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Specter Spectacle – Double Faced or Double Faked

Arlen Specter, Long term Senator(R) from Pennsylvania Switches parties and leaves the Democrats one vote short of a filibuster proof senate. Whats behind this?

Arlen has been a very slight maverick on some of his votes but most of the ones that have angered his own party the most. Well, he would be no different than any other senator, when it benefits him directly or indirectly and or his state, he will claim to be doing a independent thing for the good as he sees it. Some may be true but there is always more to read into this if you do a little digging.

Well, Specters support for the stimulus package seems to be the last straw for the Republicans as they were about to throw alot of money to make him loose his own party’s nomination. Now it only makes sense when your own party seems to be pulling out all the stops to take your seat, it is time to sit at a new table.

Now in order to do such a thing, there has to be some kind of arrangement for support within the other party both verbally and with the good old green back. So, Obama has stated he will campaign for him if he wishes, but how much is the party willing to spend to keep his seat Democratic?

Probably not much unless they manage to get just one more seat to switch and then his seat becomes more valuable as a filibuster proof senate. And one must wonder what promises he has made for support in coming issues.

It will be interesting to see if Arlen is just two faced or the Democrats have done a double fake or both. One thing for sure is the Republicans have little moral authority in the eyes of the public and do not stand a great chance of shifting any power for some time unless they can scare everyone into it as has worked in the past. At this point, I see a bunch of mud being thrown but not to much is sticking except for the few talking radio heads that have a cult following that does not question the truth of what is being said. Lots of luck making a change with those guys and their followers. Their tactics must change, not just the message or the messenger if they are to have any credibility going forward.

Chrysler – A New Lease From Sure Death – GM Take Notice

Not Your Fathers Bail-Out !

Surprisingly a bankruptcy is hailed as a savior. Go figure. It appears that a deal to engage in bankruptcy was needed as everyone involved was taking a cut with the exception of some hedge fund creditors that were holding out for more government bail-out money. By using bankruptcy, the hedge fund creditors are guaranteed nothing as a judge will decide just who will get paid what in debts as it should be the way the law is written.

So for once, the greedy may get nothing and those who had a vested interest and were willing to sacrifice something will live on. Funny, I thought most hedge funds were like junk bonds, how could there be any collateral for the money but I may be wrong about that as Wall Street has had some pretty crafty ways around anything, most especially rules and regulations.

As it appears to be stated, the government will be backing auto warranty and workers pensions and health benefits. This appears to be a good deal but only time will tell.

We have yet to see if this will be the mold cast for GM. The circumstances there may be the same and I do wonder what GM top brass may be personally hiding and holding hedge fund loans to the company at high rates that makes them want to hold out from bankruptcy. In the case you have not ever tried, you can not find out where hedge fund money is invested unless they want you to know and normally not. I doubt on the flip side you will know who the hedge fund investor are unless they want you to.

Now after all, the UAW took concessions before the mess started, are willing to take some more but the company will make no deal from sudden and sure death. One can only think that company officials are holding out to save their own skin (money) as a bankruptcy judge will decide who gets paid and how much. Why else when most everyone is ready to deal would you not.

This action sends a clear message to GM that has more money and jobs at stake they should not find Moot!

To Torture or Not To Torture

This has a fundamental easy answer if you are a patriotic American. What? There goes someone flaunting that patriotic thing at me again?

Well it is true as many before us have fought for a new standard in how a country treats its citizens and prisoners of war and to now go against those principles we held up so dear and flaunted to the rest of the world as we had some moral authority that gave us respect among nations as we were so different.

As early as the revolutionary war there was respectful treatment of prisoners of war as these ideals were most sought by folks like Thomas Jefferson and were somewhat built into the constitution. How can we now say that it does not fit our purpose anymore and tell the world that they should not do what we will.

No moral authority is what it brings us to. Many countries have followed in our footsteps to make this a better world. I do not think the time is now for us to go backwards on this as will the nations that followed us when it is convenient for them.

Former VP Dick Cheney has been sparing with the Obama administration trying to defend his position on this issue but Since his involvement in the Nixon Administration, Cheney has had a secret agenda to restore what he deems as the congressional stripping of presidential power. He found legal scholars to put in place that supported his opinion so when called on to decide if these issues were constitutional, he would know what the answer would be. Thus this is what got us in this mess. The water is so muddy now, how could you prosecute anyone when the legal opinions were made and laws were changed based on those legal opinions. Cheney covered his tracks very well. Congressional time would be better spent on banks and the economy because in the end, legally, you will not be able to prosecute anyone. I sometimes think they want to divert public attention using this issue to keep the eyes off the scandals of congress with wall street.

Cheney criticizes Obama for being apologetic, but how else to you say to other nations of the world…

OK, yes we did it, it was wrong, we will not do it again, now can we move past this issue to new business that can make us all better.

Much is life that respect is earned. Moral authority is Moot without respect. Does our constitution really stand for anything. If not, what next will we disengage from… right to free speech ?

It is easy to be like our enemies, but very hard to stand up for what we believe as a people.

Clean Coal – Obama vs The Left

President Obama made it a point to support “clean coal” technology during the campaign. Now he is the president, he is speaking of clean coal once again but much to the dismay of his own party and mostly those on the far left.

But why should the left be against using the most abundant energy we have in the US that could be the short term answer to energy independence. Especially if it can be made “Environmentally Clean”. After all, what they want is energy that is sustainable, affordable and potentially environmentally friendly. They should put one plant on a fast track, see if they can make it work and for what cost, then lets see about replicating it if it is a success.

A quick background on this is some of the companies supporting this are were pushing a clean coal plant in Illinois, his home state and of course the coal companies. In a small town along the Ohio River named Wellsville, Ohio, Baard Energy / Ohio River Clean Fuels has proposed a plant to turn coal and biomass into premium grade diesel fuel and also have a 1200 megawatt power station. Well their you have a military solution to internal needs as the military has been doing away with most other types of fuels other than diesel which is the same as aircraft fuel formulated differently.

Just listening to the normal slant that I have been hearing from the left, one would think they just do not like anything. After all, many wind power proposals have been shot down as aesthetically incorrect . Just where do we get the energy we need to progress as a nation in the short/medium term here while we wait for cost improvements in solar and hydrogen and batteries for cars that have a life and do not weigh as much as or pollute as much as the cars.

Most important this issue is and a matter of national security and economy. We all do not want to import oil, and since all economies around the world are very dependent on these fossil fuels we need to be more independent of of it both in the sense of what we can produce ourselves and conserve what we consume while we wait for those promised alternatives to be cost efficient.

Obama has taken a bold move. One that I hope he can win for all of our sake as if no action is taken and when the economy improves, it will once again be choke off by the cost of energy and yet more of our dollars traded for oil.

More important, if we should find ourselves in a larger war, the US Military who is the worlds largest user of oil, will find itself being the blame for crippling the economy for its own high consumption. If we did not import any oil our economy would be very robust despite the banks and our overspending.

One thing is for sure, if nobody comes up with the intermediate answer soon, our economy will sit flat at best and we will watch China exceed past all the worlds economies and power, even if they are killing off there own with their own environmental madness.

It is time we tried something more than a few token experiments to remody this energy problem. Coal could be one alternative and no matter what we chose, it is now time to put-up or shut-up for those who only oppose.

How To Be GREEN Everyday, Not Just Earth Day/Week

While most of you are doing your celebration of earth day/week/month by doing something that makes you feel better about yourself that you did something/anything, I would like you to take a moment to think about the economy of being real green, maybe not totally green everyday.

I am not saying this as the normal left wing extremist that are always seem to fit the category mentioned above, but as a healthy and better personal economy for yourself. Here are some things I do not preach but have practiced for some time in my life.

Reduced use of chemicals:

This is everything from bug spays and stuff you might spread on your lawn to certain personal hygiene products and household cleaners and air fresheners. If you take just a few moments to read what is in those consumer goods and like me don’t know what they are and attempt to look them up on the web. You will find you do not want to use them unless you have no alternative and while you are looking, look for a better/natural alternative.

example: I use products with boric acid to take care of ant problems (also good for roaches) as it is fairly safe and will bio-degrade in a short time. I use two “IONIC BREEZE” to keep my air inside the house fresh as well as collecting even the most minor airborne partials while only using 16 watts of electric.

It is also a minor producer of ozone (03) that has an ability to destroy airborne organic odors. Compare that with covering them up with chemicals that you will indeed breath in and it will get to your bloodstream. They actually have an index to how much the body can tolerate of these chemicals as many enter the body quickly but do not leave for quite a while or not at all.

Best of all, doing things like this not only makes life safer for you, your kids and your neighbor, it is much more economical. With the US economy to be in shambles for some time to come this stuff will get more popular.

It only makes sense to plant a garden not just for the economy, but to ensure you have some safe food around that you know what chemicals they have been subjected to. Mexico is now a leading provider to US food supply and they do not have the same rules down there and the FDA is not only inept to deal with food in the US but merely powerless to that from Mexico.

Besides, think of the experience this would be for your kids. The best father/son mother/daughter project.

On the other side of things, dealing with electric/utilities/car, I can only say in a short way that must be in your thoughts whenever you are buying anything. ” STOP CONSUMING ! “

Of course this is no good for our over consumed economy but when I make a purchase, I have one thought in mind and it is a phrase every big, smart business uses “TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP”.

Example:

Car cost 20,000. I travel 15,000 miles a year. Car averages 25 mpg. I expect to keep the car for a least 8 years and I need to consider the cost of financing the car and I normally add 15% of the total cost of the car for maintenance but less if I were only keeping it 4 or 5 years. Also consider the cost of insurance.

Now add the totals up and compare to find the best deal. There are many more things to consider with this but I think you get the idea that calculating the total cost of ownership for a period of time is important and I contend that it is part of being green.

Many folks dream of or want to have a solar electric system but I can tell you fist hand that if you are not getting mega tax breaks on a system you install yourself, it is hardly worth it. In fact most states will not give you a tax break unless it is certified professionally installed so it was a trade off that I just did it all on my own without tax incentives.

It is a commitment you just have to want to do over the cost. The bright side is that electric rates are going to go up soon and I’m sure that the cost of this equipment will also so it will pay off in the future (or so I hope) And I am happy with the idea that when the power goes out, I still operate as if nothing happened. The power company had received many calls of disbelief when the guy down the street was lighting up his whole house/yard from the last couple of storms when we had long term and wide spread outages.

I have found being a bit green green everyday is easier, faster, cheaper and better for me as far as health goes. It just takes a little knowledge or access to it and the “will to do it”. It actiually has uncomplicated part of my life and saved me money and health.

Not Enough Time For The News ?

You and I keep hearing them say it but is it true or MOOT?

One of most spoken criticisms of news organizations is that they only braze the news and do not give enough details to keep the public informed or as much as we would like them to.
They say they do not have the time to do the depth in the stories that they would like to do. Having taken a step back from this and look at it from a far perspective,
I say HOGWASH! (that is a kind word for bullshit).
For the last 20 years the time a local TV station spends on local news is up 300%. It was as I remember it, in the early 80’s 30 min for local news and 30 min for national (network) news. Today we have on most local TV stations, 90 min of local news and I have 1 showing 2 full hours plus the 30 min of National Network news and then 30 to 60 min of Entertainment News.
Problem here is they repeat the same news over and over again. These same stations could and would argue that the attention span for local news is 30 min or that they do not have enough advertisers to pay for that extended depth of news. I say again Hogwash !
They (Newspapers and Television) should have learned a great deal from the kind of stuff Ted Turner put together from their error filled ways. What I mean by that is that Mr Turner created a mega business model from the idea that news could be more in depth and profitable and 24 hours with the creation of CNN. Of course you would need to have cable or satellite to watch this and at the time he made that a profitable News organization and could not yet be viewed by 50% of homes in the US. This proves there was a void and money could be made while expanding services to the public.
Catching the business as usual media off guard in a lesson they still have not learned from.
Profit, Profits and more Profits !
Sorry to say that even Ted Turner has got the shaft from the model he created from his ever expanding merger activity and the profit model is back to normal squeezing every ounce of money from every news organization of cable news networks in general to better match what we see in the same stuff that is/has killed the newspaper business.
Is it news or blog….
1st make no mistake that this website is a BLOG (that is short for web log) . Fox news like most is more entertainment than news. In fact I would go as far as calling the O’Reilly report a video blog just like Rush Limbaugh is an audio blog. Anyone taking anything from these shows as news should only spend a day looking up the facts of one program online (not using links from their webs), that is if you did not know better before hand.
I say this most pointedly as I have for years listened to audio clips Rush would play of folks he would be trashing that I knew what the words to the speech before and after the clip was, so I was absolute about the out-of-context claims before they were even made. Hence I would ask myself, is he really aloud to do this? Yes it is entertainment not journalism as even Rush has answered himself on several occasions.
Oh.. I do listen to these kinds of programs once in a while… I like to know just how the sheep are being lead into the coral so that I may keep grazing.
I wonder just how far this garbage can go before someone crosses the line so bad that it creates riots and we have to have that free speech talk again and yes I would defend their right to free speech but not on public airwaves, hence they have all ready one-up me there as most are on un-regulated cable and taken the all the real entertainment content with them to ensure cable is free to do as it wishes with all the real profits.
My Solution…
Do not allow news organizations to have a corporate charter. Only a Co-Operative charter would work for all sides here.
Any media company or co=op that used the term “NEWS” to describe themselves could be challenged in court to be factual in their content of “NEWS”.

What? Don’t believe that? Well PBS does a fine job bringing you such great programming as FrontLine, Nova, Bill Moyers and my favorite, Charlie Rose.
In fact Bill Moyers may be one of the last great Journalist. Look him up on YouTube as there is plenty posted.
Blogs are not news and the Internet is full of them and most of them are full of shit. They are a way to convey opinion for anyone to read.
You can not rate a blog by how many readers. If 100k folks read it every day, it does not make what is said any more true. But it seems to be a new standard as I see Bloggers speaking as some kind of experts on national news media. When I see this on shows I previously had some regard for, it strips all of it away to the point I ask, Who is running this show anyway? Please tell me the guy who was to be here was killed in a plane or car crash as you are making a blogger a panel expert? What is next, Obama asks Rush Limbuagh or Glen Beck for some facts on the country?
Looking all this in the face, it scares me as soon everyone will be looking for real news and it will be hard to recognize it as most will just be telling us what we want to believe and quite possibly in the interest of corporate profits as they drive the content….. oh… is that time now….

I only hope to see investigative reporting stay alive with me as it may be the only thing that keeps me and you alive.

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