October 18, 2006.
0630z.
Water Vapor Satellite GOES East by UNISYS.
The circulation center/low pressure over the Gulf of Mexico is unusual. I don't recall seeing that before.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Click on for 12 hour loop
October 18, 2006.
0630z.
Water Vapor Satellite GOES East by UNISYS.
The circulation center/low pressure over the Gulf of Mexico is unusual. I don't recall seeing that before.
Click on to animate.
October 18, 2006.
6:00 am.
Summer has arrived on the Peninsula of Antarctica and it's not summer until December.
Temperatures across Antarctica (click on). There is a distinctive movement above zero Celcius. It won't go back to freezing now. Zero is still temperately cold enough but it is on the edge of going warmer than zero C by next week.
Morning Papers - concluding
The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Scott Base
Cloudy
-23.0°
Updated Wednesday 18 Oct 8:15PM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:
33 ft / 10 m
37 °F / 3 °C
Overcast
Humidity:
75%
Dew Point:
30 °F / -1 °C
Wind:
Calm
Pressure:
30.16 in / 1021 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Overcast 3500 ft / 1066 m
(Above Ground Level)
end
Scott Base
Cloudy
-23.0°
Updated Wednesday 18 Oct 8:15PM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:
33 ft / 10 m
37 °F / 3 °C
Overcast
Humidity:
75%
Dew Point:
30 °F / -1 °C
Wind:
Calm
Pressure:
30.16 in / 1021 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Overcast 3500 ft / 1066 m
(Above Ground Level)
end
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Monday, October 16, 2006
Hawaii works to restore power, repair roads after strong quake
Hawaiian Ridge-Emperor Seamounts (click on)
The Hawaiian Islands are part of this Earth dynamics. Over the past week there has been consistent seismic activity along the Aleutian Trench off Alaska. As can be seen easily in this image of the sea floor there is a 'consistent' ridge that runs to the Aleutian Trench. It is only reasonable to believe that if there is activity along that trench there is going to be movement in the Pacific Plate.
The Hawaiian Islands were generated from a 'hot spot' of volcanic movement. The 'hot spot' never moves. It is almost as though the Pacific Plate revolves around it. At any rate, as the Pacific Plate moves the sea floor over the 'hot spot' changes generating submersed land from eruptions. The islands move northwest along that ridge. The latest earthquakes moved the Hawaii Island northwest. It is completely obvious to me what the cause of the earthquake was and the fact the earthquakes the week previous at the Aleutian Trench occurred was a strong indicator the event would happen.
Also noted there was signifant weather over the earthquake epicenter as well.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BUFFALO NY
October 12, 2006.
Buffalo, New York.
The trees took a very hard hit.
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
BUFFALO NY
305 AM EDT
MON OCT 16 2006
...FROST EXPECTED EARLY THIS MORNING FOR THE GENESEE VALLEY ANDFINGER LAKES....CLEAR SKIES AND LIGHT WINDS WILL ALLOW TEMPERATURES TO FALL INTOTHE LOWER AND MID 30S ACROSS THE GENESEE VALLEY AND FINGER LAKESREGION EARLY THIS MORNING. WIDESPREAD FROST IS EXPECTED. THISWILL INCLUDE MOST SUBURBAN AREAS AROUND ROCHESTER...WHILE THE CITYMAY ESCAPE.
Global Warming is Real. Knock it Off !!!! The impacts are real, too.
Global Warming: How History Is Being Manipulated to Undermine Calls for Action
By Spencer Weart
Mr. Weart is Director of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics.
Informed people now understand that global warming is perhaps the most severe challenge facing the well-being of human society in the coming century. Only a dwindling minority of Americans now denies this (an even smaller fraction believe that we are regularly visited by space aliens). But those who deny it include powerful people, whose interests or ideology are threatened by government regulation of the fossil fuels that are the main source of the danger we face.
History is often used in these arguments. Its role can be direct, as when global-warming denialists assert that not long ago scientists were “spectacularly wrong” in claiming that not warming but a new Ice Age threatened us. So writes, for example, the columnist George Will, quoting from news magazines of the early 1970s. However, when people checked the history they found that Will, following a practice common among denialists, “cherry-picked” a few items that served his purpose from a much larger body of evidence.1 Here’s the real history. In the 1970s scientists discovered that climate can be catastrophically variable; they didn’t agree on what would come next; but they all agreed that they knew too little at the time to make a confident prediction. Any resemblance to the current strong scientific consensus is a fantasy.
http://www.hnn.us/articles/30148.html
Introduction:
A Hyperlinked History of Climate Change Science
"To a patient scientist, the unfolding greenhouse mystery is far more exciting than the plot of the best mystery novel. But it is slow reading, with new clues sometimes not appearing for several years. Impatience increases when one realizes that it is not the fate of some fictional character, but of our planet and species, which hangs in the balance as the great carbon mystery unfolds at a seemingly glacial pace."
— D. Schindler(1)
It is an epic story: the struggle of thousands of men and women over the course of a century for very high stakes. For some, the work required actual physical courage, a risk to life and limb in icy wastes or on the high seas. The rest needed more subtle forms of courage. They gambled decades of arduous effort on the chance of a useful discovery, and staked their reputations on what they claimed to have found. Even as they stretched their minds to the limit on intellectual problems that often proved insoluble, their attention was diverted into grueling administrative struggles to win minimal support for the great work. A few took the battle into the public arena, often getting more blame than praise; most labored to the end of their lives in obscurity. In the end they did win their goal, which was simply knowledge.
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/summary.htm
VIEWPOINT: The cold reality about global warming
By: Lou Smyrlis
Global warming and what we should do about it, is definitely, pardon the pun, a hot issue. Our August issue feature about forward-thinking shippers and carriers who are already taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated several calls and e-mails.
Many, while conceding transportation's role as significant contributor to greenhouse gases, expressed the same concerns: How can we possibly make a logical decision, one way or the other, given the complexity surrounding climate change -- we can't even get our weekly weather forecasts right half the time, how can we predict what's going to happen in 50 years?
Others pointed to the conflicting information that's out there -- some consider global warming a grave problem requiring immediate attention, while others, including some scientists, agree with James Inhofe, chairman of the American Senate's environment and public works committee, when he calls the threat of catastrophic global warming the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated."
http://www.ctl.ca/issues/ISArticle.asp?id=60994&issue=10062006
STORM 2006: Cleanup efforts under way
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006
STORM AFTERMATH: Carbon monoxide poisoning, clogged admissions causing problems
By Mark Lindsay/lindsaym@gnnewspaper.co
One of the dangers of being without power is the measures people take to get their power back on.
Some hospitals in the area are reporting a spike in carbon monoxide poisoning due to people using alternative methods of power and heat.
At Kenmore Mercy Hospital, spokesman Dennis McCarthy said they have seen five cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Other Catholic Health hospitals, including Mercy Hospital in South Buffalo and Sisters Hospital, were also reporting several cases of it. At Sisters, an entire family was taken in with effects of carbon monoxide poisoning.
At DeGraff Memorial Hospital in North Tonawanda, emergency room director Dr. Martin Barron said they have seen about 15 cases since the storm hit.
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/local_story_288160758.html
FLOODING: Farmers concerned with crop
By Bill Wolcott/wolcottb@gnnewspaper.com
Crops in Niagara County may have survived the October storm shocker, but may not make it to the market.
Mindy and Oscar Vizcarra of Becker Farms of Gasport can’t get to acres of apples and pumpkins because of mud and standing water. The Red Creek flood plain is flooded, blocking tractors and u-pick customers from thousands of apples and pumpkins across Quaker Road.
At the Donald Walck farm on Lockport Road near Comstock, there are acres of soy beans and corn ready to be harvested. However, the mud and wet fields won’t let the farmer get to the crop.
“We don’t know how bad it is yet,” said Walck, who has been farming the large farm since 1951. “I have never seen this much rain from August through October. We need a week of good weather to start harvesting. We have a good crop.”
The soy beans have not been affected yet, but some of the corn has mold. Soy beans must be at a certain moisture at harvest.
“This is one of the worst months,” Walck said of the rain. “What we need is some dry weather. You can’t do anything in the rain.”
Walck may also lose the second and third cutting of the hay. He hopes to be able to begin some harvesting on Monday.
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/local_story_288155650.html
STORM 2006: Thousands of residents flock to hotels for shelter
BY RICK FORGIONE AND JILL TERRERI
forgioner@gnnewspaper.com
The snow started falling and the lights went out at the Buffalo home of David and Amanda Johnson.
It was the perfect time to go on their honeymoon.
“We got married a month ago and didn’t have a chance to go on one,” Mrs. Johnson said, “but we’ve been meaning to come to Niagara Falls for a weekend. The storm gave us the perfect excuse.”
Thousands of vacant hotel rooms north of Erie County filled up fast as a result of the season’s first winter storm. The loss of power sent families scrambling for shelter as early as Thursday night. By Saturday, most of the hotels still operating were at full capacity.
The storm boosted business at hotels throughout Niagara County and Tonawanda.
But it also caused some serious trials for at least two couples on Friday, when they were forced to reschedule their wedding receptions after the Holiday Inn on Grand Island lost power.
The 261-bed hotel lost power in the early evening on Thursday and regained it Friday night.
The two couples were married during ceremonies on Friday and left on their honeymoons, but will reschedule their receptions for a later date. Meanwhile, the receptions of two other couples scheduled for Saturday were to go on as planned, according to Dale VanAlstien, director of catering for the hotel.
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/gnnlocalnews_story_288113311.html
STORM 2006: Power out for nearly 400,000
EMERGENCY SHELTERS
Niagara County residents who are without heat and power can seek shelter at these locations:
n The Salvation Army, Cottage Street, Lockport
n North Tonawanda High School, Meadow Drive in North Tonawanda
n Wolcottsville Fire Company, Town of Royalton
BY RICK PFEIFFER
pfeifferr@gnnewspaper.com
A winter storm that the National Weather Service called “of historic proportions” slammed into the Niagara Region on Thursday with a fury fueled by brilliant flashes of lightning and window rattling bursts of thunder.
The devastating storm is being blamed for three deaths, including one in Niagara County. By mid-day Friday, it had also left an estimated 390,000 residential and business customers of National Grid and New York State Electric and Gas without electrical power.
Officials with National Grid were warning on Friday evening that restoring power to affected businesses and customers could take until sometime next weekend.
“We have pretty much completed our field surveys of the damage,” said National Grid spokesman Steve Brady. “It is pretty clear that we have a level of damage that is unprecedented in Western New York.”
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/gnnlocalnews_story_286201542.html
STORM 2006: Media image sticks, even if snow doesn’t
By KEVIN PURDY
purdyk@gnnewspaper.com
On Friday night and through much of Saturday, anyone in Western New York who could find working television or computer could see that their story was the big news item.
Each of the network newscasts led off with images of broken trees, furious shoveling and orange-jacketed line crews hard at work Friday night. Cable channels kept the images in rotation all day.
Front pages in newspapers in upstate New York and Ontario, national sections from Boston to Houston and Web news sites carried headlines describing a “paralyzed” or “crippled” region that had been “clobbered,” “blasted” and “buried” by “record-breaking” or just “bizarre” snow.
By Sunday afternoon, most of the national media had moved on — or back, rather — to the war in Iraq, the latest in the Amish school killings and the upcoming elections. But they’ve done their best to ensure that the image of a region doomed to suffer whenever the wind changes sticks in people’s heads long after power has been restored and roads have been cleared.
Associated Press stories continually updated throughout Friday and Saturday described Buffalo as being “world-famous for its wintry weather,” setting up a description of the unexpected storm’s power to leave the city “all but paralyzed” on Friday.
The New York Times devoted a story on Saturday to describing the troubles that gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer encountered Thursday night at Buffalo Niagara International Airport after his final debate against Republican opponent John Faso.
The article described Spitzer as optimistic early in the night that he’d be able to board a plane by 1:30 a.m., but ends up describing an all-night effort to escape the region and get back to New York.
“We’ll be fine. Buffalo is good at weather,” reporter Eric Konigsberg quoted Spitzer as saying early in the night. Konigsberg later describes Spitzer’s crew as having to push his SUV back onto a local road during a three-hour drive.
Albany’s NBC affiliate carried a story Sunday telling how some area residents have been heading as far as the Capital Region to find portable generators in stock. Stephanie Wolf of Buffalo described her hometown to one of the reporters.
“Awful, awful. It looks like a bomb hit,” she said. “Trees are snapped off at the top parts and the lines are just crossing the roads.”
By Sunday afternoon, the story had moved off the New York Times’ “Most E-Mailed” list — it had held as high as ninth place on Friday — and was missing altogether from CNN.com’s index page. But anyone wanting to follow up on the story need look no further than the local Web log community for updates on how the area is building itself up again.
Bloggers around the region posted throughout the weekend about their trials and recovery efforts. The blog tracking site Technorati counted more than 600 posts made on Saturday with the words “Buffalo” and “snow” in them, up from a typical number around 100 on Thursday.
One blogger who describes himself as a “23-year-old computer nerd” on his MySpace page wrote about sharing (or unintentionally sharing) his family’s generator with neighbors, as well as the quest to find a working gas station near his father’s workplace in Lockport.
“I dunno what the national headlines said about us, but we are a tough town and got through,” he wrote on his blog. “There was a professional hockey game this evening downtown and it was a near sell-out, which just shows that Buffalonians are tough and just want to enjoy watching the game.”
Another Web log, dubbed “Grandpa’s Thoughts,” told a similar story.
“Please don’t think a little snow will stop Buffalo,” a post Saturday morning read. “We know what to do with it, and recover real fast.”
http://www.lockportjournal.com/local/gnnlocalnews_story_288150232.html
By Spencer Weart
Mr. Weart is Director of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics.
Informed people now understand that global warming is perhaps the most severe challenge facing the well-being of human society in the coming century. Only a dwindling minority of Americans now denies this (an even smaller fraction believe that we are regularly visited by space aliens). But those who deny it include powerful people, whose interests or ideology are threatened by government regulation of the fossil fuels that are the main source of the danger we face.
History is often used in these arguments. Its role can be direct, as when global-warming denialists assert that not long ago scientists were “spectacularly wrong” in claiming that not warming but a new Ice Age threatened us. So writes, for example, the columnist George Will, quoting from news magazines of the early 1970s. However, when people checked the history they found that Will, following a practice common among denialists, “cherry-picked” a few items that served his purpose from a much larger body of evidence.1 Here’s the real history. In the 1970s scientists discovered that climate can be catastrophically variable; they didn’t agree on what would come next; but they all agreed that they knew too little at the time to make a confident prediction. Any resemblance to the current strong scientific consensus is a fantasy.
http://www.hnn.us/articles/30148.html
Introduction:
A Hyperlinked History of Climate Change Science
"To a patient scientist, the unfolding greenhouse mystery is far more exciting than the plot of the best mystery novel. But it is slow reading, with new clues sometimes not appearing for several years. Impatience increases when one realizes that it is not the fate of some fictional character, but of our planet and species, which hangs in the balance as the great carbon mystery unfolds at a seemingly glacial pace."
— D. Schindler(1)
It is an epic story: the struggle of thousands of men and women over the course of a century for very high stakes. For some, the work required actual physical courage, a risk to life and limb in icy wastes or on the high seas. The rest needed more subtle forms of courage. They gambled decades of arduous effort on the chance of a useful discovery, and staked their reputations on what they claimed to have found. Even as they stretched their minds to the limit on intellectual problems that often proved insoluble, their attention was diverted into grueling administrative struggles to win minimal support for the great work. A few took the battle into the public arena, often getting more blame than praise; most labored to the end of their lives in obscurity. In the end they did win their goal, which was simply knowledge.
http://www.aip.org/history/climate/summary.htm
VIEWPOINT: The cold reality about global warming
By: Lou Smyrlis
Global warming and what we should do about it, is definitely, pardon the pun, a hot issue. Our August issue feature about forward-thinking shippers and carriers who are already taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated several calls and e-mails.
Many, while conceding transportation's role as significant contributor to greenhouse gases, expressed the same concerns: How can we possibly make a logical decision, one way or the other, given the complexity surrounding climate change -- we can't even get our weekly weather forecasts right half the time, how can we predict what's going to happen in 50 years?
Others pointed to the conflicting information that's out there -- some consider global warming a grave problem requiring immediate attention, while others, including some scientists, agree with James Inhofe, chairman of the American Senate's environment and public works committee, when he calls the threat of catastrophic global warming the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated."
http://www.ctl.ca/issues/ISArticle.asp?id=60994&issue=10062006
STORM 2006: Cleanup efforts under way
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006
STORM AFTERMATH: Carbon monoxide poisoning, clogged admissions causing problems
By Mark Lindsay/lindsaym@gnnewspaper.co
One of the dangers of being without power is the measures people take to get their power back on.
Some hospitals in the area are reporting a spike in carbon monoxide poisoning due to people using alternative methods of power and heat.
At Kenmore Mercy Hospital, spokesman Dennis McCarthy said they have seen five cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Other Catholic Health hospitals, including Mercy Hospital in South Buffalo and Sisters Hospital, were also reporting several cases of it. At Sisters, an entire family was taken in with effects of carbon monoxide poisoning.
At DeGraff Memorial Hospital in North Tonawanda, emergency room director Dr. Martin Barron said they have seen about 15 cases since the storm hit.
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/local_story_288160758.html
FLOODING: Farmers concerned with crop
By Bill Wolcott/wolcottb@gnnewspaper.com
Crops in Niagara County may have survived the October storm shocker, but may not make it to the market.
Mindy and Oscar Vizcarra of Becker Farms of Gasport can’t get to acres of apples and pumpkins because of mud and standing water. The Red Creek flood plain is flooded, blocking tractors and u-pick customers from thousands of apples and pumpkins across Quaker Road.
At the Donald Walck farm on Lockport Road near Comstock, there are acres of soy beans and corn ready to be harvested. However, the mud and wet fields won’t let the farmer get to the crop.
“We don’t know how bad it is yet,” said Walck, who has been farming the large farm since 1951. “I have never seen this much rain from August through October. We need a week of good weather to start harvesting. We have a good crop.”
The soy beans have not been affected yet, but some of the corn has mold. Soy beans must be at a certain moisture at harvest.
“This is one of the worst months,” Walck said of the rain. “What we need is some dry weather. You can’t do anything in the rain.”
Walck may also lose the second and third cutting of the hay. He hopes to be able to begin some harvesting on Monday.
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/local_story_288155650.html
STORM 2006: Thousands of residents flock to hotels for shelter
BY RICK FORGIONE AND JILL TERRERI
forgioner@gnnewspaper.com
The snow started falling and the lights went out at the Buffalo home of David and Amanda Johnson.
It was the perfect time to go on their honeymoon.
“We got married a month ago and didn’t have a chance to go on one,” Mrs. Johnson said, “but we’ve been meaning to come to Niagara Falls for a weekend. The storm gave us the perfect excuse.”
Thousands of vacant hotel rooms north of Erie County filled up fast as a result of the season’s first winter storm. The loss of power sent families scrambling for shelter as early as Thursday night. By Saturday, most of the hotels still operating were at full capacity.
The storm boosted business at hotels throughout Niagara County and Tonawanda.
But it also caused some serious trials for at least two couples on Friday, when they were forced to reschedule their wedding receptions after the Holiday Inn on Grand Island lost power.
The 261-bed hotel lost power in the early evening on Thursday and regained it Friday night.
The two couples were married during ceremonies on Friday and left on their honeymoons, but will reschedule their receptions for a later date. Meanwhile, the receptions of two other couples scheduled for Saturday were to go on as planned, according to Dale VanAlstien, director of catering for the hotel.
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/gnnlocalnews_story_288113311.html
STORM 2006: Power out for nearly 400,000
EMERGENCY SHELTERS
Niagara County residents who are without heat and power can seek shelter at these locations:
n The Salvation Army, Cottage Street, Lockport
n North Tonawanda High School, Meadow Drive in North Tonawanda
n Wolcottsville Fire Company, Town of Royalton
BY RICK PFEIFFER
pfeifferr@gnnewspaper.com
A winter storm that the National Weather Service called “of historic proportions” slammed into the Niagara Region on Thursday with a fury fueled by brilliant flashes of lightning and window rattling bursts of thunder.
The devastating storm is being blamed for three deaths, including one in Niagara County. By mid-day Friday, it had also left an estimated 390,000 residential and business customers of National Grid and New York State Electric and Gas without electrical power.
Officials with National Grid were warning on Friday evening that restoring power to affected businesses and customers could take until sometime next weekend.
“We have pretty much completed our field surveys of the damage,” said National Grid spokesman Steve Brady. “It is pretty clear that we have a level of damage that is unprecedented in Western New York.”
http://www.lockportjournal.com/storm2006/gnnlocalnews_story_286201542.html
STORM 2006: Media image sticks, even if snow doesn’t
By KEVIN PURDY
purdyk@gnnewspaper.com
On Friday night and through much of Saturday, anyone in Western New York who could find working television or computer could see that their story was the big news item.
Each of the network newscasts led off with images of broken trees, furious shoveling and orange-jacketed line crews hard at work Friday night. Cable channels kept the images in rotation all day.
Front pages in newspapers in upstate New York and Ontario, national sections from Boston to Houston and Web news sites carried headlines describing a “paralyzed” or “crippled” region that had been “clobbered,” “blasted” and “buried” by “record-breaking” or just “bizarre” snow.
By Sunday afternoon, most of the national media had moved on — or back, rather — to the war in Iraq, the latest in the Amish school killings and the upcoming elections. But they’ve done their best to ensure that the image of a region doomed to suffer whenever the wind changes sticks in people’s heads long after power has been restored and roads have been cleared.
Associated Press stories continually updated throughout Friday and Saturday described Buffalo as being “world-famous for its wintry weather,” setting up a description of the unexpected storm’s power to leave the city “all but paralyzed” on Friday.
The New York Times devoted a story on Saturday to describing the troubles that gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer encountered Thursday night at Buffalo Niagara International Airport after his final debate against Republican opponent John Faso.
The article described Spitzer as optimistic early in the night that he’d be able to board a plane by 1:30 a.m., but ends up describing an all-night effort to escape the region and get back to New York.
“We’ll be fine. Buffalo is good at weather,” reporter Eric Konigsberg quoted Spitzer as saying early in the night. Konigsberg later describes Spitzer’s crew as having to push his SUV back onto a local road during a three-hour drive.
Albany’s NBC affiliate carried a story Sunday telling how some area residents have been heading as far as the Capital Region to find portable generators in stock. Stephanie Wolf of Buffalo described her hometown to one of the reporters.
“Awful, awful. It looks like a bomb hit,” she said. “Trees are snapped off at the top parts and the lines are just crossing the roads.”
By Sunday afternoon, the story had moved off the New York Times’ “Most E-Mailed” list — it had held as high as ninth place on Friday — and was missing altogether from CNN.com’s index page. But anyone wanting to follow up on the story need look no further than the local Web log community for updates on how the area is building itself up again.
Bloggers around the region posted throughout the weekend about their trials and recovery efforts. The blog tracking site Technorati counted more than 600 posts made on Saturday with the words “Buffalo” and “snow” in them, up from a typical number around 100 on Thursday.
One blogger who describes himself as a “23-year-old computer nerd” on his MySpace page wrote about sharing (or unintentionally sharing) his family’s generator with neighbors, as well as the quest to find a working gas station near his father’s workplace in Lockport.
“I dunno what the national headlines said about us, but we are a tough town and got through,” he wrote on his blog. “There was a professional hockey game this evening downtown and it was a near sell-out, which just shows that Buffalonians are tough and just want to enjoy watching the game.”
Another Web log, dubbed “Grandpa’s Thoughts,” told a similar story.
“Please don’t think a little snow will stop Buffalo,” a post Saturday morning read. “We know what to do with it, and recover real fast.”
http://www.lockportjournal.com/local/gnnlocalnews_story_288150232.html
Niagara designated federal disaster area
October 15, 2006.
Tonawanda, New York.
A long time resident of the town stated she has never seen devastation this bad before.
STAFF REPORT
Washington, D.C. -- Early Sunday evening, President Bush declared Niagara, Erie, Orleans and Genesee counties federal disaster areas, potentially allowing millions of dollars in aid to be directed here in the aftermath of the freak October snow storm that dumped more than two feet of snow and left 390,000 homes and businesses without power.
Bush’s Emergency Declaration for the state will allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency to begin assisting with ongoing recovery efforts. Clean-up and related expenses can now be 75 percent federally funded, with 25 percent in matching funds coming from state and local governments.
The assistance can be used to help state and local governments with debris removal and emergency protective measures designed to save lives, protect public health, and ensure safety and property, according to the White House.
Ancient Thai temples under flood threat
October 13, 2006
Bangkok, Thialand
16.10 09:16 4 x 406
/Thailand-Nature/Floods/
Ancient Thai temples under flood threat
Eds: epa photos available
Bangkok (dpa) - Flood barriers have become nearly as common as temples in the central plains provinces of Thailand in efforts to hold back an overflowing Chao Phraya River.
Throughout the rice-growing region, more than 100 temples have been damaged and some submerged, the government reported. Food and drinking water have been taken to monks marooned at some of the temples.
Many of the temples, some of them UNESCO World Heritage sites, are protected by sandbag barriers with pumps running around the clock.
In Nakhon Sawan, 210 kilometres north of Bangkok, civilians joined government authorities Monday to try to contain the rain-induced flooding.
The Fine Arts Department, which is responsible for preserving Thailand's historical sites, mobilized efforts to drain water from the temple Wat Koh-hong and its historically important main chapel, which the department finished restoring earlier this year.
On Wednesday, the Chao Phraya in Nakhon Sawan province hit its highest level in the 60 years that records have been kept, and even though the water level has fallen since then, it remained high enough to flood much of the area.
Soldiers in Ayutthaya, the capital of Siam from 1350 to 1767 and home to temple and palace ruins designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, increased the height of sandbag barriers Monday around some of the historic temples 90 kilometres north of Bangkok.
The Chao Phraya which drains most of northern and central Thailand has hit record highs from the run-off of heavy rains in the north of the country over the past couple of months. The situation has been compounded by heavy rains in the central plains this month.
The Royal Irrigation Department has begun diverting floodwaters from the Chao Phraya into 223,000 hectares of farmland in central provinces to save Bangkok from flooding.
Samart Chokanapitak, director general of the department, said dykes have been built in Bangkok to hold back the high water but he feared some of them in the provinces just north of Bangkok were not strong enough and some communities could be submerged.
It's already too late in some areas, including Suphan Buri province, 110 kilometres northwest of Bangkok, where several famous temples were submerged when the Tajeen River overflowed its banks.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Ten Reasons Why I Won't Vote Republican this Year. Reason Number 1. No leadership by the United States of America on Human Induced Global Warming.
.... resulting in death and hardship globally due to our wasteful lifestyles and saturation of carbon dioxide of our home, Earth.
...The world mostly agrees that something needs to be done about global warming and climate change. The first stumbling block, however, has been trying to get an agreement on a framework. In 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meterological Organization (WMO) to assess the scientific knowledge on global warming. The IPCC concluded in 1990 that there was broad international consensus that climate change was human-induced. That report led way to an international convention for climate change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), signed by over 150 countries at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. This section looks at this Convention and some of the main principles in it....
... Scientists believe that Global Warming will lead to a weaker Ozone layer, because as the surface temperature rises, the stratosphere (the Ozone layer being found in the upper part) will get colder, making the natural repairing of the Ozone slower. Last updated Saturday, June 08, 2002.
(click on title)
While domestically, the Republicans have lead an assault against conservation, replacing dignity with greed.
Under attack are:
The Clean Air Act - enacted in 1963
The Clean Water Act - enacted first as an Water Pollution Control Act in 1972, it became The Clean Water Act in 1977
The Marine Mammal Protection Act - enacted in 1972
The Endangered Species Act - enacted in 1966
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act - enacted in 1918 after the disappearance of The Passenger Pigeon
The National Parks - brought to status by President Teddy RooseveltWhere there is leadership there is pride in our country, where there is none there is deterioration of national esteem.
Ten Reasons Why I Won't Vote Republican this Year. Reason Number 2. Failed Diplomacy leading to war regardless the reason.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (left) watches Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speak at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 9, 2006.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld testifies before the Senate Appropriations Committee to urge approval of the Bush administration's latest emergency funding request. The Bush administration has requested $91 billion, mainly to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (click on title and then choose the 'listen' link)
What is a Secretary of State making testimony for war? A Secretary of State is supposed to end and prevent war, not propagate it.
ANALYSIS-Lebanon splits resurface after Israel-Hizbollah war (click on)
BEIRUT, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Rifts between Hizbollah and its Lebanese opponents will ensure that Lebanon has no easy ride as it tries to rebuild the economy and state institutions after Israel's devastating war with the Shi'ite Muslim guerrillas.With the last Israeli troops expected to leave the south shortly, Hizbollah was staging a huge rally on Friday to celebrate its "divine victory" in the 34-day conflict.
Its Sunni Muslim, Druze and Christian critics applaud the exploits of the guerrillas against Israel's war machine.
But they question the reality of a victory that cost nearly 1,200 lives in Lebanon, as well as billions of dollars in destruction and economic losses inflicted in an onslaught launched after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers.
US to hold naval exercises in the Gulf (click on)
Washington: Facing nuclear disputes with Iran and North Korea, the United States, Bahrain and other states will hold their first naval exercise in the Gulf this month to practise interdicting ships carrying weapons of mass destruction and missiles, US officials said on Wednesday.
The exercise is taking place as the United States and other major powers are considering sanctions including possible interdiction of ships on North Korea, following a reported nuclear test, and on Iran, which has defied a UN Security Council mandate to stop enriching uranium.
German foreign minister says no current prospect of successful talks with Iran (click on)
BERLIN - Germany’s foreign minister on Saturday said there is currently no prospect of successful nuclear talks with Iran but that pressure on the country would be applied gradually, leaving the door open to future negotiations.
Repeated attempts by the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members and Germany to entice Iran into negotiations on its nuclear program foundered earlier this month over Tehran’s refusal to give up uranium enrichment.
The six powers have agreed to start working on U.N. sanctions against Iran next week, diplomats and officials have said, but still have to bridge differences on how harsh the penalties should be.
Clashes in eastern Afghanistan leave 3 police, 3 suspected Taliban dead (click on)
Clashes in eastern Afghanistan leave 3 police, 3 suspected Taliban dead
The Associated PressSUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2006
KABUL, Afghanistan At least three police officers and three suspected Taliban died in clashes between in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.
Police shot dead two suspected militants on a motorbike who attacked their patrol in the eastern Paktika province on Sunday, said Sayeed Jamal, the spokesman for the province's governor.
Separately, a three-hour clash with militants in neighboring Khost province late on Saturday left three police dead, one missing and two wounded, said Gen. Mohammed Ayub, Khost's police chief.
One Taliban was killed in the clash near the border with Pakistan, Ayub said.
Militants used rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns during the attack, Ayub said.
In the year 2006, North Korea has nuclear weapon capacity.
Seoul Hails North Korea Resolution (click on)
The government on Sunday welcomed the U.N. Security Council's resolution adopted unanimously to sanction North Korea for its nuclear test on Oct. 9.
But the governing Uri Party underlined the importance of inter-Korean economic projects.
The government reaction came hours after the 15-member Security Council approved the resolution that ruled out military measures, but decided to inspect cargo to and from North Korea to prevent trafficking in weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Citing the North's nuclear test as a ``clear threat to international peace and security,'' the Security Council passed the resolution under the U.N. Charter's Chapter 7 that authorizes all U.N. member states to implement sanctioning measures.
U.S. military deaths in Iraq hit 2,760 (click on)
(AP) — As of Saturday, Oct. 14, 2006, at least 2,760 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 2,198 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The AP count is eight more than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EDT.
The British military has reported 119 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 17; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, six; El Salvador, four; Slovakia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Romania, one death each.
The Grand Ayatollah al Sistani was instrumental in the large vote turn out regarding any elections and the Iraq Consitution. Without him, Bush would never be able to say '...there is a new government in Iraq.' If the Grand Ayatollah had told every Shia to stay home and not to venture out into the violence and chaos to vote, Iraq would be in complete disarray without any sense of sovereignty.
Iraq’s clerics to issue call for peace from Mecca (click on)
Iraq’s Sunni and Shia religious leaders are set to meet in the holy city of Mecca next week to endorse a call for an end to all sectarian bloodshed.
The meeting starting October 19, organised by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and backed by Saudi Arabia, comes amid rising concern over a spill-over of Sunni-Shia violence into other parts of the Middle East.
Tensions between the two main branches of Islam have been fanned by the Iraq conflict – where sectarian killings leave an estimated 100 people dead every day – and by Sunni Arab regimes’ alarm at the growing political influence of Shia Iran.
Yet analysts say the engagement of clerics is unlikely to have an impact on the ground, unless the meeting becomes a regular forum for a peace process.
The influence of religious figures, particularly on the Sunni side, is limited. Among Iraq’s majority Shia, Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the highest ranking religious figure, played an instrumental role in containing Shia frustrations with the US after the 2003 invasion. But he has become increasingly distant in recent months, as the sectarian violence has intensified.
Then there is Darfur.
Former Sudan rebels, militia clash in Darfur town (click on)
KHARTOUM, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Sudanese Arab militia fighters clashed with former Darfur rebels in the main town of el-Fasher in Sudan's war-ravaged west, a former rebel official said on Saturday.A witness reported hearing heavy gunfire from the market area of el-Fasher on Friday night. At least one person was shot dead and another injured, an official from the former rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) said.
"What happened is the Janjaweed militia in el-Fasher clashed with our forces there, and then went to loot the market and shot some people," said Mohamed Bashir, who runs SLM leader Minni Arcua Minnawi's office in the Sudanese capital Khartoum.
The SLM signed a peace deal in May with the government. Other rebel factions have refused to sign the accord, which a top U.N. envoy has described as comatose.
A Sudanese resident of el-Fasher, who asked to remain unnamed, said: "Heavy shooting could be heard from the area of the market in el-Fasher town last night. Initial reports were that two people had been shot."
Why would a Secretary of State make testimony regarding military budgets ?
Halliburton Hearts Congress (click on)
Do partisanship and cronyism trump congressional oversight and corporate accountability?
Feces in the soldiers’ water. Blood on the mess hall floor. Expired and substandard food. $85,000 trucks with flat tires abandoned in the desert. Embroidered towels for twice the cost. More than $1 billion in “questionable charges.” ...
... With billions of dollars at stake and the war prospectively stretching into the next decade, why isn’t Congress banging the gavel on oversight and corporate accountability? And why have congressional Democrats been forced to resort to guerilla tactics to wring information from Halliburton and other companies?
Sen. Byron Dorgan, the North Dakota chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, is tirelessly pushing for a Truman-style commission on war profiteering, but his amendments have been repeatedly defeated in party line votes—mostly recently in June with a 52-44 vote. As Dorgan spokesman Barry Piatt explains, “There is one-party control. Republicans hold the White House and the House and Senate and they are not interested in embarrassing each other.” But, Piatt insists, “We aren’t either. We’re interested in getting the troops what they need, and in safeguarding the taxpayers’ money.”
The Truman Commission, created during World War II and credited with saving taxpayers $15 billion ($200 billion today), is a good model. Hoping to undercut the rank partisanship surrounding congressional investigation of war profiteering, Missouri Democratic Senator Harry Truman began his investigations while a Democrat—Franklin Delano Roosevelt—was President.
It's time to 'end it.' The USA is insolent in it's policies of diplomacy and incompetent in it's capacity of defense. The Republican Reign is about money and not at all about National Security, the Defense of our nation or the future of our children.
Ten Reasons Why I Won't Vote Republican this Year. Reason Number 3. Corruption
Let's say, for example, that Abramoff wanted Congress to bestow a tax break on his client, Brown-Forman, maker of Jack Daniels whiskey. He knew that a newspaper op-ed written by him wouldn't influence lawmakers. Instead, Abramoff would prevail upon people such as Grover Norquist, head of the nonprofit ATR, to write an op-ed in favor of such legislation, or to make phone calls to lawmakers.
Norquist is one of the most influential conservatives in Washington, a friend of presidential adviser Karl Rove and the host of a weekly breakfast for movers and shakers. When he talks, the GOP listens.
In return for Norquist's writing an article or lobbying lawmakers to oppose taxes on booze, the Senate report states, Abramoff would "donate" $25,000 or $50,000 to ATR. Through this scheme, the company bought the ideological clout of Norquist's group to support its goals.
Abramoff wrote in an e-mail to a colleague, "What is most important, however, is that this matter is kept discreet. We do not want the opponents to think that we are trying to buy the taxpayer movement." (click on title)
The Speaker of the House, Republican Representative Dennis Hastert, has precided over the most corrupt House of Republicans in recent history.
Senate report questions tax status of groups linked to Abramoff (click on)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Five non-profit groups, including one of President Bush's biggest supporters, may have broken tax laws and put their tax-exempt status at risk by helping convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a Senate Finance Committee report concludes.
The 600-page report issued Thursday was prepared by the committee's Democratic staff. Majority Republicans, however, had agreed to its release and joined with Democrats in issuing subpoenas for documents and e-mails cited in the report.
Among the groups named as possibly taking money from Abramoff clients and funneling it into his lobbying efforts on their behalf were Americans for Tax Reform, Citizens Against Government Waste and the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy.
Tax-exempt groups are barred by law from being paid to lobby or do public relations.
Americans for Tax Reform is headed by Grover Norquist, a key ally of Bush and a longtime associate of Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser.
The report said Norquist's group accepted $1.5 million from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, one of Abramoff's clients. More than two-thirds of that money was then passed to Christian Coalition founder Ralph Reed as part of Abramoff's lobbying efforts to block a rival tribe's proposed casino in Alabama.
Nell Rogers, a planner for the Choctaws, told the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that the arrangement was never intended as a contribution to support ATR's general anti-tax work. She quoted Abramoff as saying Norquist's group had instead agreed to be a conduit for getting money to Reed, provided that ATR got a fee.
Tom DeLay was trying a publicity stunt and now it's backfired. What goes on in DeLay's mind is beyond comprehension. What is he doing 'dancing' with a NOW divorced woman? Hm?
Tom DeLay's Candidate Quicksteps Out of 'Dancing' (click on)
Shortly before the show debuted, DeLay sent out a blast e-mail, asking his supporters to vote for Evans on the dancing competition series because she had been a strong supporter of the Republican Party and "represents good American values in the media" while "ultra liberal talk show host Jerry Springer" does not.
In divorce papers filed Thursday, Evans contends hubby Craig Schelske cheated on her, verbally abused her, drank excessively and often watched porn in their house. In a news release yesterday, Schelske "adamantly" denied the allegations.
It's amazing. The entire feasco is just amazing. DeLay should be sitting in a jail cell right next to Jack Abramoff. I am assuming Jack is in jail by now.
Getting a Grasp of His Reach (click on)
Two years after the Abramoff scandal came to light, details of his influence in the White House, not just Capitol Hill, continue to surface.
By Peter Wallsten, Times Staff Writer
9:58 PM PDT, October 14, 2006
Washington -- For five years, Allen Stayman wondered who ordered his removal from a State Department job negotiating agreements with tiny Pacific island nations — even when his own bosses wanted him to stay.Now he knows.
Newly disclosed e-mails suggest that the ax fell after intervention by one of the highest officials at the White House: Ken Mehlman, on behalf of one of the most influential lobbyists in town, Jack Abramoff.The e-mails show that Abramoff, whose client list included the Northern Mariana Islands, had long opposed Stayman's work advocating labor overhaul in that U.S. commonwealth, and considered what his lobbying team called the "Stayman project" a high priority."Mehlman said he would get him fired," an Abramoff associate wrote after meeting with Mehlman, who was then White House political director.
Ney is like one of eight Republican House Congressman found guilty in the Abramoff Scandal.
Ney admits guilt in Abramoff scandal (click on)
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Bob Ney pleaded guilty Friday in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling investigation, the first lawmaker to confess to crimes in an election-year scandal that has stained the Republican-controlled Congress and the Bush administration.
Standing before Judge Ellen S. Huvelle, Ney pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making false statements. He acknowledged taking money, gifts and favors in return for official actions on behalf of lobbyist Abramoff and his clients.
The Ohio Republican did not immediately resign from Congress, and within minutes, Republican and Democratic leaders vowed to expel him unless he steps down. The White House also called for Ney's resignation.
And of course we can't forget, the pedophile turned Republican House Representative to have a 'safe harbor' other than becoming a pedophile priest. Namely. Mark Foley.
Key Republican says GOP mishandled Foley matter (click on)
WASHINGTON -- A congressman who is a key figure in the House page scandal said yesterday that Republicans have mishandled the matter.
``I think there's stuff that everybody would have done differently" in hindsight, said Representative John M. Shimkus, Republican of Illinois, after he testified for more than three hours before the House Ethics Committee. The panel is investigating former representative Mark Foley's sexually tinged Internet communications with teenage pages over several years.
Shimkus chairs the board that oversees the House page program, and he intervened last fall to stop Foley from e-mailing a former congressional page who considered the contacts inappropriate. Shimkus said he voluntarily testified before the House investigators to help them uncover ``who knew what, when, and where."
Shimkus kept the two other House Page Board members, including the panel's sole Democrat, in the dark when he confronted Foley last fall. He did so, he says, to follow the wishes of the boy's parents, who wanted the matter to remain private and wanted Foley to stop sending the boy overly friendly e-mails.
Democrats have criticized Shimkus for not informing Representative Dale E. Kildee, Democrat of Michigan, a longtime member of the Page Board, after learning of the incident involving Foley.
Then there was just frank disregard for the nation's security by The Bush White House where Richard Armitage, Karl Rove and I. Scotter Libby romped with journalists to distract the country way from Bush's lies regarding Iraq. And for outing a CIA Agent, endangering this country for a political agenda, Richard Armitage and his band of renowns has little to no price of treason to pay.
The Man Who Said Too Much (click on)
A book coauthored by NEWSWEEK's Michael Isikoff details Richard Armitage's central role in the Valerie Plame leak.
Sept. 4, 2006 issue - In the early morning of Oct. 1, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell received an urgent phone call from his No. 2 at the State Department. Richard Armitage was clearly agitated. As recounted in a new book, "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," Armitage had been at home reading the newspaper and had come across a column by journalist Robert Novak. Months earlier, Novak had caused a huge stir when he revealed that Valerie Plame, wife of Iraq-war critic Joseph Wilson, was a CIA officer. Ever since, Washington had been trying to find out who leaked the information to Novak. The columnist himself had kept quiet. But now, in a second column, Novak provided a tantalizing clue: his primary source, he wrote, was a "senior administration official" who was "not a partisan gunslinger." Armitage was shaken. After reading the column, he knew immediately who the leaker was. On the phone with Powell that morning, Armitage was "in deep distress," says a source directly familiar with the conversation who asked not to be identified because of legal sensitivities. "I'm sure he's talking about me."
Ten Reasons Why I Won't Vote Republican this Year. Reason Number 4. Education.
Basically, and without getting into a lot of data that is available otherwise, the "No Child Left Behind Law" has failed the children of the USA. When the current administration came into office the High School Seniors today were in Sixth grade. The year 2006 has proven to be the worst scoring Class on the SAT College Entrance Exams. That should tell a nation already demoralized from having major industry grossly downsized and sending most American households into financial chaos that just as their well being was ignored and bartered away by the Republicans in the House and Senate, so have their children's education.
EAST WHITELAND -- Great Valley School District officials released the results of the 2006 SAT scores for 12th-graders at a Board of Directors meeting. (click on title)
While the average math score declined 10 points from last year, the verbal score only declined by four points, and district officials were generally satisfied with the results.
The Bush White House with Republican House and Senate backing has removed a successful public education and sent children to private schools or charter schools at government expense. They had demoralized a free public education in this country.
There was also the promotion of turning sound science into fable with the agenda of "Intelligent Design" in schools across this nation.
Additionally, Bush has taken The University of Michigan to court to remove it's admission standards that garantee equity to disadvantage and/or minority applicants. He has also removed and/or reduced funding to low income students.
Secretary Vows to Improve Results of Higher Education (click on)
By SAM DILLON
Saying she hoped to jolt American higher education out of a dangerous complacency, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings vowed Tuesday to help finance state universities that administer standardized tests, establish a national database to track students' progress toward a degree and cut the red tape surrounding federal student aid.
In a speech, Ms. Spellings emphasized those and a few other measures from among dozens of recommendations issued recently by a federal panel, the Commission on the Future of Higher Education.
''This is the beginning of a process of long-overdue reform,'' Ms. Spellings told a crowd of university presidents, business executives, lobbyists and journalists in a speech that her department billed as one in which she would outline her agenda for change at the nation's colleges and universities.
The commission, convened by Ms. Spellings, completed work in August on a report that warned that American universities, while still the finest in the world, were losing their edge against heightened global competition.
In one of its most highly debated recommendations, the report called on public universities to measure learning with standardized tests, and listed two by name: the Collegiate Learning Assessment and the Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress. During the panel's deliberations, many educators opposed the testing proposal, calling it misguided for the federal government to require the nation's more than 3,000 colleges, universities and trade schools to test and compare learning outcomes among such disparate students as physics scholars at Caltech and dance majors at Juilliard.
In her speech, Ms. Spellings moved forward with the testing proposal, but cautiously.
''No current ranking system of colleges and universities directly measures the most critical point, student performance and learning,'' she said. ''We absolutely should. And Action 4 under my plan will provide matching funds to colleges and universities and states that collect and publicly report student learning outcomes.''
In response to a question after her speech, Ms. Spellings said, ''Nobody envisions a one-size-fits-all test of student ability.''
David Ward, president of the American Council on Education, the largest association of colleges and universities, expressed approval for Ms. Spellings's proposal to provide federal matching money to institutions that already, voluntarily, are experimenting with standardized testing. Mr. Ward declined last month to sign the panel's report because, among other concerns, he said it could lead to government-imposed testing.
''I thought today's speech was very important for addressing anxieties,'' he said. ''Now I can see she's not going to rush into some simple-minded solutions. I feel much better.''
Ms. Spellings established the 19-member panel last year, including current and former administrators and faculty members from large research universities, community colleges, liberal arts colleges and for-profit trade schools as well as executives from Boeing, I.B.M. and other corporations. She asked them to examine the accessibility, affordability and accountability of the nation's colleges and universities.
In its final report, the commission recommended that the entire federal student aid system, which has 17 programs, be scrapped in favor of one that is more user-friendly.
Ms. Spellings said Tuesday that only Congress could carry out such a fundamental overhaul. But she said the department would seek to streamline the process immediately and cut the application time for federal loans and grants in half. She offered few specifics, however.
At the insistence of former Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. of North Carolina, the panel included in its final report a recommendation for bolstering the program of Pell Grants, which are the basic building block of federal aid, by making them cover a larger percentage of public college tuition. One university group estimated recently that that proposal could cost the nation $9 billion to $12 billion.
Ms. Spellings did not mention that proposal on Tuesday. But Mr. Hunt said she told him and other commission members in a conference call on Tuesday that she was ''working with the Office of Management and Budget to see what could be done.''
''So I think she's given a strong commitment,'' Mr. Hunt said.
Ms. Spellings also promised action on Tuesday on another commission recommendation: that the Education Department collect student data from colleges and universities and use it to create a ''higher education information system.''
Such a federal data system, she said, could provide new consumer-friendly information to parents and students looking for the right college. It could also be used to hold colleges and universities accountable for the number of students that they graduate and other measures of institutional performance, she said.
Ms. Spellings suggested that the higher education establishment would consider her proposals to be bitter medicine.
''After some of what I've said today, commencement speaker invitations may suddenly get lost in the mail,'' she said.
But the reaction from several university presidents and lobbyists who had previously expressed fears that the commission's work would bring new federal interference in higher education, seemed generally to be one of relief.
Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economist, who also served on the panel and had hoped it would lead to far-reaching measures to control university costs, said on Tuesday that he worried that the panel's year of study and hearings had produced a fog of rhetoric and little else.
''I'm concerned with a certain vagueness to it all at this point,'' Dr. Vedder said. ''There's been a lot of platitudes -- 'increase affordability, control costs' -- but we've not come up with much that's specific about how to do that.''
EAST WHITELAND -- Great Valley School District officials released the results of the 2006 SAT scores for 12th-graders at a Board of Directors meeting. (click on title)
While the average math score declined 10 points from last year, the verbal score only declined by four points, and district officials were generally satisfied with the results.
The Bush White House with Republican House and Senate backing has removed a successful public education and sent children to private schools or charter schools at government expense. They had demoralized a free public education in this country.
There was also the promotion of turning sound science into fable with the agenda of "Intelligent Design" in schools across this nation.
Additionally, Bush has taken The University of Michigan to court to remove it's admission standards that garantee equity to disadvantage and/or minority applicants. He has also removed and/or reduced funding to low income students.
Secretary Vows to Improve Results of Higher Education (click on)
By SAM DILLON
Saying she hoped to jolt American higher education out of a dangerous complacency, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings vowed Tuesday to help finance state universities that administer standardized tests, establish a national database to track students' progress toward a degree and cut the red tape surrounding federal student aid.
In a speech, Ms. Spellings emphasized those and a few other measures from among dozens of recommendations issued recently by a federal panel, the Commission on the Future of Higher Education.
''This is the beginning of a process of long-overdue reform,'' Ms. Spellings told a crowd of university presidents, business executives, lobbyists and journalists in a speech that her department billed as one in which she would outline her agenda for change at the nation's colleges and universities.
The commission, convened by Ms. Spellings, completed work in August on a report that warned that American universities, while still the finest in the world, were losing their edge against heightened global competition.
In one of its most highly debated recommendations, the report called on public universities to measure learning with standardized tests, and listed two by name: the Collegiate Learning Assessment and the Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress. During the panel's deliberations, many educators opposed the testing proposal, calling it misguided for the federal government to require the nation's more than 3,000 colleges, universities and trade schools to test and compare learning outcomes among such disparate students as physics scholars at Caltech and dance majors at Juilliard.
In her speech, Ms. Spellings moved forward with the testing proposal, but cautiously.
''No current ranking system of colleges and universities directly measures the most critical point, student performance and learning,'' she said. ''We absolutely should. And Action 4 under my plan will provide matching funds to colleges and universities and states that collect and publicly report student learning outcomes.''
In response to a question after her speech, Ms. Spellings said, ''Nobody envisions a one-size-fits-all test of student ability.''
David Ward, president of the American Council on Education, the largest association of colleges and universities, expressed approval for Ms. Spellings's proposal to provide federal matching money to institutions that already, voluntarily, are experimenting with standardized testing. Mr. Ward declined last month to sign the panel's report because, among other concerns, he said it could lead to government-imposed testing.
''I thought today's speech was very important for addressing anxieties,'' he said. ''Now I can see she's not going to rush into some simple-minded solutions. I feel much better.''
Ms. Spellings established the 19-member panel last year, including current and former administrators and faculty members from large research universities, community colleges, liberal arts colleges and for-profit trade schools as well as executives from Boeing, I.B.M. and other corporations. She asked them to examine the accessibility, affordability and accountability of the nation's colleges and universities.
In its final report, the commission recommended that the entire federal student aid system, which has 17 programs, be scrapped in favor of one that is more user-friendly.
Ms. Spellings said Tuesday that only Congress could carry out such a fundamental overhaul. But she said the department would seek to streamline the process immediately and cut the application time for federal loans and grants in half. She offered few specifics, however.
At the insistence of former Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. of North Carolina, the panel included in its final report a recommendation for bolstering the program of Pell Grants, which are the basic building block of federal aid, by making them cover a larger percentage of public college tuition. One university group estimated recently that that proposal could cost the nation $9 billion to $12 billion.
Ms. Spellings did not mention that proposal on Tuesday. But Mr. Hunt said she told him and other commission members in a conference call on Tuesday that she was ''working with the Office of Management and Budget to see what could be done.''
''So I think she's given a strong commitment,'' Mr. Hunt said.
Ms. Spellings also promised action on Tuesday on another commission recommendation: that the Education Department collect student data from colleges and universities and use it to create a ''higher education information system.''
Such a federal data system, she said, could provide new consumer-friendly information to parents and students looking for the right college. It could also be used to hold colleges and universities accountable for the number of students that they graduate and other measures of institutional performance, she said.
Ms. Spellings suggested that the higher education establishment would consider her proposals to be bitter medicine.
''After some of what I've said today, commencement speaker invitations may suddenly get lost in the mail,'' she said.
But the reaction from several university presidents and lobbyists who had previously expressed fears that the commission's work would bring new federal interference in higher education, seemed generally to be one of relief.
Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economist, who also served on the panel and had hoped it would lead to far-reaching measures to control university costs, said on Tuesday that he worried that the panel's year of study and hearings had produced a fog of rhetoric and little else.
''I'm concerned with a certain vagueness to it all at this point,'' Dr. Vedder said. ''There's been a lot of platitudes -- 'increase affordability, control costs' -- but we've not come up with much that's specific about how to do that.''
Ten Reasons Why I Won't Vote Republican this Year. Reason Number 5. Higher levels of violence including Domestic Violence in the USA
Crime is up across the USA.
There is no NATIONAL Crime Bill under Bush. There was under Clinton. The Brady Bill (click on) was the 'firearms' section of the Clinton Crime Bill. With higher rates of crime, there are higher rates of police deaths as well.
After shootings in U.S. schools, gun violence back in spotlight (click on)
THE THREE SCHOOL shootings that happened around the country in the past week were horrible. Sad. Inexplicably violent.
First there was that drifter, a guy who lived in his car, who walked into a Colorado school, held some girls hostage, then shot one as she tried to escape before killing himself. Then there was the disturbed teen who gunned down his school principal in Wisconsin. And finally, there was that truck driver in Pennsylvania who was so despondent that he entered the Amish school near his home, lined up some girls, and took them out, execution style, before killing himself.
But even though the headlines like "Who Will Save Our Children?" and "Now It's Outsiders Shooting in Schools" are all written, even though President George Bush is shocked and has announced a summit at the White House to discuss school violence, and even though People magazine, as we speak, is undoubtedly slapping together some sort of "Shocking Week In Our Schools" issue, the sad truth is that none of this is new.
We have been through this before. Perhaps recalling an award winning documentary by Michael Moore will stir memories.
"Bowling for Columbine" (click on)
Mike never stops with 'just the film.' He always carries through with 'action plans' to improve the outcomes of his documentaries. If one pays attention to the entire page of this advertisement, there are teacher sections and students sections to stem the violence in our schools.
I could list thousands upon thousands of news articles regarding Crime Bills. But. They are all local actions by local and state governments. Why? Because if Bush put forward a Crime Bill, he would have to FUND it which would increase the National Debt or God Forbid, he should raise taxes.Then we all know that Bush and Cheney are in the back pocket of the NRA. I mean you do that for a fact right? That's called corruption. You have to know that the NRA are huge Bush/Cheney backers. In return this administration bends over backwards to 'keep the NRA happy.' That is called corruption. Plain and simple. It's not the role of government to polish the gun barrels of the NRA. It is the role of government to protect the people of this nation. To protect the people of other nations by regulating the availability of weapons for illegal arm shipmensts out of the USA.
It's called corruption to support ONLY the interests of your campaign contributors. Bush and Cheney are criminals. They trade the lives of Americans for the profits of gun lobbiests.
The Increase of the Use of Tasers
Can stun guns and tasers cause death? (click on)
The chance of dying after being shot by a taser or stun gun is about one in 870. Dr William P Bozeman, professor of emergency medicine at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, estimates this in the September 2005 issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
But Dr Bozeman acknowledges that any such estimate is based on very little data. Tasers and stun guns have been in use for only a short period of time and there are still few studies assessing their various effects.
Nevertheless, medical studies suggest that more not fewer deaths could result from the introduction of tasers and stun guns for police work. Some doctors worry that more deaths could occur since police may be more likely to use tasers and stun guns on a suspect thinking they are safer than handguns.
Why might you ask are tasers such a 'popular' form of police defense?
Won't be corruption, would it?
Yeah.
(12-10) 04:00 PDT Washington -- Just five years ago, Bernard Kerik was facing lawsuits from a condominium association and bank over delinquent payments owed on a modest New Jersey condo he then owned. Today, he is a multimillionaire, the result of a lucrative partnership with former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and an even more profitable relationship with a stun-gun manufacturer.
If he is confirmed to the post of homeland security secretary for which he was nominated by President Bush last week, he will oversee an enormous department that does business with some of the companies that helped make him wealthy.
The list of income sources that transformed the former New York City police commissioner into a wealthy man is a diverse one, including a best- selling autobiography, speeches around the United States and service on corporate boards. Kerik even sold the rights to make a feature film about his rags-to-riches life to Miramax.
The Death Sentence
As of February 23, 2006, there have been 123 exonerations in 25 different States. (click on)
The Bush Illegal Drug Policy
The US has confirmed a big increase in Afghanistan's opium poppy crop and says the illicit drugs trade is endangering efforts to rebuild the country.
Afghanistan Produces Record-Breaking Opium Poppy CropReport says security problems, economics drive Afghan opium trade (click on)
By David Shelby
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Afghanistan's opium poppy production reached record high levels in 2004, due in part to a dangerous security situation, a lack of alternative income streams and limited law enforcement capabilities, according to the State Department's International Narcotics Control Strategy Report issued March 4.
The report states that 206,700 hectares were devoted to poppy cultivation in Afghanistan in 2004 -- more than a threefold increase over the amount of land under cultivation in 2003. The fields produced an estimated 4,950 metric tons of opium gum, far exceeding the country's previous record of 3,108 metric tons in 2000.
Afghanistan's 2004 opium production could potentially be refined into 582 metric tons of heroin, putting Afghanistan far ahead of Burma, the second place heroin producer, with a production potential of 28 metric tons.
Ten Reasons Why I Won't Vote Republican this Year. Reason Number 6. The complete lack of National Security.
The NSA and "The President's Program" to spy on Americans.
Last week, the Judiciary Committee held an important hearing. That hearing should be the beginning of the process of congressional oversight into what has been called “the President’s program.” This is a domestic spying program into emails and telephone calls of Americans without a judge’s approval, apparently conducted by the National Security Agency. Having participated in the hearing and reviewed the transcript of the Attorney General’s testimony, I understand the fear that this Administration is engaged in an elaborate cover-up of illegality. I urge them to come clean with us and the American people (click on title).
Energy Independence
Energy independence is top issue for voters (click on)
Remember, Carville and Greenberg are professional campaign advisers. They get paid to get people elected - not to offer feel-good nostrums. So when they tell you that their polling and focus groups around the country show that "reducing dependence on foreign oil" is voters' top national security priority, you know that this issue has finally arrived. The party that captures it most credibly will be rewarded.
Securing Our Nations Borders
It has taken from September 11, 2001 to NOW to get a Port Security Bill and that only occurred because the 'reality' of American Ports was realized through an alarm sent out that foreign investors could potentially, even if unintentionally, compromise our country's security and safety.
FIVE YEARS FOR A National Security Ports Bill.
FIVE YEARS.
And ONLY because the USA Public 'figured it out' NOT because Bush gave a damn in the first place.
FIVE. Count them.
One - 2001 to 2002
Two - 2002 to 2003
Three - 2003 to 2004
Four - 2004 to 2005
Five - 2005 to 2006
FIVE FLYIN' YEARS
West Coast harbors welcome national port security bill (click on)
WASHINGTON - West Coast ports that handle much of the nation's shipped goods - and which are considered prime terrorist targets - praised a law signed Friday that aims to reinforce the safety of the 11 million containers entering the country each year.President Bush signed the SAFE Port Act that aims to prevent terrorists from smuggling a nuclear bomb or other weapons in cargo containers from overseas.
"Our seaports are a gateway to commerce, a source of opportunity, and a provider of jobs," Bush said. "Our ports could also be a target of a terrorist attack, and we're determined to protect them."
Bush said the new act requires radiation-detection technology at 22 of the nation's busiest ports by the end of next year. In addition, background checks and credentials will be required for workers at the nation's 361 ports.
The bill is "a great step forward in enhancing port security," said Jim McKenna, president and CEO of the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents 75 shipping companies doing business on the West Coast.
Immigration
With the new leadership in Mexico our southern border we share with that country will be flooded with the impoverished.
Mexico president-elect unveils reform plan (click on)
In a speech before politicians and businessmen, President-elect Felipe Calderon stressed the need to join the club of the world's fastest-growing economies. He said his plan - which will be open for public consultation starting Thursday - will provide the long-term roadmap Mexico has lacked in the past.
The new Mexican President is a clone of George Walker Bush and why there was a separtist movement following the election. Supposedly, all that has been worked out now. I don't buy it. But, according to Mr. Calderon, Mexico is the next China with help from a 'road map.' The question is, do the 'catch all' phrases actually solve Mexico's poor economy OR will it simply drive more Mexicans over the border of the USA?
Creating a sensible immigration policy that also allows workers from Mexico to meet legitimate labor needs in the United States will not be solved simply by building a fence on the border.
But congressional action before the recent recess to begin building a fence on part of the border just might help break the deadlock in Congress.Clearly, border security is a necessary part of any solution. But we agree with President Bush that a far more comprehensive program is needed.
It should include:
? Border security.
? Enforcement of immigration laws, especially with employers who help create illegal immigrant problems by knowingly hiring illegals.
? A well-regulated guest-worker program that provides labor U.S. businesses want, at competitive wages so that American workers are not excluded.Critics of a guest-worker program have complained that the only reason immigrants get so many jobs is that they will work for less. In some cases that is true.
A wall by any other name (click on)
That the moves come just before next month's U.S. mid-term elections is more than just coincidence. Republicans have been accused of playing politics with the border-security measures in an attempt to win the support of conservatives.
Canadians will be offended by the moves, but given the U.S. obsession with border security since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, they were probably inevitable. U.S. President George Bush has at least consistently condemned talk of a physical barrier. That's something. A Berlin Wall type of structure would be like a slap in the face.
Airport Security
Airline security is a top priority among local law enforcement (click on)Law enforcement personnel listen Thursday to a presentation by Mark K. Tabor (right) of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration regarding airport safety. The training is in anticipation of the a new airline tentatively scheduled to begin in November at Ozark Regional Airport.
Identity Theft
The Identity Theft Scare (click on)
Identity theft is getting a lot of attention these days -- from news stories about missing laptops and lost data to television commercials for fraud prevention and credit monitoring services. Congress has held hearings, and members have issued forecasts of an impending plague of identity theft. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), in a statement typical of many of his congressional colleagues, said that "Social Security numbers and date-of-birth information are pure gold in the hands of identity thieves, who quickly convert them into credit cards and cash equivalents to perpetrate massive frauds."
When a laptop was stolen from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee this year, newspapers across the nation editorialized about the dangers facing the people whose data were on the computer. The Post alone published more than 40 stories and wrote that "26.5 million veterans were placed at risk of identity theft." The VA notified all 26.5 million of them and asked Congress for $160.5 million to cover the cost of one year of credit monitoring for the veterans.
The security of America and Americans doesn't rely on spying on them, but, more insight and competency of our legislators. Even with a full compliment of Republicans in the House and Senate, Bush still could not get the job done. Why? Because Bush is not a legislative President, he is a figure head and political icon to his his base. The FISA Court was specifically designed for the purpose of seeking action against questionable activity that could endanger the lives and well being of Americans. Bush broke the law. He places himself above it and then lies about it until he is caught. He is a criminal. I don't care what any corrupt authority says, there was a far better way to enhance an established law in this country. It's call legislation and it's constitutional.
Ten Reasons Why I Won't Vote Republican this Year. Reason Number 7. The National Debt.
Can you afford the agenda of this President and his runaway Republican House and Senate?
I can't and neither can my children. They are accomplishing NOTHING on all fronts of this once great and dynamic nation while passing spending bill after spending bill in order to say they have an economy. The economy that exists today is BORROWED from the futures of our children.
When George W. Bush became president in 2001, the United States’ public debt was 5.8 trillion dollars.
Today the public debt stands at 8.3 trillion dollars.
Of this over amount, $2.2 trillion dollars is held by foreigners.
United States has a GDP of 12.4 trillion dollars.
This gives U.S. a Debt/GDP ratio of 66%, placing it in 35th place (out of 113) on the ranking of the Debtor Nations.
The current account deficit of over 7 per cent has long passed its danger levels of 4-5 per cent.
In 2005 the U.S. government paid $325 billion dollars in interest payments.
Ten Reasons Why I Won't Vote Republican this Year. Reason Number 8. The loss of Unions
Outsourcing of jobs was supposed to promise the rise of a unique economy that over time would bring life back to the USA work force. (click on)
WASHINGTON -- The movement of U.S. factory jobs and white-collar work to other countries is part of a positive transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation, the Bush administration said yesterday.
The American Work Force is the most sophisticated and hard working people on Earth. Don't ever doubt it for one minute.
Outsourced jobs returning home (click on)
These workers tend to be more educated and skilled than traditional call-center employees, providing better service and more potential sales. Plus, they constitute the first cost-effective alternative to sending call center jobs overseas.
"I'm not ruling out off-shoring," said Todd Pawlowski of Virgin America, a start-up airline. "But we place great emphasis on people being able to connect with our brand. If we have people taking phone messages in India, chances are they will never have flown Virgin America."
It has nearly destroyed unionized labor in the USA. We need to bring it back. The return of union jobs will guarantee the rise once again of the Middle Class and a return to a vibrant and viable economy.
You want to be able to buy 'African Red Products?' Right? Then make money and contribute to the Global Economy. Bring back the American Economy with a strong and well paid Middle Class. It's time to send the wealthy packing. What did they ever do for you?
Ten Reasons Why I Won't Vote Republican this Year. Reason Number 9. Genetic Medicine.
I want ethics in medical research?
Bullshit !
I want a cure !
The controversy began in late August, when ACT Vice President of Research and Scientific Development Robert Lanza published a paper describing a new technique in the peer-reviewed journal Nature. According to the paper, the technique enabled scientists to develop human embryonic stem cells with a single-cell biopsy technique that was not harmful to embryos. (click on title)
This is a government that cares? NO. This is a government that has no use for cures that affect the profits of pharmaceutical companies !
Current human embryonic stem cell lines contaminated UCSD/Salk team finds (click on)
Currently available lines of human embryonic stem cells have been contaminated with a non-human molecule that compromises their potential therapeutic use in human subjects, according to research by investigators at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California.
In a study published online January 23, 2005 in the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers found that human embryonic stem cells, including those currently approved for study under federal funding in the U.S., contain a non-human, cell-surface sialic acid called N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc), even though human cells are genetically unable to make it. In a related paper published November 29, 2004 by the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC), the Varki group has also discovered the exact cellular mechanism by which this occurs.
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