cjl1618's Blog

If Russia uses nukes against Poland like they have threatened, will the resulting nuclear winter (even localized) mean that the environmental folks would be happy?

Takes care of global warming for a bit I should think.

I'm just saying

Good thing we don't have an energy crisis in this country. You would think that at some point somewhere we would have to have some kind of facility to increase our access to energy sources.

For the full article you can see it here:
 http://www.gopusa.com/news/2008/july/0717_mass_lng.sh
tml

House deals blow to proposed Mass. LNG terminal
By ANDREW MIGA
Associated Press
July 17, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House on Wednesday approved extending federal "wild and scenic" environmental protection to the lower Taunton River in Massachusetts, dealing a blow to developers who want to build a liquefied natural gas terminal on an urbanized stretch of riverbank.

The 242-175 vote, split largely along party lines, came amid Republican complaints the bill was a backdoor way for Democrats to block a proposed LNG plant in the city of Fall River, Mass. at a time when such facilities are sorely needed. GOP lawmakers said the measure underscored how Democrats aren't serious about tackling skyrocketing energy costs.

Bill critics also took aim at the commercialized riverbank area where developers want to build the terminal, saying it was more urban than wild and scenic. On the House floor, they displayed photos of Fall River to press their point.

"If this qualifies as a wild and scenic river ... then downtown Manhattan can be a national forest," said Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash.

 

It looks like the mortgage rescue plan is set to pass and go to Bush for his signature.

What will this bill really do? It will allow some homeowners who are in trouble with their mortgage to refinance to fixed rates with FHA backing.

The banks will be required to write down the debt to the actual current value of the house so they will take a small hit there. The owner will get a mortgage that in theory they will be able to afford.

If you live in the same neighborhood as someone who is on the brink of bust, and your houses have gone down in value, the scofflaw will have his mortgage revalued to what it is currently worth -- yours will still be the same -- how is that fair??

Thing is that anyone who gets to the point of losing their home is statistically likely to get right back to that point at some time in the future. That means that in a year, or two, they will be right back to the point of losing their home. Even after being rewarded for buying to much house, they will in the end go bust.

That means that the taxpayer will be paying when he goes bust the next time. The banks and mortgage companies will be out from under those loans, having them insured by the FHA (you and me).

So in the end, we shift the responsibility and potential losses from the homeowner and the banks to the taxpayer.

Great deal for the banks and mortgage companies and those that overbought. There is also some sweet deals tax wise for home builders.

Really bad bad deal for you and me.

As the news today shows Ted Kennedy in surgery to attempt to remove some of the brain tumor, it made me wonder just how much of the cost will be picked up by the Federal Health Insurance that, as a Senator, I am sure he has.

With his surgery being done at Duke, how does he get to pick the best doctors and hospitals in the country to have his health care delivered at? I don't think most regular Americans with even a good health care plan would have the luxury.

The big question is this though: Should Senator Kennedy even get ANY of the surgery or other big costly efforts to prolong his life. I would suspect he will quickly be into the millions of dollars spent to keep him alive. Thing is, this IS going to kill him and probably very soon.

He will, as this disease progresses, lose the ability to speak or even understand language.

Since that is the very likely out come of his illness, regardless of treatments, should he not, since he is very very advanced in age, go out gracefully and save the taxpayers potentially millions of health care dollars.

That question, as the next president will try to advance "universal" health care, is one that will have to be asked over and over.

At what age and at what cost, will we need to simply stop offering costly treatments, but rather offer the best way to add comfort to the last months of life. Should an 80 year old have by-pass surgery? Should someone like Kennedy who is going to die, be offered every single method to try to prolong his life?

I feel, as someone who is dealing with big time diseases myself, that I can ask that question. Many who talk about Universal Health care, speak like it will be comparable to what Teddy has. No limits, and every advanced treatment and technology applied to all of us - for free basically.

The reality will be much different. There will be many limits and rationing of treatments and dollars. There has to be. There is not enough money that we can borrow from China to fund all care for all people.

So when you are voting this November, think about the reality of the things you are being promised. You may end up seeing massive federal spending and very much reduced overall health care. You may get the very basic primary care, but if you think you will get Ted Kennedy type care you are sadly mistaken.

I for years have lived in a relatively low cost, in needs of lots of work, town home. One that I could afford no matter if I lost my job or became disabled (which happened).

I have this place, because I knew that things happen and if I lived right up to the money I made, I could have it all fall apart with one catastrophe. Living under my means has giving me the ability to stay in my house even with the disability.

If congress decides that mortgage holders must reduce the amount people owe on their homes if their value has fallen, I think I will be even more let down then their overwhelming desire to make us into a 3rd world nation by letting every uneducated person world wide to come on to the USA.

As an example of the people that need help:

".The company allowed us to refinance our home. The appraisal was very high, over $100,000. We were permitted to borrow 100 % of the value. Now we are almost at the point of forclosure because we cannot and have not been able to make their payment and keep up with the rest of our bills on a monthly basis. Now with property values down in our area, we cannot even hope to sell the house for an amount to clear the finance amount. There are at least 20 houses in a 6 block radius to our address that are comparable in size that are prices at least $30,000 less than we need to sell our property to break even.

Kathi
Somerset, Pennsylvania

I BET KATHI WAS JUMPING FOR JOY WHEN HER MORTGAGE COMPANY WAS WILLING TO GIVE HER 100% OF THE VALUE OF THE HOUSE.

Another example was in an interview I saw on the subject. The woman interviewed had bought a house with a 5 year adjustable mortgage with a very low initial rate. She borrowed 100% of the value of the house. She understood that in 5 years, the rate and her monthly payment would increase ALOT. Her plan was to refinance before that time, and with the increase in the value she anticipated, she would be able to keep a low payment and take a bunch of cash out as a profit.

She ended up being layed off work and is now looking at foreclosure. She KNEW she could not handle the payment if the rate increased at the 5 year point, but she now wants bailed out by the taxpayer to let her keep her house, because her house has gone down in value and she can't afford the payments or to sell it.

HOW IS THAT MY FAULT?????? There are few to NO cases of anyone that should be bailed out of foreclosure. I am not mean - I been in some real real tight and scary times myself, but if you can't afford a home and you thought that everyone else was getting rich with their houses seemingly going up in value every 10 minutes and it doesn't happen for you - you made a rotten choice. Live with it. Get a cheap apartment, save money, live BELOW your means and someday buy a house the right way.

Like any bubble, the real money pro's made a ton of money off of housing. Most were also out of the market by the time the average Joe and Jane decided to play too. The regular guy gets left holding the bag. It happens over and over that way. It is NOT THE TAXPAYERS responsibility to bail you out now.

Geraldo is a very pro latino advocate. He does not care how they get here, what they do when they are here, or what the ramifications are on US society from their actions.

Sadly, most of our politicians that could do something about it, feel the same way Geraldo does.

The "culture" of any person who can make it to the USA in any way, is to be cherished and elevated above that of the culture of the US citizen.

The people coming here should keep their own language and customs and the US citizen should bend to their will, paying the way to subsidize the education of their kids in their native language and customs.

We should have facilities like Parkland hospital take care of all of the pregnant women and their new born American citizen babies. YOU should pay for it, after all we owe them health care since we made them come here illegally.  

We should also pay the Mexican government to assist their citizens with plans, maps, comfortable launch off points on the border, and instruction on how to use the USA against itself.

We should assist the Mexican military with their forays into the US. Perhaps disarming all US citizens within 200 miles or so of the border would make both the Mexican military, the drug runners and the illegal hordes more comfortable to conduct their business and to enter their new country.

Taking Texans lands should be a priority to enable Mexican and other South and Central American citizens easier access to road and rail lines into the heartland.

Texas school kids should be made to learn Spanish in order to more fully integrate themselves into the culture of the latin Americans who desire to make the US home.

Texas kids should learn that wanting to have legal immigration policies are not enough and that they and and their parents are racists if they should talk about having laws that restrict who can make themselves at home in the USA.

Geraldo is right. Illegals add to our economy. Prison guards are in high demand. Dallas PD recruits in Puerto Rico because 30% of the city of Dallas cannot speak English.

Dallas ISD has interviewed and openly talked about hiring illegals to teach in Dallas schools since so many of the kids don't speak English.

Geraldo is a cretin. He is only saying out loud though the same crud that "The Race" puts out daily. It seems that most Americans agree with him if you look at who we have selected to lead the most powerful nation on earth.

We only get what we deserve. Early Americans fought for this country - to make it American and special and ours. We lost that will to fight to keep our country our own. We lost the ability to speak openly without being labeled racist or bigots or ... we lost our country, and getting it back is not going to happen.

We will go the way of the Balkans or the Soviet Union eventually. Maybe for the best. We have let the American dream be corrupted and substituted political correctness for the free exchange of ideas.

People are looked at by businesses as Units of Labor. Being American means nothing - American companies don't care much about putting America first. Greed is good for those that rake in the cash on the backs of Dollar a Day workers.

US Citizens get to adapt to "Service Jobs". The least educated among us will have their wages pushed even lower, or be completely unemployable if they do not speak Spanish.

To change any of this will take a level of force and violence I fear. Illegals feel they have a Right to the USA. They break our laws and throw them in our faces. They will not leave and we will not make them.

Until enough of us experience the pain that is coming, we will continue to adapt and complain (mildly) and we will continue to lose our nation. We will have to force the political leaders to do what we elect them to do when it gets bad enough. If they don't, they will need to know they will be deposed, by any means needed.

Only then, maybe, we will see some with backbone to fight this assault on our way of life and maybe, when the fighting is done, we will have our nation back. Civil wars happen regularly around the world. We may need another here some day. I don't see us stopping any of this invasion without one.

But hey - thats just me. I'm just saying...

No not here - it was in Nigeria. This is from the BBC. We just have ours close because of illegals - but it may be part of our tax dollars that paid for this one in Nigeria. Unbelievable


Unused hospital razed in Nigeria A fully-equipped hospital that lay unused for two years has burned to the ground in northern Nigeria.

The General Hospital in Maiduguri was built in 2006 but the state government refused to open it until the president came to cut the ribbon.

Several surgical theatres, the intensive care ward, and the clinical section which held millions of dollars of equipment were all destroyed.

The president was due to visit the hospital next month to open it.

Borno State Governor Ali Modu Sheriff blamed the fire on arsonists who wanted to damage his political reputation.

There is not one hospital owned by a state government that has the type of world class equipment we had in there
Ali Modu Sheriff,
Governor of Borno state

The governor had refused to open the hospital, which was ready for patients in June 2006, until former President Olusegun Obasanjo came to the state.

Senator Obama's push for the UN Millennium act committing us to spend .7% of our GDP for the UN's world poverty goals among other fine issues. Since we owe back UN taxes from 2000 it would mean - oh heck raising taxes? I don't know. I like the ban on small arms that is part of this act. Pistols, rifles, you know, those things most Texans have in their homes or cars.

Would amount to $845 billion over the next 8 years or so. I am sure China will be happy to lend us the money to give to the UN to spend in China or Africa or ......on and on

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/ckincaid/2008/ck_0213
1.shtml

DALLAS -- "Gov. Rick Perry told members of an influential Hispanic organization on Monday that building a fence down the entire length of the Texas-Mexico border, from El Paso to Brownsville, is "absolutely not the answer" to solving the immigration problem."

What a guy. Perry is all for stopping Mexican criminals, just not the thousands of criminals that break in every single day. Those criminals are a good neighbor.

One could see Perry angling for a VP nod with McCain with his nice liberal open border, pro amnesty  stance.

I can also see Hutchinson getting the VP slot; would give McCain a woman on the ticket who also is totally open border, pro amnesty and pro North American Union.

No matter who wins the next election, our problem with illegals will only increase.

McCain says he is a Reagan conservative. Reagan gave an amnesty to illegals and a PROMISE to the American people that it would never happen again, that laws would be enforced, that businesses would face stiff fines and jail and the borders would be secure.

McCain must have missed out on the promise part to the US CITIZEN, just like all the rest of the power hungry politicians did.

 

If you , like millions of other Texans use toll tags to ease the pain of your passage on Texas toll roads, you may be interested in this short article on how New Jersey is using the information from toll tags.

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/22/2220.asp

Different state I know, but same technology used. With the push by Perry and Willamson to make every road a toll road, the state may soon, if it is not already, be able to track you everywhere you drive.

Not paranoid, just sick of Rick Perry - I think the guy and his TxDot buds are corrupt - there is so much money in these toll road contracts, many of which are handed out as no bid contracts, that they have the ability to reward allies with our tax money in a toll road system that will have us all, and our kids and grandkids, paying  forever.

And they wonder why the republican party is such a rotten mess these days. Perry, Bush, McCain, Hutchinson - all open border advocates, all spending and pushing big big big government into our lives, yeah with leaders like them well..with these kind of leaders in power, you end up with an Obama as President. Boy did they blow it.

If this article from the AP is even close to being right, then our budget is mostly smoke and mirrors that could result in even bigger problems than just the 400 TRILLION deficit for the coming year.

http://www.gopusa.com/news/2008/february/0205_budget_ta
xes.shtml

This entire budget, trillions worth, all depends on the democratic congress passing all of the Bush tax cuts, making them permanent and also doing nothing to the AMT which will screw some 25 million or more people if yearly or permanent fixes are not done, along with so many other assumptions that it would be near impossible for them all to come true.

This is just so irresponsible. How in the world can our elected officials continue this insanity of spending the country into bankruptcy? Our currency is already lost compared to other world currencies, especially the Euro.

If the world oil markets decide to change from using and pricing oil in dollars, to pricing it in Euro's, we will end up hoping for the good old days of $4.00 gas.

This kind of spending is hurting our kids that are not even born yet. Look at the portion of all of our money that goes to just paying interest to China and others. If we continue to spend this way, it could in short order be the biggest portion of our budgets.

When the Chinese find it in their best interest to do so, they will call in all of those trillions in debt we have with them. Our economy will be destroyed overnight, making the great depression look pretty good by comparison. Since we can no longer build what we need or even feed ourselves  we will be in the position that we will need foreign aid to survive.

You want to be there? I don't but I don't know what to do about it. For the last year I have called so much I have my politicians numbers in memory,. visited their offices on many occasions and wrote everyone from the President to the Senate and House to all of my Texas officials. All I ever got from any of them was pandering.

They all seem to have  forgotten that the country is supposed to come before all else and forcing them back to that ideal I think is not possible.

So Bush,  that stalwart fiscal conservative submitted his new budget today. Whopping 3.1 TRILLION dollars including just under 1/2 TRILLION in DEFICIT; i.e. money borrowed from China or Saudi Arabia to add to our well over 9 TRILLION IN DEBT now.

What is even worse is that the congressional leadership is already saying it ignores spending that needs to be done on social issues.

WE ARE ALL MAD.   WE EVEN LOOK CERTAIN TO ELECT EITHER THE MOST LIBERAL DEMOCRAT OR MOST LIBERAL REPUBLICAN THAT THERE ARE IN THE SENATE.

As I always say, we get the government that we deserve and we deserve this. Year after year govt has gotten more and more into our lives to the point that we can no longer walk around much of Dallas without being on camera, and we are force fed toll roads that will end up being the only way to travel on Texas highways.

The Federal Govt. can read every email, monitor every phone call and know us all by our credit, our voting and our internet profiles. Yes in theory some of that is not strictly allowed without a warrant, but all of the information is collected, just not looked at.

Everyone is a victim of something, and the solution to all that victim hood is surely more government spending and another government bureaucracy; all which cost a lot more of your tax dollars.

Our victim hood even extends to people who have broken into this nation flaunting our laws, our customs, our language and demanding that their language and way of life be affirmed as ok by the citizens of the country. 

They must not be wrong since almost every presidential contestant is eager to bow to them and give legality at any cost and our schools and hospitals are already catering to them, grinding both into the ground under the weight of serving people who give no thought to the costs they demand the American citizen absorb to take care of them. They are after all, victims.

Yes my friends we must all be mad.

I never used to have much resentment to those in top tiers of a company, but things have gotten so out of whack that it is hard not to.

There is a quickly growing disparity, way more than ever before in our history, of those who bust their butts working for a living and just try to pay for the kids health care, education and keep a roof over their heads, and those that run the companies and banks that fund them.

The CEO of home depot was famously paid insane amounts of millions to quit, hedge fund managers are making over a BILLION $ / year,  and now this one just really gets me:

PHILADELPHIA - The 87-year-old founder of Comcast Corp.'s pay will keep going to his beneficiaries for five years after his death under a new agreement.

I mean what the hell gives this guy the right to continue to get his salary and bonuses and benefits paid to his kids when he dies. How many other Comcast employees you think have that deal?

It just shows how far we have come. The Rise and Fall of the United States Empire so closely follows Rome it is scary.

That full article is here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071229/ap_on_bi_ge/comcast
_founder_s_compensation;_ylt=ApSPoi9qEvc9EpXynB3zpGhv24
cA

This from Kenya - a bastion of new democracy:

"The government has failed to declare Odinga the winner," said 11-year-old Kennedy Ochieng, stumbling under the weight of a box of clothes, mobile phone chargers and other stolen goods.

"They stole our votes so we are looting everything we can."

As black smoke billowed overhead, one crowd waved machetes and yelled "Death to Kikuyus." Young boys swigged looted beer.

"We have just started. We will loot all Kikuyu shops and kill them on sight," said Richard Ondigi, 23, a driver.

Yup all countries just need the old fashioned democracy; Kenya, Lebanon, Gaza, Pakistan, Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan and more

I think much of the world is just not cut out for democracy regardless of what we think all people want. Even with Russia,

Putin has brought back the cold war and near dictatorial rule and they are doing better because of it. Not a country I like to see going backwards, but it has always done better, or at least been more stable, under very tight control

In this article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071227/sc_afp/germanyinsu
ranceclimatewarmingdisastermunichre_071227192718

a re-insurance company describes the increasing costs of storms and the threats that are posed by such increases. The first one they mention as the most expensive was an earthquake in Japan. The cost to human life example used was 3000 killed in floods in Bangladesh.

Although they do not try to link the earthquake to global warming, they do use it's cost as part of how expensive storms are.

3000 dead in Bangladesh from floods is a small number. There have been years where over a hundred thousand died. It is a backward country prone to massive flooding most every year. That is not global warming - that is the geography of the country and the people that stay even though they know they will flood every year and people will die every year.

There was a report written by a UN climatologist a few weeks back that said the average temperature increases that everyone has been using are wrong by more than half. That did not seem to make the news anywhere.

Has any "global warming is caused by humans" person advocated sterilization in countries that seem to pop out kids one after another? or perhaps eliminating people in those countries that really haven't progressed out of the stone age?

The backwards people that cut down the rain forests so they can make charcoal would be just as well taken out. Just eliminating them would save the rain forest and perhaps the planet.

If humans at 6 billion are causing runaway train global warming, then what will happen with 9 billion or 12 billion? It is not humans per se, it is the number of humans.

If the earth cannot sustain itself with humans at these levels then we will be thinned one way or another.

The US is blamed for global warming while China makes the old steel mills days in Pittsburgh look like nice sunny days. All the while Europe doesn't actually do anything, but they do trade "carbon credits" that are the made up bogus way of not doing anything and getting rewarded while they do it.

The earth will be fine. I swear everyday I think less of us humans though.