Archive for July 23rd, 2008
Obama Sags On World Tour
McCain Gains During Obama Absence.
Barack Obama has decided to buy $5 million in national advertising on NBC during the broadcast of the Olympic games. The ads will appear on network and cable channels. The ad purchase was first reported Wednesday on the Web site of Advertising Age, a magazine that covers the industry. The Olympics, to be held in Beijing, will open Aug. 8. Such an extensive purchase of ad time would give Obama wide exposure before the Democratic National Convention, to be held the last week in August.Obama has the resources: He has set fundraising records and reported raising $52 million in June, more than twice the $21.5 million raised by his rival, Republican John McCain.
The Republican National Committee sensing vulnerability is running ads against Obama in Germany as he visits there.
McCain has squirted ahead in all important Ohio with its 20 electors. While Obama has been on an overseas tour, 45% of voters say the Democratic hopeful is too inexperienced to be President. That’s up four percentage points from a week ago. An equal number-45%–disagree with that assessment and say Obama has the necessary experience. When leaners are included, Obama leads 253-247 in electors considering Ohio’s shift from Lens Democrats to leans Republican. If McCain pick Romney and he delivers Michigan’s 17 electors the total becomes 236 to 264. 270 electors are needed to win.
Ten Post Round-Up: July 23, 2008
If this round-up were any juicier, you’d totally stick a fork in it…
1. It is long overdue to retire this policy. Gay soldiers should not be held to a higher standard than straight soldiers who are free to date who they like and not conceal their attractions. It is the gay soldier who is expected to keep their mouth shut and their pants zipped, for fear of losing their job. The military does not have room for discrimination, particularly if they hope to continue with war without end in the Middle East.
KOAA.com - Lawmakers reconsider military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy
Tauscher is convinced it’s time to allow gays in the military to be open about their sexuality, and she’s not alone. Three-fourths of those surveyed in a Washington Post-ABC News poll over the weekend said openly gay people should be allowed to serve. That’s up from 62 percent in early 2001 and 44 percent in 1993.
2. Even relying on some resource other than coal or oil to produce our energy needs is going to come with a very steep price tag.
CNN.com: Wind power: A reality check
One of the big challenges with using wind to replace natural gas is that, unlike the steady flame from natural gas, the wind doesn’t blow all the time.
To make sure enough power is available when the wind isn’t blowing, backup generators would be needed, said Paul Fremont, an electric-utility analyst at the investment bank Jefferies & Co.
That could mean maintaining those natural gas plants in case of emergency, or implementing even more novel ideas like systems in Europe that use excess wind electricity to pump water uphill when the wind is blowing, then release it through hydro dams when the wind stops.
Either way, any type of backup system comes with a price.
3. Sorry, guys. It won’t fit in your wallet. But, on the upside, it will be a perfect fit (that is, if it ever gets mass produced…).
Cool Hunting: Spray-On Condom
While most technologies advanced by leaps and bounds in recent decades, condom design has been relatively static for the last century or so. One visionary German scientist is working to change that. Jan Vinzenz Krause has spent recent years trying to make the world’s most common prophylactic available in spray-on form. The technology’s draw, according to Krause (pictured), is that conventional condoms often don’t fit penises of varying sizes (also pictured, sort of).
Italian Anisette Pizzelle Cookies
This if for all the Italians out there, and those who are lucky enough to be married to an Italian, and even to all friends of Italians.
An elderly Italian man lay dying in his bed. While suffering the agonies of impending death, he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite Italian anisette pizzelle cookies wafting up the stairs.
Gathering his remaining strength, he lifted himself from the bed. Leaning against the wall, he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, and with great effort, gripping the railing with both hands, he crawled downstairs.
With labored breath he leaned against the door frame gazing into the kitchen where, if not for death’s agony, he would have thought himself already in heaven. For there, spread out upon waxed paper on the kitchen table, were literally hundreds of his favorite pizzelle cookies.
Was it Heaven? Or was it one final act of heroic love from his devoted Italian wife of sixty years, seeing to it that he left this world a happy man?
Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself towards the table, landing on his knees in a crumpled posture. His parched lops parted, the wondrous taste of the cookie was already in his mouth, seemingly bringing him back to life.
His aged and withered hand trembled on its way to a cookie at the edge of the table when it was suddenly smacked with a spatula. “Get outta here!” his wife yelled, “They’re for the funeral!”
Noah 2008
In the year 2008, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in the United States, and said, ‘Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me.
Build another Ark and save 2 of every living thing along with a few good humans.’He gave Noah the blueprints, saying, ‘You have 6 months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights.’Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard - but no Ark.’Noah!’ He roared, ‘I’m about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?”Forgive me, Lord,’ begged Noah, ‘but things have changed. I needed a building permit. I’ve been arguing with the inspector about the need for a sprinkler system.
My neighbors claim that I’ve violated the neighborhood zoning laws by building the Ark in my yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to the Development Appeal Board for a decision.Then the Department of Transportation demanded a bond be posted for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the passage for the Ark’s move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us, but they would hear nothing of it.
Getting the wood was another problem. There’s a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the spotted owl. I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls - but no go!
When I started gathering the animals, an animal rights group sued me. They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued the accommodations were too restrictive, and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space.
Then the EPA ruled that I couldn’t build the Ark until they’d conducted an environmental impact study on your proposed flood.
After that the DEA raided my home because someone reported that with all the traffic in and out of my house I must be dealing drugs.
And oh yes, some FBI or NSA agents, I’m still not sure which, are spying on me and have questioned my family and me on three separate occasions and I can tell by the reactions that they don’t believe a word I’ve said.
I’m still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I’m supposed to hire for my building crew.Immigration and Naturalization are checking the green-card status of most of the people who want to work.
The trades unions say I can’t use my sons. They maintain I have to hire only Union workers with Ark-building experience.
The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), USDA insist on inspecting and prescribing food packages to accommodate participants with cultural food preferences, and to serve participants with certain qualifying conditions only food based on their fragile medical conditions.
To make matters worse, the IRS seized all my assets, claiming I’m trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species.
So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10 years for me to finish this Ark.’Suddenly, the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky. Noah looked up in wonder and asked, ‘You mean you’re not going to destroy the world?’
‘No,’ said the Lord. ‘The government beat me to it.’
Economist Favor McCain Economic Plan Over Obama’s
Voters Give Obama Slight Edge on Economy
The U.S. stock market would fare better after a victory by Republican presidential candidate John McCain than by his Democratic rival Barack Obama, according to a majority of economists at U.S. banks and research groups polled by Reuters.
Regarding their respective economic plans 12 economists gave McCain’s proposals higher marks, while nine rated the two candidates equally and eight preferred Obama’s policies, according to the poll released on Wednesday.
The sample included a cross-section of U.S. financial institutions, large and small, including several prominent Wall Street names.
A key concern is Obama’s promise to increase taxes on dividends and capital gains, and allowing income tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush’s administration to expire. McCain wants the income tax cut to become permanent and has promised not to increase taxes on dividends and capital gains.
The poll gave Obama a slight over McCain on the question of who would best manage the economy.
Majority Now Say U. S. Beating Terrorists
Despite Most Media’s Bashing Facts Leaking Through
Over half of American voters (51%) now believe the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror, the highest figure recorded in nearly four years by Rasmussen Reports in a nationwide survey.
Only 16% now think the terrorists are on top, while 27% view it as a stalemate. Prior to this week’s survey, the number who believe the terrorists are winning had never fallen below 20%.
Last July, just 36% thought the U.S. and its allies were winning. At that time, an equal number-36%–thought the terrorists were ahead.
Other indicators in the survey also show that Americans have growing confidence that things are looking up in the war on terror.
Forty-two percent (42%) now think the situation in Iraq will improve over the next six months. That’s up from 37% a week ago and 23% a year ago.
Only 23% now expect things to get worse in Iraq, down from 49% last July.
The gap also is narrowing dramatically between those who think history will judge the war in Iraq as a success - 36% now - versus those who think it will be viewed as a failure (39%).
These results continue a trend noted last week when 48% said the U.S. and its allies were winning versus 20% who saw the terrorists ahead. The 28-point difference was the most favorable margin recorded by Rasmussen Reports since tracking began in January 2004. The previous high was established on September 6, 2004, when 52% thought the U.S. and its allies were winning but 26% thought the terrorists were winning — a 26-point favorable margin.
Now 35 points separate those who think the U.S. is ahead as opposed to the terrorists.
For the first time in months, more Democrats (35%) also think the U.S. is winning versus the number who credit the terrorists with being ahead (26%), although nearly a third (31%) are undecided. Last week, only 27% of Democrats thought the U.S. was winning.
Even as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama tours the war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq on a fact-finding trip, Americans are evenly divided on whether he is too inexperienced to be president. Forty-five percent (45%) say Obama, who has been in the Senate three years after serving as a state legislator in Illinois, lacks the experience to sit in the White House, a number that has been trending higher in recent weeks. An identical percentage disagree.
The results on the war on terror come as a separate Rasmussen Reports national survey this week found that 63% of Americans want the troops brought home from Iraq within a year, reflecting little change in voter attitudes since tracking of this question began last August. Still, just 24% want the troops withdrawn immediately.
Forty-four percent (44%) of voters think the United States is safer today than before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but 39% disagree. Both figures are roughly comparable to the most optimistic figures on record.
Obama and Republican presidential candidate John McCain have stepped up their criticism of each other’s positions on the wars on terror and in Iraq in recent days, largely due to Obama’s current overseas trip. McCain, a longtime supporter of the war in Iraq, has consistently pushed for more U.S. troops there, and this so-called surge of forces is credited with bringing stability to the war-torn country. Obama remains a critic of the war but now acknowledges that the surge, which he opposed, has worked.
In another recent survey, however, 48% of Americans agreed with Obama that Afghanistan, and not Iraq, should be the “central front” in the war on terror.
Still in new polling this week McCain is again trusted by voters more than Obama when it comes to Iraq and the broader issue of national security.
Now 61% of men think the U.S. and its allies are winning the war on terror, up from 54% last week and 49% the week before. The number of women who agree has held steady at 43% for two weeks in a row, up from 37% a week earlier.
The percentage of Republicans who see the U.S. and its allies ahead also stayed roughly the same at 78%. Forty-five percent (45%) of unaffiliated voters, a bloc critical to the upcoming presidential election, agree, up two percentage points from a week earlier and 36% the week before that. Nationally, the race between Barack Obama and John McCain remains very close in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.
Thirty percent (30%) of likely Obama voters also see the U.S. winning, while 26% of them disagree.
Rasmussen Reports will continue polling weekly on this topic through the election and then resume monthly tracking. Weekly updates are posted on the Obama-McCain: By the Numbers page.
During weekly tracking in Election 2004, confidence that the U.S. and its allies were winning ranged from a low of 45% to a high of 52%, but the number who thought the terrorists were winning never fell below 25%.
The war on terror was the number one issue for voters in the 2004 election cycle. Voters now identify economic issues as their number one concern.
President Bush’s record low approval ratings have improved slightly from the new confidence in the outcome of the war on terror. Forty-six percent (46%) rate his job performance as poor, down from 49% last week, while 27% rate his work as good or excellent for the second week in a row.
Hypocrisy of oil
Mundus vult decipi ergo decipiatur translated means “The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived.”
It is no small irony that this Latin phrase appears in the bottom right corner of the JOKER in a deck of bicycle playing cards.
Congressional hypocrites are reportedly having secret meetings about increasing domestic oil production because they are under increasing pressure to act. At the same time they are spreading increasing rations of manure mis and disinformation. Here’s a summary of basic facts to help you sift the wheat from chaff.
A barrel of oil is 42 gallons. Domestically produced oil amounts to 41 % of the oil we consumed in March of this year. Canada supplies 12% of our nation’s oil and 20 percent of all the oil we import.; Saudi Arabia (7 percent and 13 percent); Venezuela (6 percent and 11 percent); Nigeria (6 percent and 10 percent); and Mexico (5 percent and 8 percent).
All Persian Gulf countries account for only 16% of our foreign oil imports each year from 2005 to 2007. In fact, our Persian Gulf imports declined most of this decade, from a 15-year high of a little more than 1 billion barrels in 2001 to 791.9 million barrels in 2007.
One barrel of crude oil (which is 42 gallons), yields about 19.6 gallons of gasoline. The other 22.4 gallons go into the products like: diesel and jet fuels, heating oil, liquefied petroleum gas, lubricants, asphalt, plastics, synthetic fibers, detergents, fertilizers, ink, crayons, bubble gum, deodorant, tires, and heart valves.
We consumed about 390 million gallons of gas a day last year in our cars, trucks, recreational vehicles, boats, farm implements, and construction and landscaping equipment. Back when crude was $68 a barrel (that was just last year), it accounted for about 58 percent of the price of a gallon of gasoline. The rest of the price came from refining costs (17 percent), federal and state taxes (15 percent), and distribution and marketing (10 percent).
By the way, the price of crude accounts for about 77 percent of the cost of gas at $4 a gallon.
Californians pay 63.9 cents a gallon in state and federal fuel taxes, the most in the nation. plus an additional 6% state sales tax, with some paying another 1.25% county sales tax plus applicable local sales taxes. Same in Illinois , where Chicago motorists pay 12.75 cents per gallon on top of the 57.9 cents per gallon in state and federal taxes. Some Illinois motorists also pay a 6.25-percent sales tax. It’s ironic that in such states higher per gallon gasoline prices literally shovels tons of tax money to the treasury.
Politicians, pundits, and other TV talking heads don’t like to provide these answers, because facts get in the way of positions that pander to the mob. We don’t point fingers at Canada , because it’s de rigueur to paint the Saudis with the broad brush of blame. Folks float the idea of a moratorium on state and federal gasoline taxes without explaining its minimal impact on gas prices, or without mentioning the $3 sales tax some motorists pay on top of a $50 fill up. Policymakers don’t explain that oil trades in the dollar, which is weak vis-Ã -vis the Euro, because that would require solutions for strengthening the greenback.
And, it’s easier for simple minds to convince simpler minds to impose windfall-profit taxes on pension funds and owners of Individual Retirement Accounts who invest in oil companies than to take on credit card issuers charging double- and triple-digit interest rates to the millions of people using plastic to pay for food and fuel. Talk about irony.
And, we sure wouldn’t want to impose a windfall-profit tax on someone who goes from making $56,000 a year as, say, an Illinois legislator, to $165,000 a year as, say, a U.S. senator, an increase of nearly 200 percent (not counting book deals or real-estate related loans).
Edited from an article by John David Powell an award-winning writer and Internet columnist.