California carbon cap-and-trade

Designed to help California meat the goals of the 2006 requiring drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the framework of the so called "climate change draft scoping plan" is aimed at electric utilities, industrial users, fuel refiners and builders.
Some are hoping it helps pave the way for a federal program. The USA lags behind most 1st world countries since opting out of the Kyoto Protocol--an amendment to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change--which was adopted in 1997.
It's a promising next step and could have a major impact not only locally but carries with it national implications.
One of the key points of the plan is the trade market program which will allow companies to trade credits with other companies in neighboring states and Canadian provinces that are producing less than their allowed emissions or lower there carbon footprint by for example planting trees.
This last point is important, besides reducing emissions the best way to address the issue of to much C02 in the air is by assisting planet earth in removing it through natural processes.
documented in the June 2008 issue of Popular Science

Remebering Bhutto

I wanted to post a little something about Benazir Bhutto on the 21st in remembrance of her birthday. Well sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men...
One of the greatest forces against terrorism and for democracy in the region, Bhutto was assassinated Dec. 27, 2007.
Shortly before her dead, and leading to claims she was killed because she knew to much, Al Jazeera English aired an interview with David Frost in which Bhutto, discusses the corruption in Pakistan and clearly and unwaveringly states that Osama Bin Laden had been murdered by Omar Sheikh, a refference to Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.
The interview aired on or about Nov. 2nd, 2007.
The only serious address to this was a statement attributed to Omar Chatriwala of Al Jazeer English in which he claims he did not pursue the story at the time because it was an apparent "slip of the tongue", but if you take a look at the video, she seems pretty in control and sure of what she is saying. Bhutto herself never made any official retraction of the remarks. Imho the entire interview has serious implications. RIP Bhutto.

Frost over the World - Benazir Bhutto - 02 Nov 07

Taliban Bolstered by drug trade

Admits promising reports from Iraq, Afghanistan's troubles seem to be worsening. According to a report from Reuters, while Opium production in the five southern regions controlled by the Taliban have doubled the world's output between 2005 and 2007 as stated in a UN report.
This begs the question how the hell is the Taliban in control of five regions in the south, how come we're barely hearing about their renewed attacks let alone them being in control. Attempts to hide the truth that while things may be improving in Iraq they are quickly getting worse in Afghanistan. Wasn't this and the hunt for Bin Laden our primary mission? We're so off track.

Hope in Iraq?

ABC News is running a story about how hope is taking root in the people of Iraq. We've certainly been hearing of the improving situation. While I strongly oppose our presence there and want our children to come home, this is what I've wanted to hear.
The government and people of Iraq taking there country back. Stay the course to me is bullshit but I have to admit I think Gen. David Howell Petraeus is a pretty solid guy from what I have read. The new tact under his command of bolstering not only the local authority but the communities seems to be having a pay off.
Cut and run to me was always as bad an option as stay the course. We're in a mess on all fronts, lets hope there is some weight to this new hope in Iraq. It's a mess we created after all.

International Beer Wars

Anheuser-Busch board of directors rejected InBev’s $46 billion dollar buy
out, call the offer “financially inadequate.”

While I was happy to laugh at the morons running Yahoo for turning down
Microsoft’s offer, this is different for two major reasons.

While Yahoo has essentially done nothing AB has a rolling business and a
brand name that isn’t laughed at. These guys don’t make any beer that’s in my
fridge but there is more at stake.

Microsoft love them or hate them is an American company, InBev is a foriegn
interest and control the bulk of the global beverage trade, they have
enough.

One of the big problems facing this country is or continued path of selling
out for short term profits, everyone wants the quick injection of cash and
rarely considers the long term or implications beyond there little bubble.
Every time a major player sells out to foriegn interests our country is
weakened.

The consolidation of economic sectors by gigantic Multi-nationals like InBev we the end consumer get just a little more screwed. The destruction of free markets has and will continue to be our greatest source of long term economic danger.

This is turning into a hostile takeover and it should be stopped.

Stock market slammed by surging oil prices

Over shadowing the first good news about the housing market's 2% climb in existing home sales, stocks markets took another dive as surging oil prices hit a new high.
The problem is compounded by troubles in the automotive and high-tech sectors. But probably the most devastating news was comments made by OPEC's president warning of higher oil prices as the dollar continues to slide.
Throwing fuel on the fire is Libya's announcement that it will cut crude production to help bolster energy prices.
The OPEC statement cast a dire prediction of oil prices reaching as high as $170.00 a barrel.
According to Market Watch Kevin Kerr, president of Kerr Trading International said "The Fed is driving weakness in the dollar and that's driving oil prices higher."
We're feeling the pinch in a big way as prices across the board continue to rise.

Support for Gun Violence

To express his unbound support for the Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment right to bear arms a 42 year old Spokane Washington man shoots himself in the face.

Booze guns and the Second Amendment.  That’s what I call a good time.

According to police the incident occurred when one of the mans drunken friends suggested playing with the gun was dangerous.  The man decided to show his friend it was safe, since the gun was not loaded.  He pointed the gun at his own face and pulled the trigger.  The unloaded gun magically fired a none existing bullet into the mans face leaving him in critical condition.

Olympic Committee stands up

In an unprecidented move the IOC has released a statement admonishing the statements made by Tibet’s Communist party leader Zhang Qinglin during the closing ceremony of the Olymipic Torch relay.

"The IOC regrets that political statements were made during the closing ceremony of the Torch Relay in Tibet," the two-sentence IOC statement said.  "We have written to BOCOG to remind them of the need to separate sport and politics and to ask for their support in making sure that such situations do not arise again."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao also said he had no knowledge of the IOC letter, but insisted that Zhang's remarks had intended only to foster a "stable and harmonious environment for the Olympics," and did not constitute politicization.

 "The sky above Tibet will never change. The red five-star flag will always fly above this land," said Zhang  "We can definitely smash the separatist plot of the Dalai Lama clique completely."

Although the Chinese government says it opposes politicizing the Olympics, the strong political and nationalistic overtones of its preparation have been hard to ignore. 

Supreme Court at it again

Once again proving they have our best interests at heart, the Supreme Court hands big business and Supermajor another pass.  Coming off a year of unsurpassed profits, Exxon Mobil’s liability in the Valdez spill of 11 million gallons of crude oil into the Prince William Sound in Alaska 1989 reduced from $5 billion to $500 million.

We’re paying $5.00 a gallon while big oil rapes us, they don’t need another hand out.  This is just another example of how our government and our courts has not only completely failed us, they have sold out.  Bought and payed for.

This spill cost $2.1 to clean up and took 3 years.  There is still no good gauge for the long term effects of this spill, and the clean up did not address the oil that now lines the bottom of this seaway.

Clearly we’ve been sold down the river once again by the highest court in our once great nation.  Outraged?  That’s what you get for handing control over to the rich, how do you think they get rich.

Axis of Evil loses a wheel

North Korean trade sanctions are being lifted and Bush is “moving” whatever that means, to remove North Korea from the “axis of evil” black list.  Welcome to the nuclear community!

This comes in the wake of North Korea handing over accounting of it’s nuclear work to Chinese officials, fulfilling a key step in the “denuclearizatoin” process.

This is a pretty big leap of faith.  They have the bomb now and everyone knows it.  We’re offering them a lot of incentives. Does this signal a new realization that talking is better than shooting?  Don’t hold your breath.

North Korea is planning the televised destruction of a 65-foot-tall cooling tower at its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. The cooling tower is a key element of the reactor, but blowing it up — with the world watching — has little practical meaning because the reactor has already been nearly disabled.

This is good and bad.  Clearly we need to move forward not backward.  The call to reverse course is just plain stupid, there is nothing good to go back to, we need to adjust our course and move forward.  This is a promising step towards setting that tone, but so much of this smells like a rat.

Shouldn't we at least have a look at the documents they handed over before we make these kinds of big moves?

Guns for everyone

The Supreme Court is once again looking out for us and out constitutional rights.  Guns for everyone is there new talking point.

Writing for the 5-4 majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said "We hold that the District's ban on handgun possession in the home violated the Second Amendment, as does its prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense."

Now how about the rest of the constitution?  I’m in support of people being able to protect themselves, but how can this even be near the top of important issues?  Our constitutional rights have been stripped away from us.  Take a look at the patriot act just to name a few.

Our Government has been doing the same thing Dobson accuses Obama of when it comes to our constitution, picking and choosing.  Either enforce the entire Constitution or just drop the charade. 

Our great nations Supreme Court has failed us ever step of the way and this is the best Constitutional protection they can offer us?  How about the right to not get screwed every day?  How about the right to have a war criminal thrown away for a few decades president or not?

Why are we even talking about guns when we have so many bigger problems?  What about our right to have a Supreme Court not filled with morons?

 

Anthrax Attack

We had a small dinner party tonight, some close friends and a couple I used to work with off and on.  It’s funny how people can change, I haven’t seen them in a while.

The other couple left early and we sat around having a little wine and talking.  Wow they are totally hard core now.  Maybe it’s just my memory of them that’s skewed, they always could have been.  They are hard core Obama, say the wrong thing and oh man, hold on tight.

Last night there was some old man causing a scene as we began to leave.  He was yelling shut up shut up at some lady.  “I’m tired of everyone blaming Bush.”  That’s all I heard.

People are so polarized.  But I digress we’re talking about tonight, and somehow the Anthrax attack came out.  I am all for bashing on Bush, but lets get real for just a second.  This one is a pretty good target for conspiracy, it has all the makings of a good one, but lets take a look at without the fervor.

The main cases for it being a conspiracy are:

Both  Tom Daschle and  Patrick Leahy had the heat on the Bush government.  -TRUE that’s a big jump though.

NBC was asking a lot of tough questions.  -TRUE another big jump.

The Anthrax was made at Fort Detrick.  -FALSE, sort of.  There is a lot of conflicting information.  Part of this comes from the discussion of the weaponized quality of the product. Ed Lake operates the web site anthraxinvestigation.com and he’s pretty much got the best information regarding the mis/dis-information of this subject.

What seems clear is that the Anthrax “STRAIN” originated at Fort Detrick and this lead to the investigations of the “persons of interest”.  This is essentially a cold case now.

Now my friends take this list as proof that “…well something fishy is going on.”  Yep.  I’m pretty much going to have to throw down the Ron Paul take on this.  There is most assuredly a cover-up happening.  A cover-up of just how inept our government and it’s increasing bloat is.  The most likely scenarios are:

A) Somehow a couple or one really pissed of scientist was allowed to walk out of a secure facility with some really nasty Anthrax.  WOOPS!

B) We and by that I mean some dumass calling the shots in Washington gave Saddam the strain, him and it’s suggested possibly the Syrians worked on it and came up with the powder then either used it, sold it, or gave it away.

This is the point I pull out the secret weapon in the Bullshit wars, Ockham's razor.

I’m leaning towards A) here.  We’re basically in a national panic at this time, and really it would have gone badly if they just came out and said, ah yah I think we let this stuff slip past us there, sorry.

This case is still Officially open.  The last thing I’ve heard with any credibility on this is that on Sept 4, 2007 Senator Patrick Leahy states in an interview with Vermont blog Vermont Daily Briefing that he is unsatisfied with the progress of the investigation and that he believes that some government officials may know more about the source of the Anthrax than has been disclosed "I think there are people within our government — certainly from the source of it — who know where it came from.

March Fox ran a story about an email.  Frankly who cares, Fox news is about as worth while as a fortune cookie.