baseball players after a winter off, takes time to bring back into robust use. So even if the recession miraculously ended tomorrow, economists estimate that at least three years would pass before full employment returned and output rose enough for the economy to operate at full throttle.

While stock market investors have embraced tentative signs of improvement in the mortgage market and elsewhere, even a sharp pickup in demand for products and services will take considerable time to play out.

The mathematics are daunting. The shortfall is running at more than $1 trillion in annual sales and other transactions. Only once since the Great Depression has there been such a severe loss of output — in the 1981-82 recession — and after that downturn, it was seven years before the economy regained the lost production.

Comment: Looks like a long road to economic recovery.

What .... only $ 50,000?!

US gives 50,000 dlrs for quake-hit Italy

Excerpt:

The United States said Monday it would donate 50,000 dollars in emergency aid to Italy after a powerful earthquake killed at least 100 people.

"We send our heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed in the earthquake. Our embassy in Rome will provide 50,000 (dollars) in emergency relief funding," State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters.

Comment: I find this hard to believe: With trillions being thrown here and there and billions given to banks, and automakers; we are only giving Italy $ 50,000 for earthquake relief!?

The Underemployment rate

Americans Feel 15.6% Unemployment as Underemployment Surges

Excerpt:

While such workers are feeling real pain from the recession that began in December 2007, they’re not represented in the 8.5 percent unemployment rate the Labor Department reported last week. They are part of a broader group that includes those who want a job but have stopped looking for work and those who want full-time positions but have to settle for part-time employment.

A measure of underemployment that counts those people has almost doubled over the past two years, to 15.6 percent, providing a more complete gauge of the labor market’s deterioration. Along with an historic drop in the percentage of the population who are working, and record numbers of long-term unemployed, the figures point to a permanent shift in employment patterns, said former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

“We’re seeing many more people who are losing their connectedness to the labor force,” said Reich, who served in President Bill Clinton’s Cabinet and is now an economist at the University of California at Berkeley. “There is a profound weakening of ties to the labor market among a large portion of our working-age population.”

Comment: Readers may know people who once were looking for a job but gave up for one reason or another.

Here come the Netbooks

Light and Cheap, Netbooks Are Poised to Reshape PC Industry

Excerpts:

Personal computers — and the companies that make their crucial components — are about to go through their biggest upheaval since the rise of the laptop. By the end of the year, consumers are likely to see laptops the size of thin paperback books that can run all day on a single charge and are equipped with touch screens or slide-out keyboards.

...

As in any revolution, the current rulers of the kingdom — Intel and Microsoft, which make the chips and software that run most PCs — face an unprecedented challenge to their dominance. Microsoft is particularly vulnerable, since many of the new netbooks use Linux software instead of Windows.

...

Netbooks have trouble running demanding software like games and photo-editing programs. They cater instead to people who spend most of their time dealing with online services and want a cheap, light device they can use on the go. Most of the netbooks sold today run on an Intel chip called Atom, which is a lower-cost, lower-power version of the company’s standard laptop chips. And about 80 percent of netbooks run Windows XP, the older version of Microsoft’s flagship software.

...

Netbook makers have turned to Linux, an open-source operating system that costs $3 instead of the $25 that Microsoft typically charges for Windows XP. They are also exploring the possibility of using the Android operating system from Google, originally designed for cellphones. (Companies like Acer, Dell and Hewlett-Packard already sell some Atom-based netbooks with Linux.)

Comment: See pic of Dell Mini 9. We have a Dell Mini 9 running Linux.

Treating N Korea like a petulant child

WSJ interactive graphic: Testing, Talking, Testing

Obama's NK Reaction: More Talks

Excerpt:

Prior to North Korea's launch yesterday of a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile, President Barack Obama declared that such an action would be "provocative." This public statement was an attempt to reinforce the administration's private efforts to urge the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea (DPRK) not to fire the missile.

hat effort failed, as have countless other attempts to deal softly with Pyongyang. Incredibly, U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Stephen Bosworth revealed -- just a few days before the launch -- that he was ready to visit Pyongyang and resume the six-party talks once the "dust from the missiles settles." It is no wonder the North fired away.

Once the missile shot was complete, the administration's answer was hand-wringing, more rhetoric and, oh yes, the obligatory trip to the U.N. Security Council so that it could scold the defiant DPRK. Beyond whatever happens in the Security Council, Mr. Obama seems to have no plan whatever.

Comment: No plan whatever. Be sure to check out the WSJ graphic (first link).

Obama: "the Car Designer in Chief"

Government vs. the Axles of Evil

Excerpts:

Barack Obama displayed reality-denying virtuosity last week when, announcing the cashiering of General Motors' CEO, and naming his replacement, and as the government was prompting selection of a new majority of GM's board of directors, and as the government announced the next deadline for GM to submit a more satisfactory viability plan than it submitted at the last faux deadline, and as the government kept the billions flowing to tide GM over until, well, whenever, the president said: "The United States government has no interest in running GM."


Actually, his administration prefers to do that rather than allow bankruptcy to infuriate the United Auto Workers union, which was preemptively grateful to Obama's administration with lavish contributions to candidate Obama. The president supposedly showed "toughness" in sacking a conspicuous member of a particularly unpopular little cohort, CEOs of big corporations. He will need more grit if, as his administration hints, this time it is serious, that its patience is wearing thin, that someday GM could face "controlled" or "prepackaged" or "surgical" bankruptcy. One suspects that those adjectives intimate that it will be faux bankruptcy, gentle in dealing with the UAW.

...
Last week, in an unenthralled summary of GM's "viability" plan, Obama's administration said: "GM earns a large share of its profits from high-margin trucks and SUVs, which are vulnerable to a continuing shift in consumer preference to smaller vehicles. Additionally, while the Chevy Volt holds promise, it will likely be too expensive to be commercially successful in the short term."


The stunning shift in consumer preferences that should make the White House's freshly minted auto experts feel vulnerable has been reported under headlines such as "Like a Rock: Hybrid Car Sales Plummet" (Wall Street Journal, Dec. 9) and "Hybrid Car Sales Go From 60 to 0 at Breakneck Speed" (Los Angeles Times, March 17). Absent $4 gasoline, customers, those nuisances with their insufferable preferences, do not want the vehicles the politicians want them to want, even with manufacturers now offering large rebates and other incentives.


The two best-selling vehicles in America this year are large pickup trucks (Ford F-Series and Chevy Silverado). In February, Toyota sold 13,600 Tundra and Tacoma pickups and 7,232 Priuses. It sells the Prius at a loss, which it can afford to do because it makes pots of money selling pickups. Has the Car Designer in Chief, a.k.a. the president, considered the possibility that what he calls "the cars of tomorrow" will forever be that?

Comment: Reminder that there is another auto industry in the United states. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, and BMW all manufacture autos in the United States. None of them (nor has Ford) taken the handout: Big Three, Meet the "Little Eight":

Today's Southern solons have watched their local economies blossom thanks to a younger, more-vibrant auto industry unencumbered by the Big Three's legacy costs and union work rules—a sort of anti-Detroit that has the flexibility and ability to turn profits by making the types of cars that Americans actually want to buy.

People Pictures

Comment: Sent to me by my brother. More here. Click image above for a much larger image. More on Camp Dodge (Iowa) here.

It's all about control!

Obama Wants to Control the Banks - There's a reason he refuses to accept repayment of TARP money

Excerpt:

Here's a true story first reported by my Fox News colleague Andrew Napolitano (with the names and some details obscured to prevent retaliation). Under the Bush team a prominent and profitable bank, under threat of a damaging public audit, was forced to accept less than $1 billion of TARP money. The government insisted on buying a new class of preferred stock which gave it a tiny, minority position. The money flowed to the bank. Arguably, back then, the Bush administration was acting for purely economic reasons. It wanted to recapitalize the banks to halt a financial panic.

Fast forward to today, and that same bank is begging to give the money back. The chairman offers to write a check, now, with interest. He's been sitting on the cash for months and has felt the dead hand of government threatening to run his business and dictate pay scales. He sees the writing on the wall and he wants out. But the Obama team says no, since unlike the smaller banks that gave their TARP money back, this bank is far more prominent. The bank has also been threatened with "adverse" consequences if its chairman persists. That's politics talking, not economics.

Think about it: If Rick Wagoner can be fired and compact cars can be mandated, why can't a bank with a vault full of TARP money be told where to lend? And since politics drives this administration, why can't special loans and terms be offered to favored constituents, favored industries, or even favored regions? Our prosperity has never been based on the political allocation of credit -- until now.

Comment: Title says it all. There is a giant government GRAB taking place in our economy. Statism is the word for it!

Intruding on America's rule of law

Sudan's dictator roams free, but Bush officials are in jeopardy.

Excerpt:

Here's the match-up. In the right corner we have Omar al-Bashir, for 20 years the Islamist dictator of Sudan and the man most responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Darfuris. In the left corner we have six former Bush Administration officials who were given the task after September 11 of formulating America's response to the atrocities. Who do you think is in the greatest legal jeopardy?

This should be easy: Mr. Bashir was recently issued with an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for "crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur." More specifically, the court's prosecutor alleges that Mr. Bashir "masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups, on account of their ethnicity."

Yet thanks to the concept of "universal jurisdiction" (or "universal competence") the six Americans, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former under Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith and former vice presidential Chief of Staff David Addington, are the ones who may soon have to watch their back -- at least when they travel abroad.

That's because a hyperactive Spanish judge named Baltasar Garzón has begun the process of opening a criminal case against the six, following a complaint from a Spanish human rights group arguing they helped establish the legal framework that created the detention facilities at Guantanamo and the "torture" they allege took place there

...


Now that he is President, he has larger obligations. One is to stand against foreign grandstanding that intrudes on America's rule of law. Another is to oppose Members of his own party, such as Mr. Levin, who are running political vendettas against former U.S. officials. We hope Mr. Obama will value the frank opinions of his own advisers enough to publicly condemn Judge Garzón's legal assault on honorable public servants who did their best to protect the U.S. from harm.

Comment: What will President Obama do? (I think I know)

The Great UFO Hoax of 2009

The Great UFO Hoax of 2009

Excerpt:

Last November, write Joe Rudy, who describes himself as “an avid reader of Skeptic magazine” who teaches science and gives private music lessons, and Chris Russo, who works in sales and says he “intends to continue his quest to spread reason and truth, one pseudoscience at a time,” the two 20-somethings were sitting around discussing pseudoscience and the many people who believe one or another form of it. “We had always had a strong interest in why people were so easily fooled by such irrational superstitions as psychic ability, spiritual mediums, alien abductions, and the like,” they write. So they “set out on a mission to help people think rationally and question the credibility of so-called UFO ‘professionals.’”



They cooked up a spaceship hoax “to show everyone how unreliable eyewitness accounts are, along with investigators of UFOs.” They used 5 feet of fishing line to tie flares to each of five 3-foot helium balloons and launched them from a field on January 5, 2009. “Once all five balloons were ready for takeoff (with our fingers on the verge of frost bite),” they write, “we struck the 15-minute flares and released them into the sky in increments of fifteen seconds,” filming the UFOs as they floated away.

Comment: Videos below.

Obama Orders Chevrolet and Dodge Out Of NASCAR

Obama Orders Chevrolet and Dodge Out Of NASCAR

Excerpt:

n a move sure to spark outrage, the White House announced today that GM and Chrysler must cease participation in NASCAR at the end of the 2009 season if they hope to receive any additional financial aid from the government. Companies around the globe—Honda and Audi, to name two—have drawn down racing operations, and NASCAR itself has already felt the pinch in the form of reduced team spending. A complete withdrawal from America’s premier racing series is expected to save more than $250 million between GM and Chrysler, a substantial amount considering the drastic measures being implemented elsewhere.

“Automakers used to operate on the principle of ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday,’ but the Auto Task Force’s research just doesn’t validate that as true,” said the statement from President Obama. While fans have decried the Car of Tomorrow for heavily limiting what little personalization the cookie-cutter series had previously allowed to participating manufacturers, and drivers have slammed its brick-like aerodynamics and unpredictable handling, even the governmental oversight committee sees that the full-scale regulation of the cars leaves the manufacturers very little space for research and development. “NASCAR is a racing series that regulates down to the smallest detail of the cars, where a car badged a Chevrolet or Dodge differs only marginally from a Ford or a Toyota. There’s no technological development to speak of.”

Comment: April Fools.

Other news: My son was not called up to do MN National Guard duty in the Red River Valley. He is in school full time and works 25 hours a week. He was all packed and ready but no call up!

Spam 94% of All E-Mail

Spam Back to 94% of All E-Mail

Excerpt:

Spam, that annoying but ignorable scourge of the Web, has finally recovered from the jolt it received last November, when Internet backbone providers cut off McColo Corporation, a California Web-hosting service that spammers were using to coordinate e-mail attacks.

The average seven-day spam volume during the latter half of March is now at roughly the same levels as October of last year — around 94 percent of all e-mail — according to the antispam company Postini, a division of Google.

At first, the McColo takedown cut global spam traffic by about 70 percent, according to Postini, which provides e-mail security for more than 50,000 businesses and 15 million business users. “By far, it was the most dramatic event we have ever seen,” said Adam Swidler, product marketing manager for Postini Services.

But this year, average spam volumes have increased about 1.2 percent each day. And there is evidence that spammers are now building more decentralized, peer-to-peer spamming botnets that no longer rely on the visible and vulnerable control nodes that they were using at McColo to guide their spam e-mail campaigns.

Comment: GMail does a super job of stopping SPAM! I have another email host - Fastmail.net - that likewise does a super job (I've never had one SPAM email to this account).

Obama Goodwrench

Comment: See my previous post for his quote!

Government Motors

U.S. Forces Out GM CEO Wagoner

Excerpt:

The Obama administration used the threat of withholding more bailout money to force out General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner and administer harsh medicine to Chrysler LLC, marking one of the most dramatic government interventions in private industry since the economic crisis began last year.

The administration's auto team announced the departure of Mr. Wagoner on Sunday. In a summary of its findings, the task force added that it doesn't believe Chrysler is viable as a stand-alone company and suggested that the best chance for success for both GM and Chrysler "may well require utilizing the bankruptcy code in a quick and surgical way."

The move also indicates that the Treasury Department intends to wade more deeply than most observers expected into the affairs of the country's largest and oldest car company.

After more than a month of analysis, the administration's auto task force determined that neither company had put forward viable plans to restructure and survive. The verdict was gloomier for Chrysler. The government said it would provide Chrysler with capital for 30 days to cut a workable arrangement with Fiat SpA, the Italian auto maker that has a tentative alliance with Chrysler.

Comment: If you take the government money they can make you "dance to their tune". I have a Fiat story: Back when I was in seminary school ('78-80) we needed a new car. Our old Plymouth was a gas hog and had well over 100,000 miles on it. We looked at a Fiat 128. Years ago people used to joke that FIAT stood for "Fix It Again Tony".

Update: President Obama's remarks on U.S. car industry

Excerpt:

It is my hope that the steps I am announcing today will go a long way towards answering many of the questions people may have about the future of GM and Chrysler. But just in case there are still nagging doubts, let me say it as plainly as I can -- if you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired, just like always. Your warrantee will be safe.

In fact, it will be safer than it's ever been. Because starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warrantee.

Comment: You probably will need to stand in line at the post office or petition the IRS to get warranty work done! Maybe they can start "means testing" the owners to see if their income is low enough to have work done on their car!

Red River update

River Crests, and Fargo Averts Danger for Now

Excerpt:

Frigid temperatures unexpectedly slowed the rising waters here Saturday, offering a hopeful but still uncertain sign to a city that had raced for daysto hold back the Red River by piling sand on top of sand on top of sand.

...

Still, the water levels near both this city of 90,000 and Moorhead, Minn., just across the river, remained higher Saturday afternoon than they have ever been recorded here before, and were likely to stay nearly as swollen for days, gurgling precariously close to the tops of the miles and miles of dikes people created.

Comment: Our Son (6 years the the USMC) joined the Minnesota National Guard in January. He is on watch to be going to the flood zone. He packed all of his gear up yesterday.

Why not?

Shane McConkey dies in ski base jumping accident

Excerpt:

Extreme skiier and base jumping pro Shane McConkey has died in a ski-base accident while filming his latest movie in Italy.

McConkey started as a competitive freestyle skier, them moved on to extreme skiing movies. He won several national and international skiing competitions, including the X Games and World Extreme Skiing Championships, but became best known for combining base jumping with skiing.

According to ESPN, McConkey experienced problems in the air after launching off a cliff with the expectation of deploying his parachute canopy and then gliding down to the ground. A witness said a ski failed to come off in the air, causing McConkey to spin out of control, preventing him from deploying his parachute.

Comment: Risk and consequences. Sad. YouTube is an old video. Title is a quote from the video.

Propitiation

Propitiation

Comment: From my other blog

Netbooks

When Laptops Go Light

Excerpt:

A netbook is a laptop with a shrunken screen, an undersize keyboard and a processor that’s so slow, you’d have laughed at it in 2007. The netbooks’ crucial attractions are tiny dimensions, light weight and low cost, usually $350 to $500. Otherwise, they’re all about compromises.

The term “netbook” is a euphemism, intended to stress its main functions: e-mail, Web browsing, chat, Skype and word processing. The hope is to distract you from what netbooks are too feeble to do well: Photoshop, video editing, games and so on.

Comment: Dell Mini 9 with Ubuntu - fun in a small box!

"Hillary: the Movie" and free speech

Free Speech: The Movie - Time for the Supreme Court to overturn McCain-Feingold.

Excerpt:

McCain-Feingold is a frontal assault on political speech, and President Bush's decision to sign it while claiming to dislike it was one of the worst moments of his eight years in office. Citizens United gives the Justices a new opportunity to chip away at this attack on the First Amendment, and even better if they use it to declare the whole thing unconstitutional.

Comment: This is a good "free speech" test case.

Propitiation

Key salvation terms


Comment: From my other blog. We just concluded Romans 3:9-21 in our Bible study last night: All the world guilty before God. Next week we will be discussing "propitiation". Interested readers may find this a blessing.

Obama's Gordian Knot

Comment: Alexander the Great / Gordian Knot. Is Obama's Gordian Knot the economy?

Every British child born owing £ 20,000

Comment: The future of the US (and it is not that far away!)

More: Czech premier, currently European Union president, calls US economic measures 'a way to hell'

A top European Union politician on Wednesday slammed U.S. plans to spend its way out of recession as "a way to hell."

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, told the European Parliament that President Barack Obama's massive stimulus package and banking bailout "will undermine the stability of the global financial market."

Tired of the Dollar

At G20, Kremlin to Pitch New Currency

Excerpt:

The Kremlin published its priorities Monday for an upcoming meeting of the G20, calling for the creation of a supranational reserve currency to be issued by international institutions as part of a reform of the global financial system.

The International Monetary Fund should investigate the possible creation of a new reserve currency, widening the list of reserve currencies or using its already existing Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, as a "superreserve currency accepted by the whole of the international community," the Kremlin said in a statement issued on its web site.

The SDR is an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement the existing official reserves of member countries.

The Kremlin has persistently criticized the dollar's status as the dominant global reserve currency and has lowered its own dollar holdings in the last few years. Both President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have repeatedly called for the ruble to be used as a regional reserve currency, although the idea has received little support outside of Russia.

China calls for new reserve currency

Excerpt:

China’s central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund.

In an essay posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website, Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank’s governor, said the goal would be to create a reserve currency “that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run, thus removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies”.

Comment: A reaction to the loose spending Obama administration (that is making money out of thin air)!

Congress: ‘Hypocrisy’ on Travel

Congress ‘Hypocrisy’ on Trips Angers Hotel Executives

Excerpt:

The U.S. Senate last month passed a measure limiting “luxury” spending for corporate travel by recipients of federal bailout funds. Two weeks later, about two dozen senators of both parties left town for political meetings on the Florida coast.

...

Over the weekend of Feb. 27, two weeks after the Senate passed the measure, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the party fundraising arms for Senate candidates, each held their annual winter meetings in Florida.

Naples Fundraiser

About a dozen Democrats, including Dodd, 64, gathered at the Marriott-operated Ritz-Carlton resort in Naples, Florida. Donors who gave at least $15,000 were invited and offered a “coastal view” room at the group rate of $469, according to the Democrats’ invitation.

At least 11 Republican senators held a similar retreat at The Breakers resort in Palm Beach. Rooms could be had for $475 a night. For another $292, participants could play in a golf tournament. The invitation urged guests to make reservations for the resort’s spa “indulgences.”

Comment: No surprises there!