Saturday, June 01, 2013

November 22, 2011 - There is something to this 'tree thing.'

It would be best for Secretary Kerry to urge the Turkist authorities to stop threatening trees and issue an apology.

Can't USAID find a way to save the park, it's trees and provide better plans for the city? It can't be that difficult.

I happen to agree with Secretary Kerry in regard to the Russian missiles. It is adding a larger dynamic to the Syrian government that should it fall or fail will be added danger to the region. In the bigger picture, the missiles don't really stabilize the region. 

June 02, 2013 - Updated 34 PKT 
From Web Edition


ISTANBUL: Violent anti-government protests (click here) that have engulfed Istanbul were triggered by plans to redevelop iconic Taksim Square in the heart of the city, a project that will involve razing some 600 trees in an adjoining park.

The plan includes building a replica of military barracks from the Ottoman Empire to house a cultural centre, but residents fear the area will in fact become a shopping district.

The Istanbul municipality, controlled by the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) that has ruled Turkey since 2002, embarked on the ambitious project in November.

The plan aims to create a pedestrian zone around Taksim square, a traditional venue for rallies and protests as well as a popular tourist spot.

Work is under way to divert traffic leading to the busy central square from several directions into a tunnel, which officials say will beautify the tourist zone and keep the exhaust and noise of the city's traffic congestion underground....

I don't know what goes on at NPR sometimes, but, this is irresponsible.

There are universal standards that actually save lives. It demands people seek safe haven underground. Now, just because the governments in Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri are not compliant with that demand in ZONING ORDINANCES, doesn't mean there aren't standards that work.

The VILLAIN is not the standard, it is the irresponsible government that doesn't value human life enough.

June 1, 2013
...For Morning Edition (click here) the day after the powerful tornado on May 20, NPR's Wade Goodwyn spoke with Molly Edwards, who was covered in pink insulation and standing on the rubble of her home with her family.

Just before the tornado slammed into her neighborhood, she and her husband had rushed to pick up their children from Plaza Towers Elementary School. Seven third-graders later died at the school after suffocating under fallen debris....

The people of Oklahoma are caught in a meat grinder because they live in a very dangerous area of the country and their ELECTED government never put them first so much as gave into SUBSTANDARD building codes to favor profits.

Now, if the Press wants to make these criticisms, they should put it all out there, stop hedging their bets and actually save people's lives by discussing what can actually save lives. Currently, running from the tornadoes is a viable option ONLY BECAUSE the governments of these states undercut public safety for profits of corporations. Truth. There is no soil in Oklahoma that is so impenetrable there aren't underground shelters and/or basements. That is hideous.

The reason yesterday's storms were so heinously dangerous was because there was a lot of heat energy within them. They were so volatile it was difficult for the vortex to simply form one funnel. If one examines some of the You Tube videos, it is easy to see the touchdowns and return to elevation as repeated over and over by the same circulation center. It is also easy to note the velocity of the circulation was too fast to set down just one funnel. There are reasons why these things happen. They are not mysterious. It is physics and it is measurable. There will be reports to follow from the US Weather Center after all the measurements are examined and conclusions made. There is no MYSTERY in the details and certainly no reason to allow citizens to believe they don't have to change a thing in their lives.

The ONLY mystery surrounding any of these tornado events is how government has gotten away with this level of neglect for so long.


Large clouds are seen as a tornado passes south of El Reno, Oklahoma May 31, 2013.(Reuters / Bill Waugh) 
June 1, 2013

Multiple twisters (click here) have ripped through Oklahoma City and metropolitan area during rush hour on Friday evening, killing nine people, including 2 children. One tornado repeated the route of the Moore twister which killed 23 just 12 days ago.
The Oklahoma office of the Chief Medical Examiner said that 7 adults and 2 children are confirmed dead, including a mother and her child.  
Five of the deceased met the fate in their cars. Among the victims were a mother and a baby, found near a car on Interstate 40 west of Oklahoma City. Reportedly, the tornado threw them out of their vehicle.
The number of hospitalized exceeds 50, with five of them in a critical condition, hospital officials report, while the number of injured is growing....

The flooding is a separate danger and does not always provide for flooding of underground shelters and certainly not at the time of the tornadoes. Underground shelters don't have to sustain life for months and years on end, they simply have to protect from the tornado for as long as it lasts.

A semi tractor-trailer is seen damaged along Interstate-40 Westbound after a tornado hit the area just east of El Reno, Oklahoma May 31, 2013.(Reuters / Bill Waugh)

It is ridiculous to think roads are the safest METHOD for protecting life when tornadoes are inevitable. It would take one accident or one pile of debris to block a highway and all the people behind the accident are then at high risk for injury and/or death. Debris from these tornadoes are found miles and miles from the tornado itself. Traveling during tornadoes is a very sad component to the lives of the people in these states today. I am sure it is a crime, but, I don't see any governments being held responsible for allowing this level of danger in citizen lives.

This is ridiculous. This is irresponsible government and the Press that panders to it.
6:02 AM, May 17, 2013

LANSING — A top adviser to Gov. Rick Snyder (click here) set up one-on-one phone conferences for members of Michigan’s Emergency Loan Board to interview Kevyn Orr for the Detroit emergency manager job three days before the board interviewed him in public, an e-mail released by the state shows.

Union activist Robert Davis, who is suing to overturn Orr’s appointment, says the e-mail is a “smoking gun” that shows state officials violated the Open Meetings Act in recruiting and selecting Orr.

But a spokesman for the Treasury Department said Thursday that the one-one-one interviews proposed by Snyder adviser Rich Baird never took place....


...The Baird e-mail and a second e-mail sent by Treasurer Andy Dillon were turned over to Davis on Wednesday, one day after Ingham County Circuit Judge William Collette scheduled a June 5 hearing at which Snyder, Dillon and Orr were to show why they should not be found in contempt of court for failing to provide records to Davis....

How to be Governor without being elected!

on May 31, 2013 at 2:57 PM, updated May 31, 2013 at 3:06 PM
...Rich Baird (click here) is known within the Snyder administration as the “transformation manager” – acting as a talent recruiter, adviser and facilitator for the Republican governor and his team. Baird has been involved in key administration hires, the Education Achievement Authority and many other initiatives since Snyder became governor by winning the 2010 election.

Baird is paid with private funds through a Snyder nonprofit – not taxpayer dollars. He may not make any policy decisions within the Snyder administration, but he often is a key player in gathering the information that leads to those decisions....

Every place where Snyder has exploitative and/or anti-citizen policy, there is Rich Baird. So really sits in the Governor seat? No chance the name Rich Baird appears on signed legislation. I mean they even look alike. Rich - Rick; Baird - Snyder.

MAY 18, 2013 AT 1:00 AM
Lansing — Gov. Rick Snyder's administration (click here) has claimed the once-secret "skunk works" education reform project was not a government-sanctioned work group, but newly obtained administration correspondence suggests otherwise.

Emails obtained by The Detroit News through the Freedom of Information Act show at least three top Snyder aides were aware that a Department of Technology, Management and Budget official was forming the work group, just as the Republican governor was eyeing major changes to Michigan's public education system.

Records show the group was born during a mid-September lunch meeting between state Chief Information Officer David Behen, Snyder adviser Rich Baird and Richard McLellan, a GOP attorney who was separately studying ways to rewrite school funding laws at Snyder's behest....

Ah, how sweet Snyder's' best buddy needed another job playing with other people's money. I am sure no one else would be as qualified.

Snyder appoints member to Great Lakes Protection Fund Board of Directors (click here)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 6, 2011
Contact: Sara Wurfel
Office: 517-335-6397
Email: wurfels@michigan.gov 

LANSING, Mich. - Gov. Rick Snyder today announced the appointment of Rich Baird to the Great Lakes Protection Fund Board of Directors.

The Great Lakes Protection Fund is a private, nonprofit corporation formed in 1989 by the governors of the Great Lakes States. It is a permanent environmental endowment that supports collaborative actions to improve the health of the Great Lakes ecosystem.

"Rich's tremendous insight and experience make him well positioned to serve on this Board as we continue to safeguard our greatest natural resource, the Great Lakes," Snyder said.

Baird, of Bath, is the CEO of MI Partners, LLC, an organizational change consulting firm....

You would think MI Partners, LLC would be a Michigan company. Now, when I remember back to why I opposed Rick Snyder for Governor it was because he robbed the Michigan Brain Trust, gift wrapped it for Wall Street and exported jobs and revenue. I don't call that someone interested in Michigan. Michigan didn't need another draconian Wall Street bozo to sap the life out of it. I  am just funny that way.

I looked and looked to find such a wonderful organization named after the great state of Michigan. This is all I found. Go figure.


MI Partner, LLC (click here)
8109 Linksview Drive
McKinny, Texas 75070
Phone (972) 529-3776

To the right is the street view.

The relationship Snyder has with Baird might be a threat to their marriages, but, to me it is more like the relationship Cheney had with Bush when Bush said, "Dick why don't you be Vice President. I have to be at the tee in 15 minutes."