Do we really want to go through this again?

Lehman Brothers’ presidential connections (click here)
...- George Herbert Walker IV, President Bush’s second cousin, was global head of asset management at Lehman, having joined from Goldman Sachs (GS) in 2006. In September, when Lehman agreed to sell its asset management unit, including Neuberger Berman, to Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman for $2.15 billion, Walker agreed to go with the deal. He’s now CEO of Neuberger Investment Management, now owned by private equity.
- Jeb Bush, the President’s brother and former Governor of Florida, was a senior adviser for Lehman’s private equity arm. He parted ways with Lehman around the time of the bankruptcy....


Left: CT scan of normal brain; Right: Schiavo's 2002 CT scan provided by Ronald Cranford, showing loss of brain tissue. The black area is liquid, indicating hydrocephalus ex vacuo. The glowing piece in the right image is the Thalamic stimulator implanted in her brain.


Jeb Bush steps in for Schindler-Schiavo (click here)
Supports woman whose court-ordered starvation begins in 8 days
...In papers delivered yesterday afternoon to the Federal Courthouse in Tampa, assistant counsel Christa Calamas, on behalf of Gov. Bush, asked U.S. District Judge Richard A. Lazzara for permission for the governor to appear as a friend of the court and to file an amicus curiae, or friend of the court, brief supporting the preliminary injunction filed by Terri's parents....


Why Rachel Maddow is 'thankful' Bush administration is ending (click here -video)
David Edwards
Published: Thursday November 27, 2008
What is it about the Bush administration that makes people so thankful it's ending? MSNBC's Rachel Maddow put together a list of Bush officials that have been indicted or resigned abruptly in order to recall "just how bad the bad old times have been."...


Jeb Bush's bid for Senate could clear GOP field (click title to entry, thank you)
By BRENDAN FARRINGTON – 36 minutes ago
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Still popular in Florida, former Gov. Jeb Bush said Wednesday that he's interested in the seat Sen. Mel Martinez is giving up, and the field of possible candidates could quickly narrow to make way for the president's younger brother.
Bush, 55, won praise from Democrats and Republicans alike for leading the state through eight hurricanes over a two-year period. He used standardized testing to overhaul the education system, was credited with making government more efficient and lowered taxes to make Florida more business-friendly.
While his older brother, soon-to-be former President George W. Bush, has been so unpopular that he has been a liability to many Republican candidates this year, Jeb Bush remains a popular figure here....

Jeb hadn't gotten the word? We are looking at a National Health Insurance Plan for the nation.

Expand Medicaid Reforms (click here)
By JEB BUSH
Special to the Tribune
Published: November 29, 2008
...The tenets of the reform are simple. New Medicaid is a patient-centered system that respects individual participants by empowering them to direct their own health care. It provides choices, promotes preventive care, reduces inefficiency and prevents fraud. Most importantly, the reform plan harnesses the power of the marketplace to foster innovation and spur competition, which improves the quality of care for our most vulnerable Floridians and drives down the costs to taxpayers who are paying the medical bills....


Number of uninsured children climbs in Florida (click here)
By Kelli Kennedy
The Associated Press
10:50 AM EST, November 28, 2008
MIAMI - Nearly 19 percent or 797,000 children in Florida do not have health insurance -- the second highest percentage in the country -- and experts expect the number to rise as more parents are laid off, according to a report released this week. The number may also rise as employers increase insurance costs, the report said.More troubling, the study was conducted between 2005 and 2007 and does not reflect this year's financial woes.Families USA, a nonprofit health advocacy group, estimates the actual number of uninsured children in the country right now is far greater than the 8.6 million reported in 2007.Only Texas had a higher percentage of uninsured children with 20.5 percent....
...Former Gov. Jeb Bush was widely criticized a few years ago when he made it more difficult for children to enroll, requiring parents to resubmit paperwork more often to prove they were eligible. Some of those restrictions have eased a bit....

Crist v. Rubio on Jeb candidacy
posted by Aaron Deslatte on Dec 3, 2008 2:39:48 PM
Crist v. Rubio on Jeb candidacy posted by Aaron Deslatte on Dec 3, 2008 2:39:48 PM
Gov. Charlie Crist sounded cool today to both the idea of running for the U.S. Senate himself and the chance that former Gov. Jeb Bush might seek the seat.
Advisors to Crist have said the chances are slim to none that the current governor would want to seek the vacancy created by current U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, who won't stand for re-election....

Father Raymond J. De Souza on the Bush legacy: Prosecutors, but no defence (click here)
Posted: November 27, 2008, 9:45 AM by Kelly McParland
Father Raymond J. De Souza

...The current Bush administration, to the contrary, has been dominated by people who had no further aspirations to high public office — Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John Ashcroft. The lack of political ambition in Bush’s administration, especially in comparison to his two predecessors, explains in part why he felt at liberty to go where the public would not follow. It explains too why so few today have a stake in defending him.

What's next for GOP?: Hispanics key for Republicans (click here)
Kingsley Guy COLUMNIST
November 30, 2008
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist had some savvy advice for his Republican colleagues during the recent Republican Governors Association conference in Miami."You have to be inclusive," Crist said. "You have to work for a big tent. That's about as obvious as the nose on your face."Yet, it's amazing how many Republicans can't tell their noses from their tightly shut eyes. Unless GOP leaders, across the board, open their eyes and work to broaden the GOP base, the party could find itself relegated to permanent minority status....

Thankful for small things, like the Miami Herald business page

...Yes, faithful readers, this dense story is back, and I'm still wondering why Jeb Bush hasn't been called on the carpet over this one....

Harvard Endowment Fell 22 Percent in Four Months

Decline dwarfs University's previous worst single-year loss (click title to entry, thank you)
Published On Tuesday, December 02, 2008 10:01 PM
By CLIFFORD M MARKS and JUNE Q. WU Crimson Staff Writers
Harvard’s endowment—the largest in higher education—fell 22 percent in four months from its June 30 value of $36.9 billion, marking the endowment’s largest decline in modern history, University officials announced yesterday. The precipitous drop will require Harvard’s faculties to take a “hard look at hiring, staffing levels, and compensation,” wrote University President Drew G. Faust and Executive Vice President Edward C. Forst ’82 in a letter informing the deans of Harvard’s losses. The decline, which amounts to more than $8 billion, is larger than the endowments of all but four other universities—Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT. In the same period, the S&P 500 fell 24.6 percent. The index has fallen an additional 12.4 percent since then....



Reprinted courtesy of Barron's, December 2, 1996 (click here)
Some students enter the hallowed halls of Harvard University looking for the meaning of life, while others merely want an Ivy League sheepskin to help them secure their first job. When Barron's recently visited Harvard, however, we were searching for something far more elusive: an investment strategy that will beat the market while taking few risks....

A note from Michael Moore

There is a huge disparity in the cloud cover today and one of forty years ago.


December 3, 2008
1745 utc
Western Hemisphere Satellite Photo

Michael's Message is at title to entry. The sparcity of Earth's cloud cover is no joke. NASA released a photo recently (kindly note at the bottom of the entry) the first picture of Earth as a sphere hung in a background of black space from Apollo 8. The globe was healthier and noted to have huge cloud banks surrounding Earth, with plenty of water vapor. The cloud cover is so dense it is nearly impossible to see the continents.

We are drying up our planet.

It has to stop !

...And I care about what happens with the Big 3 because they are more responsible than almost anyone for the destruction of our fragile atmosphere and the daily melting of our polar ice caps....

Earth Viewed by Apollo 8 (click here)

Before humanity ventured to the Moon, our view of our home planet consisted of what we could see from horizon to horizon. It was not until this stunning photo (along with many others) came back to Earth with the Apollo 8 astronauts in late December 1968 that we saw Earth as a vibrant, delicate, blue and white globe framed by the velvety blackness of space. From the great distance of the Moon, nearly the entire Western Hemisphere is visible. Clouds cover much of North America in the upper left, but the distinctive coastline of the southeastern United States and the Florida peninsula are clearly visible. A break in the clouds in the far north provides a glimpse of eastern Canada and the mouth of the St. Lawrence River....

The World is getting tired of this mess.

With regard to recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, (click title to entry, thank you) I herewith request the government to seriously step up security efforts to avoid any future terrorist attacks in Indonesia -- also because Christmas will be celebrated soon.
The recent execution of the three Bali bombers has resulted in emotional outbursts and threats by fanatic fundamentalists in this country.
A mutual effort should be made by all countries to combat terrorism. ASEAN countries are already cooperating with Australia; the European Union is excellent in tracking down suspicious individuals.
I herewith wish to express my sincere condolences to the families of those who were butchered in the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Once again I emphasize that international cooperation is urgently needed with regard to tracking down terrorists, exchanging vital information of terrorist training facilities and networks and the continuous monitoring of suspicious fundamentalists -- all this should be shared with others by countries who already have this information.
LYNNA VAN DER ZEE-OEHMKEBogor, West Java

Bali Nightclub Bombing
On October 12, 2002 a car bomb exploded outside the Sari nightclub in Bali, a popular tourist island in Indonesia. The attack was the worst terrorist incident in the history of Indonesia, with 202 civilians dead and more than 100 wounded.
While the attack was attributed to Jemaah Islamiyah, an Indonesian terrorist group with aims of creating an Islamic state composed of parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Southern Philipennes; according to U.S. and Asian intelligence authorities the attack had been connected to al-Qaeda. The nightclub bombings were the seventh major bombing in the area within 3 weeks, including an explosion in the southern Philippines that killed one U.S. Marine.
The mastermind, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, behind the attacks was al-Qaeda's chief representative and senior planner in Southeast Asia, as well as being operational chief of Jemaah Islamiya, Ryuduan bin Isomuddin, also known as Hambali. Hambali was detained by the U.S. government in August of 2003. Hambali was also believed to have been involved in the 2003 Marriot Hotel bombings in Jakarta, facilitated the January 2000 meeting in Malaysia including two September 11th highjackers, as well as being a close associate of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shekih Mohammed....



Three Australians are believed to be among 25 people killed by a series of bombings which targeted restaurants in Bali. Getty

Macabre Clues Advance Inquiry in Bali Attacks (click here)
By RAYMOND BONNER and JANE PERLEZ
Published: October 3, 2005
KUTA, Indonesia, Monday, Oct. 3 - In the first 24 hours after a series of bombs killed 22 people in a restaurant on a busy street and in two beachfront restaurants five miles away, investigators in Bali made rapid progress on Sunday, in part owing to a macabre bit of luck. As they sifted through bodies and body parts, they say, they found the heads of three men and three sets of legs, with no middles, the forensic signature of suicide bombings. One head was more than 75 feet from the rest of the body....

48 Days until Inauguration - The Governors 'had to wait' for a President-Elect to secure their states from disaster.

Granholm denies rumors of job with Obama's team
December 3, 2008
In the wake of speculation that she would be leaving her job to take a position in the administration of President-elect Barack Obama, Gov. Jennifer Granholm told reporters Tuesday that she hasn't "been asked to join the Obama team" and is "not aware of being vetted in any way."
Granholm, attending the National Governors Association meeting in Philadelphia, met privately with Obama briefly Tuesday to push support for federal loans to the Detroit automakers.
By Chris Christoff


Mich. gov. expects 'significant' stimulus package (click title to entry)
12/2/2008, 5:03 p.m. EST
By KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN
The Associated Press
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday after meeting with President-elect Barack Obama that she expects states will see a "significant" stimulus package once Obama is sworn into office.
But Granholm still expects to propose budget cuts this month through an executive order that must pass muster with the House and Senate Appropriations committees. She's just hoping they can be smaller if more federal aid comes through.
"It may lessen the need right now to do immediate, drastic cuts," she said. "With this stimulus coming up, it would be foolish to put up drastic cuts when we know that relief is on the way."...
...So far, "the revenues to the state have been coming in surprisingly on target," Granholm said. "The revenues are still steady."...

Public Works Spending - It sounds like a plan. The nation still needs to deal with long term employment, however, jobs in manufacturing and transportation issues such as high speed magnetic rail. They are huge commitments, but, worth making in the long run. The more sustainable a tax base the USA can attain, the more secure the future of the country.

Stimulus plans laudable but not a quick budget fix (click here)
By JUDY LIN, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
(12-02) 18:08 PST Sacramento, CA (AP) --
One of the critical elements of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to close California's growing budget deficit involves jump-starting the economy with billions of dollars in public works spending.
On Tuesday, Schwarzenegger sought outside help, making a pitch directly to President-elect Barack Obama, who told the nation's governors he wants to put people to work building roads, schools and bridges.
Schwarzenegger said that while California approved $42 billion in infrastructure bonds two years ago, the state could use more help. The governor's office estimated the state has $28 billion-worth of projects the incoming Obama administration could fund within its first 120 days.
Across the nation, the National Governors Association estimated there are more than $136 billion in infrastructure projects ready to break ground....

When will women in the USA again be safe from bias and gender discrimiantion?

Every time legislation is passed that seeks to control the outcomes of a woman's uterus, it is gender discrimination. Men don't have these issues and the Republicans chronically seek to moralize over a woman's right to her own body. Now, it isn't enough to deny women the right to an abortion, but, it is moral grounds to force them into those decisions. This is oppression in its purest form.

Broader medical refusal rule may go far beyond abortion (click title to entry, thank you)
The Bush administration plans a new 'right of conscience' rule that would allow more workers to refuse more procedures. Critics say it could apply to artificial insemination and birth control.
By David G. Savage

December 2, 2008

Reporting from Washington -- The outgoing Bush administration is planning to announce a broad new "right of conscience" rule permitting medical facilities, doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers to refuse to participate in any procedure they find morally objectionable, including abortion and possibly even artificial insemination and birth control.

For more than 30 years, federal law has dictated that doctors and nurses may refuse to perform abortions. The new rule would go further by making clear that healthcare workers also may refuse to provide information or advice to patients who might want an abortion.It also seeks to cover more employees. For example, in addition to a surgeon and a nurse in an operating room, the rule would extend to "an employee whose task it is to clean the instruments," the draft rule said....

Fog. Fog at Dutch Harbor, Alaska. A little warm even compared to may places in the lower 48.

Nearly 4 million acres of mature white spruce forest on the Kenai Peninsula have been killed by a growing population of spruce bark beetles (Dendroctonus rufipennis) since about 1987. This is a very active event, mediated by climate change, which has spread to about 38 million mature spruce. Scientists, including Dr. Edward Berg and Dr. Kenneth Raffa, attribute the beetle infestation to rising average temperatures in South-Central Alaska in both winter and summer. More beetle larvae can survive, and higher summer temperatures allow the insects to mature faster and complete a two-year life cyle in one year. The trees, which previously lived in balance with the beetles, do not have enough natural defenses against this assault.


Global Warming in Alaska



Dutch Harbor, Alaska
Local Time: 4:36 AM HAST (GMT -10)
Lat/Lon: 53.6° N 167.0° W
Elevation :: 20 ft / 6 m
Temperature :: 48 °F / 9 °C
Conditions :: Overcast
Windchill :: 42 F / 6 C
Humidity :: 71%
Dew Point :: 39 F / 4 C
Wind :: 16 mph / 26 km/h / 7.2 m/s from the East
Pressure :: 28.94 in / 980 hPa (Falling)
Visibility :: 2.0 miles / 3.2 kilometers
UV :: 0 out of 16
Clouds :: Scattered Clouds 600 ft / 182 m
Mostly Cloudy 1100 ft / 335 m
Overcast 1800 ft / 548 m
(Above Ground Level)

Big Three Auto Makers Compared To Toyota and Honda by ProCon.org on New Research Website

The market capitalization of the big carmakers reflects their profitability. The very strong fundamentals at Toyota, Nissan and Honda would merit even higher valuations for these companies. But given the medium- to long-term prospects for the country’s big three
carmakers, we think their current share prices are about right. Renault’s stake in Nissan is not yet sufficiently factoredinto the Renault share price.

PDF (click here)


This was the market share of most autos available to the American public for purchase. The article at the title references a non-profit that has been following the potential resolve for the auto makers based in USA history.

Big Three Auto ProCon.org (click here)
We started this project on Nov. 11, 2008. We have worked on it for about 75 hours as of Dec. 2, 2008. It normally takes us nine months to a year (1,600 to 2,000 hours) to build a website on a specific issue. We're creating a "mini" website about the Big Three because we found nonpartisan public information on this important issue lacking. We welcome your feedback on our first ever mini-site.

...Pro and con statements addressing this question come from President-Elect Barack Obama, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Nobel Prize winning economists Paul Krugman and Gary Becker, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, former US Energy Secretary and US Senator Spencer Abraham, and several others. Also included on the site are:
-- Chapter 11 bankruptcy laws explained,
-- Contracts between the Big Three and the United Auto Workers,
-- Analysis of "legacy" employees and their impact on profits, and
-- 144-point chart comparing GM, Ford, Chrysler, Big Three combined,
Toyota, and Honda....