14 years ago Phillip Morris Fight Against Hunger began. In 2012, this video was made to express the continued need of Americans.

In the May 14, 2000 edition of "The New York Times Magazine" Lewis Niblack was featured as an example of an American that needed good food to live his senior years in wellness.

Hunger is not new to the USA. What is new is the withholding of vital benefits to return dignity to those unable to provide all the food their families need.

Mr. Lewis stated as the headline of the ad,... 

"Dignity ... is life without hunger."

As one of the growing number of homebound seniors, his daily struggle to get nutritious food limited his cherished sense of independence. Thank to local grants from "Senior Helping" initiative created as part of The Phillip Morris Fight Against Hunger, Lewis and thousands of hungry seniors across the country are no longer kept on waiting lists by their neighborhood meals-on-wheels programs. Now that the wait for food is over, Lewis has regained his self-sufficiency. And with it, his sense of dignity...

On Thanksgiving Eve...

...a dear friend stated the food pantry where she volunteers was nearly empty of anything on their shelves. They had a few frozen turkey breasts left and some fresh vegetables brought that morning by a local organic food market. But, she said they apologized to the last three people as they received their share of the food banks remaining stock, including one wearing a Burger King uniform as she just got off work and stopped before going home to feed her family.

True story.

Taking it offline for maintenance was a smart thing to do.

The website has become such a huge focus of political fervor it doesn't have a chance. If hackers can get into secure government sites who is to say this one is immune. I actually believe computer access, while considered a CONVENIENCE, isn't at all the way to go. I think the application should be on paper, scanned into a secure data bank and shredded.

There can be secure computer sites for storage without any connection to the internet. Every computer in the world is not connected. File the scanned paper copy with the same's income tax return and leave it there in case there is fraud. That is the way it should be handled.

Was it Friday I heard a journalist state he called to apply and found out nine different options for his family, then asked the telephone consultant if the information he provided would be saved to the site for future reference and subscription and she stated yes. He then went back to find his information and it wasn't there. So, now the telephone consultants are also suppose to be secretaries. I don't think so. The government isn't their private secretary nor is the government interested in commercial application of their information. 

I think the entire process at this point focused on customer service in a way that isn't applicable to government use of the information. A person is suppose to find options for health care, find a subsidy and then subscribe. It isn't Amazon or any other website interested in marketing and preserving information without the permission in order to market on an individual basis. It is nonsense.

I want a full investigation to the monies spent on this venture and why it didn't happen. There was no loyalty to it's outcome until there were complaints. Typical. I think there is a lot of politics behind the scenes no one will admit to. As a matter of fact if there was failure right from the beginning in choosing the contractor that speaks eons to it's outcome.

BY ROBERTA RAMPTON AND SHARON BEGLEY

WASHINGTON

Sat Nov 30, 2013 5:26am EST

(Reuters) - A crucial weekend (click here) for the troubled website that is the backbone of President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul appears to be off to a shaky start, as the U.S. government took the HealthCare.gov site offline for an unusually long maintenance period into Saturday morning.

Just hours before the Obama administration's self-imposed deadline to get the insurance shopping website working for the "vast majority" of its users by Saturday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it was taking down the website for an 11-hour period that would end at 8 a.m. EST on Saturday.

It was unclear whether the extended shutdown of the website - about seven hours longer than on typical day - represented a major setback to the Obama administration's high-stakes scramble to fix the portal that it hopes eventually will enroll about 7 million uninsured and under-insured Americans under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare....

The Sun has no atmosphere...

...I find it oddly interesting scientists are puzzled about this. I can't help but wonder if it was hype or simply a sincere desire for comets to go away. One less comet to worry about crashing into Earth.

See, the sun we call Sol has no atmosphere so no matter how close a space object gets; it isn't going to burn through an atmosphere, as Earth's, to disappear. That is just to begin with.

Sol is a hot sphere of largely hydrogen gas, over 73 percent to be exact. It's function in the solar system isn't really to heat things up, so much as emit particle waves (radiation) that serves many different functions. But, Earth is not heated by any direct heat as we think of it from Sol. Quite the contrary, space is absolute zero or lower in temperature. It is freezing.

It is the radiation entering Earth's atmosphere and then is reflected off Earth's surface and trapped by greenhouse gases that heats Earth. Earth heats itself, but, uses the radiation from Sol in order to achieve that, but, no direct heat comes from Sol.

As a matter of fact, except for hydrogen, Sol is very absent of volatile elements. The rest of the elements found in Sol are all organic elements which is interesting. Except for one. Helium. Helium is a Royal Gas which means it tends not to react, but, remain stable. The Royal Gases along with Nitrogen (N2) are all very stable gases. To prove that 78 percent of Earth's atmosphere is N2. The blue sky is caused by the Earth gas N2.

The point is there is no sincere heat radiating into space from Sol. So, it has no atmosphere, it does have gravity and thus gravitational pull, emits radiation called "The Solar Wind" and it has latitudes like it's equator no different than any other celestial planet in the solar system.

So, along comes Comet Ison screaming at high velocity in dead cold space passing near Sol and it enters into a tug of war with Sol's gravitational pull and it's course changes. It might have lost some ice and changed it's mass, but, it's velocity was so high it simply reacted by changing it's trajectory. Makes sense to me. As a matter of fact the centrifugal force somewhat remained the one primary vector acting on it's trajectory. So, the mass may have changed enabling it to maintain it's velocity through centrifugal force with only a change in direction as it passed Sol.

Even when examining Mercury for it's atmosphere, it is the high temperture of salt that causes about 400K on the planet's surface. The salt atmosphere of Mercury actually has a trail as it travels through space which reaches some of the highest temperatures observed for that element. But, it is not Sol itself causing high temperatures on Mercury or Earth.

The solar radiation from Sol excites molecules, atoms, quarks or whatever one wants to refer to. It is that reaction with radiation that causes heat. Chemical reactions either emit or use heat produced within that reaction. 

I would not necessarily expect an ice comet to melt near Sol unless it's radiation excites the molecules to create enough heat to melt the comet entirely. It is slightly unrealistic to believe that would happen. At least that is my opinion. Maybe I am just too used to think about how Earth receives radiation and utilizes it. Now, if the comet flew directly into a large solar flair it's molecular structure would react with the hydrogen and might disintegrate through the heat it would generate with the temperature of that hydrogen. But, objects in space passing near Sol? Not so much.

29 November 2013 Last updated at 02:13 ETBy Jonathan AmosScience correspondent, BBC News

...Astronomers (click here) admit to being surprised and delighted, but now caution that anything could happen in the coming hours and days.

This remnant of Ison could continue to brighten, or it could simply fizzle out altogether....

My neighbor celebrated the holiday last weekend because it was the only time her son could be with the family.

It would appear "Cheap Shit America" doesn't deter shoplifting and death by police over reaction.

By Adam Sege and Juan Perez Jr.Tribune reporters

8:09 a.m. CST, November 29, 2013

Debbie Turner was leaving a Kohl's store in Romeoville (click here) with her daughter when she saw a police officer, his shirt off and his shoulder bandaged, getting into an ambulance. Other officers were taking a man into custody.

Then she saw her car, surrounded by crime tape and not far from a black Pontiac Sunfire with a side window shot out....

A Thanksgiving Tale of Wall Street Interference

My oldest nephew was married in May of this year. He is married to a very nice young lady. The couple decided they wanted to have all the family to their new home for Thanksgiving. So, they planned a menu and purchased all that was necessary.

Two weeks before Thanksgiving my youngest nephew received a work schedule that included Thanksgiving. He isn't married and has two men roommates that share a house. They have shared that house since college. Now that they have finished college they are waiting for life to happen and in the mean time they take employment where they can find it.

With the younger nephew, the brother of the older one, unable to attend Thanksgiving dinner which would be two hours from his home, the family decided to move the dinner invitation to where everyone could attend. So, the newly married bride called her mother and explained the circumstances. So, her mother said, "Well, bring everything here and we'll all have dinner together."

So, the night before Thanksgiving my nephew and his wife pack all their preparations in the car and drive two hours to her mother's home to stay overnight and start cooking in the morning. 

Now, usually Thanksgiving Dinner happens about 2:00 PM, but, because one family member wouldn't be there until 5:00 PM because of work, dinner was moved to 6:00 PM. 

The turkey is in the oven and all the preparations are underway when the phone rings at 2:00 PM. It is my youngest nephew. He stated he would not be there for dinner because someone had called out and his supervisor told him he would have to stay. 

With that reality, the dinner went on at 6:00 PM without my youngest nephew. He didn't just miss dinner. He miss THE ENTIRE DAY. His work ruined the time he would have spent with family. Instead, he was obligated to work without any compensation other than his regular pay. 

Now, if this is the New USA; this society has lost it's rudder and is in moral decline.

I don't know about anyone else's Thanksgiving, but, the conversation today was not about politics. It was however about how people had to work today and how it is breaking up family time.

I refuse to shop at any store that was open on Thanksgiving Day.

The Monarch Butterfly is divided by the Rocky Mountains; Eastern and Western.

Think Pollinators. Insects are pollinators to crops.

The 2013 Thanksgiving Count period will run from November 16 to December 8 (click here)

The Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count is a yearly effort of volunteer citizen monitors to collect data on the status of monarch populations overwintering along the California coast. Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of a cadre of volunteers, we have over a decade of data demonstrating that monarchs have undergone a dramatic decline in the western U.S. This effort is coordinated by Dennis Frey, Shawna Stevens and Mia Monroe.

Would you like to participate in the Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count? We are looking for volunteers in California who can commit to visiting the same overwintering sites year after year. If this interests you, please contact Candace Fallon for more information.

We encourage Thanksgiving Count monitors to also fill out a brief, one-page habitat assessment so that we can understand more about what monarchs need and begin to track changes that occur at overwintering sites. Please consider using this form in addition to your count data sheet so that we can collect this invaluable information!
Habitat Assessment

Please remember that we are most interested in counts of monarch groves conducted during the week around Thanksgiving and the week around New Years day. You can download survey instructions and data sheets below.

Survey Instructions

Monarch Count Data Sheet

Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count data 1997-2012

Undocumented workers in the USA are feeling the pain of neglect. The theft of hope.

This neglect and politicking has gone on far too long. There should have been immigration reform a decade ago and the longer it continues to be a problem the bigger the problem becomes.

Posted to Web: January 12, 2004

NUMBERS, ORIGINS, AND DESTINATIONS (click here)

• Total number: Our best estimate, based on the March 2002 Current Population Survey and other data sources, is that there are 9.3 million undocumented immigrants in the country.1 They represent 26 percent of the total foreign-born population [figure 1].
• Countries of origin: Mexicans make up over half of undocumented immigrants—57 percent of the total, or about 5.3 million. Another 2.2 million (23 percent) are from other Latin American countries. About 10 percent are from Asia, 5 percent from Europe and Canada, and 5 percent from the rest of the world.
• Distribution by state: Almost two-thirds of the undocumented population lives in just six states: California (26 percent), Texas (12 percent), Florida (10 percent) New York (8 percent), Illinois (4 percent), and New Jersey (4 percent) [table 1]. But, the most rapid growth in the undocumented population since the mid-1990s has been outside these states.
• States where the undocumented represent high shares of the immigrant population: The undocumented make up more than 40 percent of the foreign-born population in 10 states—most of which saw their foreign-born populations grow rapidly during the 1990s. High-growth regions are the Rocky Mountains, the Midwest, and the Southeast. The undocumented populations of Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina have grown so rapidly that they may already have surpassed New Jersey's [figure 2].

The US House needs to act on Immigration Reform. They need to do it now before they have their politicking over the budget and debt ceiling to ramp up. These are people that have come to the USA with hope to live a better life. To date, they have been scapegoats for hate and political fervor. They didn't come to the USA to be victims, they had that in their country of origin. No one believes desperation drives these people? 

12:11am November 27, 2013

“The speaker is sincere in wanting to get something done, (click here) and we’re pleased the President said he can accept the step-by-step approach we’re taking in the House,” a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said this week.  The very fact that it had to be said speaks volumes as Boehner continues to say he wants to act on immigration reform while at the same pushing taking no action. 

As the Speaker of the House, Boehner could bring any one of several piecemeal bills to the floor around immigration reform.  But Boehner continues to talk and do nothing.  The current House Boehner controls is on track to be the least productive Congress in history.  They are scheduled to be in session for less than ten days in December.  

Stop talking and vote. And when the House returns in January they can immediately vote on the continuing resolution they planned for the entire time.

Hunger strikes are very serious issues. It is a spiritual issue.

Food is sustenance and comfort. Food reaches into a persons commitment to themselves to take care of themselves. It is why obesity is such an issue for the First Lady. She sincerely wants the youngest of Americans to know there are better ways of taking care of themselves so they live long, happy and productive lives. Children are vulnerable to influence and to that end she sees an important role in stemming the epidemic among our youngest members.

Frequently, hunger strikes are the last form of protest of oppression. It is placing one's live on the line for another. When one is profoundly conflicted over their spiritual core there is nothing that matters more than expressing it.

We have seen many celebrities in recent years take up the cause of a hunger strike to make an impression on their own spiritual conflicts over the suffering of others. It is important for those capable of carrying a message to power to do so. It is important to realize when innocent people believe deeply enough to deprive their well being of food that someone step forward to recognize their commitment to a cause.

Today is profoundly a day whereby most Americans are seeking to celebrate a holiday begun at the nation's beginnings with bountiful harvests. It is especially understood that a hunger strike at this time of year carries a dire message.

U.S. Families of Camp Liberty Residents (click here) to Join the Worldwide Hunger Strikes Demanding Release of Seven Iranian Dissidents Taken Hostage by Iraq, Says USCCAR

PR Newswire

WASHINGTON, Nov. 25, 2013

WASHINGTON, Nov. 25, 2013

PRNewswire-USNewswire -- The U.S. families of thousands of Iranian dissidents, members of Iran's principal opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), who reside in Camp Liberty, Iraq, have volunteered to join an indefinite hunger strike outside the White House beginning today.

The DC hunger strikers will be joining hundreds of others at Camp Liberty, in London, Berlin, Rome, Geneva, Stockholm, Ottawa and Melbourne, who have been on a hunger strike since September 2, 2013, demanding action to secure the release of seven residents of Camp Ashraf, including six women, taken hostage by the Iraqi security forces during theSeptember 1 massacre at the Camp.

The deadly assault left 52 of the 101 residents murdered, execution-style, by security forces under the command of the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki....

This can't be a good day for President Obama.

Between the muscle flexing in the Pacific and the First Lady taking up the cause of militant hunger strikers I wouldn't be surprised if he sleeps on the couch in the Oval Office tonight. Posted By:KarenJ111/26/2013 6:49:24 PM

First lady Michelle Obama (click here) on Tuesday praised a group of immigration-reform advocates who are fasting to draw attention to the issue and pressure Congress to act. “As families begin to gather for Thanksgiving, I´m thinking of the brave #Fast4Families immigration reform advocates. We´re with you. -mo,” tweeted the first lady. Tweets written personally by Michelle Obama are signed “-mo.” The group Fast for Families is in the 15th day of their hunger strike. The activists have set up a tent on the National Mall and were visited by Vice President Biden earlier in the week. President Obama has called immigration.... BySTEPHANIE CONDON   CBS NEWS  July 23, 2013, 6: 08 AM As leaders in Washington (click here) work behind the scenes on a compromise over comprehensive immigration reform, First Lady Michelle Obama on Tuesday will deliver the keynote address to one of the nation's largest gatherings of Latino leaders. On the final day of the National Council of La Raza's annual conference, the first lady is slated to talk about a much safer issue, politically speaking -- the problem of childhood obesity. Her speech, however, caps off a three-day conference marked by passionate calls for congressional action on immigration reform, one of President Obama's top second-term priorities. "Our community is eager to hear from such a prominent and passionate public figure who, in her time as first lady, has shown unwavering commitment to important causes for the growing Latino community such as children's health, nutrition and education," Janet Murguía, president and CEO of NCLR, said in a statement last month....

Is there room for two? This needs to be the quickest conflict on record.

SYDNEY Tue Nov 26, 2013 3:19am EST

(Reuters) - Australia summoned China's ambassador (click here) to express concern over its imposition of an "Air Defence Identification Zone" over the East China Sea, the foreign minister said on Tuesday, decrying the move as unhelpful in a region beset by tension.

"The timing and the manner of China's announcement are unhelpful in light of current regional tensions, and will not contribute to regional stability," Julie Bishop said in a statement.

"The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade yesterday called in China's ambassador to convey the Australian Government's concerns and to seek an explanation of China's intentions."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the ambassador "fully expounded upon China's considerations and aims in setting up the East China Sea Air Defence Inspection Zone, and expounded upon our position and viewpoints"....

I sincerely doubt Japan, China and the USA have different and varying interests in a small place in the Pacific. There is no commercial interests likely to be developed there and certainly the nations are not interested in beginning a war over this small area of Earth. I mean for real already. I think Ambassadors are good places to start to come to a treaty for vigilance of such a sensitive area where the interests of national security converge.

There are no territorial interests of one nation that supercedes that of another. The only competition might be fishing. So, enough already. The nations involved need to come to terms with surveillance and end this hideous nonsense.

Honestly, boys will be boys.

By Simon Denyer, Published: November 20

BEIJING — U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke, (click here) who won plaudits for his low-key style and for cutting visa waiting times for Chinese citizens entering the United States, announced Wednesday that he will step down early next year to rejoin his family in Seattle.

Locke, the first Chinese American to hold the Beijing post, might be best remembered in China for a photograph taken even before he arrived in 2011 that shows him with his young daughter at the Seattle airport, wearing a backpack and trying to pay for coffee with a coupon. The image circulated widely on social media, with many Chinese concluding that Locke, who was also seen flying economy class, was much more down-to-earth and less reliant on publicly funded luxuries than their own officials....

By SARAH MASLIN NIR

Published: November 26, 2013

The fate of the world’s most famous balloons is up in the air. (click here)

There will be marching bands from across the country, clowns toting confetti catapults and floats carrying chart-topping musical stars when the 87th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade makes its way down Central Park West on Thursday. But weather predictions calling for strong winds mean that Snoopy and his helium-filled pals might not make it.

Winds of at least 23 miles per hour are expected on Thanksgiving Day, with gusts up to 45 m.p.h. expected, according to the National Weather Service. After a Cat in the Hat balloon hit a lamp post at West 72nd Street and Central Park West in 1997, knocking a portion down and injuring four spectators, an investigation led to city guidelines that stipulate maximum balloon sizes and wind speeds.

If the wind blows at 23 m.p.h. or more, and gusts reach 34 m.p.h., SpongeBob and the biggest of his inflatable brethren will be grounded.

The decision on floating the big balloons will be made by several agencies, based on weather conditions Thanksgiving morning....


American Jews always seek the most interesting path in being part of their community than any other faith. They are joyful people that include themselves in this country's culture in the most interesting ways. They are participants in inclusion in this country and this Hanukkah is especially interesting.

By Michelle Boorstein
Published: November 26

For most American Jews, (click here) the Hanukkah script has been pretty clear for decades: Light candles in menorahs, make potato pancakes (called latkes), play a game with a spinning top (called a dreidel), sing songs, give presents and call it a night (or eight, in this case).

Then came the menurkey of 2013. And greetings cards of pilgrims wearing the long, curly sideburns of the Orthodox. And debates about whether cranberry sauce goes with latkes.

Witness the messy process of holiday-creating, and on a lightning-fast scale. That’s because of the extremely rare overlap Thursday of Thanksgiving and the first full day of Hanukkah, which usually falls well into December. Some calendric experts say the event many are calling Thanksgivukkah happens once a century; others say it won’t happen for thousands more years.

The merger of two largely happy, fun holidays has triggered a rush of kitschy marketing, including the sale of thousands of ceramic, turkey-shaped menorahs called menurkeys. It has also prompted a flood of new recipes and debate on food blogs about how to appropriately mess with two holiday menus that for many are cherished just as they are, thank you...

Is Paul Wolfowitz real about this?

Long range missiles and nuclear capacity do not equate. There can be a relationship, but, there is no absolute relationship whereby a nation willing to reverse their position on nuclear capacity is to be considered corrupt and untrustworthy.

That is a neocon. War is the only answer after a nation is branded untrustworthy and therefore hates the USA. Everyone else is stupid and naive. That is a neocon. He is true to form.

He stated: "Rhetoric can be taken seriously."

North Korea Breaks I.A.E.A. Seals on 8,000 Spent Nuclear Fuel Rods (BREAKING)

Dong-a Ilbo News (Seoul, Korea)
23 December 2002
Dong-a Ilbo News (S.Korea) 

Posted on 12/23/2002 11:05:48 AM 

by American InTokyo


North Korea Breaks Seals on 8,000 Spent Nuclear Fuel Rods (click here)

DECEMBER 23, 2002 22:32 (Dong-a Ilbo News, Seoul, S.Korea)
North Korea has removed the seals and surveillance cameras installed to monitor the storage facilities containing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods that had been closely watched by the IAEA. A couple of days ago, the North also eliminated all IAEA`s inspection devices set up at the nuclear reactor in Yongbyon.
What makes the latest move of North more serious is the fact that the fuel rods have nothing do to with generation of electricity and can produce plutonium, which in turn can produce nuclear weapons. Therefore, the situation is spinning more and more out of control....

Evidently, North Korea DID take the Bush rhetoric very seriously. Wasn't that the expected reaction? Mr. Wolfowitz, wasn't Bush's inflammatory statements intended to set in process an unreversable chain reaction? Wasn't it. Basically, Bush's State of the Union speech was an understood declaration of war and set off a chain reaction in North Korea and Iran, especially after Iraq was invaded with absolutely NO CAUSE. Wasn't it? It was a declaration of war. Isn't it time to admit that before North Korea and Iran were a worry to nuclear weapons there was the 'loose rhetoric' of the then President of the USA?

Bush State of the Union address (click here)

January 29, 2002 Posted: 11:10 PM EST (0410 GMT)

Wait, wait let me guess.

The ONLY rhetoric that is a threat came from any other nation besides that of the USA.

You self righteous no goods are either stupid, moronic or completely intended on destroying every aspect of the world besides the nuclear shelter you'll be shuttered in !  No matter your choice, Bush, Cheney and YOU should never have seen the power of the Executive Branch of the USA!

NASA is feeling the pain of the East Coast.

November 26, 2013
1955 UTC

As millions of Americans (click here) are taking to the highways for the Thanksgiving holiday, a powerful winter storm is plowing across the nation. The storm is leaving snow, ice, and rain in its wake, creating hazardous travel conditions. By the time the storm is over, it will have brought wintery weather to 2.5 million square miles of the United States....

...The turbulence in the boundary regions generates powerful thunderstorms, and in fact, tornado watches were announced for parts of the Florida panhandle....

Iran Peace Accords, an environmentalists nightmare.

An oil tanker is seen off the port of Bandar Abbas, southern Iran. As part of the deal, the European Union will lift a ban on insurance for tankers transporting Iranian oil, making it easier for the Persian Gulf nation’s six remaining customers to take delivery

By Grant Smith & Ben Sharples
Nov 25, 2013 8:52 AM ET

Brent crude (click here) led energy prices from gasoline to heating oil lower after Iran and world powers reached an interim accord on the country’s nuclear program that will ease economic sanctions while keeping a cap on oil sales.

Futures slid as much as 2.7 percent in London, declining for the first time in four days, while West Texas Intermediate fell 1.7 percent. Iran’s crude exports will be held to about 1 million barrels a day under sanctions that remain in force after the deal announced yesterday in Geneva, according to the White House. Gasoline and heating oil futures each slid at least 2.3 percent on the New York Mercantile Exchange....

Americans never really understood how sanctions worked. But, now that sanctions are being eased the reality comes alive. The burden on easing sanctions further sincerely belongs to Iran. They have plenty incentives to make the peace process work with compliance to it's conditions. I sincerely don't see Iran backpeddling. It would be unfortunate if that occurred.

One of Israel's worries is that there will be abuses to the peace accord. It can be argued there were abuses before the peace agreement. But, it was an interesting reaction on Wall Street. the price of Brent Crude marginally moved down and airline stocks moved up almost in the same amount the oil fell. The idea, of course, is that with oil prices due to fall if Iran is finally allowed to produce it's oil at will, the cost of jet fuel will fall.

November 25, 2013 7:00 am

By Ajay Makan

Impact of Iran deal on oil supplies to be limited (click here)

...China, India, Japan and South Korea account for the vast majority of Iranian crude purchases, after the US granted them waivers from sanctions in return for reducing purchases.

China and South Korea have sharply cut imports in recent months in order to comply with those conditions, but may now act with less urgency, as the US State Department has pledged to allow purchases to continue at current levels over the next six months.

A key issue will be interpretation. A State Department fact sheet released shortly after agreement was reached in Geneva said Iran “will be held to approximately 1m barrels a day in sales”, which is somewhat below traders’ estimates of the current Iranian crude export levels. A text of the interim deal posted on an Iranian news website said western powers would “pause efforts to reduce Iran’s crude oil sales”....

I honestly don't see this failing. There are too many incentives for Iran to agree to reassurances, even on a daily basis, to back peddle on any of the agreement. In addition to the oil and airline movement, the Iranian currency began to see gains in it's value. The world is letting Iran know it is proceeding in an acceptable manner to remove sanctions and have every reason for hope for the future.

I sincerely hope Iran succeeds to continue to build confidence through compliance of agreements. The country should not seek to violate those confidences and should consider where any non-compliance might be taking place in it's private sector. 

Nuclear capacity is a very big deal. This is important to build on the reality of a nuclear free Mideast. Iran really needs to make this work. The world would become a very unhappy place if Iran changed course now. And for Wall Street. Quite frankly, they would do an about face and adjust to war as easily as it adjusted to easing of sanctions.

I don't know if this will help her with feminists, but, she is a lovely lady.

Posted: 11/25/2013 5:56 pm EST
Updated: 11/25/2013 5:56 pm EST

There have been plenty (click here) of fancy December covers, including Oprah's glam turn in Vera Wang for O magazine and Jessica Chastain glowing in marigold for Vogue. But our favorite so far is Ladies' Home Journal, which got its December cover in just under the wire. Its big star? Michelle Obama....

First Ladies have a difficult line to walk. No one is going to tell me she is not a feminist. I think she enjoys herself and her motherhood of her two daughters. I think she enjoys her marriage and if that means she is a feminist's nightmare, then too bad.

I remember when Bill Clinton was running for office. I remember reading about Hillary as First Lady of Arkansas. She was described as a Valkyrie. Could you imagine being the focus of such hate? I have a great deal of empathy for these ladies. 

Hillary decided to tone down her looks so she was a little more dowdy and less spectacular. It was after she unwittingly made cookies her enemy.

These gals have a lot to worry about. They are the focus of a nation of women that seek to find the best of themselves in their activities, their personality and their importance. First Ladies are very important people and any American woman seek to be a part of a community, helpful and a great wife and mother if married. The First Ladies have to find a balance to those expectations. I happen to think First Lade Michelle Obama has struck the prefect balance.

Look, this lady went into the community where a young lady was in the line of fire. She stood with the parents and community as an example of bravery, autonomy and civility. She is not meek or mild, she is bold and brilliant.

She is a lady to be admired. I would like to admire her and uphold her dignity while she proves to a nation there are ways to be graceful while holding power within her grip.

Here is a case that is nothing but pure politics.

Richard Wolf , USA TODAY

3:57 p.m. EST November 15, 2013

...Halliburton hopes that the court, (click here) which has not looked kindly on class action lawsuits in the past, will overturn a landmark 1988 decision in Basic v. Levinson that said shareholders deserved to know about a potential merger even before it was finalized.

Four current justices -- Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- have indicated a willingness to reconsider that decision, giving Halliburton a solid chance of prevailing at the high court.

The shareholders in this case, led by the Erica P. John Fund, contend that Halliburton misrepresented its potential liability in asbestos litigation, revenue from construction contracts and benefits from a merger. They argue that they lost money after the stock's price dropped following news about one or more of those factors....

The willingness of the four Justices to consider this case is to realize this also tracks with the idea 'corporations are people.' It is a continuation of placing corporations within the understanding it has rights that supercede that of LIVING PEOPLE or shareholders. Not all shareholders are human beings, but, I think I made myself clear.

This case continues to place POWER within the hands of a few rather than the entire of stockholders. It is patriarchal. "Father knows best." What do stockholders know; they are only the ones that divide up the profits that those in Cloud City have made for them.

You know the CEOs that outsource labor to rob their own market share. That is such a fascinating idiocy of being a stockholder. They put these CEOs in charge of their own profits from earnings and turn around and allow bonuses that provide immediate profits but in the long term implodes the company only to seek bailouts. Like, what?

It is that never ending paradigm of stock brokers that play with descriptions and earnings records and trends, but, have no clue what is actually occurring with the entire if a populous in the USA which supports their stock prices. Impoverishment is Not Us. Not if one is going to continue to see profits in any company. It never ceases to amaze me; the willingness to 'take the cash' and forget about the future. I think that reflects nothing but insecurity. There is something about brokering stocks that is always about risk and the need to protect from it that allows for this hideous paradigm. 

What are the few going to do when all others are too poor to purchase anything? 

LOCAL ECONOMIES Folks. Local Control of the stability of any community. There is no other way, otherwise, the nation is on a roller coaster forever.

When will the Supreme Court stop victimizing women? Religion is a personal value. I would think it is also privacy issue.

Richard Wolf, USA TODAY
12:54 p.m. EST November 26, 2013

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court (click here) added a new legal challenge Tuesday to the legislative and political battles raging over President Obama's embattled health care law.

The justices agreed to consider whether for-profit corporations whose owners oppose abortion on religious grounds must abide by the law's mandate that health insurance policies include free coverage of government-approved forms of contraception.

It's the first legal challenge to reach the high court since it upheld the law 17 months ago in a 5-4 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts. While a loss for the government wouldn't strike down the law itself, conservatives still seething over Roberts' rescue of Obamacare say the case offers Roberts an initial chance to rule against it....

Interestingly enough, Sam Alito dissented in regard to anti-gay protests. So, it isn't as though Freedom of Speech and Religion is seen as above any reproach by at least one conservative judge. I mean this is not an opinion that says 'hands off.' 

ByJAN CRAWFORD  CBS NEWS March 2, 2011, 11: 54 AM

Justice Samuel Alito (click here) was the sole dissenter in Wednesday's Supreme Court decision to protect the right of the Westboro Baptist Church to hold inflammatory, anti-gay protests outside of funerals, insisting the funeral protests did not deserve constitutional protection.

"Our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case," Alito wrote in his dissent.

High court rules for military funeral protesters

The Westboro Baptist Church, an anti-gay fundamentalist group led by Rev. Fred Phelps, habitually protests high-profile events as a means to publicize its view that U.S. deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are God's punishment for American "immorality" - particularly in regard to national tolerance of homosexuality....

And Justice Alito doesn't stop there in dissenting as a unique opinion. This time it is a diversity requirement he is unhappy with. 

Last Updated: November 22 2013

Article by Kevin S. Ranlett

Mayer Brown

...After the class action against Sirius settled, (click here) some objectors appealed Judge Baer's approval of the settlement—and specifically, his order regarding the diversity of class counsel. The Second Circuit held that the objectors lacked standingbecause "they never contend that class counsel's representation was actually inferior" to the representation that would have been provided absent a diversity mandate.

One of those objectors—represented by Ted Frank of the Center for Class Action Fairness—filed a petition for certiorari seeking review of the Second Circuit's holding that he lacked standing to challenge Judge Baer's order regarding class counsel's staffing of the case.

The Supreme Court denied review. But Justice Alito took the unusual step of issuing a separate statement respecting the denial of certiorari (pdf) in an effort to dissuade Judge Baer (and other judges) from imposing a diversity requirement for appointed class counsel.)

Justice Alito explained that the "uniqueness of" Judge Baer's "practice weighs against review by this Court, but the meaning of the Court's denial of the petition should not be misunderstood." That is because, in Justice Alito's view, it is not only "doubtful that the practice in question could survive a constitutional challenge," but also likely that the practice runs afoul of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(g), which regulates the appointment of class counsel....

In another certiorari case he was joined by Justice Scalia. Truly the independent thinkers of the court. Justice Alito never gets any rest from the wordy importance of the law. "BUT THAT IS NOT WHAT IT SAYS !!!!!" 

I too worry about the pursuit of noncompliance within the wordiness of the law. I even worry more for the clerks exposed to such ideas and whether or not they need remediation after serving Justice Alito. But, what do I know. Surely, Justice Alito is a perfectionist beyond that of any capacity of god and we are lucky to his is off tone musings.

November 18, 2013

By BARBARA LEONARD 

... Justice Samuel Alito, (click here) joined by Justice Antonin Scalia, explained in a separate dissent why they thought the case merits review.
     "The decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in this case was based on a serious mis­reading of our decision in Harrington v. Richter, and if left uncorrected, it is likely to interfere with the proper handling of a significant number of federal habeas petitions filed by Michigan prisoners," Alito wrote. "UnderHarrington, when a state court summarily rejects an appeal without clearly indicating whether the disposition was based on the merits of the claims presented or instead on procedural grounds, a federal habeas court must pre­sume that the decision was on the merits, but the pre­sumption may be overcome under certain circumstances. By contrast, when the state court makes it clear that a summary disposition was on the merits, Harrington's rebuttable presumption has no application. A federal court may not probe beyond the state court's order to inquire whether the court accurately characterized its own decision.

"In this case, the Sixth Circuit overlooked that im­portant rule....

Alito did refuse to comment on the Duke case.

By Georgia Parke
November 13, 2013

An appeal relating to the 2006 lacrosse scandal (click here) was rejected for consideration by the United States Supreme Court Tuesday....

...Alito is a visiting professor of law at the School of Law...

I have a theory about Justice Alito. He really interested in being a relevant Justice. He is a partisan. He simply is. In acknowledging that it is easy to find purpose in his 'stand alone' dissents. He is creating OPPORTUNITY for politics to be INTRODUCED to any decision as a minority opinion. He is attempting to overthrow the US Constitution from a minority seat with anticipated results projected into the future. There is no other conclusion to make for his Lone Wolf decisions. In most publicized case that has the focus of the country he is always among the conservatives, but, otherwise he is acting as a political hack and not a sincere Justice interested in upholding the USA Constitution so much as undermining it.