Gold Medal Game Women's Hockey 

US vs Canada

Tied 3 - 3 

Now in overtime.

US had it won with 3 minutes and 30 seconds to go when Canada scored and tied it.

Canada Gold.

The Eurasian Economic Union is due to be finalized in a constitution in 2015. Currently, the permanent participants are Belarus, Russia and Kazakstan. The other nations here are expected to be a part of of the economic cooperative.

The people of the Ukraine believe the chance of having their 2004 constitution is mostly gone and the chances of it returning to a democracy they wanted is disappearing quickly. It is why the violence is nearly intractable at this point.

The Ukrainian constitution of 2004 is not a threat to the ambitions of the Eurasian Economic Union. When the EU formed no country had to compromise their own constitutions or sovereign status in order to find cooperation with other nations in developing their own currency and stability. 

The Ukrainian people wanted to be a part of Europe and they believe it is being taken away from them. I fear for them. I believe they have reached a tipping point.

Belarus - Ukraine Trains are on schedule

MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) - Trains (click here) from Ukraine to Belarus run as scheduled on 20 February, BelTA learnt from the press service of Belarusian Railways.
“There have been no delays in the departure of trains heading for Kyiv,” the company said answering BelTA’s question on possible changes in the timetable in connection with mass riots in Kyiv.
Currently 11 pairs of Belarusian Railways’ international trains are used to service the Belarus-Ukraine line. These trains link Belarus with Kyiv and major administrative and regional centers in Ukraine. Transit trains from Chisinau, Kyiv, Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk run through Belarus to St. Petersburg.
On 20 February the Belarusian Embassy recommended that Belarusians in Ukraine abstain from visiting places where protests are being staged. 

20 February 2014
The system of finished product control (click here) is running at full capacity in Belarus. This has been announced at today's press conference by Minister of Agriculture and Food Leonid Zayats. In his opinion, the agricultural industry lacks highly skilled professionals; however, there are educational institutions aimed at raising professional skill levels. It is planned to use new approaches in milk production to reach 10 million tons of milk per year by 2015.
According to the Minister, agro-industrial complex development is a very promising area. Dairy products and meat sold abroad bring tens of percent profit margins.

20.02.14
MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – Belarus (click here) intends to contact the Eurasian Economic Community Court in view of Russia’s claims concerning the poor quality of Belarusian meat and dairy products, BelTA learned from Belarusian Agriculture and Food Minister Leonid Zayats on 20 February.

Russia’s complaints about the quality of Belarusian agricultural products have been quite frequent in mass media recently. Belarus has repeatedly stated and the Agriculture and Food Minister underlined it one more time on 19 February that Russia’s concerns had been caused by attempts to falsify Belarusian foods. In particular, attempts to falsify tinned meat made by the agricultural company Agrokombinat Snov have been registered. Unprincipled manufacturers make well-known Belarusian brands suffer, discrediting the latter and negatively influencing the trust in Belarus. “We are forced to go to court to protect our manufacturers,” said the Minister....

By EDDIE PELLS 
AP National Writer
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia 
February 17, 2014 (AP) 

This was a high five Anton Kushnir will never forget. (click here)

Five spins into the frosty night air followed by a near-perfect landing gave Kushnir the gold medal Monday and wrapped up a sweep of aerials gold at the Sochi Olympics for Belarus.

He won it three nights after Alla Tsuper, who recently moved to Belarus from Ukraine, took the women's gold.

"We managed to repeat the success," Kushnir said. "I don't know actually how this happened but I got the gold medal."

Kushnir won with the biggest trick going in the game right now — the "back double full-full-double full," which is five twists packed into three head-over-heels flips while he soars 50 feet (15 meters) off the ramp.

He earned a score of 134.5 for the trick to beat David Morris of Australia by more than 24 points....

From the Associated Press

February 14, 2014, 11:34 a.m.

SOCHI, Russia — Alla Tsuper of Belarus (click here) pulled off a stunning Olympic gold-medal win in women's aerials.

Tsuper drilled 98.01 in the finals to beat a field that included defending Olympic champion Lydia Lassila of Australia and two-time Olympic medalist Li Nina of China.

Xu Mengtao of China won silver while Lassila earned bronze.

The 34-year-old Tsuper had never finished higher than fifth in four previous Olympics. She plans on retiring after the Games to spend more time with her young daughter and hoped to go out “on a high.” 

Tsuper went first during the four-skier final round and drilled her acrobatic leap. Nina and Lassila both botched their landings and when Mengtao struggled to hold on at the end of her jump, Tsuper began celebratin.


 

By DAVID PACE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 17, 2014, 11:28 AM

SOCHI, Russia — It was Belarus (click here) day Monday at the Sochi Olympics.
A Belarussian woman made Olympic history by becoming the first female ever to win three biathlon titles at the same games, and one of her teammates captured the men's freestyle skiing aerials competition to complete a gold-medal sweep on the event.
Anton Kushnir nailed a near-perfect landing after a "back double full-full-double full" jump — five twists packed into three head-over-heels flips while soaring 50 feet off the ramp and into the night sky.


MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – The registration (click here) of local election candidates is finishing in Belarus on 20 February, BelTA has learnt.
A total of 22,784 candidates have joined the race for 18,816 seats at the local councils of deputies. The candidates were nominated by political parties, labor collectives and by means of signature collection. The average competition in a constituency is 1.2. The competition for the seats in the Minsk City Council of Deputies will be the toughest with the average of 4.7 potential candidates seeking a seat there.
Candidates will be able to start campaigning from the moment of registration up to 22 March. The early elections will take place on 18-22 March. The election day is scheduled for 23 March. 

MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – Belarus (click here) is expanding the network of emergency or temporary accommodation for people whose personal safety is threatened (like domestic violence victims or human trafficking victims), BelTA learnt from the Labor and Social Security Ministry of Belarus.
 
There are 148 regional social services centers in Belarus, including two municipal social support centers for families and children in Minsk and Gomel. As of 1 January 2014, these centers operated 133 social adaptation and rehabilitation facilities and 74 shelters. There were 31 shelters in Belarus as of 1 January 2011, 41 shelters as of 1 January 2012 and 50 shelters as of 1 January 2013. Thus, the number of shelters is increasing year to year. As for the regional distribution of shelters, Mogilev Oblast used to have the biggest number of temporary housing. Now Vitebsk Oblast has as many temporary and emergency accommodation facilities. Shelters were opened in all the districts (25 in each region). Last year 150 people approached these facilities for assistance (124 people in 2012)....

MINSK, 20 February (BelTA) – In January 2014 (click here) Belarus’ GDP totaled Br49,851.7 billion, 1.1% down from January 2013, BelTA learned from the National Statistics Committee of Belarus.
In January 2014 the industrial output dropped by 7.1% to Br52.23 trillion. The share of innovative products in the total volume of shipped products amounted to 15.1%.
In January 2014 the fixed-capital investments stood at Br9.17 trillion, 99.6% as against January 2013.
In 2013 Belarus’ GDP reached Br636.8 trillion, 0.9% up from 2012.
As of 1 February 2014 the finished goods inventory amounted to Br31.84 trillion, 78.2% of the average monthly industrial output.
In January 2014 Belarus’ agricultural output lost 2.8% in comparison with January 2013 to land at Br5.16 trillion.
In January 2014 the wholesale trade turnover rose by 3.4% to Br36.8 trillion. The retail trade turnover gained 13.6% to reach Br21.6 trillion. 

MINSK, 19 February (BelTA) – It is important to prepare (click here) the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty on time. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko made the statement as he met with members of the Council of the Eurasian Economic Commission and the Chairman of the EEC Board on 19 February, BelTA has learned.

In line with the agreement reached by the presidents of the Customs Union member states the Eurasian Economic Union Treaty is supposed to be ready by 1 May 2014. The Union itself should become operational as from 1 January 2015. “Concrete deadlines have been set and I wouldn’t like breaking them,” noted the Belarusian head of state.

“It is very important because once due to the work to establish the Union State of Belarus and Russia, even more so, the Commonwealth of Independent States our peoples had inflated expectations or maybe normal ones but we failed to meet these expectations. Therefore, people are now concerned about the possibility of our failing of the project. If we shift the timeframe, if we fail to meet the deadlines, the people will not be happy about it,” said the Belarus President....

Hungary prepares for Ukraine refugees.

February 19th, 2014

Members of the Visegrad Four grouping, (click here) including Hungarian authorities, are monitoring the situation in Ukraine, with special regard to the Hungarian minority living in Transcarpathia, Andras Giro-Szasz, the government spokesman, told MTI on Wednesday.

Hungary is prepared both in terms of health-care and refugee services, to deal with a potential inflow of refugees in light of the violence in Ukraine, he said.
At least 25 people died and hundreds were injured in clashes between the police and anti-government demonstrators in Kiev by Wednesday morning.

The Ukrainian people know, understand and seek a return of the democracy they established in 2004. It is too late for old world oppression. The Ukraine government has to realize they do not have the support of the people of their nation. The government troops are Ukrainian, too. They can't possibly be expected to continuously kill their fellow citizens. The people want government, they don't want oppression. There is no going back for many of them and carnage is nothing more than killing innocent people that believe their lives are over in profound ways if oppression were to return to them.

By: Anna-Lysa Gayle
Updated: Thu 12:19 AM, Feb 20, 2014

The protests in the Ukraine (click here) is just one example of how refugees end up in the United States and for Viktor Sokolyuk it brings back sad memories.
"You do whatever you're told, you can't say anything against the regime," said Sokolyuk, who entered the United States as a refugee, during the time the Ukraine was under the Soviet Union's control.
He said it seems little has changed in the country.
He describes today's leaders in the Ukraine like this.
"They still have that old Soviet society mentality. It's either my way or there is no way," said Sokolyuk.
Under the soviet regime he was persecuted for being a Christian.
Now a citizen of the United States, he works to help refugees coming to America, who were once like him....

Lee Young-sil, 87, right, (click here) and her sister Ri Jeong-sil, 84, now living in North Korea, shed tears as they met each other during inter-Korean family reunions held at the Geumgangsan Hotel in North Korea, Thursday./ Yonhap

By Kim Kwang-tae
Joint Press Corps

MOUNT KUMGANG, North Korea, Feb. 20 (Yonhap) -- Kang Neung-hwan, (click here) a 93-year-old South Korean, wept and hugged his son from North Korea on Thursday as they reunited at a North Korean mountain resort along with dozens of other families, in an emotional event that underscored the painful separation of people after the Korean War.

Kang did not knew that his wife -- with whom he had been married for less than four months -- was pregnant when he fled to South Korea during the chaotic days of the 1950-1953 war. The war ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, keeping ordinary people from the rival Koreas from contacting each other for decades....

They ever have training at FOX? Seriously. The American people are used to tabloid journalism to promote power.

Egypt needs to deport them, remove their visas or tell them to find another country or island to live on.

Why do through a trail, it will only upset everyone. Tell them to get out of the country and if they come back it is at their own risk. Look, you know China once told Nick Kristof not to ever enter the country where his in-laws live. It happens. 

This is not that big of a deal. Countries do this all the time, the journalists are used to it. Tell them there is more news in Beirut. News gets that way. Everyone fighting for the next headline and it reads really lousy when one realizes it is the same story as the next one only with a twist. All those journalists trying to cover different sides of the mess get confused themselves.

This stuff is not worth the time of the Egyptian government. It just isn't. Put them out of the country. Something tells me these journalists are not bringing people together. That is the issue here. They are doing a really lousy job in Egypt and the government wants it to end. They need reassignment, that is all this is.
 
Ahram Online
Thursday 20 Feb 2014

The trial of 20 journalists (click here) working for Al Jazeera, including four foreigners, has been adjourned until 5 March.

Representatives from the Australian and Canadian embassies were in court to support their citizens.
There was a heavy presence of foreign media outlets in the courtroom.

The 16 Egyptians are charged with joining a terrorist organisation – a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, officially designated a terrorist group in December – harming national unity and social peace.
The foreigners – an Australian, two Britons and one Dutch – are accused of "airing false news" in order to "undermine the state's status and disrupt public security."...

Germany finds humility as Norway takes the lead with the USA hot on both heels.

The ski slopes are rough. It is amazing how these slopes carve out the expertise of the athletes. They allow for very little mistakes. Exactly when I thought the slopes were simply impossible along would come the one athlete putting in a perfect run.  

This Olympics is finding a focus on women, too. It is refreshing. They are great athletes.

By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Sports Writer

...They shared a coach. (click here) They shared philosophies. They shared knowledge.
They could not share the Olympic gold medal.
It belongs to Humphries.
Canada's team of Humphries and Heather Moyse are again queens of Olympic women's bobsledding, rallying past the U.S. duo of Meyers and Lauryn Williams on Wednesday night to win gold at the Sochi Games.
It's the second straight Olympic title for Humphries and Moyse, and it wasn't decided until the final moment of the competition — then only by a tenth of a second.
"We knew it was going to be this way," Humphries said after becoming the first women's bobsledder to drive to back-to-back Olympic golds....

In winning a silver in the Bobsled, Lauryn Williams was the seventh American to win medals in both Summer and Winter Olympics. Lauryn missed being the first athlete to win Gold in both summer and winter olympics by 0.23 seconds. It was heartbreaking, but, she took it in stride as any great athlete does. Perhaps she many try again.

8:09 PM, February 19, 2014 
KRASNAYA POLYANA, RUSSIA — As the last few teams (click here) competed in the bobsled on Wednesday — and former Detroiter Lauryn Williams tried to make Olympic history by becoming the first woman to win gold medals in the Winter and Summer Games — fireworks shot into the air....

Ted Ligety takes the Gold.

The USA CBO are a bunch of wackos.

The President needs to clean house over there. Let me show you. I am sure Goldman has a place for everyone of them even if in the mail room where their brains can be picked at minimum wage.

By Zachary A. Goldfarb  
Published: February 18

...The higher wages (click here) would lift about 900,000 people out of poverty, the report said.

But the CBO warned that raising the minimum wage could also cause employers to lay off low-wage workers or hire fewer of them, reducing overall employment by about 500,000 jobs, or about 0.3 percent of the labor force. The CBO acknowledged that its calculation is an estimate and said actual job losses could range from “very slight” to as many as 1 million positions....

So, according to the CBO, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will drop the number of people in the labor force. Now, that is not correct. All the people currently will remain in the labor force but won't be working one to two additional jobs to pay for their health care.

So according to the CBO there will be many jobs left vacant because the nation has good health care now. THAT IS WHAT THEY SAID. No going back on that. 

Now, the increase in minimum wage will cost the economy jobs. That is what the CBO is stating. If the minimum wage goes up and raises 900,000 out of poverty, then the economy will lose 500,000 jobs. CAN'T GO BACK ON THAT. It is in writing.

It seems to me that very much straights out the entire mess the CBO has so generously written as if the country has to be confused about what a Middle Class looks like.

The CBO is victimizing the people of this country by putting report after report into print to try to advise the country to reject it's own success in moving out of poverty.

So, here is the equation:

Loss of Labor + Loss of Jobs = 0 loss of quality of life for the Middle Class, balanced books for Wall Street with reductions in the need for food stamps, medicaid and welfare for the USA Treasury and a federal budget coming in line with it's income.

I'LL BE DARN.

But, wait. The CBO will now come out with a report stating the loss of jobs won't align with the drop in labor and will result in a drop in GDP. 

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a cure for that, when the INEVITABLE happens and some labor is misaligned with jobs that remain, they are retrained to fill in the gap. SOUND LIKE A PLAN?  

The magnificent change anticipated by the CBO has a name. It is called President Obama. 

The dye is cast. The people of the Ukraine will not consent now that so many have perished.

She needs to be returned to the Ukraine. Jailing her isn't going to stop this. She is willing to run for President in the Ukraine from her jail cell.

Commentators (click here) in Ukraine and the wider region are appalled by the use of force against protesters in Kiev's main protest camp. Front pages carry harrowing pictures from the Maidan, with headlines speaking of "rivers of blood".

...In Ukraine, the main headline in independent broadsheet Den is a quote from a poem by Vasyl Symonenko: "There is no more room for graves at the cemetery of killed illusions." The daily also publishes a gallery of harrowing images from last night's clashes, headlined "Dictatorship of hatred".
"Shattered truce" is the front-page headline in the popular daily Segodnya, which is of the opinion that "Ukraine is on fire again". Speaking about chances for a peaceful parliamentary solution to the crisis, political expert Vadym Karasyov tells Segodnya that "they are melting away fast"....

Ultimately the former Prime Minister must be freed to return to her country. No army is going to stop this. They believe the future of their children is more important than their own lives. Widows are not a good idea by any government. 

14 February, 15:44
...In October 2011 (click here) she was sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of power during the signing of the gas supply contracts with Russia. But Tymoshenko is not planning to give up her position....

President Yanukovych is destroying his own economy. The loans from Russia will never be enough if this continues. If the Ukraine remains in chaos it's fiscal condition will deteriorate. The current path President Yanukovych has chosen will never be tolerated. A day of mourning? Really? He calls out the troops and 25 people are dead and he calls for a day of mourning. I don't think that is going to elevate his status among the people.

President Viktor Yanukovych has declared February 20 a day of mourning for those perished in the clashes between the anti-government protesters and law-enforcers, reads decree No.82 of February 19.

By Brendan Hoffman (GETTY)

KIEV, UKRAINE - FEBRUARY 19: A hotel clerk looks out the lobby window at a barricade that was constructed on an adjacent street overnight near the perimeter of Independence Square, known as Maidan, on February 19, 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine. After several weeks of calm, violence has again flared between police and anti-government protesters, who are calling for the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych over corruption and an abandoned trade agreement with the European Union. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

Germany can't be dethroned. Every time it looks as though there will be a change in status Germany wins another gold medal.

The Curling competition is becoming more and more interesting. I still haven't decided it is a good idea to stack the stones the way they do. I know I am probably dead wrong about this, but, would it not be just has good if they were lined up across the entire target as in a straight to the house?

It is incredible how accurate the placement of the stones are on ice.

18/02/2014 

Ever wondered (click here) how the Olympic medals are stored at an Olympic Games? Who keeps an eye on them? How they’re transported to the Medals Plaza? Or what goes on backstage to ensure the medals look their shiny best before being presented to the athletes?

Rachel Axon
USA TODAY Sports  
8:50 p.m. EST 
February 18, 2014
 
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia -- If Sarah Burke (click here) were here, she and Roz Groenewoud would stand at the top of the Olympic halfpipe and say 1-2, 1-2.
The Canadian teammates always supported each other in that way, even if each saw herself on top.
A pioneer in her sport, the Canadian was a driving force behind getting the sport into the Olympics. It has been two years since her death after a training crash, and yet her dream will live on as halfpipe makes its debut for female skiers Thursday....

Posted: Monday, February 17, 2014 6:45 am

Tallahassee, Fla. (WTXL) - Tallahassee (click here) area State Representative Alan Williams was quick to respond to the verdict in the Jordan Davis murder trial. 

Williams is the sponsor of House Bill 4003, a repeal of the Stand Your Ground law.


Williams' statement reads: “The tragedy of the Jordan Davis case reflects that here in Florida self defense laws must be changed. My thoughts and prayers remain with Jordan Davis family. As an advocate of repealing Stand Your Ground law in Florida, the impact of Stand Your Ground in Florida is significant given the number of tragedies that have occurred in the state, as in the highly publicized deaths of Jordan Davis and Trayvon Martin. These tragedies have renewed the argument that this injustice in our laws makes ordinary citizens feel empowered to shoot first and ask questions later; boosting murder rates and justifiable homicides, and putting individuals that people too often presumed to be a threat in particular peril....

No respect for life, but, Chevron believes people can be bought off with pizza.

February 18, 2014
By Molly Born 
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A northwestern Pennsylvania newspaper (click here) has identified a worker missing since last week's gas well explosion and fire in Dunkard, Greene County.
The Times Observer of Warren reported that friends held a candlelight vigil Thursday for Ian McKee, 27, originally from Warren but whose latest address is in Morgantown, W.Va.
Mr. McKee, an employee of Cameron International, a contractor to Chevron, was onsite when the gas well near Bobtown exploded last Tuesday morning, one of his friends told the Times Observer . Officials at a press conference Monday in Morgantown said they continued to search for the man, who is feared to be dead and has not been identified by the company....

Published time: February 19, 2014 00:53
RIA Novosti 

With one person missing and presumed dead (click here) in an explosion at a natural gas well in a small Pennsylvania town, the company responsible is now under fire after apparently apologizing to the local community by handing out vouchers for free pizza.

It took five days for emergency crews to safely extinguish a fire that was set by an explosion that shook the small town of Bobtown, located in the far southwestern corner of the state. The blast gave off a loud hissing noise that could be heard from hundreds of yards away.

One resident told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the explosion in a shale formation where Chevron Corp. has spent time fracking “sounded like a jet engine going five feet above your house.” John Kuis, 57, of nearby Dilliner said his dog started growling unusually at 6:45 a.m. on February 11 “then the house just sort of shock and there was a big loud bang.”...

This is the real side effect of hydraulic fracturing of Earth. It just is. There is no stopping it at this point.

By Alexander Smith

...The strongest in a series of ten minor earthquakes (click here) hit central Oklahoma on Sunday night, according to seismologists.

The quake was initially measured at magnitude 4.2 but was later downgraded to a 3.8, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

It was followed by three aftershocks between magnitude 3.0 and 2.7, taking the total number of earthquakes in the area to 10 since Friday.

The strongest of these quakes hit at 11 p.m. Sunday (midnight ET) about 7 miles southwest of Guthrie, a city of 10,000 people about 30 miles north of Oklahoma City....

Hydraulic fracturing is not a benign technology. It has permanent and irretrievable side effects. Those irretrievable side effects is what many scientists have been focusing on for some time now. The first analysis that aligned Fracking with earthquakes was in Texas. The earthquakes in Texas and other places in the USA have been increasing and the severity of them are becoming destructive.

Liquefaction on Kilmore St (Asher Trafford) in Christchurch, New Zealand.

This is what the USA has to look forward to now. There isn't any concrete structure that can stop the quakes and the increasing potential to liquefaction because the rock has been profoundly DISSOLVED. If the truth be known and logic applied, the very act of fracking by melting rock is itself liquefaction.

In addition to the act of liquefaction in the fracking of rock, there is the removal of gas pockets that act as shock absorbers to 'real' earthquakes. Now that the rock is melted and the shock absorbers removed the manmade earthquakes are going to be far more destructive. As the earthquakes progress and the land and rock above the melted rock meets with movement, it will increase a liquefaction state. 

I have one question. Just one. Now that governors believe they have solved their unemployment problems, where are those now employed going to live in the near future? 

This is the North American Craton. The most or was the most stable rock to the continent.

I am just waiting for the first fracking quake near a major city because then something will be done, but, it might be too late. And what is EPA's response? It is working to be sure water supplies are safe and the chemicals used by the petroleum industry are revealed.

Really? Is that all? What is the EPA's answer to manmade earthquakes? I think FEMA needs to get ready. Maybe the EPA and FEMA needs to meet with the USGS and find out what actually is a problem with melting rock. If USGS hasn't got a clue, there is plenty of evidence already and they need to stop looking the other way because 'the law' states this is all legal.

Kansas is in the southern end of the North American Craton. Earthquakes? Huh? It would seem as though the Obama Administration needs to assign this hideous form of extracting natural gas to an agency that can REGULATE it in a meaningful way. Earthquakes are only a concern of FEMA at this time. That isn't good enough. Those that believe this is a legal and benevolent method of energy have no appreciation for a sovereign nation.

February 17 
By MIKE HENDRICKS 
The Kansas City Star

Killer tornadoes, (click here) sizzling summers, treacherous ice storms. Barbara Scott was prepared for all that and more when she moved from Denver to Bluff City, Kan., a half dozen years ago.

But earthquakes? In Kansas?

“It’s like the earth just rolled under my house, raised it up and lowered it down,” she said of the quake that struck last month between Bluff City and Caldwell.

Further rattling Scott was the possibility that the earthquake was man-made, a byproduct of our lust for energy.

“We thought it might be the fracking,” she said. “We have so much of that going on down here.”...

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/11/4745445/shaking-kansas-with-an-increase.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/11/4745445/shaking-kansas-with-an-increase.html#storylink=cpy

Vitali Klitschko is a national hero. He is a boxer and admired by the Ukraine people.

Official Website of Klitschko (click here)

February 11, 2014
Kick off press conference 
Wladimir vs. Alex Leapai

WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko and WBO mandatory challenger Alex Leapai met for the first time on Tuesday at a press conference in Oberhausen, Germany to kick off their April 26 clash.

Wladimir Klitschko: "I am impressed of Alex. He is very confident and has no self-doubt. This will be a very strong challenge which I am looking forward to."

"My brother Vitali is fighting for democracy in the Ukraine right now and I will fight with the same motivation as the demonstrants on the Maidan square against Leapai. And I will win, just as the Ukrainians will win their fight." 

Alex Leapai: "Klitschko is a great fighter, but he’s been knocked out before and he’s never fought anyone who can punch like me.".... 

When Mr. Klitschko told the demonstrators in Maidan Square to defend their positions, I am quite sure he anticipated a peaceful resistance. To the best of my knowledge from what I am reading, the demonstrators were unarmed (did not have guns) and intended nothing but a demonstration. Mr. Klitschko can speak to that reality better than I.

February 18, 2014 
...Ukrainian opposition leader Vitali Klitschko (click here) urged the pro-Western demonstrators occupying Kyiv's Independence Square - also known as Maidan - to defend their positions. He warned women and children to leave the area.

Later, Klitschko met with President Viktor Yanukovych for talks, but the meeting failed to produce a breakthrough. Klitschko said the president demanded protesters "stop the standoff" and unconditionally clear the square.

He told the Ukrainska Pravda website that he brings "nothing good from the talks."...

...Biden told Mr. Yanukovych his government bears "special responsibility" to resolve the crisis.

Anti-government protests have been building for weeks, with activists calling for Mr. Yanukovych's ouster after he backed away from a trade deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia.

Protesters, some armed with clubs and wearing helmets and body armor, attempted to stand their ground in central Kyiv, hurling firebombs and stones at police as plumes of smoke billowed from burning tents and piles of tires and wood....

Vice President Biden needs to assemble a party to visit President Yanukovych and ask to mediate a clear understanding to the outcome of meetings on Wednesday. It would seem as though there are two separate reportings, each different, as to the outcome of the meeting with the demonstrators. I believe the first order of business is to establish a return to the 2004 USA Constitution which would mitigate the return of the Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

The current President Yanukovych has no appreciation of the resolve of the people of the Ukraine. They want to improve their economy and their quality of life. A dedicated interest by Vice President Biden can be effective. Russia has opened the flow of loan money as of yesterday to relieve some tensions, but, obviously it is not reaching the people in a meaningful way.

I think both Russia and the USA can have a voice in assisting the people of the Ukraine. The presence of the USA within any diplomatic relations in settling the tensions would be beneficial. Currently, the people of the Ukraine believe they are stranded in their ability to have international relations with The West. It isn't appropriate to have the people feel this desperate. 

I am sure the loans from Russia are invaluable to the country, but, the people want a more open society with connections to more countries than currently exist. There isn't anything the current President and his administration have to fear. He does have to end the aggressive stance of his police and stop killing people. The people shot received their wounds and deaths by the Ukraine police.

By ANDREW HIGGINS and ALISON SMALE

FEB. 17, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine — The protracted struggle (click here) for Ukraine between Russia and the West was on vivid display on Monday with Russia throwing an unexpected financial lifeline to the embattled Ukrainian president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, just as Germany rolled out an unusually high-level reception for two of the president’s most ardent opponents.

As the Ukrainian opposition leaders, Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk and the former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, huddled in Berlin with German leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russia said it would this week unblock the next payment of a promised $15 billion credit for Ukraine that it had earlier frozen because of the political disarray in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev... 

The relationship of the Ukraine with Europe is inevitable. It is a matter of time. It would be better if there wasn't so much a choice of one or the other, but, peaceful relationships with both Europe and Russia. It is a bit silly to demand a choice. This is the real world. Those choices are not real, but, political. These conflicts are not necessary.

NATO and the US won't make in roads with Russia until the escalation at it's border stop.

If this was going at Russia's borders by Russia, Europe would never tolerate it. But, because Russia is the evil empire they have to tolerate the actions by the saints in Europe.

We went through this mess decades ago with the Cuban Missile Crisis. We know what the USA would do, why would NATO and the US expect any different reaction by another sovereign nation?

Interceptor missiles are Anti-Ballistic Missiles.

It is easy for NATO and the USA to point fingers at Russia over Assad, but, there are unresolved problems with Russia as well.

When Russia deploys their own interceptor missile shield with it's allies, no one better complain. Russian people have a right to safety in their homes, too. 

The ABM Treaty doesn't cover these particular missiles and as a result Europe has insisted they are at risk from attack and now use these missiles at the Russia border. 

The ABM Treaty was suppose to limit the intercontinental abilities and submarine launched missiles to insure the safety of the people of the USA and Russia. Hello? Now, the Russian people fact a danger the people of the USA don't face. It is called "The Balance of Power." The Balance of Power has been destroyed with these actions by Europe and the USA. The ABM Treaty still stands, but, now has holes in it for Russia. 

Presidents Obama, Putin Meet At G20 Amid Rising Tension (click here) 

NATO and the USA have no replacement for Assad's leadership. There would be a power vacuum in Syria and a potential for more ethnic hostilities. At this point the only actions that can take place are to bring humanitarian aid to the people. The reality is that within Syria there are militias that are numerous and unwilling to take up loyalties to any leadership. It is not Russia causing the problem any more than NATO. The real problem with the Syrian peace process is anarchy. 

Russia, NATO and the USA have figure head leadership that the people won't follow because of the fear they hold regarding the past. The people of nations such as Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Libya have to resolve their own problems. I don't know where any nation has the right to sell arms or any weapons to militia groups. Militia groups are not governments, they are anarchists. When that reality finally sets in there might be some progress made. Until that happens the United Nations has answers for the people and that should be respected and supported. 

And for those 'at the table,' Jordan needs help with the influx of refugees and the movement of chemical weapons out of Syria need to be on schedule.

15 November 2013 

NATO has resumed building a military base in Romania (click here) with the construction of an anti-missile shield to protect the European countries from the ballistic threats stemming from the restive Middle East, especially from rogue states like Iran, officials and experts in Bucharest told SETimes.

"Missile threats to alliance territory and populations are real and growing," NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow said at the ceremony at Deveselu Air Base in southern Romania. "NATO's defence against these threats must be real, too. And it must be able to grow and adapt as the threat evolves."

"Romania has joined the NATO member states club which will ensure one of the most perfected solutions against the real threat which the ballistic missile represents," Romania's President Traian Basescu said at the ceremony....