_____________________________________________________
Date Line October 24, 2008
The bailout was needed to provide "confidence" ... but it is short term ... the money will need to be paid via taxes.in the future. Ideally, inflation will give it less value. But the whole thing was a reward to scam artists who made the NINJA loans which had no honest expectation of being repaid and were unsecured.
On the good side ... the market has reached a support I called for, two years ago, in my newspaper column. The bottom is holding solid (as of noon Friday 24 October) if it breaks, the next support is a DOW 4000 and all the horrors that accompany such a further decline.
We are less than two weeks from ... our children and grandchildren have been saddled with a debt (their futures mortgaged) by poilicies which Greenspan now admits were wrong ... but which known wrong when he proclaimed reduced deficits and debt to be bad.
Greenspan now claims he thought banks would work in their self-interest. They did ... banks are people and people make money independent of the corporate employer ... GOLDEN PARACHUTE and retirement building were the order of the day for aging baby-boom chief executives. They functioned in their own self-interest withing the full knowledge that the corporate entity was expendable.
We have a warped and unrealistic mind-set which grants intellect to entities and ignores the people. IE – Government does not do anything ... the people in Government do the stuff ... they make the decisions and impose the constraints on freedoms, education and health. People, not entities, work in their own interest. Just as Nazi soldiers did what they were told because it meant their promotion, our Government employees and elected leaders do what is in their interest.
Note that the GOP pundits who challenged investigations into rising energy costs are now, like Rush Limbaugh on his radio show, loudly bemoaning the lack of investigation into falling costs. If they really understood economics – or were not really people who understood and lie about things – Limbaugh would be pointing out market forces at work and cheering the propriety of the GOP free market.
But the GOP Right-wing does not believe in market forces – at least not those forces which it can’t manipulate to defraud the public.
We are days from electing a new set of people. Or days from declaring we like people who have taken a growing economy with a budget surplus and reducing national debt and turning it into a society deep in debt. The GOP has built its whole policy structure on BORROW & SPEND ... BORROW & SPEND ... that’s a short term ripoff of people who must pay to fix – replace – that which was ripped off.
We need to reduce debt – if that means (as people understand it, “working more” and government sees as) increasing taxes, we need to do so. The only place to increase taxes is where the money is, and that means tax the wealthiest – those making four times the average family wage. Gee. Is it really that much of a hardship to make only three times the average wage and have a strong nation to protect your assets?
We need to rethink our past. We need to vote for the deeds and not the words. Granted, that is a very “Christian” viewpoint – for it was Christ himself who warned you would know them by their deeds. It is also a worldly realistic viewpoint. Words are meaningless unless backed by actions. The GOP has claimed fiscal responsibility with words, and spendthrift polices with actions.
If your labor is sick, hungry, or homeless, they leave for places where they can improve their lives. Note that immigrants come here from poorer nations – but also that they are choosing, in greater numbers, Europe over America. If you really want to do the lowest of basic jobs, keep attacking, as the GOP would have you attack, immigrants. Become a third world nation. Be worthy of naught but sending your children to die in foreign lands so the Sheiks and despots can live securely in their palaces.
We need to keep our children home and in school. We need to pay them to become the best of the brightest. We cannot keep turning to other nations for our doctors and engineers.
We need to pay for universal healthcare – we need healthy workers to pay the debts the GOP has amassed. To do less is to kill the goose which lays the golden eggs. Labor is, after all, the foundation upon which profits and wealth are built.
_____________________________________________________
Of course, the majority might decide race and gender trump the survival of America. In that case, let them have that which they wish for themselves and their posterity – they can begin by converting to Islam and then move on to learning to speak Chinese.
_____________________________________________________
Friday, October 24, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Windows VISTA
To digress ... just bought a new laptop ... with VISTA ... because they discontinued XP ... now I understand the negatives I've read for the past two years.
One would think a billion dollar company could overcome stupidity within its work force ... incompetence shall we call it? But that has been a hallmark of Microsoft from the start. They are noted for sloppy programming -- always have been. If they did tight programs, their software would use less memory. sigh ... but wealth gravitates to idiots ... if not so, Bush would not be President and McCain wouldn't even be deemed a competitor for the office.
Still ... VISTA is the subject.
Granted, it has some good features. But mostly overly complex navigational tools ... where is the old windows explorer? And what is this outdated BRIEFCASE garbage?
More interesting is the need to have the USB port in service when using Corel Quatropro ... why set the system to abuse standard software? Why weirdness?
Oh well the last thing I intend is to write an essay on programming. It's about time Gates learned how to do it right ... or, at the very least, how to supervise programmers.
One would think a billion dollar company could overcome stupidity within its work force ... incompetence shall we call it? But that has been a hallmark of Microsoft from the start. They are noted for sloppy programming -- always have been. If they did tight programs, their software would use less memory. sigh ... but wealth gravitates to idiots ... if not so, Bush would not be President and McCain wouldn't even be deemed a competitor for the office.
Still ... VISTA is the subject.
Granted, it has some good features. But mostly overly complex navigational tools ... where is the old windows explorer? And what is this outdated BRIEFCASE garbage?
More interesting is the need to have the USB port in service when using Corel Quatropro ... why set the system to abuse standard software? Why weirdness?
Oh well the last thing I intend is to write an essay on programming. It's about time Gates learned how to do it right ... or, at the very least, how to supervise programmers.
You were warned
A very comments from the news
1. “The United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study asserts, and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued.”
2. "We’re in the middle of a financial crisis, but most economists say there is a broader economic crisis still to come. The unemployment rate will shoot upward. Companies will go bankrupt. Commercial real estate values will decline. Credit card defaults will rise. The nonprofit sector will be hammered.
"By the time the recession is in full force, Democrats will probably be running the government. Barack Obama will probably be in the White House. Democrats will have a comfortable majority in the House and will control between 56 and 60 seats in the Senate."
3. "For six years, Vice President Dick Cheney and other hard-liners managed to block any serious talks with North Korea. In that time, North Korea’s scientists produced enough plutonium for at least four more weapons — in addition to the one or two already believed to be in its arsenal — and tested a nuclear weapon. There is no way that strategy can be considered a success."
___________________________________
The above are associated with the New York Times of 14 October 2008.
Readers of my Downeast (Machias Valley News Observer) Column -- or this and related blogs -- know that I warned about Bush before his first election ... but wanted him elected so I could see if I was correct about the harm his administration would bring down upon us. I obviously was correct.
Readers are also aware that -- as the Dow Industrials passed 12000 and moved toward 14000 I warned that we needed to correct immediately ... or face a fall to 8000. Well, the markets continued up, reached their artificial peak and have been headed down ever since. The DOW bounced at 8300. Unless we get the game together, unless Obama wins a clear and decisive victory, expect the dow to see 4500 before it sees a new record high.
NATIONALIZATION ... SOCIALIZATION ... Bush, following the Reagan agenda, has said Social Security should be privatized -- your money should have been in the failed stock markets and not guaranteed by the Federal Government ... which now has the problem of guaranteeing the whole American Banking System -- and thus ensuring the soundness of the WORLD BANKING SYSTEM! Yep ... the system which could not be trusted to ensure your retirement is not ensuring the economy of the industrialized world.
We can socialize banks, but not medical care? We can reward those who lent money to those who had no jobs, income or assets -- the NINJA loan system. We can reward them by bailing them out without them feeling any of the pain they have caused us. That is, after all, the Republican way. It is the Fundamentalist Christian way ... no law, no regulation, just faith that the supreme powers which control all market forces, and all forces which affect our daily lives, will turn a blind eye to those who didn't care about their neighbor ... and ultimately punish those who obey the rules, place rules (build a wall around Torah) to ensure the rules are obeyed, and work to help their neighbors.
REALITY CHECK. We are withing weeks of the election and the decision as to the survival of the American Experiment. How will we vote? For or against our basic survival?
The clock is ticking.
1. “The United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study asserts, and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued.”
2. "We’re in the middle of a financial crisis, but most economists say there is a broader economic crisis still to come. The unemployment rate will shoot upward. Companies will go bankrupt. Commercial real estate values will decline. Credit card defaults will rise. The nonprofit sector will be hammered.
"By the time the recession is in full force, Democrats will probably be running the government. Barack Obama will probably be in the White House. Democrats will have a comfortable majority in the House and will control between 56 and 60 seats in the Senate."
3. "For six years, Vice President Dick Cheney and other hard-liners managed to block any serious talks with North Korea. In that time, North Korea’s scientists produced enough plutonium for at least four more weapons — in addition to the one or two already believed to be in its arsenal — and tested a nuclear weapon. There is no way that strategy can be considered a success."
___________________________________
The above are associated with the New York Times of 14 October 2008.
Readers of my Downeast (Machias Valley News Observer) Column -- or this and related blogs -- know that I warned about Bush before his first election ... but wanted him elected so I could see if I was correct about the harm his administration would bring down upon us. I obviously was correct.
Readers are also aware that -- as the Dow Industrials passed 12000 and moved toward 14000 I warned that we needed to correct immediately ... or face a fall to 8000. Well, the markets continued up, reached their artificial peak and have been headed down ever since. The DOW bounced at 8300. Unless we get the game together, unless Obama wins a clear and decisive victory, expect the dow to see 4500 before it sees a new record high.
NATIONALIZATION ... SOCIALIZATION ... Bush, following the Reagan agenda, has said Social Security should be privatized -- your money should have been in the failed stock markets and not guaranteed by the Federal Government ... which now has the problem of guaranteeing the whole American Banking System -- and thus ensuring the soundness of the WORLD BANKING SYSTEM! Yep ... the system which could not be trusted to ensure your retirement is not ensuring the economy of the industrialized world.
We can socialize banks, but not medical care? We can reward those who lent money to those who had no jobs, income or assets -- the NINJA loan system. We can reward them by bailing them out without them feeling any of the pain they have caused us. That is, after all, the Republican way. It is the Fundamentalist Christian way ... no law, no regulation, just faith that the supreme powers which control all market forces, and all forces which affect our daily lives, will turn a blind eye to those who didn't care about their neighbor ... and ultimately punish those who obey the rules, place rules (build a wall around Torah) to ensure the rules are obeyed, and work to help their neighbors.
REALITY CHECK. We are withing weeks of the election and the decision as to the survival of the American Experiment. How will we vote? For or against our basic survival?
The clock is ticking.
Monday, October 6, 2008
“THE END IS AT HAND!”
TOTAL NATION DEBT, as of 6 October: $10.2 Trillion and growing at $3.2 Billion a day. FOUR BILLION due to Bush Administration which had entered office with a surplus budget which was reducing the debt. The estimated population of the United States is 305 million so each citizen's share of this debt is $33 thousand. Of that, $13.5 thousand is due to Bush/GOP economic policies. Note that this amount does not include the nearly three-quarters of a Trillion Dollars enacted on October 4th – about $2,300 more per-person debt (future tax) liability.
Jimmy Carter was the last post-war president to reduce debt accrued in World War II. While Clinton was saddled with paying off debt accrued by Reagan-Bush borrow and spend policies.
In the space of a mere twelve years, the Reagan-Bush VooDoo economic policies managed to fully reverse both the policy and rate of Federal Debt Reduction which had been in place for over thirty-five years (from Truman to Carter). For average Americans, those debt reduction policies defined created the most prosperous period in their history. Note that, for all the social turmoil a Nixon GOP administration produced, the Kennedy-Johnson Vietnam War era produced the steepest drops in National Debt and the greatest expansion of freedoms and personal security.
Let’s put that in perspective: In FY 2009, SSA will pay $683 billion in Federal benefits to nearly 56 million people. The fiscal meltdown resulting from GOP deregulation practices, begun by Reagan and promoted by both Bush presidents, last wee, cost more than the total projected Social Security payments for FY 2009.
Social Security payments, when represented as a percentage of National Debt, are six point three percent (6.3) – or roughly the debt service interest on the National Debt. Put another way, rather than debt interest, if we paid the Social Security, all funds received from payroll taxes could go to expanding the social safety net – without any effect on the economy or current tax structure. We could actually lower taxes for the average person without any detrimental effect on national security or government programs.
If we recall that Bush insisted the Social Security was going broke, and that your social security funds should go into the stock market – you realize that this Harvard and Yale traded executive, who made his millions by having his businesses go broke, who knew full well what was going to happen, wanted you to be in poverty. The GOP has been, since Reagan, seeking to bankrupt the average person – all the better to create a slave population.
In a few weeks you will have the opportunity to, and will, decide if you want more of these GOP policies. You will decide if you want a strong America, or a broken and destroyed one.
Remember, eight years ago you were warned what a Bush victory would bring. Now, based on all the (oft ignored) evidence out there, you are warned what a McCain-Palin, and general GOP, victory will ensure. This time around, the victory of any Republican, anywhere, will cast the seeds of national turmoil and destruction.
The famous sign carried by a street corner evangelical nutcase: “THE END IS NEAR!”
This is the year when we either endorse, or bring to an end, a twenty years pattern of borrow and spend Republican policies. This is when a GOP voter majority surrenders all hope of salvation for the generations to come. This is when voters decide they like impoverishing their child, and their children’s children by empowering McCain and, via mid-term succession, then Palin to take away their freedom, their liberty, and their wealth. “THE END IS NEAR” or not – voter choice.
Jimmy Carter was the last post-war president to reduce debt accrued in World War II. While Clinton was saddled with paying off debt accrued by Reagan-Bush borrow and spend policies.
In the space of a mere twelve years, the Reagan-Bush VooDoo economic policies managed to fully reverse both the policy and rate of Federal Debt Reduction which had been in place for over thirty-five years (from Truman to Carter). For average Americans, those debt reduction policies defined created the most prosperous period in their history. Note that, for all the social turmoil a Nixon GOP administration produced, the Kennedy-Johnson Vietnam War era produced the steepest drops in National Debt and the greatest expansion of freedoms and personal security.
Let’s put that in perspective: In FY 2009, SSA will pay $683 billion in Federal benefits to nearly 56 million people. The fiscal meltdown resulting from GOP deregulation practices, begun by Reagan and promoted by both Bush presidents, last wee, cost more than the total projected Social Security payments for FY 2009.
Social Security payments, when represented as a percentage of National Debt, are six point three percent (6.3) – or roughly the debt service interest on the National Debt. Put another way, rather than debt interest, if we paid the Social Security, all funds received from payroll taxes could go to expanding the social safety net – without any effect on the economy or current tax structure. We could actually lower taxes for the average person without any detrimental effect on national security or government programs.
If we recall that Bush insisted the Social Security was going broke, and that your social security funds should go into the stock market – you realize that this Harvard and Yale traded executive, who made his millions by having his businesses go broke, who knew full well what was going to happen, wanted you to be in poverty. The GOP has been, since Reagan, seeking to bankrupt the average person – all the better to create a slave population.
In a few weeks you will have the opportunity to, and will, decide if you want more of these GOP policies. You will decide if you want a strong America, or a broken and destroyed one.
Remember, eight years ago you were warned what a Bush victory would bring. Now, based on all the (oft ignored) evidence out there, you are warned what a McCain-Palin, and general GOP, victory will ensure. This time around, the victory of any Republican, anywhere, will cast the seeds of national turmoil and destruction.
The famous sign carried by a street corner evangelical nutcase: “THE END IS NEAR!”
This is the year when we either endorse, or bring to an end, a twenty years pattern of borrow and spend Republican policies. This is when a GOP voter majority surrenders all hope of salvation for the generations to come. This is when voters decide they like impoverishing their child, and their children’s children by empowering McCain and, via mid-term succession, then Palin to take away their freedom, their liberty, and their wealth. “THE END IS NEAR” or not – voter choice.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Crystal Night Redux
Well, we are off to the races presidential. Obama picks Joe Biden – a name and personality known to world leaders and all those who have not been in a cave for the past twenty years. That is, with the exception of Bin Laden – whose cave is probably better equipped than either most hospitals and/or the average Maine home.
In response to Obama acing out Clinton, McCain picks an unknown Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin – who happens to be a mother of five and five months pregnant with number six; as of this writing, no word on just how pregnant her unmarried seventeen year old daughter is. Of course the Gov is a Right-wing fundamentalists determined to ram her concept of morality down the throat of every woman in the nation – I guess that reduces to, “become, or raise, an underage unwed mother”. Naturally she is an advocate of gun ownership rights – how else could there be a shotgun wedding?
Good move for a party that touts it’s concept of morality in the context of a total absence of choice. And there’s more.
Shades of another GOP VP – Theodore Spiros Agnew – Governor Palin is has needed to hire a representation in the face of a range of possible ethical, or criminal, violations ... all committed in her brief two years as Alaskan chief executive. No matter.
Speaking of Agnew: One must recall that he was associated with Nixon; and Nixon was associated with the police brutality at the Chicago convention. Is it really six degrees of Presidential Convention contact? Hum. That was 1968, during the final days of an irrational and unpopular war, and here we are in 2008, with another unpopular and irrational war – one which now threatens to bankrupt America and reduce it to some level below “third world.”
Regardless. It seems St. Paul, Minnesota authorities decided the recent convention was to be preceded by “pre-emptive” police raid in which nationally known reports were handcuffed and – in violation of both the Constitution and Supreme Court decisions – their cameras confiscated. Other reporters were interfered with as they attempted to cover the breaking story.
As in 1968, those attacked by police were associated with the term “hippie” and represented individuals seeking to exercise their civil right to protest an illegal war based upon lies, deceit and the abuse of presidential war powers – not to mention actions which threaten total dissipation of the youth, wealth and honor of the Nation. Of course, no actual crimes had been committed. The basis of the pre-emptive strike was the possession of common household items – like kitchen knives and boy scout hatchets.
In view of the claims made by the law enforcement officials responsible, it strikes me that there is an alternative motive behind the GOP support and promotion of gun. If you own a gun, the government can, on a whim, break down your door and arrest you – as a pre-emptive act to stop you from using the gun to commit an undefined or determined crime. Given the current administration’s disregard for Civil, or Constitutional, Rights – and McCain’s support of the administration’s positions in that regard – it would appear that the government is testing alternative methodologies for the eventual abolition of the current government. Remember, though many forget, that things must be done legally – despite the 1938 KRISTALLNACHT, the night of the broken glass – even Hitler was elected in a democratic manner consistent with GOP politics.
As those familiar with my views might recall: Prior to Bush’s election I pondered if he would be as bad a president as I believed the record indicated. Then, eight years ago, I didn’t mind people voting for him – I wanted to see if my analysis was correct. I’m still waiting for the shoe to drop on Iran; but otherwise I seem to have underestimated the American willingness for, or drive toward, self-destruction. This election will most certainly establish the extremes we will go to in our desire to restore the age of kings and dictators, and so end this most “grand experiment.”
To close with a reminder of what McCain has promised: 1) we could stay involved in this ten billion dollar a month Middle Eastern debacle for one hundred years; 2) we can free ourselves from dependence on foreign fuels by depleting our own reserves – which are a third to a tenth of what Iraq, Iran, Saudis and Russians hold; 3) if we used our oil reserves to create a short-term reduction in energy prices, we could be dry before the next president leaves office; our military requires oil far more than private consumers – without secure domestic oil resources, our tanks and planes cease to function. Taken together, the GOP plan seems to be total and irrevokable unilateral disarmament concurrent with the bankruptcy of the nation.
That irrefutable reality indicates that, come November, the vote will be pro-America for Obama-Biden verses those who join the third of the population actively seeking to destroy this nation.
___________________________________________________________________
In response to Obama acing out Clinton, McCain picks an unknown Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin – who happens to be a mother of five and five months pregnant with number six; as of this writing, no word on just how pregnant her unmarried seventeen year old daughter is. Of course the Gov is a Right-wing fundamentalists determined to ram her concept of morality down the throat of every woman in the nation – I guess that reduces to, “become, or raise, an underage unwed mother”. Naturally she is an advocate of gun ownership rights – how else could there be a shotgun wedding?
Good move for a party that touts it’s concept of morality in the context of a total absence of choice. And there’s more.
Shades of another GOP VP – Theodore Spiros Agnew – Governor Palin is has needed to hire a representation in the face of a range of possible ethical, or criminal, violations ... all committed in her brief two years as Alaskan chief executive. No matter.
Speaking of Agnew: One must recall that he was associated with Nixon; and Nixon was associated with the police brutality at the Chicago convention. Is it really six degrees of Presidential Convention contact? Hum. That was 1968, during the final days of an irrational and unpopular war, and here we are in 2008, with another unpopular and irrational war – one which now threatens to bankrupt America and reduce it to some level below “third world.”
Regardless. It seems St. Paul, Minnesota authorities decided the recent convention was to be preceded by “pre-emptive” police raid in which nationally known reports were handcuffed and – in violation of both the Constitution and Supreme Court decisions – their cameras confiscated. Other reporters were interfered with as they attempted to cover the breaking story.
As in 1968, those attacked by police were associated with the term “hippie” and represented individuals seeking to exercise their civil right to protest an illegal war based upon lies, deceit and the abuse of presidential war powers – not to mention actions which threaten total dissipation of the youth, wealth and honor of the Nation. Of course, no actual crimes had been committed. The basis of the pre-emptive strike was the possession of common household items – like kitchen knives and boy scout hatchets.
In view of the claims made by the law enforcement officials responsible, it strikes me that there is an alternative motive behind the GOP support and promotion of gun. If you own a gun, the government can, on a whim, break down your door and arrest you – as a pre-emptive act to stop you from using the gun to commit an undefined or determined crime. Given the current administration’s disregard for Civil, or Constitutional, Rights – and McCain’s support of the administration’s positions in that regard – it would appear that the government is testing alternative methodologies for the eventual abolition of the current government. Remember, though many forget, that things must be done legally – despite the 1938 KRISTALLNACHT, the night of the broken glass – even Hitler was elected in a democratic manner consistent with GOP politics.
As those familiar with my views might recall: Prior to Bush’s election I pondered if he would be as bad a president as I believed the record indicated. Then, eight years ago, I didn’t mind people voting for him – I wanted to see if my analysis was correct. I’m still waiting for the shoe to drop on Iran; but otherwise I seem to have underestimated the American willingness for, or drive toward, self-destruction. This election will most certainly establish the extremes we will go to in our desire to restore the age of kings and dictators, and so end this most “grand experiment.”
To close with a reminder of what McCain has promised: 1) we could stay involved in this ten billion dollar a month Middle Eastern debacle for one hundred years; 2) we can free ourselves from dependence on foreign fuels by depleting our own reserves – which are a third to a tenth of what Iraq, Iran, Saudis and Russians hold; 3) if we used our oil reserves to create a short-term reduction in energy prices, we could be dry before the next president leaves office; our military requires oil far more than private consumers – without secure domestic oil resources, our tanks and planes cease to function. Taken together, the GOP plan seems to be total and irrevokable unilateral disarmament concurrent with the bankruptcy of the nation.
That irrefutable reality indicates that, come November, the vote will be pro-America for Obama-Biden verses those who join the third of the population actively seeking to destroy this nation.
___________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
"The full quiver theology" (Psalm 127: 3-5)
_____________________________________________________
Date Line July 9, 2008
"The full quiver theology" (Psalm 127: 3-5): "Children are a heritage of the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. As arrows in a soldier's hand, so are the sons of the young. Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them."
This is the newest presentation of a theologian of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Included in this is the idea that beating women is the natural consequence of their lack of proper submission to their divine purpose – not the least of which is unlimited procreation.
Think of this theology – find it revolting? Is it as revolting as most fundamentalist doctrine – more or less so?
Think of this theology and place it in the context of military analogy and the one child policy of China – hardly a theocratic doctrine. Now think about the FORTY MILLION Chinese male surplus – the number of young men in excess of young women in today’s China – and in that context consider how many soldiers China can mobilize without disturbing its traditional family structures and values.
“As arrows in a soldier's hand.” As a military force at an aggressor’s command.
World oil. China’s economic and military might. How long will it take our Republican leadership to disarm America and open the door to our learning Chinese?
Don’t get it? America, the third largest oil producer, ranks twelfth in oil reserves. That seems to imply we are pumping out oil faster than nine of the eleven who have more oil than we do. Let’s say we all the other two pump the same percentage of their reserves – they deplete their oil at the same rate we do.
But to be a larger producer, when you have larger reserves, you only need to pump at a rate slightly higher than the next guy – and, because he’s pumping a higher percentage of his reserves, he delete them much faster.
Let’s say we pumped on par with the guys ahead of us – how many time longer could they pump after we went dry: Saudi Arabia 12.5; Canada 8.5; Iran 6.5; Iraq 5.5; Kuwait 4.8; United Arab Emirates 4.7; Russia 3.8; Venezuela 2.9; Libya 1.7; Nigeria 1.7; Kazakhstan 1.4.
George Bush and John McCain are saying – very loudly – that the answer to high energy costs is for America should pump more and deplete its reserves faster.
China has three quarters of our reserves. If they pumped at the rate we do, they would go dry long before us. ARE THEY? Or are they buying oil from other nations and holding their own in reserve?
The game is one of who goes dry first. Look at the list. Canada and Nigeria are the only two nations we have not angered, been in conflict with, or denounced the religion of. If you think the Saudis should have a third place on that list – keep this in mind: nineteen of the twenty involved in destroying the World Trade Center were Saudis and the attack was masterminded by a Saudi whose family is closely related to, and has the ear of, the Saudi Royal family.
When we go dry, who do we expect to buy from? Canada is now our largest supplier; followed by the Saudis and Mexico. We don’t want Mexicans here – the Republicans have built their immigration policy, one that has been successful with many voters, on that fact.
Consider our long-term national defense issues. If we have no oil we cannot power our military machines. If we go to nuclear – we have demonstrated we lack the resolve to dedicate the trillion dollars needed for permanent long-term waste storage and so would be creating more temporary storage facilities. Those cooling pools are exactly what a terrorist would want to target – not to mention a military power seeking to cause the most loss of life with the least long-term damage to infrastructure.
National security – close the oil fields until potential enemies are out of oil; produce electric with solar on every roof and windmills in every yard, on top of every mountain, and off every coast. Electric Vehicles must become the norm, and they must have skins made of solar cells.
We need to eliminated the need for oil and use bio-oil for lubrication – fossil oil must be reserved for future military needs. Or we learn top pray to Allah and speak Russian or Chinese.
_____________________________________________________
Date Line July 9, 2008
"The full quiver theology" (Psalm 127: 3-5): "Children are a heritage of the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward. As arrows in a soldier's hand, so are the sons of the young. Blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them."
This is the newest presentation of a theologian of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Included in this is the idea that beating women is the natural consequence of their lack of proper submission to their divine purpose – not the least of which is unlimited procreation.
Think of this theology – find it revolting? Is it as revolting as most fundamentalist doctrine – more or less so?
Think of this theology and place it in the context of military analogy and the one child policy of China – hardly a theocratic doctrine. Now think about the FORTY MILLION Chinese male surplus – the number of young men in excess of young women in today’s China – and in that context consider how many soldiers China can mobilize without disturbing its traditional family structures and values.
“As arrows in a soldier's hand.” As a military force at an aggressor’s command.
World oil. China’s economic and military might. How long will it take our Republican leadership to disarm America and open the door to our learning Chinese?
Don’t get it? America, the third largest oil producer, ranks twelfth in oil reserves. That seems to imply we are pumping out oil faster than nine of the eleven who have more oil than we do. Let’s say we all the other two pump the same percentage of their reserves – they deplete their oil at the same rate we do.
But to be a larger producer, when you have larger reserves, you only need to pump at a rate slightly higher than the next guy – and, because he’s pumping a higher percentage of his reserves, he delete them much faster.
Let’s say we pumped on par with the guys ahead of us – how many time longer could they pump after we went dry: Saudi Arabia 12.5; Canada 8.5; Iran 6.5; Iraq 5.5; Kuwait 4.8; United Arab Emirates 4.7; Russia 3.8; Venezuela 2.9; Libya 1.7; Nigeria 1.7; Kazakhstan 1.4.
George Bush and John McCain are saying – very loudly – that the answer to high energy costs is for America should pump more and deplete its reserves faster.
China has three quarters of our reserves. If they pumped at the rate we do, they would go dry long before us. ARE THEY? Or are they buying oil from other nations and holding their own in reserve?
The game is one of who goes dry first. Look at the list. Canada and Nigeria are the only two nations we have not angered, been in conflict with, or denounced the religion of. If you think the Saudis should have a third place on that list – keep this in mind: nineteen of the twenty involved in destroying the World Trade Center were Saudis and the attack was masterminded by a Saudi whose family is closely related to, and has the ear of, the Saudi Royal family.
When we go dry, who do we expect to buy from? Canada is now our largest supplier; followed by the Saudis and Mexico. We don’t want Mexicans here – the Republicans have built their immigration policy, one that has been successful with many voters, on that fact.
Consider our long-term national defense issues. If we have no oil we cannot power our military machines. If we go to nuclear – we have demonstrated we lack the resolve to dedicate the trillion dollars needed for permanent long-term waste storage and so would be creating more temporary storage facilities. Those cooling pools are exactly what a terrorist would want to target – not to mention a military power seeking to cause the most loss of life with the least long-term damage to infrastructure.
National security – close the oil fields until potential enemies are out of oil; produce electric with solar on every roof and windmills in every yard, on top of every mountain, and off every coast. Electric Vehicles must become the norm, and they must have skins made of solar cells.
We need to eliminated the need for oil and use bio-oil for lubrication – fossil oil must be reserved for future military needs. Or we learn top pray to Allah and speak Russian or Chinese.
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President McCain’s Budget Plans
______________________________________________________________________
On March 5th , George W Bush used these words to endorse John McCain’s presidential replacement bid: "John showed incredible courage, strength of character and perseverance in order to get to this moment and that's exactly what we need in a president — somebody who can handle the tough decisions, somebody who won't flinch in the face of danger."
Of course, many of us recall Bush’s endorsement of the way the New Orleans crisis was being handled: “Brownie you’re doing a heck of a job.” Brownie was FEMA Director Michael DeWayne Brown, and the words were spoken on September 2nd 2005; within a month Brown had to resigned in disgrace over his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – for which the praise was given. We know from past experience, every time Bush has praised someone, or something, it has turned out to be a debacle of historic proportions. George W is a consistent cheerleader for losing teams; can we expect any more from his praise of John McCain? What does McCain now propose for America?
We know Bush has produced a record half trillion dollar Budget deficit and is single handedly responsible for one third of the current National Debt. But what could we expect from a President McCain? For that answer, we need only look at the McCain Health Care Proposal – which is, effectively, a universal tax cut for all Americans.
Specifically, McCain has proposed a refundable tax credit, $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families for everyone buying private health insurance. McCain would also treat company provided health insurance as payroll tax exempt employee income.
It all sounds good – until you look at real numbers. For example, a family earning $60,000 and a typical employer-provided insurance policy that costs $12,100. Under the McCain plan, the family receives an immediate $7,100 taxable income increase ($12,100 - $5,000) for an increase in taxable household income and a net decrease in disposable income with the accompanying economic suppression (reverse stimulus) effect. As the income paid would remain deductible to the company, they would experience the credit as both income and tax neutral.
Of the roughly 115 million American households, about 78 million are families; thus the refundable family credit would decrease federal revenues by $360 billion dollars, with the remaining individual households adding another $92.5 billion. Effectively, McCain has proposed a doubling of the current Federal Deficit without address the real Health care problem – it’s basic cost.
We have all heard of the cheap Canadian system. Some are aware that 2008 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. The most recent figures I could find have the Canadian system costing about $1,000 per individual, and the UK system equates to1,500 pounds ($2,990) for every man, woman and child in the UK for a program which includes, cradle-to-grave the UK system, which covers both medical and dental with no point of service charges. It should also be pointed out, that while the UK system costs more than the Canadian, it also provides emergency coverage for immigrants and tourists at no cost.
Here in America, 59 million people, either delayed or did without needed medical care last year because they could not afford it. Here, the average cost for medical treatment is about $7,500 per person – that’s $4,500 more than the UK. The difference is accounted for in several ways. 1) The UK does not cover elective treatments such as Botox and tummy tucks; 2) as there is no co-pay or point of service patient billing, that provider accounting cost is nonexistent; 3) as the coverage is universal and cradle to grave, there is no need for Medicaid or Medicare with its associated bureaucratic functionaries; and most important, 4) as the medical providers function under a contract, there is no insurance company, or governmental clerical bureaucracy whose sole apparent, or effective, purpose is to deny or dispute claims for treatment rendered.
Consistent with the Bush endorsement, the McCain Health Care Proposal is another GOP Budget busting boondoggle intended to hurt both the American citizenry and economy. Of course, like Bush, McCain functions on multiple disruptive fronts. Both men have promoted increased domestic oil production as a short-term solution to our reliance on foreign oil. In that regard, Newsweek (July 7-14, pp 44) illustrates why American doesn’t have any oil for that purpose. We are twelfth in the world with regard to reserves and consume in a single year an amount equal to our total know reserves.
The Bush-McCain “pump more” advocacy would render us 100% dependent on foreign oil before the end of a McCain presidential term. More important, once we are out of oil, our military becomes dependent upon foreign powers to function; all of our military trucks, tank, ships and planes become dependent upon the good graces of Venezuelan dictators, or the stability of Middle Eastern Islamic potentates. And that is regardless of the price they will exact to provide each barrel of crude.
Consider, this is only a sample of the McCain Budget and security plan for America.
______________________________________________________________________
On March 5th , George W Bush used these words to endorse John McCain’s presidential replacement bid: "John showed incredible courage, strength of character and perseverance in order to get to this moment and that's exactly what we need in a president — somebody who can handle the tough decisions, somebody who won't flinch in the face of danger."
Of course, many of us recall Bush’s endorsement of the way the New Orleans crisis was being handled: “Brownie you’re doing a heck of a job.” Brownie was FEMA Director Michael DeWayne Brown, and the words were spoken on September 2nd 2005; within a month Brown had to resigned in disgrace over his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – for which the praise was given. We know from past experience, every time Bush has praised someone, or something, it has turned out to be a debacle of historic proportions. George W is a consistent cheerleader for losing teams; can we expect any more from his praise of John McCain? What does McCain now propose for America?
We know Bush has produced a record half trillion dollar Budget deficit and is single handedly responsible for one third of the current National Debt. But what could we expect from a President McCain? For that answer, we need only look at the McCain Health Care Proposal – which is, effectively, a universal tax cut for all Americans.
Specifically, McCain has proposed a refundable tax credit, $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families for everyone buying private health insurance. McCain would also treat company provided health insurance as payroll tax exempt employee income.
It all sounds good – until you look at real numbers. For example, a family earning $60,000 and a typical employer-provided insurance policy that costs $12,100. Under the McCain plan, the family receives an immediate $7,100 taxable income increase ($12,100 - $5,000) for an increase in taxable household income and a net decrease in disposable income with the accompanying economic suppression (reverse stimulus) effect. As the income paid would remain deductible to the company, they would experience the credit as both income and tax neutral.
Of the roughly 115 million American households, about 78 million are families; thus the refundable family credit would decrease federal revenues by $360 billion dollars, with the remaining individual households adding another $92.5 billion. Effectively, McCain has proposed a doubling of the current Federal Deficit without address the real Health care problem – it’s basic cost.
We have all heard of the cheap Canadian system. Some are aware that 2008 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. The most recent figures I could find have the Canadian system costing about $1,000 per individual, and the UK system equates to1,500 pounds ($2,990) for every man, woman and child in the UK for a program which includes, cradle-to-grave the UK system, which covers both medical and dental with no point of service charges. It should also be pointed out, that while the UK system costs more than the Canadian, it also provides emergency coverage for immigrants and tourists at no cost.
Here in America, 59 million people, either delayed or did without needed medical care last year because they could not afford it. Here, the average cost for medical treatment is about $7,500 per person – that’s $4,500 more than the UK. The difference is accounted for in several ways. 1) The UK does not cover elective treatments such as Botox and tummy tucks; 2) as there is no co-pay or point of service patient billing, that provider accounting cost is nonexistent; 3) as the coverage is universal and cradle to grave, there is no need for Medicaid or Medicare with its associated bureaucratic functionaries; and most important, 4) as the medical providers function under a contract, there is no insurance company, or governmental clerical bureaucracy whose sole apparent, or effective, purpose is to deny or dispute claims for treatment rendered.
Consistent with the Bush endorsement, the McCain Health Care Proposal is another GOP Budget busting boondoggle intended to hurt both the American citizenry and economy. Of course, like Bush, McCain functions on multiple disruptive fronts. Both men have promoted increased domestic oil production as a short-term solution to our reliance on foreign oil. In that regard, Newsweek (July 7-14, pp 44) illustrates why American doesn’t have any oil for that purpose. We are twelfth in the world with regard to reserves and consume in a single year an amount equal to our total know reserves.
The Bush-McCain “pump more” advocacy would render us 100% dependent on foreign oil before the end of a McCain presidential term. More important, once we are out of oil, our military becomes dependent upon foreign powers to function; all of our military trucks, tank, ships and planes become dependent upon the good graces of Venezuelan dictators, or the stability of Middle Eastern Islamic potentates. And that is regardless of the price they will exact to provide each barrel of crude.
Consider, this is only a sample of the McCain Budget and security plan for America.
______________________________________________________________________
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