Afghanistan Opium - It is good to know Iran is not interested in propagating the trade of drugs.

...Still, the Iranian government has in the past been able to put aside its anti-Americanism to cooperate with the U.S. on Afghanistan. (click title to entry - thank you) After the 9/11 attacks, Washington and Tehran worked quietly together: Iran had helped train, arm and finance many of the fighters and commanders of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, which worked with the U.S. to overthrow the Taliban and drive out al-Qaeda. James Dobbins, the Bush Administration's first envoy to Afghanistan after 9/11, worked with Iranian officials to set up the post-Taliban government. But relations soured when President George W. Bush balked at a broader relationship with Iran and included Tehran in his rhetorical "Axis of Evil."...

If President Karzai wants his people to be prosperous and productive he has to recuit enough soldiers to fight this war and secure the country. Otherwise. The global community will be forced to close of the borders of Afghanistan and begin sanctions the country will be unable to bear.

I really love 'No Fly Zones' / 'No Go Zones' with drones. Don't you? No? I think it is a great idea. It keeps the Taliban from emigrating to Pakistan and moving their opium further than the Afghan border. It is about time NATO set up its own "No Go Zones." No White Phosphorus.

On the Front Lines in the Battle Against the Taliban (click here)

Ambush (click above link)

A soldier with the Afghan National Army, Second Weapons Company, Third Battalion, repels Taliban fire.

The USA's economy is turning around. Don't stop now.

Siemens AG - Global Enterprise (click here)

Due to higher, more consistent wind speeds at sea, offshore wind turbines can generate substantially more energy than onshore wind turbines. Offshore wind farms may reach capacity factors in the range of 50%. Even considering the planning constraints relating to shipping lanes, fishing, bird migration, and the like, the world has abundant space for offshore projects....

Siemens' Service Departments (click here)
Siemens Wind Power offers wind turbine service all over the world through our wind power service offices or through Siemens' global network of service offices. Our service departments are always up to date with the most recent developments, and they are able to provide service at very short notice, always subject to the highest priority to quality and safety.
BRANDE, Denmark (main office)
BREMEN, Germany
NEWTOWN, Wales, UK
WICKSHAW, Scotland, UK
HOUSTON, Texas, USA
The service departments carry out service on 4,000 turbines all over the world. Furthermore, in collaboration with customers and business partners, the service of an additional 1,300 turbines is supported.


Wind turbine instillation.

...A total of 43% of Americans say the national economy is getting worse, which is the highest in American Research Group monthly polling since June and is up from 25% in September. And 9% say their household financial situations are getting better, which is down from 16% in August, 14% in September, and 12% in October. (click here)...


Wind turbine installation.


Wind turbines being transported.


Wind turbine assembly plant.

...Main Street received a pleasant surprise on Dec. 4 (click title to entry - thank you): The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in November, with the jobless rate edging lower to 10.0%. Some market players were worried that job losses would actually exceed the median estimate of economists of 114,000—and that the unemployment rate would actually move as high as 10.5%, according to market "whisper" numbers reported by Action Economics....

Morgan Freeman to Screen 'Invictus' for Nelson Mandela (click here)

Imagine getting a phone call from Nelson Mandela asking to screen a movie that honors him? Wow.

Wednesday, 15 August, 2001, 15:38 GMT 16:38 UK
Mandela 'responding well to treatment' (click here)
...According to the statement, seven doctors met on 3 August to review Mr Mandela's treatment.
They decided that due to the good response, the same radiotherapy would be continued until the end of its seven-week course.
The tumour is said to be "microscopic" and should not reduce Mr Mandela's life expectancy....


December 3, 2009
A TRIUMPH OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT (click here)
Robben Island inmates used soccer to survive, overcome old SA practices
By Michael LewisBig
www.BigAppleSoccer.com
Editor
ROBBEN ISLAND, South Africa -- The ball, as they say, is round. And because of that, anything can happen.And on Robben Island, something did. The impossible happened.The inmates of that insidious prison managed to convince the powers that be to allow them to play soccer one day a week, giving themselves a self-made life-preserver to keep their sanity and their spirits up....

The USA does not need new sources of oil and gas, it needs to develop alternatives. I don't see Canada abandoning us anytime soon.

A moratorium should be placed on further exploration of fossil fuels in the USA. The companies are using extreme measure to exploit these sources and it is simply time to stop. The Alternatives are being investigated and begun and the USA needs to know how it stands with Altervatives before further exploitation of any 'distant' reserves is taken.

Leave everything where it is, there is every indication those reserves, to whatever capacity they exist belong to future generations and not us. We have over extended our use of fossil fuels in the last century and basically didn't explore alternatives feeling entitlement to finite resources that belong to future generations of Americans. Earth and a global community is paying the price for exploitive USA Energy policies.

Future generations of Americans have a right to this country's resources no different than the current generations do. Greed has replaced justice.

An energy answer in the shale below? (click title to entry - thank you)
New technology opens vast stores of natural gas, and the land rush is on
...This corner of the state is at the forefront of an old-fashioned land rush that has implications far beyond Conklin, N.Y. Oil and gas companies are vying to stake out territory where they can tap natural gas trapped in shale rock. Just a few years ago, the industry didn't have the technology to unlock these reserves. But thanks to advances in horizontal drilling and methods of fracturing rock with high-pressure blasts of water, sand and chemicals, vast gas reserves in the United States are suddenly within reach....