Monday, October 24, 2011

The hurricane near the Yucatan has a similar tragectory of Wilma in 2005.

October 25, 2011
0030.15z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES East Satellite (click title to entry for 12 hour loop - thank you)

There is also another tropic depression in the eastern Caribbean north of Venezuela.

Wind and solar energy don't have these 'side effects.'

By Ben Geman
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has dropped his legislative “hold” (click title to entry - thank you) on a bipartisan pipeline safety bill, paving the way for quick Senate action on the measure.

A Senate Democratic aide said the bill could be quickly moved through the chamber under unanimous consent Monday.

Paul and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Monday night in the Capitol that there's an agreement to attach a Paul amendment to the bill.

Paul's amendment addresses testing of older pipelines that he was concerned would not have been covered by the bill, he said. Paul recently met with the National Transportation Safety Board, which probed last year's fatal natural gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno, California.

"We came to the conclusion that most of the accidents were occuring on older pipelines," Paul told The Hill in the Capitol Monday. "And so we thought there needed to be some testing done on the older pipelines."

Paul said the amendment "looks at the older pipelines and says if there is no history of them having a pressure test, then a pressure test has to be done. That would have actually detected San Bruno's problem before the accident."

Feinstein said she worked with Paul and that it's a "good amendment."

"It should pass tonight," she said of the overall bill.

Paul had been preventing quick Senate action on the bill, which unanimously cleared the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee in May, expressing concern that a bill creating new regulations would sail through the chamber without enough discussion....


SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
Devastation (click here)after the explosion on Thursday night in the suburban community of San Bruno that sparked a huge fire that killed four people and destroyed 38 properties.

It really wasn't aged pipe that caused the explosion.  It was substandard regulations.

California Gas Line Had Unusual Construction
10/17/11 04:59 PM ET

By REBECCA SMITH, STU WOO, CASSANDRA SWEET, AND BOBBY WHITE

Death Toll Rises to at Least Four in San Francisco Suburb Where Dozens of Houses Were Destroyed; Questions About Pipeline Safety

SAN BRUNO, Calif.?The ruptured natural-gas pipeline that exploded and destroyed 58 homes in the San Francisco suburb of San Bruno contained a longitudinal seam and numerous welds indicating it had been made from many small segments of steel pipe?an unusual configuration?federal investigators said Saturday.

While the pipe configuration isn't necessarily a violation of a safety code, NTSB Vice Chairman Christopher Hart said Saturday evening, investigators would need to determine if the numerous welds could have weakened the pipe.

Mr. Hart said his team would "dig deeper" to determine if the pipe failed due to its unusual configuration....

Looking for success with breast cancer in younger women.

Studying for the future ... breast cancer researcher Chris Ormandy largely works away from the bright lights that some high profile fund-raising causes attract. Photo: Jacky Ghossein

If the research never begins it will never end and neither will the cancer for some of its youngest victims.... Garvan Institute (click title to entry - thank you) research scientist is studying transcription factors - proteins which govern the behavior of genetic material - to determine how they might influence cells to develop as the aggressive ''triple negative'' form of breast cancer that affects mostly young women.
But the basic molecular understanding sought by Associate Professor Ormandy, group head of the institute's cancer research program, takes decades before changing treatment.
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And it risks being overlooked in a culture of breast cancer fund-raising characterized by Pink Ribbon Day that may emphasize projects with a more immediate payoff....

The first of the criminal proceedings in the Massey Mine Deaths begins.





US mine boss on trial for deaths of 29 miners (click title to entry - thank you)

11:59 AM Tuesday Oct 25, 2011Federal law forbids such advance warnings of spot mine safety checks. Stover had told investigators that mine policy barred this illegal practice, and that he would have fired any guard who violated it, according to the indictment....

Congratulations to the people of Libya. There is peace of mind now.

A Libyan woman visits the body of slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi (Pic:Reuters)

This is exactly the same type of display that occurred with Saddam's sons.

I don't believe anyone has to apologize for the death of a heinous dictator.  This display is obviously desired by the Libyan people who believe Gaddafi was nothing short of a demi-god. 

Does it really matter how he died, so long as he is officially recognized as Gaddafi.  He could have left the country and saved his life, but, he did not.  He spoke in complete defiance of the Libyan people when he stated, "He was Libyan and he would live or die in Libya."  The people, including the Interim government military, were afraid of him.  They were unsure of his potential power and now knowing he is dead will bring about a different sense of power of the new government.  They destroyed the monster whom proclaimed he was indestructable.

Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Mustafa Abdel Jalil, (click title to entry - thank you) chairman of Libya's National Transitional Council, sought to give assurances that the country will be a moderate Muslim nation, amid concern the interim government wants to adopt a strict Islamic tone....

The 'idea' Libya will adopt strict Islamic tone is not at all unreasonable.  There is a lot of 'social development' before such liberation is actually noted to be beneficial.  The rebels are the average citizens.  They came forward to free themselves of a dictator attempting to kill them.  They are not well schooled in any 'political reality' other than what their holy books and holy men taught them.  As the people find strength within their society to venture into a greater understanding of 'safety' outside the definition of Islamic Law, it will interpret into changes in the government providing more freedoms for women while placing importance on freedom human rights and elevating the importance of children and their futures within the brain trust and leadership for Libya. 

Libya has a long way to go, but, given their rapid ability to develop strategies for military success, the government looks forward to rapid development and moving into 'modernization' with their young people.  Libya will remember their allies in NATO finding more success in finding common ground with western nations, perhaps, more than any other nation in the Middle East besides Israel.

I wish the Libyan people well.  I look forward to their peace agenda and making Libya a wonderful place to live for their young people insuring their country's benevolence and global importance.  I think it is better to move forward rather than dwelling on a dead dictator.  It is over without a lingering and occupying foreign military.  Well done, all.

Why are Republicans obstructionists and willing to destroy the country? Unions. This article from NJ is conclusive.

This is a graph from 2005.

New Jersey - Educational Attainment

  • In 2005, New Jersey (click here) ranked 6th among the 50 states in the percentage of its adults aged 25 to 64 with at least high school diploma (89.4%).
  • New Jersey ranked 3rd in the percentage of adults aged 25 to 64 with a bachelor’s degree or higher (37.7%) and 6th in the percentage with a graduate or professional degree (13.5%).
  • Relative to the U.S. average, New Jersey has higher percentages of adults who have completed bachelors, graduate, and professional degrees (see below).
Despite the New Jersey Educational System was one of the most successful in the USA only six years ago, the Governor claims there are tons of problems with teachers and their pensions. 

Now, some free lancers, Hedge Fund Managers, want everyone to believe they are the saints of all saints to New Jersey citizens.

Hedge fund manager readies for battle with NJEA to reform NJ schools (click title to entry - thank you)
Published: Sunday, October 23, 2011, 6:01 AM
Updated: Sunday, October 23, 2011, 10:49 AM


(Tepper said)   “I’m tired of making money and am now trying to figure out the best way to give it away,” he says.
Why is it I just don't buy that statement?  I have a better idea.  Rather than seeking to destroy one of the best unions in New Jersey, that delivers a magnificent product to their citizen-parents, why don't the Hedge Fund Managers begin new employment for parents?  Or actually 'bailout New Jersey' from its potential deficit of the retirements funds CAUSED by Hedge Fund managers that bankrupt the banks?  How does that sound?

...“With all due respect to Mr. Tepper, I am not interested in what he thinks,” says state Sen. Richard Codey, an Essex County Democrat. “I don’t think he has any clue what’s going on in the classrooms. Other people should be making these decisions, not hedge fund people. We’ve seen too much of this. It’s like buying public policy. Enough is enough.”

Tepper is like the cocky new kid on the playground, picking a fight with the bully on his first day....

This isn't about children.  It isn't about children in empoverished neighborhoods.  It is about destroying unions and robbing their retirement benefits.  It is the ultimate merger of government and private enterprise.  Destroy the union and rid the state of any obligation to truly effective educational standards. 

The NJEA has always excelled with the children in New Jersey.  Their citizens are among the best educated in the nation.  There is profoundly nothing wrong with the NJEA.  If anything it is a sincere success story when it comes to providing education to children that inspires to excell in their lives and priorities. 

The problem in impoverished neighborhoods and education is frequently the availability of parents able to oversee homework and good attendance.  Poverty does not propagate the best circumstances for parenting.  Additionally, the drug culture is entrenched in impoverished neighborhoods.  Violence and childhood trauma appears to be making a permanent impression on young minds.  A violent mind can't learn.  Why?  Because 'fight and flight' is not condusive to learning, it is however helpful in survival.

....His co-pilot on this is Alan Fournier, of Far Hills, another hedge fund manager who used to work for Tepper.

“We will spend as much as necessary for as long as necessary to help the kids in New Jersey,” Fournier says. “The NJEA is focused on protecting the status quo for adults. Our effort is to help the kids. We do intend to be a counterweight.”

Which party will benefit? That depends on how Democrats respond to this....

I want a Constitutional Amendement.

Equality to all genders and free vasectomies for male citizens.

It will be a new mission for Planned Parenthood.

If the Right Wing insists on an Anti-Abortion movement, it might work out.

IF!


Men were required to have a vasectomy after fathering two children and carried a State Issued Picture ID stating he had a vasectomy.


OR


Men were tatooed inside their upper lip with the statement, "Seedless.


OR


Men were branded on their buttocks with the statement, "Juicey, but, sterile."

...Anti-abortion activist click title to entry - thank you) Gary Boisclair announced on Saturday that he is challenging Rep. Keith Ellison for the DFL primary. But Boisclair’s campaign isn’t about defeating Ellison, it’s about exploiting a campaign loophole that will force Twin Cities media outlets to air explicit anti-abortion advertising. Boisclair works for Society for Truth and Justice, a group that opposes abortion whose employees are registering to campaign in elections across the country....

Women are always told what to do with their bodies, but, men always manage to be removed from limiting the ability of a woman to live their lives on their own terms.  I believe controlling the semen is far more important than controlling the uterus.  Contraception is no longer a problem either.  No wedge issue, simply compliance with reproductive freedom laws.

To the right, Dr. George Tiller.  The Pro Life movement is not about life, it is about a political wedge issue.  They don't care the extremism that accompanies that politcal wedge issue either.


Ford is on his way home as Syria nears civil war.

US ambassador Robert Ford (click title to entry - thank you) made several-high profile visits to locations at the centre of opposition to President Assad. Photograph: EPA

From the Daily Star in Lebanon.  Lebanon has suffered over decades due to Assad's attempts to displace disgruntled Syrians as Lebanon being the reason for their unhappiness.  It has always been based in ideological hared.

October 24, 2011 04:41 PM \

BEIRUT: The Syrian ambassador to Lebanon (click here) said Monday that President Bashar Assad is leading reforms and dialogue among all parties in the country in a bid to face what he termed the “conspiracy” against Damascus, during a meeting with Lebanon's Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
“[The meeting] was an opportunity to assure Berri that reforms and dialogue in Syria are ongoing and being lead by President Bashar Assad,” Ali Abdel Karim Ali told reporters after meeting with Berri in Ain el Tinih.
“President Assad guarantees that the dialogue includes all parties so as to completely eliminate the conspiracy some are sowing against Syria, and the key role it plays in the region,” he added.
As international pressure mounts and anti-government protests continue, Syria and its allies have said that the situation in the Middle Eastern country is better than it was before, hinting that the uprising demanding reform and the fall of Assad is nearing an end….


To some extent, Assad simply reminds me of one of the 'same type' of dictator that talks about reform without delivering it.  How long has this gone on and we are still hearing Assad play reformer while killing thousands of Syrians.  That sounds like reform?  I don't think so.  The Syrians want new leadership and they are not getting it.  Either Assad backs up his words with action or he needs to be indicted at the Hague for turning on his citizens.  How many more thousands of Syrians have to die to end this?

October 24, 2011 06:13 PM

BEIRUT: The U.S warned Lebanon (click here) it could face serious consequences should it fail to fund the U.N.-backed probe into the assassination of statesman Rafik Hariri, during a meeting between the U.S. envoy to Lebanon and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun Monday….

…Connelly met Aoun, an outspoken critic of the international court who has repeatedly voiced opposition to Lebanon paying its share of the court’s bills, at the latter’s private office in Rabieh….

…The issue of cooperation and funding of the STL (Special Tribunal for Lebanon), which in late June indicted four members of Hezbollah over the 2005 assassination of Hariri, has been a contentious issue between Lebanon’s rival March 8 and March 14 alliances, as well as elements in the government of Prime Minister Najib Mikati….

It is very difficult to believe all this time has gone by without a trial for the death of the late Prime Minister Rafic Harriri. 



Rafic Hariri (offical site)

This is the death of the Lebanon Prime Minister and the current dominate political party is actually obstructing justice to the Lebanese people.  Defunding the tribunal cannot be tolerated.  This is an international outrage this has gone on for so long.

...The Washington Post:
A Lebanese police officer (click here) and U.N. investigators unearthed extensive circumstantial evidence implicating the Syrian-backed Hezbollah movement in the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri, according to an investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp....

Those that oppose the international courts, no doubt, have a reason to oppose them.

Israel has acted in support of the United Nations including returning Sebba Farms to Lebanon, but, it has never been enough for Assad.  When given the unreasonable demands of Israel at times, one has to also reflect on its compliance in regard to these lands, including, Gaza and the West Bank.  There have been huge concessions by Israel, but, the extremist leadership are never satisfied.  Never.

The Syrian-Israeli 1967 ceasefire line has been, (click here) with few exceptions, quiet since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. While Damascus bitterly repudiates Israel's conquest of the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six-Day War, it has avoided direct entanglement with the Israel Defense Forces. Instead, Damascus adopted an unofficial policy of dispatching guerrilla proxies in Lebanon to attack Israeli personnel and their south Lebanese allies in the name of "resistance" to Israeli "occupation."

When Israel unilaterally withdrew its forces from Lebanon in May 2000, Syria faced a strategic conundrum. Specifically, when the United Nations (U.N.) confirmed Israel's withdrawal to the Blue Line—the internationally recognized Lebanese-Israeli frontier —claims of "occupation" could not be sustained.
To this end, Syria contrived a territorial dispute to justify sponsoring ongoing "resistance" against the Jewish state. This manufactured dispute centers around a small territory commonly known as the Shebaa Farms....


Hezbollah meets with UNIFIL head for first time

October 22, 2011 02:04 PM




The Daily Star
Lebanon News
...The MP reportedly told Asarta (click here) that the peacekeeping force’s role should be limited to supporting the Lebanese authorities to gain sovereignty over its territory.
“Fayyad affirmed that southerners do not have any animosity against the UNIFIL despite having some reservations regarding UNIFIL’s measures in their villages that create fear and lead to clashes,” the paper added.
The relationship between UNIFIL and residents in the south has occasionally been tense over the years, with some residents rejecting their presence and actions in villages there. In 2010, residents of some villages in the south clashed with French members of the peacekeeping force. A number of peacekeepers have also been wounded in stone-throwing incidents....

Does Hezbollah ever want the end to hostilities?  How does the USA always end up in the political rhetroic of Nasrullah in conspiring to 'end the people's well being and religious focus?'  The accusations of the USA never stops.  If Nasrullah actually believes the USA is focusing on his religious fervor, all he has to do is look to Awlaki to understand how the USA has made terrorists a priority.  Nasrullah's hate of the USA is baseless.  There is no room for hate in the Middle East.  The only agenda can be one of peace and Nasrullah has to do his part.  Is Nasrullah a part of the UNIFIL focus to bring peace to these people rather than escalation one more time over tensions from decades ago?

We do not want alliance of minorities to face Sunni majority: Hezbollah (click here)
October 24, 2011 09:39 PM

BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said Monday revolutions in the Arab world were genuine and had not been started by the United States.

“What is happening today are genuine national movements, such as in Tunis and other Arab countries ... and were not part of a U.S. project,” Nasrallah, who spoke to Al-Manar television during an interview, said, adding that it was not logical for the U.S. to overthrow regimes that were loyal to Washington.
Nasrallah singled out Syria among countries that were not subjugated to U.S. designs.

“The Syrian regime is the only one that is not subjected to the will of the U.S.,” he said.

However, the Hezbollah chief said the United States was trying to direct the path of popular movements to its own advantage, hoping to render successive governments under its influence.

“If the Americans and the West find that the [new] regimes do not serve their interests, they will try to bring them down and spread chaos … the new leaderships need to be well aware [of this].”…

 

The New American Pioneers.

'Occupy Wall Street' demonstrators are protesting bank bailouts, foreclosures and high unemployment (AFP, Timothy A. Clary)

High profile arrests are made to deter involvement.  What the establishment needs to ask, "Is there a reason not to be involved?"

NEW YORK (click title to entry - thnk you) — Police in New York arrested about 30 protesters including veteran civil rights activist Cornel West during a demonstration by the Occupy Wall Street movement.
A New York Police Department spokesman said the protesters were arrested on Friday because they were "blocking the entrance" of the local police precinct in New York's Harlem neighborhood. They were charged with "disorderly conduct."
Several hundred people were demonstrating in Harlem over the controversial police practice of stopping and patting down people to determine whether they are carrying arms, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
West, an outspoken Princeton University professor, was freed shortly after his arrest, according to an Occupy Wall Street video....

The new Pioneer movement is multi-generational.  Without question.  There are generations of Americans seeking relief from oppression.  It is incredible to think about, but, decades of activist movements have resulted in oppression due to Wall Street.  Wall Street buys conservatives as if at a puppy mill and they do the dirty business of conducting corruption even at the lives of Americans while talking out both sides of their mouths.

...Like the people in Ocuppy Wall Street, (click here) and the other Occupy groups around the country, we didn’t have a set agenda. We were frustrated after millennia of a subordinated status and we were exhilarated by our camaraderie; we knew that in Iowa City, Lawrence, Kansas, and all over the west coast others were joining the demonstrations.

I remember looking up at a private men’s club along the route. A trio who might have been drawn by Thomas Nast was standing at the window, holding highball glasses, their faces reddened by whiskey, looking down at us with mingled incredulity and scorn. We cheered and marched on....

Decades and decades of oppression of women.  The female citizen is still second class.

The Vatican recognizes the oppressiuon all too clearly.  Catholics need to pay attention.  Now, is the time to examine the conscience.


Special Topic 

Vatican Calls For Economic Equality, Sweeping Reform Of Global Financial System (click here)