The Latest Right Wing Conspiracy to raise ratings. They are running their own political party.

I don't think Lou Dobbs will be getting the Hispanic vote. These white guys need to retire and live happily ever after.

Two of the country's worst bigots are going into politics. Lou Dobbs wants to be New Jersey's next Senator and Beck is going to exorcise George Washington the first chance he gets.

And the Right Wing extremists are guaranteed to have the Wall Street Journal behind them. The WSJ is already backing any candidate that isn't Lou Dobbs. No mention of whom Beck is thinking about promoting. Talk about Murdoch having a stake in 'The Big Game.'

It is laughable to believe The Wall Street Journal is actually taking this mess seriously. This is nothing more than a 'ratings grab.' First Beck is going to lead the charge that no Republican seems to be able to muster and then Dobbs is going to ride directly in the USA Senate to 'take control' of the issue.

Now, all the 'real people' of the USA need to ask themselves, "Did a shiver run down one's spine as soon as these jokers said they were going to be 'gaming politics' by active participation?" Go ahead. Admit it. As soon as the words, Beck is promoting his own party and Dobbs is running for the Presidency or the Senate, didn't everyone reach for the remote or the radio or both? Come on, get over it. They are never going to lead anything worthwhile, except, a mob scene maybe. These bozos never bothered to put their own narcissistic interests aside to explore the long existing and well established 'Third Parties' of the USA.

The Populist Party (click here)
The Rise of PopulismThe People's Party (or Populist Party, as it was widely known) was much younger than the Democratic and Republican Parties, which had been founded before the Civil War....

Their website today (click here)

The Libertarian Party website (click here)

The Constitution Party website (click here)

The Green Party website (click here)

Those are the other major Third Paries in the USA. There are others, but, their chance of winning a federal office isn't good. There has to be enough grassroots movement by any party to promote the platform and the candidates. The small third parties are having luck though, but, primarily at the local level, which is a darn good start.


Lou Dobbs Already Backpedaling on His Signature Issue (click here)
11/25/09 at 12:50

...But apparently Dobbs is aware that targeting the nation's only Hispanic senator might not reflect well on someone already burdened with a reputation for hostility toward Hispanic illegal immigrants. Maybe that's why Dobbs has already begun to reverse his outspoken opposition to what he used to call "amnesty," a path to legalization for illegal immigrants. The Wall Street Journal reports that in an overlooked interview with Telemundo last Friday, Dobbs "twice mentioned a possible legalization plan for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., saying at one point that 'we need the ability to legalize illegal immigrants under certain conditions.'" Looks like he's getting the hang of the politician thing already.


Glenn Beck, on Fox News, is planning a series of conventions for his followers. "I'm going to teach you how to be a community organizer next year, oh, because two can play at that game," Beck said on the radio. "It's time to find our teeth and sharpen our teeth, and we're going to do it." (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times / March 2, 2009)

It helps that a community organizer at FOX will have the backing of his media bosses. I mean who needs donors, right?

The voluble Fox News television host says he hopes (click here) to transform his personal celebrity into political action and has begun to assemble a movement to "change America's course." Beck announced his intentions at a weekend rally at a retirement community outside Orlando, Fla., where he was promoting his new book, "Arguing With Idiots." He continued outlining his ideas during his radio and TV shows Monday."America, we cannot wait for a leader anymore," Beck said. "The people must lead, and the leader will follow."

At least when the Democrats promote a media star for Congress, he can draw all the forty-eight mainland USA States on a map, while raising his own funding.

I'd like to see more than $10,000 reward. Seattle has a problem. Cop killers.

The Seattle AREA police need to meet at varying places and not simply 'the usual hangout' when they are preparing to go to work.

It might even be better to meet at the station house before any shift as the police cars don't stick out like sore thumbs as they would at a coffee shop. At least until this mess is nailed down.

I certainly hope the FBI is working this by now.

The coffee shop is near McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, about 35 miles south of Seattle.

Unless there is a sincerely strong reason to 'link' the Air Force Base with the shootings, I would not think there was anything related. I realize military bases might be the source of ideas of violence following the Fort Hood episode, but, at this point I think that is more sensationism than reality. Let's catch these people before the people of the area have their lives turned into nightmares. We don't need a return of Al Capone.

It looks to me the people assassinating police officers at vulnerable moments are freelancers and not organized crime necessarily. They might be getting weapons from someone connected with the Air Force Base, but, I doubt all the weapons come from any place, except, the neighborhood. I would be really surprised if the Base had any connections to this.



Chris Monfort
...Thanks to the hard work of reporters at the Seattle Times and P-I, we now know a lot more about Christopher Monfort, the 41-year-old Tukwila man suspected of killing Officer Timothy Brenton on Halloween night....

...Sunday's shooting comes a month after Seattle police officer Timothy Brenton (click title to entry - thank you) was shot and killed Halloween night as he was sitting in a cruiser with trainee Britt Sweeney. Sweeney was grazed in the neck....
...Christopher Monfort, 41, of suburban Tukwila, was charged in the shooting. Days after the shooting, Seattle detectives attempted to question Monfort at his residence. Police say that Monfort then ran from the detectives and tried to use a gun. The detective shot him.
Authorities also linked Monfort to the October firebombing of four police vehicles, with prosecutors saying Monfort waged a "one-man war" against law enforcement....

4 police officers killed in Wash. coffee shop (click here)
Sheriff's official says at least one gunman walked in and opened fire
..."This was a targeted, selected ambush," Troyer said, adding that customers and baristas were in the Forza Coffee shop at the time but no one else was shot at or injured....

This is what bothers me about the predisposition of news media services and politicians that want to turn a 'jerk' that was a psychiatrist into a martyr of jihad. It is stupid. The man at Fort Hood was a lone gunman that was misguided by his own perverted ideas of his own priorities for his life. It is outrageous to believe this is a mass movement within military bases to annihilate the police of a region of the country.

The fact of the matter is simple. None of these police officers would have died if they didn't have their guard down. Police aren't necessarily 'ready to jump to arms' at any second. They expect citizens to act in a non-violent manner unless the circumstances dictate otherwise. This is more or less a predatory person that seeks out police officers to satisfy his idea of justice or self-righteousness.


Imam's e-mails to Fort Hood suspect Hasan tame compared to online rhetoric (click here)
12:00 AM CST on Sunday, November 29, 2009
By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News begerton@dallasnews.com
E-mails between a U.S. Army officer and a radical Muslim cleric did not worry anti-terrorism investigators, they said, because nothing in the correspondence presaged violence. But elsewhere on the Internet, the imam was urging people to kill soldiers and others.
After accused Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan started e-mailing in December, the cleric increased the pace of his fundamentalist rhetoric on the Web, a Dallas Morning News investigation found.
"I pray that Allah destroys America and all its allies," Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born cleric with suspected ties to al-Qaeda, wrote in a February blog entry.
The cleric and the Army major are believed to have met at least eight years ago, when al-Awlaki preached at a northern Virginia mosque attended by Hasan's family. Both were born in the United States to prosperous Middle Eastern parents nearly 40 years ago; both earned advanced degrees at American universities....
...Instead, investigators determined there was no need to probe further because Hasan's questions to al-Awlaki were consistent with his psychiatric research, there was no indication he was planning violence, and he was not "directed to do anything," officials said.
But the Muslim cleric didn't need to give specific direction by e-mail. His exhortations about killing – soldiers, innocent women and children, blasphemers, even oneself – were readily available until his online site went dead a few days after the Fort Hood shootings. The News found al-Awlaki's speeches and blogs by combing through Web archives and reviewing online recordings and transcripts....

I don't believe he was influenced by this cleric either. He could answer that better than anyone and being that he is alive and in confinement, he should be interrogated so long as his lawyer is present. But, the evidence is overwhelming.

The man should just plead guilty rather than put a nation through a trial. I realize his attorney is doing the very best he can given overwhelming evidence to his guilt, but, the military should maintain Nidal Hasan in confinement until they are allowed to understand his state of mind at the time of the killings.

I sincerely believe a lot of the anger has to do with his own priorities and not that of this cleric. I believe he didn't know how to confront violence and fell into familiar patterns of violent Muslims.

I like the idea that this cleric doesn't have access to the 'violence markets' of the USA though.

Good job.

Do more.

Definately. I can't believe Homeland Security hasn't shut this mess down before now. I mean for real. What was the idea? Get the 'Home Boys' of the USA angry as hell so they would pick up a gun and go to a battlefield? That's pretty stupid priorities if that what the thinking was. Shut 'em down. Every government, especially those directly dealing with this mess, should shut them down. Throw 'em in prison for advocating the death of other people.

You know there is such a thing as a 'death threat' that is considered a crime in the USA. Seriously. The websites that advocate 'death threats' to citizens, even unidentified citizens, should be shut down and their contributors charged. Make 'em face a judge. They'll figure it out after that.

There can be a lot more at work here than meets the eye.

La Familia’ drug cartel members indicted (click here)
By Mike Robinson
November 20, 2009
CHICAGO -
Fifteen people with ties to the Mexican drug cartel La Familia Michoacana have been indicted on charges of taking part in a major Chicago-area cocaine conspiracy, prosecutors announced Friday. The people charged in indictments returned Thursday were arrested in August as part of the government’s Operation Coronado, an effort launched in 2007 to break La Familia’s grip on the U.S. cocaine market. The cartel is named for the State of Michoacan in southwestern Mexico and is accused by federal prosecutors of being responsible for hauling vast quantities of cocaine into the United States from south of the border. Drug Enforcement Agency officials have arrested more than 300 people in 19 states as part of the operation, prosecutors said....


Hearing scheduled for meth cartel’s ‘puppet master’ (click here)
By Staff, City News Service
Thursday, November 5, 2009
A preliminary hearing was scheduled Thursday for one of 13 people arrested in San Diego during a nationwide sweep targeting a fast-moving Mexican drug cartel known for its violence and control over the methamphetamine trade.
Angel Quintero Castillo was arrested last month as part of Project Coronado, an ongoing federal government campaign against La Familia. One local prosecutor described Castillo as a “facilitator.”
“Angel was a puppet master who arranged the deals through telephone conversations,” Deputy District Attorney Carlos Campbell alleged....

The most recent 'Cosa Nostra' of Mexico. I wouldn't completely dismiss the possibility of the 're-establishment' of still more drug crime networks. The northwest USA has a lot of ports, and the La Familia Port City of Wilmington, North Carolina has recently been shut down. I think anything is possible here and police 'on the street' should conduct themselves accordingly. Body armor, etc., if they don't already. I don't care who they are. I don't care if they are Park Police.

In some ways this mimics what Mexico is going through. Brazen drug gangs out to kill police and military to have control over their networks. They are no different than any other organized crime network in that they adhere to 'religious dogma' and the 'reign of poverty' to justify their actions. They believe they have better law than the law that exists and are threats to a nation's sovereignty.

The rise of Mexico's La Familia, a narco-evangelist cartel (click here)

By Sara Miller Llana Staff writer
from the November 22, 2009 edition
Mexico and the US are working together bring down Mexico's newest, most violent drug cartel. Last month, 303 alleged La Familia members were arrested in 38 US cities. Fifteen members were indicted Friday in Chicago.

Apatzingan, Mexico - They hand out Bibles to the poor in the rural foothills of the state of Michoacán. They forbid drug use, build schools and drainage systems, and declare themselves the protectors of women and children.
But this is no church group. This is La Familia Michoacána, Mexico's newest drug-trafficking gang, which now reigns over Mexico's methamphetamine trade. What began as a self-declared vigilante group doing "the work of God," now is seen as the nation's most violent criminal group.
Its influence stretches well beyond this patch of Mexico called "La Tierra Caliente" or "Hot Land." Last month, in the largest coordinated action against a Mexican trafficking organization north of the border, the United States arrested 303 alleged La Familia affiliates in 38 US cities. It was the culmination of "Project Coronado," which has nabbed more than 1,100 suspects in 44 months....

..."La Familia doesn't kill for money. It kills only those who deserve to die."...

Who decides among them 'what act' is deserving of death? That is what that statement means. Someone is deciding 'those who deserve to die.' Really? Just on a whim? Or. Are there actual 'Credos' that dictate such judgements? Just curious.

They didn't leave a stone unturned. They do have their own 'credos in print.'

"The Craziest One."

Nazario Moreno González (click here for Wiki), the group's preacher.

Mexico offers $2 million for top drug lords (click here)
Most-wanted list a challenge to cartels' violent grip along the border

updated 6:48 p.m. ET, Mon., March. 23, 2009
MEXICO CITY - Mexico's government on Monday offered $2 million each for information leading to the arrest of 24 top drug lords in a public challenge to the cartels' violent grip on the country.
The list indicated that drug gangs have splintered into six main cartels under pressure from the U.S. and Mexican governments. The two most powerful gangs — the Pacific and Gulf cartels — each suffered fractures that have given rise to new cartels, according to the list published by the Attorney General's Office....

...La Familia’s boss and spiritual leader Nazario Moreno González, (click here) (a.k.a.: El Más Loco or The Craziest One) has published his own 'bible', a copy of this 'bible' seized by Mexican federal agents reveals an ideology that mixes evangelical-style self help with insurgent peasant slogans. Moreno González seems to base most of his doctrine on the work by a Christian writer John Eldredge. The Mexican justice department stated in a report that Gonzalez Moreno has made Eldredge’s book Salvaje de Corazón (Wild at Heart) required reading for La Familia gang members and has paid rural teachers and National Development Education (CONAFE) to circulate Eldredge's writings throughout the Michoacán countryside. An idea central to Eldredge’s message is that every man must have "a battle to fight, a beauty to rescue and an adventure to live." Eldredge quotes from Isaiah 63, which describes God wearing blood-stained clothes, spattered as though he had been treading a wine press. Then he writes: "Talk about Braveheart. This is one fierce, wild, and passionate guy. I have never heard Mister Rogers talk like that. Come to think of it, I never heard anyone in church talk like that, either. But this is the God of heaven and Earth."...

...The La Familia members use murder and torture to quash rivals, while building a social base in the Mexican state of Michoacán. It is the fastest-growing cartel in the country’s drug war and is a religious cult-like group that celebrates family values. In one incident in Uruapan in 2006, the cartel members tossed five decapitated heads onto the dance floor of the Sol y Sombra night club along with a message that read: "The Family doesn’t kill for money. It doesn’t kill women. It doesn’t kill innocent people, only those who deserve to die. Know that this is divine justice."...

These boys have got 'God Complexes' big time. I guess they believe 'God is on their side.' Huh?

"Morning Papers" - Its Origins

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

There were a series of train crashes in the USA that were never reported as to their cause either.

There were at least three incidents of 'runaway' trains under Bush as well that no one ever bothered to report the cause, but, only the sensationism 'of the moment.'

Who is among the dead?


...The Nevsky Express, an upscale line popular with Russian business executives and government officials, was carrying hundreds of passengers from Moscow to the northern city of St. Petersburg when its last three carriages went off the rails Friday night.
Authorities said Saturday they have opened a terrorism criminal inquiry. Police and prosecutors swarmed over the disaster site and restricted access to what was reported to be a possible bomb crater....
...Reports on the death toll varied.
Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said at least 26 people were killed, 18 were missing and nearly 100 were injured and hospitalized in the derailment. The Prosecutor General's office said the death toll had risen to 30, with 60 others in the hospital.
President Dmitry Medvedev called for calm, saying "we need there to be no chaos, because the situation is tense as it is."...
...If terrorism is confirmed, it would not be the first time the Moscow-St. Petersburg rail line has been attacked. A 2007 derailment on the line was caused by an explosion and injured 27 people. Authorities arrested two suspects and are searching for a third -- a former military officer.
Across Russia's North Caucasus region, attacks are relatively frequent, including the August suicide bombing of a police station in Ingushetia's capital that killed 25 people and injured 164. A December 2003 suicide bombing of a train near Chechnya killed 44 people.
But outside the volatile southern region, the last fatal terrorist attacks occurred in August 2004, with the twin bombings of passenger aircraft that killed more than 80 people. Those attacks were blamed on Chechen rebels, as was the February 2004 Moscow subway bombing that killed 40 people.
A 2002 hostage-taking at a Moscow theater ended with the deaths of around 130 people, after Russian special forces sprayed a chemical agent into the building before storming it.
Another train derailment in June 2005 left at least 12 injured. The train had been traveling from Chechnya to Moscow.




CSX Train Derailment Near Painesville, Ohio Causes Explosions and Evacuations (click here)
Date Published: Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
...The train derailment occurred about 300 feet away from the Route 44 and Route 2 interchange near Painesville. Witnesses to the accident reported hearing a large blast and seeing a bright white flash at the time of derailment. Flames were said to be shooting at least 30 feet into the air, and plumes of thick black smoke could be seen for miles....

Hire Blackwater. It was what Bush wanted. I think the Secret Service has been compromised. Obviously.

Yes, assault. That is what 'gate crashing' is. It is assault of the intention of the celebration and the people involved aren't secure in their dignity, intention or person. It doesn't matter that there was NO 'battery.' There is a paparazzi involved and I don't care if the paparazzi is an amateur. Can't be that much of an amateur. Who dressed them? Got them their costumes, etc.

Who was taking the pictures?

Does the GOP know about this?

Was Rove involved? Did the reality TV show make suggestions to this misdirection? I mean for real here. Who besides the gate crasher and their Paparazzi thought this was a good idea and was involved in its planning?

Who told them how to get into the guest line?

Were the magnatometers working correctly?

And has anyone checked with the CIA to know if this wasn't an official act to check the 'readiness' of the Secret Service?

Charges need to be filed, for minimally trespassing and assault. This reality TV stuff is out of control. People are breaking the law to benefit their 'identity' crisis to insure their place in a TV show. This is 'nuts.' Kids are now from broken homes or with parents facing prison and some nut cases from Virginia try to exploit a State Dinner for the sake of promoting their stardom.

image made from Michaele Salahi's Facebook page shows a photo of Tareq Salahi, left, Vice President Joe Biden and Michaele Salahi, right, at the White House state dinner in Washington on Tuesday Nov. 24, 2009 Photo: AP


Secret Service strained as leaders face more threats (click here)
Report questions its role in financial investigations
By Bryan Bender
Globe Staff / October 18, 2009
WASHINGTON - The unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama, a rise in racist hate groups, and a new wave of antigovernment fervor threaten to overwhelm the US Secret Service, according to government officials and reports, raising new questions about the 144-year-old agency’s overall mission....
...If there were an evaluation of the service’s two missions, it might be determined that it is ineffective . . . to conduct its protection mission and investigate financial crimes,’’ according to a inter nal report issued in August by the Congressional Research Service....

Where else did their photographer go? Were there more than one set of people that got by the entrance to the State Dinner? Did they make it into the White House and Obama's office? Was National Security breached and to what degree? What else did they get pictures of and how compromised was the White House?

What is the website still doing up?

This isn't a game. This was a State Dinner with foreign dignitaries? Where are the pictures with the guest? I am sure they exist. This was a major breach of security at an official government function. This wasn't just about having dinner. This is honoring the guest that came to the USA for purposes of promoting foreign policy.

This is a major insult to the security of the nation that took place at the White House. Every Secret Service agent now seeing to the well being of the President and Vice President has to be replaced. Their careers should be over.

E-mails between scientists are not published works. Deciding whether to include 'statistical outliers' is always a topic in e-mails.

The discussions scientists go through leading up to a published paper are lengthy and carry brevity, but, until the published paper is complete and accepted for a professional journal the data is considered unfinished and unprepared.

What the real crime is regarding the 'hacking' into a scientific university site is; why aren't the hackers being prosecuted ?

The 'Rush to Judgement' by those that would like to revitalize the opposition to the scientific LAWS that are the basis of Human Induced Global Warming that has lead to Climate Change, is expected, isn't it?

I mean for real.

I want the hackers prosecuted. The proper way to any question regarding fraud is to seek a court to ask for wiretaps and surveillance. Hacking into a University website is a crime. Just that simple and the hackers are NOT heroes.

Sorry.

The Barnett and Lewis book noted at the title to this entry, is a $212.00 book in case anyone wants to purchase it to try to tell scientists how to handle outliers in their statistics. No time to waste, you know?

The mountain peak noted above, in case no one recognizes it is Mount Kilimanjaro. Mount Kilimanjaro is a CLASSIC example as to why there are such widespread results in measuring icefields and snowfields in the world.

Glaciers such as those found on Kilimanjaro have eroded quickly due to the loss of the forest that once surrounded the mountain peak. The 'source' of water vapor that provided snows to the glaciers for RECHARGE vanished with the exploitive foresting of the mountain. As a result the glaciers disappeared and it is one of the most rapidly degrading glaciers on the planet for that reason alone.

Areas such as the Southern Sierras in the USA 'seem' to have consistent snow fall, but, those snowfields are snows and not glaciers, and they are supported by consistent water vapor sources. That does not mean they will never be effected by Climate Change. As the Earth continues to erode its GLACIER fields, the 'heat distribution' around the planet will eventually find a home in the Southern Sierras in the USA and those snows will abate.

Every ice field on the planet has suffered damage and degradation due to Human Induced Global Warming. It is known, the mass balance of these glaciers state an alarming reality to the Greenhouse Gas escalations over the past century. The reason there needs to be a comprehensive Climate Change plan that will occur in Copenhagen next month is to attempt to stop the impending tipping points of Climate Change.

There has never been 8 billion people on Earth before. Eight billion people of which a growing majority is practicing a 'consumerism' economy that increases Greenhouse Gases through tailpipe emissions, the burning of fossil fuels for energy, while the forests are hacked down for some 'idea' of providing wood for products and land for agriculture.

There is one definitive 'enemy' in all this, it is the exploitation of the carrying capacity of Earth without its forests and icefields to 'temper' the burgeoning hostility of what once was a reasonably 'climate friendly' planet.

The hackers need to be prosecuted and the scientific community needs to feel safe. But, above all the global scientific community needs to be validated by their governments rather than being treated as outliers themselves. They have dedicated their lives to providing insight to the governments they live under and are loyal to and it is time to move on their findings and protect further generations from a very real 'Sixth Extinction.'

Snow cap disappearing from Mount Kilimanjaro (click here)

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID (AP) – Nov 2, 2009

WASHINGTON — The snows of Kilimanjaro may soon be gone. The African mountain's white peak — made famous by writer Ernest Hemingway — is rapidly melting, researchers report.

Some 85 percent of the ice that made up the mountaintop glaciers in 1912 was gone by 2007, researchers led by paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson of Ohio State University report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

And more than a quarter of the ice present in 2000 was gone by 2007.

If current conditions continue "the ice fields atop Kilimanjaro will not endure," the researchers said.

The Kilimanjaro glaciers are both shrinking, as the ice at their edges melts, and thinning, the researchers found.

Similar changes are being reported at Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori Mountains in Africa and at glaciers in South America and the Himalayas.

"The fact that so many glaciers throughout the tropics and subtropics are showing similar responses suggests an underlying common cause," Thompson said in a statement. "The increase of Earth's near surface temperatures, coupled with even greater increases in the mid- to upper-tropical troposphere, as documented in recent decades, would at least partially explain" the observations.

Changes in cloudiness and snowfall may also be involved, though they appear less important, according to the study.

On Kilimanjaro, the researchers said, the northern ice field thinned by 6.2 feet (1.9 meters) and the southern ice field by 16.7 feet (5.1 meters) between 2000 and 2007.

Researchers compared the current area covered by the glaciers with maps of the glaciers based on photographs taken in 1912 and 1953 and satellite images from 1976 and 1989.

The research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

On the Net

PNAS: http://www.pnas.org

Mauna Loa has the longest recorded measurement of CO2 and it is eminently clear.

The figure above is from the USA EPA website. Anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (click here) from the burning of fossil fuels can only explain the unprecedented elevation in these gases since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Any discussion otherwise is misguided, dangerous and delivered for the benefit of exploitive economic strategies.






This simple graph of the Mauna Loa Carbon Dioxide Record documents a 0.53 percent or two parts per million per year increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide since 1958. This gas alone is responsible for 63 percent of the warming attributable to all greenhouse gases according to NOAA's Earth System Research Lab.

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

Queen Elizabeth II's visit to Trinidad is prelude to global climate talks (click here)

Queen Elizabeth II has arrived in Trinidad and Tobago for a meeting with global leaders on the issue of climate change.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday to a wave of enthusiasm but also concern as some world leaders wonder if they can reach an agreement on climate change ahead of an upcoming international summit, and some in the Caribbean question whether they should remain tethered to the British monarch....

EU welcomes commitments of U.S., China on emissions reduction
www.chinaview.cn
2009-11-27 07:33:28
BRUSSELS, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) welcomed on Thursday the commitments made by the United States and China in recent days concerning emissions reduction in the run-up to the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen next month.

In a joint statement, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, and President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso welcomed the news that the United States and China "have both indicated what they are prepared to do, in concrete numbers, on mitigation....

... The Chinese government announced on Thursday that China is going to reduce the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 percent to 45 percent compared with the level of 2005.

The White House said in a press release on Wednesday that President Barack Obama will attend the Copenhagen conference and "is prepared to put on the table a U.S. emissions reduction target in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels in 2020." According to experts, this target is about 4 percent emissions cut below 1990 levels.

The European Union has so far committed to cut its emissions by20 percent by 2020 on the basis of 1990....

President Karzai needs to institute a military draft of loyalists from the nation's provinces and stop the infiltration of the Taliban corruption.

The corruption surrounding the war of September 11th doesn't begin and end in Afghanistan. The result of the USA efforts during that time was misdirected and the American people were lied to while sending their soldiers to fight a war they were lead to believe would secure their nation.

When President Obama took office all of a sudden this unbelievable truth emerged. The corruption of that war and the nation of Afghanistan didn't happen on January 19, 2009, but, occurred through years of neglect and corruption right here in the USA. It is time this is answered for by the prior administration. If we are to demand prosecution of the corrupt in Afghanistan it has to accompany the prosecution of the corrupt right here in the USA.

Afghanistan investigating 5 current and former cabinet members (click title to entry - thank you)

By Joshua Partlow

Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
KABUL -- Afghanistan's attorney general said Monday that his office is investigating five current and former cabinet ministers on allegations including embezzlement and fraud, a sign of growing momentum within the Afghan government to address the widespread corruption that has hobbled President Hamid Karzai's administration....

...The investigations center on two current and three former cabinet ministers, Attorney General Mohammed Ishaq Aloko said in an interview. Although he declined to name them, other Afghan officials said one of the probes is looking at the minister in charge of organizing the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, a trip known as the hajj, which is made by tens of thousands of Afghans each year.

Within the past two months, two employees of the Hajj and Islamic Affairs Ministry have been arrested on accusations of trying to carry about $360,000, some of it hidden in biscuit boxes, through Kabul International Airport, Deputy Attorney General Fazil Ahmad Faqiryar said in an interview. The arrested employees, including the ministry's treasurer, allegedly extorted money from landlords around Mecca in return for directing pilgrims to their apartments, he said....

Hillary never called herself a 'Pitbull with Lipstick.'

In some ways I feel sorry for her. Palin simply can't seem to get out of the public eye long enough to have a life.

Palin is a phony. There isn't any other way to look at it. She has tried to mimic Hillary Clinton since she was announced to be the Vice Presidential candidate with McCann. She is no Hillary Clinton.

Hillary wrote about a village, not being a rouge. There is something really strange about being idealized as a 'Rouge Pitbull' that somehow doesn't sound Presidential.



I won't buy the book, I have no interest in reading it. Why read something written by someone to help pay the bills of lawyers because she is a pitbull? She should have exited politics on a positive note after she sold the plane. She really hasn't done much else, except, 'histrionically' keep remaking 'the poor me syndrome.' She is pathetic.

She wears clothes well. I think that does something for her. You know, the woman, has made some really bad choices in life. I quit having babies after my second child. Two was enough. Truly.

The only thing she learned to do well for any of the constituencies she represented in Alaska, as mayor or otherwise, was to write 'Earmarks.' It is the only thing she learned to do well. It was easy for her to learn that, it was like going shopping.

The elections in Wasilla had something like 900 votes cast. 900. She had to keep 900 people happy. That's all. She did it from a church podium.

She is an 'opportunist' candidate. When she ran for Governor, the people of the state were coming off a huge corruption scandal with Veco and most of the elected government. She promised to sell the Governor's plane. That was her campaign promise. She won the election because of it. I am sorry, but, using iconography for an election promise is not really a legitimate reason to be elected.

When Palin ran for Governor she beat the incumbant in the PRIMARIES. Murkowski came in THIRD in the primaries. She beat the opposition by 48% to 40% in the actual race. Do you know how many people live in Alaska? Hm? About 700, 000. Less than that, but, that is an estimate to keep it simple.

700,000 is about 0.2% of the population of the USA. That means about 336,000 voted for Palin when she ran for Governor. It was probably much less than that because all the people of Alaska don't vote or are even registered. So, 336,000 votes is a very generous number to assign to her success.

The reason McCain picked Palin is because he wanted her to portray a 'Hillary Clinton' profile to try to steal Democratic votes from President Obama. That is why McCain picked her. She had 'politically saleable' qualities. She marketed her Governor's election on 'anti-corruption' and McCain had to rid the Republican nominee of the scandals of Bush and Cheney. So, he chose a woman that would be a Hillary only better.

336,000 votes won Sarah Palin the Governorship. What in the heck was the GOP doing?

Now she is stuck with this mess. A woman that made some very poor choices in life, ran successfully as the young and first woman to win the Governship in Alaska; agreed to participate in the 2008 run for the Executive Branch. What was she thinking? I mean for real here. A complete novice, with very young children and a family profile that needed some polish and she consented to it.

More poor choices, I guess. If she had any real ambition for public office beyond Alaska she would have groomed her political career differently. She isn't qualified for anything. She isn't qualified to be the Vice President, certainly not the President of this country and that is true not only today, but, for years to come. She has no meaningful experience. It is too bad, too. Because there are many, many Governors that have gone on to be President of the USA.

She did it all "W"rong. She still is.

Nope, I won't be reading the book.

Just to point to what I mean. Hillary Clinton has been living and breathing politics and service in government all her life. Palin can't hold a candle to Hillary.

This is the kind of book I read. It is on my book shelf 'at the house.' You ever see Al Gore's picture. The Nobel Prize winner. Yeah. No comparison. None. Visceral? I don't think so.

End of discussion.

President Obama approval rating is hovering around 51%.

A total of 51% of Americans (click title to entry - thank you) say they approve of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president, which is down from 57% in October, and 44% say they disapprove of the way Obama is handling his job, which is up from 41% in October. When it comes to Obama's handling of the economy, 47% of Americans approve and 47% disapprove.

Real Clear Politics shows averages of the polls on a weekly basis and has President Obama's Approval Rating at 50.3. So the American Research Group cited above is very much in the ballpark.

As President Obama takes ownership of the September 11th War, his approval ratings will probably drop.

No matter what he does at this point, no one will be happy. He needs to address the security of the nation the best he can. He inherited a huge and impossible mess in that region of the world. We simply need to regularly assess what it transpiring with Afghanistan and bring the troops home as soon as possible.

It is reported as much as 15% of the Afghanistan military force has issues with drug addiction.

Surprise, surprise.

The entire circumstance President Obama took over is completely bizarre. How Bush and Cheney could simply hide their dirty secrets in a closet away from the American people is astounding to me. It is not only immoral, considering who is dying there and who is paying for it, but, to realize the September 11th criminals were allowed to turn Afghanistan into a pool of corruption without any knowledge by the public until this White House took over, is criminal. It is simply criminal what Bush and Cheney left behind when they exited their residence.

And Cheney has the nerve to even criticize this President when he didn't even run an honorable effort to secure the USA and allies from al Qaeda, but, allowed an unnecessary war for oil to be played in the media as if it were something the country needed to win. All this time, the American people have been lied to. About so much. Like ah, what's next?


U.S. Army Stf. Sgt. Leslie Harbin from East Over, S.C., left, and Stf. Sgt. Joseph Timms from Williamston, S.C. foreground, belonging to the South Carolina National Guard patrol near the town of Baraki Barak, Logar province, Afghanistan Monday Nov. 23, 2009. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

Bomb kills 6 family members in eastern Afghanistan (click here)
November 24, 2009
...The victims were caught in the blast as they traveled in a car on a shopping trip ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid this weekend, relative Qimat Khan told Associated Press Television at the scene in the eastern province of Khost.
Taher Khan Sabari, deputy provincial governor, said the dead included a 1-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl. The other children were older, he said....

I am really concerned that the Afghan people don't know whom the enemy is. In many instances, THE WAR is the enemy when it comes to the civilians of the country. That dynamic is what causes citizens to 'choose' sides and try to resolve the conflict themselves. It is why warlords are so popular and even perferred. It is why the Poppy Culture persists and it is why al Qaeda and the Taliban have been successful.

All of Mark's questions are excellant questions, especially about the one regarding Exit Strategy, a new precedent for the USA Executive Branch.

This is a change in paradigm from the Presidency as we have known it.

This is a President that places strategy before deployment.

In that reality, is the understanding that soldiers are important. They are important to the defense of our country. They are important in a successful deployment to defeat the enemies of our country and our allies. They are important not to place in harm's way frivilously. And they are important to 'exit' and bring home.

I think that is a President I can be grateful for.

US-India ties will be defining partnership of the 21st century: Obama (click title to entry - thank you)

Chidanand Rajghatta, TNN

25 November 2009, 12:47am IST

...Earlier, welcoming the Prime Minister in the East Room of the White House after the ceremonial parade had been washed out by a steady drizzle and wet underfoot conditions, Obama set at rest any doubts that he did not recognize India as a legitimate nuclear weapons state.

"As nuclear powers, we can be full partners in preventing the spread of the world's most deadly weapons, securing loose nuclear materials from terrorists, and pursuing our shared vision of a world without nuclear weapons," the US President declared as part of his joint agenda with India.

Obama was respectful and solicitous of his elderly guest, whom he described as "wise" and a man of honesty and integrity. Although their two joint appearances were not exactly effusive and the body language was flat, both leaders imparted weight to their promise of a major engagement in the 21st century, invoking their common history and political ideals.

The East Antarctica Ice Sheet is deteriorating. This is the same place the higher levels of sea ice was recorded.

Even with women protecting the planet their is so much Earth can tolerate.

The all-women science team from The Ohio State University (see article link at bottom of this entry - thank you), from left, Kay Lindsay, Terry Tickhill Terrell, Lois Jones and Eilenn McSaveney in Christchurch, New Zealand, before heading down to Antarctica in 1969. Jones and Lindsay have since passed away.


The Antarctic ice sheet and sea-level (click on link below figure)
The intense cold of the Antarctic ice sheet is a major component of the global climate system through its influence on surface energy and moisture fluxes, clouds, precipitation, and atmospheric and oceanic circulation, and the ice sheet contains enough water mass to raise global sea level by nearly 60 m. The ice sheet is nourished by snowfall and loses mass by iceberg discharge and melt from the base of floating ice shelves around the coast. Any imbalance between these input and output mass terms affects global sea level.
Australian scientists have studied this ice sheet mass budget since the International Geophysical Year (1957/58), collecting detailed data on ice flow, ice thickness and other ice sheet characteristics on over-snow tralaverses. These have penetrated deep into the interior of Antarctica, and along more than 5000 km of the coastal perimeter (Figure 1). These observations alone are insufficient to accurately estimate the state of balance of the ice sheet, but they do provide the essential information to calibrate and validate new satellite measurements of the ice sheet and assist in developing numerical models of the ice sheet....

The significance of this recent finding places the Antarctica Ice Sheets at a 'gross loss' of 'ice balance.' In otherwords, in the 1990s the 'loss' was approximatly 15% of the accumulation (gain). Now, the loss is greater than the gain. That occurred in about one decade. That is a lot of deterioration in a very short period of time.

Photo: Budd and Warner
The tracking of the East Antarctica Icesheet has been going on for some time now. This study shows areas along the ice sheet weakened and eroded since the 1990s. The tracking is from minimally the 1950s when the glaciers of Antarctica were healthy and very, very frozen.

The Antarctic ice sheet and sea-level (click here)



November 24, 2009
0300 PM
Antarctica Temperature Map

East Antarctica Icesheet is the area to the right of the picture. WAIS (West Antarctica Ice Sheet) is to the left upper corner.

This is a first. It is a tipping point. It is hugely important. East Antarctica is where a terminus to the Lambert Glacier is as well as other large ice structures on the continent. This is not good news.

World's biggest ice sheet is melting (click title to entry - thank you)
ANDREW DARBYNovember 24, 2009
THE world's largest frozen water mass, the East Antarctic ice sheet, has been found for the first time to be losing ice at an increased rate.
For years scientists have worried about the smaller West Antarctic ice sheet's net melt, and some recent studies reported that the eastern sheet was growing slightly, due to snowfall.
Now a paper based on satellite measurements shows coastal regions of the East Antarctic, including long stretches of the Australian Antarctic Territory, have been losing ice for the past three years.
Study leader Jianli Chen concluded in the British journal Nature Geoscience: ''As a whole, Antarctica may soon be contributing significantly more to global sea level rise.''
So far the loss of ice from the East Antarctic sheet - although huge in scale at about 57 billion tonnes each year - is tiny in terms of its effect on sea level....

The 'stupid talk' of the moment would come from Republicans and Wall Street seeking to look into their financial futures as if they will be alive to enjoy the moment by stating, "This is a huge improvement in obtaining natural resources from the most southern continent."

No different than the navigators that see a Northern Sea Route over the North Pole as a viable solution to fuel economy.

It is VERY 'stupid talk.'

The only people with enough ignorance to 'play with Climate' as if it is their's to play with are Wall Street people and USA Republicans.

They simply aren't that bright.

Or.

Moral.

It is all part of "The God Complex" these PEOPLE have. They aren't able to 'occupy seats of power' without hubris and feelings of entitlement. They don't see their role in their profession as 'service to others' while enjoying the capacity a 'seat of power' provides.

That is what makes 'Bonuses' so dangerous to economies. They provide false incentives to the 'power' rather than 'the service.'

Capitalism when 'limited' to a few 'seats of power' is exploitive and the heirarchy of authority within that power structure is lost to the most 'vulnerable' within that structure. It is why environmental laws are 'absolute.' They have to be. They have to be based in solid and irrefutable science, because, the laws and law makers will be assaulted by the power structures that exploit.

What does Wall Street and Republicans have to do with the degradation and Climate Danger of the melting of the East Antarctica Ice Sheet?

Do I have to answer that?

Why 'answer' to 'stupid talk' at all?

Why reduce the brilliance of the scientists within this 'warning' of reporting to 'politics of the moment.' They weren't playing politics in any moment when they studied the ice sheet and reported their findings.

Politics doesn't belong in science, except, for fiscal appropriations to its dearly needed support. Science provides economy a platform for the future and direction to their investment, NOT, the other way around.

Oh, wait. The great wisdom of the Media speaks. What does it say? Oh, really? We should all seek to visit every American's viscera. Gotcha. What a great idea that is, huh? Visceral stupid talk. Sure, that sounds like something we should base an economy on. What an insult to women Palin and Dowd are. I mean for real here. Visceral. Sure, let's all be terrified of everything in life and make a party statment as well.

I DON'T THINK SO !!

Op-Ed Columnist
Visceral Has Its Value (click here)
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: November 21, 2009

...She’s back on the trail, with the tumbling hair and tumbling thoughts. The queen of the scenic strip mall known as Wasilla now reigns over thrilled subjects thronging to a politically strategic swath of American strip malls.
The conservative celebrity clearly hasn’t boned up on anything, except her own endless odyssey of self-discovery. And she still has that Yoda-like syntax....

Does the world recognize the gender of the scientist that discovered 'Ozone Layer Deterioration?' It was a woman. A woman scientist in Antarctica.

Breaking the ice
First U.S. female scientists enter Antarctic history in 1969 (click here)
By Peter Rejcek, Antarctic Sun Editor

Posted November 13, 2009

Terry Tickhill Terrell was a 19-year-old undergraduate student at The Ohio State University — a chemistry major dissatisfied with the prospect of spending her career in drab laboratories — when she learned about a job opening on a science expedition to Antarctica.
She walked into the then-Institute of Polar Studies at the university and announced that she wanted to go to Antarctica. Silent stares greeted her announcement.
That was 1969. The year of Woodstock and Neil Armstrong taking the first steps on the moon. But women didn’t go to Antarctica.
All that was about to change....

The Weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is far from freezing. This is Thanksgiving Week? Huh?

Of course everyone is aware the oceans have reached their limit in absorbing CO2. That means the oceans waters are becoming acidic because of the extra CO2 and the inability of the oceans to buffer it.

Folks like shellfish?

This is still another 'tipping point.'

If there isn't enough calcium carbonate for the shells, the larval stages won't develop. Many shellfish, such as the Blue Crab, or the Alaskan King Crab, rely on 'osmotic' regulation to sustain its 'hydration' balance. That 'osmotic' regulation cannot occur with a shell. The 'cells' of the larval stage will 'crenate' without proper mechanisms to regulate their water content.

NEWS: Climate Change November 20, 2009 - 10:47 am
Acid in Arctic waters eating away at shellfish (click title to entry - thank you)
Marine food chain could be threatened
NUNATSIAQ NEWS
...Ten years of study in the Beaufort Sea showed the seawater is becoming more acidic and fresher, which means there’s less of minerals and carbonate needed for shell formation.
The shellfish which may now be at risk include mussels and clams that need minerals in the water to form their shells and skeletons....

There is nothing magic here. Earth is a 'homeostatic' planet. When its balance is changed, ecosystems crash. Has anyone stopped to realize the amount of CO2 that exists in the oceans currently due to absorption of human excesses that is takes to cause this? No? Think about it everytime you 'start your engines.'

I suppose paying carbon credits on that aspect of life is going to change this reality too, right? Sure.


Ocean acidification is expected to increase as sea ice cover decreases due to global warming. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

Local Time: 1:08 PM AKST (GMT -09)

Lat/Lon: 58.8° N 137.0° W

Temperature :: 39 °F

Conditions :: Mostly Cloudy

Windchill :: 30 °F

Humidity :: 81%

Dew Point :: 34 °F

Wind :: 17 mph from the SE

Wind Gust :: 23 mph

Pressure :: 29.47 in (Falling)

Visibility :: 10.0 miles

UV :: 0 out of 16

Clouds:
Few 1900 ft
Scattered Clouds 2400 ft
Mostly Cloudy 3500 ft
(Above Ground Level)

Elevation :: 33 ft


Royal Society Launches Ocean Acidification Study
LONDON—Call it the acid test. The U.K. Royal Society this week launched an investigation into how rising acidity may affect life in the world’s oceans.
Recent studies conclude that Earth’s oceans have absorbed almost half of the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by fossil fuel burning and cement production over the last 200 years (Science, 16 July, p. 367). The resulting chemical changes could produce a 0.4 drop in the pH of surface waters by the end of the century, scientists predict, possibly affecting corals and plankton that rely on calcium carbonate to form their skeletons.The increasing acidity could also reduce the ocean’s future ability to absorb more CO2.
Dundee University biologist John Raven, who will lead the study, says the oceans could be “doubly besieged” by rising temperatures and changing chemistry. The Royal Society is expected to publish its report early next year.
–FIONA PROFFITT

Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on November 23, 2009

Republicans are oxymorons. They feel entitled to taylor make the country to their liking.

They believe in life before birth even to the point of NO CONTRACEPTION, but, follow that 'rant' with no health care to sustain life to a natural end.

Their 'belief system' is "W"rong such as their loyalty to Wall Street and based their populism in opinion where there are 'soft targets' to maintain their power, such as 'the unborn.'

They don't belong in office. They are corrupt to the core and only seek to gain advantage to deprive others of their entitlements.

Gov. Mark Sanford faces 37 ethics charges (click title to entry - thank you)

...Sanford is accused by the Commission of using his "office for personal financial gain" by allowing the purchase of business-class or first-class airfare 18 times, by using state aircraft for purposes other than official state business or for reimbursing himself thousands of dollars from his campaign for expenses unrelated to the campaign or for expenses not normally tied to his job as governor.
The commission announced last week that it had found probable cause to believe Sanford had violated state ethics laws after a three month commission investigation into his travels and campaign reimbursements....

The US Attorney needs to review the finding of the Commission. It sounds like a whole lot more than ethics issues.

The Basic Citizen 101

If I decide God is my God I can act accordingly.

If I decide otherwise I am free to choose my path in life.

No religious leader has a right to dictate the utility of a human's body in relation to the will of their mind.

End of discussion.

It is the right of very citizen to determine their path in life and there needs to be opportunity 'opened' by the government of the USA to pursue it.

It is why there are Civil Rights and Human Rights and Individual Rights incorporated into our Constitution.

Every citizen is allowed to practice freedom and happiness as they see fit, so long as it does not impinge on the rights of others.

A human being is not a human being until it can sustain its life on its own!

We are not a 'designer nation' to anyone or any 'entity's design!'

Manipulation of the laws of the USA to 'result' in a Christian Nation is Unconstitutional.

Tobin is way out of line, is victimizing a parishioner and is playing God.

The Law According to Tobin reads, "In the USA, in order to write Constitutional Law, every legislator must be a Jew or an atheist."

He has no right to practice 'Ex-communication' of a parishioner. No Right. Because that is exactly what the victimization of Patrick Kennedy is. Tobin is practicing politics and does not belong in the middle of the relationship Kennedy has with God.

Patrick killed no one. He separates church from state when he serves in office and he upholds his own morality within his faith. Tobin is attempting to 'instill' Catholicism on others through the powers of government. He should be removed from his status as Bishop.



Tobin is an extremist and a power hungry religious zealot. He does not belong imposing his will on the all of the USA. Patrick Kennedy is a moral man that is able to discern 'his place' in his democracy as practiced under the USA Constitution. His legislative ability is valuable to the people of the country and the state he represents.

Patrick needs to receive communion and if anything happens to that man that he is unable to garner his soul to his destiny it rests on the Zealot that has ABSOLUTELY no authority in this matter.

I am not a Catholic and no religous zealot is going to deny me the right to have a moral man in office REGARDLESS of his religion and he will NOT impose his religion on my rights under my Constitution. What an idiot.

The United States of America is founded on freedom, not religious oppression. We left the Church of England behind over 200 years ago, and I am quite confident the Vatican falls into that category as well!

This is really good news. Our 'new economic culture' is going to support local economies, including heavily, the arts. Culinary and otherwise.

Art appreciation classes anyone? How about a few more art dealers or small local museums. Local artists sometimes get their best recognition and advocacy within the culture they grew up. So a local museum that brings artists in for their first 'show' should be a welcome addition to any Main Street.

Nurturing is 'economy.' Artists 'grow' in expertise with exposure and maturation of talent. Curators are important people and also excellant mentors.

How many consumers of artwork would love to have 'originals' of artwork all over their home rather than 'Copy 200 of 2000?"



ART COLLECTING - Video
Market bouncing back in time for Art Basel Miami Beach (click title to entry - thank you)
After getting hammered during the global economic crisis, art prices seem to be making a comeback.
BY JIM WYSS
jwyss@MiamiHerald.com
NEW YORK -- When the gavel came down on Andy Warhol's painting 200 One Dollar Bills earlier this month, the usually staid audience at the Sotheby's auction house broke into applause as if they had won the bid themselves....

I don't believe 'Opting Out' is a viable option even Constitutionally. It sets bad precedent.

I'll add this right off the top. There is plenty of time for any State to discern its placement of the Federal mandate in their laws. That also applies to States that feel there should be an "option" not to comply.

It isn't as though the Democrats are sneaking up on every state and laying down the law overnight as some Republican measures of the past have done.

There is some breathing room here. And my 'understanding' that is also good precedent in 'plenty of breathing room,'- I mean 24 to 30 months maximum. 2014 is hideous, that is five years from now. I don't think so. That is like not having effective legislation for a quarter of a generation. That isn't workable.

The Federal Government has a right to pass legislation that the States have to abide by. Granted there are 'States Rights' but that is primarily in areas where Federal Statues don't apply.

Other measures such as commerce and natural resources 'can' fall under State's Right, but, in the case of Health Care whereby the people in States without Federal Statue will have 'inequality' under the law. Inequality is Unconstitutional.

"States Rights" is about handling 'difference,' primarily geographic, within the states and not about refusing to incorporate Federal Law into state statutes. It is a completely silly concept. Human health care is human health care is human health care. A person in California has no different needs than that of a person in Texas. They just don't. Opting Out is about 'political perference.' That is not a States Right issue. That weakens the USA Constitution and provides an assault to secession. No, no. That isn't going to fly.

Not only that, but, there is also a 'hostile court' in Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia, and somewhat Kennedy, to human rights, conservation of resources and civil rights. If this were to go to the Supreme Court it would be better if the States brought the action against the Federal Statute rather than citizens seeking support for health care reform. There are issues of 'fiscal resources' to argue such a case for the average person, there are also issues of 'precedent' when it comes for States 'Opting Out' of Federal legislation.

It is not good precedent and 'sets up' the Federal Government for inequality issues as well as anarchy issues that might even lead to greater dissent from states like Texas that like to believe they have some kind of political 'impetus' to secede.

By setting up an 'Opting Out' version of the legislation it also states the government is simply 'hoping' people are receiving good quality health care and not demanding it. Health care is a human rights issue and in a First World country there is no excuse for any citizen to suffer without such a provision by government.

I really believe 'Opting Out' is not any measure of sustainable law in the USA. When a Federal Statute is passed, it is to be respected and not disregarded. Giving States that kind of power and setting precedent to do so, is weakening our Constitution and it is simply "W"rong.

This is NOT a "telephone call list." It isn't an individual 'preference' over a law that impacts a 'personal space' such as being inside the four walls of your home. This is about an entire segment of the USA economy and its fiscal viability, too. The Federal Government has a lot of clout here and has the right to insist on health reform across the board.

There are a lot of bad legislative habits that occurred under Bush and Cheney. The legislature was used as an economic tool with EVERY measure they passed. That is not what legislation is for. There was also 'designer' legislation such as "Terry's Law Dynamics" that if challenged in a 'reasonable' court would be viewed as poor use of the Federal Legislature. It is up to the Democratic legislature to 'set these' bad habits straight and return strength to the USA Constitution.

Tom DeLay was an idiot and sold out to 'election prowess' all the time. Due to the 'outrageous' behaviors of the Republican majority under Bush/Cheney people became transfixed on their government, especially when Social Security was assaulted, even verbally, by Walker Bush as soon as he was re-elected.

The populous of the USA should be able to elect reasonable people to office that act in their benevolence with a degree of intelligence. It is an insult to the people of the USA to have to be 'hyper-vigilant' of their legislatures. I think reasonable attention to the workings of government has a place in everyone's lives, but, daily to the volume the past administration demanded vigilance to fraud and all kinds of fiscal issues as well as human and civil rights issues is ridiculous.

People should be able to petition the government, not assault it daily. "Opting Out" is a conservative pleasing measure for Senators with difficult constituencies that want control at the 'individual' level over every action by their elected REPRESENTATIVES. It is altering the reality of the intention of USA Constitution and to that end, this mess needs to end.

"Opting Out" as a precedent is really interesting IF the USA ever needs a military draft. It is really silly and puts a lot of fiscal stress on states that adopt the law from states that don't adopt it.