“Average temperatures in areas such as California and France may drop over the next 10 years, influenced by colder flows in the North Atlantic, said a report today by the institution based in Kiel, Germany. Temperatures worldwide may stabilize in the period.
The study was based on sea-surface temperatures of currents that move heat around the world, and vary from decade to decade. This regional cooling effect may temporarily neutralize the long- term warming phenomenon caused by heat-trapping greenhouse gases building up around the earth, said Richard Wood, a research scientist at the Met Office Hadley Centre, a U.K. provider of environmental and weather-related services.
“Those natural climate variations could be stronger than the global-warming trend over the next 10-year period,” Wood said in an interview. “Without knowing that, you might erroneously think there’s no global warming going on.”
—————-
Another factor that the global warming models forgot. So, even if it’s cooler over the next 10 years, doesn’t mean it’s not really warming.
lol outlander, I find the following statement from your quote rather amusing. Talk about kibitzing!
“Those natural climate variations could be stronger than the global-warming trend over the next 10-year period,” Wood said in an interview. “Without knowing that, you might erroneously think there’s no global warming going on.”
Imagine that, natural climate variations actually controlling the climate! What a concept!
I wasn’t sure exactly what you were planning to do, but the above has just about everything…all rolled into one and at a very reasonable price. I purchased and used it to do some converting, but there’s also editing software included. I was amazed at how easy it was to work with.
Hmmm . . . let’s see the Clintonistas spin this one:
Clinton–”I’m not going to impose additional tax burdens on middle class families –”
O’rally–”But I’m not a middle class family; I’m a rich guy.”
Clinton–”And you know what . . . God bless us. We deserve all the opportunities, to make sure that our country and our blessings continue to the next generation.”
******
Whoa. That’s wrong on so many levels. The sheer elitism is breathtaking . . .
“Weapons compound man’s power to achieve; they amplify the capabilities of both the good man and the bad, and to exactly the same degree, having no will of their own. Thus we must regard them as servants, not masters - and good servants to good men. Without them, man is diminished, and his opportunities to fulfill his destiny are lessened. An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it.”
Pentagon Cover Up
15,000 or More US Deaths in Iraq War?
By MIKE WHITNEY
The Pentagon has been concealing the true number of American casualties in the Iraq War. The real number exceeds 15,000 and CBS News can prove it.
CBS’s Investigative Unit wanted to do a report on the number of suicides in the military and “submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Defense”. After 4 months they received a document which showed–that between 1995 and 2007– there were 2,200 suicides among “active duty” soldiers.
Baloney.
The Pentagon was covering up the real magnitude of the “suicide epidemic”. Following an exhaustive investigation of veterans’ suicide data collected from 45 states; CBS discovered that in 2005 alone “there were at least 6,256 among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week in just one year.”
That is not a typo. Active and retired military personnel, mostly young veterans between the ages of 20 to 24, are returning from combat and killing themselves in record numbers. We can assume that “multiple-tours of duty” in a war-zone have precipitated a mental health crisis of which the public is entirely unaware and which the Pentagon is in total denial.
If we add the 6,256 suicide victims from 2005 to the “official” 3,865 reported combat casualties; we get a sum of 10,121. Even a low-ball estimate of similar 2004 and 2006 suicide figures, would mean that the total number of US casualties from the Iraq war now exceed 15,000.
That’s right; 15,000 dead US servicemen and women in a war that–as yet–has no legal or moral justification.
I can’t believe that the Bush Administration would seek to lie about the true costs of war in Iraq . . . particularly since they were so honest and forthright in the run up to the war.
I think Nathan is condoning an armed society. The problem arises when the “masters” are armed thugs, and the “servants” are poorly trained, or people not able to handle the situation because of various reasons. This country has the highest per capita death by gun rate in the world (excluding war-torn countries). That alone tells me somethings not right here.
Anybody else seen the truck running around town with full-sides and back LED advertisements on it? I think that is something needing clipped right now. There are enough distractions on the road, what with morons on cell phones, idiots reading the paper while driving, fat chicks putting on makeup while driving, and hormone driven teens, speeding along with out a clue.
Survey: Troops fear stress therapy will hurt careers
Posted: 06:49 PM ET
WASHINGTON (CNN) — U.S. troops fear that seeking help for mental health problems could harm their careers, according to a survey released Wednesday, and the Pentagon is expected to change its policies to ease that concern.
Three out of five members of the military worry it would have at least some impact, according to the small online survey conducted for the American Psychiatric Association. About half said they thought other people would think less of them if they sought help for mental health problems.
The report was released a day before a scheduled announcement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates aimed at encouraging more servicemembers to seek help for post-combat stress. Pentagon officials told CNN that troops who file for security clearances will no longer have to answer a question on the standard application for a security clearance that asks whether the applicant has been treated for combat-related mental health issues.
Currently, if a service member says they have received treatment they are required to answer the question in depth, in person, in an interview with a security agent.
Monkeyhawk Posted May 1, 2008 at 9:31 am |
“Nathaniel” quotes –
“Weapons compound man’s power to achieve…”
“So without your guns, “Nathaniel,” you are an underachiever?
Compensating for a shortcoming?”
What is it with mental runts like Monkeyhawk that can do no more than attack the man instead of reasonably argue a point?
You’d think they’d be embarrassed enough to shut up!
Telecoms and the Bush administration talked about how to keep their surveillance program under wraps.
The Bush administration is refusing to disclose internal e-mails, letters and notes showing contacts with major telecommunications companies over how to persuade Congress to back a controversial surveillance bill, according to recently disclosed court documents.
The existence of these documents surfaced only in recent days as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by a privacy group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The foundation (alerted to the issue in part by a NEWSWEEK story last fall) is seeking information about communications among administration officials, Congress and a battery of politically well-connected lawyers and lobbyists hired by such big telecom carriers as AT&T and Verizon. Court papers recently filed by government lawyers in the case confirm for the first time that since last fall unnamed representatives of the telecoms phoned and e-mailed administration officials to talk about ways to block more than 40 civil suits accusing the companies of privacy violations because of their participation in a secret post-9/11 surveillance program ordered by the White House.
Casualties Mount in Ongoing US Assault on Sadr City
The ongoing US assault on the Sadr City area of Baghdad continues to claim civilian lives. At least eight people, including two children, were killed in overnight clashes between US troops and Shia fighters. The deaths come one day after local hospitals reported at least fifty dead and dozens more wounded from US attacks. On Wednesday, funerals were held for some of the victims. A Sadr City resident said the Iraqi government is unable to stand up to the US occupation.
Resident: ’’Isn’t their conscience shaken for this city which has been in siege for more than a month? What have they done? What have they committed? Are they afraid for their chairs, and that’s why they’re not calling for justice? But we tell them, damn them and their government.’’
Hundreds of Iraqis have died in the more than month-long crackdown on fighters loyal to the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The rise in food prices has been linked to several factors, including bad weather, the higher price of oil and the diversion of crops to produce biofuels for cars. The growing unrest over food security comes as major agricultural companies are posting record profits. This week, the grain-processing giant Archer Daniels Midland announced a 42 percent rise in third-quarter profits. Revenues from the distribution of grains including wheat and corn were up 700 percent. According to the Wall Street Journal, other major firms, including Monsanto, Deere and Mosaic, have all reported similar windfalls.
And institute tarriffs. If it aint made here ya don’t sell it here without a heavy tarriff.
Simply brilliant. Or maybe just simple minded.
You forget JR that the top 50% pays for around 90% of the taxes. So should half of them leave, that means bottom feeders might have to start earning their own cheddar. And kiss your socialist entitlement programs bye-bye. Great move JR.
“If we add the 6,256 suicide victims from 2005 to the “official” 3,865 reported combat casualties; we get a sum of 10,121. Even a low-ball estimate of similar 2004 and 2006 suicide figures, would mean that the total number of US casualties from the Iraq war now exceed 15,000.”
—————-
These left wing articles are always remarkable for the information they leave out. They must be looked at critically because they are written to mislead. Assuming that the numbers are correct:
I wonder if these folks had all served in Iraq? It doesn’t say. It includes all active and retired military.
I wonder what the suicide rate is for: 1. the general public 2. All those who had served in the the armed services. 3. Is is higher than normal?
I wonder what percentage of those who committed suicide had been diagnosed with a combat related
mental illness?
I wonder how many had other reasons for suicide completely unrelated to Iraq.
Until those questions are answered, the article is not worth the bandwidth it occupies.
If any of you have some time, please watch this brief (10 minutes long) video. The man seems sincerely concerned about his son’s health. I am hesitant to just write it off given the situation regarding Walter Reed. Please email Todd Tiahrt at Todd.Tiahrt@houseenews.net (That is the email that I have when he sent me the gas tax survey) If that is the wrong email address, feel free to correct me, my ego will be just fine. As a vet, I would appreciate it if you would at least ask Mr. Tiahrt to look into it. Thank You
Smart money left the USA long ago.IIRC in 1999 60% of all US corporations paid zero taxes.
WILLIAM E. GRAYSON, the president of EGM Capital, a hedge fund firm in San Francisco, has never set foot on the Cayman Islands, but he knows that sun-baked Caribbean haven quite well. That’s because he set up one of his funds in the Caymans, where lucrative tax breaks and fabled financial secrecy have made this British territory a magnet for hedge fund managers.
Keith Meyers/The New York Times
The Caymans has paid Robert Livingston’s company at least $1.5 million in lobbying fees.
“All of the offshore jurisdictions are competing against each other to provide the most hospitable regulatory landscape, and the Caymans are really coming on strong,” Mr. Grayson says. “As a hedge fund manager, you just might be deciding whether you want to golf or scuba-dive more.”
In as little as two weeks, and for about $35,000 in fees, hedge funds can set up shop in the Caymans — just a fraction of the time and up to one-tenth the price of incorporating a fund in drearier climes like Delaware.
While speed and bargain prices are big attractions, the real draw, say analysts and Congressional investigators, are perfectly legal Caymans-based corporations and partnerships that allow major investors to avoid taxes of up to 35 percent that the Internal Revenue Service levies on unearned business income. Cayman tax laws also help American fund managers legally defer domestic taxes on their personal profits by channeling them offshore through their funds.
The biggest of the three islands that make up the Caymans, Grand Cayman, is only 22 miles long and, at its widest, 8 miles across. But the territory’s tax advantages have turned it into one of the linchpins of the estimated $1.5 trillion global hedge fund business.
“What is it with mental runts like Monkeyhawk that can do no more than attack the man instead of reasonably argue a point?”
“Boxlock,” you “mental runt” (just trying to on “point” here), seems like “Nathaniel’s” credo
“Weapons compound man’s power to achieve…” and his obsession for weaponry raise a “point.” (Or not, as the case may be.)
They make pills for that now, “Boxlock.” They sell ‘em in stores.
You guys, Capn and Jr, y’all really don’t get it do you? Someone starts a company, busts his ass, and bam, it is successful. So you say shame shame on him for earning a buck. Tax the hell out of him.
Where does that leave the motivation? I could work really hard and make…. The same as JR, or I could rest on my laurels, rely on the government, and make as much as… JR.
Punish success and take the plunder to those who don’t even try. Outstanding you two. Do you raise your kids like that? They do a good job in school; they get extra chores around the house? Makes about as much sense.
The top 1% earns over 21% of the income generated in this country. So I have no problem with them paying more in taxes, and closing loopholes generated by business at the expense of the workers, who make the businesses prosper.
====================================================
The latest release of Internal Revenue Service data on individual income taxes comes from calendar year 2005, a year in which the economy remained healthy and continued to grow, as well as a year with higher-than-average price inflation.
This year’s numbers show that both the income share earned by the top 1 percent and the tax share paid by the top 1 percent have reached all-time highs. In 2005, the top 1 percent of tax returns paid 39.4 percent of all federal individual income taxes and earned 21.2 percent of adjusted gross income, both of which are significantly higher than 2004 when the top 1 percent earned 19 percent of AGI and paid 36.9 percent of federal individual income taxes.
(Note: For a detailed paper on the distribution of the entire U.S. fiscal system, including all federal and state and local taxes, read Who Pays Taxes and Who Receives Government Spending? An Analysis of Federal, State and Local Tax and Spending Distributions, 1991 - 2004.)
The IRS data also shows increases in individual incomes across all income groups (see Table 3). Just as the highest earners lost the biggest percentage of their incomes during the recession of 2001, so they have prospered the most as the economy has continued to rebound. For example, from 2000 to 2002, the adjusted gross income (AGI) of the top 1 percent of tax returns fell by over 26 percent. In that same period, the AGI of the bottom 50 percent of tax returns actually increased by 4.3 percent. However, since 2002, as the recession has ended, AGI has risen by 61 percent for the top 1 percent and 10.7 percent for the bottom 50 percent.
In sum, between 2000 and 2005, pre-tax income for the top 1 percent group grew by 19.1 percent. On the other hand, in that same time period, pre-tax income for the bottom 50 percent increased by 15.5 percent.
This disaster was compounded by the fact that after the collapse of health reform, on the advice of Dickie Morris (summoned by Mrs. Clinton), the Clintons swerved right, toward all the ensuing ghastly legislative ventures of their regime - the onslaughts on welfare, the crime bill, NAFTA. With Morris came the birth of “triangulation” - the tactic of the Clinton White House working with Republicans and conservative Democrats and actively undermining liberal and progressive initiatives in Congress. Money that could have given the House back to the Democrats in 1996 was snatched by the White House purely for the self-preservation of the Clintons.
. . . .
Since Vietnam, there’s never been a war that Mrs. Clinton didn’t like. She argued passionately in the White House for the NATO bombing of Belgrade. Five days after September 11, 2001, she was calling for a broad war on terror. Any country presumed to be lending “aid and comfort” to al-Qaeda “will now face the wrath of our country.” Bush echoed these words eight days later in his nationally televised speech on September 21. “I’ll stand behind Bush for a long time to come”, Senator Clinton promised, and she was as good as her word, voting for the Patriot Act and the wide-ranging authorization to use military force against Afghanistan.
Of course she supported without reservation the attack on Afghanistan and, as the propaganda buildup toward the onslaught on Iraq got underway, she didn’t even bother to walk down the hall to read the national intelligence estimate on Iraq before the war. (She wasn’t alone in that. Only six senators read that NIE.) When she was questioned about this, she claimed she was briefed on its contents, but in fact no one on her staff had the security clearance to read the report. And her ignorance showed when it came time to deliver her speech in support of the war, as she reiterated some of the most outlandish claims made by Dick Cheney. In this speech, she said Saddam Hussein had rebuilt his chemical and biological weapons program; that he had improved his long-range missile capability; that he was reconstituting his nuclear weapons program; and that he was giving aid and comfort to Al Qaeda. The only other Democratic senator to make all four of these claims in his floor speech was Joe Lieberman. But even he didn’t go as far as Senator Hillary.
Much more at link, including how Hillary sicced a private investigator on Jennifer Flowers to slime her (successfully), how Vince Foster was driven to suicide by getting blamed for her bad decisions, that she knew about Monica and insisted Bill lie to cover it up.
Two early cases (of a total of five that Hillary actually tried) charted her course. The first concerned the successful effort of Acorn a public interest group doing community organizing to force the utilities to lower electric rates on residential consumers and raise on industrial users. Hillary represented the utilities in a challenge to this progressive law, the classic right-wing claim, arguing that the measure represented an unconstitutional “taking” of property rights. She carried the day for the utilities.
The second case found Hillary representing the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Arkansas in a lawsuit filed by a disabled former employee who had been denied full retirement benefits by the company. In earlier years, Hillary had worked at the Children’s Defense Fund on behalf of abused employees and disabled children. Only months earlier, while still a member of the Washington, D.C., public interest community, she had publicly ripped Joseph Califano for becoming the Coca Cola company’s public counsel. “You sold us out, you, you sold us out!” she screamed publicly at Califano. Working now for Coca Cola, Hillary prevailed
Of course wealth is a measure of success. You either earned the wealth or maintained it. Paris inherited it. I wouldn’t call her successful because she got her money and fame from daddy.
Mr. Hilton? You’re damn straight he is successful.
If you think money is the only measure of success you are blind or ignorant. What a sham statement bebe.
“The campaign had the fill-up choreographed to a T, all the way to which specific pump they would use so that cameras could be in position when they arrived. Within the shot for many was the large sign displaying the $3.75-per-gallon price tag.
After the entire motorcade pulled up, Clinton waited inside just a few moments as Wilfing got out of the passenger side and started the pumping process. With cameras mobbed together, Clinton hopped out of the truck without incident and joined Wilfing at the pump. She seemed very interested in the actual set up, acknowledging later that she hasn’t pumped her own gas in years.”
This from an article detailing the most transparent of staged stunts, meeting with an “average” family to fill up the family vehicle.
Nathaniel quotes another and you pull it out of context and comment attacking Nathaniel as if attributing the quote to him. Which frankly makes it a lie, so what does that make you in addition to a mental runt.
The quote:
“…they (guns) amplify the capabilities of both the good man and the bad, and to exactly the same degree, having no will of their own. Thus we must regard them as servants, not masters - and good servants to good men….An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it.” by — Col. Jeff Cooper
And being a gutter runt you turn it into a sexual inadequacy statement directed at us both.
You’re the one that’s inadequate runt.
Annie:
The videos you linked are disturbing and difficult to watch. I truly don’t understand folks that buy bottled water. I reuse bottles, but rarely pitch them. I hope everyone will do what they can to reduce their plastic consumption and recycle what they can.
Nevermind my last posting folks. The Ft. Bragg Commander looks to have fixed the situation. Don’t mind me folks. I just wanted to make sure the troops weren’t getting screwed.
A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. She considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, but her father was a staunch Republican. One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to high taxes and welfare programs. He stopped her and asked how she was doing in school.
She answered that she had a 4.0 GPA, but it was really tough. She had to study all the time and never had time to go out and party. She didn’t have time for a boyfriend and didn’t really have many college friends because of spending all her time studying. On top of that, the part-time job her father insisted she keep left absolutely no time for anything else.
He asked, ‘How is your friend Mary?’ She replied that Mary was barely getting by. She had a 2.0 GPA, never studied, but was very popular on campus, didn’t have a job, and went to all the parties. She was always complaining about not having any money, but didn’t want to work. Why, she often didn’t show up for classes because she was hung over.
Dad then asked his daughter why she didn’t go to the Dean’s office and request that 1.0 be taken off her 4.0 and given it to her friend who only had a 2.0. That way they would both have a respectable 3.0 GPA. Then, she could also give her friend half the money she’d earned from her job so that her friend would no longer be broke. The
daughter angrily fired back, ‘That wouldn’t be fair. I worked really hard for my grades and money, and Mary just loafs. Why should her laziness and irresponsibility be rewarded with half of what I’ve worked for?’ The father slowly smiled and said, ‘Welcome to the Republican Party’.” :roll:
At the arena we were forced to pay for here in Wichita, only those who can afford the high dollar seats will also have convenient parking. Others not so much.
Why should it be any different with taxes? Ya got a good seat, you pay for it.
You are talking about using what you have earned. This is the choice of the one who is purchasing said seat. They could just as easily invest that money or got out to a nice restaurant.
By increasing the percentage of tax paid by those with more, that is not a choice. That is theft.
Boxlock’s post pretty much spells it out. Can you refute that post?
The Rude Pundit, once again, has the definitive take on Mission Accomplished Day, five years later. Bad language and all, but less than usual, because he is replaying what all the talking heads said that day.
As the Rude One would note, reading this is one of the things that makes a person wanna down a fifth of tequila with five Ambien.
You can bet the admin. will fight this tooth and nail, claim executive privelege. Can’t let the truth get out!
Aviation companies blame FBI, CIA and terrorists for 9/11
Wednesday April 30, 6:06 pm ET
By Larry Neumeister, Associated Press Writer
Aviation industry blames FBI, CIA and terrorists for 9/11 in suits filed by victims’ families
NEW YORK (AP) — Aviation companies sued by the families of Sept. 11 victims for failing to safeguard air travel are in turn blaming federal investigators — arguing the Federal Aviation Administration was not alerted that al-Qaida was poised to launch terrorist attacks.
ADVERTISEMENT
In court documents filed this week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, aviation companies are seeking to force five FBI employees to provide testimony that may help defend against claims the companies share blame in the attacks.
“The aviation parties anticipate that the FBI witnesses’ testimony will demonstrate that the FBI had information before Sept. 11 indicating that al-Qaida may have been about to launch terrorist attacks on civil aviation, which it did not timely pass along to the Federal Aviation Administration,” lawyers wrote.
“You are another personage that appears to have WAY more screen time than me there “Boxlock”, posts BlueJay.
That’s a pretty difficult accusation to make BlueJay when you are posting with me pretty much one for one.
There are different ways to work and earn…some on a job, and others working at home for themselves.
BlueJay
Posted May 1, 2008 at 10:45 am | Permalink
How is it “punishment” to demand of those who are comfortable in our system to pay more for it?
————————————————-
Hillarious, Sad, and Stupid at the same time. This describes the Libs to a “T”.
Sol/Box - is there a point to arguing with the Lib idiots? They won’t get it until they are in the same situation as that girl working her way thru college. (Good story Box) And that ain’t gonna happen until their gravy train ends.
Tax Stats - I’ve posted a dozen times, no point in reposting details and links again. The whining continues. Just like hungry little piggies fighting over the teets of Momma Government. They are fat, dumb, and happy and squeel like crazy when you take their teet away!
The top 50% pay 97% of the taxes. How much should they pay?
Answer: Well they have most of the revenue! Yup. Cause they EARNED IT!
And we argue and argue and argue about taxes and who pays what, meanwhile the Debt is soaring past $9.3 trillion with no end in sight………….. we are looking at a $600 billion deficit is fiscal 2009 and the Republican nominee for president wants to ADD to it………………..
Great.
Let’s just continue to ignore the 800 pound gorilla in the room, even though he is reading a book entitled “How to Cook Humans for Fun and Profit.”
Perhaps sam. What I really want to get is cooperaton from the City on placing trash receptacles in strategic locations so that ‘homes’ can be kept clean. Perhaps you could get a group to get to that bridge anyway? I’ll be picking up supplies at LD and then driving by both that location and then on to the WATER Center for the south wichita group.
It’s obvious from BlueJay’s responses I am doing a very effective job…if I was a paid blogger that is.
Same with you, ha!
Now answer in a piss’y way and prove it.
Max,
1. Finally this isn’t funny. In other words, liberals are this cancer to the country. We have two political parties. One more than the Soviet Union had. And you sound like you want to remove one of them. (think about that, really) I wish we had more than 2 parties. I have voted libertarian since 2000. I wish we had at least 3 political parties in our country just for that reason, but that is just my opinion.
2. If you are going to preach about teets, then you need to really spell out how the GOP has learned their lesson about the bridge to nowhere, blackwater, etc. No excuses, the Republican leaders did the right thing and said “what we did was wrong” they didn’t offer excuses because they knew they had none. Now it is time for them (and you) to show me that you are going to remove ALL teets. One standard here chief.
3. What do I mean by All teets? I am a veteran, I see things differently than the retiree. I served. Now I make my own way. I don’t make my living from blackwater, I didn’t double-dip by getting a DOD job. There is a difference between the pension that was earned by legitimate Military Retirees, and the double-dipper DOD civilians who DEFINIETLY suck on teets. If you want to talk about teets, there should be no double standards.
Here’s the story on “Mission Accomplished” - Believe it?
WASHINGTON — The White House said Wednesday that President Bush has paid a price for the “Mission Accomplished” banner that was flown in triumph five years ago but later became a symbol of U.S. misjudgments and mistakes in the long and costly war in Iraq.
Thursday is the fifth anniversary of Bush’s dramatic landing in a Navy jet on an aircraft carrier homebound from the war. The USS Abraham Lincoln had launched thousands of airstrikes on Iraq.
“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended,” Bush said at the time. “The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on Sept. 11, 2001, and still goes on.” The “Mission Accomplished” banner was prominently displayed above him _ a move the White House came to regret as the display was mocked and became a source of controversy.
After shifting explanations, the White House eventually said the “Mission Accomplished” phrase referred to the carrier’s crew completing its 10-month mission, not the military completing its mission in Iraq. Bush, in October 2003, disavowed any connection with the “Mission Accomplished” message. He said the White House had nothing to do with the banner; a spokesman later said the ship’s crew asked for the sign and the White House staff had it made by a private vendor.
“President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said `mission accomplished’ for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday. “And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year.”
She said what is important now is “how the president would describe the fight today. It’s been a very tough month in Iraq, but we are taking the fight to the enemy.”
At least 49 U.S. troops died in Iraq in April, making it the deadliest month since September when 65 U.S. troops died.
Now in its sixth year, the war in Iraq has claimed the lives of at least 4,061 members of the U.S. military. Only the Vietnam War (August 1964 to January 1973), the war in Afghanistan (October 2001 to present) and the Revolutionary War (July 1776 to April 1783) have engaged America longer.
Bush, in a speech earlier this month, said that “while this war is difficult, it is not endless.”
1. I’ve never advocated a one party system. I’ve never bragged about ANY party. The more parties the better. I’m closer to Libertarian then anything else, but the Libertarian party has not caught on - yet.
2. Again, I’m not defending Republicans. Conservatives advocate self-reliance and a Government that does not promote Socialism (stealing) to redistribute wealth. Few Conservatives are in Government today, which is why everything is all F’ed up.
3. Agree with you. When have I ever said otherwise? You earned your Veterans Pension. You paid into Social Security and are getting back Some of what you paid in. (My Grandfather retired in the 70’s, and got back 3 times what he paid into it before he died. Not gonna happen anymore.) There’s a long laundry list of Socialist Wealth Redistribution programs that are paying out money that is NOT earned:
-Steeply Regressive Income Tax system
-UnEarned Income Tax Credit
-Food Stamps
-Section 8 and other free/assited housing programs
-Heat assistance programs
-Free lunch programs
-Free public transportation programs
-Medicaid
Medicare Prescription Program (Not totally funded by those enrolled)
-SCHIP
-etc…etc…etc….
And yes, Liberals ARE the cancer to this country, eating away at our Individual Freedoms everyday. Step by step, incrementally, freedom is going away.
Obama’s latest lie is 16 months to get the troops out of Iraq. Why not 15? 14? 18? (Number was pulled right out of his a**.) At one point, Obama said the US would be there at least until 2013.
Hillary did too. In the same debate, say 2013. What’s her promise now?
At least McCain is more honest than other Cons, remember the weeks, maybe months, I doubt years statement from Rummy, or his he knows where the WMDS are their North south east and west of Baghdad
A biker is riding by the zoo when he sees a little girl leaning into
the lion’s cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket
and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her
screaming parents. The biker jumps off his bike, runs to the cage, and
hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain, the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.
A NYT reporter has seen the whole scene and, addressing the biker, says, “Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I saw a man do in my whole life.” The man responds, “Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, and I took appropriate action.”
“Well, I’ll make sure this won’t go unnoticed. I’m a journalist from the New York Times, you know, and tomorrow’s paper will have this on the first page. What motorcycle do you ride and what political affiliation do you have?” “A Harley Davidson and I am a Republican.”
The journalist leaves. The following morning the biker buys The New York Times to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads on the first page:
“REPUBLICAN BIKER GANG MEMBER ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH!”
Because they have ALREADY ‘paid’ for it…they have worked for it…you haven’t!
That’s stretching it a bit, Boxlock. You assume to know who has worked and who hasn’t. Wealth doesn’t necessarily come from hard work. Sometimes wealth is earned on the backs of others. Sometimes those who work hard (at jobs you wouldn’t stoop to do), never achieve any kind of wealth. Some people get lucky, some don’t. Lots of variables you haven’t given any thought to, it seems.
OK not that anyone is really going to give a rat’s booty about it, but I was watching CNN when the anchor led into a sound bite. “ Barack and Michelle Obama say that the issue is dead and we need to move on. BUT Hillary will not let it go!” Then a snippet from O’Reilly’s interview with Clinton was played, they had edited out the part where O’Reilly had to press the issue till finally Hillary gave the answer to his question and would not let lay her first response. Till she was more damaging of Wright, though the viewer get the illusion that Hillary has said it would out being prompted. It was Bill-o and not Hilary that brought the subject up and it was Bill-o who would not let the subject drop until she answered him!
Hillary or either of the other two can and will attack their opponent. BUT you as a voter are entitled to know it is them and not the media that is the one attacking. Though Hillary does have a vetted interest in undermining Obama. Last night it was O’Reilly and not Hillary and today is was the anchor on CNN whom was keeping the Wright issue alive.
The media is really getting ridiculous about it, one moment they are saying that Obama has settled the issue once and for all. Then with the next breath they pick on an old question that was already answered and point out. “But in his speech yesterday he did not answer the question of…”.
Yeah BTH I heard that and might have still believed it until I actually started paying attention. What is not reported on or hidden in plain sight. Leads me to think otherwise.
#
MaxGrobnik
Posted May 1, 2008 at 12:28 pm | Permalink
Obama’s latest lie is 16 months to get the troops out of Iraq. Why not 15? 14? 18? (Number was pulled right out of his a**.) At one point, Obama said the US would be there at least until 2013.
Hillary did too. In the same debate, say 2013. What’s her promise now?
=================================================
…and what’s coming out of the mouths of the republicans? 10 years? 100 years? Clean your own house before throwing pillows at others.
NEWS FLASH! THE D.C. MADAM FOUND DEAD!
Her body was found this morning in a shed in her mother’s back yard, it was said to be a suicide.
She had been convicted a few weeks ago and was said to have provide a service to many notable name in Washington. So now let the spin begin!
WASHINGTON - A Senate panel has agreed to block U.S. funding for Iraq reconstruction projects worth more than $2 million and to try to force Baghdad to cover the costs of training and equipping the country’s security forces.
LITTLEJOHN yes in deed! shoot, the Iraqis should be paying the cost of our troops being there too!
It is more a benefit to Iraq then it ever will be for the U.S.
Freedom is a two edged sword max. The economic and social freedoms. This is what I mean by double standard. I agree that the liberals have put limits on freedoms. The conservatives have as well. The Jeffersonian notion of how it neither “picks my pocket nor breaks my leg” has been out the window. Again Max, no double standards, the self proclaimed “conservatives” have eroded freedoms as well.
Re: the Rude Pundit’s take on Mission Accomplished. I’ve known some of the pilots in the ANG and can truthfully say Dubya fits right in. Egos bigger than their you-know-what’s, for sure. ;)
VET - I think there is an important difference between which freedoms the two sides effect. Conservatives want to regulate what consenting adults do in their homes etc. Liberals tend to focus on behavior that can effect others - for example pollution travels from your facility to my nose.
In the economic arena Cons want to spend our grandchildrens’ money. Liberals want ‘pay-as-you-go’
understandable bth. As I said don’t pick my pocket or break my leg. The prostitute doesn’t give a woman herpes, her husband does. Guns don’t kill, people do. If two dudes want to be homos, keep on rocking, it leaves more chicks for me.
Max, If you want freedom to keep all of your property, (where I come from that sounds like ultimate economic freedom) then remember, once again, no double standards. We should have ultimate personal freedom (i.e. No laws against gambling, drugs, alcohol etc.) Now can we get away from the absolutes and discuss which personal freedoms being lost is acceptable? Discuss which financial freedoms being lost is acceptable. All within one standard.
Neufeld must not have all his votes yet. I thought from the posturing a poker playing last week he might. But if he did… they would have already voted on it. I wonder when they will vote!
I’m tellin’ ya… these guys are freakin’ INSANE!
Now the whole coal plant rests on a “side deal” or trailer bill that increases the power going to Kansas from 18 to 32 percent? About a third?
Oh yeah, there’s the sugar that makes the medicine go down. (sarcasm off)
WTF?
And… the Kansas utility they want Sunflower to sell this power to doesnt EVEN KNOW IF THEY WANT IT??????????? Because of cost????????
Woof.
Check out the comments too about the Holcomb plant not meeting the needs of Sunflower customers in 10 or 15 years. I guess they will need another plant, since MOST of the power will NOT go to Sunflower’s own customers?
Goddamn. Steve Miller changes his stories so often he sounds like bush trying to explain why we went to iraq.
Follow the bouncing ball for ever changing explanations. Is that something they teach in republican skool?
“Poll: Bush most unpopular in modern history
New poll numbers show bad news for president Bush.
May 1, 2008
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A new poll suggests that George W. Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove of how Bush his handling his job as president.”
Yet again, “Boxlock” resorts to name calling with –
“Monkeyrunt,”
and…
“.. being a gutter runt you…”
Ah! A “gutter runt!” (I’m so glad you’ve kept this discussion “on point.”)
“… turn it into a sexual inadequacy statement directed at us both.”
I don’t recall posting anything about your “sexual inadequacy.” Sorry you took it that way.
Sorry for you about why you’re particularly sensitive about such issues, too.
“You’re the one that’s inadequate runt.
Well, we’ll all accept your testimony that “Nathanial” is sexually “adequate.” But that’s pretty lame praise for him coming from you, unless you have personal first-hand experience as to “Nathaniel’s” sexual prowess.
“Nathaniel” stated, “Weapons compound man’s power to achieve…,” and admitted that his “power to achieve…” was, essentially, dependent upon his arsenal of weapons.
It was YOU, “Boxlock,” who inferred some attack on sexuality. Just a bit sensitive about such issues, “Boxlock?”
I’m perfectly willing to accept your testimony that “Nathaniel’s” sexual “achievements” have met your rigorous test(s). You obviously know more about “Nathaniel’s” sexual skills than I do.
BTH…correct. Now the question is what are acceptable boundries for social and economic freedoms? This is a reasonable debate. I just want to keep it to one standard, not a double standard. My opinion as to which standard would be ‘picked pockets and broken legs.’ But if you got a better one, I’m all ears chief.
Whoa, did you see this? Even I dont agree with this. They must not vet their honorary degree candidates very well if this is news. SO much for academic freedom.
Tricky part here VET is that it is all ‘grey’. For example - I don’t care if you smoke as long as you don’t inflict it on me. Thus the regulations that get discussed.
I think we could actually hammer out a lot of this. I remember talking with a woman who ran a little 3.2 joint - she was also a heavy smoker. I told her we could come up with something workable - starting with “you don’t smoke in my car and I don’t bitch in your car”. Just needs some common sense.
Yeah, sad about the DC madam. Most folks wont even remember her name, just that tag.
News report said this is not the first suicide in the DC madam case. They’ve notified the FBI, but right now, no mention of foul play. She apparently left notes. I feel sorry for the Mom who found her.
Ya gotta wonder, she was about to be sentenced. Maybe she was getting ready to sing? Lots of high profile folks involved.
OMNIBUS BUDGET BILL
This morning the House is debating the House’s version of the Omnibus
(ominous) Reconciliation Bill. The Legislature has a lot left to do.
One issue the Legislature has put off is keeping our commitment to Kansas children and enhancing our investment in early childhood programs. To ensure that all children are ready to learn by the time they reach kindergarten, the Governor proposed $23 million in block grant funding for early childhood education. These grants would also include opportunities for expanded pre-natal care, newborn screening, Parents as Teachers, Early Head Start and quality child care. Studies have found that, for every dollar invested in education programs for prenatal through kindergarten children, $17 dollars of spending is saved on education remediation, crime, incarceration, health care and job training in the future. The money for these programs has been promised from part of the tobacco settlement funds and dedicated to the Children’s Trust Fund. The House has robbed the children’s savings account and taken the money for other state spending. The House approved an amendment to put the money back in for the early childhood programs with 66 votes.
The Governor’s budget also proposed a fourth year of our school finance plan, including $27 million for all-day kindergarten. All-day kindergarten provides children a stronger foundation for a lifetime of learning. Many school districts already have all day K, but they are only receiving state funding for half of the cost, requiring the districts to take funding from other programing in order to give kids the best start in school.
Unfortunately, the Legislature has postponed early childhood funding decisions until the very end of the session, funding other programs first.
Another priority that has been delayed until now is health care reform. Without health insurance, many families and individuals are being forced into bankruptcy or intolerable decisions about the health care they need. Rising health care costs are a burden for families, business owners, workers, and seniors. To address these issues, a bipartisan health care reform package was crafted by the Kansas Health Policy Authority at the request of the legislature. The House did a better job of passing a bill to begin meaningful reform, but it looks like the Senate’s non-reform bill will prevail. The real reform package is based on three priorities: promoting personal responsibility for health and wellness; paying for preventative care; and providing all Kansans with affordable health insurance. The Legislature appears to be poised to basically ignore the comprehensive plan and instead take a baby step instead of meaningful reform suggested by the Health Authority with input from health care providers, employers and consumers.
The Legislature has a lot to accomplish in a very short amount of time.
I see your point. He was just a toddler and had nothing to do with the war.
But you realize that you are just going to torque off the rabid conservatives. They will show you pictures of aborted babies. Then call you a purple-haired, commie, pinko, damn yankee, liberal who listens to jungle music. Then we have to listen to them foaming at the mouth about how everyone gets arrested for saying Jesus and that is why drug abuse is out of control and kids are killing their parents. So let’s all make sure that Israel stays free and kills all the muslims. (ok, there may be a couple of straw men in there. I will turn the sarcasm off)
I think it is horrible that Ali Hussein had to die. He was an innocent boy. But please try not to give idiots like John Hagee any more ammunition.
GOVERNOR’S VETO SUSTAINED BY SENATE
Gov. Sebelius’ veto of new restrictions on abortion providers withstood an attempt some Senators to overturn it. The vote was 25-14, two short of the two-thirds majority needed to nullify the veto in the Senate and send it to the House, where an override effort probably would have been successful. A bill that is vetoed must go to the house of origin first for an override effort. SB 389 passed the Senate last year unanimously, but it was not the bill that passed the House. New late term abortion provisions were substituted for the original bill in the House. The Senate took a vote to agree with the House changes in a conference report, but that vote was with 25 yeas, enough to pass the bill but not enough for an override. When she vetoed the measure, Sebelius argued that the new restrictions could deny women life-saving medical care. She objected most strongly to provisions allowing a patient’s spouse or family members to go to court if they believed a doctor had performed or was about to perform an illegal late-term abortion.
Besides imposing new restrictions on late term abortions, the measure would have allowed civil lawsuits to block late-term procedures on fetuses 22 weeks or older. The bill also allows a former patient or her family to sue a doctor for monetary damages if she believes a pregnancy was improperly terminated. The patient herself could sue, but so could a prosecutor in the county where the abortion was performed or the county where the woman lived. The measure was partly a response to allegations that Dr. George Tiller in Wichita has performed illegal late-term abortions at his Wichita clinic. Tiller is among the few U.S. physicians who perform such procedures, and he says that he follows state law. The bill called for doctors using ultrasound or monitoring fetal heartbeats to make information from those sources available to a patient at least 30 minutes before an abortion. Also, doctors would have to tell their patients whether their fetuses are viable and, if not, why.
The vote came with little debate; Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, made the override motion.
COAL PLANT CONTROVERSY CONTINUES
The standoff continued yesterday over the proposed coal-fired power project in southwest Kansas and a new measure has emerged that would hit every electric customer in the state. A companion bill to the power plant bill was approved in the Senate that would assess a 2 cent per meter per month charge on all ratepayers for four years. Funds raised from the charge would go toward helping Hays-based Sunflower Electric Power Corp. develop its bio-energy research center, and also statewide energy efficiency and weatherization programs. Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, who opposes the power plant project, called the new charge a tax, and complained that it rocketed out of a hastily called committee meeting with little notice and no chance for opponents to testify.
Strategy-wise, the bill was seen by supporters of the project as needed to get more support behind the two 700-megawatt plants because it also included provisions to increase power from the project for use in the state. The commotion over the bill is typical of a whirlwind of activity as lawmakers started the wrap-up session. Earlier in the day, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius rejected an ultimatum to approve the coal-fired project and the Senate voted to override her April 17 veto of a second bill that would authorize the plants.
The fate of the two proposed coal-fired power plants appears to rest TODAY with a side deal among legislators to move some of the power as far east as Kansas City. The side deal also would require the secretary of KDHE to draft the state’s first rules on carbon dioxide emissions and submit them to legislators for their review next year. Supporters of the two plants have succeeded in the Senate to override the governor’s veto and hope their side agreement will attract the last few votes necessary in the House. That action would come after Sunflower Electric Power Corp.’s top executive acknowledged that building the new plants might not be enough to meet its customers’ power needs after 2020. The side deal requires a trailer bill, which the Senate approved on a 27-6 vote yesterday, the same day it was drafted and without committee consideration or hearings. That leaves the remaining crucial decisions in the House. House leaders had hoped to take those votes yesterday but were waiting on the Senate to finish with the trailer bill. By evening, they’d decided they waited on the Senate long enough and adjourned. But the delay also could change votes, giving both supporters and opponents more time to lobby lawmakers. “We might win some; we might lose some,” said House Majority Leader Ray Merrick, a Stillwell Republican who supports the plants. “It depends on who twists arms best.”
Supporters need two-thirds majorities in both chambers to override a veto. They’ve always had more than enough in the Senate, but in the House, they’ve always been at least one vote short of the necessary margin, 84 of 125 votes. The trailer bill is a response to some legislators’ worries about CO2 and to criticism that not enough of the power from the new plants would stay in Kansas. Sunflower is relying on two out-of-state partners to help finance the project, and they’d get 86% of the new power, no matter what the energy needs of Kansas are. Earl Watkins Jr., Sunflower’s chief executive officer in Kansas, said the share of power allocated to it and a sister utility, Midwest Energy Inc., will meet their needs now, but he acknowledged that Sunflower expects demand to outstrip the new generating capacity after 11 or 12 years.
“In 2018, 2019, 2020, if our load grows as we anticipate it, we’ll be looking at an additional piece of generation whether it will be in our service territory, together with other utilities, outside the state of Kansas,” he said. The trailer bill requires Sunflower to offer 14% of the new power to Kansas utilities not involved in its project, starting with the Board of Public Utilities in Kansas City in order to entice Wyandotte County’s legislative delegation, which has been split on Sunflower’s project. That power would be taken from Sunflower’s partners, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc. of Westminster, Colo., and Golden Spread Electric Cooperative, in Amarillo, Texas. Those partners would still retain 72% of the power.
**********************************************
In addition, all Kansas utilities customers would be required to pay the state 2 cents a month for each electric meter. The $2.5 million raised each year would finance energy conservation efforts and research into clean energy.
***********************************************
That includes research at a bio-energy center Sunflower has proposed as part of its project to capture some CO2, use it to grow algae and convert the algae into biofuels. But Kansas City’s BPU didn’t embrace the trailer bill. Their lobbyist said legislators who support Sunflower’s project approached him Tuesday but wanted a quick answer. He said the BPU would have to consider many issues, including the cost of the new power.
*********
House leaders are promising an override vote today, but they are uncertain of its outcome.
***********
The bills have all limited the authority of KDHE to regulate air pollution emissions state-wide.
Legislative leaders and Sunflower Electric gave Sebelius an ultimatum to accept the two 600-megawatt plants with little change on the previously stated conditions, but she refused the proposal. “I am disappointed that, for the third time in a row, the Legislature is asking me to mandate that Kansas send the power we need — the power we create — to Colorado and Texas,” Sebelius said during a news conference. In other words, the Governor has said, Kansas gets most of the air qual
248 Comments
Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
Mark Twain
Hanna Montana move over. Now this is nasty…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnUjTHB1lvM
Yeah annie_moose, I blame the plastic water and soda bottle drinkers for the huge increase of plastic waste.
shocking !!!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHjyYJWOJlc
GLOBAL COOLING UPDATE
“Average temperatures in areas such as California and France may drop over the next 10 years, influenced by colder flows in the North Atlantic, said a report today by the institution based in Kiel, Germany. Temperatures worldwide may stabilize in the period.
The study was based on sea-surface temperatures of currents that move heat around the world, and vary from decade to decade. This regional cooling effect may temporarily neutralize the long- term warming phenomenon caused by heat-trapping greenhouse gases building up around the earth, said Richard Wood, a research scientist at the Met Office Hadley Centre, a U.K. provider of environmental and weather-related services.
“Those natural climate variations could be stronger than the global-warming trend over the next 10-year period,” Wood said in an interview. “Without knowing that, you might erroneously think there’s no global warming going on.”
—————-
Another factor that the global warming models forgot. So, even if it’s cooler over the next 10 years, doesn’t mean it’s not really warming.
Covering all the bases. Got it.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aU.evtnk6DPo&refer=worldwide
lol outlander, I find the following statement from your quote rather amusing. Talk about kibitzing!
“Those natural climate variations could be stronger than the global-warming trend over the next 10-year period,” Wood said in an interview. “Without knowing that, you might erroneously think there’s no global warming going on.”
Imagine that, natural climate variations actually controlling the climate! What a concept!
(chortles)
“Those natural climate variations could be stronger than the global-warming trend over the next 10-year period,”
Climate forecasting over the next 10+ years, what a craps shoot.
ANTI,
I saw your question to Regular on yesterday’s Open Thread and possibly have an alternative for you.
http://avs4you.com/
I wasn’t sure exactly what you were planning to do, but the above has just about everything…all rolled into one and at a very reasonable price. I purchased and used it to do some converting, but there’s also editing software included. I was amazed at how easy it was to work with.
Regular & Predestined, thank you both for the links, I will explore them further later today.
Hmmm . . . let’s see the Clintonistas spin this one:
Clinton–”I’m not going to impose additional tax burdens on middle class families –”
O’rally–”But I’m not a middle class family; I’m a rich guy.”
Clinton–”And you know what . . . God bless us. We deserve all the opportunities, to make sure that our country and our blessings continue to the next generation.”
******
Whoa. That’s wrong on so many levels. The sheer elitism is breathtaking . . .
Link to above quote. Watch it yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N64fDLplBfQ
“Weapons compound man’s power to achieve; they amplify the capabilities of both the good man and the bad, and to exactly the same degree, having no will of their own. Thus we must regard them as servants, not masters - and good servants to good men. Without them, man is diminished, and his opportunities to fulfill his destiny are lessened. An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it.”
— Col. Jeff Cooper
ANTI,
I’d also suggest some open source alternatives for you as well.
VirtualDub is one I’ve seen and doesn’t seem to bad.
http://www.virtualdub.org/
“Nathaniel” quotes –
“Weapons compound man’s power to achieve…”
So without your guns, “Nathaniel,” you are an underachiever?
Compensating for a shortcoming?
Pentagon Cover Up
15,000 or More US Deaths in Iraq War?
By MIKE WHITNEY
The Pentagon has been concealing the true number of American casualties in the Iraq War. The real number exceeds 15,000 and CBS News can prove it.
CBS’s Investigative Unit wanted to do a report on the number of suicides in the military and “submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Defense”. After 4 months they received a document which showed–that between 1995 and 2007– there were 2,200 suicides among “active duty” soldiers.
Baloney.
The Pentagon was covering up the real magnitude of the “suicide epidemic”. Following an exhaustive investigation of veterans’ suicide data collected from 45 states; CBS discovered that in 2005 alone “there were at least 6,256 among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week in just one year.”
That is not a typo. Active and retired military personnel, mostly young veterans between the ages of 20 to 24, are returning from combat and killing themselves in record numbers. We can assume that “multiple-tours of duty” in a war-zone have precipitated a mental health crisis of which the public is entirely unaware and which the Pentagon is in total denial.
If we add the 6,256 suicide victims from 2005 to the “official” 3,865 reported combat casualties; we get a sum of 10,121. Even a low-ball estimate of similar 2004 and 2006 suicide figures, would mean that the total number of US casualties from the Iraq war now exceed 15,000.
That’s right; 15,000 dead US servicemen and women in a war that–as yet–has no legal or moral justification.
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney11172007.html
******
I can’t believe that the Bush Administration would seek to lie about the true costs of war in Iraq . . . particularly since they were so honest and forthright in the run up to the war.
(heavy sarcasm)
I think Nathan is condoning an armed society. The problem arises when the “masters” are armed thugs, and the “servants” are poorly trained, or people not able to handle the situation because of various reasons. This country has the highest per capita death by gun rate in the world (excluding war-torn countries). That alone tells me somethings not right here.
CBS?
’nuff said.
Anybody else seen the truck running around town with full-sides and back LED advertisements on it? I think that is something needing clipped right now. There are enough distractions on the road, what with morons on cell phones, idiots reading the paper while driving, fat chicks putting on makeup while driving, and hormone driven teens, speeding along with out a clue.
Survey: Troops fear stress therapy will hurt careers
Posted: 06:49 PM ET
WASHINGTON (CNN) — U.S. troops fear that seeking help for mental health problems could harm their careers, according to a survey released Wednesday, and the Pentagon is expected to change its policies to ease that concern.
Three out of five members of the military worry it would have at least some impact, according to the small online survey conducted for the American Psychiatric Association. About half said they thought other people would think less of them if they sought help for mental health problems.
The report was released a day before a scheduled announcement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates aimed at encouraging more servicemembers to seek help for post-combat stress. Pentagon officials told CNN that troops who file for security clearances will no longer have to answer a question on the standard application for a security clearance that asks whether the applicant has been treated for combat-related mental health issues.
Currently, if a service member says they have received treatment they are required to answer the question in depth, in person, in an interview with a security agent.
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/30/survey-troops-fear-stress-therapy-will-hurt-careers/
I can’t tell if Nathan worships God or guns, or maybe they are the same thing in his mind.
And yes, I am a gun owner;they just don’t define me.
I can exist and function without them.
Monkeyhawk Posted May 1, 2008 at 9:31 am |
“Nathaniel” quotes –
“Weapons compound man’s power to achieve…”
“So without your guns, “Nathaniel,” you are an underachiever?
Compensating for a shortcoming?”
What is it with mental runts like Monkeyhawk that can do no more than attack the man instead of reasonably argue a point?
You’d think they’d be embarrassed enough to shut up!
Capn
You are being dishonest.
I saw the interview. Senator Clinton wants to return to the tax structure of the 90’s. That means tax increases on the rich.
FINALLY!
Telecoms and the Bush administration talked about how to keep their surveillance program under wraps.
The Bush administration is refusing to disclose internal e-mails, letters and notes showing contacts with major telecommunications companies over how to persuade Congress to back a controversial surveillance bill, according to recently disclosed court documents.
The existence of these documents surfaced only in recent days as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by a privacy group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The foundation (alerted to the issue in part by a NEWSWEEK story last fall) is seeking information about communications among administration officials, Congress and a battery of politically well-connected lawyers and lobbyists hired by such big telecom carriers as AT&T and Verizon. Court papers recently filed by government lawyers in the case confirm for the first time that since last fall unnamed representatives of the telecoms phoned and e-mailed administration officials to talk about ways to block more than 40 civil suits accusing the companies of privacy violations because of their participation in a secret post-9/11 surveillance program ordered by the White House.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/134930
That means tax increases on the rich.
FINALLY!
And when the “rich” decide to take their money and business off shore? Who will you tax then JR?
Those evil ole “rich” people. Punish someone for success. That’ll keep the country moving in the right direction.
” And when the “rich” decide to take their money and business off shore? ”
Let ‘em go. Every one of them goes opens a window for those down the ladder.
And institute tarriffs. If it aint made here ya don’t sell it here without a heavy tarriff.
Casualties Mount in Ongoing US Assault on Sadr City
The ongoing US assault on the Sadr City area of Baghdad continues to claim civilian lives. At least eight people, including two children, were killed in overnight clashes between US troops and Shia fighters. The deaths come one day after local hospitals reported at least fifty dead and dozens more wounded from US attacks. On Wednesday, funerals were held for some of the victims. A Sadr City resident said the Iraqi government is unable to stand up to the US occupation.
Resident: ’’Isn’t their conscience shaken for this city which has been in siege for more than a month? What have they done? What have they committed? Are they afraid for their chairs, and that’s why they’re not calling for justice? But we tell them, damn them and their government.’’
Hundreds of Iraqis have died in the more than month-long crackdown on fighters loyal to the Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/1/headlines#1
Agricultural Firms Post Record Quarterly Profits
The rise in food prices has been linked to several factors, including bad weather, the higher price of oil and the diversion of crops to produce biofuels for cars. The growing unrest over food security comes as major agricultural companies are posting record profits. This week, the grain-processing giant Archer Daniels Midland announced a 42 percent rise in third-quarter profits. Revenues from the distribution of grains including wheat and corn were up 700 percent. According to the Wall Street Journal, other major firms, including Monsanto, Deere and Mosaic, have all reported similar windfalls.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/1/headlines#1
OMGosh, Sol, you’re right!
Back in the 50’s when we had 90 percent taxation rates on the top earners, there were no rich people.
And then JFK cut it to 70 percent, but still no rich people.
(heavy sarcasm)
:roll:
Happy May 1 to all you Marxist/Commie/Democrat Socialist/Proggressives out there.
Have a great one.
….and pagans as well.
….and “workers”.
And institute tarriffs. If it aint made here ya don’t sell it here without a heavy tarriff.
Simply brilliant. Or maybe just simple minded.
You forget JR that the top 50% pays for around 90% of the taxes. So should half of them leave, that means bottom feeders might have to start earning their own cheddar. And kiss your socialist entitlement programs bye-bye. Great move JR.
It’s also Commander Codpiece day.
The anniversary of “Mission Accomplished”
All you cons got your faux flight suits and crotch enhancers?
Dang it: I wanted to buy a pair of Hulk underoos, but Hulk don’t come in Bulk!
“If we add the 6,256 suicide victims from 2005 to the “official” 3,865 reported combat casualties; we get a sum of 10,121. Even a low-ball estimate of similar 2004 and 2006 suicide figures, would mean that the total number of US casualties from the Iraq war now exceed 15,000.”
—————-
These left wing articles are always remarkable for the information they leave out. They must be looked at critically because they are written to mislead. Assuming that the numbers are correct:
I wonder if these folks had all served in Iraq? It doesn’t say. It includes all active and retired military.
I wonder what the suicide rate is for: 1. the general public 2. All those who had served in the the armed services. 3. Is is higher than normal?
I wonder what percentage of those who committed suicide had been diagnosed with a combat related
mental illness?
I wonder how many had other reasons for suicide completely unrelated to Iraq.
Until those questions are answered, the article is not worth the bandwidth it occupies.
Back in the 50’s
Uhm, yeah. Welcome to the 21st century. You know, the internets and all. You can set up your business anywhere in the world and be competitive.
In the 50’s… yeah, not so much.
outlander - “may temporarily neutralize”
Let’s hope that speculation is correct. It might at least temporarily buy us some time.
If any of you have some time, please watch this brief (10 minutes long) video. The man seems sincerely concerned about his son’s health. I am hesitant to just write it off given the situation regarding Walter Reed. Please email Todd Tiahrt at Todd.Tiahrt@houseenews.net (That is the email that I have when he sent me the gas tax survey) If that is the wrong email address, feel free to correct me, my ego will be just fine. As a vet, I would appreciate it if you would at least ask Mr. Tiahrt to look into it. Thank You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4P-camUjjk
Thanks Heckler!!
Smart money left the USA long ago.IIRC in 1999 60% of all US corporations paid zero taxes.
WILLIAM E. GRAYSON, the president of EGM Capital, a hedge fund firm in San Francisco, has never set foot on the Cayman Islands, but he knows that sun-baked Caribbean haven quite well. That’s because he set up one of his funds in the Caymans, where lucrative tax breaks and fabled financial secrecy have made this British territory a magnet for hedge fund managers.
Keith Meyers/The New York Times
The Caymans has paid Robert Livingston’s company at least $1.5 million in lobbying fees.
“All of the offshore jurisdictions are competing against each other to provide the most hospitable regulatory landscape, and the Caymans are really coming on strong,” Mr. Grayson says. “As a hedge fund manager, you just might be deciding whether you want to golf or scuba-dive more.”
In as little as two weeks, and for about $35,000 in fees, hedge funds can set up shop in the Caymans — just a fraction of the time and up to one-tenth the price of incorporating a fund in drearier climes like Delaware.
While speed and bargain prices are big attractions, the real draw, say analysts and Congressional investigators, are perfectly legal Caymans-based corporations and partnerships that allow major investors to avoid taxes of up to 35 percent that the Internal Revenue Service levies on unearned business income. Cayman tax laws also help American fund managers legally defer domestic taxes on their personal profits by channeling them offshore through their funds.
The biggest of the three islands that make up the Caymans, Grand Cayman, is only 22 miles long and, at its widest, 8 miles across. But the territory’s tax advantages have turned it into one of the linchpins of the estimated $1.5 trillion global hedge fund business.
“Boxlock” whines –
“What is it with mental runts like Monkeyhawk that can do no more than attack the man instead of reasonably argue a point?”
“Boxlock,” you “mental runt” (just trying to on “point” here), seems like “Nathaniel’s” credo
“Weapons compound man’s power to achieve…” and his obsession for weaponry raise a “point.” (Or not, as the case may be.)
They make pills for that now, “Boxlock.” They sell ‘em in stores.
You guys, Capn and Jr, y’all really don’t get it do you? Someone starts a company, busts his ass, and bam, it is successful. So you say shame shame on him for earning a buck. Tax the hell out of him.
Where does that leave the motivation? I could work really hard and make…. The same as JR, or I could rest on my laurels, rely on the government, and make as much as… JR.
Punish success and take the plunder to those who don’t even try. Outstanding you two. Do you raise your kids like that? They do a good job in school; they get extra chores around the house? Makes about as much sense.
The top 1% earns over 21% of the income generated in this country. So I have no problem with them paying more in taxes, and closing loopholes generated by business at the expense of the workers, who make the businesses prosper.
====================================================
The latest release of Internal Revenue Service data on individual income taxes comes from calendar year 2005, a year in which the economy remained healthy and continued to grow, as well as a year with higher-than-average price inflation.
This year’s numbers show that both the income share earned by the top 1 percent and the tax share paid by the top 1 percent have reached all-time highs. In 2005, the top 1 percent of tax returns paid 39.4 percent of all federal individual income taxes and earned 21.2 percent of adjusted gross income, both of which are significantly higher than 2004 when the top 1 percent earned 19 percent of AGI and paid 36.9 percent of federal individual income taxes.
(Note: For a detailed paper on the distribution of the entire U.S. fiscal system, including all federal and state and local taxes, read Who Pays Taxes and Who Receives Government Spending? An Analysis of Federal, State and Local Tax and Spending Distributions, 1991 - 2004.)
The IRS data also shows increases in individual incomes across all income groups (see Table 3). Just as the highest earners lost the biggest percentage of their incomes during the recession of 2001, so they have prospered the most as the economy has continued to rebound. For example, from 2000 to 2002, the adjusted gross income (AGI) of the top 1 percent of tax returns fell by over 26 percent. In that same period, the AGI of the bottom 50 percent of tax returns actually increased by 4.3 percent. However, since 2002, as the recession has ended, AGI has risen by 61 percent for the top 1 percent and 10.7 percent for the bottom 50 percent.
In sum, between 2000 and 2005, pre-tax income for the top 1 percent group grew by 19.1 percent. On the other hand, in that same time period, pre-tax income for the bottom 50 percent increased by 15.5 percent.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html
Five Years………. Mission Accomplished……. what more can be said?
This is why I’ll never vote for another Clinton:
This disaster was compounded by the fact that after the collapse of health reform, on the advice of Dickie Morris (summoned by Mrs. Clinton), the Clintons swerved right, toward all the ensuing ghastly legislative ventures of their regime - the onslaughts on welfare, the crime bill, NAFTA. With Morris came the birth of “triangulation” - the tactic of the Clinton White House working with Republicans and conservative Democrats and actively undermining liberal and progressive initiatives in Congress. Money that could have given the House back to the Democrats in 1996 was snatched by the White House purely for the self-preservation of the Clintons.
. . . .
Since Vietnam, there’s never been a war that Mrs. Clinton didn’t like. She argued passionately in the White House for the NATO bombing of Belgrade. Five days after September 11, 2001, she was calling for a broad war on terror. Any country presumed to be lending “aid and comfort” to al-Qaeda “will now face the wrath of our country.” Bush echoed these words eight days later in his nationally televised speech on September 21. “I’ll stand behind Bush for a long time to come”, Senator Clinton promised, and she was as good as her word, voting for the Patriot Act and the wide-ranging authorization to use military force against Afghanistan.
Of course she supported without reservation the attack on Afghanistan and, as the propaganda buildup toward the onslaught on Iraq got underway, she didn’t even bother to walk down the hall to read the national intelligence estimate on Iraq before the war. (She wasn’t alone in that. Only six senators read that NIE.) When she was questioned about this, she claimed she was briefed on its contents, but in fact no one on her staff had the security clearance to read the report. And her ignorance showed when it came time to deliver her speech in support of the war, as she reiterated some of the most outlandish claims made by Dick Cheney. In this speech, she said Saddam Hussein had rebuilt his chemical and biological weapons program; that he had improved his long-range missile capability; that he was reconstituting his nuclear weapons program; and that he was giving aid and comfort to Al Qaeda. The only other Democratic senator to make all four of these claims in his floor speech was Joe Lieberman. But even he didn’t go as far as Senator Hillary.
Much more at link, including how Hillary sicced a private investigator on Jennifer Flowers to slime her (successfully), how Vince Foster was driven to suicide by getting blamed for her bad decisions, that she knew about Monica and insisted Bill lie to cover it up.
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11162007.html
“Someone starts a company, busts his ass, ”
And apparently has a LOT more time to blog than I do there solie.
What IS your secret?
Now Capn.
If you start throwing mud at Senator Clinton?
I’m gonna have to throw mud at Republican sympathizer Obama.
How’s that search for a con you can work with coming?
What IS your secret?
Multitasking.
“Those evil ole “rich” people. Punish someone for success. That’ll keep the country moving in the right direction.” — Sol
What a tired mantra; do you say that on your knees every night before going to bed? rich equals success? The we should all emulate Paris Hilton.
So JR and Capn,
Do you punish your kids for doing well in school?
Two early cases (of a total of five that Hillary actually tried) charted her course. The first concerned the successful effort of Acorn a public interest group doing community organizing to force the utilities to lower electric rates on residential consumers and raise on industrial users. Hillary represented the utilities in a challenge to this progressive law, the classic right-wing claim, arguing that the measure represented an unconstitutional “taking” of property rights. She carried the day for the utilities.
The second case found Hillary representing the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Arkansas in a lawsuit filed by a disabled former employee who had been denied full retirement benefits by the company. In earlier years, Hillary had worked at the Children’s Defense Fund on behalf of abused employees and disabled children. Only months earlier, while still a member of the Washington, D.C., public interest community, she had publicly ripped Joseph Califano for becoming the Coca Cola company’s public counsel. “You sold us out, you, you sold us out!” she screamed publicly at Califano. Working now for Coca Cola, Hillary prevailed
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn11142007.html
Of course wealth is a measure of success. You either earned the wealth or maintained it. Paris inherited it. I wouldn’t call her successful because she got her money and fame from daddy.
Mr. Hilton? You’re damn straight he is successful.
If you think money is the only measure of success you are blind or ignorant. What a sham statement bebe.
Beber,
Do you punish your kids for doing well in school?
Will you want them punished should they become successful?
Senator Clinton faced down the right wings chief blowhard O’Reilly.
I wonder if Obama has that courage?
BJ
O’Reilly? Right Wing? hmmmm. Not Really.
“The campaign had the fill-up choreographed to a T, all the way to which specific pump they would use so that cameras could be in position when they arrived. Within the shot for many was the large sign displaying the $3.75-per-gallon price tag.
After the entire motorcade pulled up, Clinton waited inside just a few moments as Wilfing got out of the passenger side and started the pumping process. With cameras mobbed together, Clinton hopped out of the truck without incident and joined Wilfing at the pump. She seemed very interested in the actual set up, acknowledging later that she hasn’t pumped her own gas in years.”
This from an article detailing the most transparent of staged stunts, meeting with an “average” family to fill up the family vehicle.
The “she” here, of course, is Hillary.
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2008/04/she_hasnt_pumpe.html
And she calls Obama “out of touch.” Yeesh.
Still, I wish her well; just keep this train rolling toward a brokered convention. It should be fun to watch!
Monkeyrunt,
Nathaniel quotes another and you pull it out of context and comment attacking Nathaniel as if attributing the quote to him. Which frankly makes it a lie, so what does that make you in addition to a mental runt.
The quote:
“…they (guns) amplify the capabilities of both the good man and the bad, and to exactly the same degree, having no will of their own. Thus we must regard them as servants, not masters - and good servants to good men….An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it.” by — Col. Jeff Cooper
And being a gutter runt you turn it into a sexual inadequacy statement directed at us both.
You’re the one that’s inadequate runt.
Annie:
The videos you linked are disturbing and difficult to watch. I truly don’t understand folks that buy bottled water. I reuse bottles, but rarely pitch them. I hope everyone will do what they can to reduce their plastic consumption and recycle what they can.
Beber, JR, and Capn,
Do you punish your kids for doing well in school? This is the model you want in society, do you practice it at home?
If your kids are successful in their careers, will/do you take a percentage of their income because they are successful?
Nevermind my last posting folks. The Ft. Bragg Commander looks to have fixed the situation. Don’t mind me folks. I just wanted to make sure the troops weren’t getting screwed.
How is it “punishment” to demand of those who are comfortable in our system to pay more for it?
Old, but valid none the less;
A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. She considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, but her father was a staunch Republican. One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to high taxes and welfare programs. He stopped her and asked how she was doing in school.
She answered that she had a 4.0 GPA, but it was really tough. She had to study all the time and never had time to go out and party. She didn’t have time for a boyfriend and didn’t really have many college friends because of spending all her time studying. On top of that, the part-time job her father insisted she keep left absolutely no time for anything else.
He asked, ‘How is your friend Mary?’ She replied that Mary was barely getting by. She had a 2.0 GPA, never studied, but was very popular on campus, didn’t have a job, and went to all the parties. She was always complaining about not having any money, but didn’t want to work. Why, she often didn’t show up for classes because she was hung over.
Dad then asked his daughter why she didn’t go to the Dean’s office and request that 1.0 be taken off her 4.0 and given it to her friend who only had a 2.0. That way they would both have a respectable 3.0 GPA. Then, she could also give her friend half the money she’d earned from her job so that her friend would no longer be broke. The
daughter angrily fired back, ‘That wouldn’t be fair. I worked really hard for my grades and money, and Mary just loafs. Why should her laziness and irresponsibility be rewarded with half of what I’ve worked for?’ The father slowly smiled and said, ‘Welcome to the Republican Party’.” :roll:
I’m with you wichiwomn. We bought a couple of purifying pitchers from the big box store. Were good to now. Way too much disposable stuff out there.
We pay more to ride in “first class” do we not?
At the arena we were forced to pay for here in Wichita, only those who can afford the high dollar seats will also have convenient parking. Others not so much.
Why should it be any different with taxes? Ya got a good seat, you pay for it.
BlueJay Posted May 1, 2008 at 10:45 am |
“How is it “punishment” to demand of those who are comfortable in our system to pay more for it?”
Because they have ALREADY ‘paid’ for it…they have worked for it…you haven’t! :(
You are another personage that appears to have WAY more screen time than me there “Boxlock”.
“Ya got a good seat, you pay for it.”
You are talking about using what you have earned. This is the choice of the one who is purchasing said seat. They could just as easily invest that money or got out to a nice restaurant.
By increasing the percentage of tax paid by those with more, that is not a choice. That is theft.
Boxlock’s post pretty much spells it out. Can you refute that post?
The Rude Pundit, once again, has the definitive take on Mission Accomplished Day, five years later. Bad language and all, but less than usual, because he is replaying what all the talking heads said that day.
As the Rude One would note, reading this is one of the things that makes a person wanna down a fifth of tequila with five Ambien.
heheheheheheheheh.
http://www.rudepundit.blogspot.com/
You can bet the admin. will fight this tooth and nail, claim executive privelege. Can’t let the truth get out!
Aviation companies blame FBI, CIA and terrorists for 9/11
Wednesday April 30, 6:06 pm ET
By Larry Neumeister, Associated Press Writer
Aviation industry blames FBI, CIA and terrorists for 9/11 in suits filed by victims’ families
NEW YORK (AP) — Aviation companies sued by the families of Sept. 11 victims for failing to safeguard air travel are in turn blaming federal investigators — arguing the Federal Aviation Administration was not alerted that al-Qaida was poised to launch terrorist attacks.
ADVERTISEMENT
In court documents filed this week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, aviation companies are seeking to force five FBI employees to provide testimony that may help defend against claims the companies share blame in the attacks.
“The aviation parties anticipate that the FBI witnesses’ testimony will demonstrate that the FBI had information before Sept. 11 indicating that al-Qaida may have been about to launch terrorist attacks on civil aviation, which it did not timely pass along to the Federal Aviation Administration,” lawyers wrote.
“You are another personage that appears to have WAY more screen time than me there “Boxlock”, posts BlueJay.
That’s a pretty difficult accusation to make BlueJay when you are posting with me pretty much one for one.
There are different ways to work and earn…some on a job, and others working at home for themselves.
The “non-recession” affecting the European middle class, too:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/business/worldbusiness/01middle.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=52029311ec1217e0&ex=1209787200
BlueJay,
How do you know I’m not a ‘paid’ political blogger who’s purpose is JUST to irritate you?
“How do you know I’m not a ‘paid’ political blogger”
Wow. If that’s true, someone needs to be asking for a refund, Dude!
BEN….
My wife informed me we are going to be in Hutchinson on Saturday. Sorry I can’t help with the cleanup. Maybe we can do an after-the-fact another time?
BlueJay
Posted May 1, 2008 at 10:45 am | Permalink
How is it “punishment” to demand of those who are comfortable in our system to pay more for it?
————————————————-
Hillarious, Sad, and Stupid at the same time. This describes the Libs to a “T”.
Sol/Box - is there a point to arguing with the Lib idiots? They won’t get it until they are in the same situation as that girl working her way thru college. (Good story Box) And that ain’t gonna happen until their gravy train ends.
Tax Stats - I’ve posted a dozen times, no point in reposting details and links again. The whining continues. Just like hungry little piggies fighting over the teets of Momma Government. They are fat, dumb, and happy and squeel like crazy when you take their teet away!
The top 50% pay 97% of the taxes. How much should they pay?
Answer: Well they have most of the revenue! Yup. Cause they EARNED IT!
Ween yourselves already!
And we argue and argue and argue about taxes and who pays what, meanwhile the Debt is soaring past $9.3 trillion with no end in sight………….. we are looking at a $600 billion deficit is fiscal 2009 and the Republican nominee for president wants to ADD to it………………..
Great.
Let’s just continue to ignore the 800 pound gorilla in the room, even though he is reading a book entitled “How to Cook Humans for Fun and Profit.”
Great.
Perhaps sam. What I really want to get is cooperaton from the City on placing trash receptacles in strategic locations so that ‘homes’ can be kept clean. Perhaps you could get a group to get to that bridge anyway? I’ll be picking up supplies at LD and then driving by both that location and then on to the WATER Center for the south wichita group.
StevenEDavis
Posted May 1, 2008 at 11:03 am | Permalink
The “non-recession” affecting the European middle class, too:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/business/worldbusiness/01middle.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=52029311ec1217e0&ex=1209787200
————————————————-
Wait, I thought the Socialists in Europe were thriving! It’s much better there then here!?!
Those brutal 35 hour workweeks in Europe are terrible! And 3% annual inflation is eating up their incomes?
What are their Socialist tax rates like nowadays?
ksfarmgrrl,
It’s obvious from BlueJay’s responses I am doing a very effective job…if I was a paid blogger that is.
Same with you, ha!
Now answer in a piss’y way and prove it.
Max,
1. Finally this isn’t funny. In other words, liberals are this cancer to the country. We have two political parties. One more than the Soviet Union had. And you sound like you want to remove one of them. (think about that, really) I wish we had more than 2 parties. I have voted libertarian since 2000. I wish we had at least 3 political parties in our country just for that reason, but that is just my opinion.
2. If you are going to preach about teets, then you need to really spell out how the GOP has learned their lesson about the bridge to nowhere, blackwater, etc. No excuses, the Republican leaders did the right thing and said “what we did was wrong” they didn’t offer excuses because they knew they had none. Now it is time for them (and you) to show me that you are going to remove ALL teets. One standard here chief.
3. What do I mean by All teets? I am a veteran, I see things differently than the retiree. I served. Now I make my own way. I don’t make my living from blackwater, I didn’t double-dip by getting a DOD job. There is a difference between the pension that was earned by legitimate Military Retirees, and the double-dipper DOD civilians who DEFINIETLY suck on teets. If you want to talk about teets, there should be no double standards.
Here’s the story on “Mission Accomplished” - Believe it?
WASHINGTON — The White House said Wednesday that President Bush has paid a price for the “Mission Accomplished” banner that was flown in triumph five years ago but later became a symbol of U.S. misjudgments and mistakes in the long and costly war in Iraq.
Thursday is the fifth anniversary of Bush’s dramatic landing in a Navy jet on an aircraft carrier homebound from the war. The USS Abraham Lincoln had launched thousands of airstrikes on Iraq.
“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended,” Bush said at the time. “The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on Sept. 11, 2001, and still goes on.” The “Mission Accomplished” banner was prominently displayed above him _ a move the White House came to regret as the display was mocked and became a source of controversy.
After shifting explanations, the White House eventually said the “Mission Accomplished” phrase referred to the carrier’s crew completing its 10-month mission, not the military completing its mission in Iraq. Bush, in October 2003, disavowed any connection with the “Mission Accomplished” message. He said the White House had nothing to do with the banner; a spokesman later said the ship’s crew asked for the sign and the White House staff had it made by a private vendor.
“President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said `mission accomplished’ for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday. “And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year.”
She said what is important now is “how the president would describe the fight today. It’s been a very tough month in Iraq, but we are taking the fight to the enemy.”
At least 49 U.S. troops died in Iraq in April, making it the deadliest month since September when 65 U.S. troops died.
Now in its sixth year, the war in Iraq has claimed the lives of at least 4,061 members of the U.S. military. Only the Vietnam War (August 1964 to January 1973), the war in Afghanistan (October 2001 to present) and the Revolutionary War (July 1776 to April 1783) have engaged America longer.
Bush, in a speech earlier this month, said that “while this war is difficult, it is not endless.”
LLTVET:
1. I’ve never advocated a one party system. I’ve never bragged about ANY party. The more parties the better. I’m closer to Libertarian then anything else, but the Libertarian party has not caught on - yet.
2. Again, I’m not defending Republicans. Conservatives advocate self-reliance and a Government that does not promote Socialism (stealing) to redistribute wealth. Few Conservatives are in Government today, which is why everything is all F’ed up.
3. Agree with you. When have I ever said otherwise? You earned your Veterans Pension. You paid into Social Security and are getting back Some of what you paid in. (My Grandfather retired in the 70’s, and got back 3 times what he paid into it before he died. Not gonna happen anymore.) There’s a long laundry list of Socialist Wealth Redistribution programs that are paying out money that is NOT earned:
-Steeply Regressive Income Tax system
-UnEarned Income Tax Credit
-Food Stamps
-Section 8 and other free/assited housing programs
-Heat assistance programs
-Free lunch programs
-Free public transportation programs
-Medicaid
Medicare Prescription Program (Not totally funded by those enrolled)
-SCHIP
-etc…etc…etc….
And yes, Liberals ARE the cancer to this country, eating away at our Individual Freedoms everyday. Step by step, incrementally, freedom is going away.
Have you not read anything I posted before?
S/B Progressive Tax System. (Not Regressive)
Bush, in a speech earlier this month, said that “while this war is difficult, it is not endless.”
According to McCain it might be 100, 1000, 1,000,000 years. Pretty damn close to endless.
Sigh, still at it.
That is a lie, Ben, right from the bowels of the DNC. Or did you mean something other than than the war when you said “it”.
Obama’s latest lie is 16 months to get the troops out of Iraq. Why not 15? 14? 18? (Number was pulled right out of his a**.) At one point, Obama said the US would be there at least until 2013.
Hillary did too. In the same debate, say 2013. What’s her promise now?
At least McCain is more honest than other Cons, remember the weeks, maybe months, I doubt years statement from Rummy, or his he knows where the WMDS are their North south east and west of Baghdad
“And yes, Liberals ARE the cancer to this country, eating away at our Individual Freedoms everyday.”
What “freedoms” have the evil liberals taken from you, Max.
Try to answer with facts - not some ridiculous “liberals want to………” meme.
Real facts, Max, let’s hear it.
chucklesnort
From Tucker Gun Leather blog.
A biker is riding by the zoo when he sees a little girl leaning into
the lion’s cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket
and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her
screaming parents. The biker jumps off his bike, runs to the cage, and
hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain, the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.
A NYT reporter has seen the whole scene and, addressing the biker, says, “Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I saw a man do in my whole life.” The man responds, “Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, and I took appropriate action.”
“Well, I’ll make sure this won’t go unnoticed. I’m a journalist from the New York Times, you know, and tomorrow’s paper will have this on the first page. What motorcycle do you ride and what political affiliation do you have?” “A Harley Davidson and I am a Republican.”
The journalist leaves. The following morning the biker buys The New York Times to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads on the first page:
“REPUBLICAN BIKER GANG MEMBER ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH!”
Because they have ALREADY ‘paid’ for it…they have worked for it…you haven’t!
That’s stretching it a bit, Boxlock. You assume to know who has worked and who hasn’t. Wealth doesn’t necessarily come from hard work. Sometimes wealth is earned on the backs of others. Sometimes those who work hard (at jobs you wouldn’t stoop to do), never achieve any kind of wealth. Some people get lucky, some don’t. Lots of variables you haven’t given any thought to, it seems.
Max, Clinton (and Obama) said the troops COULD be there until 2013, depending on what is done in the next year or so. And that was last year.
I’m really getting tired of the misquotes.
“Real facts, Max, let’s hear it.”
Clark, I suspect your ploy above is an underhanded liberal trick to silence Max.
Go for it, dude!
outlander - NOT a lie. I saw the tapes of McCain saying it.
OH! Now I understand. That must have been an imposter!
OK not that anyone is really going to give a rat’s booty about it, but I was watching CNN when the anchor led into a sound bite. “ Barack and Michelle Obama say that the issue is dead and we need to move on. BUT Hillary will not let it go!” Then a snippet from O’Reilly’s interview with Clinton was played, they had edited out the part where O’Reilly had to press the issue till finally Hillary gave the answer to his question and would not let lay her first response. Till she was more damaging of Wright, though the viewer get the illusion that Hillary has said it would out being prompted. It was Bill-o and not Hilary that brought the subject up and it was Bill-o who would not let the subject drop until she answered him!
Hillary or either of the other two can and will attack their opponent. BUT you as a voter are entitled to know it is them and not the media that is the one attacking. Though Hillary does have a vetted interest in undermining Obama. Last night it was O’Reilly and not Hillary and today is was the anchor on CNN whom was keeping the Wright issue alive.
The media is really getting ridiculous about it, one moment they are saying that Obama has settled the issue once and for all. Then with the next breath they pick on an old question that was already answered and point out. “But in his speech yesterday he did not answer the question of…”.
but … but … I thought the media was LIBERAL!
Heckler I had read it differently but that is funny!
And seems true of all the media these days.
Yeah BTH I heard that and might have still believed it until I actually started paying attention. What is not reported on or hidden in plain sight. Leads me to think otherwise.
#
MaxGrobnik
Posted May 1, 2008 at 12:28 pm | Permalink
Obama’s latest lie is 16 months to get the troops out of Iraq. Why not 15? 14? 18? (Number was pulled right out of his a**.) At one point, Obama said the US would be there at least until 2013.
Hillary did too. In the same debate, say 2013. What’s her promise now?
=================================================
…and what’s coming out of the mouths of the republicans? 10 years? 100 years? Clean your own house before throwing pillows at others.
NEWS FLASH! THE D.C. MADAM FOUND DEAD!
Her body was found this morning in a shed in her mother’s back yard, it was said to be a suicide.
She had been convicted a few weeks ago and was said to have provide a service to many notable name in Washington. So now let the spin begin!
WASHINGTON - A Senate panel has agreed to block U.S. funding for Iraq reconstruction projects worth more than $2 million and to try to force Baghdad to cover the costs of training and equipping the country’s security forces.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080501/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq
About frickin time
LITTLEJOHN yes in deed! shoot, the Iraqis should be paying the cost of our troops being there too!
It is more a benefit to Iraq then it ever will be for the U.S.
writerdog,
agreed.
Freedom is a two edged sword max. The economic and social freedoms. This is what I mean by double standard. I agree that the liberals have put limits on freedoms. The conservatives have as well. The Jeffersonian notion of how it neither “picks my pocket nor breaks my leg” has been out the window. Again Max, no double standards, the self proclaimed “conservatives” have eroded freedoms as well.
Clark, how many state and Federal taxes are on just your phone bill?
Start there. That should take all day.
Oh and in case you are wondering, yes TAXES do take away our freedom. If you are not free to keep your personal property, then you are NOT free.
J R asks, “How’s that search for a con you can work with coming?”
I can find one right here on the WEBlog.
SolDevo wants to end the war ASAP. So do I.
KFG,
Re: the Rude Pundit’s take on Mission Accomplished. I’ve known some of the pilots in the ANG and can truthfully say Dubya fits right in. Egos bigger than their you-know-what’s, for sure. ;)
Max–
I can honestly say I don’t mind paying my fair share of taxes.
If I didn’t make it, I couldn’t be taxed on it.
VET - I think there is an important difference between which freedoms the two sides effect. Conservatives want to regulate what consenting adults do in their homes etc. Liberals tend to focus on behavior that can effect others - for example pollution travels from your facility to my nose.
In the economic arena Cons want to spend our grandchildrens’ money. Liberals want ‘pay-as-you-go’
You CONs should grow up.
Taxes are the dues we pay to live in a civilized society. You could live with the indigenous people in a rain-forest somewhere. They don’t pay taxes.
As for where our taxes go, however, that’s that problem. They’re getting sucked down by wealthy corporations like Halliburton.
Littlejohn, I have to respectfully disagree. It isn’t about frikin time, 2 years ago would have been about frikin time.
“yes TAXES do take away our freedom. If you are not free to keep your personal property, then you are NOT free.”
Do you drive on public roads, Max.
Are you protected by the US military, Max?
Do the police in your town investigate crime, Max?
Did your parents or grandparents benefit from Social Security, Max?
Did you eat meat that was FDA inspected, Max?
Did you flush your toilet into the sewer system, Max?
Drink any clean water today, Max?
Was your mail delivered today, Max?
Did you go to school, Max?
By the way, Max, you are making an assumption that ALL taxes were generated my liberals - a stupid assumption to begin with…………
Not 2 years VET - FIVE years ago. After the “weeks, maybe months, definitely not years” and “MISSION ACCOMPLIHED”!
understandable bth. As I said don’t pick my pocket or break my leg. The prostitute doesn’t give a woman herpes, her husband does. Guns don’t kill, people do. If two dudes want to be homos, keep on rocking, it leaves more chicks for me.
Max, If you want freedom to keep all of your property, (where I come from that sounds like ultimate economic freedom) then remember, once again, no double standards. We should have ultimate personal freedom (i.e. No laws against gambling, drugs, alcohol etc.) Now can we get away from the absolutes and discuss which personal freedoms being lost is acceptable? Discuss which financial freedoms being lost is acceptable. All within one standard.
Absolute freedon - to drink all we want? And then to drive? …
Neufeld must not have all his votes yet. I thought from the posturing a poker playing last week he might. But if he did… they would have already voted on it. I wonder when they will vote!
I’m tellin’ ya… these guys are freakin’ INSANE!
Now the whole coal plant rests on a “side deal” or trailer bill that increases the power going to Kansas from 18 to 32 percent? About a third?
Oh yeah, there’s the sugar that makes the medicine go down. (sarcasm off)
WTF?
And… the Kansas utility they want Sunflower to sell this power to doesnt EVEN KNOW IF THEY WANT IT??????????? Because of cost????????
Woof.
Check out the comments too about the Holcomb plant not meeting the needs of Sunflower customers in 10 or 15 years. I guess they will need another plant, since MOST of the power will NOT go to Sunflower’s own customers?
Goddamn. Steve Miller changes his stories so often he sounds like bush trying to explain why we went to iraq.
Follow the bouncing ball for ever changing explanations. Is that something they teach in republican skool?
http://www.kansas.com/news/updates/story/389182.html
drinking and driving. That has been shown to break far too many legs. No brainer.
Agreed - which sort of makes my point. There must be boundaries … of some sort.
“Poll: Bush most unpopular in modern history
New poll numbers show bad news for president Bush.
May 1, 2008
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A new poll suggests that George W. Bush is the most unpopular president in modern American history.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove of how Bush his handling his job as president.”
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/05/01/poll-bush-most-unpopular-in-modern-history/
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
Yet again, “Boxlock” resorts to name calling with –
“Monkeyrunt,”
and…
“.. being a gutter runt you…”
Ah! A “gutter runt!” (I’m so glad you’ve kept this discussion “on point.”)
“… turn it into a sexual inadequacy statement directed at us both.”
I don’t recall posting anything about your “sexual inadequacy.” Sorry you took it that way.
Sorry for you about why you’re particularly sensitive about such issues, too.
“You’re the one that’s inadequate runt.
Well, we’ll all accept your testimony that “Nathanial” is sexually “adequate.” But that’s pretty lame praise for him coming from you, unless you have personal first-hand experience as to “Nathaniel’s” sexual prowess.
“Nathaniel” stated, “Weapons compound man’s power to achieve…,” and admitted that his “power to achieve…” was, essentially, dependent upon his arsenal of weapons.
It was YOU, “Boxlock,” who inferred some attack on sexuality. Just a bit sensitive about such issues, “Boxlock?”
I’m perfectly willing to accept your testimony that “Nathaniel’s” sexual “achievements” have met your rigorous test(s). You obviously know more about “Nathaniel’s” sexual skills than I do.
BTH…correct. Now the question is what are acceptable boundries for social and economic freedoms? This is a reasonable debate. I just want to keep it to one standard, not a double standard. My opinion as to which standard would be ‘picked pockets and broken legs.’ But if you got a better one, I’m all ears chief.
Whoa, did you see this? Even I dont agree with this. They must not vet their honorary degree candidates very well if this is news. SO much for academic freedom.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080501/pl_bloomberg/axcinkuxnrh8
Tricky part here VET is that it is all ‘grey’. For example - I don’t care if you smoke as long as you don’t inflict it on me. Thus the regulations that get discussed.
I think we could actually hammer out a lot of this. I remember talking with a woman who ran a little 3.2 joint - she was also a heavy smoker. I told her we could come up with something workable - starting with “you don’t smoke in my car and I don’t bitch in your car”. Just needs some common sense.
Dear Iraq War Supporters,
Here’s a child you killed. His name was Ali Hussein, and he was two. I thought you should see him.
http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/11359
So, dog, has law enforcement declared “suicide” or is that hopeful hype??
Yeah, sad about the DC madam. Most folks wont even remember her name, just that tag.
News report said this is not the first suicide in the DC madam case. They’ve notified the FBI, but right now, no mention of foul play. She apparently left notes. I feel sorry for the Mom who found her.
Ya gotta wonder, she was about to be sentenced. Maybe she was getting ready to sing? Lots of high profile folks involved.
Maybe she was just sad and tired.
RIP
News from our State House:
OMNIBUS BUDGET BILL
This morning the House is debating the House’s version of the Omnibus
(ominous) Reconciliation Bill. The Legislature has a lot left to do.
One issue the Legislature has put off is keeping our commitment to Kansas children and enhancing our investment in early childhood programs. To ensure that all children are ready to learn by the time they reach kindergarten, the Governor proposed $23 million in block grant funding for early childhood education. These grants would also include opportunities for expanded pre-natal care, newborn screening, Parents as Teachers, Early Head Start and quality child care. Studies have found that, for every dollar invested in education programs for prenatal through kindergarten children, $17 dollars of spending is saved on education remediation, crime, incarceration, health care and job training in the future. The money for these programs has been promised from part of the tobacco settlement funds and dedicated to the Children’s Trust Fund. The House has robbed the children’s savings account and taken the money for other state spending. The House approved an amendment to put the money back in for the early childhood programs with 66 votes.
The Governor’s budget also proposed a fourth year of our school finance plan, including $27 million for all-day kindergarten. All-day kindergarten provides children a stronger foundation for a lifetime of learning. Many school districts already have all day K, but they are only receiving state funding for half of the cost, requiring the districts to take funding from other programing in order to give kids the best start in school.
Unfortunately, the Legislature has postponed early childhood funding decisions until the very end of the session, funding other programs first.
Another priority that has been delayed until now is health care reform. Without health insurance, many families and individuals are being forced into bankruptcy or intolerable decisions about the health care they need. Rising health care costs are a burden for families, business owners, workers, and seniors. To address these issues, a bipartisan health care reform package was crafted by the Kansas Health Policy Authority at the request of the legislature. The House did a better job of passing a bill to begin meaningful reform, but it looks like the Senate’s non-reform bill will prevail. The real reform package is based on three priorities: promoting personal responsibility for health and wellness; paying for preventative care; and providing all Kansans with affordable health insurance. The Legislature appears to be poised to basically ignore the comprehensive plan and instead take a baby step instead of meaningful reform suggested by the Health Authority with input from health care providers, employers and consumers.
The Legislature has a lot to accomplish in a very short amount of time.
Here’s the other suicide in the case.
Brandy Britton who worked for the DC madam
http://www.examiner.com/a-714063~Accused_D_C__madam__Br...
CF2K.
I see your point. He was just a toddler and had nothing to do with the war.
But you realize that you are just going to torque off the rabid conservatives. They will show you pictures of aborted babies. Then call you a purple-haired, commie, pinko, damn yankee, liberal who listens to jungle music. Then we have to listen to them foaming at the mouth about how everyone gets arrested for saying Jesus and that is why drug abuse is out of control and kids are killing their parents. So let’s all make sure that Israel stays free and kills all the muslims. (ok, there may be a couple of straw men in there. I will turn the sarcasm off)
I think it is horrible that Ali Hussein had to die. He was an innocent boy. But please try not to give idiots like John Hagee any more ammunition.
More News from our State House:
GOVERNOR’S VETO SUSTAINED BY SENATE
Gov. Sebelius’ veto of new restrictions on abortion providers withstood an attempt some Senators to overturn it. The vote was 25-14, two short of the two-thirds majority needed to nullify the veto in the Senate and send it to the House, where an override effort probably would have been successful. A bill that is vetoed must go to the house of origin first for an override effort. SB 389 passed the Senate last year unanimously, but it was not the bill that passed the House. New late term abortion provisions were substituted for the original bill in the House. The Senate took a vote to agree with the House changes in a conference report, but that vote was with 25 yeas, enough to pass the bill but not enough for an override. When she vetoed the measure, Sebelius argued that the new restrictions could deny women life-saving medical care. She objected most strongly to provisions allowing a patient’s spouse or family members to go to court if they believed a doctor had performed or was about to perform an illegal late-term abortion.
Besides imposing new restrictions on late term abortions, the measure would have allowed civil lawsuits to block late-term procedures on fetuses 22 weeks or older. The bill also allows a former patient or her family to sue a doctor for monetary damages if she believes a pregnancy was improperly terminated. The patient herself could sue, but so could a prosecutor in the county where the abortion was performed or the county where the woman lived. The measure was partly a response to allegations that Dr. George Tiller in Wichita has performed illegal late-term abortions at his Wichita clinic. Tiller is among the few U.S. physicians who perform such procedures, and he says that he follows state law. The bill called for doctors using ultrasound or monitoring fetal heartbeats to make information from those sources available to a patient at least 30 minutes before an abortion. Also, doctors would have to tell their patients whether their fetuses are viable and, if not, why.
The vote came with little debate; Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, made the override motion.
WANNA MAKE YOUR HANDS SWEAT?!!
WATCH
http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1438490562
COAL PLANT CONTROVERSY CONTINUES
The standoff continued yesterday over the proposed coal-fired power project in southwest Kansas and a new measure has emerged that would hit every electric customer in the state. A companion bill to the power plant bill was approved in the Senate that would assess a 2 cent per meter per month charge on all ratepayers for four years. Funds raised from the charge would go toward helping Hays-based Sunflower Electric Power Corp. develop its bio-energy research center, and also statewide energy efficiency and weatherization programs. Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, who opposes the power plant project, called the new charge a tax, and complained that it rocketed out of a hastily called committee meeting with little notice and no chance for opponents to testify.
Strategy-wise, the bill was seen by supporters of the project as needed to get more support behind the two 700-megawatt plants because it also included provisions to increase power from the project for use in the state. The commotion over the bill is typical of a whirlwind of activity as lawmakers started the wrap-up session. Earlier in the day, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius rejected an ultimatum to approve the coal-fired project and the Senate voted to override her April 17 veto of a second bill that would authorize the plants.
The fate of the two proposed coal-fired power plants appears to rest TODAY with a side deal among legislators to move some of the power as far east as Kansas City. The side deal also would require the secretary of KDHE to draft the state’s first rules on carbon dioxide emissions and submit them to legislators for their review next year. Supporters of the two plants have succeeded in the Senate to override the governor’s veto and hope their side agreement will attract the last few votes necessary in the House. That action would come after Sunflower Electric Power Corp.’s top executive acknowledged that building the new plants might not be enough to meet its customers’ power needs after 2020. The side deal requires a trailer bill, which the Senate approved on a 27-6 vote yesterday, the same day it was drafted and without committee consideration or hearings. That leaves the remaining crucial decisions in the House. House leaders had hoped to take those votes yesterday but were waiting on the Senate to finish with the trailer bill. By evening, they’d decided they waited on the Senate long enough and adjourned. But the delay also could change votes, giving both supporters and opponents more time to lobby lawmakers. “We might win some; we might lose some,” said House Majority Leader Ray Merrick, a Stillwell Republican who supports the plants. “It depends on who twists arms best.”
Supporters need two-thirds majorities in both chambers to override a veto. They’ve always had more than enough in the Senate, but in the House, they’ve always been at least one vote short of the necessary margin, 84 of 125 votes. The trailer bill is a response to some legislators’ worries about CO2 and to criticism that not enough of the power from the new plants would stay in Kansas. Sunflower is relying on two out-of-state partners to help finance the project, and they’d get 86% of the new power, no matter what the energy needs of Kansas are. Earl Watkins Jr., Sunflower’s chief executive officer in Kansas, said the share of power allocated to it and a sister utility, Midwest Energy Inc., will meet their needs now, but he acknowledged that Sunflower expects demand to outstrip the new generating capacity after 11 or 12 years.
“In 2018, 2019, 2020, if our load grows as we anticipate it, we’ll be looking at an additional piece of generation whether it will be in our service territory, together with other utilities, outside the state of Kansas,” he said. The trailer bill requires Sunflower to offer 14% of the new power to Kansas utilities not involved in its project, starting with the Board of Public Utilities in Kansas City in order to entice Wyandotte County’s legislative delegation, which has been split on Sunflower’s project. That power would be taken from Sunflower’s partners, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association Inc. of Westminster, Colo., and Golden Spread Electric Cooperative, in Amarillo, Texas. Those partners would still retain 72% of the power.
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In addition, all Kansas utilities customers would be required to pay the state 2 cents a month for each electric meter. The $2.5 million raised each year would finance energy conservation efforts and research into clean energy.
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That includes research at a bio-energy center Sunflower has proposed as part of its project to capture some CO2, use it to grow algae and convert the algae into biofuels. But Kansas City’s BPU didn’t embrace the trailer bill. Their lobbyist said legislators who support Sunflower’s project approached him Tuesday but wanted a quick answer. He said the BPU would have to consider many issues, including the cost of the new power.
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House leaders are promising an override vote today, but they are uncertain of its outcome.
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The bills have all limited the authority of KDHE to regulate air pollution emissions state-wide.
Legislative leaders and Sunflower Electric gave Sebelius an ultimatum to accept the two 600-megawatt plants with little change on the previously stated conditions, but she refused the proposal. “I am disappointed that, for the third time in a row, the Legislature is asking me to mandate that Kansas send the power we need — the power we create — to Colorado and Texas,” Sebelius said during a news conference. In other words, the Governor has said, Kansas gets most of the air qual