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Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Power Outage from Miami to Jacksonville to Tampa

For people have lost power in Florida today following a number of lightning and thunder storms it went to the area. The power outage is mass in scale and ranges from Miami to Jacksonville on the East Coast and from Miami to Tampa on the Gulf Coast side of Florida.

Apparently there have been up to eight power plants that were off-line or are still off line across the region according to the North American electric reliability Council. So far there is no word on why the power plants are off-line or what triggered the outage.

On the positive side, this power outage does not seem to have triggered a chain reaction of power outages over multiple states like the power outage seen just a few years ago that wiped out most of the Northeast and parts of Canada. In that regards it would appear that we are making some progress, or Florida's grid is stronger than that of the Northeast.

I suspect the number of people in Florida today are asking themselves, "what do you do when the powers out?"

There's only so much work you can do on the laptop battery. You can stay indoors in the dark, and if it eats up outside you can even run the air conditioning. Maybe today will be a good day to just head to the beach. Then again if you have the drive to the beach you might want to skip it if the pumps are running. Movie theater seating will be empty as normal build go to the movies nor the malls nor restaurants. It's not exactly like a situation such as a snowstorm or everybody just hunkers down in their homes, huddling closely to stay warm.

It could be a good day to golf or do some yard work, or take a walk and get some exercise. 

What would you do in Florida with no power?

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Serbian Riot Results in Attacks on US, Turkey and Canadian Embassies

 US-Embassy-attack-Belgrade-Serbia Close to 600,000 Serbians turned out in Belgrade to protest the Kosovo's move towards independence.  Kosovo has long historic roots with Serbia dating back over a millenia.  In the last 50 years, it has become populated with ethnic Albanians in addition to resident Serbs.

During and after the Yugosloavia civil war many atrocities were committed in this section of Serbia, which ultimately led to NATO troops deploying and later bombing Belgrade to force a separation of the two portions of the country.  Now that separation has turned to secession and Serbs are extremely angry and fueled in part by Serbian hard liners and the influence of Russia working to antagonize the West and rebuild a buffer similar to the Communist buffer that existed during the cold war.

Yugosloavia was a country created after World War II to bring together many diverse groups of peoples, religions and cultures.  The glue for the country did not stick and following the 92 Olympics resulted in open civil war.  Historically, the region has been the battle ground and the clash point of Christians, Muslims and Slavic peoples.  World War I was initially sparked in the Bosnia Hercegovina region next door to Serbia and for almost 50 years part of Yugoslavia.

The Balkans War also proved to be a place where many jihadists from Afghanistan fought after the Afghanistan war against the USSR.  When that civil war ended, those jihadists migrated to Africa (Darfur, Somalia, Nigeria and other areas) along with some that migrated back to Afghanistan and to Iraq via Afghanistan after the US invasion of Iraq.

The UN, the US and Europe fear a resurgence of fighting in Serbia and Kosovo, which could spread once again through Croatia and Bosnia.  Some reports indicate that Croatia's embassy was hit as well today.  That spread could bring those jihadists back to Europe fresh from fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq and ready to spread discord in Europe.

The violence fueled growing fears in Washington and Brussels that Serbia was turning to the virulent nationalism of the past.

Protesters Attack U.S. Embassy in Belgrade

It does not help that Russia is benefiting tremendously from the instability.  Fighting in the middle east raises the price of oil and Russia's oil revenues.  That locks Vladimir Putin in power and sets Russia up to resume its place at least as a European power.

This new spark of civil war if nothing else could significantly harm a region that has been working to pull itself back together both in terms of manufacturing products such as cars, textiles and components such as plasma lift consoles to re-establishing itself as a peaceful region that put on one of the most spectacular winter Olympics in the last 25 years.

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2002 Supreme Court Deposition: Importance and Company of McCain's Flight

Following the report in the New York Times report about allegations of John McCain's romantic and professional relationship with a major female telecom lobbyist, ABC has tracked down depositions by John McCain in relation to the Supreme Court case McConnell vs FEC.

 

The story threatens to harm McCain's image of a man of integrity, one summed up by his Dec. 31, 2007 campaign pledge to voters in New Hampshire: "I will never ever let you down."

Past statements by McCain are now subject to harsher scrutiny. In a Sept. 25, 2002, deposition in the Supreme Court case McConnell vs FEC, for instance, which challenged the constitutionality of the campaign finance reform law McCain had championed, McCain was asked about his flights on the Paxson communications corporate jet and whether Iseman was present.

Q: How many times did you fly in Mr. Paxson's jet in the time period surrounding the writing of these letters?

Video

McCain Camp Accuses Times of Smear

McCain: I don't know. I can provide the answer for the record.

Q: Do you recall if Mr. Paxson was ever on his company jet at any of the occasions when you were flying on it?

McCain: I don't recall. You can easily get the manifest, but I don't recall. I flew all over the country in those days, almost daily.

Q: Do you recall if Mr. Paxson's lobbyist accompanied you on any of the corporate jet trips that you took?

McCain: I do not recall. Again, I know it's a matter of public record.

The McCain campaign said this was evidence that Iseman and the trip were not of great importance to McCain.

Source Article - McCain Denies NYT Report

More Information on this story

This is one of the first reports adding to the New York Times article and hints that there may be more to come. That said, it is important to consider that the potential impropriety from the professional angle was investigated and led to a deposition in 2002, which so far has not led to any other major revelations about John McCain.

The influence of lobbyists over John McCain's Telecom votes and other Commerce Committee votes is much more important than questions of his marital fidelity. The New York Times has managed to intertwine the two issues together in one scandal, which makes the story much more personal for the people involved and might shake loose something more on the lobbyist side of the equation, if there is something to shake loose.

So far there is no smoking gun contribution or gold bangle receipts nor sullied blue dresses. . . .

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Economic Stimulus Wiped Out when Oil Hits $100.10 per Barrel Today

 100-dollars-per-barrel The President and Congress were very happy to offer the $170 billion economic stimulus plan last week, but shortly after they started dismissing it as not enough. 

Today, Oil futures hit $100.10 on expectations that OPEC will suck up that entire economic stimulus in the form of higher oil prices. 

If prices had stayed in the high $88 range where they were when the Stimulus was taking shape, the US economy could have benefited more from the cash.  However, with a country that uses more than 20 million barrels of oil per day, the increase of $12.10 to the cost of each barrel of oil will cost the country over $88 billion dollars.

That price comes before the oil runs through the refineries at an inflated cost that also pushes up Oil company margins and profits and taxes too for that matter.  It also increases the cost of staple products such as milk (recently hitting $4 per gallon) and goods.  Not to mention all other non-essential items from automobiles to clothes to drugs and specialty items like a bath lift.  Everyone feels the price of higher oil.

At the end of the day it would appear that Americans just lost half of their economic stimulus package at the pump before anyone actually received a check!  They will rapidly loose the rest sometime before summer.  That will do little to stimulate the US economy.  It might not even do much to pay down credit card debt, the previous candidate to receive the majority of the stimulus package.

Bloomberg.com

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Friday, February 15, 2008

Hillary Phones in Acceptance Speech for Winning New Mexico 9 Days later

Hillary Clinton finally received some good news.  She won the state of New Mexico.  She won it 9 days ago before the momentum shifted fully to Barack Obama.

The delay in naming a winner was due to organizational difficulties at some precincts. Long lines and a ballot shortage forced some 17,000 voters to cast provisional ballots, which had to be hand counted.

Mrs. Clinton gains 14 delegates from New Mexico, compared to 12 for Mr. Obama. She was the most popular candidate in 27 of the state’s 33 counties. In total, Mrs. Clinton earned 73,105 votes, besting the 71,396 cast for Mr. Obama.

Clinton Wins New Mexico - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog

It will be interesting for the talking heads on TV to rejuvenate their horse race between Clinton and Obama now that Clinton has picked up 2 marginal delegates.  More telling is the importance of the Hispanic vote in Texas and how New Mexico might resonate in Texas.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Bush Will Veto Ban On Torture, McCain, Once Tortured Himself, Joins White House To Fight for Torture

If you think that John McCain has managed to stick to the principles that made him a compelling candidate for independents in 2000, well think again.  The Senator from Arizona was able to withstand torture by the Vietcong almost 40 years ago, but he can not with stand the sadistic dimmensia that plagues the current administration, most Republicans on the hill and many Democrats too.  He is fighting for George W Bush to be able to torture terror suspects despite his own claims that he is against torture.

Well it is pretty simple, if John McCain is really against torture then he should support the bill to Ban torture.

Instead he is supporting the President's plan to Veto a Bill approved by Congress that would not only Ban torture but would give the intelligence community other provisions it needs to help fight the so called War on Terror (more like a pull the wool over our eyes with Terror War).  By blocking this intelligence Bill both the President and John McCain are choosing a side that makes our country less prepared to defend itself against terrorists.  Plus, by voting in favor of torture, a different type of terror by the way, and by vetoing a bill that would ban terror, both men are assuredly inciting terrorists to find justification in their crazy belief system that considers it OK to terrorize people.

You can almost here the Al Qaeda recruiting video from Bin Laden coming out next month, "See this President tortures Muslims.  He is evil.  We must attack."

The White House perspective is and has been one led from a position of fear and ignorance and they are trying to bring Americans down to their level of fear and ignorance like a bad plot from the Adventures of Baron Munchausen.

Schumer also warned that a presidential veto of the authorization bill "will hamstring our ability to gather and act on important intelligence at a time of war."

The administration's view is that the ban on waterboarding would force the CIA to shut down its program of enhanced interrogation of terror suspects, something President Bush regards as an important tool in the war on terror.
Although President Bush has stated that the United States has not and will not torture people, it has been learned that Mr. Bush himself has authorized the use of waterboarding on detainees (a practice previously prosecuted by the United States as a war crime), and has claimed the authority to do so again in certain circumstances. 

Bush Will Veto Ban On Torture, McCain, Once Tortured Himself, Joins White House To Oppose Bill Prohibiting Waterboarding - CBS News

It is painfully obvious that the President and John McCain have completely lost touch with reality and need to be turned out and away from office.  Let them go to pasture anywhere but in politics or Washington as they are both doing far more harm than good at this point.  I say that with a heavy heart as a former John McCain supporter before he went senile or drank the funny cool aid the White House was passing out.  Let them go retire some where where they can do no harm maybe sending out Kentucky Derby party invitations for photo ops, maybe they need to go to a retirement home. 

In the President's case, maybe he needs to be tried by a World Court for War Crimes against humanity.  He authorized torture and the United States has executed past war criminals for that.  Osama Bin Laden succeeded in killing several thousand people, destroying buildings and plains and giving the world a good scare.  President Bush has almost succeeded in dismantling the Constitution and sending US Americans in to bankruptcy, corporate servitude and a false sense of fear at the hands of puppet master bureaucrats in Washington.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Bush Pushes Houses to Strip Your Civil Liberties After Senate Caves In

Yesterday, it was extremely upsetting to learn that the Senate had voted to send Americans Civil Liberties down the river at the request of the President.  We cannot just blame Republicans and President George W Bush for all of the terrible fiascos of the last 8 years.  Yes, they definitely are responsible for some of the worst items, but the Democrats have been terrible as well as evidenced by the Democrat Controlled Senate Passage of the FISA bill yesterday. 

Democrats in 2006 were given the assignment to uphold the Constitution, and fix some of the things broken by Republicans.  Instead Democrats in the Senate have proved to be almost the same as the Republicans in the Senate and that includes McCain, Clinton and Obama.

Now, I do not want to dissuade you from acting based on the enormity of having a President and Congress working actively against the American people, so first a little humor to put it in context.

 

Feel Better?  Have a smile on your face at least?

 

OK now go contact your Congress Person!  Lets put this stupid bill in the festool and let it cook until its charred.

Source Forget About the Election - The Senate Just Voted to Strip Your Civil Liberties for 6 Years!

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Mitt Romney Preparing for a Hard Review Wednesday Morning after Losing to McCain and Huckabee

Late night word has it that the Mitt Romney team will be looking very hard at their campaign effort tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.  They already are considering scrapping an appearance in preparation for a Kansas Caucus on Saturday the 9th.

At this point it looks like it would be impossible for Mitt Romney to continue pursuing the GOP nomination after being beaten by John McCain in the big states and by Mike Huckabee in the Christian Right states.

On the Democratic side, Obama still has a slim chance of catching up with Hillary Clinton over the next few weeks, and as the delegate count tallies up, but his showing was not quite strong enough to make him look like much more than a long shot.  His momentum may have come just a couple weeks too late.  It would seem that delaying the redeployment of Oprah Winfrey certainly did not help his efforts.