A new heat transfer system formation

March 13, 2012
0030:00z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of USA (click here for 12 hour loop)


I met up with this vortex system in Athens, Ohio yesterday evening and watched it roll in.


It wasn't that windy, it was a tad bit cold, but, for the most part the temperature was very comfortable for this time of year.  The edges were very clear and crisp containing mammatus clouds about one quater of a mile from the edge.  The only time I have seen this cloud formation before were the early years of heat transfer formations.  Those heat transfers were rainless and didn't carry any winds.  They were purely a mechanism to move heat from the equator to the Arctic Circle.  


The early linear systems running vertical along the east coast of the USA were empty of weather.


I followed up Lower Michigan and the weather was homogenous.  A fine rain with no wind, no real water accumulation on the roads, no thunder or lightning.  This was and appears to be a heat transfer system and nothing more.  An accumulation of water vapor with the sole purpose of moving heat.  

March 11, 2012
0630z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite image of north and west hemisphere


The vortex took on its most definitive form over Texas, a sustained drought area.  It literally soaked up heat within its water vapor content and is moving north.

March 13,2012
0130:00z
UNISYS Water Vapor north and west hemisphere (click title to entry - thank you)


I wonder if that will improve the drought.  There should be a new monitor map in a few days.  Probably on the 15th.


At about mile marker 200 north on Internet 75 in MIchigan the snow was subliming.  It was turning from solid snow to water vapor.  It was passing right through any liquid stage and becoming water vapor.  Where the subliming was dense the fog was very dense.  There was very little rain while traveling through the fog.

What does that mean?  It means the snow is not running off into local water supplies but entering the humidity heading north.  It will effect water supply that relies on spring thaw.

The lose of civil rights in the USA, a very slippery slope. It could lead to assault of the First Amendment.

...Predictably, (click title to entry - thank you) with video cameras far more commonplace and smartphones doubling as video devices, Americans are increasingly documenting police conduct through audio and video recordings.

Not so predictable: Many are getting arrested or having recordings confiscated:

•In Rochester, N.Y., last spring, Emily Good was charged with obstruction of governmental administration after she shot video of police making a traffic stop. Good was standing in her front yard at the time. The charges were later dropped.

•Pending in a U.S. district court in Maryland is a lawsuit filed by Christopher Sharp, who recorded the arrest of a friend by Baltimore police in 2010. The police confiscated his phone and deleted a number of his videos, including family recordings.

•Last month, Boston police acknowledged that officers used "unreasonable judgment" in arresting Simon Glik, who used his cellphone to shoot the arrest of a man on Boston Common in 2007. Glik is now suing the police department.

•High school student Khaliah Fitchette was arrested by Newark police in 2010 for shooting video of their response to someone falling on a city bus. She was handcuffed and taken to a detention facility, and her video was erased. She was never formally charged and is suing the police.

•A freelance photographer on Long Island was arrested in July after he shot video of officers arresting suspects in a police chase. Phil Datz videotaped his own arrest after an officer ordered him to stop shooting on the public street. After the officer's conduct was widely viewed on YouTube (213,000 times to date), the Suffolk County Police Department decided to drop the charges.

Citizens are sometimes arrested under eavesdropping laws that were designed to prevent the surreptitious recording of a conversation. But does a police officer have a reasonable expectation of privacy while he's doing his job? And how surreptitious can it be when the camera is in full view?...

The bill determined to remove civil rights from American Citizens is "Defense Spending Bill 1987."  Below is what conservatives are saying.  The country has to know there is something drastically "W"rong and now we are seeing recording devices confiscated and those doing the recording arrested.  What comes next are citiznes that literally disappear and are detained for potentially the rest of their lives.  That means no one is going to maintain an accurate record of where they live or work where police can easily find them, because, there may be a chance they won't be released. 

...The bill was drafted by U.S. Sens. John McCain (click here), R-Ariz., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., but there were 381 amendments proposed to the original bill, most of which were not adopted. The controversial text can be found in Section 1031 of this enormously cumbersome, $600 billion epic. Numerous amendments to change this section were proposed, but the most important was the one introduced by California Sen. Diane Feinstein (D) and sponsored by Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

Durbin made a passionate speech in the Senate to support the Feinstein amendment to alter the original document.

The following was contained in Durbin’s speech: “The Senator from California has not only read the law, she has written many laws, and her competence in advocating this important constitutional question has been proven over and over. So, I thank her for having the determination and courage to stand up for her convictions against some who would be critical of anyone who broaches the subject. This is a controversial subject. We are talking about the security of Americans. We are talking about terrorism.

“… We establish standards of conduct and justice, and particularly as it relates to the people who live in America, our citizens and legal residents who are in the United States. That is what this debate is about.

“This is an important bill. … But this provision they have added in this bill is a serious mistake — serious. It is serious enough for me to support Senator Feinstein in her efforts to change and remove the language. Why? First, we know the law enforcement officials in the United States of America, the Attorney General’s Office, the FBI have done a good job in keeping America safe. They have arrested over 300 suspected terrorists in the United States — over 300 of them — and they have tried them in the criminal courts of America, on trial, in public, for the world to see that these people will be held to the standards of trial as an American citizen. Of those 300, they have successfully prosecuted over 300 alleged terrorists, then incarcerated them in the prisons of America, including Marion, Ill., in my home state, where they are safely and humanely incarcerated.....

Those that want to say 'it is over' and the Feinstein Amendment took care of Americans have to ask themselves, why did it happen at all and what indeed is the sincere outcome?  I don't believe any cases have reached the courts, but, why should there be a 'trial' of such assault on civil rights in the first place?

I thought Osama bin Laden was dead.

There should not be confiscation of anything from people that can't be returned when they are released with the exception of firearms and explosives.  Cameras are only dangerous when they capture the truth.

Until tomorrow.

I'd pay attention to this one.

March 11, 2012
0630:00z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of North and West Hemisphere (click title for 12 hour loop)









March 11, 2012
0645 gmt
Weather Channel temperature map of USA

The temperature differences within that vortex is significantly different. 

In a weather satellite at KATV (Click here) the temperature span was 29 degrees Fahrenheit over Sante Fe, New Mexico and dropping while Temperatures over Witchita, Kansas was 52 degrees Fahrenheit.  Something's gotta give.

March 11, 2012
0630z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite of USA (click here for 12 hour loop)

I wish S. Epatha Merkerson much success with her program on TVONE. (click title to entry - thank you)

The reality of so many missing is something no one really thinks about often.  I hope the show is a great success and through people reunited with their familes perhaps we can come to understand this strange phenomena within our country. 

2,300 a Day (click here)

Reports of missing persons have increased sixfold in the past 25 years, from roughly 150,000 in 1980 to about 900,000 this year. The increase was driven in part by the country's growing population. But the numbers also indicate that law enforcement treats the cases more seriously now, including those of marginalized citizens.
An astounding 2,300 Americans are reported missing every day, including both adults and children.
But only a tiny fraction of those are stereotypical abductions or kidnappings by a stranger.
For example, the federal government counted 840,279 missing persons cases in 2001. All but about 50,000 were juveniles, classified as anyone younger than 18....

Manhunt: Catching Kony - Uganda, October 2010

Uganda, the void of sanity. I thought there were big game hunters in Uganda, no?

In this July 2006 file photo, (click here) members of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army are seen as their leader Joseph Kony meets with a delegation of Ugandan officials and lawmakers and representatives from non-governmental organizations, in the Democratic Republic of Congo near the Sudanese border. Invisible Children launched a viral campaign to 'Stop Kony' on Tuesday to mobilize the next generation of young Americans to help end the conflict in northern Uganda.


Sometimes bush drivers are necessary to find the game one is looking for.  Look, I thought drones had a purpose in Africa.  

...As with their previous campaigns  Displace Me and How it Ends, Invisible Children launched Stop Kony 2012 on Tuesday to mobilize the next generation of young Americans to help end the conflict in northern Uganda – except this time, they called on their mostly white, privileged, and educated youth followers to get involved through web-activism on their Facebook, Twitter,Tumblr and YouTube accounts....


To be honest, killing Kony will result in the rise of another.  Uganda has only the experience of people like Idi Amin.  But, if the heinous murderers of children begin to understand they will be treated like the next al Qaeda field marshall, it might have an effect.  At least children can find windows of escape, but, there will have to be refugee camps for them to flee to and those camps need to be secure.  If it works in Pakistan, who is to argue.


Idi Amin, who has died at an age thought to be 78, (click here) was one of the most brutal military dictators to wield power in post-independence Africa.

While chief of staff of the Ugandan army, under Dr Milton Obote's civilian government, he seized power in 1971. He made himself president, with the rank of field marshal, and after eight years of power left Uganda a legacy of bloodthirsty killings and economic mismanagement. Parliament was dissolved; no elections were held; secret police - most of them in plain clothes - exercised absolute power of life and death; and the courts and the press were subjugated to the whims of the executive....


The moral men and women of Africa have raised nations of children from the ravages of HIV, I think they are up to returning innocence and hope to the children of Uganda, if given half a chance.  

Uganda in its current state is not a sovereign country and to that end there are huge impositions upon natural resources and we all know the score.  The more damage to the nation and its assets by rebel bands such as this the less wealth the leaders have to manage.  If Africa is to have a place in the global community, it has the capacity to find a way to transform nations so damaged by brutal dictators.


And, oh yeah, Uganda doesn't have nuclear weapons or PEACEFUL use of the technology, so let's keep it that way.

My, my, my. Publicly Traded Private Equity Firms. Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle. I think that is called an oxymoron, right?

They want to do more of what they already do.

Yep.

THEY are running out of liquid assets.  Their CASH is going back the other way under this administration.  Gee, why do I miss George W. Bush so much?

The Carlyle Group reveals (little about) IPO plans (click here)

Posted by Cardiff Garcia

 Sep 06 15:05

It took long enough for David Rubenstein’s firm to formally declare its intention of joining Blackstone, KKR and Apollo as a publicly traded PE firm, but we’ll have to wait a little longer to get any meaningful details.
Carlyle Group has filed an S-1 with the SEC, and according to the press release the proceeds will be used to “repay indebtedness and for general corporate purposes, including general operational needs, growth initiatives, acquisitions and strategic investments and to fund capital commitments to, and other investments in and alongside of, its funds.”
In other words, it’s going public so it can to do but more of it what it already does. The $100m amount is just a filler; it will be changed later. We also don’t know offering terms (price, number of units), which means we have little guidance on the company’s expected public market value....


So, in determining to REMAIN 'viable' Carlyle is mortgaging every asset available.  Barclays, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank have to get in on this in order to have enough clout to back an IPO?  Really?  All the biggies from 2008.  How great is that, huh?  I wonder why I prefer GM to have its own equity and maintain sanity in its use rather than investing in empty opportunities?  Go figure.  I must be crazy worried about the USA economy again.

Thu Mar 8, 2012 11:57pm EST

(Reuters) - Private equity company Carlyle Group CYL.UL,(click title to entry - thank you) which filed for an IPO last September, has added banks including Barclays Plc (BARC.L), Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) to help with the sale, Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and UBS AG (UBSN.VX) would also work on the offering, Bloomberg quoted the unidentified sources as saying.

Carlyle Group has filed for an initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $100 million, with JPMorgan, Citigroup and Credit Suisse as its underwriters....


Hm.  And no major wars on the horizon, either.  Gee, I guess 'the people' of the world are finally having their way!  What was the word?  Hm.....oh, yeah, peasants.  It looks as though the peasants revolt is taking hold.


IPOs for private equity firms.  Hey, good luck with that!  


Hey!  GM!  Show me the money !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Up to now the Senate has disagreed regarding the approach to Syria. Now there is a third stating no more militarization of Syria.

(CBS News) Something must be done about the Syrian government's (click here) ongoing violence against its own people, but the U.S. "can't just jump up one morning and say, 'OK, let's go drop some bombs on Syrian tanks," Sen. John Kerry said Thursday.

Appearing on "CBS This Morning," the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pushed back against colleagues, notably Sen. John McCain, who has advocated for a U.S.-led military intervention.


"I'm very sympathetic with John McCain's passion about this. I think we all share a sense of deep frustration. Nobody wants to be sitting on the sidelines watching people be killed against the tyrannical efforts of the military and a small governing fleet, which is what it's reduced to now," the Massachusetts senator said....

The Third Party is Kofi Annan.  He has a along standing expertise and a respected resolve.  He knows the plight of the Syrian opposition and does not want them harmed anymore, perhaps, he can find a way to end this expediently without further destabilization and massacres of innocent people.

Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan talks during a press conference with Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby, not pictured, at the Arab league headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, March 8, 2012. (AP)


March 9, 2012 5:41 AM

(AP) BEIRUT - The leader (click title to entry - thank you) of Syria's main opposition group on Friday rejected calls by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan for dialogue between the government in Damascus and the opposition, describing them as unrealistic.

In a telephone interview from Paris, Burhan Ghalioun told The Associated Press that Annan already has disappointed the Syrian people.

Annan, who has been appointed joint U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria, has said his mission was to start a "political process" to resolve the conflict in the country. He is due this weekend in Syria where he will meet with Assad.

In comments made in Cairo on Thursday after talks with Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby, Annan warned against further militarization of the Syrian conflict and urged the opposition to come together with the government to find a political solution.

"I hope that no one is thinking very seriously of using force in this situation," Annan said. "I believe any further militarization would make the situation worse."

Annan also said he would be making "realistic" proposals to resolve the conflict. He did not elaborate....

International Women's Day

Rachel Carson


I will conclude by day in honor of Rachel Carson, the unsung hero to women's health.  Rachel Carson wrote a book entitled "Silent Spring," portraying a world dominated by chemicals.


Her writing was noted in the Congress of the United States of American and enacted sound legislation in the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.  


She died of breast cancer before her time, but, her activism has insured the lives and health of the Americans that have come after her.  


Rachel Carson was the bravest woman I have ever witnessed, bar none, as she went up against incredible power based in wealth.  She is a hero.  Her contribution to the health of every American in the USA is never stated in the context it should be understood.  


In her honor, Audubon awards "The Rachel Carson Award," to women in conservation.  

Welcome to Audubon's Women in Conservation website (click titel to entry - thank you) where you will meet some of the most influential and important women in today's American conservation and environmental world. The immense talent, expertise and energy of these women is changing everything, advancing the goals and meeting the challenges of our ever more important environmental movement.

Women have long played a leading role in the environment. Among the earliest American conservationists was Harriet Hemenway, who in 1896 brought her friends together to defend birds from being slaughtered for their plumes' use in fashion. In doing so, she helped to found the Audubon Society, now over one hundred years old and one of the most effective conservation organizations in the world.

Since 2004, Audubon has recognized women in conservation with the organization's prestigious Rachel Carson Award. Rachel Carson Award winners have been among the most distinguished in their fields and again this year Audubon salutes an outstanding group of leaders.

This is an ultrasound of an eight week fetus.

When a woman wants to abort a fetus because of an unwanted pregnancy there is absolutely no reason to have an ultrasound done.  


The only diagnosis that needs to be made is the presence of a pregnancy and that can be obtained with absolute accuracy through serum specimens.


The laws the radical right legislatures are passing is harassment of women.  There is absolutely no medical standard that demands an ultrasound to validate a pregnancy.  There is no 'informed consent' law that demands every person that signs a consent has to have intimate knowledge of the body part being treated.  


In other words, does a patient with brain cancer have to understand an image of the tumor before signing informed consent.  Informed consent is entered into by physicians as a witness to the fact he or she has given them all the necessary information regarding their treatment.  The most important aspect of informed consent is the potential side effects of a person's treatment.  For a patient with a brain tumor that submits to chemotherapy there are understood outcomes and understood side effects, that is the definition LEGALLY of informed consent.

By Michael Bodine
Capital News Service

RICHMOND, Va. – The much-debated bill(click title to entry - thank you) that requires ultrasound testing before abortions has been signed into law by Gov. Bob McDonnell.

The bill, proposed by Delegate Kathy Byron, R-Lynchburg, has been among the most hotly contested social issues in this year’s General Assembly. It even sparked national criticism.

McDonnell signed House Bill 462 into law on Wednesday. Because the measure was amended multiple times, it first had to endure two votes from each house of the General Assembly this session.

After signing the legislation, McDonnell issued a statement that acknowledged both sides of the mandatory-ultrasound debate. He also stated why he saw it as a necessary measure....

The bills passed into law by extremist right wing legislators are a burden to women.  A woman's integrity is assaulted by this legislation.  These laws are without moral, ethical or medical basis.  These are religious endeavors that insult the USA Constitution while attempting to break down the separation of church and state.


The reason this continues is because the Social Conservatives have been pandered to for their votes and their monies for a very long time by Republican politicians.  They sincerely want this country in lock step with evangelical christian dogma at any cost as part of their promise to god.  The USA and its moral content has been a bargaining chip for Republicans. The social conservatives are tired of waiting and this is exactly what is transpiring.


I mean it sincerely when I state this is unethical legislation.  It removes the basis of a woman's right to direct her own conscience, her relationship with god/spirituality and be master of her future and the well being of whatever children she chooses to give birth to in or out of a relationship with another person.  THAT is unethical.  Taking away self determination and free will from women is unethical practice of the law.


The laws assault a woman's spiritual relationship with her god.  Just because the state condemns her freedom to decide and secures the life of a fetus, does not make her a moral person in the eyes of those seeking to call the USA redeemed of all its sins.  God is a the only determining factor in that relationship and that is completely intangible regardless of the preacher or the Pope.


So, the fact there is a separation of church and state is a matter of fact and not fantasy.  The USA Constitution cannot, no matter how any prosecutor tries, jail  a woman for her thoughts and if those thoughts betray her relationship with god that cannot be litigate.  If anyone believes it can be litigated they can be referred to the Salem Witch Trials as proof.


It is immoral to put one life already in process ahead of one that is not.  That's right, IMMORAL.  It is like treating women as though they are giving birth to a litter and the life of the bitch is less valuable than the puppies.  


A woman has a right to self-determination and that includes the relationship with god, the time she chooses to have children and not have children.   


The legislation enacted in the states by extremist right wing lawmakers is immoral, unethical and have no, absolutely NO medical basis to exist.  The laws are unconstitutional and violate current precedent, however, the extremist right wing is counting on corruption in the Supreme Court to rid this country of its democracy at any cost.


Did I mention the legislation is sexist?  

A strict constructionist and his regressive agenda for The Supreme Court.

WASHINGTON - MAY 20: U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia testifies before the House Judiciary Committee's Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee on Capitol Hill May 20, 2010 in Washington, DC. Scalia and fellow Associate Justice Stephen Breyer testified to the subcommittee about the Administrative Conference of the United States. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)


Thursday, Mar 8, 2012 
Updated 1:18 PM EST

...A group of students (click title to entry - thank you) calling itself the "Scalia Welcoming Committee" says it will protest outside the lecture beginning at 6 p.m. They claim Scalia represents "unjust and oppressive political systems" and "corporate control of elections."

Members of the "Occupy" movement also plan to protest. The movement is critical of the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in the Citizens United case that declared political spending by corporations and unions free speech and made it possible for super PACs to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money.

Scalia voted with the 5-4 majority in the case.


Wesleyan University Maps and Directions (click here)


The hypocrisy of Scalia is profound.  He believes in strict construction according to the founders of the USA Constitution so long as the founders are NOT in opposition to his personal agenda.

Justice Scalia says Thomas Jefferson was irrational

Justice Scalia objects to the intellectual pursuits of Thomas Jefferson as if Jefferson himself were one of the Apostles.  If Thomas Jefferson wanted to toy with his Bible while attending to Christian beliefs under the First Amendment he had the right to do it.  I would like to know how many Christian preachers do the exact same thing every Sunday and get away with it.  I mean really, do we have to consider Scalia the only one with God on his side.

Impetus to war. Is Iran counting on it?

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, (click here) Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, surrounded by media while arriving for the IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna on Wednesday

VIENNA - Six world powers (click title to entry - thank you) called on Iran on Thursday to let international inspectors visit a military site where the UN nuclear watchdog says development work relevant to nuclear weapons may have taken place.

In a joint statement at a board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the powers also voiced "regret" about Iran's stepped-up campaign to enrich uranium - activity which can have both civilian and military purposes....

Tomorrow's headlines read, "Israel successfully bombs Iranian nuclear facilities, approximately 200 dead."  Now, anyone in their right minds would immediately applaud Israel for doing what was necessary and preventing millions of people from dying and possibly wiping out an entire race of people with a nuclear weapon's explosion.  And they would be right.  Several hundred dead at Iranian nuclear facilities would be a small price for the world to pay for salvation of millions.


However, what happens next?


Do the world's militaries respond?  China?  Russia?  France?  Great Britain?  The USA?  with nuclear strikes of their own.  I suppose that is a scenario, but, it isn't likely and Iran needs to consider that.  The most likely scenario immediately is the world will wonder if the 200 dead were necessary at all.  Israel will fall into suspicion of engaging a war that was unnecessary and again will be 'the bad guy' to millions of Muslims around the globe.  That, in turn, will result in more and more hatred of The West and more suspicion of Asia as to their priorities for nations such as Indonesia and its Muslim majority.


In a day or two after the strikes by Israel there will be retaliation by the Shi'ites of Iran in alliance with Iraq giving permission for Iranian forces to roll across the deserts to launch attacks on Israel.  Iranian war ships prepared for strikes on Israel from sea will confront USA Naval strength and we will be off to the races, still once again in the Middle East.


Israel reflects on the Six Day War as it prepares to defend the nation and accepts those scenarios as a realistic outcome.  But, then it is only six days and Israel will be safe and Iran will be thwarted for now.


The 'for now' is the real danger, because, following strikes against Iran will the Shi'ites sincerely be in danger of a genocidal world with the ability to yield such horrific violence against another country of minorities in the world.  See, Iran and Israel are very much a like.  They both are sovereign nations to minority ethnicities.  So, following a strike by Israel what then will be Iran's response?  The real response might be to do nothing.  It was a gamble all along anyway and it was brinkmanship that was to happen or not with a 50/50 outcome.  The Iranians know that.  


They have sustained the blows of it's populous against it's leadership due to sanctions.  Iran has cried, "Poor, me;" for a long time due to sanctions and its supposed innocence to all of Israel's complaining.  But, Iran has also brought its own disadvantage, because, it will not allow transparency to what it coins as the peaceful use of nuclear technology.


The facts of the matter is the global community has failed itself, regardless of the outcomes of another six day war.  The real problem is the lack of enforcement of Non-Proliferation in the manner it was intended and that is to reduce the nuclear footprint globally.  


We have seen the worst of the science.  We have witnessed all too clearly the destruction and death of weapons of nuclear technology.  The latest venture into the extremes of Earth's own forces have imperiled the lives in Japan with the overwhelming catastrophe following a tsunami.  As if the tsunami wasn't enough, the backup systems to a series of reactors failed nearly immediately and still today the Japanese are suffering again at the hand of atomic radiation.


Iran creates a great many questions for the global community to answer.  It is a sensitive ethnic populous with the need to feel secure.  The past indiscretions of a decade long 'abuse of power president' has placed a higher priority on nuclear proliferation than non-proliferation.  George Walker Bush believes, along with his party, that once a technology is unveiled and is the most powerful answer to national security, it is inevitable that is the ONLY answer to any nation.  


The USA is sadly a nation unable to broker peace so much as instill the impetus of war.  The USA no longer provides an example to the world of what is possible so much as what is not possible when it comes to a sustaining peace.  The brink Israel has brought itself is all too familiar as an outcome of the discourse of years of attempts to end a stalemate about Iran's nuclear programs.  Do we conclude a global stability of power is impossible and the only resolve to any struggle is death of citizens at the hands of leaders unable to reconcile their priorities?


If Iran and Israel teaches us a lesson at this point in their histories, it is the world is indeed an uncivilized place when the leadership entrusted with the lives of so many see no path forward, except, death of others.

This is the same exact racial attack Breitbart contrived when Shirley Sherrod was victimized.

Obama Harvard Tapes Exposed on Hannity (click title to entry - thank you).  

Evidently, Hannity is attempting to take up the Breitbart mantel.  Somehow that is fitting.

...Breitbart, (click here) the conservative who posted Sherrod's comments on his website, told our Gannett colleague Chuck Raasch that his point was to expose the audience reaction at the NAACP banquet; Breitbart said that he was trying to expose the same kind of racism that the NAACP has accused Tea Party members of practicing....


It is really interesting this topic should come up, because, the then President of the Harvard Law Review, Barak Obama was the first African American President of the Review.  He was speaking out regarding the efforts to foster diversity at Harvard Law School.  President Obama entered Harvard in 1988.  


Nineteen years earlier, it was the Harvard Law School minority students that demonstrated for a black faculty member.  Derrick Bell was then the executive director of the Western Center on Law and Poverty at the University of Southern California.  It was the minority students at Harvard that caused the university to find Dr. Bell and hire him to teach there.


So, when Dr. Derrick Bell felt compelled after nineteen years of being the sole black professor at Harvard and realizing he was getting older and there was no movement toward diversity beyond his hire by Harvard, it was President Obama that answered the call of the minority law students again in support of Dr. Bell's position.


This is not a radical thing to do at Harvard.  It is a way of bringing focus to an issue and have it resolved. The black minority at Harvard is in a unique position to help society move change along and accept difficult decisions.  What President Obama did was in the traditions of Harvard when the university was too set in its cornerstones.


Great institutions, like Harvard, are great institutions because they are set in rock solid cornerstones that endure over time.  But, great institutions also realize their short comings. So, to have a group of minority students assemble peacefully in the company of Dr. Bell, whom had a very unique position at Harvard, to bring attention to the lack of diversity within the university structure was indeed welcome and necessary.


I am sure Dr. Bell had been writing on behalf of diversity for most of those nineteen years to the Harvard Board of Trustees and the President of Harvard, but, when the lethargy became too obvious it was up to the students to shake things up a bit.  So, in the great tradition that is Harvard, the students can very well be the hub of change.  If the students feel under served by the 'establishment,' if you will, then they weren't being properly prepared for their careers to follow.


As a minority student at Harvard and a leader within that minority it was Barak Obama's place to participate in honoring Dr. Bell's initiative and he carried out that responsibility no differently than he carries his responsibilities today in the Oval Office, with dignity and purpose.


Unfortunately, the Right Wing Media in the year 2012 has completely lost its moral compass and once again a minority in the USA has been targeted for hatred and this time it is the President of the United States of America.


When is this racism and bigotry going to stop?


In the last election is was Muslim radicals on the front cover of The New Yorker.  That was nothing short of incendiary.  Now this with Murdoch's network.  Is incendiary the only mechanism to destroy reputations and dignity of African Americans in the USA?  


Breitbart died.  His racism should die with him.

The Plutocracy at work through corrupt politicians. Is anyone surprised the House is investigating?

230 miles per gallon


That isn't anything to laugh at and the petroleum industry rather fight than switch.


Is it any wonder there is propaganda abounding about this incredible invention.


How long have we waited?  


KIMBERLY S. JOHNSON
Huffington Post
August 11, 2009

General Motors (click here) said Tuesday its Chevrolet Volt electric car could get 230 mpg in city driving, making it the first American vehicle to achieve triple-digit fuel economy if that figure is confirmed by federal regulators.

But when the four-door family sedan hits showrooms late next year, its efficiency will come with a steep sticker price: $40,000....

That was in 2009.  The Chevy Volt now costs less.  Yes, less.  


The current e-page for the Chevy Volt states $31,645 (click here) with a monthly lease payment for 36 months of $349.00.  The e-page states (Someone had to be first.)  I agree.


So, unfortunately, the Right Wing Propagandists are all about propaganda about this incredible invention by Chevy.  No different than they were about GE's CEO.  And the list goes on.


There was an investigation about complaints regarding the Volt and the conclusion states it is no more dangerous than cars of other fuel types.  There wasn't really a consumer complaint, there wasn't a consumer accident and for that everyone is grateful.  The possibility of an electric fire manifested when the car was tested under controlled conditions.  In other words, the National Highway Safety Administration tested the Chevy Volt to determine if in worst case scenarios there could be problems.


They found one.  The vehicle that was tested caught fire three weeks later.  There was damage that occurred when the car was involved in the 'test crash.'  The damage caused the ion battery to ignite.  The purpose of the vigilance is obvious, this is the first of its kind.  No one wants tragedy and if there are to be problems then the industry needs to know how to protect itself from lawsuits and recalls.  The consumer is being put first.  So, in response to the findings of the National Highway Safety Administration GM built a better car.  They put in more supports around the ion battery to protect it from impact and therefore any potential for danger.  


I think consumers can have confidence in the Chevy Volt.  The car is being examined over and over to insure there are no problems, after all they are on the road.  There are going to be 'fits and starts' with new technology.  That is a given.  It happens to all products and APPLE knows all to well the problems it's consumers had with the first iPhone and the interruption in signal due to the need for bumpers.  Now, a car isn't an iPhone, but, the point is this is new technology and stuff happens.


The other electric car, the Nissan Leaf, has been having far less public relations problems, but, this is not GM.  GM received a loan.  GM is doing well.  GM is the focus of hatred by the Right Wing Political Machine, no different than GE's CEO has been.  


I can't thank GM and GE enough for their dedication to this country and it's current President or whom this technology would not be possible yet today.  


The Nissan Leaf (click here) doesn't have the gas engine component that the Chevy Volt does.  At the Nissan Leaf e-page there is a comparison of other vehicles including the Chevy Volt (click here).  It is called competition.  I think that falls under capitalism in definition of where that might contribute to fairness in pricing for consumers.  


There are some differences.  The Nissan Leaf charges in 7 hours whereby the Chevy Volt charges in 4 hours.  The Volt has a tailpipe and has to go through emissions testing where the Leaf does not.


The battery range is interesting, the Leaf 100 miles before charging and the Volt 40 miles before charging.  Something tells me GM is still a little to attached to the internal combustion engine, but, then it is better on long trips.


And this is really cool, the Nissan Leaf has a photovoltaic solar panel rear soiler.  I think that is more than interesting.  It is not standard, but, it is an option.


Nissan even provides consumers with a CO2 comparison (click here).


Be it GM or Nissan this is more than the USA consumer ever hoped for and we should be delighted these companies have shown interest in providing this technology on the good faith it will be received well and hopefully will be a growing market.  I am grateful to them.


To add to the dialogue is my opinion we cannot do without this market and we need to encourage its growth, especially when it comes to road planning and placing charging stations in fueling areas along major highways and interstate systems.  We don't have a choice, we have to remove the production of CO2 from Earth's benevolent troposphere and that is simply a fact.  This technology will not go away and should not be allowed to disappear.

WASHINGTON — A GOP-led House committee (click here) is challenging the Obama administration's investigation into Chevy Volt batteries that caught fire last year, raising questions about whether the government's partial ownership of General Motors Co. created a conflict of interest.

The report by the Republican staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said it was “deeply troubling” that safety regulators waited several months before telling the public that a Volt battery caught fire three weeks after a government crash test. The fire happened in June but was not made public until November — “a period of time that also coincides with the negotiation over the 2017-2025 fuel economy standards,” the report states, adding that it was possible that those negotiations “incentivized NHTSA to remain silent on the issue.”

But in a recent letter to committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Administrator David Strickland said that the agency's investigation into the Chevy Volt “is completely unrelated to the fuel economy standards rulemaking.”

The committee is set to hold a subcommittee hearing on the issue this morning. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the report ahead of its official release....

It is dirty politics and absolutely nothing more.  There is no need for an investigative hearing, GM was extremely interested in the findings of the tests and modified the production model.  What need is there for this investigation by a House panel?  

Case closed: NHTSA ends Chevrolet Volt fire investigation (click title to entry - thank you)

Jan 23, 2012 2:30 PM

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has closed its safety investigation into fires that erupted from three Chevrolet Volt battery packs after severe crash tests by the agency.

“Based on the available data, NHTSA does not believe that Chevy Volts or other electric vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles. Generally, all vehicles have some risk of fire in the event of a serious crash,” NHTSA concluded. The agency said it “remains unaware of any real-world crashes that have resulted in a battery-related fire involving the Chevy Volt or any other electric vehicle.”...


The production is stopped for awhile and it is legal for a company to do that and it does not spell death to the electric car.


...A GM spokesman said Friday (click here) that the company will shut down production of the Volt from March 19 until April 23, idling 1,300 workers at the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant....


...GM sold 7,671 Volts last year, below its original goal of 10,000 cars. The company stopped publicly announcing sales targets last year. It sold 1,023 Volts in February and 603 in January.

“The fact that GM is now facing an oversupply of Volts suggests that consumer demand is just not that strong for these vehicles,” said Lacey Plache, chief economist for auto information site Edmunds.com.

GM spokesman Chris Lee said the company was “taking a temporary shutdown” of the assembly line.

“We’re doing it to maintain our proper inventory levels as we align production with demand,” he said....

It would seem as though the consumer demand increased from last year with the uptick of the February 2012 numbers.  It was expected to have a slow down in demand with lithium ion battery questions.  The average of both January and February is 813 per month.  At that rate, GM will sell 9756 Chevy Volts which is very near the 10,000 they were hoping for last year.  

If Nissan can be daring enough to produce an electric car that does not require a gas engine then GM needs to have more confidence in it's place in the market.  The Chevy Volt is the cutting edge between Hybrid and completely electric, there is a place in the consumer market for it and GM should NOT be shy about accepting that demand seriously.  "Chevy Runs Deep."