Monthly Archives: April 2010

Sarah Palin: ‘Only a limited government can provide the best path’

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Works for me:

She highlighted two issues specifically for conservatives to rally behind: repealing health-care reform and reforming energy policy.

“We have to make sure this ‘Obamacare’ is short-lived,” she said. “It felt so forced upon us. It was so forced upon us.”

Speaking about energy policy, she called for opening up all of America’s continental shelves to drilling.

“Production of our resources means security for Americans and jobs for American workers,” she said.

She also called for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and addressed head-on environmentalists against her plan. She argued America has more stringent environmental restrictions than many of the foreign governments we currently rely on for oil.

“So environmentalists are kind of hypocritical on this one,” she said. “I don’t know how environmentalists can sleep at night.”

Extra big tip O’ the hat to Josh

via Palin: ‘Only a limited government can provide the best path’ | KATU.com – Breaking News, Sports, Traffic and Weather – Portland, Oregon | Politics.

Sunday Night Links: The Red Wings Will Win Game 7 Edition

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Controlling the Conversation Pt 1

Controlling the Conversation Pt 2

But that pant crease was so sharp!

“It’s still America down here”

Man vs. the Flip-Flop at Coachella

Fred “Toucher” Toettcher: Tim Tebow’s draft partry loked like a Nazi rally

Yet another global warming alarmist rescued from North Pole trek just before freezing to death

GOP homeownership bill has promise

Sarah Palin: “Only a limited government can provide the best path”

Pravda: Energy is the keystone to any and every economy

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At least they get it at Pravda…

One thing that drives me crazy is the Progressive lefts slavish devotion to the global warming hoax/fraud. By regulating carbon (as in dioxide, the gas we all exhale) as a dangerous pollutant, and attaching a hefty tax to it, will further damage our economy.

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And global warming or man made climate change, is a fraud and hoax.

The Progressive Left loves global warming because they can use it to control and regulate our activities. Speaking of controlling and regulating the economy and peoples activities, a friend sent me this article from Pravda (yes, that Pravda):

It can be safely said, that the last time a great nation destroyed itself through its own hubris and economic folly was the early Soviet Union (though in the end the late Soviet Union still died by the economic hand). Now we get the opportunity to watch the Americans do the exact same thing to themselves. The most amazing thing of course, is that they are just repeating the failed mistakes of the past. One would expect their fellow travelers in suicide, the British, to have spoken up by now, but unfortunately for the British, their education system is now even more of a joke than that of the Americans.

While taking a small breather from mouthing the never ending propaganda of recovery, never mind that every real indicator is pointing to death and destruction, the American Marxists have noticed that the French and Germans are out of recession and that Russia and Italy are heading out at a good clip themselves. Of course these facts have been wrapped up into their mind boggling non stop chant of “recovery” and hope-change-zombification. What is ignored, of course, is that we and the other three great nations all cut our taxes, cut our spending, made life easy for small business…in other words: the exact opposite of the Anglo-Sphere.

That brings us to Cap and Trade. Never in the history of humanity has a more idiotic plan been put forward and sold with bigger lies. Energy is the key stone to any and every economy, be it man power, animal power, wood or coal or nuclear. How else does one power industry that makes human life better (unless of course its making the bombs that end that human life, but that’s a different topic). Never in history, with the exception of the Japanese self imposed isolation in the 1600s, did a government actively force its people away from economic activity and industry.

Even the Soviets never created such idiocy.

The truth hurts. And as I have pointed out previously, the Russians are actively working to supply China efficiently with oil and they using these resources to shape the political landscape in their (and not our) best interests.

So while we neglect oil discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico, the Bakken formation, California and drilling for oil in ANWAR, the rest of the oil producing world will happily supply oil at a premium price and keep growing their economy.

The United States Is Still Talking About Renewable Energy While China Secures More Oil Resources

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****a post I rescued from the great Google cache *****

In Nevada, they are looking at a large scale solar project using molten salt and a lot of real estate:

“It can store heat and it could store it efficiently. And by efficiently I mean the retention of the heat is for a long period of time. So once you heat that salt up, it loses that heat content on a very slow basis. It doesn’t lose it quickly so it allows you time to shift that energy.”

What about if there is a week, say in late December, that the skies are cloudy on short days. Will the plant still run at full efficiency or will some form of back up be required?

There is also a similar power plant planed for construction Southern California, and as I wrote about that power plant:

To generate 1,300 MW of electricity, the solar power plant needs to occupy 10,500 acres, or 16.4 square miles of the Mojave Desert. For a sense of scale, 16.4 square miles is nearly half of Troy Michigan (at 33.6 square miles).

Of course Nevada is a great place for this kind of project. Sunny weather, marginally closer to the equator (more direct sunlight), lots of open spaces. But the biggest reason the project is in Nevada is the political support for an economic loser:

“Nevada is a tremendous solar resource and with the political support from Senator Harry Reid and the rest of the congressional delegation, that made it a good spot to initiate some of our projects,” says Kevin Smith, CEO of SolarReserve.

Although it will take years to meet all of the environmental and financial hurdles, if all goes as planned, this molten salt technology will make Nevada a global leader in green energy. SolarReserve claims that its project will supply power to 75,000 homes. (emphasis added)

The people of Nevada are willing to tie up 16.4 square miles of land to power an estimated 75,000 homes.

While this nonsense is being played out, Russia opened a new section of pipeline to carry more crude oil to China. Via RTT News:

Russia Monday launched its Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline network that will ultimately carry crude to China.During a ceremony held at an oil terminal in the port of Kozmino near the Pacific city of Vladivostok, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin activated the first section of the oil pipeline transportation system, allowing oil pumping to the first tanker.

The story includes this loaded paragraph:

The first phase of the ESPO project costing 360 billion rubles ($12.1 billion) was completed in less than five years. The 4,000 kilometer pipeline that runs from Taishet in eastern Siberia to Nakhodka will enable Moscow to reduce dependency on European customers. (emphasis added)

Two things to take away from this paragraph. First it took the Russians 5 years to build a pipeline from roughly from Fairbanks Alaska to Seattle, Washington. The second, and more important point, from the paragraph is the fact that Moscow is ‘reducing dependency’ on it European customers. Another way to read this is Russia can cut off Europe while still being able to sell their oil.

And the pipeline is going to move a lot of oil China’s way…

The project is designed to pump up to 1.6 million barrels (220,000 tons) of crude per day from Siberia to Russia’s far east and then on to China and the Asia-Pacific region.According to news agency RIA Novosti, the project’s first leg envisages construction of a 2,757-kilometer section with annual capacity of 220.5 million barrels of crude.

If, five years ago, we started a natural gas pipeline and drilling for offshore oil…

News Roundup: The Golden State, Russia’s Power Play, More Regulations In California And The Modest Oil Rush

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****a post I rescued from the great Google cache *****

More evidence that socialism only works until you run out of other peoples money.

George Will writes about how liberalism and socialist ideas are dragging  California to the verge of collapse.

This is something that we understand in Michigan as well. One thing that we, as a nation, need to wrap our heads around is the fact that we need to be a nation that makes things. We need to build cars, refrigerators, washing machines. We also need to be a nation willing to use our natural resources (in sensible ways).

On the other hand, Russia is using their resources as well. They are using them as a hammer. Via Reuters:

Russian oil continues to flow to Belarus and via Belarus to the European Union despite a failure by Moscow and Minsk to clinch a new oil supply deal at talks on Saturday, a Russian Energy Ministry spokeswoman said on Sunday.

“Belarus is holding back the negotiation process. Russia has made unprecedented and very comfortable proposals about duty-free oil supplies…But Belarus is demanding more,” spokeswoman Irina Yesipova told Reuters.

She said she didn’t know if talks would resume on Sunday or next week.

On Saturday, Belarus’ delegation left Moscow, and Minsk accused Russia of ignoring its arguments in a development that will revive fears of supply cuts to Europe, which have already pushed oil prices up.

Russia is working to regain it’s dominance on the world stage and they are more than willing to use oil to do this. They are also working to provide China with large amounts of oil as well.

Russia is also working on gaining power in military affairs as well:

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While Russia is using its natural resources for economic growth and power, in the United States, government is using its power against the use of natural resources for economic growth.

New environmental laws being enacted in California are hindering the drilling for oil their state. Via Bakersfield.com:

What worries him most is how much money he (and eventually, the 34-year-old daughter he’s still training) might have to spend to comply with a new law intended to contain and prevent oil spills.

“What they’re going to ask us to do is going to be very difficult financially for a lot of guys. I mean, draining your tanks, electronically surveying them. That’s downtime. That’s a lot of expense. I don’t know,” said McAdams, who owns about 70 oil wells in the state, many of them just north of Bakersfield.

“This I can see could put some people out of business.”

That sentiment is spreading fast among local oil producers, especially the small independents with the least amount of money to spend on facility upgrades.

I thought Liberals were always looking out for the small businessman.

As a side note, if you think “who cares, there is no more oil in the United States, what’s the big deal”:

Giant Oil Discovery In Gulf Of Mexico

A Modest Oil Rush in California

3 to 4.3 Billion Barrels of Technically Recoverable Oil Assessed in North Dakota and Montana’s Bakken Formation—25 Times More Than 1995 Estimate

Congressional Democrats Are Starting To Feel The Heat

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I really don’t  know why Democrats are surprised. They keep voting against the will of the people.

Obey is one of nearly a dozen well-established House Democrats who are bracing for something they rarely face: serious competition. Their predicament is the latest sign of distress for their party and underlines why Republicans are confident of big gains in November, and perhaps even winning back the House.

The fight for the midterm elections is not confined to traditional battlegrounds, where Republicans and Democrats often swap seats every few cycles. In the Senate, Democrats are struggling to hold on to, among others, seats once held by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Democrats are preparing to lose as many as 30 House seats – including a wave of first-term members – and Republicans have expanded their sights to places where political challenges seldom develop.

“It’s not a lifetime appointment,” said Sean Duffy, a Republican district attorney here in the north woods of Wisconsin, where he has established himself as one of the most aggressive challengers to Obey since the Democrat went to Washington in 1969. “There are changes in this country going on and people aren’t happy.”

via Republicans Threatening Congressional Seats Long Held by Democrats | TheLedger.com.

The Winter Solstice: It’s Not Just For Pagans Anymore

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****a post I rescued from the great Google cache *****

Apparently, the Winter Solstice is not just for pagans anymore. It’s fun for the entire family.

A quick roundup of winter solstice events:

In Madison, Wisconsin there is a plethora of Winter Solstice activities for the whole family.
Little Rock, Arkansas, has a Winter Solstice display at the State Capitol.

Via North Jersey.com:

“For me, Winter Solstice or Yule is celebrated in the traditional Pagan way,” said Trish Reynolds, author and high priestess. “We mark the moment of Solstice with a candle – this year at 12:47 p.m. on Monday Dec. 21, then settle in to keep vigil all night by throwing a party with family and friends. We decorate with evergreens, feast with traditional pagan foods like turkey and ham and goose when you can get it!

“We exchange gifts, tell jokes and stories and sing songs waiting for the sun to rise. The vigil aspect is important for me, because Solstice Night is the longest night of the year, and our ancestors were never really sure that the sun would come back, especially in the far northern regions. It made sense to stay awake and keep the Yule Fire burning to encourage an infant Sun to rise again in the morning. The iconology of a divine child of light is quite apt at this time, especially since both Mithra, a popular Romano-Persian Sun God, Saturn, Hercules and Jesus are all given honor at this special time as bring divine children-light bringers.”

If you are in San Francisco you can attend the East Bay “Sing Up The Sun”:

Join us again in the East Bay hills to greet the sun on Solstice morning! Wear layers and bring drums, shakers, tambourines, flutes, tubas, etc. and maybe a thermos of hot beverage. If you have a favorite sun-song, bring lyrics to share, and we usually do a spiral dance just after dawn.

Be sure to keep your winter solstice celebration simple. And a sample suggestion:

Honor the new solar year with light. Do a Solstice Eve ritual in which you meditate in darkness and then welcome the birth of the sun by lighting candles and singing chants and Pagan carols. If you have a indoor fireplace or an outdoor fire circle, burn an oak log as a Yule log and save a bit to start next year’s fire. Decorate the inside and/or outside of your home with electric colored lights. Because of the popularity of five pointed stars as holiday symbols, this is a good time to display a pentagram of blue or white lights.

The weird thing is I don’t recall a bunch of summer solstice events. I wonder why?

Anyhow, to all the Wicca, Druids and Democrats… Happy Winter Solstice!

26 New Coal Power Plants In Germany

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****a post I rescued from the great Google cache *****

According to an (as in one) Australian scientist, we need to stop building coal power plants and shut all of them down by 2020. Via the Sydney Morning Herald:

A CSIRO scientist has told a Senate inquiry it is imperative to begin phasing out coal burning in order to avoid dangerous climate change.

No coal-fired power plants should be built, and existing plants must shut within 20 years, if the world is to keep atmospheric carbon dioxide at a less dangerous level, the climatologist James Risbey said.

The ironic fact is that the Europeans, who started this whole push to build wind mills and solar panels in an effort to ’stop climate change’ (or global warming, they keep changing the problem) are not exactly living up to their public proclamations.

The Germany government is one of the biggest proponents of ‘green energy’ . However, they are currently planning to construct 26 new coal power plants. Via Spiegle.de:

The Vattenfall project in Berlin is only one example of a larger trend. Utility companies want to set up a total of 26 new coal-fired power plants in Germany during the coming years.

In the long term, the power plants will replace older, dirtier plants. But that doesn’t alter the fact that the plans are a direct contradiction of the climate goals formulated by Merkel.

Why would Germany want to construct more more coal plants?

But the new plants are a big business opportunity for Germany’s four major energy providers, Vattenfall, RWE, E.on and EnBW. Coal imports from South Africa or Poland are relatively cheap and can be used to produce electricity and heat at a high profit. In this way, the companies intend to secure their dominant position on the German market for decades to come.

And German politicians are explicitly encouraging them to do so. Both Merkel and Gabriel have an interest in the power plant construction boom.

For Merkel, the case is clear-cut: New power plants will secure thousands of jobs in Germany. The projects resemble a giant program for the stimulation of the economy. The power plant operators plan to invest more than €30 billion ($40 billion) in construction and infrastructure.

Yep, you got it. The Europeans will tell you publicly that they are for ‘Green Energy’ but, when push comes to shove, they will do what’s best for their economy and their people.

The US Social Forum is coming to Detroit June 22nd through the 26th

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What is the US Social Forum, you ask:

The US Social Forum (USSF) is a movement building process. It is not a
 conference but it is a space to come up with the peoples’ solutions to the 
economic and ecological crisis. The USSF is the next most important step in our
 struggle to build a powerful multi-racial, multi-sectoral, inter-generational,
 diverse, inclusive, internationalist movement that transforms this country and
 changes history.

We must declare what we want our world to look like and we 
must start planning the path to get there. The USSF provides spaces to learn 
from each other’s experiences and struggles, share our analysis of the problems 
our communities face, build relationships, and align with our international 
brothers and sisters to strategize how to reclaim our world.

Sounds like something that Obama would really get in to.

What are some of the events at the US Social forum? One thing you can do is attend workshops. There are many, many, workshops. Here are some of my favorites:

  • Performance of Nightwind and Theater of the Oppressed
  • Building Cross-Continental Grassroots Resistance to U.S. Militarization – Strategy session connecting the United States Social Forum and the SOA Watch Encuentro in Venezuela
  • Fighiting for a Moratorium on Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs
  • Feminist Economics: value of care
  • Immigrant Rights as a Matter of Reproductive Justice
  • The Tea Party Movements: The New Fascism?
  • Marxism for the 21st Century: Capitalist Crisis, Socialist Solutions
  • Rapid solarization can drive sustainable economic growth while preventing catastrophic climate change.
  • Building support for a basic income guarantee
  • Hip Hop Culture in the Third Space: Building Mind Power Collective
  • Single payer Health Care Solution to the Health Care Crisis
  • Songwriting for Social Change

Once you find a  workshops to attend, some things you can expect at a workshop:

  • the presentation of material in a manner accessible to all educational levels.
  • the use of interactive and popular education formats. However, the final presentation format is up to the presenters.
  • multigenerational presenters, to foster inter-generational continuity.
  • the inclusion of action steps, skill building, visions and solutions in your workshops. We strive for a good mix of both issues-based and skill-share workshops.
  • the inclusion of an artist or cultural worker in your event to foster alternative forms of facilitation and methods that address the multiple ways in which individuals learn and retain information.
  • collaborating with other organizations in order to foster alliance and relations building.

I wonder what sort of ‘artist’ or ‘cultural worker’ will be at the “Tea Party Movements: The New Fascism?” workshop?  Just a thought.

One thing you won’t find at the forum is the sale of bottled water:

Selling of bottled water is not allowed at USSF for conservation purposes, so all workshop rooms will feature water stations equipped with pitchers, ice and cups. Free water stations around USSF venues and along the march route will be identified clearly.

It is sad that Detroit, once the Arsenal of Democracy and the city that put the world on wheels. The city that created prosperity and raised the standard of living across the nation for generations is now the scene of  an event like this.