PegasusWing's Blog

Today on the way home, I passed a trooper's car in his driveway. 

Actually I feel better knowing that several people in law enforcement live in my neighborhood.

I know that there are objections to this. 

If they each drove their own vehicle to work, then three shifts could all use the same vehicle. 

Would that save money? 

The fleet would be smaller, but the milage on each vehicle would increase faster so would have to be replaced more often.

Then I recalled that when we were kids, my little brother told me that he asked his friend's father who was on the police force if he could get a permit to drive an unregistered car to the garage, or how could he do it. 

The officer told him to drive it in at 3:00 pm, because there were no police on the roads because both shifts were at the police station changing cars.

We joked that we knew the best time to hold up a bank. 

So maybe allowing cops to drive their vehicles home have benefits as well?

         Racism is when someone dislikes a person because of his or her race, creed, national origin, or sexual preference, without ever getting to know the person.  I have prejudices.  I could tell you the difference between an Irish man and an Italian or a German and and Austrian.  Sometimes I would be right, probably, as often, I would be wrong.  My prejudices are based on movies that I watched, books that I read, previous acquaintances, and probably the attitudes of my parents, teachers, classmates.

          Shouldn't someone who raised their child in a trailer park be more determined than anyone to see that their child got the intellectual stimulation to become a good student who would rise above his start in life?  It seldom happens.  Thus the term trailer park trash was coined. 

         Orientals, I prefer that word to Asian which is now the politically correct term.  Oriental brings to my mind the "mystique of the Orient" and is far more imaginative, but ok- back to the story: the Asians who come to the states, without the English language, have children who do far better in school than those who cross the boarder illegally or whose great ancestors were brought here on slave ships.

        I would conclude that Asians are excellent parents.  When I say this, I am guilty of prejudice.  I could also say that there is a far lower percent of obese Asian children.  I conclude that Asians are better cooks and probably excellent parents.  Is this prejudice?  Is anyone free of prejudice?  There are exceptions and outstanding role models for any group.  

       The solution is that if you are a part of a group that is burdened with negative expectations, just be sure that your children are brought up to rise to the top.  Teach them values, encourage education, present a healthy role model and family life style. 

Halliburton stock went from $8.04 in 2002 to now $47.43 in 2008. Vice President Cheney is experiencing no recession.

President Bush increased his person wealth from oil in the same period by $60 million.

They can afford the price of gasoline if it increases to $100 a gallon!  Easily.

Which of the two mentioned made the most money because of the war, do you think?

I remember Lady Byrd had investments in helicopters.  At the end of VN war, helicopters were flown to the Navy ships where the men tipped them overboard.

I also remember my classmates who never came back, those who came back maimed and hooked on drugs as they underwent heroic medical procedures.

The American soldier, he, and she as well, are unique in that they are willing to put their lives on the line to rescue strangers from distant countries.

 The American people have always risen to the call to do our part.

But somehow, the leadership and the soldier and the people have different objectives.

I have spoken with people who remember living through the Great Depression.

The tell me there is major difference in the character of the Americans and of their leaders, then and now.

Some Americans are expecting a greater depression, from which we may never recover.

We no longer have the industry to expand.

 Our open markets import merchandise made by child and sweat shop labor that puts American industry out of business.

This wonderful Free Market is not reciprocal. 

We are in serious trouble here, trillions on the war, billions on illegal invaders, free trade that benefits anyone but the US, debilitating inflation, outsourcing to the point that it destroys US industry and job opportunities, soaring fuel costs, and crooked, bribe-taking leadership.  All supported by taxes of the people who are increasingly finding supporting their families near impossible.

The Sunshine Law makes candidates tell who makes campaign contributions.

However, the difference between stock profits and out right contributions is mere semantics.

Is there leadership with the patriotism to put the future of the American nation before their own goal of acquiring massive personal wealth?

In grade 5 in our science book, we read that nuclear power was going to be too cheap to meter.  I believed it.

We also read that someday we would use little plastic computer cards to pay for everything, even gas, and instead of pay checks, your pay would go directly into your account.  I didn't believe it.

Now I look at this energy crisis and think: The American public and politicians are going to get smarter and come up with alternative means of energy.  We will get off the ever increasing consumption of oil and conserve.  Maybe I am just not a good guesser.

Maybe people will remain self indulgent.  Politicians will watch out for themselves and destroy the country with their greed. 

I envision some company designing wind turbines that can go up a pole like a flag, produce electricity for the individual home, then in case of hurricane, just be slid to the ground and safely secured and protected.  I see cost effective public transportation expanding in cities and between major cities.  I see electric cars being advanced just as the gasoline engine advanced from the model T to the electronic, luxurious wonders today.

Survivalist are on the move again, stockpiling food and weapons.  Maybe they are better guessers.  Politicians will look out for themselves and watch the country burn out.  Oil companies will pay off politicians and car companies to keep up the production of the gas guzzlers, which will bury the auto industry.  Food and fuel will become too expensive to buy.  When the country burns out, oil investors will be on some remote island sitting fat and content having cocktail parties with the politicians.

What are the solutions? 

If you had the power, what would you do to change the direction of the country?

Am I a dreamer, gloom and doomer, or finally guessing right?

In a court of law, a person has to be found sane enough to understand the difference between right and wrong.

Well that is stupid. 

Think about it.  Does a sane person commit murder?

If someone really got you mad, do you kill him?

Of course not, because you are sane (most of you bloggers).

Therefore, if someone commits murder, they are insane. 

All murderers are insane. 

So is it a difference of degrees?

If you begin with the premise that the law is there to protect the innocent, then there should be a verdict, "Guilty by reason of Insanity."

We do not put them away to punish them, but to protect the innocent.

One other thing.  In Atlanta, someone held up a store and killed the Emory law student there.  His wife was pregnant.  They caught the guy and sent him to prison.

Now, I was innocent, but I have to pay for this pile of feces to live in prison, (about $200,000 ?) a year for life.

I want a choice. 

Kill the killer, one shot.

Then I pay the widow $40,000 for 5 years.  She has the baby, then goes back to school so she can support herself and her baby.

The loser never gets out on parole.

We save big bucks.

I received this E-mail:  "These traitorous politicians are intent on sneaking 'amnesty'  for illegal invading squatters into law behind the backs of American citizens - infuriating!!! "

Then I received an update:  "I am proud to report that our latest efforts to stop the Amnesty Caucus have been successful! Senator Reid removed Dianne Feinstein's amnesty amendment from the war funding bill before it even reached the Senate floor."

Personally, I would like to see someone write a bill demanding that local law enforcement remove illegal invaders.  They could appoint a couple of undercover police to track known illegals, then fine those who employ them at $1000 per head per day.  That would pay for the police and removal costs. 

Those breaking the law by hiring illegals could pay the bill.  Americans have always welcomed legal immigrants, but those who sneak into the country, breaking our laws are not welcome. 

WASHINGTON - The Senate, in a direct challenge to President Bush, voted Tuesday to temporarily halt the shipment of thousands of barrels of oil a day into the government's emergency reserve.

Both Democrats and Republicans said such shipments make no sense when oil is costing more than $120 a barrel and could better be used to add supplies to a tight market and possibly lower prices.

With Republicans joining Democrats, senators voted 97-1 to suspend the shipments - averaging about 70,000 barrels a day - until the end of the year. Only Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., voted against the measure.

The House was scheduled to vote on a similar directive later in the day. The Senate measure was added to legislation on flood insurance that it also passed Tuesday.

Bush has been steadfast in continuing shipments of oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a system of underground salt domes on the Gulf Coast, arguing that the stockpile should be filled to its maximum capacity of 727 million barrels. It currently is 97 percent full at 701 million barrels, equal to two months of oil imports.

The reserve was created in the 1970s as a precaution against major interruptions of oil supplies.

Senators said the stockpile is big enough to meet any emergency.

"We are buying the most expensive crude oil in the history of the world and storing it," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. "When American consumers are burning at the stake by high energy prices, the government ought not be carrying the wood."

Dorgan acknowledged it was "a small step forward" as Congress grapples with ways to respond to soaring fuel prices that have pushed gasoline prices to nearly $4 a gallon after a winter of record heating bills.

It's uncertain how much effect - if any - putting 70,000 barrels a day of crude onto the U.S. market that uses more than 21 million barrels a day would have. Dorgan said it could send a signal and curb market speculation.

"It could have a chance of reducing the price a small amount," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who joined the chorus against continuing the shipments. "But make no bones about it, this is no big energy policy. This is one little thing we can do."

Earlier, the Senate rejected a broader Republican energy plan that called for opening an Alaska wildlife refuge and some offshore waters to oil development. Supporters of the measure couldn't get the needed 60 votes to overcome a Democratic-led filibuster threat.

Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said more domestic oil production is needed to keep prices in check and to reduce U.S. dependence on oil imports. "We cannot repeal the law of supply and demand....We need to increase supply in order to lower gas prices," said McConnell.

But opponents said areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and coastal waters that have been off limits to drilling for 25 years ought to remain that out of bounds to oil companies. The GOP measure, defeated Tuesday by a vote of 56-42, would have allowed coastal states to get a waiver to the offshore drilling ban.

"We can't drill our way to lower prices," said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.

The president has given no indication that he will move to halt shipments to the oil reserve, short of a congressional directive.

"Our position hasn't changed," said White House press secretary Dana Perino earlier this week. She said the president believes the emergency reserve needs to be increased "in order to protect ourselves against oil shocks" and that the oil being put in - a tenth of one percent of global production - "would have a negligible impact on gas prices" if put into the market.

                                               
*   *    *    *   *

Add to this that the oil pipeline in Alaska pipes to Japan, ultimately, how wise is the country's leadership? 

Also, who is paying for this oil in reserve?  Oh, the taxpayer.

Still I contend that the high price of oil is a financial burden on the people, but the long term problem is that we are squandering finite resources without a thought to decreasing consumption so that our supplies last.

Is stockpiling and holding back drilling in the Gulf and Arctic reserves in a masterplan to protect America's reserves when the rest of the world runs out of oil?

Would $120 a barrel someday seem like a steal?  You have to admit that the oil boy does know how to make money, $60 million in his pocket since the start of Freedom Iraqi.

Oh, my, I did hear that the oil boy's public approval rating had dropped to 30%, but notice in the Senate where they, presumably , know him better, his rating has dropped to 1%. 

If he ever promised to bring both parties together, he has done it now! 

I was taking a lunch break while doing an art show when I noticed a lovely, young woman really interested in my portraits.  I ditched the lunch and went to talk to her.

 She had never seen anything like my work, so I explained the process of painting portraits on porcelain.

She seemed more than casually interested and asked if I could work from pictures or if I had to have a live model.  I told her that I prefer to take my own pictures and work from them, then I do not have the pressure of an uncomfortable model or have to deal with copyright infringements.

She told me that she had recently lost her two year old son.  She had pictures of him around the house, but wanted something really special. She was getting glassey eyed, and I was choked up. 

Finally she reached down to her purse and said that she had some pictures with her.  As she leaned down she confided, "He died under anesthesia when I took him to have him spaded."

I understand that people love their animals, but they are not people.  Had she begun with a story about losing her pet, I would have felt for her, but she was oblivious to what she actually communicated.

I thought that I covered my irritation well and sent her to another artist. 

WASHINGTON - AP

Obama picked up the backing of nine superdelegates, party leaders who attend the convention, delegates by virtue of their positions and are not selected in primaries and caucuses.

"After careful consideration, I have reached the conclusion that Barack Obama can best bring about the change that our country so desperately wants and needs."

10 superdelegates  have switched allegiances from Clinton to Obama. None have publicly switched the other way.

In the overall race for the nomination, Obama leads with 1,859.5 delegates, to 1,697 for Clinton. Obama is just 165.5 delegates short of the 2,025 delegates needed to win it.

So it looks like a McCain/Obama race to the White House.  The campaign should change, since neither man was as quick to sling mud as Lady McBeth, except in self defense.  Hopefully the campaigns will now proceed with honor 

Neither man is apt to enforce our immigration laws, especially McCain who has sponsored previous legislation with Teddy K to benefit illegal invaders.  McCain is definitely more of a hawk than Obama, but other bloggers tell me that we can not and will not pull out of the Mid East.  The oil crisis and its snowballing inflation is threatening the survival of lower income families.  None of the three seemed to have a grip on the economics of the nation, but either can seek out teams of top notch advisors.  Over all, I feel better knowing Ms Clinton won't have her finger on the red button at 3:00 in the morning.  McCain is predictable, but Obama is a mystery to me, one with whom I am not yet comfortable.  Time tells all.

Scientist used the back yards of Baltimore low income black families to spread sludge, not bothering to tell the families that there was dangerously high levels of bacteria and heavy metal contamination in the sludge, specifically lead, both of which are serious health hazards. Those involved in the “study” for which there was no apparent medical follow up, were given food coupons and new lawns.

 People who live near composted fields and compost facilities suffer mostly often from upper respiratory infection like pneumonia, bronchitis, sinus infection, also, eye infections, ear infections, and hepatitis. There are also cases of aspergillosis from the wood mold and some problems with thought disorder from the leads. Older people and young children tend to suffer most because they spend the most hours home.

EPA, funded nearly half million dollars grant for this Baltimore experiment to John Hopkins. While the EPA is heavy handed in enforcing anti- pollution requirements for private industry, they consistently defend their own abuses of the law turning their backs on flagrant violations! While the process for making sludge does kill some of the high levels of pathogens in sludge, it does nothing to eliminate chemicals or heavy metals that can contaminate ground water for centuries.

 The EPA defends their spreading of sludge and “fertilizer” saying that third world countries have used human waste for fertilizer for centuries. The omit mentioning that whole communities are occasionally wiped out by typhoid epidemics.

 This “experiment” brings to mind the “experiments” that the US government did with STD’s on black men after WWII. Men with syphilis infections were studied for long term effects, but never told that they were not treated.  Their lives were destroyed. The US government, more specifically the EPA, unfortunately, has not moved beyond their disregard for our defenseless poor.

It should also be noted that EPA has fought down and dirty to protect composting facilities next to first class neighborhoods. People reported cluster illnesses to the state medical office, which is charged with investigating cluster illnesses, and were turned down for medical investigation of cluster illnesses. EPA finds men with credentials, if not respect, from impressive universities to validate, or testify when necessary to protect  EPA’s right to continue making people sick.

Development should require residential septic systems. They cost the communities less. They return water to the earth.  Nobody wants the sludge or compost.  They usually dump it on farms, which are on well water, eventually contaminating their well water with lead.  People are careful what they dump down their own septic systems. It is best to avoid public sewer systems and the EPA which will go to any lengths to cover their own violations of the law.

Hollywood, you have a battle on your hands.  Our neighbor won.  People died from that crap.  An old man with lung problems, a young teen with diabeties, several neighbors with conjestive heart failure.  They have the bucks and can tax you for more.  Good luck.  Call on me for anything.  I almost lost my daughter at 10.  I use to startle awake in the middle of the night, run up stairs and see if she was still breathing.  We finally took a hit on the house and moved out of the area.  Please note:  We did close down a 6 million dollar facility that they were planning to double in size.

The following was posted on Drudgereport:

Do you agree?

NEW BUCHANAN BOOK DECLARES 'END OF AMERICA'
Sun Nov 25 2007 20:40:15 ET

**Exclusive**

"America is coming apart, decomposing, and...the likelihood of her survival as one nation...is improbable -- and impossible if America continues on her current course," declares Pat Buchanan. "For we are on a path to national suicide."

The best-selling author and former presidential candidate is on the eve of launching his new epic book: DAY OF RECKONING: HOW HUBRIS, IDEOLOGY AND GREED ARE TEARING AMERICA APART.

[The book's release date has been moved up to this week. It ranked #237 on AMAZON's hitparade Monday morning.]

This time, Buchanan goes all the way:

"America is in an existential crisis from which the nation may not survive."

The U.S. Army is breaking and is too small to meet America’s global commitments.

The dollar has sunk to historic lows and is being abandoned by foreign governments.

U.S. manufacturing is being hollowed out.

The greatest invasion in history, from the Third World, is swamping the ethno-cultural core of the country, leading to Balkanization and the loss of the Southwest to Mexico.

The culture is collapsing and the nation is being deconstructed along the lines of race and class.

A fiscal crisis looms as the unfunded mandates of Social Security and Medicare remain unaddressed.

All these crises are hitting America at once -- a perfect storm of crises.

Specifically, Buchanan contends:

• Pax Americana, the era of U.S. global dominance, is over. A struggle for global hegemony has begun among the United States, China, a resurgent Russia and radical Islam

• Bush’s invasion of Iraq was a product of hubris and of ideology, a secular religion of “democratism,” to which Bush was converted in the days following 9/11

• Torn asunder by a culture war, America has now begun to break down along class, ethnic and racial lines.

• The greatest threat to U.S. sovereignty and independence is the scheme of a global elite to erase America’s borders and merge the USA, Mexico and Canada into a North American Union.

• Free trade is shipping jobs, factories and technology to China and plunging America into permanent dependency and unpayable debt. One of every six U.S. manufacturing jobs vanished under Bush

• “Sovereign Wealth Funds,” controlled by foreign regimes and stuffed with trillions of dollars from U.S. trade deficits, are buying up strategic corporate assets vital to America’s security

• As U.S. wages are stagnant, corporate CEOs are raking in rising pay and benefits 400 to 500 times that of their workers

• The Third World invasion through Mexico is a graver threat to our survival as one nation than anything happening in Afghanistan or Iraq

* European-Americans, 89% of the nation when JFK took the oath, are now 66% and sinking. Before 2050, America is a Third World nation

• By 2060, America will add 167 million people and 105 million immigrants will be here, triple the 37 million today.

• Hispanics will be over 100 million in 2050 and concentrated in a Southwest most Mexicans believe belongs to them

Buchanan’s Recommendations:

• A new foreign-defense policy that closes most of the 1000 bases overseas, reviews all alliances, and brings home U.S. troops

• A purge of neoconservative ideology and the “Cakewalk” crowd” from national power.

• To avert a second Cold War, the United States should “get out of Russia’s space and get out of Russia’s face,” and shut down all U.S. bases on the soil of the former Soviet Union

• To reach a cold peace in the culture war, Buchanan urges a return to federalism and the overthrow of our judicial dictatorship by Congressionally mandated restrictions on the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

• To end the trade deficits and save the dollar, Buchanan urges a Hamiltonian solution: a 20% Border Equity Tax on imports, with the $500 billion raised to be used to end taxation on American producers

• To prevent America becoming “a tangle of squabbling nationalities” Buchanan urges: No amnesty for the 12-20 million illegal aliens; a border fence from San Diego to Brownsville; Congressional declarations that children born to illegal aliens are not citizens and English is the language of the United States; and a “timeout” on all immigration.

WASHINGTON - A Senate panel has agreed to block U.S. funding for Iraq reconstruction projects worth more than $2 million and to try to force Baghdad to cover the costs of training and equipping the country's security forces.

The provision, included in a 2009 defense policy bill approved this week by the Senate Armed Services Committee, comes as Democrats draft a similar provision within separate legislation that would cover this year's war spending.

The efforts are part of the latest push on Capitol Hill to get Iraq to spend more of its own money and spare U.S. taxpayers. Democrats and many Republicans say it is unfair that Iraq is looking at pulling in as much as $70 billion in oil revenues this year while Americans grapple with soaring fuel prices at the pump.

The defense policy bill, which has not been approved by the full Senate, would not cut off smaller rebuilding projects. It specifically supports a program that allows military commanders to spend money on emergency relief projects, as well as an effort that dispatches civilian reconstruction teams to work with local provincial officials.

The bill would require the administration to work with Baghdad to obligate its own money for smaller reconstruction projects before U.S. money is used.

It also says the U.S. must initiate negotiations with Iraq on a broader agreement to share the costs of combat operations in Iraq.

The provision was proposed by Democratic Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Evan Bayh of Indiana and Republican Susan Collins of Maine. The three met with Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, the president's chief war adviser on Iraq and Afghanistan at the National Security Council, on Monday to discuss the provision.

At the time, the White House was open to the legislative proposal so long as it didn't go too far by severely restricting U.S. aid. Administration officials are concerned that refusing to pay for certain programs, such as training and equipping Iraqi security forces, could slow down the war effort and delay the transfer of the combat mission to the Iraqis.

Still, the administration has declared an end to the era of major reconstruction projects in Iraq and says Baghdad is already taking over those costs.

Collins said much of the discussion on Monday centered on what would qualify as a "major" reconstruction project.

The legislation proposed by the Armed Services Committee would not flatly prohibit aid to the Iraqi security forces. Instead, the bill says the U.S. "shall take actions to ensure that Iraqi funds are used" to cover the costs, including the salaries of the forces and any payments to Sunnis who are part of the Awakening Movement

9/11 dramatically effected President Bush's terms in office.  9/11 was heart breaking to Americans and had us united together and united with the rest of the world.  Techies all over found information to help us locate terrorists.  I, for one, wanted the satisfaction of seeing terrorist training camps in any Arabic country leveled.

With another President, we might have gone in, did the deed, and got out.  But oil was involved.  Now American soldiers are defending Iraq with their lives and at our financial expense.  At the same time Iraq is ripping us off in oil.  They should be paying for their own defense.  Bush promised that they would, then forgot that promise!   Remember that ? !   Allies that were with us have had enough.

In office now Republicans, both in the state and in Florida have given big business great tax breaks.  This is typical of Republicans in a good economy.  The tax burden is shift to the people.  This time Floridians said, "No thanks!"

Now in a failing economy (please do not give me the BS about "Nothing to fear by fear itself-self fullfilling prophesy--trust in the economy--head in the sand clears the mind) ----

Now in a failing economy, the Republicans cut  benefits to the helpless.  They cut foster programs, DCF, nursing homes, classroom spending, and the state's attorney general's office just when crime (from desperation) is spiraling.

We need to dump the Republicans in both the state and fed gov't and replace them all with Democrats.   Who knows if they will do better, but the Republicans certainly are not doing anything productive.