Weekly Blog

From Burma To A Country Called Myanmar

2009-05-13T10:22:00.000-07:00

Burma was at a crossroads in the early 1990's. In retrospect, it was a point in time when its future might have dramatically changed.

A popular leader, Aung San Suu Kyi had been elected in a landslide and Burma should have experienced decades of progress and real change.

However, after voiding the landslide election of the opposition party nearly two decades ago, the military junta of Burma decided to change the name of the country as well.

So, what was once known as Burma would be called Myanmar. For the country, the name change just meant more of the same. For more than two decades, economic mis-management, government corruption and a disregard of basic human rights by the brutal military junta in Myanmar would leave the country far behind the rest of the world in economic development.

As a result, over the years, hundreds of thousands of people would flee the country because of the intolerable conditions. The fury of Hurricane Nargis would only add to the general misery while the United Nations would pass meaningless Resolutions that would be ignored by the ruling military junta.

The result of the military government's failure in Myanmar can be seen in the dire economic condition in that country today. Myanmar is one of the most undeveloped countries in the civilized world and its future prospects (Economic Monetary Fund report) are considered bleak.

There was a time back in the early 1990's when the country was at a crossroads and its sad future could have been changed. However, a legitimate democratic election was invalidated and all those subsequent United Nations Resolutions would be in vain.

From Burma to a country called Myanmar. It was far more than just a change of name.

For more about the problems in Myanmar, please read:
In Myanmar, “Its Not Power That Corrupts, But Fear”
The United Nation's Historic Failure In Myanmar
The Lady Of Myanmar Deserves More International Fame

Barack Obama's First One Hundred Days in Office

2009-04-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

Most public opinion polls show that his support continues to be strong with the American public after his first one hundred days in office.

However, tea party protests have begun to challenge government spending which continues to go unrestrained.

In the first hundred days the Obama administration has outlined policies that are clearly to the left of the center of the political spectrum. Taxes on the highest levels of income will eventually be raised. Capital gains tax cuts will not be continued and Cap and Trade if passed will be an energy tax on every American.

Meanwhile, a deep recession continues in America but economic stimulus saw more pork than stimulus and many think all that spending was really just for political gain. Government intervention into banks and the automotive industry have given Obama a socialist label but he says the need to solve the current economic crisis is to blame.

There has been a European trip and the President has engaged and reached out to former adversaries. However, NATO commitments for new troops in Afghanistan have not materialized and North Korea has test launched another missle. Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan continue to pose major foreign policy challenges.

So, where are we headed and what will be the result of the President's first one hundred days in office?

For more on Barack Obama's first one hundred days read: A Slogan For Barack Obama's Hallmark Holiday and The Media In Obama's First One Hundred Days on eworldvu.com

Homeland Security And The Crime Of Illegal Immigration

2009-04-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

For many people, its hard to understand how Janet Napolitano was ever approved as the Secretary of Homeland Security.

The fact is that it is now obvious that she knows little about the criminal aspects of illegal immigration, can't adequately assess terrorist risk to the country or has even a basic understanding of the problems along the countries borders.

In the last few weeks, the Secretary of Homeland Security has stated that the illegal crossing of the U.S. border is not a crime. She thinks that the the border between Canada and the United States is more problematic than the U.S. border with Mexico.

Meanwhile, her Department of Homeland Security - thinks the highest future terrorist risk comes from returning members of the United States military that listen to right wing extremists.

The fact is the more she speaks, the more national insecurity the entire country feels. So, by now everyone should realize that Janet Napolitano was not appointed to her job because of her understanding of law enforcement, crime, borders or any other aspect of homeland security.

No, she was a pure political appointment chosen to insure that the laws against illegal immigration will not be fully enforced because illegal immigrants are important in the census headcount next year. The prospect of real law enforcement would scare illegal immigrants out of the country or drive them underground. Certainly, it will not make them eager to be visable and counted in the 2010 census.

That's right, people that have illegally entered the country will again be counted in the once in a decade census in 2010. Indeed, the result of the census may have far reaching political consequences for both political parties. Congressional seats, Presidential electoral votes, and federal funding allocation between the states are all subject to a decade of change.

So, Homeland Security and the crime of illegal immigration are once again reduced to a political pandering census game. This has been going on now for two decades and its a national shame.

Read: Illegal Immigration: The Crime That Is Not A Crime

Read: Illegal Immigration Is An Un-American Political Crime on eworldvu

Thirty Five Days In A Row Without A Sunspot

2009-04-13T06:31:00.000-07:00

The blank sun continues in 2009. It marks the third year in a row that solar activity has been at a minimum.

In fact, today marks the absence of a observed sunspot for the thirty fifth consecutive day in 2009.

The current decrease in sunspot activity is beginning to look like the long solar minimum that occurred from 1795 to 1830, known as the Dalton Minimum. During this period of time global temperatures dramatically decreased and volcanic eruptions increased. In the northeast United States, 1816 became known as the year without a summer with snow in the month of June.

A correlation of a lack of sunspot activity and frigid global temperatures also occurred in a period lasting from 1645-1715 when sunspots were 1/1000th of normal. This period was called the Maunder Minimum. It heralded the arrival of the Little Ice Age, a period when glaciers advanced and bitterly cold winters occurred in many regions of the Northern Hemisphere.

The lack of sunspots in this solar cycle (cycle 24) may well mean much colder times are ahead. Sunspot activity during recent decades has been the highest seen in the past 8,000 years and is probably the reason that the global climate has warmed during the 20th century.

The lack of current solar activity has ramifications for the global climate of the next few decades. Its now been more than a month since the last observed sunspot. The longer the sun remains blank and solar activity remains weak, the more interesting this solar cycle minimum will become.

For more read: The Third Year Of A Blank Sun and The Quiet Sun May Mean Another Dalton Minimum on eworldvu.com.

The Boys Of Summer And The Baseball Phenom

2009-04-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

Baseball season is about to begin once again. The Boys of Summer have returned to play our national pastime for the next six months. Of course, scandal continues to plague the game with steroid abuse once again in the news during the off season.

Since baseball is a game of records and stars, all those discredited home run statistics by star players are an incredible shame.

However, there is another story that has begun to gain national attention. Its a story of talent and a growing legend of a pitcher that can throw a baseball harder than anyone ever has. Even faster than Nolan Ryan or Randy Johnson in their prime.

The baseball phenom of this spring has not even been in any major league camp yet. He pitches in college for San Diego State. His fastball is consistently clocked at 101 miles per hour and has hit 103 on the radar gun. Despite his velocity he has amazing control. In 210 innings of college and international competition since 2006, he’s walked only 45 batters while striking out 316.

Indeed, Steven Strasburg is dominating college like no pitcher ever has. He has 74 strikeouts in 34 1/3 innings, meaning only 29 outs have come via batted ball. He fanned 23 batters in one game last year, and in seven outings with Team USA last summer, culminating with the Beijing Olympics, he struck out 62 in 41 innings.

Baseball executives believe the asking price for the Washington Nationals who hold the first overall pick, will start at $15 million. So, its batter up for the new season but watch for this kid in the future. For now he is just a college phenom but he may well become the best pitcher major league baseball has ever seen.

Articles on eWorldvu Last Week: Read about the continued lack of sunspot activity in 2009 in

The Third Year Of A Blank Sun .

Also read about the cost of green jobs in

The Real Cost Of Five Million Green Jobs.

Space Is Still An Unknown And Dangerous Place

2009-03-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

We take the exploration of space for granted but the fact remains that our lack of understanding of the final frontier means that our place in the universe does not lack for mystery.

Here are some recent news items that indicate that space is still an unknown and dangerous place.

The 213th meeting of the American Astronomical Society featured a report on an interesting discovery. The discovery of a newly detected signal far louder than any Astronomy expected.

A team led by Alan Kogut of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center detected a signal from a balloon-borne instrument named ARCADE (Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission). In July 2006, the instrument was launched from NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, and reached an altitude of about 120,000 feet (36,500 meters), where the atmosphere thins into the vacuum of space.

It not unusual for many objects in the universe, including stars and quasars, to emit radio waves. Some galaxies even send out a background radio hiss. However this new signal is measured to be six times brighter than the combined emission of all known radio sources in the universe. The origin of the signal is unknown and remains a total mystery.

Meanwhile, the potential danger to this planet from a solar storm was outlined in a report that was funded by NASA and released in January 2009. All sorts of dire problems would occur on earth if a solar storm were to hit the earth's magnetic field. It happened before in 1859 and it could happen again but this time the ramifications would be much more severe.

For More Read: A Global Disaster From The Perfect Solar Storm on the Daily Vu.

Finally, a lack of sunspot activity continues in 2009 and the earth continues to cool despite the the hype of the proponents of global warming. An astronomer by the name of Theodor Landscheidt predicted the current activity of the sun and this unexpected global cooling trend prior to his death in 2002.

Read about his predictions for the future in : Follow The Sun To The Landscheidt Minimum on the Daily Vu.

Hope And Change And Space Debris

2009-03-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

The prototype campaign of hope and change was run in Massachusetts by David Axlerod eighteen months ago. The campaign elected the states first black Governor, Duval Patrick. The campaign was the predecessor to the successful national Presidential campaign that elected Barack Obama to the White House.

So how is the Governor of Massacusetts currently doing and does his performance provide a warning for the current President of the United States?

Read: The First Campaign Of Hope And Change

The International Space Station had to be evacuated. The problem of Space Debris orbiting the earth continues to be a major safety problem for space travel. What can be done?

Read: Man-Made Debris Makes Space A Dangerous Place

A Failing Economy And A Global Warming Protest

2009-03-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

A Failing Economy

The stock market has lost more than 50 % of its value in the last year. It is down nearly 3000 points since the Presidential election in October. Will this deep recession ever end. For the latest on the stock market and the economy

Read: An Economic Depression Without A Treasury Plan

Global Warming Protest

The latest protest on man-made global warming was held in Washington D.C. The protest was intended to be the largest global warming protest in United States history. Ironically, the protest was held in a snowstorm.

For More Read: The Global Warming Coal Factories Of Death

A Drug To Eliminate The Memory Of New Taxes

2009-02-17T07:44:00.000-08:00

As California and Kansas struggle to pay state tax refund checks to taxpayers due to government mismanagement and an inability to balance a state budget, other places continue in their never ending quest to raise more tax revenue.

In Portland Oregon, four legislators joined a Springfield senator to introduce Oregon House Bill 2461, which would impose a $49.61 tax on each barrel of beer produced by Oregon brewers. Its a 1900% tax increase. The tax would raise revenue for the state at a time when budgets are running in the red. Specifically, the bill says it would fund prevention, treatment and recovery programs for those addicted to alcohol and other substances. The bill's language defends the tax by arguing alcoholism and “untreated substance abuse” costs the state $4.15 billion in lost earnings as well as more than $8 million for health care and nearly $1 billion in law enforcement-related expenditures.

Meanwhile in Austrailia: A household would be charged for each flush under a radical new toilet tax designed to help beat the drought. The scheme would replace the current system, which sees sewage charges based on a home's value - not its waste water output.

CSIRO Policy and Economic Research Unit member Jim McColl and Adelaide University Water Management Professor Mike Young plan to promote the move to state and federal politicians and experts across the country. "It would encourage people to reduce their sewage output by taking shorter showers,recycling washing machine water or connecting rainwater tanks to internal plumbingto reduce their charges,''Professor Young said.

Do you want to get away from this ever increasing tax burden? Well you can now just forget about the whole thing. From Reuters:

A widely available blood pressure pill could one day help people erase bad memories, perhaps treating some anxiety disorders and phobias, according to a Dutch study published on Sunday.

The drug was shown to significantly weaken people's fearful memories of spiders. The generic beta-blocker propranolol significantly weakened people's fearful memories of spiders among a group of healthy volunteers who took it, said Merel Kindt, a psychologist at the University of Amsterdam, who led the study."We could show that the fear response went away, which suggests the memory was weakened," Kindt said in a telephone interview.
The findings published in the journal Nature Neuroscience are important because the drug may offer another way to help people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other problems related to bad memories.

Election Day In Israel

2009-02-10T06:24:00.000-08:00

Its election day in Israel. 5.3 million Israelis will be eligible to vote in the elections for the 18th Knesset (Israeli parliament). The party that wins the election needs the support of 61 members to form a coalition government.

To gain a seat, a party must win a minimum of 2 per cent of the national vote. There are 34 registered parties competing for seats in today's election. The three main parties are Kadima, Likud and Labour.

The right-wing Likud party is just two seats ahead of the centrist Kadima in the last Haaretz-Dialog poll the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Friday.The newspaper says the poll showed the far right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party gaining three seats in the last week for a total of 18.

The country is moving right due to the threat posed by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. A coalition government formed by Likud Party leader Binyamin Netanyahu is a real possibility. Todays's vote will have ramifications for the entire Middle East and U.S. foreign policy in the region.

Executive Salary Cap Is A Political Sound Bite

2009-02-05T08:20:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama announced executive salary restrictions for institutions . It certainly sounded fair. Taxpayer money for failed banks will result in limits to failed executive compensation. However, a problem becomes apparent when we look at the actual details and beyond the political sound bite.

An overview of the executive salary cap from this article in Bloomberg:

Executives at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and hundreds of financial institutions receiving federal aid are not likely to be affected by pay restrictions announced yesterday by President Barack Obama. The rules, created in response to growing public anger about the record bonuses the financial industry doled out last year, will apply only to top executives at companies that need “exceptional” assistance in the future. The limits are not retroactive, meaning firms that have already taken government money won’t be subject to the restrictions unless they have to come back for more.

So, all the tarp money already spend will be given without any restriction to executive pay. As a result, it won't apply to the executives of the hundreds of financial services firms that have already taken TARP money. It does not even apply to the worst offenders like AIG, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup that have already come back twice to take government capital.

The new financial services executive salary cap will only effect institutions in the future that need financial assistance. It will only serve to preclude some better run banks from getting government assistance.

Style over substance is the reality of this announcement. The Executive Salary Cap is really a political ad given to assuage an outraged voter base. It is a policy that currently has a lot more political bark than regulatory bite.

A Rush For Stimulus To Avoid Economic Catastrophe

2009-02-04T11:29:00.000-08:00

The debate on stimulus continues and the bill on the Senate floor continues to grow toward one trillion dollars. Meanwhile, unless the package dramatically changes only twelve cents of every dollar will eventually be for economic stimulus.

The remainder will be just a huge bill of pork. The one area that has not had much discussion is the stimulus given to the states. Here is some of what this taxpayer money will go to:

From Today's Wall Street Journal:

Las Vegas, which by some accounts already glitters, wants $2 million for neon signs. Boynton Beach, Fla., is looking for $4.5 million for an "eco park" featuring butterfly gardens and gopher tortoises and Chula Vista, Calif., would like $500,000 to create a place for dogs to run off the leash. These are among 18,750 projects listed in "Ready to Go," the U.S. Conference of Mayors' wish list for funding from the stimulus bill moving through Congress. The group asked cities and towns to suggest "shovel ready" projects for the report, which it gave to Congress and the Obama administration. Although the bulk of proposals are roads, sewers and similar projects, some wouldn't require a shovel at all. The mayors group sees a potential 1.6 million new jobs from the projects, though a few of them wouldn't create any. Some localities are using a kitchen-sink strategy. "Our approach has been to list everything, because we don't know what the final guidelines will be or what the final dollar amount will be," says Greg MacLean, public-works director in Lincoln, Neb. Among entries on Lincoln's list is a $3 million environmentally friendly clubhouse for a municipal golf course.

So, does the United States government just give money to the states to fund all these dubious "shovel ready" projects? It seems that money going to these projects should be separately approved and be made transparent all the way down to the local level.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama warned again today that the financial crisis will turn into "a catastrophe" if a stimulus bill isn't passed quickly. This is the same haste that was used to approve the TARP program. A program that still has not achieved anything, is constantly changing, and has billions of dollars being spent without any transparency.

Its the dubious crisis politics of today. Its the rush to spend a trillion in the hope to avoid economic catastrophe. So, what happens if this stimulus solution doesnt work and an out of control deficit sends the dollar into a free fall? Then we will see an economic catastrophe and realize that spending hundreds of billions of dollars on pork was not really a practical solution at all.

Daschle And Killefer Withdraw As Nominees

2009-02-03T11:05:00.000-08:00

Here is the Daschle withdrawal from the Associated Press:

Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination on Tuesday to be President Barack Obama's Health and Human Services secretary, dealing potential blows to both speedy health care reform and Obama's hopes for a smoother start as president.

"Now we must move forward," Obama said in a written statement accepting "with sadness and regret" Daschle's surprise request to be removed from consideration. A day earlier, Obama had said he "absolutely" stood by Daschle in the face of problems over back taxes and potential conflicts of interest.

Here is the Killefer withdrawal from the Associated Press:

Nancy Killefer, who failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help, has withdrawn her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government, the White House said Tuesday.

Killefer was the second major Obama administration nominee to withdraw and the third to have tax problems complicate their nomination after President Barack Obama announced their selection.

"Nancy Killefer has decided to withdraw her nomination, and we accepted her withdrawal," Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, said Tuesday. The 55-year-old executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co., was expected to explain her reasons for pulling out later in the day.

When her selection was announced by Obama on Jan. 7, The Associated Press disclosed that in 2005 the District of Columbia government had filed a $946.69 tax lien on her home for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help.

So, in this administration not paying taxes excludes a nominee from being HHC Secretary or Performance Czar. However, the problem of not paying taxes is not as important in the position of Treasury Secretary in charge of the IRS? Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner needs to do the right thing and submit his resignation.

For more on ethics in Washington read today's Daily Vu: Reforming Washington Is Just A Campaign Game

Democrats Show Its Time For The Flat Tax

2009-02-02T07:15:00.000-08:00

Tom Daschle the current nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services is “deeply embarrassed” about $128,000 in errors on his taxes.

Daschle has amended his returns for 2005, 2006 and 2007, and paid $140,000 in taxes and interest.Daschle refiled his returns Jan. 2 to add unreported consulting fees, unspecified charitable contributions and a car and driver provided by Leo Hindery Jr., a founder of the private-equity firm InterMedia Advisors.

Of course, the Congress recently approved the nomination of Timothy Geithner for Treasury Secretary. Geitner had been at the upper reaches of international finance for more than a decade. He has an MA in international economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS.

The new Treasury Secretary who is also now charge of the Internal Revenue Service failed to pay $34,000 in Medicare and Social Security tax in 2001 through 2004. After being nailed by the IRS in an audit for 2003 and 2004 deficiencies, he still failed to pay what was owed for 2001 and 2002 until he became aware that Obama would nominate him to be Treasury secretary.

Either the tax code is so complex that even these rich Democratic lawyers are making errors,or Barack Obama is nominating tax cheats and the Congress is recklessly approving their nominations to positions of power in the new administration.

If we give the new administration the benefit of the doubt, it seems the Democrats are making a strong case to eliminate the IRS. Indeed Democratic errors on tax returns show that its time for a change and should give everyone new hope for the implementation of the flat tax.

Be sure to read todays Daily Vu: The California Budget Mess Is Spending Unrestrained

The House Passes The Bill That Stimulates Pork

2009-01-29T11:38:00.000-08:00

The Stimulus Bill passed the House Of Representatives yesterday by a vote of 244 to 188. The Bill passed without a single Republican vote and with 10 Democrats voting against it. The Bill now moves on to the Senate for its consideration.

The $819 billion dollar Stimulus Bill contains little stimulus and lots of government pork. The Bill features the following government pork according to the Wall Street Journal:

$7.7 billion for various upgrades and work done on federal buildings
$5.2 billion for voter fraud experts ACORN and other "neighborhood stabilization" groups
$2.4 billion for carbon capture projects
$1 billion for AMTRAK
$650 million more for coupons for the conversion to digital television
$600 million for federal automobiles
$400 million for research into global warming
$335 million for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases
$50 million to the National Endowment for the Arts

Also Read Todays Daily Vu :An Economic Crisis That Won't Go To Waste

The Front Of The War On Terror Is Iran

2009-01-28T12:11:00.000-08:00

Iran continues to repeat and repeat nonsense about the Holocaust. Yesterday, the Iranian regime once again branded the Holocaust a "big lie" created to place the Islamic republic's arch-foe Israel in the Middle East.

"The Holocaust is a concept coming from a big lie in order to settle a rootless regime in the heart of the Islamic world," Iranian government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told a conference on Gaza in central Iran's religious city of Qom.

Of course, the big lie about the Holocaust has been a government message since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad branded the Holocaust a "myth" in 2005.

Yesterday was a particularly convenient day for Iran to try and rewrite the history books since the United Nations designated January 27 as International Holocaust Memorial Day in 2005. The date observes the day that Soviet troops liberated the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, in Poland.

It all never happened according to Iran. The Holocaust is a lie and the Iranian nuclear program is really designed for peace and not for political and military power.

Yesterday, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates accused Iran of "subversive activity" in Latin America. Its not very surprising since Iran has been the most active sponsor of international terrorism since 1979. The Iranian regime openly supports many terrorist organizations, including Hamas and Hezbollah and the People's Mujahedeen terrorist Organization in Iran.

So, its not too hard to find the mother regime and the front of the War on Terror. Its not in Afghanistan and its not in Pakistan. Indeed, the front in the war on terror can be found in what soon will be a nuclear Iran.

Also Read Todays Daily Vu: The Mystery Ship Of Terror From Iran

New Regulations On The Bankrupt Auto Industry

2009-01-27T09:40:00.000-08:00

"This moment of peril must be turned to one of progress," President Barack Obama said yesterday, as he signed his first two Presidential Memoranda, both aimed at getting the United States on the path to energy independence.

The president directed the Department of Transportation to establish higher fuel efficiency standards for carmakers' 2011 model year. The standard, known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standard, was established in 1975 in the wake of the Arab oil embargo.

In model year 1990, the passenger car standard was amended to 27.5 miles per gallon, and it has remained at this level. In 2007, new light truck standards of 22.2 mpg were issued. The new efficiency standards called for raising the average fuel economy to 35 miles a gallon for both cars and trucks by 2020.

The second memo paves the way for California and 18 other states to raise tailpipe emissions standards for the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide above and beyond the national standard.

It all really means more regulation and efficiency demands by politicians on the nearly bankrupt auto industry. Consider that there are already three voices on fuel economy and carbon dioxide emissions in the United States. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, the EPA and States like California each have different standards, different structures and different timelines.

The car makers now have less than three months to prove to Washington that they can survive after recieving government bailout money last month. Its clear that the Obama administration wants Detroit to make smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. However, if we keep seeing cheaper energy, people won’t buy these fuel-efficient vehicles. People will return to light trucks and vehicles with utility and size instead.

So, there may be an eventual conflict between what the government wants the carmakers to do (build smaller cars to adhere to aggressive environmental regulation) and what the automakers need to do in order to get the consumer to purchase cars and trucks. After all, political sound bites and new auto regulations do nothing to help the bankrupt auto industry turn a profit.

Also Read Todays Daily Vu: An Offshore Wind Farm Caught In A Political Breeze

Stimulus Is Just Government Pork By Another Name

2009-01-26T11:24:00.000-08:00

There is a trillion dollar spending plan being debated in Congress and endorsed by President Barack Obama to stimulate the United States economy.

We are being told that this government spending spree is needed right away to save jobs and the economy during this deep recession.

The problem with the passage of this plan is that it will have little effect on the economy during the next year. In additon, it is money that the government does not have since it already runs a over a trillion dollar deficit. The truth of this economic stimulus bill is that it is just more government pork under a new name.

Consider that the Congressional Budget Office estimated that only 7 percent of infrastructure money in the bill would make its way into the economy by the end of the year, and just 38 percent would be spent by the end of the 2010 fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the bill is loaded with pork and is a lobbyist delight. There is a $50 million outlay for the National Endowment for the Arts to help fund arts groups hit by a drop-off in philanthropy.

The bill has a $87 billion package to help states with the Medicaid costs of family planning which will result in spending millions of taxpayer dollars on contraceptives.

There is $200 million to rehabilitate the National Mall and $650 million to repair Forest Service facilities. There is another $1.8 billion to repair National Park Service facilities. Indeed the pork in the bill goes on and on.

Out of control federal spending will not end this deep recession. The current federal policies do not represent political change. In Washington D.C., its just more of the same on a much larger scale in a new year under a different name.

Read Today's Daily Vu :The Missing Plan For Closing Guantanamo Bay

The Media Coverage of The Inauguration Of Barack Obama

2009-01-22T11:23:00.000-08:00

The mainstream media's love affair with Barack Obama continued with the celebrity style coverage of his inauguration during the last week.

To illustrate the level of positive and fawning media coverage, consider these facts as reported today by Reuters:

"President Barack Obama's inauguration generated an unprecedented 35,000 stories in the world's major newspapers, television and radio broadcasts over the past day -- about 35 times more than the last presidential swearing-in -- a monitoring group said on Wednesday.

The Texas-based Global Language Monitor said there had also been 6 million new Obama-related mentions on the Internet since December 31. By comparison, the last U.S. presidential inauguration, of George W. Bush in January 2005, resulted in about 1,000 stories in major media worldwide, Paul JJ Payack, president of Global Language Monitor said. "

The media's role in a free society is as a government watchdog. The fear is that the media is fast turning into a politically biased lapdog. It will be important in the coming months for the media to become more objective in the coverage of the 44th President.

Here is a link to Juan Williams excellent article on 1/20/2009 about the media's responsibility to hold Barack Obama accountible in the future. It is well written and timely.

Judge Obama on Performance Alone - Juan Williams - Wall Street Journal

Also please read todays Daily Vu on the problems in Mexico: A Threat Of Chaos South of The Border

The Inauguration Left A Not So Green Mall

2009-01-21T09:59:00.000-08:00

Thousands of people were said to have volunteered to lend a hand in what was touted as the "greenest inauguration in history".

The green inauguration meant picking up trash, recyclables and even horse manure along the Mall in Washington after Barack Obama took the oath of office.

"Just as we are committed to making this the most open and accessible inauguration in history, we are also committed to making it the most environmentally sensitive," Inauguration Committee spokeswoman Linda Douglass told Fox News.

Well, the day after all those parties and Inaugural Balls, the Washington Mall was covered in trash and not a very green place after all.

In addition to the tons of trash left on the Washington Mall, The Institute for Liberty, estimated that the millions of people coming to the inauguration generated a half-billion pounds of carbon dioxide — 260 million pounds from the 600 private jets that came to Washington, and another 260 million pounds from personal vehicles.

The Institute says the pollution amounts to more than 575 million pounds of CO2, which would take the average U.S. household 57,598 years to produce.

Tons of trash left on the mall and one half billion pounds of carbon dioxide generated from planes and automobiles. The greenest inauguration of them all was not very green after all.

Today's Daily Vu : The Quiet Sun May Mean Another Dalton Minimum

Inauguration Day - 2009

2009-01-20T02:59:00.000-08:00

Inaugration Day - 2009

The United States Constitution mandates that the President take the following oath before he or she can "enter on the Execution" of the office of the presidency:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States".

So, newly elected President Barack Obama will add "so help me God" at noon today, to the constitutionally mandated oath. He will become the 44th President of the United States of America.

Polls

Barack Obama takes office with the highest approval rating of any incoming president in history. Most Americans are optimistic about the next four years but their optimism may be somewhat unrealistic.

As an example of true optimism, in one survey, (Associated Press-Gfk) , 71 per cent of Americans believe the economy will improve during the first year of the Obama presidency and 65 per cent said they think unemployment will drop. Meanwhile, 72 per cent said they thought the stock market would recover and 63 per cent were confident that their personal financial situation would improve.

The Presidential administration of Barack Obama starts at noon today. Its when reality meets campaign promise and the tough and sometimes unpopular decisions of national governing begin.

Read the Daily Vu Article: The Three Money Managers Of The Financial Apocalypse

Martin Luther King Day - 2009

2009-01-19T10:30:00.000-08:00

Martin Luther King Day -2009 :

"This is not a black holiday; it is a peoples' holiday," said Coretta Scott King after President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law on November 2, 1983. On April 4, 1968, she had lost her husband, to an assassin's gun.

Martin Luther King Day became a federal holiday in 1986 and is held on the third Monday of January. It celebrates the life and achievements of the civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Pardon For Ramos and Compean:

(AP)
In his final acts of clemency, president George Bush on Monday commuted the prision sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents whose convictions for shooting a Mexican drug dealer ignited fierce debate about illegal immigration.

Bush's decision to commute the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who tried to cover up the shooting, was welcomed by both Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

It is a release for these two border agents that was long overdue.

Also, please read the Daily Vu on eworldvu : The Crash Of Flight 1549 And Global Warming

The Strange Case Of Bernie Madoff

2009-01-15T06:50:00.000-08:00

The biggest financial fraud in history continues to slowly unravel in an unusual way. The strange case of Bernie Madoff becomes only more bizarre with each passing day.

This strange case actually started with Bernie Madoff outing himself. As a result, there is no sense in talking about the $50 billion dollar Madoff Ponzi scheme as an "alleged" fraud, when the main allegations about the crime actually come from the person who will eventually be the defendant in the case.

Soon after his arrest, Bernie Madoff's bail was set at $10 million dollars with the requirement of 4 co-signers on the bond but Madoff could not get four people in the entire world to sign his bail bond.

So, he did not meet the conditions of his bail. However, his punishment for not making bail has certainly been strange. Madoff was not sent to jail but only confined to his palatial apartment at 133 East 64th Street.

As a result, its very odd that while the U.S. Congress and prosecutors sort out the greatest financial hoax in history, the mastermind of the Ponzi Scheme continues to enjoy a life of luxury made possible by his fraud.

Its also strange that while the government searches for an accounting of $50 billion missing dollars, that Bernie Madoff has the ability to continue to access personal records and computers that may become important to the fraud investigation.

Madoff's Ponzi scheme ripped off widows and orphans, philanthropies, rich people, global banks and hedge funds. It is strange that one man managed to steal $50 billion dollars for decades from some of the most sophisticated financial people and institutions in the world within the confines of the regulated environment of financial investments.

Certainly, it is strange that starting in 1992, federal regulators on at least eight different occasions examined various aspects of Bernard Madoff's business operations and never turned up anything about the $50 billion Ponzi scheme that led to Madoff's arrest last month.

Bernie Madoff showed up last week at a bail hearing wearing a bullet proof vest. The bail hearing was called because Madoff was in violation of a condition of his bail agreement not to dispose of any of his assets.

Sadly, it was discovered that sixteen watches, including diamond-encrusted timepieces from Tiffany and Cartier, four diamond brooches, two sets of cuff links, and an emerald ring were sent to Madoff's sons and brother. The value of the jewelry was estimated to be more than one million dollars.

The result of the bail hearing once again did not send Bernie Madoff to jail. He was again ordered to return to the comfort of his $7 million dollar penthouse apartment. Even though it may be hard to believe, this story is not bad fiction. Unfortunately, the strange case of Bernie Madoff is reality TV.

Pesticides Could Be The Key To The Disappearing Bee

2009-01-14T05:26:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, a panel of experts told a House Agriculture subcommittee that the U.S commercial honey bee industry lost a record 36 percent of its colonies in 2008. This came after a dismal 2007, in which the industry lost 31% of its colonies.

The primary problem of lost bee colonies is due to the disappearing honey bee mystery called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that threatens the future of beekeeping and the health of a variety of important crops.

So, there was great interest in the room last August, at the 236th American Chemical Society Meeting, with the findings of Penn State Researchers into the problem of Colony Collapse Disorder.

Some of the findings of the research team were expected. It was not unexpected that since the Varroa Mite is such a serious problem for bees, that an analysis of beehive wax in every test hive would showed levels of the pesticides (fluvalinate and coumaphos). These chemicals are commonly used to combat the mite. Certainly, the fact that the levels of these pesticides were unprecedented was a reason for concern.

However, the shocking discovery of Penn State researchers was the finding that lower levels of 70 other pesticides (used to protect agricultural crops) and metabolites of those pesticides were discovered in the pollen and bees.

The findings of that Penn State study confirms the belief already held by many professional beekeepers. These beekeepers are convinced that pesticides could well be the key to unraveling the mystery of the disappearing bee. Their problem is providing the field evidence to prove it for several different reasons.

First, the variety of pesticides in use in many different areas reporting CCD makes it difficult to test for all possible pesticides simultaneously.

Second, many commercial beekeeping operations are mobile, transporting hives over large geographic distances during the course of a season, potentially exposing the colonies to different pesticides at each location.

Third, the bees themselves place pollen and honey into long-term storage, meaning that there may be a delay of anywhere from days to months before contaminated provisions are fed to the colony, negating any attempts to associate the appearance of symptoms with the actual time at which exposure to pesticides occurred.

As a result of all these logistical difficulties, providing evidence of the effect of various pesticides on bees has been very slow in coming. Still, finding more than 70 pesticides in the bee hive is a very important discovery.

Indeed, its now likely that pesticides could well be the research key to eventually unravelling the mystery of the disappearing honey bee.

For more read: Research Key in Unraveling Mystery of Disappearing Bees

and: Another Year Of Disappearing Bees on eworldvu.com

North To Alaska For Iditarod 2009

2009-01-13T05:05:00.000-08:00

It has been frigid in Alaska this year. In fact, extremely low temperatures have grounded planes, disabled cars, and even canceled several championship cross country ski races.

Many people wonder if this unusally cold weather, even for the state of Alaska, will continue. After all, the extreme weather in Alaska becomes even more important since the days have begun to dwindle and time is beginning to grow short.

The calendar now shows that there are now only fifty two days to the start of the annual competition that is called the Last Great Race on Earth. The 38th Iditarod Dog Sled Race is currently scheduled to begin in Anchorage on March 7, 2009.

The Iditarod is a truly unique competitive event, a race of 1131 miles across Alaska in the frigid month of March through the roughest terrain on Earth. The race navigates terrain across a frozen tundra which includes rivers, windswept coastlines, mountains, and dense forests, all of which are covered with plenty of deep snow and ice.

The weather conditions during the race are often extreme with temperatures and wind chill that are far below zero. Certainly, its not unusual for dog sled teams to race through blizzards without visibility, and in sub-zero weather with gale-force winds which can cause the wind chill to reach -100 °F. Through the years, the length of time to win the race has varied between nine days and twenty days.

This year, seventy two mushers and their dog sled teams will be competing for victory in the 38th Iditarod. The problem for seventy one of these contestants will once again be current Iditarod champion, Lance Mackey. Mackey has won the race in each of the last two years.

Last year, Mackey lost a key lead dog early in the race and another dog ended up with an infected foot that made it difficult for him to continue on. In addition to the problems with the dogs, the race was very competitive throughout. Once Mackey took the lead at Ruby on the Yukon River, just past the halfway mark, he always had the 16-dog team of four-time champ Jeff King lurking close behind.

However, the weather during last years race was unusually warm for Alaska and Mackey used his racing skill and his gritty team of dogs to once again beat the field. So, the question this year is whether Lance Mackey will win again for a third straight time? Many will soon travel north to Alaska for Iditarod 2009 to find out.

Indeed, the competition is scheduled to begin in Anchorage, Alaska, in just fifty two days. Its the next chance to see the Last Great Race On Earth.

The Power In The Trash

2009-01-12T03:56:00.000-08:00

Europe, Asia, and Canada now have facilities or are planning facilities that will make a relic out of the ugly landfill of everyday waste.

Waste is being vaporized into methane gas and the more advanced waste recovery facilities have even begun to turn waste into electric power.

Converting trash to power became a reality in Australia last July. The $49 million dollar Macarthur Resource Recovery Park in a suburb of Sydney, Australia, began taking garbage from 300,000 people in the area.

Instead of 9000 truckloads of waste going into landfills, 8% of Sydneys annual garbage each year is now being sent to its new waste treatment plant. The plant was designed to produce methane gas from garbage-chewing microbes. The gas powers the plant and even sends enough electricity back into the grid to light up another 1700 households.

Meanwhile, another process in creating power from everyday trash, called plasma gasification will be coming to America. St. Lucie County, Florida will use this process on its waste in early 2011.

Indeed, creating power from American trash cannot start soon enough since every year 130 million tons of trash are dumped in ugly and odorous landfills. In fact, American waste dumps emit more of the greenhouse gas called methane than any other human-related source.

Plasma gasification is a process for blasting garbage with a stream of superheated gas, known as plasma. When trash is dropped into a chamber and heated to 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, its organic components, food, fluids,and paper vaporize into a hot, pressurized gas.

The whole process needs power from the electrical grid to get started. However, once the cycle is under way, the new gas is fed into a cooling system, generating steam that drives turbines to produce electricity. About two thirds of the power is siphoned off to run the converter; the rest can be used on-site for heating or electricity, or sold back to help power the utility grid.

The system is capable of breaking down pretty much anything except nuclear waste, the isotopes of which are indestructible. The by-products are used as a raw material for numerous applications, including bathroom tiles and high-strength asphalt.

It has been estimated that in an average American city, an investment in a $250 million dollar plasma gasification trash converter would pay for itself in just ten years. So, an economic justification for the program is sound, the technology is viable and the process meets an important environmental need.

As a result, landfills are about to become a thing of the past as our waste is turned into gas. Who would have ever thought that there would be power in the trash.

Russia's New Cold War With Europe

2009-01-08T04:30:00.000-08:00

On New Year's Eve, the deadline expired for Russia and Ukraine to agree on a new contract for 2009 gas supplies. Moscow had wanted to raise its prices and charge Kiev $250 per 1,000 cubic metres, up from $179.5 last year.

The Ukrainians thought that excessive and refused to pay a cent more than $201. Russia promptly put its price up to $450. Then, at 10am on New Year's Day, Russia's energy monopoly Gazprom halted supplies of all gas meant for domestic use in Ukraine.

The pipelines that cross Ukraine also carry gas to Europe. In fact, 20% of the European Union's gas is supplied by Russia through pipelines in the Ukraine. Recently, Russia's dispute with the Ukraine has escalated and it has stopped supplying gas through the Ukraine to Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Romania, Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia.

The shutoff of Russian gas through the Ukraine is creating an energy crisis throughout the European Union during this long cold winter of sub zero temperatures. The fact is that the longer it goes on, the worse the crisis will become as gas storage supplies dwindle and disappear.

So what is Vladimir Putin up to by creating this energy crisis in Europe? Also, is it just a coincidence that many of the scientists that believe the solar cycle will result in dramatic global cooling during the next few decades come from Russia?

Accuweather Long Range Meteorologist Joe Bastardi has an interesting theory that may answer both of these questions. Bastardi speculates that; "Putin is relying on (climate) data from Russian scientists and wants to bring some European nations to their knees by exploiting their reliance on natural gas when the weather is at its coldest".

Bastardi continues; "Putin thinks he knows what is going to happen about the overall climate pattern. So, if you control the pipeline into Europe, you literally can control Europe without firing a shot - if you control the energy.”

Vladimir Putin has a history of trying to exploit natural resources for wealth and to gain political advantage. Over a year ago, when Arctic Sea Ice was rapidly melting, Russia was trying to claim the resource rich land under the Arctic Ice Cap, even before it became available.(For More Read: Russia Claims The North Pole on eworldvu)

It may well be that as many nations spend large sums of money to reduce C02 gas to prevent global warming, Putin is gambling on a much different climate change outcome.

Russia's new cold war with Europe is already underway. In the years ahead, if global temperatures continue to decline, Russia will be the beneficiary and the European Union will have to pay.

Palestine's Cost For Voting For Hamas

2009-01-07T05:11:00.000-08:00

Various news agencies were reporting Israeli bombing atrocities in Gaza during the last several days. Most of the media criticism was centered around the shelling of three facilities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

In fact, the Israeli bombings were a subject of criticism by numerous speakers at Tuesday's United Nations Security Council meeting. In recent days, Israel's shells have fallen around three schools, including a girls school, and a health center for Palestinian refugees.

However, there is another side of the story that is being overlooked by the mainstream media. Consider that there were two witnesses that saw a small group of Hamas militants firing mortar rounds from a street near the girls school.

If these eyewitness accounts are correct, it certainly would not be the first time that Hamas was intentionally drawing Israeli fire toward civilians. The militants were near an area where more than 350 innocent refugees had gathered to get away from the bombing.

Meanwhile, Israeli Ambassador Gabriela Shalev is claiming that among the casualties at the United Nations Relief Agencies were two senior Hamas members. So, what were two members of Hamas doing at the United Nations Relief Agencies to begin with?

That question was posed by the Inner City Press to a spokesperson for the United Nations. The evasive U.N. answer was as follows: "we are defending our right to defend refugees. There were no armed men... they might have been Hamas but they were there as refugees."

The mainstream media is eager to report Israeli mistakes but in its bias, fails to report and highlight the use by Hamas of innocent civilians as human shields and the exploitation of the United Nations Relief facilities for protection and international propaganda.

Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and most Western nations. Since Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007, 1,685 rockets have been launched into Israel. There were more than 1,200 rockets launched by Hamas into Israel last year alone. The intent of Hamas is clearly stated in its Charter: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."

The Gaza military offensive is in reality a defensive measure by Israel for the security of the country. It is a military action against a known terrorist organization that is long overdue. In 2006, Palestine elected terrorism in the name of Hamas as its majority party in a free and democratic election. For the country, it was an opportunity lost and in retrospect that vote comes at an increasing humanitarian cost.

Free democratic elections are national decisions that have long term consequences. 100 tons of Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza in the last few weeks and the resulting human tragedy have become Palestine's cost for voting for Hamas.

Astronomy Becomes An International Focus Of 2009

2009-01-06T06:50:00.000-08:00

The United Nations and the International Astronomical Union have joined forces to highlight 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy. In fact, this year marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first astronomical observation through a telescope.

To mark this milestone, more than one hundred nations across the globe are collaborating to make the international community more aware of the universe we live in.

A highlight of the International Year Of Astronomy, is the "100 Hours of Astronomy" project planned for early April. The project will feature live web casts, and observing events during its 100-hour long program.

One of the key goals of "100 Hours of Astronomy" is to have as many people as possible look through a telescope as Galileo did for the first time 400 years ago. The program will take place from April 2, 2009 through April 5, 2009, when the Moon goes from first quarter to gibbous and provides excellent early evening viewing. Saturn will also be a highlight of early evening observing events during this period.

Indeed, there are many exciting events to observe in Astronomy throughout 2009. People in China and India can witness the longest solar eclipse of this century in July. An early evening sighting of Jupiter in October in the Northern Hemisphere should give some spectacular views. Also, the Leonid Meteor Shower in November 2009 is predicted to be one of most vivid ever.

2009 will also feature the final mission to repair and upgrade the aging Hubble Telescope. The shuttle mission that will take astronauts to the Hubble is currently scheduled for launch on May 12th. NASA intends to upgrade the Hubble Telescope, so that it will have more capability than ever before. It is a servicing mission with considerable danger to the astronauts, but one that has the potential to provide science and astronomy with dramatic rewards for at least the next five years.

A lack of sunspot activity will continue to be of scientific interest during 2009. There were 266 days without a sunspot during 2008. It was a year that featured the second highest number of days with a blank sun since 1900. A lack of sunspot activity was also the trend during 2007.

Its the International Year Of Astronomy. So, set up the telescope, adjust the focus and let the observations begin. For those of us that are less hands-on, there is even a blog of professional astronomers to keep us properly informed.

For More on the Hubble Telescope Read: The Last Mission To The Hubble Telescope on eWorldvu.

The Democrats Race To Fill Four Senate Seats

2009-01-05T03:59:00.000-08:00

There are several Senate seats that still need to be filled by dedicated public servants as America starts its New Year.

In Minnesota, Democrat Al Franken has just moved ahead of Norm Coleman by several hundred votes and is about to win the recount of a very close election.

The result of the recount will overturn a victory of several hundred votes on election night by his opponent, incumbent Republican Senator,Norm Coleman. The recount tally has actually turned into a contest between the two candidates legal teams.

In fact, legal issues abound in this race. There are hundreds of missing ballots which will be counted as voting for Franken. There were disqualified absentee ballots that favor Franken that are now being counted while there were disqualified absentee ballots that may favor Coleman that are not.

The final recount vote totals may show that Al Franken won the Minnesota Senate seat but this whole election mess is going to end up in court. Minnesota's Governor Tim Pawlenty will not seat Franken until all the legal issues are resolved and any attempt by Franken to seat himself will create a Senate Republican filibuster.

Of course, the ultimate question concerns political accountability for this election mess in Minnesota? How could there be missing ballots and disqualified ballots that should have been counted?

Meanwhile, in New York, controversy surrounds Hillary Clinton's former Senate seat. Governor Patterson is under pressure from Democratic insiders to appoint Caroline Kennedy to the Senate until the next election is held in 2010. Various newspapers have opined that Patterson should select Kennedy since that may bring to the polls more Democrat voters and help him with his own re-election in two years.

It makes you wonder what ever happened to the importance of qualifications. Caroline Kennedy's resume shows no real background for consideration for a seat in the United States Senate. The fact is that she has never held public office, has little private sector background, won't release her financial history, and has not been able to articulate a political opinion on many of the major issues facing New York voters.

Another controversial Senate appointment features Barack Obama's former Senate seat. Recently indicted Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has just appointed former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate.

Senate Democratic Majority Leader, Harry Reid has vowed to block the Burris appointment because it was made by the disgraced Illinois Governor. This battle may end up in the Supreme Court and since he has yet been convicted of anything, Blagojevich may eventually prevail.

Unfortunately, the politics of the appointment has nothing to do with the preferences of the voter, since Roland Burris is no stranger to losing real political elections, in Illinois.

Burris failed in three primary bids for governor in 1994, 1998 and 2002. He failed in campaigns for Chicago mayor in 1995 and for U.S. senator in 1984. He has not even held a statewide office in the last fourteen years.

In Delaware, Joe Biden is set to accept the Vice Presidency while still holding on to his Senate Seat. This political oddity is necessary so Biden's former chief of staff, Ted Kaufman, can recieve a Senate appointment to serve for just two years, after which point he will not seek to retain the seat. This will mean that Kaufman can keep the seat warm until 2010 so there will be no incumbent to run against Joe Biden's son, Beau.

The Democrats race to fill four Senate seats involves corruption, lawyers, patronage, power and political expediency. All these political appointments have little to do with the intent of real voters. If this dubious political patronage continues, the United States Senate will soon need to change its name to the United States House Of Lords.

Its Christmas Time In America

2008-12-23T04:26:00.000-08:00

A recent Rasmussen survey found that nearly two thirds of Americans think Christmas is the most important holiday of the year.

In the survey, 92% of adults say they will celebrate Christmas this year, while only six percent (6%) said they would not. The vast majority (70%) will open their gifts on Christmas morning while more than 20% will open their gifts on Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile, Hallmark estimates that Americans will send more than 2.1 billion holiday cards this year, up from 1.9 billion cards in 2007. On average, each American household will mail more than 20 Christmas cards this holiday season.

In America, the weeks leading up to Christmas are historically the biggest shopping weeks of the year. Many retailers make up to 70% of their annual revenue in the month preceding Christmas. In fact, the Friday and Saturday before Christmas are usually the two busiest shopping days of the year.

The three occasions that Americans consume food in the greatest quantity are Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Super Bowl Sunday. At least according to the National Football League.

A native Mexican plant, poinsettias were named after Joel R. Poinsett, U.S. ambassador to Mexico who brought the plant to America in 1828. Poinsettias were used by Mexican Franciscans in their 17th century Christmas celebrations.

The modern American Christmas custom of displaying a wreath on the front door of the house, is actually borrowed from ancient Rome's New Year's celebrations. Romans wished each other "good health" by exchanging branches of evergreens. It became the custom to bend these branches into a ring and display them on doorways.

According to the National Christmas Tree Association, Americans buy around 30 million real Christmas trees each year . The top selling Christmas Trees are: balsam fir, Douglas-fir, Fraser fir, noble fir, Scotch pine, Virginia pine and white pine. The average growing time for a Christmas tree in America is seven years.

In 2007, 17.4 million people bought artificial Christmas trees, a dramatic 87 percent jump from the previous year's total of 9.3 million. According to the United States Commerce Department 85 per cent of all artificial trees in the United States are manufactured in China.

In 1939, Chicago based Montgomery Ward copywriter Robert L. May wrote the story of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. The story was so popular that despite the wartime paper shortage, over 6 million copies had been distributed by 1946.

In fact, the song "Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer" would become the second most popular holiday song of all time. It is listed only behind Bing Crosby's White Christmas.

If you watch "A Christmas Carol" this holiday season, just remember that Charles Dickens considered several other names before settling on Tiny Tim. The three other alternative names were; Little Larry, Puny Pete, and Small Sam.

According to eBay, the best selling 2008 electronics are the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, Ipod Touch and Sony PSP. Expect to find these gifts in a featured spot under many real and artificial 2008 Christmas Trees.

Its Christmas time in America. Please have a great holiday and a safe and prosperous New Year.

For More Read: The Holiday Song That Became A World Record on eworldvu.com

Days Without A Sunspot Reach The Top Two

2008-12-22T04:08:00.000-08:00

There were sixteen days without a sunspot in the first nineteen days of December 2008.

This means that this years lack of sunspot activity has exceeded 1912 as the second quietest year in more than a century.

In fact, last year was also noted for the quiet of the sun. 2007 also finished in the list of top ten years without a sunspot. However, the number of days without solar activity has dramatically increased this year from one year ago.

Meanwhile, according to the National Climatic Data Center, this year will be America’s coldest year since 1997. Certainly, this has become apparent in the last few weeks, as the harsh reality of ice and snow has been seen in several unusual places in the country.

In Southern California a half-inch of snow covered Malibu’s hills while a half-foot of the white stuff barricaded highways and marooned commuters in desert towns east of Los Angeles. Three inches of snow closed Las Vegas’ McCarren Airport and dusted the Strip’s hotels and casinos. Recently, eight inches of snow struck New Orleans and blanketed Southern Louisiana.

The cold has also strengthened in places that are used to its intensity. The National Weather Service reports that last summer was Anchorage’s third-coldest on record. In addition, the National Snow and Ice Data Center found that Arctic sea ice expanded 13.2 percent this year, or 270,000 square miles. In Canada, every part of the country will have a White Christmas for the first time since 1971.

The fact is that from 1998 until January 2007, the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere near its surface decreased some 0.25 C (0.45 F) but from January 2007 until the spring of 2008, it has dropped a whopping 0.75 C (1.35 F).

So, a lack of solar activity in the last two years may well be driving this dramatic global cooling trend. In 2008, the days without a sunspot reached the top two. If this trend continues, dreams of a white Christmas may soon become a reality in Malibu.

For more on global cooling and sunspot activity see: To Predict Global Climate Change Look To The Sun on eworldvu

The Mystery Of The Christmas Star

2008-12-18T03:54:00.000-08:00

The Star of Bethlehem, also called the Christmas Star, in Christian tradition is a star that revealed the birth of Jesus to the three Wise Men (Magi).

According to the bible (Gospel of Matthew) the Magi were "men from the east" who were inspired by the appearence of the Star to travel to Jerusalem.

Christians regard the Christmas Star as a miraculous sign given by God to mark the birth of Christ. Some theologians have claimed that the star fulfilled a prophecy, known as the Star Prophecy.

So, what exactly was the Christmas Star? Astronomers have proposed various explanations including a super-nova, a planet, or a comet. It has been speculated that the star could have been an astrological event. Some even claim that the Christmas Star was nothing more than a science fiction story.

Of course, we do know that the Christmas Star did not first appear to the Magi on December 25. Indeed, it was Pope Julius I who selected the 25th of December to celebrate Christmas Day. The reason he chose that day is still very unclear. Although it is possible that it was a way to bring Christian religion to a pagan holiday.

The actual day of the year that the Star may have appeared has been a subject of speculation for years. The Bible, (Luke) records that at the birth of Christ, shepherds were watching over their flocks by night. There were only two specific times in a year when this was done, namely when lambs were being born in the spring or autumn. At other times of the year they were kept safely in their sheep-folds to protect them from wild animals.

The New Testament of the Bible (Revelation 12) tells of the birth of Christ when the constellation Virgo (the woman in the heavens) was clothed with the sun and had the moon at her feet. This would indicate that Jesus was born when the sun and moon were in Virgo. In other words, at the time of the September New Moon, or shortly thereafter.

However, before we conclude that the Christmas Star first appeared on a September day, consider what new scientific research has to say.

The Nativity is generally accepted to have occurred somewhere in the historical time frame between 3B.C. and 1 A.D. This is the period that Australian stargazer and the editor of Sky and Space magazine, Dave Reneke would analyze with complex computer software.

His goal was to chart the exact positions of all celestial bodies and map the night sky. In effect, advanced computer software was used to re-create night over the Holy Land exactly as it appeared more than 2,000 years ago.

Reneke discovered that a bright star really did appear over Bethlehem over 2000 years ago. He said his research showed that: " Venus and Jupiter became very close in the year 2 B.C. and they would have appeared to be one bright beacon of light" in the night sky.

As for the exact date of the appearance of this beacon of light, Mr Reneke pinpointed the planetary conjunction, which appeared in the constellation of Leo, to the exact date of June 17.

So, if the Christmas Star heralding the birth of Christ did arrive on June 17th, a few changes may be in order here. After all, we have consistently been nearly six months late in spreading our annual holiday cheer and those Christmas in July promotions should really be called after Christmas mark down sales every year.

A Two Month Tax Holiday In 2009

2008-12-17T03:57:00.000-08:00

350 billion dollars are left to be spent from the 700 billion dollar bailout bill spearheaded by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, approved by Congress and signed into law by President George Bush.

Certainly, it should be interesting to see what the United States Congress spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer money on, after the new year.

The most likely outcome of this bailout bill spending spree will involve a massive transfer of wealth from taxpayers to government-directed projects. The sad truth is that it will be years before these government projects actually produce any jobs.

However, there is one idea on Capital Hill that does seem to make a lot of sense. As a result, there is probably little chance that it will gather the necessary votes in Congress to become law in 2009. It is a radical idea for sure. The concept is to give much of the remaining taxpayer bailout money back to help the individual taxpayer.

The bill is HR 7309 and was recently introduced in the House Of Representatives by Rep. Louis Gohmert, R-Texas. HR 7309 would require all federal income taxes based on wages earned and FICA withholding be left in paychecks for two straight months in 2009.

The effect of the legislation would be to dramatically increase each worker's take home pay for two months. The result would be economic stimulus in it purest form. Even wage earners who do not make enough to pay income tax would get back their FICA or Social Security withholding under the plan

A two-month reprieve from payroll and FICA taxes would cost $334.4 billion, much less than the remaining $350 billion in bailout funds authorized by Congress. It would represent a 17 percent reduction in income taxes for Americans in 2009.

Of course, the problem for our big government, Congressional legislators is that Americans would get to experience the impact of how much the federal government takes from their paycheck every month in taxes.

So, a two month tax holiday to stimulate the economy will probably never happen. Big government projects, pork barrel spending and Congressional earmarks that feed off of the taxpayer's bailout bounty will likely be the Congressional solution for economic stimulus in 2009.

Americans Need A Bailout From Government Taxes

2008-12-16T06:04:00.000-08:00

Benjamin Franklin once said that nothing is certain but death and taxes. Today, he may have altered his famous quote to say that its certain that government is taxing people to death.

American taxpayers will pay 1.2 trillion dollars in federal and social security taxes in 2008. They will pay $101.6 billion per month in personal income taxes and $65.6 billion per month in FICA taxes.

However, the total tax burden on Americans is far greater when state, local, sales, excise and property taxes and fees are considered. Since the Congress is bailing out bad mortgage loans, hedge fund ponzi schemes and the United Auto Workers, with American taxpayer dollars, how about a bailout of the actual American taxpayer?

A 2009 payroll tax holiday would be the best place to start but here are several tax initiatives that are such bad ideas that the American taxpayer needs an immediate bailout.

Can you believe that farms or ranches with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs may soon be required to pay an annual fee of about $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 per head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog?

The executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Ken Hamilton, estimated the fee would cost owners of a modest-sized cattle ranch $30,000 to $40,000 a year.

These new fee's are a tax on the gas emissions of farm animals. Its a tax apparently designed to reduce green house emissions and save the planet from global warming. It will result in bankruptcy for many farms and significantly raise the price of meat. Global climate change has more to do with the hot air of Washington politicians than with the gas of cows.

A loaf of bread needs a a bailout. The government imposes 30 different taxes on bread . They are federal income taxes, state income taxes, state and local property taxes, federal payroll taxes, sales taxes, capital gains taxes, unemployment compensation taxes, workmen’s compensation taxes, retailers’ excise taxes, business license taxes and fees, utility taxes, and state wheat farmer checkoff taxes. Enough is enough, government needs to give bread a break.

If you live in Alabama, North Carolina, or Nevada and possess illicit drugs, you should have already purchased a stamp that registers tax payments on those drugs. To pay the illegal drug tax, visit your Department of Revenue and pay a small fee for a stamp that is to be placed on the container of the drugs. The stamp serves as evidence that you paid your tax so after you get arrested for illegal drug possession, you won’t be fined an increased amount based on not paying your illegal drug tax. Whoever actually pays that tax has also been seen staring at frozen orange juice because it said concentrate.

Did you realize that every time you get on an airplane you are paying a $6.00 Immigration User Fee and a $2.00 Agricultural Inspection Fee, in addition to a $12.40 Arrival Tax, and a $12.40 Departure Tax? Its just amazing there is not a tax for a passenger's actual travel time in the air.

The amusement tax works like this: the government taxes the owners of places that offer “amusement” and in return those businesses pass those taxes on to us. You're not amused? I didn't think so. Paying taxes for amusement is certainly no fun.

Some areas of the country levy a 0.5 percent tax on all take-out food. Chicago and Washington, D.C. both have enacted a tax on fast food, purportedly to pay for the removal of litter often accrued with the purchase of burgers and dogs. This tax applies to everything take-out, from egg McMuffins to late night cheese steaks. Take-out of the tax code is the appropriate action for this strange idea.

New York Gov. Paterson, is very concerned with obesity. In fact, he is so concerned that he is considering taxes on non-diet soft drinks. If the tax passes, ice cream or anything containing sugar or fat could be taxed next. Fat chance that a hefty tax on non-diet soft drinks does anything to reduce obesity.

No Holiday Cheer In Retail Sales This Year

2008-12-15T04:18:00.000-08:00

The shopping malls have been quiet during the last few weeks. So, it looks like the result of a recent Gallup public opinion poll for this holiday season is about to ring true.

On average Americans spent $866 dollars on Christmas last year. However, there will be more room under the Christmas tree on December 25th because the average American plans to spend only about $616 this year.

In fact, declining retail sales have been a story for months. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, retail sales dropped 1.8 percent from October to November. The drop marked the fifth consecutive monthly decline in sales. November 2008 sales, were 7.4 percent below retail sales when compared with same month last year. The report said total sales for the September through November 2008 period were down 4.5 percent from the same period a year ago.

The only exception to the declining trend in retail spending was in electronics. Retail Electronics and appliance stores saw a sales increase from October to November to $9.23 billion from $8.97 billion, or 2.8 percent growth.

The boost in electronics and appliance sales was tied to hot consumer electronic products like video game systems, flat-screen televisions, music players and smartphones. However, while electronics sales grew month-to-month, year-to-year sales were still down 4.7 percent in November compared to the same month a year before.

Of course, the ongoing decline in retail sales reflects a dramatic decrease in consumer confidence in the economy as the 2008 global recession continues. Employment in America fell by 533,000 jobs in November and one million people losing employment may well become a dubious monthly job statistic by next spring.

In tough economic times, consumer discretionary items are always a victim and this year will be no different. There may well be electronics and video games like Wii under the average Chistmas Tree, but Santa will also leave more empty space where presents in previous years used to be.

Look for several large retail business bankrupcy's in the first quarter of the New Year. Indeed, going out of business, liquidation sales, will soon advertise the demise of debt laden retailers. The economic recession of 2008 means there will be no holiday cheer in retail sales this year.

The Year Of Man-Made Global Warming Doubt

2008-12-11T06:11:00.000-08:00

Scientists at the UN global warming conference currently underway in Poland this week, made one thing clear. They say that they have completed one crucial task. They have established beyond a doubt that man-made global warming is for real.

Last year, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a 2007 Summary for Policymakers authored by fifty two scientists which said that climate change is "unequivocal, is already happening, and is caused by human activity."

So, if the United Nations Panel on Climate Change has proven beyond any doubt that human activity creates Global Warming, why is there so much intense disagreement to that conclusion within the scientific community?

Maybe its because the planet has not seen any warming in the last ten years. It could also be due to the fact that all those dire predictions by climate computer models of warming in this decade have proven to be so incorrect. Man-made global warming doubt also may be growing because the planet has actually begun to cool.

In fact, 2008 is set to be the coolest year of this decade, according to a preliminary estimate of global average temperature from the Met Office (UK). The global average temperature for 2008 should come in close to 14.3C, which is 0.14C below the average temperature for 2001-07.

So far in 2008, there have been 250 scientists that have added their names to a list of 400 scientists that have already spoken out against the United Nations concerning man-made global warming.

This week, a newly updated U.S. Senate Minority Report will feature the dissenting voices of these 650 international scientists. Many are current and former U.N. IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the U.N. The U.S. Senate report is the latest evidence of the growing groundswell of scientific opposition rising to challenge the concept that global warming is man-made.

Here is a sample of some of the quotes from international scientists the Senate Minority Report is said to contain:

“I am a skeptic. Global warming has become a new religion.” - Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever.

“Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly. As a scientist I remain skeptical."- Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Joanne Simpson, the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in meteorology and formerly of NASA who has authored more than 190 studies and has been called “among the most preeminent scientists of the last 100 years.”

Warming fears are the “worst scientific scandal in the history. When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists.” - UN IPCC Japanese Scientist Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an award-winning PhD environmental physical chemist.

“The IPCC has actually become a closed circuit; it doesn’t listen to others. It doesn’t have open minds. I am really amazed that the Nobel Peace Prize has been given on scientifically incorrect conclusions by people who are not geologists,” - Indian geologist Dr. Arun D. Ahluwalia at Punjab University and a board member of the UN-supported International Year of the Planet.

“The models and forecasts of the UN IPCC “are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include, for example, solar activity.” - Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico

“It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.” - U.S Government Atmospheric Scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA.

“Even doubling or tripling the amount of carbon dioxide will virtually have little impact, as water vapour and water condensed on particles as clouds dominate the worldwide scene and always will.” Geoffrey G. Duffy, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering of the University of Auckland, NZ.

“For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?” - Geologist Dr. David Gee the chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress who has authored 130 plus peer reviewed papers, and is currently at Uppsala University in Sweden.

A climate debate continues to rage within the scientific community, and one thing has become very certain. In 2008, there is a growing scientific consensus behind man-made global warming doubt.

Decades Of Corruption In The Land Of Lincoln

2008-12-10T04:23:00.000-08:00

The U.S. Attorney's Office had been investigating Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich for three years and right after the 2008 Presidential Election ended in early November, a tap was placed on his phone.

What the Feds heard from the Illinois Governors telephone conversations during the last few weeks have been in the words of Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald a "political corruption crime spree" .

Yesterday, Blagojevich was arrested, handcuffed and taken before a federal magistrate on charges he conspired to sell his office. The charges involve a variety of crimes including fundraising in return for state contracts, plush jobs for the governor and his wife Patti, and selling the nomination to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder. It was a "pay to play" political corruption crime spree run from the Governor's office.

Of course, "pay to play" political corruption from the Governors office is nothing new in the land of Lincoln. However, this is a story not only about corruption but also about hypocrisy.

Rod Blagojevich ran for the Governor's office as a reformer to replace previous Illinois Governor Gov. George Ryan, who is now serving a six year prison term for accepting bribes. Ryan was convicted of corruption in 2006 for steering state contracts and leases to political insiders while he was Illinois Secretary of State and Governor.

If Blagojevich is convicted he will become the fourth Illinois Governor in the last 35 years to go to jail. Before Ryan was convicted in 2006, former governor Dan Walker was found guilty of taking fraudulent loans to repair his yacht. He plead guilty in 1987 to bank fraud, misapplication of funds and perjury.

Several years earlier, Gov. Otto Kerner was convicted of taking bribes during his time in office. Kerner was convicted in 1972 on bribery, tax evasion and other counts. He arranged favorable horse-racing dates as governor in return for horse-racing-association stock at reduced prices.

So, how did Rod Blagojevich launch his campaign to become the latest alleged corrupt Governor of Illinois? Well, he occupied “Dan” Rostenkowski’s Congressional seat after Rostenkowski plead guily to mail fraud charges.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said the charges against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich "would make Lincoln roll over in his grave." Still, Blagojevich is only the latest in a long line of unsavory Illinois governors and politicians. Sadly, there have been decades of corruption in the land of Lincoln.

CCTV Can See But Nobody Is Watching

2008-12-09T04:13:00.000-08:00

There are estimates that there are 500,000 surveillance cameras around the city of London and that an average Londoner is seen on camera 300 times each day.

In fact, there is estimated to be more than 4 million surveillance cameras throughout the United Kingdom, with about 1.5 million closed circuit television cameras (CCTV) in city centers, train and subway stations, airports, and major retail areas .

However, despite spending billions of dollars on surveillance cameras, a recent report by the Police Chiefs of the United Kingdom concluded that only 3% of crimes were solved by CCTV.

So, what happened to make CCTV such a bad investment? Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, the officer in charge of the Metropolitan police unit provides an answer in his speech at the Security Document World Conference in London as follows:

"CCTV was originally seen as a preventative measure. Billions of pounds have been spent on it, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court. It's been an utter fiasco: There's no fear of CCTV. Why don't people fear it? They think the cameras are not working."

Of course, the security cameras are working but it is very expensive to hire CCTV operators that have to endlessly look at all those security screens. Placing security cameras in millions of locations is one thing. Monitoring all those locations at all times by human beings in real time is another thing indeed.

Spending billions on security without any real return in the United Kingdom has not stopped New York City from following in their path. More than 3,000 new public and privately-owned cameras will be in service in the city by the end of this year.

Meanwhile new advanced CCTV cameras which try to 'predict' if a crime is about to take place are now being introduced on Britain's streets. The cameras can alert operators to suspicious behaviour, such as loitering and unusually slow walking.

However, as seen through the experience in the United Kingdom, there is no evidence that expensive security cameras act as a crime deterrent. In addition, few crimes are actually solved due to the hard work involved in retrieving images from the system. Certainly, it is not money well spent, if the police are not properly trained and the system is not useful in the prevention of crime.

The truth is that all these expensive CCTV security cameras have not made us much safer. Our personal privacy concerns have not yet been realized. This is because CCTV can see but nobody is watching.

A Windfall Of Failure In Domestic Energy Policy

2008-12-08T03:55:00.000-08:00

Last May, with the price of a barrel of oil well over $100 and the American consumer furious at the price of a gallon of gas at the pump, Congress was looking for political cover.

Of course, the problem was not the absence of a congressional energy policy. No, it was the domestic oil companies that were really gauging the consumer and keeping prices high that was to blame.

As a result, the Senate Judiciary Committee would summon the top executives from the petroleum industry for a Congressional inquisition. As these executives would correctly pointed out to our astute public servants, the fact is that foreign companies and governments control the overwhelming majority of the world's oil. In fact most of the price Americans pay at the pump is the cost paid by the American oil company to acquire crude oil from someone else.

In addition, it was apparent from the hearings that if anyone is "gouging" consumers through the high price of gasoline, it is federal and state governments, not American oil companies. On average, 15% percent of the cost of gasoline at the pump goes for taxes, while only 4% represents oil company profits.

Despite these facts, Barack Obama campaigned for the Presidency on the populist message that oil company profits were too high. He promised to "make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills." The plan was to provide a $500 per person emergency energy rebate from the windfall profits of big oil.

However, the margin of profit for oil companies never did show a profit windfall. In fact, the 8.3 percent profit margin in the gas and oil industry was pretty small in comparison with the 14.5 percent profit margin enjoyed by the electronics and appliance industry, the 18.4 percent margin for big pharma, or the 19.1 percent margin for alcohol and tobacco.

Now, just six months after the Congressional energy windfall profit tax hearings last May, the price of a barrel of oil is in sharp decline. It has already lost two thirds of its value and the bottom in the price of a barrel of crude oil is still hard to find. As a result, President-elect Barack Obama is going to break another campaign promise. There will be no windfall profit tax on big oil or consumer energy rebate plan in 2009.

The real truth is that there has not been a domestic energy policy in the United States for decades. The current domestic energy policy is only based on the hope that other countries will produce enough oil so that the price in America will not get too high.

This is because there are Congressional limitations in exploring additional domestic supply. According to the Department of the Interior, 62 percent of all on-shore federal lands are off limits to oil and gas developments, with restrictions applying to 92 percent of all federal lands. Meanwhile, alternative energy solutions are still more than a decade away.

So, eventually, the price of American energy will rise and the Senate Judiciary Committee will again call hearings for political cover. Once again they will summon all the top oil executives to assess the blame. We should remember that its just a cynical, political game in which there is no Congressional shame.

A Crisis With Iran In The New Year

2008-12-04T04:14:00.000-08:00

For more than three years, every quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran has contained details of various violations.

Usually the reports cite obstruction of inspector's visits, inconsistencies between official claims and the results of tests from samples taken from various facilities and other actions of non-compliance with international regulatory oversight.

The final assessment in each report, signed by IAEA Director-General, Mohamed Elbaradei absurdly concludes that the evidence does not demonstrate that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons.

However, the last IAEA update contained new information that has increased concern in the International community. The latest IAEA report indicates that as of last month, Iran had made 630 kilograms, or about 1,390 pounds, of low-enriched uranium. Many experts now say that this amount of enriched uranium is enough to build a bomb.

Meanwhile, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz can see a showdown between Iran and the West coming. He recently told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York; "Iran's nuclear program is proceeding like an express train. The diplomatic efforts to thwart Iran are like a slow train. If we cannot derail the Iranian train from the tracks, we are on the verge of a nuclear era that will totally alter the regional reality."

Indeed, the most up-to-date intelligence predictions by US nuclear experts is that by the end of 2009, Iran will have stocked enough weapons-grade fuel to build three nuclear bombs. The first will be ready for assembly by the time Barack Obama is sworn in as US president on January 20, 2009; the second shortly after Israel’s February 10, 2009 general election produces a new prime minister, and the third by the end of the year.

So, time is fast running out for the International community to stop Iran's nuclear ambitions. To do nothing, means taking a high risk security gamble that holocaust denier Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a nuclear capability can safely be ignored. However, a decision to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities means higher worldwide energy prices and another Middle East war.

The failure of international diplomacy and the speed in which Iran is enriching uranium are backing the President-elect into a very difficult corner. As a result, Barack Obama's first major foreign policy test will soon follow his January inauguration. A crisis with Iran is on the horizon for the next Administration early in the new year.

Congress Spends Billions Without A Coherent Plan

2008-12-03T04:20:00.000-08:00

It has been pretty obvious to the Stock Market every time he appears. Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson usually holds a press conference in the middle of the trading day. Soon after he starts speaking, the Dow Jones Industrial Average will begin a steep descent.

The market knows that the Treasury Secretary is a man with 700 billion dollars of taxpayer money that does not have a real economic plan. The Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) was originally rushed through Congress as money that was going to save the economy from disaster by buying distressed mortgages from consumers.

However, the TARP plan now seems to have evolved into a huge bailout of selected firms in the financial services industry. Of course, TARP was passed with extensive Congressional oversight but half of the taxpayer's money has already been spent and much of the oversight provisions have not been enacted.

The only ongoing review of the TARP program is headed by Elizabeth Warren. She is the the chairwomen of a new Congressional panel that was set up to monitor the bailout. Recently, (New York Times) Ms. Warren was quoted as saying that "the government still does not seem to have a coherent strategy for easing the financial crisis, despite the billions it has already spent in that effort. The government instead seemed to be lurching from one tactic to the next without clarifying how each step fits into an overall plan."

Meanwhile, the Treasury has just bailed out Citigroup in the last week. It was a financial services company that was "too big to fail". The Citi was not sleeping well since it had billions of dollars of bad loans on its balance sheet and its stock price had reached the status of a penny stock.

The TARP was used to bailout Citi and now billions of those toxic loans will be the responsibility of the United States taxpayer to guarantee. In addition, Citi was given billions of taxpayer dollars to shore up the liquidity on its balance sheet.

Someone may ask what did Citi use all that new taxpayer cash for? Well, Inner City Press is reporting that Citi is sponsoring a Congressional junket to the Caribbean and spending over seven billion Euros to buy the highway business of Spanish construction firm, Sacyr Vallehermoso. Seems like the taxpayer's money could have been spent better, doesn't it?

This week the automakers are back in town requesting a bailout from the United States Congress. A few weeks ago the Big 3 flew in on private jets to attempt to get a piece of the TARP pie and were rejected. The reason given by Congress was that they didn't have a coherent business plan.

So, the automakers did not present a coherent business plan to obtain money from a 700 billion dollar government program that does not have a coherent plan. In the real world this would be considered absurd, but its just business as usual inside the beltway in Washington D.C.

Days Without Sunspots Are In The Top Five

2008-12-02T03:50:00.000-08:00

The news is about the cold weather in late 2008. Newspapers report that glaciers in Canada, California, and New Zealand are growing, as the result of colder temperatures and increased snowfall.

After years of decline, glaciers in Norway are again growing, reports the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE).

Meanwhile, in Alaska, the United States Geologic Survey has maintained a research project measuring the state of Alaskan glaciers since 1946. This year records were broken for most snow buildup. It was also the first time since measurements began that Arctic glaciers did not shrink during the summer months.

Australian Ski fields recently recorded a heavy snow fall about a week before the summer started. Also, ski resorts across Europe opened last weekend ahead of schedule after the biggest November snowfalls in at least a decade. Meanwhile heavy snow and freezing cold closed schools in much of Spain.

In New Zealand, environmental groups are angry about the new government's plan to review the science behind climate change. Environmentalists think New Zealand's reputation would be damaged if the concept of global warming is questioned.

These are all stories making international news in recent days. Of course, these stories are the result of the significant drop in global temperatures over the last two years. A drop in temperatures that may well be connected to sunspot activity.

In 2007, there were 183 days without a sunspot observed on the face of the sun. The year would be ranked ninth in the last one hundred years for a lack of sunspot activity. This year, the number of days without sunspots have already easily surpassed that level from last year.

At the end of November 2008, the number of days without a sunspot was at 239. It made 2008, the fifth ranked year without a sunspot in a century, with one full month left to go. In fact, by the end of this week, the 2008 rank will likely move up to number three, since the sun has been blank, so far this month. The number two spot is within reach with fifteen days of sunspot inactivity during December.

Two years in a row of declining temperatures with a near record lack of sunspot activity while CO2 gas continues to increase in the atmosphere. If this trend continues, history would suggest that it could get very cold. Then, the huge, lucrative, international business of research into man-made global warming would have to be put on hold.

Terrorism Could Mean Death In Outsourcing To India

2008-12-01T04:13:00.000-08:00

The last several days were a stark international reminder that we live in a dangerous age of terrorism. Ten armed terrorists killed nearly 200 people in India as that country's totally unprepared police force looked on.

In fact, policemen trying to disarm terrorists linked to a Pakistani militant group associated with al-Queda had only batons or World War I-era rifles to use as weapons.

As a result, India's top law enforcement official has just resigned, bowing to criticism that the attackers appeared better trained, better coordinated and better armed than police. The truth is that India does not even have a trained SWAT team.

These international headlines about a lack of homeland security in India must give corporations that have already outsourced their business functions to that country a reason for concern.

The fact is that Information technology and IT-enabled services will employ 4 million people in 2008 and account for 7% of gross domestic product and 33% of India's foreign-exchange inflows, according to Nasscom, an Indian IT industry organization.

Meanwhile, employee wages are rising rapidly in India and fast becoming more competitive with the rest of the world. The cost advantage for outsourcing to India used to be at least 1:6. Today, the ratio is down to 1:3 and worker attrition is high.

Indeed, the increase in wage inflation in the last several years is staggering. Salaries in India rose 15.1% in 2007, up from 14.4% the previous year. The 2008 forecast is an increase of 15.2% and it marks the fifth consecutive year of salary growth above 10%.

So, after this recent terrorist attack, security against terrorism will become yet another issue for international corporations to consider before outsourcing jobs to India.

As a result, the last few days of terror in India may have ramifications well beyond international politics and the tragic human cost. With worker wages skyrocketing, a lack of national security against terrorism could well mean the death of international business outsourcing to India.

Giving Thanks For The Mother Of Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T04:37:00.000-08:00

When Americans observe the traditional Thanksgiving Day holiday this year, they will think of Pilgrims, Native Americans, football games, turkey, pie, travel, family and the traditional Thanksgiving Day Parade.

However, few people know that the Thanksgiving Day Holiday in America was also an attempt to abolish slavery and to prevent the American Civil War. The day is a reminder of a story of a remarkable women with an intelligence and foresight far ahead of her time.

"The Lady Editor," as Sarah Hale was affectionately called, advocated a national celebration of Thanksgiving as early as 1827. "We have too few holidays. Thanksgiving like the Fourth of July should be considered a national festival and observed by all our people" she wrote in her first book, a novel titled Northwood.

An idea that she often promoted was a letter writing campaign to churches asking them to raise money on a special day of thanksgiving to buy freedom for the slaves. She felt confidant that if she could even just get a day of thanksgiving to be recognized, "that the reflection alone would go a long way in ending this terrible institution".

To Sarah Hale, Thanksgiving would be a holiday of national contemplation. "There is a deep moral influence in these periodical seasons of rejoicing, in which whole communities participate. They bring out . . . the best sympathies in our natures."

Hale saw this spiritual dimension of Thanksgiving as a means for preventing the insanity of civil war in America. This is why, as hostilities heated up between North and South, she bombarded both national and state officials with requests for the national holiday.

She wrote in an 1859 editorial, "If every state would join in Union, Thanksgiving on the 24th of this month, would it not be a renewed pledge of love and loyalty to the Constitution of the United States?"

Of course, Sarah Hale was unable to avert those saddest years of American history. Still, By 1863 when Lincoln issued his now famous Thanksgiving Proclamation, Sarah Hale had penned literally thousands of letters requesting Thanksgiving Day in her own hand.

Finally, On October 3, 1863, by Presidential Order, Lincoln fulfilled Sarah Hale’s lifelong plea to have a “day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival".

Sarah Josepha Hale was a writer, editor and a single mom. She is often referred to as the "Mother of Thanksgiving". There should be room at every table to honor her memory when giving thanks for what many of us consider to be our best national holiday.

A Case Of Injustice For Compean And Ramos

2008-11-25T04:14:00.001-08:00

The Associated Press is reporting that President George W. Bush has granted pardons to 14 individuals and commuted the prison sentences of two others convicted of misdeeds ranging from drug offenses to tax evasion, from wildlife violations to bank embezzlement.

The crimes committed by those on the pardon list also include dubious offenses involving hazardous waste, food stamps, and the theft of government property.

Meanwhile, as fourteen people are granted pardons by the president, border patrol agents, Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos sit in solitary confinement, in a medium security federal prision serving time for just trying to do their difficult jobs in securing the United States border with Mexico.

The fact is that Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are currently serving terms of 11 and 12 years respectively on their outrageous convictions for shooting an illegal alien drug smuggler.

The agents were guarding the United States border near El Paso, Texas on February 17, 2005. Checking on a tripped sensor near the river, Border Agent Compean discovered footprints and drag marks, a tip-off that a load of drugs has just been smuggled across the river. Spotting a vehicle leaving the scene, Compean radioed the vehicle's description to agents covering the road ahead.

Realizing he's been spotted, the smuggler turned around and headed back toward Compean. When the smuggler bailed out of his van to make a run for the river, he failed to obey Compean's numerous commands to stop. After a brief physical struggle with the Agent, the smuggler began running toward the river again.

When the smuggler turned around and pointed something shiny at Compean, the agent believing his life was in danger opened fire. Agent Ramos, hearing gunshots, came to Compean's aid. He, too, shouted for the smuggler to stop, but the man once again turned around and pointed at Ramos. Ramos fired one shot at the smuggler.

He appeared to miss, and his target turned and disappeared into the bank of the Rio Grande. Later it was discovered that the drug smuggler was wounded in the buttock by the shot. The Border Patrol agents returned to the suspicious van and looked inside at almost 800 lbs. of marijuana, worth about $1 million on the street, in the cabin.

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton would later decide that the illegal alien drug smuggler was the real victim in the case and he filed attempted murder charges against the two border agents. He never brought charges against the drug smuggler. Instead, Sutton granted the known illegal alien drug smuggler immunity and a temporary visa in his effort to prosecute the two agents.

On March 8, 2006, a federal jury convicted the two agents of assault with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and civil rights violations.

However, that jury verdict was in question as well. According to the National Border Patrol Council, "Three of the 12 jurors later submitted sworn affidavits alleging that they had been misled into believing that there could be no dissent in the decision of the jury, and that the minority would have to accede to the will of the majority. Despite this cloud over the propriety of the process, the judge refused to overturn the verdict."

On appeal, the 5th Circuit Appeals Court upheld a mandatory minimum 10-year prison sentences for “discharging a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence.” This law, known as Section 924(c) of the U.S. Code, has always been interpreted to apply to criminals, not law enforcement officers engaged in their official duties.

The cases of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean are now before the DOJ’s Pardon Attorney Donald Rodgers, who works in consultation with the attorney general’s office to assist the president. The president has sole power of clemency in federal cases under the Constitution, and will make the decision, no matter what the Office of Pardon Attorney recommends.

As for the alleged victim in this case, illegal alien and drug smuggler, Aldrete-Davila. Well, he pleaded guilty last May in federal court to multiple drug charges. All were crimes that occurred after the above episode, and thus are not covered by the immunity agreement. Aldrete-Davila was charged with two counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, one count of conspiracy to import a controlled substance and one count of conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

This case of injustice for Compean and Ramos has gone on long enough. These two border patrol agents need to be pardoned by President Bush. They are the real victims in a case that compromises the integrity of United States Homeland Security as well as the American Legal system.

The Citi Never Sleeps In Making Bad Loans

2008-11-24T02:52:00.000-08:00

The monetary estimate of bad decisions on Citibank's balance sheet is indeed staggering. The bank that advertises itself as the financial firm that never sleeps, certainly must have worked around the clock to accumulate nearly 3 trillion dollars of bad assets.

Of course, the underlying problem at Citi was greed without any apparent understanding of risk. The problem was summed up in the following quote from a recent New York Times article.

"Many Citigroup insider's say the bank's risk managers never investigated deeply enough. Because of longstanding ties that clouded their judgement, the very people charged with overseeing deal makers, eager to increase short term earnings and executives multi million dollar bonuses failed to rein them in, these insiders say. While much of the damage inflicted on Citibank and the broader economy was caused by errant, high octane trading, and lax oversight, critics say, blame also reaches to the highest level of the bank."

The problems at Citibank were common at many other major financial institutions as well. The truth is that the Fed, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision were all negligent in not doing their job of financial oversight.

Meanwhile, the ratings agencies added to the problem and gave all these bad mortgage loans their highest (AAA) rating. It may be a result of corruption or just plain incompetence. Some rating agencies may have even assumed that the national average house price would not decline.

In fact, Citibank has a long history of making bad mortgage loans. In the early 1990s the company nearly went under thanks to taking on lots of real estate risk in the wrong markets. Last week, the firm was on the brink of the financial abyss once again.

After Citi's shares plummeted 60% amid mounting concerns about its viability, the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp moved to save the firm. The terms of the bailout provided protection against the possibility of "unusually large losses" on an asset pool of approximately $306 billion of loans and securities backed by residential and commercial real estate, which will remain on Citigroup's balance sheet.

The Treasury will also inject another $20 billion in capital into Citigroup through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, receiving preferring stock that will yield 8%. Under the terms of the deal, Citigroup will absorb up to $29 billion in losses on the $306 billion portfolio of risky property-related assets; the government will eat 90% of any further losses, with Citigroup shouldering 10%.

The Citi never sleeps in making bad loans and it is apparent that they were not alone. Unfortunately, the American taxpayer will now pay a very steep price. In Sweden, the total bailout cost to solve a similar problem was twenty percent of GDP. That makes the 700 billion dollar taxpayer funded bailout bill passed by the United States Congress, a quarter of what will eventually be needed for our national financial repair.

A Decade Of Building A Station In Space

2008-11-20T04:22:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago, on Nov. 20, 1998, the first part of the International Space Station was launched by the Russians from Kazakhstan.

Two weeks later, the next piece of the Space Station was carried up by a NASA space shuttle. Astronauts and cosmonauts would move in two years later and the ISS has grown in size and accommodations since.

In fact, over the last decade, the International Space Station has traveled 1.3 billion miles, and orbited Earth more than 57,300 times. To date, it's taken 80 rocket launchings to construct and staff the space station.

One hundred sixty-seven individuals representing 14 countries have visited the complex. Crews have eaten some 19,000 meals aboard the station since the year 2000. Through the course of 114 spacewalks and the use of robotic construction in space, the station's truss structure has grown to 291 feet long. Its solar arrays now span to 28,800 square feet, large enough to cover six basketball courts.

After the Shuttle Endeavor completes its current mission, the space station will have five sleep stations, two baths, two kitchens and two mini-gyms. There will be nine rooms in total, three of them full-scale labs. The station's human capacity will double from 3 people at a time to six. Three-quarters complete, the total mass of the ISS will soon be 627,000 pounds. NASA says it's about the size of a five-bedroom house.

The Endeavour Shuttle linked to the space station sailed past its 10-year anniversary at 1:40 a.m. EST while the astronauts slept. Mission Control marked the occasion by showing video of the first rocket's launch in 1998.

So, today marks a decade of construction of an international station in space. Its a true engineering marvel and a example of what is possible by combining global cooperation, with human courage and space science.

For More On the ISS Read: Tracking The Progress Of The International Space Station and The Walk That Saved The International Space Station on eworldvu

The Way To Help The Big 3 Automakers

2008-11-19T05:39:00.000-08:00

All three CEO's of the nations major automakers, Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan Mulally of Ford, and Robert Nardelli of Chrysler just flew into the nations capital in their luxury corporate jets to speak to Congress about getting a 25 billion dollar slice of the taxpayer bailout pie.

The automakers arrived in Washington after spending millions on a coast to coast advertising campaign that warned of the impending disaster to the economy if the Congress did not come through and help them with a loan.

The truth is that if the Congress does grant the automakers any type of bailout, they will not have not helped their dire situation in the long run.

Instead, Congress and the taxpayer will have become a a short term enabler to the three largest car makers in the domestic automobile industry. There is a distinction here that is crucial.

Helping is doing something for someone that they are not capable of doing themselves. Enabling is doing for someone things that they could, and should be doing themselves.

Detroit created its own problems by relying too much on trucks and SUVs. They have not built the fuel efficient cars that Americans need and want. Meanwhile, the unit cost structure of the Big 3 automakers remains far to high and it is simply not competitive in the global marketplace.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) have to accept cuts in pay and benefits. Then, the automakers need to make the fuel efficient cars at a competitive price that the country wants. Their current business model does not work, so all current management needs to be fired by their boards.

Taxpayer dollars invested in this industry in its current form is a bad investment. Congressional enabling of the automobile industry with a loan or bailout will not solve their problem but only postpone their day of reckoning while costing the taxpayer billions in the process.

Congress can help the automobile industry by sending a clear message of no taxpayer bailout. Those begging CEO's should head back to Detroit and begin to do their jobs.

Getting rid of the luxury airplanes and the rest of their executive perks would be a very good place to start.

For More Read: The Long Road Of Bankruptcy For General Motors on eworldvu.com

Bailing Out Of This Government Bailout

2008-11-18T03:18:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe that the United States Congress has given the Treasury Secretary control over trillions dollars of taxpayer money without any current oversight.

Henry Paulson controls assets equal to the 19th largest global economy and he is not even an elected official.

Of course when the Treasury Asset Relief Program (TARP) was passed, oversight that taxpayer's money would be spent wisely was a Congressional assurance given to a skeptical public.

So is the money being spent wisely? Nobody really knows, but Bloomberg News is at least trying to find out. They have requested details of Federal Reserve lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit on Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure. Give Bloomberg News credit, they are doing actual journalism in the real world.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the rest of the media. MSNBC, is currently running promos that say: "Barack Obama, America's 44th president. Watch as a leader renews America's promise." People Magazine 's Cover "The Obamas' New Life!" will not win any Pulitzer for investigative journalism either. U.S. Weekly goes with a new Obama quote for its latest edition: "I Think I'm a Pretty Cool Dad." Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune opines that Michelle Obama "is poised to be the new Oprah and the next Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis combined!" for the fashion world.

So, 350 billion of taxpayer's money has already been spent and nobody knows where it went and only Bloomberg News really cares enough to find out under the Freedom Of Information Act. The New York Post calls all the current Presidential media hype and attention, "BamALot" and if it continues, it is going to cost the average American taxpayer "QuiteALot".

Now, consider that the need for the remainder of the bailout bill was brought into question last week. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson changed direction on the need for the money. He announced that the government would not use any of the $700 billion to buy toxic mortgages and other bad assets from banks. That had been the centerpiece of the bailout plan when Paulson and Bernanke first pitched it to lawmakers two months ago.

Meanwhile, CNBC, has been keeping a running tally of the total amount of spending the federal government is doing due to this financial crisis as well as all its other bail out commitments. The amount as of November 13, 2008 is reported to be $4.28 trillion dollars. About sixty eight percent of the sum falls under the Federal Reserve's umbrella, while the another 16 percent is under TARP, as defined under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, signed into law in early October.

As a result of the lack of transparency and the staggering dollar amount, Senators, James Imhofe and Bernie Sanders, now plan to introduced legislation to bailout Congress from the 350 billion dollars that remains to be spent on TARP.

The truth is that the entire regulatory regime of the US financial community will require the largest overhaul since the Great Depression. Many regulations that have been repealed need to be put back into place.

However, since so many new financial instruments have been developed, the whole system is in need of review. This should include the Fed, Treasury, SEC, FDIC, the GSEs, and the governmental housing agencies (GNMA, the FHA).

In the meantime, bailing the taxpayer out of this government bailout has become a priority for everyone before all the money is gone and nobody knows what happened, except for a few insiders in the beltway in Washington, D.C.

A Record Warm October Leaves NASA In The Cold

2008-11-17T04:17:00.001-08:00

Until late last year global warming proponents pointed out that temperature records showed that 1998 was the hottest year ever recorded in the United States.

In fact, Several of the years surrounding 1998 were also very warm and near the record as well. It certainly appeared that the climate was progressively warming when reviewing the historical record.

That was before a Canadian blogger named Steve McIntyre at Climate Audit set the NASA temperature record straight. Mcintyre audited the actual records and found substantial errors. When he reported his findings to NASA scientists, they conducted a review that showed he was indeed correct.

This led NASA to revise the data published on its website. The errors changed the historical facts concerning the global warming argument. The hottest year in the United States was no longer 1998, but 1934. 2001 was no longer even listed in the Top Ten. Instead, four of the top ten hottest years were back the 1930s.

One year later, the problem of inaccurate data providing dubious global warming conclusions has embarrassed NASA once again. Last Monday, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

This NASA claim was hard to understand since in the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had already ranked October temperatures as the 70th-warmest October in the last 114 years. Once again GISS data was examined by Steve Mcintyre at "Climate Audit" and another blogger Anthony Watts from the website "Watts Up With That".

As a result of the data review, GISS was again revising information published on its website. Data analysis revealed that Russia was recorded as unusually warm. The reason for all that October warmth was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not actually based on October readings at all. Figures from September had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.

A GISS spokesman explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from NOAA and that GISS did not have resources to exercise proper quality control over the data it was supplied with.

Global temperature published by GISS are one of the four data sets that the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) relies on to promote its case for global warming. The truth is that GISS consistently shows higher temperatures than any of the others.

The fact is that it was not a record warm October and the planet has been cooling for the last few years. Unfortunately, for the second straight year, NASA is embarrassed by a lack of quality control at GISS. The basis of science is making sure that the evidence is accurate before any conclusion is made.

So, a lack of quality control over data is a sad excuse. The real truth is that a record warm October was an erroneous conclusion based on inaccurate information. It has left NASA's credibility on global climate change out in the cold, for the second year in row.

The Legend Of The Buddha Boy From Nepal

2008-11-13T03:17:00.000-08:00

His legend continues to grow with tales of his clothes spontaneously combusting and his body being impervious to poisonous snakebites.

His followers say that can he live without food or water for days while in deep meditation under a banyan tree.

This mysterious teen aged boy gained international fame in 2005 by sitting cross-legged under a tree in a dense forest for nearly ten months, reportedly without food and water.

The story of Ram Bahadur Bamjan nicknamed the "Buddha Boy" has gained popularity because it closely resembled a Buddhist legend about Gautama Buddha's enlightenment. In fact, some devotees have claimed Ram is the reincarnation of the Buddha.

Buddhists strongly believe in reincarnation, the doctrine that every soul reappears after death in another bodily form. Still, Buddhist priests have been divided on whether this boy is truly the reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, who was born in southwestern Nepal around 500 B.C. and later became revered as the Buddha, which means Enlightened One.

However, Sanal Edamaruku, President of the Indian Rationalist Association (IRA) doesn't see much of the Buddha in this boy. Sanal has been quoted as follows; "This is a typical case of fraud. The boy must be simply eating and drinking at night. The claim that he was fasting for six months cannot be taken seriously, unless a fraud-proof blood test confirms that there is no glucose in his blood".

Recently, three physicians visited the area on behalf of the IRA and approached the boy's guardians asking for permission to take a blood sample from him. They were denied access to him. The physicians were threatened with dire consequences if they did not leave the area immediately.

The meditation place has been cordoned off, and nobody except Bamjan's supporters are allowed to come closer than 50 meters to him. His supporters claim that the Buddha Boy's meditation is holy and he cannot be disturbed at any cost.

In fact, no outsider has had an opportunity to talk to the boy. Even police officers, who had tried to interrogate all parties in order to find out what is going on, have had to leave without achieving their goal.

So, the legend of the Buddha Boy continues to grow but skeptics abound and enlightenment is slow.

What Collective Intelligence Knows About Us

2008-11-12T03:23:00.000-08:00

The knowledge obtained by our use of the computer network is a powerful tool. Trillions of key clicks from the daily decisions of millions of people in the course of their everyday lives, builds a bank of data that can be analyzed and tracked.

This bank of information is often called collective intelligence. In fact, harnessing this intelligence through analyses of patterns and correlations is enabling more accurate predictions about our preferences and behaviors.

Human decisions involved in using a computer like purchases and keyword searches are the kinds of activities that can be stored and in aggregate analyzed for knowledge. If you are a user of Amazon.com or use Google Zeitgeist you probably already know what this means.

Amazon.com examines patterns of retail behavior using hundreds of variables to recommend future purchases for us to consider. All future purchases are based on buyer behavior involved in previous purchase decisions. Meanwhile, Google Zeitgeist uses collective intelligence to graph search terms used throughout the year to track what topics mattered most to people.

Thomas Malone (Center for Collective Intelligence- MIT) thinks opportunities exist in “prediction markets,” where humans, with the computational help of computers, predict things with greater accuracy than single experts, in many different areas, from electoral politics to medical diagnostics.

Recently, Google announced that it will launch a new tool that will help federal officials "track sickness". Its called "Flu Trends" and it uses search terms that people put into Google. The geographic location of these searches will be used to predict where influenza is heating up, and Google will notify the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in real time.

Engineers will capture keywords and phrases related to the flu, including thermometer, flu symptoms, muscle aches, chest congestion and others. The information will be used to predict flu outbreaks more than one week ahead of time.

So what does collective intelligence now know about us? In the next few months, it can recommend a book that we will surely want to read as we receive our emergency inoculation to avoid that serious flu outbreak predicted to afflict our neighborhood in the next week.

Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive vows: "From a technological perspective, it is the beginning." Indeed, lets just hope that collective intelligence doesn't mean that our own individual privacy will become compromised in the end.

A Veterans Day Reminder From The Drawings Of Auschwitz

2008-11-11T05:15:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, a German Daily newspaper called Bild obtained drawings of the Auschwitz Nazi death camp layout, including gas chambers. The paper placed several images on its website and in its daily publication.

The newspaper said twenty eight yellowing documents, drawn by a concentration camp prisoner and dated 1941-43, were a sensational new historic discovery found in a Berlin apartment that was being cleared out.

In addition, Hans-Dieter Kreilkam, the director of the German Federal Archive, told reporters he thought the material was new and that it provided additional proof of the chronology of the "Final Solution."

However, historian Robert Jan van Pelt, an expert on Auschwitz, said he had checked the "so-called 'new' material" on the Web site of Bild, and found that "the drawings that are on their site are all old material, perfectly known" and published by himself and others in the 1990s.

The importance of these Nazi Death Camp Plans at Auschwitz is not whether its new material or old. It really does not matter if its an original or a copy. The truth is that everyone should understand the horror of what happened in Nazi Germany more than six decades ago.

There is no need for any additional historical verification. No, the real importance of these documents is the knowledge that they exist and a reminder of the horror of fascism and tyranny that our veterans have fought against on the military battlefield throughout the years.

This year's Presidential Veterans Day Proclamation states it best: "From the fields and forests of war-torn Europe to the jungles of Southeast Asia, from the deserts of Iraq to the mountains of Afghanistan, brave patriots have protected our Nation's ideals, rescued millions from tyranny, and helped spread freedom around the globe".

"America's veterans answered the call when asked to protect our Nation from some of the most brutal and ruthless tyrants, terrorists, and militaries the world has ever known. They stood tall in the face of grave danger and enabled our Nation to become the greatest force for freedom in human history. Members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard have answered a high calling to serve and have helped secure America at every turn".

Unfortunately, many members of the military have never return home. In World War 2 an estimated 406000 made the ultimate sacrifice with another 600,000 wounded in battle. An estimated 112000 Americans died in World War 1. 33000 Americans would die in Korea while 58000 never returned home from Vietnam.

Those drawings from Auschwitz are an historical testament to the horror of fascism and tyranny. They act as a vivid reminder of the sacrifice of the brave men and women of the American military. Indeed, it's the reason the country honors its veterans on the eleventh day of November each year.

A World Of Mismanagement And Corruption At The U.N.

2008-11-10T05:46:00.000-08:00

The United Nations internal Task Force investigating procurement will come to an end on December 31, 2008 due to a lack of funding.

In the strange world of the U.N., the elimination of an internal task force is the best evidence of its effectiveness. In fact, in just the last three years, the U.N. Procurement Task Force, has uncovered 630 billion dollars worth of contracts tainted by fraud, corruption or mismanagement.

In addition, the Task Force is still investigating 150 cases of which one third involve fraud and corruption. These cases will never be completed before December 31, 2008, but may represent another billion dollars in suspect contracts.

The Procurement Task Force headed by former U.S. federal prosecutor Robert Appleton and staffed with eighteen legal professionals plan to focus on only eight more cases before the task force ends its investigations by the start of the new year.

Still, it was just two weeks ago, that the Task Force announced that it had uncovered five more cases of fraud and mismanagement. These new cases total 20 million dollars of U.N. contracts according to the unit's annual report to the U.N. General Assembly. These recent cases involve air charter services in the Congo, office supplies in Kenya, consulting jobs in Greece, and payroll services in New York.

Last year, the Procurement Task Force issued a series of reports that highlighted the fact that corruption had spread from United Nations headquarters to its peacekeeping efforts. It identified ten significant instances of fraud and corruption with an aggregate value of 610 million dollars. The task force also cast a spotlight on United Nations officials that were allowed to carry out criminal schemes in one U.N. mission after another.

These Task Force findings confirmed comments made by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker in 2006 about the findings of mismanagement and corruption in the United Nations corrupt oil for food program. Volker said at the time that the United Nations suffered from a "culture of inaction".

Of course, rampant fraud and corruption is nothing new for United Nations peacekeeping missions. In the early 1990's corruption was widespread in Cambodia, Somalia and the Balkans. The Procurement Task Force focused it most recent peacekeeping corruption allegations on Haiti and the Congo.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon reportedly has begun a campaign to lead the U.N. for a second term. It may have been the reason that his communications director recently told reporters that United States President elect Barack Obama "is a U.N. person."

The history of the United Nations shows it to be a dubious world of mismanagement, fraud and corruption. A lack of oversight is where much of the problem begins. If Barack Obama is really a "U.N. person" then he should withhold American dues until more U.N. reform and oversight begins.

Indeed, if Barack Obama wants to deal with the current U.N. he should at least insist on somebody with the proper experience to lead it. There is only one clear choice to run this corrupt bureaucracy. Tony Soprano for Secretary General is the appropriate choice for the U.N. in its current form.

Also Read : No United States Dues For The United Nations on eWorldvu.com

Man-Made Global Warming's Defeat At The Polls

2008-11-06T04:29:00.000-08:00

In June, an Ipsos MORI poll, found that 60 percent of British citizens remained skeptical that humans are contributing to climate change." In addition, a further 40 percent said that "I sometimes think climate change might not be as bad as people say."

According to a recent survey from ABC News, Planet Green and Stanford University, fewer than half (47 percent) of Americans consider global warming an important issue to them personally. The percentage had dropped from 52 percent in April 2007. The survey also showed that only 30 percent of ABC News respondents said they trust what scientists have to say about the environment "completely" or "a lot."

The media is not widely reporting it, but the public's increasing man-made global warming skepticism was in evidence at the polling booth in California on election day. Two green initiatives went down in overwhelming defeat.

Proposition Seven would have required utilities to generate 40 percent of their power from renewable energy by 2020 and 50 percent by 2025. It lost by a huge margin - 65% to 35%.
Proposition Ten would have created $5 billion in general obligation bonds to help consumers and others purchase certain high fuel economy or alternative fuel vehicles, and to fund research into alternative fuel technology. It went down to defeat by a total margin of 60% to 40%.

Martin Durkin, the producer of the documentary: "The Great Global Warming Swindle" has said of the proponents of environmentalism:

"It is transparently obvious that they sit squarely in the tradition of Romanticism. Like the romantics, they hate industry, love nature, idealise peasant life, they think capitalism is wicked, they think people in modern society lead depraved shallow lives and have forgotten the true value of things, they don’t like cars or supermarkets or lots of proles taking cheap long-haul holidays."

Of course, it isn't just romanticism or idealistic lifestyle that drives the climate change agenda. It is also a huge global business with an insatiable appetite for green, as in the color of money. The fact is that more than 50 billion dollars spent on research throughout the last decade has still not produced any evidence that global warming is man-made.

Still, romanticism and big business have nothing to do with evidence and actual science. As the climate cools, the voting public is becoming increasingly skeptical of all the dire global warming claims. This weeks defeat of Proposition 7 and Proposition 10 at the polls in California is only a preview of things to come.

Also Read: Man-Made Global Warming Left Out In The Cold on eworldvu.com.

The End Of The Campaign Of John McCain

2008-11-05T04:37:00.000-08:00

There were many excuses for the Republican Electoral College debacle last night. It was not very close and it had not been for two months.

In fact, all the public opinion polls were very consistent. There was only one day after the conventions when a single poll indicated John McCain was ahead in the 2008 Presidential campaign .

The excuses for the McCain defeat are many. He was outspent by Barack Obama four to one and he had the unpopular Geoge Bush to run away from. As a result, there never was a blue state from the last election in play and his attempt to defend every red state in a Democratic year was not going to win the day.

Certainly, the timing of the current economic mess did not help his cause. In addition, a recent Pew Research study reported negative media coverage of McCain's campaign outpaced his opponent nearly three to one.

So, it can be argued that these obstacles were the reason for his lopsided defeat. There is no doubt they were a contributing factor but the loss in this election is really due to the candidate and his dubious campaign.

Remember that John McCain won his Party's nomination months before Barack Obama did. However, despite a Republican advantage of months of political time, the Obama campaign was better financed, better organized, and had more paid staff in all the battleground states on Election day.

Consider that McCain's response to the economic crisis in September was incoherent. He first said that the fundamentals of the economy were sound. Next, he suspended his campaign for several days to return to Washington because of the economic crisis. He would participate in the first debate after restarting his campaign, without any explanation behind these actions. It made him look erratic and indecisive in the economic crisis.

McCain's advanced age was always an issue for voters. His energy and campaign schedule were very light especially early in the campaign. Meanwhile, the inexperience of Sarah Palin did not provide comfort for voters, since in a McCain Presidency, she would be only a heartbeat away from becoming Commander and Chief.

Overall, the McCain campaign message was muted and subject to change. A campaign of experience would become a campaign of change. Until Joe The Plumber, McCain could not even explain how his tax policy was different from that of the Obama campaign.

Indeed, it was striking how Barack Obama stayed true to his message while John McCain's campaign was unfocused. A thirty year insider and Senator, running as a maverick, on a theme of change, would prove to be to difficult to sell to many 2008 voters.

In his gracious speech last night, John McCain said that the "failure is mine." His lasting legacy will be as a war hero, Senator and as a losing Presidential candidate that in his concession speech did not lie.

An Election Day 2008 Prediction In Rhyme

2008-11-04T03:22:00.000-08:00

Election Day 2008 is finally here.
An end to the campaign of change and hope is now near.
Its also the end of debates, polls, rallys and smear.
Voting today will elect a man who will serve for four years.

It can't end soon enough since I am trying to avoid all those media ads that we constantly hear.
So, who will be the choice when all the votes are counted and the final Electoral College tally appears?
It seems that this is a big Democratic year. Increasing seats in Congress will make the Dems grin from ear to ear.

Raising income taxes never did bring voter fear.
So, high voter turnout will leave republicans in the rear.
We think the choice will make the media cheer, since Barack Obama will be the President Elect next year.
"Mac is back" was a slogan that not enough voters held dear.
It may not be a landslide but the final results will be clear.

For Republican's though all is not lost even though today they will pay a high cost.
The next election may make the Republicans boss.
The fact is that in American politics, winning is often followed by loss.

A Bounty Of Death For Pirates In Somalia

2008-11-03T04:36:00.000-08:00

The M.V. Iran Deyanat was a dead weight tonnage bulk Carrier in a very big hurry. The ship owned by a state run company controlled by the Iranian military set sail from Nanjing, China in late July.

The Iranian vessel had a twenty eight member crew including two Russians,two Pakistanis and a Syrian. Its manifest describes a plan to unload Iron Ore and other products in Rotterdam and proceed to the Gulf of Aden. However, its arrival in the Gulf was unusual because the ship was several days early.

Speed was also a priority as the vessel next moved in a westerly direction toward the Suez Canal. At that point, it was attacked by 40 Somali pirates in high speed boats, all armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades.

The Iran Deyanat was captured by the pirates of Somalia and the ship was taken to Eyl, a fishing village off the northeastern coast . The pirates issued a two million dollar ransom demand for the ship and its crew. It was a ransom demand that would extract a heavy price.

In the days that followed, as the pirates attempted to assess their bounty, things would take a terrible turn. Upon opening one of the ship's seven heavily-secured containers, they found it filled with a "gritty, sand-like" substance. In the next several days, a number of the pirates suffered severe skin burns and loss of hair, and within two weeks sixteen pirates were dead.

Today, the ship remains in Eyl and there is a international bidding war underway to purchase the ship and understand its contents. The ship has been sanctioned and Iran cannot access the vessel while the United States Navy as well as the French are sitting off of the coast to seize the ship if it should get underway.

So, the mystery of the M.V. Iran Deyanat continues. The question is what caused the bounty of death for those pirates in Somalia? As of now, it is impossible for anyone to say. However chemical experts indicate that the pirates symptoms sound inconsistent with chemical poisoning, but may well be the effects of an exposure to radiation.

Meanwhile, Russian sources make an ominious claim. They describe the ship as "an enormous floating dirty bomb, intended to detonate after exiting the Suez Canal. The detonation would have been in close proximity to the coastal cities of Israel, sending a deadly radioactive cloud onshore.

If this explanation turns out to be true, its an act of war by Iran against Israel and the world's first known attempt at a dirty bomb attack. Indeed, a bounty of death for Pirates in Somalia needs to be watched closely, since it may eventually become the biggest international news story of the year.

Election 2008: The Vote For The Most Strange

2008-10-30T05:02:00.000-07:00

In every Presidential election there are some images that we remember. Images that have been captured by the media during the heat of the campaign.

Often, these images make us wonder why any sane person would run for political office. Certainly, these images show an absence of common sense and behavior difficult for most of us to explain.

Indeed, there are many examples of bad taste in the 2008 Presidential election campaign. Still, here is my vote for the top five things that will be remembered for a lack of good judgement and even as down right strange.

1. In July, The New Yorker had a picture of what it called a "satire" of Michelle and Barack Obama on its front cover. The "satire" magazine cover showed the Oval Office with Barack Obama as a tribal African. Michelle Obama was depicted in an afro-hairdo with a machine gun.

A picture of Osama Bin Laden was displayed on the wall and an American flag was on fire. Exactly, what was the editor thinking to allow the magazine to publish this picture?

2. Recently, Al Franken, who is not a credible candidate for the Senate but is running even with his opponent, Norm Coleman, was shown as a cartoon character, sticking out his tongue and wearing a beanie in a recent partisan Republican mailing. What ever happened to winning with new ideas in political election campaigns?

3. A Halloween display of Sarah Palin hung in effigy and John McCain emerging from a chimney in flames. These images courtesy of a West Hollywood couple were disturbing, misguided, and pretty strange. It just shows that in America, one man's hate crime could well be another man's Hollywood design.

4. A McCain campaign worker that pretends to be the victim of an attack by an Obama supporter at an ATM. She cuts a backwards B into her cheek in a vain attempt to give credit to her false claim. She was charged for filing a false police report for her deception and cheeky crime of physical pain.

5. A final example of the strange in Election 2008 comes from a quartet of young women in Brooklyn. They are pictured in a poster under the heading "Girls Say Yes to boys who say Obama".

Indeed, it's a poster that exists as an acknowledgement of the "dumbing down" of American society. Certainly, a poster that said "Girls say yes we can, to boys who say Obama" would have been far more appropriate in this strange election year.

The End Of The Phoenix Mission Is Near

2008-10-29T06:25:00.000-07:00

It's common in late October for the temperature at Phoenix's arctic landing site to drop to well over -100 degrees Farenheit . The Phoenix lander is equipped with heaters to withstand the extreme cold, but there is now a bigger concern.

Winter on the far northern part of the Martian planet is coming, and days on the Arctic plains are shortening. As a result, the solar panels on Phoenix will soon not generate enough power.

Recognizing the inevitable, NASA has just announced that Phoenix's days to see and explore Mars are numbered.

However, NASA originally scheduled research on Mars for ninety days. Indeed, the extended length of this Phoenix Mission should promote its success. In November,the Lander will have analyzed the planets surface and atmosphere for more than five months.

So, what did the Phoenix find in the last five months on the martian surface? The test results of the samples will be analyzed for some time, but here are some initial observations from NASA:

The lander found evidence that the chemical makeup of the dust on the surface of Mars resembles that of sea water, adding to evidence that liquid water that once may have supported life flowed on the planet's surface.

Phoenix experiments also yielded clues pointing to calcium carbonate, the main composition of chalk, and particles that could be clay. Most carbonates and clays on Earth form only in the presence of liquid water.

The Phoenix lander detected snow falling from Martian clouds. A laser instrument designed to gather knowledge of how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars has detected snow from clouds about 2.5 miles above the spacecraft's landing site. Data also shows the snow vaporizing before reaching the ground.

Recently, Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona was quoted as follows: "Mars is giving us some surprises. We're excited because surprises are where discoveries come from.

Smith continued: "One surprise is how the soil is behaving. The ice-rich layers stick to the scoop when poised in the sun above the deck, different from what we expected from all the Mars simulation testing we've done. That has presented challenges for delivering samples, but we're finding ways to work with it and we're gathering lots of information to help us understand this soil."

Over the next several weeks, four survival heaters will be shut down, one at a time, in an effort to conserve power. The heaters serve the purpose of keeping the electronics within tested survivable limits.

As each heater is disabled, some of the instruments are also expected to cease operations. The energy saved is intended to power the lander's main camera and meteorological instruments until the very end. "At that point, Phoenix will be at the mercy of Mars," said Chris Lewicki of JPL, lead mission manger.

For background on the Phoenix Mission, read: The Phoenix Mission Replaces Hollywood In Martian Exploration on eWorldvu.com.

The Final Days Of The Election Of 2008

2008-10-28T04:58:00.000-07:00

There are just six days to go in the 2008 Presidential Election. At this late stage in the race, there are several things that have become quite clear. Barack Obama has run a better campaign than John McCain.

He has had the discipline to stay on message and performs very well in front of a teleprompter. Obama's campaign is better organized and the candidate has looked very "Presidential" in all of the debates.

In general, McCain has suffered from the timing of the financial crisis and the unpopularity of the current Administration. The truth is that McCain has more than a 20% higher approval rating than George W. Bush. The fact that this is still a fairly close election in a Democratic year seems hard to believe, but that is what the pollsters say.

However, there has not been one public opinion tracking poll since early September that has indicated that Barack Obama has trailed in this election. Current polls in the major battleground states show Obama tied or slightly in the lead. In western states that usually vote Republican like New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado, Obama looks like he is well ahead and will probably win.

There is little doubt that if the election were held today, Barack Obama would become the next President of the United States in 2009. He will win next week if nothing changes between now and then. However, there is still one week to go in election 2008 and the last week of any Presidential Election can be the most volatile.

Remember in 2000, George Bush had his college record of DUI appear in the major media markets across the country. This revelation evaporated his four point lead in the polls over the last few days before the election and led to a surge by Al Gore that almost cost Bush the Presidency.

What can happen in the final days to change the outcome in election 2008? It probably would be an external event to the campaign. A foreign policy crisis or a national security event. A new revelation about Barack Obama, his background, his ideas or even dubious comments from his wife. There are certainly many different rumors in the blogosphere of damaging tapes containing information that will soon be released that could alter this race.

Indeed, we have entered the final days of the Election of 2008. So, bring a healthy dose of skepticism, and hold on tight because it may be a wild ride. In politics, it even has a name, its often called the October surprise.

Israel's Choice Is War Or A Nuclear Iran

2008-10-27T05:25:00.000-07:00

Israeli Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni just announced that she cannot form a coalition government and new general elections will soon be held in the State of Israel. Many current public opinion polls indicate that in the general election, former Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu will be elected Prime Minister of Israel in early 2009.

The fact is that these new Israeli elections are likely to end the current peace process with the Palestinians, restarted with U.S. backing at Annapolis, Md., nearly one year ago.

Meanwhile, Iran continues to build a strategic relationship with Russia through a new energy alliance. Both countries should soon announce the formation of a natural gas cartel. In addition, Iran continues to enrich uranium, well along its path to becoming the only nuclear power in the Middle East.

It has become obvious that the hope of any additional strong United Nations Sanctions against Iran for its illegal nuclear enrichment program are now non-existent. Previous United Nations Sanctions have proven too weak and have not worked anyway.

In the United States, the deteriorating economy and the 2008 Presidential election dominates the national news. The dubious prospect of a nuclear Iran has dropped well down the list of problems that need immediate national attention.

For Israel, after the general election, the decision that they face is unfortunately clear. Their choice between war or the threat of a nuclear Iran is the direct result of another failure of international diplomacy and the United Nations.

It all adds up to an unresolved international problem destined to escalate into a major world wide event. Indeed, a major foreign policy crisis is on the horizon, soon after the start of the new year.

Cars In The Future Will Think And Change Shape

2008-10-23T04:25:00.000-07:00

Over one million people worldwide die in motor vehicle accidents every year. Studies have found that more than 90% of all motor vehicle accidents involve some degree of human error.

So, we should all just face the hard cold facts. Many of us just can't drive safely. Often, some of us let our emotions overcome reason.

Stress, road rage, speeding, alcohol, cell phones, screaming children, and a lack of proper driving directions, all distract our attention, reduce our driving performance and as a result increase our potential accident risk.

Since in this fast paced world we elect not to change our behavior, the automotive industry is going to provide a car in the future designed to give us instant safety protection, and provide operator help.

Consider that a car that protects its passengers by strengthening the inside of its frame in the instant before a collision has recently been crash-tested by European engineers. The system uses radar and cameras to anticipate an impact on the side of a car just a fraction of a second before impact actually occurs.

In that instant before impact, a metal bar slides into place to create a temporary brace that makes the cars inside frame significantly stronger. The bar bridges a gap between the front door and another bar running across the car and anchored on the chassis. So, the internal shape of the car instantly changes to protect occupants from the collisions impact.

The fact is that automobile prediction systems have become possible due to improvements in sensors and computing. Indeed, many car manufacturers are already testing and designing head lights that work automatically based on driving visibility, and brakes that act on their own to begin to slow a car based on upcoming traffic.

Eventually, the car of the future will warn us about the imminent danger of an oncoming vehicle or a potential collision while backing a car up. It could provide a calm reassuring voice during a difficult commute. It could even warn us of an upcoming change in the contour of the road and alert us that the speed limit is being exceeded.

Of course, the car of the future may provide other things for us to ponder as well. Consider, some of the research funded by the automobile industry being done by Car Lab at Stanford University as well as research at software giant, Microsoft, Corporation.

Both are involved in research focused on vehicle accumulation of information on driver behavior. In the future, our car will keep a record of where we drive, how fast we go, where we stop to eat and shop and many other aspects of our consumer and driving preferences.

So, the car of the future could be designed to tell our insurance company how often we were speeding, how we drive in traffic, and how many times we park illegally. The amount of our future insurance premiums may well rely on our car's report on our own driving behavior.

In addition, consider that as we pass Walmart, our car's dashboard voice may tell us all the items that the store has on sale today. It may even tell us about the deal we can get on a Latte at a nearby Starbucks or to consider going left at the next intersection for breakfast at Dennys.

The car of the future will be much safer, but from a privacy standpoint, we may need to consider taking a cab.

The Controversial Paper Of Livingston And Penn

2008-10-22T04:33:00.000-07:00

I thought that I would check on the activity of the sun today. After all, in March, many prominent scientists were worried that Solar Cycle 24 would be so active by now that our entire communications system would be disrupted.

That 2008 consensus scientific prediction certainly has proven to be well off the mark and dramatically incorrect.

As can be see in the picture above, once again today, there are no sunspots, and the face of the sun is blank. In fact, a blank sun is the same picture that has been seen by astronomers for over 200 days during this year already. The number of days without a sunspot now makes 2008, the fifth blankest year in the last century and there is still plenty of time left in the year to move toward a record and be on top.

So, what does this lack of sunspot activity on the sun really mean? The answer is still unknown but there is one thing that we do now know. We know that there was only one scientific paper that predicted this current trend in sunspot activity before it all began. However, it was denied publication nearly three years ago.

The paper was released during an active sun in 2005. It was laughed at in the scientific community, never published, rejected by scientific journals, and eventually dismissed as being too controversial.

This controversial paper was based on the research of a pair of astronomers from the National Solar Observatory (NSO) at Kitt Peak in Tucson, Arizona, William Livingston and Matthew Penn.

The researchers looked at minute spectroscopic and magnetic changes in the sun by analyzing data from sunspot observations over a 15-year period from 1990 to 2005. In total, over 1000 sunspots were measured, noting their umbral brightness, temperature and magnetic field strength.

Livingston and Penn discovered that the sunspot umbral magnetic field was decreasing rapidly from nearly 3000 Gauss in the late 1990’s to nearly 2000 Gauss in 2005. Projecting the current trend to continue until 2015, the umbral magnetic field strength would hit 1500 Gauss. At that point, the sunspot structure would not be maintained since no umbral darkening could be observed.

So, if the umbral magnetic field continued to decrease, the Sun would continue to become less active over time until the 11-year solar cycle would effectively be “put on hold” in the year 2015. It would remain on hold until the unknown mechanism driving the process decided to start up again. The result is that in 2015 there would be no visable sunspots.

The conclusion of their research was certainly startling and it is also the title of their work: “Sunspots may vanish by 2015". It should be noted that their paper only considers data from 15 years worth of sunspots, that’s only just a little more than one cycle. Data over several sunspot cycles could certainly be seen as more conclusive.

However, what if they are proven correct and we are about to enter a sunspot minimum with the regular eleven year sunspot cycle on hold in just a few years time? It has happened before in the Maunder and Dalton Minimums, and if sunspot history is a guide, much colder times for this planet would be ahead.

One thing seems certain. If the current lack of sunspot activity becomes a continuing trend, nobody will be laughing at the scientific research in the controversial paper of Livingston and Penn.

Click Here to Read The Paper of Livingston and Penn

Joe Biden Moments Are Hard To Understand

2008-10-21T04:10:00.000-07:00

Joe Biden moments continue to appear with regularity in the Democratic Presidential Election campaign of 2008.

Last week, Joe could be seen shouting into a microphone that the major issue in this campaign year is a three letter word and then he proceeds to spell out for the audience the four letters in the word Jobs.

Its a pretty funny moment if you have not already seen the video, but its just another in a series of Biden gaffes in this campaign. Surely, its not any wonder why Barack Obama has recently tried to keep this guy away from a microphone.

The truth is that Joe Biden has been isolated from the traveling press, taken off of the campaign trail for a week and has not held a press conference in over a month. Nevertheless, Joe Biden moments just keep on coming.

Indeed, its very difficult to explain how an intelligent career politician of more than three decades can make so many verbal and political mistakes. In fact, here is the latest strange Joe Biden quote at a fundraiser on the campaign trail.

"Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

Biden continued: "I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate," mentioning the Middle East and Russia as possibilities. But he's gonna need your help. Because I promise you, you all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, 'Oh my God, why are they there in the polls? Why is the polling so down? Why is this thing so tough?' We're gonna have to make some incredibly tough decisions in the first two years. So I'm asking you now, I'm asking you now, be prepared to stick with us. "

So, two weeks before election day and Joe Biden is turning the voters attention to Barack Obama's inexperience in handling foreign policy? In addition, he is telling the American voter that there will surely be a foreign policy crisis early next year and that a Democratic administration's handling of that crisis will be unpopular.

It seems that the logical conclusion of this speech to a voter trying to avoid Biden's bleak foreign policy outlook would be to vote for the experience of John McCain over the inexperience of Barack Obama. Biden must have realized that his speech would make news in the press.

Biden's foreign policy assessment may well be true but why bring it up now, only two weeks before election day, with the Democrats significantly ahead in every major public opinion poll? The discussion acts to create foreign policy uncertainty which doesn't politically help Barack Obama but could assist the failing campaign of John McCain.

Consider that all the Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates were given high level foreign policy briefings last week. This briefing may have led to Bidens recent foreign policy comments. Comments which politically represent yet another Joe Biden moment in Election 2008.

If the polls are right and do not change, in two weeks, Joe Biden will only be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. The next four years of Joe Biden moments would surely be entertaining but they could also become a full time job (three letters) for this country to understand.

Other articles on Joe Biden on the eWorldvublog:

Joe Biden Moments May Get John McCain Elected

Joe Biden's Moment Of Truth Will Not Help Obama

Increasing Arctic Ice Is What We Don't Hear

2008-10-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

Last summer a headline from the Christian Science Monitor read: "Arctic Sea Ice Melting Faster Than Expected". The first line of the article sounded the environmental alarm.

It said: "Arctic Ocean sea ice, one of the most visible indicators for global warming, may be headed for another recordbreaking summer decline." There were similar articles concerning a connection between global warming and melting Arctic sea ice in many other magazines and newspapers at the time.

However, when conditions in the Arctic change, there is no longer any apparent media interest in reporting about Arctic sea ice. So, everyone concerned with global climate change should ask this question; If Arctic Sea ice really is "one of the the most visable indicators for global warming", why is the mainstream media not reporting what is happening in the Arctic Sea today?

The fact is that after last summer's Arctic ice melt fell short of the 2007 record extent, Arctic sea ice has been increasing at the fastest rate seen in years. As of last Friday, it was running ahead of the same day in October of last year by 31.3%. (See: annual comparison in purple shade in picture above - 10/17/2007 5,663,125 square kilometers, 10/17/2008 7,436,406 square kilometers ).

The truth is that despite all the recent media hype, melting Arctic Sea Ice probably has nothing to do with man-made global warming. (See: Melting Arctic Sea Ice And Global Warming Hype) on eWorldvu.com .

In fact, there are several other possible explanations for the recent record melt in Arctic sea ice that have little to with global warming.

A scientist at the University of Fairbanks, Alaska, (Igor Polyakov) points out that pulses of unusually warm water have been entering the Arctic Ocean from the Atlantic, which several years later are seen in the ocean north of Siberia. These pulses of water are helping to heat the upper Arctic Ocean, contributing to summer ice melt and helping to reduce winter ice growth.

Another scientist, Koji Shimada of the Japan Agency for Marine Earth Science and Technology, reports evidence of changes in ocean circulation in the Pacific side of the Arctic Ocean.

"Through a complex interaction with declining sea ice, warm water entering the Arctic Ocean through Bering Strait in summer is being shunted from the Alaskan coast into the Arctic Ocean, where it fosters further ice loss. Many questions still remain to be answered, but these changes in ocean circulation may be important keys for understanding the observed loss of Arctic sea ice.”

The media reports that the recent record Arctic ice melt is connected with global warming as fact, when it certainly is not. After all the environmental hype concerning record melting Arctic sea ice last summer, there is a notable lack of reporting on the dramatic annual increase (31%) in the extent of Arctic Ice in evidence in the past week.

Indeed, after a summer of Arctic ice melt from global warming media hype, the rapid increase in Arctic Ice this year is a media story that we just don't hear.

Joe The Plumber Saves The Day For John McCain

2008-10-16T04:21:00.000-07:00

The third and final Presidential debate was held last evening at Hofstra University. It was certainly the best performance by John McCain of the three debates.

In this debate, the candidates finally discussed Barack Obama's plan to raise income taxes on 5% of americans during a recession. During the debate, McCain forced a discussion of Obama's recent response to a regular guy on the campaign trail by the name of Joe the Plumber.

Joe the Plumber was concerned about Obama's income tax policy and Obama responded that he was going to "spread the wealth around". Wealth redistribution, class warfare and the dubious effect of raising taxes during a recession are winning issues for the Republicans.

However, until Joe the Plumber's question about raising taxes and Obama's wealth redistribution response, it was hard to distinguish any real policy difference between the two candidates on the issue of income taxes.

So, Joe the Plumber was able to do with one question what the incoherent campaign of Republican John McCain has heretofore failed to do. Focus a debate on the wisdom of raising income taxes during a recession.

In general, John McCain was on the offensive all night but Barack Obama was smooth as usual on defense. The truth is that based on style points there is really no contest between these two candidates. Barack Obama will win on style every time.

However, in what may well be the final public debate of his political career, McCain began to highlight a pattern in Obama's background that suggest policy positions that are far to the left of the centrist, middle class Democratic candidate that Obama portrays himself to be today.

Recent public opinion polls suggest a Democratic sweep in election 2008. Indeed, this Presidential race may already be over. However, there are still nearly three weeks until election day and three weeks is a very long time in Presidential politics.

The fact is that Joe the Plumber has saved the day for John McCain. In three weeks, we will see if an income tax question from a concerned plumber was the turning point for McCain's Presidential campaign. A campaign which currently appears to be on life support and close to the political abyss.

The United Nations Global Anti-Poverty Goals

2008-10-15T03:31:00.000-07:00

We are at the halfway mark of the United Nations anti-poverty program called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These eight goals developed by the international community through the United Nations were intially scheduled to be achieved by the year 2015.

The goals were drawn from the actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 189 nations-and signed by 147 heads of state and governments during the U.N. Millennium Summit in September 2000. The basic premise of the Goals, was to slash poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy by the year 2015.

The reason for this ambitious global United Nations initiative is due to the fact that the statistics on worldwide poverty are sobering. Consider that:

Each year more than 8 million people around the world die because of poverty.
1 billion people (1 in 6 people around the world) live in extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1 a day.
More than 800 million go hungry each day.
Over 100 million primary school-age children cannot go to school
Almost half the world (over three billion people) live on less than $2.50 a day
At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day
According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names
Water problems affect half of humanity: Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.

So, how is the world doing in its objective to end global poverty, at the half way mark of the program? The progress so far is decidedly mixed.

In the latest United Nations Ministerial Review, the overall picture showed uneven progress across and within countries. The strategy for achieving the development agenda was working, but not nearly on the scale required.

Indeed, there were positive results. Some countries were demonstrating progress toward the Millennium Goals when strong Government leadership, good policies and healthy institutions were combined with adequate financial and technical support from the international community.

However, this result is not very surprising to anyone that has looked at the long term history of poverty and foreign aid. In fact, studies by Peter Boone of the London School of Economics and the Center of Economic Performance in 1994 reviewed the experience of one hundred nations. Those studies concluded that "Long term aid is not a means to create growth." He found no evidence "that aid transfers will allow countries to escape from a poverty trap."

History shows that sound domestic policies and good government not just foreign aid are what generate economic growth and eliminate poverty. This is how Europe escaped poverty, with markets that were allowed to operate freely, a protection of private property and with a rule of law that permitted economic competition. The truth is that it is not realistic to eliminate poverty in a country without sound government leadership. Research shows that money alone does not solve the problem.

The world is currently experiencing an economic downturn and future international assistance to eliminate global poverty may be much more difficult to obtain.

So, in the final seven years of its program, the United Nations should increase assistance to the nations that are serious about its anti-poverty goals, at the expense of those nations that are not. Reward the government that seeks a better way for its people. Money will only be wasted on those governments that do not.

http://blogactionday.org/js/df6ef541b3e8e6f8e8bc6255421be3d53f472d92

Taxpayers Dollars Are The Nuts That Fund Acorn

2008-10-14T04:46:00.000-07:00

According to a 2006 report from the Employment Policies Institute (EPI), Acorn has been subsidized by the United States taxpayer since 1977.

Consider that Acorn's American Institute for Social Justice claimed $240,000 in tax money between fiscal years 2002 and 2003. In addition, its American Environmental Justice Project received all of its revenue from government grants in those same years. In fact, EPI estimates the Acorn Housing Corporation alone received some $16 million in federal dollars from 1997-2007.

Also, we should remember that just last month, House Democrats tried and failed to stuff an "affordable housing" provision into the $700 billion bank rescue package that would have let politicians give even more taxpayer dollars to Acorn.

So, here is how Acorn puts taxpayer dollars to work as reported by various news outlets across this nation:

The Michigan Secretary of State told the press in September that Acorn had submitted "a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications."

Earlier this month, Nevada's Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller requested a raid on Acorn's offices, following complaints of false names and fictional addresses (including the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys). Nevada's Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said he saw rampant fraud in 2,000 to 3,000 applications Acorn submitted weekly.

Meanwhile, officials in Ohio are still investigating voter fraud connected with Acorn, and Florida's Seminole County is withholding Acorn registrations that also appear fraudulent.

New Mexico, North Carolina and Missouri are looking into hundreds of dubious Acorn registrations. Wisconsin is investigating Acorn employees for, according to an election official, "making people up or registering people that were still in prison."

Then there's Lake County, Indiana, which has already found more than 2,100 bogus applications among the 5,000 Acorn dumped right before the deadline. "All the signatures looked exactly the same," said Ruthann Hoagland, of the county election board.

Bridgeport, Connecticut estimates about 20% of Acorn's registrations were faulty. As of July, the city of Houston had rejected or put on hold about 40% of the 27,000 registration cards submitted by Acorn.

There is an Acorn voter registration form for Mickey Mouse in Florida and reports of teenagers bribed by Acorn with "smokes and dollar bills" to fill out fraudulent voter registration cards several dozen times.

Sadly, for Acorn, this record of voter registration fraud is nothing new. In 2004, four Acorn employees were indicted in Ohio for submitting false voter registrations. In 2005, two Colorado Acorn workers were found to have submitted false registrations. Four Acorn Missouri employees were indicted in 2006; five were found guilty in Washington state in 2007 for filling out registration forms with names from a phone book.

A politician that votes to give taxpayer dollars to organizations with a history of voter fraud needs to be held accountible by the voter for a lack of sound judgement. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and now Acorn are just the latest examples of the lack of oversight and regulation in the handling of taxpayer money in Washington D.C. .

Taxpayer dollars are the nuts that fund Acorn. Based on the problems of voter fraud in this Presidential election and the dubious history of that organization, a positive return on taxpayer money is pretty difficult to see.

The Year Of The Man-Made Global Warming Skeptic

2008-10-09T05:54:00.000-07:00

In 2008, scientists from all over the world are jumping off the man-made global warming bandwagon. This is due to the fact that environmental study after study concludes that the behavior of man is not the cause of significant global warming.

In a recently released Geological Society of America abstract, Dr. Don Easterbrook, Professor of Geology at Western Washington University, presented data showing that the global warming cycle from 1977 to 1998 is now over and that we have entered into a new global cooling period that should last for the next three decades.

He also suggests that since the IPCC climate models are now so far off from what is actually happening that their projections for both this decade and century must be considered highly unreliable.

Meanwhile, David Douglass and John Christy, in a paper just accepted for publication and now available on the internet, have come to the conclusion that natural changes in global water temperature are responsible for an increase in global temperature. Here is their scientific conclusion:

"El Nino and La Nina effects in the tropics have a more significant affect on global temperature anomalies than carbon dioxide, in particular it was an El Nino event that drove the 1998 global temperature maximum".

At NASA, Dr. Roy Spencer, believes natural cycles account for most of last century’s warming, with carbon dioxide increases contributing only a modest amount.

His new research, which was submitted to Geophysical Research Letters for publication, shows that climate models overstate the positive feedback from an increase in carbon dioxide, and therefore grossly overstate the projected warming during the next century

In addition, two new studies (article in Science Magazine) point to wind-induced circulation changes in the ocean as the dominant cause of the recent ice losses through the glaciers draining both the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, not ‘global warming.’

In June, Dr. David Evans, an architect of Australia’s Kyoto compliance, and for years a noted climate change alarmist, became the latest man-made global warming doubter. Evans outlines the four main reasons why 2008 has become the year of the global warming skeptic and why he recently jumped off of the global warming bandwagon.

1.The missing “greenhouse signature”, which would be a hot zone about 10 km up in the atmosphere. It’s been sought for years - hundreds of measurements using radiosondes (a sort of temperature measuring weather balloon). It would constitute the smoking gun . Hundreds of tests have returned the same answer - it’s not there. It is statistically impossible that the hundreds of tests missed the spot. The existing models on greenhouse warming do not work without this hot zone.
2. “There is no evidence to support the idea that carbon emissions cause significant global warming” says Evans. “None". There is plenty of evidence that global warming has occurred, and theory suggests that carbon emissions should raise temperatures (though by how much is hotly disputed) but there are no observations” constituting evidence that carbon emissions are a significant driver in warming trends.
3. Satellites measuring the world’s temperature uniformly show that the warming trend stopped in 2001 and that in the past year the temperature actually returned to 1980 levels. Satellite measurements are the only truly reliable method for capturing the data as land-based measurements are vulnerable to encroachments of expanding cities and “urban heat island effect.”
4.“The new ice cores show that in the past six global warmings over the past half a million years, the temperature rises occurred on average 800 years before the accompanying rise in atmospheric carbon. Which says something important about which was cause and which was effect.”

As global temperatures continue to cool and research against man-made global warming continues to pile up, as scientists abandon the man-made global warming bandwagon one thing is becoming increasingly clear. The cause of global climate change should be based on facts and evidence and not just our fear.

(See: Melting Arctic Sea Ice And Global Warming Hype on eworldvu.com)

This Debate Was A Long Campaign Commercial

2008-10-07T19:42:00.001-07:00

If you missed the second Presidential debate last night, you saved ninety minutes of your life. The truth is that this wasn't a Presidential debate, it was a boring replay of the same tired debate questions answered in the same fashion by each of these two Presidential candidates for months.

Tom Brokaw was the debate moderator and was too concerned over the rules. The selected questions were standard and plain. The format was suppose to be a town hall meeting but it felt like a long, campaign commercial.

The only thing that was original was that John McCain proposed a new government plan to buy back every bad mortgage and renegotiate the terms of those loans. McCain's new mortgage plan apparently would add another 300 billion dollars to the 700 billion dollar bailout package that the Congress passed last week. His plan lacked detail in the debate and was not well explained.

For McCain, this mortgage plan looked like another "Hail Mary" in his effort to stay competitive in this election. The fact is that for the last two weeks, McCain has been steadily dropping in all the public opinion polls. Most polls now show him trailing by a total of between five and nine percentage points with a month to go in this presidential election.

It is hard to see how the outcome of this debate changes anything in Election 2008. Once again, Barack Obama did not make a major mistake and looked polished, articulate and Presidential. As a Republican candidate with the chain of the unpopular George Bush (27% approval rating) wrapped tightly around his neck, John McCain was swimming against a strong Democratic tide to begin with.

However, its now apparent that McCain may well lose this election on the mistakes he has made in response to the current mortgage crisis in the economy.

Consider that he suspended his campaign for three days to return to Washington D.C. to help with the bailout bill. Then, he resumes his campaign in time for the first Presidential debate but does not explain why he suspended his campaign in the first place. (see: McCain Does Not Explain His Suspended Campaign on eworldvu.com). Four days later the bailout bill that he suspended his campaign for goes down in defeat. It was to be loaded with pork in the Senate and passed last Thursday.

So, less than one week after that unpopular 700 billion dollar bailout bill passed Congress, John McCain has another plan and now wants to add an additional 300 billion dollars to the bill that has just passed. He announces his new plan in the middle of a debate without any real explanation or detail. Barack Obama has accused McCain of being erratic and chaotic in this economic crisis, its sure getting pretty hard to argue with that.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama's rhetoric on his government spending plan continues to be totally unrealistic. Last night, he stated that in his Administration the government would realize a "net spending cut". This "net spending cut" is completely ridiculous since he is proposing new spending on a national health insurance program, a plan to fix social security and tax cuts for 95% of Americans. Of course, this is all in addition to that 700 billion dollar mortgage bailout bill passed last week by the United States Congress.

The second Presidential debate was a long, boring campaign commercial by both of the Presidential candidates. The problem is that it did nothing to alleviate America's growing concern about its troubled economy, and the question of which candidate is the right man to handle this difficult job.

The truth is that a real debate could provide the answer, but long, boring campaign commercials never do.

Paris Fashion Week: Declining Hemlines And Strange Designs

2008-10-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

Let me just say that I don't really know anything about designer clothing. In fact, I am certainly the type of person that prefers fabric comfort over making any type of designer fashion statement.

However, I know that there are people who view the most contemporary fashion design as if it were an art form. So, when it comes to taste in apparel, fashion is clearly in the eye of the beholder.

Fashion Week in Paris ended last Sunday and I decided to use the Internet to look at some of the latest fashion show clothing designs. I was driven to this strange state after recieving my latest 401k account statement that showed the negative impact the recent global stock market carnage had made to my investment holdings.

Consider that I was looking for a future stock market rally by researching a leading economic indicator, the length of designer hemlines. It is thought that when the economy is good, hemlines decline and clothing is short. However, when the economy is bad, hemlines increase and clothing is lengthened.

What was the result of my research about hemlines at Paris fashion week for the Spring design? Here is a quote from Alexandra Shulman, the editor in chief of British Vogue from the Associated Press: "I don't think it's been as exciting as other seasons. On the whole, most of the designers here have kind of stuck to what they know they can do, and not really tried anything that's going to scare the horses. We've seen a lot of very short clothes, which goes against the old idea that when the economy is bad, hemlines go down."

There you have it. Hemlines are not going down. So the economy should improve by next spring. It could well be a sign that its time to buy equities. After the recent market carnage led by the decline of the Investment Banks, could clothing fashion designers perform any worse than current stock brokers?

Probably not, but its still very hard for me to understand who would actually consider wearing some of those strange fashion designs.

A United Nations Resolution To Deny Free Speech

2008-10-06T04:22:00.000-07:00

For the third straight year, it is about to be put to a vote of the United Nations General Assembly. This non-binding Resolution on “Combating the Defamation of Religion” is an annual reminder of how distant the U.N. has become from the goals and principals outlined in its original charter.

This religious blasphemy resolution is intended to curtail speech that offends religion, especially Islam. The non-binding Resolution 62/145, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in both 2007 and 2008, says it “notes with deep concern the intensification of the campaign of defamation of religions and the ethnic and religious profiling of Muslim minorities in the aftermath of 11 September 2001.”

The Resolution (sponsored by the Organization Of The Islamic Conference - OIC)“stresses the need to effectively combat defamation of all religions and incitement to religious hatred, against Islam and Muslims in particular.”

Of course, “Defamation of religions” United Nation Resolutions act as a diplomatic cover to empower governments to decide which statements about religion are permissible in public. Its a compromise of basic free speech in the name of religion. The end result is more global religious tension and intolerance, certainly not less.

In fact, religious intolerance has become commonplace during the last several years in the United Nations. Consider that the U.N. has passed over 400 resolutions targeting tiny democratic Israel, without equal condemnation of its autocratic neighbors or commensurate concern for China's annexation of Tibet or Russia's absorption of the disputed Sakhalin Islands. Also, the United Nations is open for business on Jewish religious holidays but it is closed in observance of Ramadan.

In July, The U.S. government mission in Geneva, told the U.N. Human Rights Council that “defamation-related laws have been abused by governments and used to restrict human rights around the world, and sometimes Westerners have been caught in the web."

Several recent news events provide disturbing examples of how the U.N. "blasphemy resolution" has emboldened Islamic authorities and threatened Westerners. A few of these examples are summarized as follows:

-In December 2007 “a court reportedly sentenced two foreigners to six months in prison for allegedly marketing a book deemed offensive to Aisha, one of the Prophet Muhammad's wives,” the U.S. government said.

- A British teacher was sentenced to 15 days in jail in Sudan for offending Islam by allowing students to name the class teddy bear Muhammad in November 2007.
- In February 2007 in Egypt an Internet blogger was sentenced to four years in prison for writing a post that critiqued Islam.
- In 2004, Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was murdered after the release of his documentary highlighting the abuse of Muslim women.

Currently, there are three bills before Congress that would prohibit U.S. courts from enforcing international defamation decisions that do not comply with the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

So, does it really make much sense for America to pay the U.N. about five billion dollars in annual dues only to have to pass laws to protect itself from the ramifications of intolerant religious U.N. Resolutions?

There is a real need for a radical reform of the United Nations. It seems like an obvious initial reform would be to insist upon a democratic constitution as a prerequisite for a nation to qualify for its U.N. membership. If a country does not have one, it need not apply.

Indeed, to be a relevant international organization, the United Nations needs to return to the goals of its original charter. Sadly, the current United Nations Resolution to deny free speech in the name of religion, is about as far removed from that charter as you can get.

For more on the United Nations see: Zimbabwe And The Need For United Nations Reform on eworldvu.com

Bailout Now Includes Rum, Racetracks And Wooden Arrows

2008-10-03T03:06:00.000-07:00

Seven Hundred Billion Taxpayer Dollars to bail out Wall Street was not enough. The Senate wanted to handout even more of our money. In a bill that passed the Senate yesterday, the total Wall Street bailout price tag has just gone up by another 112 billion dollars.

We are told that the passage of this bailout bill is urgently needed to unfreeze the credit markets and save America from the financial abyss. Apparently that reasoning is not enough to get the taxpayer bailout bill passed in the United States Congress. So, bring on the "sweeteners".

A bill that was once three pages now resembles the size of a large phone book. It includes the following tax breaks and earmarks:

-Manufacturers of kids' wooden arrows - $6 million.
- Puerto Rican and Virgin Islands rum producers - $192 million
- Wool research- $148 million
- Nation wide improvement in Auto-racing tracks - $128 million.
- Corporations operating in American Samoa - $33 million.
- Small-to medium-budget film and television productions - $10 million.
- A $223 million package of tax benefits for fishermen and others whose livelihoods suffered as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill

Some of the other measures include a $3.8 billion health-care provision that forces insurance companies to provide coverage for mental-health treatment equivalent to the coverage they provide for physical illness.

Other provisions in the plan will increase individual tax credits, help shield more than 20 million Americans from the painful alternative minimum tax, and offer breaks for businesses that invest in alternative fuels. Also, several federal income-tax breaks due to expire will now be extended through 2009.

So, when the next President supports a plan to raise taxes, every American citizen should remember this Financial Services Bailout bill. That future tax increase will be our hangover from Wall Street's wild, unregulated party and a Congressional inability to balance a budget.

So, as taxpayers, we should take comfort in the fact that we have now improved auto racing nationwide. We should be aware that money spent on wool research may be crucial to our future.

Certainly, our children will always need those government subsidized wooden toy arrows. In addition, it's great to now be able to make movies with the governments help, especially in American Somoa. The reality of all this makes it very difficult to see who among us could live without Puerto Rico's rum, especially with the imminent passage of this huge, pork laden taxpayer bailout bill.

The Senate Bill moves on to the House Of Representatives, for final passage today. Look for more "sweeteners" to be added to the bailout bill in the House. Of course, this is all business as usual in the United States Congress. Spend huge sums of money on things we don't need with money we don't have.

Maybe Democratic Senator Bill Nelson said it best: "They've added on $150 billion dollars of more spending, that's not paid for. It will have to be borrowed from the government of China."

There are two words in our vocabulary that can solve the problems in Washington, D.C.. They are the words that the Washington political insider fears the most. The only real solution to clean up this mess in Congress is to eliminate the career politician through the use of "Term Limits".

The Year Of The Missing Sunspot

2008-10-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

The number of days that have not had a sunspot this year now exceeds 200. To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go back to 1954, when the sun was blank 241 times.

So, Astronomers who count sunspots have announced that 2008 is now the "blankest year" of the Space Age.

In fact, if the current trend continues, 2008 could total 290 spotless days by the end of December, making it nearly a century since we have seen such a lack of activity fom our sun.

In addition, the quiet sun coincides with the dimmest sun scientists have ever recorded, and a low in solar wind pressure. Sunspots are the result of the Sun’s magnetic field tearing ‘holes’ into its surface. Meteorologists use the arrival and disappearance of sunspots to gauge how active solar cycles will be.

What does the current lack of activity on the sun mean? It could mean that scientists can test their various theories concerning the relationship between the sun and global climate change. It also may mean that much colder times for the planet are just ahead.

The fact is that during the last 1000 years, a weak or non existent sunspot cycle can be linked directly to three global temperature events called the Dalton, Maunder, and Spörer Minimums. Each of these events led to a rapid cooling of the planet. One was large enough to be called a “mini ice age”.

Meanwhile, Al Gore continues to achieve publicity in his role as man-made global warming alarmist. Gore was widely quoted last week, in a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative as follows:

"If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration."

Since there is no real evidence that global warming is man-made, (See: A Nobel Peace Prize And A Weather Balloon on eworldvu.com) it may be possible to prove that global climate change is really a function of the activity surrounding the cycles of the sun in the years directly ahead.

Certainly, such a discovery would save billions of dollars worldwide, and may put an end to a future of man-made global warming civil unrest.

Voting Before The Presidential Race Is Over

2008-10-01T03:40:00.000-07:00

If you were on trial, would you want the jury verdict before your defense was heard? If you are making a very important personal decision, would you want to decide before considering all the pertinent facts and information?

The answer to these two questions for most of us would be a resounding, "no" . However, nearly one third of the voters in this election will be doing just the opposite. They will be voting early and without proper consideration of all the information and facts.

They will be voting in many cases long before this Presidential election is over. In fact, by October 5, 2008, some form of voting will be occurring in twenty three American states, a full month before election day.

In the Presidential election of 2000, an estimated 12.7 million people, roughly 12 percent of voters, cast their ballots early. In 2004, that number doubled to about 25million, or about 20 percent of 122 million total voters. This year as many as one third of voters or around 40 million people are expected to vote before election day.

Consider that the percentage of early voting in several battleground States in 2008 is expected to exceed fifty percent of the vote. New Mexico, Washington State, Nevada and Oregon will likely see a majority of voters cast their ballots before Election Day.

Of course, it is understandable that members of the military and disabled citizens who have a valid excuse, be allowed to cast an absentee ballot prior to election day. However, the number of states offering no-excuse, in-person early voting is on the rise.

In 1996, just eleven states offered it. In 2004, that number rose to twenty six. This year, with the addition of Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, Texas and the all-important state of Ohio, voters in thirty two states no longer need to provide a reason in order to vote early.

So what is the reason for the increase in state sponsored , no excuse, early voting? A recent USA Today article called the 2008 election, "the most extensive early voting process in history" and said it was driven by the desire of bureaucrats to avoid long lines at polling sites on Election Day.

Another reason often cited for early voting is an increase in overall voter turnout. However, there is not a single study that shows that the increase in early voting increases overall voter turnout.

Meanwhile, early voting increases the risk of election fraud and frustrates the imperative for our democracy to be based on an informed electorate.

The Constitution refers the matter of Presidential voting process to the Congress not the individual states. It says: "The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors and the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same throughout the United States."

Certainly, a "day" and "time" suggest an election should be conducted on an actual Election Day not the current process of the tabulation of tens of millions of early votes for months.

The United States Congress needs to reform the rules for Presidential voting soon, before early voting elects a president, well before the race is over, prior to election day.

Bailout Bill Disaster Was A Failure Of Leadership

2008-09-30T03:02:00.000-07:00

The reason why only 9% of the American public approves the performance of the 110th United States Congress (according to the latest Rasmussen public opinion poll) was on full display yesterday.

After working for days on a financial bailout bill proposed by the Bush Administration and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in an apparent attempt to save the country from the financial abyss, the House voted 228-205 against the compromise bill.

Every Congressional politician from both political party's during the last week had the same talking points. Something had to be done right away about this financial crisis and a failure to act was not an option. Of course, a failure to act was indeed the option chosen yesterday and now the House Of Representatives will not vote again on any bailout plan until at least Thursday.

So what happened to this critical financial bailout plan? The answer can be found in a recent USA Today/Gallup poll. The poll found that just 22 percent of Americans said that they wanted Congress to "pass a plan similar to what the Bush Administration has proposed", while 56 percent wanted Congress to pass something "different" , and 11 percent wanted Congress to take no action at all.

The plan that was subject to a vote yesterday was not very different from the original plan submitted by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The plan went down because it did not have voter support in an election year. An alternative bailout plan from the Republican Party was never actually proposed.

In addition, the sad truth is that this entire financial crisis is exposing an even bigger problem for the American voter. It is now apparent that there is no political leadership in Washington, D.C. .

President George Bush, who in his eight years in office has never seen a spending bill that he would actually veto, endorsed the bill but never really sold it to a skeptical American public.

Consider that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a partisan speech to blame this mess on Republicans even as she was trying to get Republican support to pass a bi-partisan bailout bill.

Then after the vote fails, the House Republican leadership indicates members changed their vote due to Pelosi's partisan attacks. Its all about politics but what ever happened to voting on the merits of the legislation?

The fact is that 40% of Democrats voted against this bill and the bill could have passed without any Republican support since Democrats are the majority party in the House. So, the real question here is if this is a good bill, why could the majority party not pass it?

Meanwhile, both of our Presidential candidates, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have gone AWOl. Its hard to understand what bailout bill they actually support. They appear to be awaiting passage of any bailout bill and a test of public opinion before they climb aboard the financial crisis bailout bandwagon.

The truth is that Barack Obama is hiding out on the campaign trail and is voting "present" on this difficult issue as he has often done throughout his political career. John McCain's response has been inconsistent and erratic. In fact, one of McCain's advisers told The Washington Post last week: "you've got to get it [the financial crisis] over with and start having a normal campaign."

The definition of leadership is the ability to affect human behavior to accomplish a mission. It requires the ability to rally and influence people to complete an important goal . It is difficult to achieve a positive result as a leader when you are afraid of the political risk and attempt to lead from behind. Yesterday's bailout bill disaster was a result of a failure of leadership.

McCain Does Not Explain His Suspended Campaign

2008-09-29T03:15:00.000-07:00

The first Presidential debate was held in Mississippi on Friday night. The first forty minutes of the debate were devoted to questions on the financial meltdown of the domestic economy and the remainder of the debate was focused on foreign policy.

The near universal opinion in the community of political analysis was that Barack Obama had the slight edge on the questions concerning the domestic economy and that John McCain had the advantage in the debate on foreign policy.

The conclusion of political observers was that there were no major gaffes by either candidate and no real soundbites that would be played by the media for days after the debate.

While Obama gave scripted and polished answers, McCain displayed his extensive experience in foreign policy. Most political pundits thought that the outcome of the debate was a draw.

While all of this the may be true if you were scoring each and every question, it overlooks one important political point. John McCain never explained the reason behind the suspension of his Presidential campaign last week. Why was it necessary? What did he do? What result was achieved? He has never answered these very basic questions.

The truth is that the opening question of the debate was the perfect opportunity for McCain to tell the American public why it was so important for him to suspend his campaign last week and return to Washington D.C. . It is hard to understand why he did not.

The Democrats have been calling his suspended campaign a political stunt for days. Barack Obama had implied that the insertion of Presidential politics was not helpful to the entire bailout package process. Those charges were left completely unanswered by the Republican during last Friday nights debate.

Political mistakes do not have to be major television gaffes. They do not have to take the form of media soundbites. Often, it is the opportunity lost that is the real mistake. For John Mccain, the first Presidential debate was an opportunity lost on the question of his leadership during this financial crisis.

This is a difficult political environment for a Republican candidate. A financial meltdown, a struggling economy, an unpopular sitting President, the war in Iraq, and problems in Afghanistan are not a formula for success if you are the Presidential nominee of the political party in power. It is not an environment that will easily forgive self-inflicted campaign mistakes.

The real story of the first Presidential debate is that John McCain did not explain his suspended campaign. It was a political mistake and it will do nothing to stop his slow but steady erosion in national public opinion polls.

The Crisis Presidency Of George Walker Bush

2008-09-25T03:20:00.000-07:00

President George Bush said in his televised speech to the nation last night: "We are in the midst of a serious financial crisis and the federal government is responding with decisive action."

Of course, the decisive action he is talking about is trying to convince skeptical members of Congress to give away 700 billion taxpayer dollars to bailout the financial services sector.

The problem for George Bush is credibility due to the fact that the word "crisis" has appeared in his speeches very frequently during the last eight years.

There was the crisis of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The crisis of Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban leading to the war in Afghanistan. The crisis of weapons of mass destruction that were never found in Iraq. The crisis of an internal civil war in Iraq that could have lead to American failure. The crisis of the subsequent troop surge in Iraq to prevent the crisis of failure in that country. The crisis of Iran and their acquisition of a future nuclear capability that apparently will not be handled under this Administration's watch.

Indeed, the list goes on and on: The crisis concerning the handling of Hurricane Katrina, the economic crisis of deep recession that led to those tax rebate checks drawn from the Federal Treasury several months ago, and now finally this serious financial crisis involving sub-prime mortgage loans.

The Bush solution to all of these crisis events is usually the same. Throw billions and billions of taxpayer dollars at the problem and try and make it all go away. Unfortunately, it is the solution of the reactive manager, not the proactive planner.

In retrospect, many of these crisis could have been avoided. The war in Iraq lacked proper planning ( See : "There never Was An Iraq Exit Strategy" on eWorldvu.com) and the success of the troop surge confirmed that there were not enough "boots" on the ground from the beginning. Afghanistan is a mess and soon will become the next crisis, because it was left to an ineffective NATO and subsequently ignored.

Today's financial crisis and the problems of Hurricane Katrina were really failures of government oversight and leadership. Henry Paulson was hired to lead the Treasury from Goldman Sachs two years ago but never saw this crisis that would lead us to the brink of the financial abyss.

Also, Paulson's reaction to this crisis over the last several weeks has been to guarantee a bailout of Bear Sterns, refuse to bail out Lehman Brothers,and then to bailout Aig, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Finally, with his 700 billion dollar plan , he now wants the taxpayer to bail out everyone. It certainly can be argued that Paulson's erratic policy led to so much confusion and uncertainty in the Financial markets that confidence in the Treasury was lost.

In addition, it was only one week ago that John McCain said he would fire Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox and accused government regulators of being "asleep at the switch'' during this market turmoil. It should be remembered that Cox took over from the previous SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt. Both Pitt and his predeccesor, Arthur Levitt were in charge of the SEC during the Enron fiasco of several years ago.

We need to remember that a Senate investigation would accuse the SEC and Wall Street research analysts of allowing "the greed of a few" at Enron to go "unchecked and unchallenged. The investigation revealed a story of "systemic and catastrophic failure, a failure of all the watchdogs to properly discharge their appointed responsibilities". This is the SEC that Cox would inherit in 2005. It doesn't really seem to have changed very much , does it? Only now the scale of the problem may be much larger.

An effective President should hire the people necessary to set a proactive, agressive tone in managing the day to day business of the federal government. A reactive firefighter to put out the latest crisis is not what this country needs in the Oval office.

A President' slogan like any competent executive should be that the best crisis is the one that you can manage to avoid.

Climate Change And The Quiet Of The Sun

2008-09-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

A sunspot was seen this month on the twenty second of September. However , it disappeared very quickly the following day.

The truth is that the lack of sunspot activity in 2008 is beginning to remind some observers of the low sunspot activity at the beginning of the Dalton Minimum.

Of course, none of us were alive at the time, but the Dalton Minimum was a forty year period (1790 to 1830) of low sunspot activity that would lead to a dramatic cooling of the planet. So, low sunspot activity could well be an indication that colder not warmer times for our planet are immediately ahead.

It was also interesting to read the NASA press release yesterday about the discovery from its Ulysses Spacecraft. The spacecraft revealed that global Solar Wind Output was at a 50-Year Low.

Dave McComas (Ulysses’ solar wind instrument principal investigator and senior executive director at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio) is quoted as follows: “The sun’s million mile-per-hour solar wind inflates a protective bubble, or heliosphere, around the solar system. It influences how things work here on Earth and even out at the boundary of our solar system where it meets the galaxy." He continued: "Ulysses data indicate the solar wind’s global pressure is the lowest we have seen since the beginning of the space age.

So what does this discovery from the Ulysses Spacecraft mean? Of course, nobody knows for sure, but low solar wind pressure will mean an increase in the amount of cosmic rays entering our solar system.

Now, consider that the study of cosmic rays has been the focus of Physicist, Henrik Svensmark of the Danish National Space Center in Copenhagen for over a decade. Svensmark's research has led to his theory that during the last 100 years cosmic rays became scarcer because unusually vigorous action by the Sun batted away many of them. As a result, fewer cosmic rays meant fewer clouds leading to a warmer world and the increase in global temperature.

In his book released last year called: The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change, Svenesmark described his theory that cosmic rays "have more effect on the climate than manmade CO2". So, if Svensmark is right, the increase in cosmic rays will lead to an increase in cloud cover and global cooling.

There has been little sunspot activity throughout 2008. In fact, last month was the first month without a sunspot since 1913. Meanwhile, the Ulysses Spacecraft has just measured solar wind output at a fifty year low. The quiet of our sun may well mean that the global climate is beginning to change once again. It could be that colder not warmer times are just ahead.

For more on man-made global warming read: A Nobel Peace Prize And A Weather Balloon
For more on the Sun read: To Predict Global Climate Change Look To The Sun on eWorldvu.com

Joe Biden Moments May Get John McCain Elected

2008-09-23T03:26:00.000-07:00

We certainly should give Joe Biden credit for candor. At the same time, its difficult to understand exactly why an otherwise intelligent and experienced politician continues to have what can only be called, "Joe Biden moments".

Indeed these "Joe Biden moments" sometimes make you wonder which side he is representing in election 2008. A few weeks ago, the Democratic candidate for Vice President indicated that his running mate Barack Obama could have made a better choice by selecting Hillary Clinton for Vice President. ( See: "Joe Biden's Moment of Truth Will Not Help Obama" on eworldvu.com). While that may well may be true, it called into question Obama's judgement and reminded everyone of the difficult and divisive Obama/Clinton Democratic primary campaign.

Yesterday, in a nationally televised interview with Katie Couric, there was another Joe Biden moment on prominent display. He said in the interview that an Obama campaign ad which mocked Republican John McCain's inability to use a computer was "terrible."

Biden said: "I thought that was terrible by the way," when asked about a campaign ad which made fun of McCain's admitted lack of ease with computers. "I didn't know we did it, and if I'd had anything to do with it, we would have never done it."

What are the political ramifications of this latest Joe Biden moment? Lets just look at what Barack Obama's campaign spokesman Bill Buron said last week about John McCain's campaign: "We will take no lectures from John McCain, who is cynically running the sleaziest and least honorable campaign in modern presidential campaign history. "His discredited ads with disgusting lies are running all over the country today. He runs a campaign not worthy of the office he is seeking."

The truth is that both campaigns are running negative and sleazy ads almost every day. The ad that Joe Biden is talking about is one in which McCain is mocked as out of touch for not using a computer or the internet. However, the real reason McCain does not use a computer according to various news reports may be due to injuries he sustained as a prisioner of war.

Of course, Democratic political damage control is now well underway. Biden has issued another statement this morning. Biden now says that he "was asked about an ad I'd never seen" and was "reacting merely to press reports." So, we are to believe that he called his own campaign ad terrible even though he had never seen it? This response may in itself be yet another Joe Biden moment.

Criticizing his own campaign ad is another Joe Biden moment in a career full of them. However, this is a very close contest and if these moments continue, they could well begin to add up to the hour of John McCain's election.

Those Joe Biden Moments just keep on coming. From Ben Smith's Blog on Politico.com today:

Biden garbles Depression history

Joe Biden's denunciation of his own campaign's ad to Katie Couric got so much attention last night that another odd note in the interview slipped by. He was speaking about the role of the White House in a financial crisis.

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed," Biden told Couric. "He said, 'Look, here's what happened."

As Reason's Jesse Walker footnotes it: "And if you owned an experimental TV set in 1929, you would have seen him. And you would have said to yourself, 'Who is that guy? What happened to President Hoover?'"

Paulson's Bailout Plan Is Financial Shock And Awe

2008-09-22T02:51:00.000-07:00

It's another Monday and there is another government bailout to talk about in the sub prime mortgage mess.

However, this time its the "mother of all bailouts". U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has proposed and the Congress will soon approve a taxpayer bailout plan for everyone.

The Paulson bailout plan will use at least 700 billion taxpayer dollars to bail out toxic mortgages from every United States financial institution and even large U.S. banks that are foreign based.

In addition, the Paulson bailout plan saves any money market mutual fund that was in danger of breaking its one dollar net asset value. There were two such money market funds that were in that dubious category last week.

While there can be no doubt at this point that the Paulson bailout plan was necessary to save the financial markets from the abyss, the plan is financial shock and awe to the American taxpayer nevertheless.

The commitment of 700 billion in new taxpayer dollars to save the financial markets along with the cost of the Iraq war and the already huge federal budget deficit projected for next year will dramatically limit the next President's ability to spend any money.

So, any Presidential candidate that still maintains that he is going to cut taxes, provide National Health Insurance or any of the other myriad of vote pandering treats in the election 2008 goody bag is simply not facing fiscal reality. Make no mistake about this, American taxes are going up and the growth of the economy is going to be subdued during the next Presidents first term in office.

It is really remarkable how poorly our elected politicians and 2008 Presidential candidates have handled this financial crisis during the last week. Last Tuesday, Republican John McCain said: "We cannot have the taxpayers bail out AIG or anybody else." By Wednesday, he had completely changed his mind.

How about this strange quote from the Arizona Republican: "the fundamentals of our economy are strong". Unfortunately he said this as one brokerage house had just filed for bankruptcy, another was about to, and the Dow Jones industrial average had tumbled 504 points in a single trading day.

Meanwhile, America is still awaiting the economic plan of Democratic candidate Barack Obama. He has already delayed unveiling his plan twice. I guess at this point, he has just decided to vote "present" on the current financial crisis. It's apparently a pattern of behavior since he voted "present" on 130 different occasions when he was a member of the Illinois State Senate.

The leadership in the Congress was not much better. In the United States Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid is quoted as saying "no one knows what to do" while in the House Of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi initially promised to hold hearings on the crisis after the Congressional vacation.

This week both Republicans and Democrats will spend more than 700 billion dollars of taxpayer money and then go home on vacation. In the 2008 election, it will be business as usual as the candidates continue to make campaign promises that they cannot hope to deliver. However, despite the Congressional commitment of a huge amount of taxpayer money and all those campaign promises, this financial crisis is far from over.

A long and deep U.S. recession has now increased in probability. Indeed, defaults on credit card payments could eventually require the Treasury to commit more taxpayer bailout dollars for banks and credit card companies. In addition, a run on hedge funds is very likely and this whole mortgage mess may well spread throughout Europe.

Paulson's bailout plan of 700 billion taxpayer dollars is certainly American financial shock and awe. However, the sobering reality of the plan is that as an economic solution, it may be only phase one.

Made In China Is Hazardous To Your Health

2008-09-18T06:29:00.001-07:00

China is responsible for the manufacturing of lead paint in toys sold in the United States. Dumplings laced with pesticides sold in Japan. Toxic fish and cough medicine that may guarantee that you never take another breath in order to get rid of that cough.

If you bought products that were made in China and maintained your health, maybe you're pet was not as lucky. Last year, there were pet food recalls in North America, Europe, and South Africa after thousands of dogs and cats became sick and died from contaminated rice, corn gluten and wheat gluten in Chinese made pet food.

So, it should not be very surprising that China is in the news for compromising product quality once again. This time toxic milk has killed three Chinese infants and has made another 6244 babies across the country very ill. The dangerous chemical melamine was found in the babies milk powder.

China may not be the only country involved with this contaminated milk. The product has apparently been exported to Bangladesh, Burundi, Gabon, Burma and Yemen while tainted yogurt has been found in Hong Kong.

Of course, since a product made in China can be dangerous to our health, as consumers, we can simply avoid Chinese goods by reading the product label and avoid purchasing any item that states: "Made in China". Sounds very reasonable doesn't it? However, that may not be as easy as it sounds for ingredients in our food supply.

The truth is that we live in ignorance of how widespread Chinese products are in our food supply. This is because of a loophole in the food labeling laws that does not require a country of origin label for food ingredients if the product has been processed and has undergone substantial transformation.

As an example of the problem, consider the words of former FDA official William Hubbard next month when eating a candy bar during Halloween. Last year, he was quoted in the New York Times as saying that most of the candy in supermarket aisles is “likely made with at least one ingredient that originated” in China. "None of the sweets in the candy aisle said: "Made in China," but most are likely made with at least one ingredient that originated there".

"Candy wrappers typically list just the U.S. distributor of the products, so label readers can't determine the origin of the vanillin found in a Nestle Crunch bar, the carageenan in a Baby Ruth or the gum arabic in a pack of Mentos".

"Those three ingredients, and numerous other flavoring and preservative additives, commonly come from Chinese companies. Also, companies in China produce about 80 percent of the world's wheat gluten, common in most breads, cakes and cookies, and 80 percent of its sorbic acid, a preservative used in just about everything", Hubbard said.

Unlike properly labeled consumer goods, the fact is that we can't do much to avoid tainted food ingredients made in China. They are not properly labeled on our processed foods. However, the truth is that "Made in China" is hazardous to your health whether its on the product label or not.

For more on China Product recalls read: "Its The Year Of The Pig For The Consumer" on eWorldvu.com

Is E-Vote Security The Hanging Chad Of Election 2008?

2008-09-17T04:08:00.000-07:00

The most clever advertisement on television today is when the Maytag repairman saves the day at a polling booth by holding up a handful of crumpled ballots that he has just removed from a voting machine.

I watched that advertisement the other day as I was reviewing the latest public opinion polls from the 2008 Presidential Election. These latest polls told the same story as nearly every other Presidential tracking poll this year. It is a very close race for the White House in the 2008 election.

Indeed, it is a race that on election day may be decided by a handful of votes in a few battleground states. So, while contemplating another very close election, i wondered about the American voting system. I asked myself two question: Is our voting system fixed or will there be more controversy surrounding hanging chads and disputed votes on election day 2008? Will this election be decided in the legal system again or by accurately counting the total vote?

First, we should consider that the American voting system has dramatically changed since 2000. Funding from The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in 2002, has permitted states and counties to replace outdated punch card and lever voting machines with electronic voting systems.

As a result, during the November 2006 general elections, just 12.7 percent of registered voters nationwide used the outdated equipment, compared with 45 percent in 2000. So, many Americans will vote in the 2008 election using equipment that represents the latest technology.

However, before polling places consider throwing away the telephone number of the Maytag repairman, they may want to read the latest test results concerning electronic voting equipment.

Several recent studies commissioned by the states of California and Ohio concluded that most Electronic Voting Systems are plagued by security glitches, and the technology has yet to prove itself as the solution many were looking for. The study concluded that such systems could allow voters and poll workers to place multiple votes, crash the systems by loading viruses, and fake vote tallies.

Of course, the American taxpayer should ask why these security questions were not resolved by election officials throughout the United States prior to the purchase of these electronic voting systems from Diebold (now called Premier), several years ago. The answer may be that in their haste to secure the latest in voting technology, many election officials did not exhibit proper due-diligence.

The fact is that the security of the voting equipment is so bad in the battleground state of Ohio, Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, is suing Premier the maker of the touch-screen voting systems in which Ohio has invested more than $62 million since 2005.

In her complaint, Brunner states: "We believe that Premier's equipment has failed to perform as required by its contracts and according to state law. We have taken this action to recover taxpayer funds spent for voting systems used in half of the state's 88 counties."

The truth is that paperless voting is not secure and will not be in time for the 2008 Presidential election. If this 2008 election is very close, it may well be that the security of the electronic vote becomes as controversial as the hanging chad was in Florida in the year 2000 in several battleground states.

Indeed, the 2008 Electronic Voting Machine may be something that not even the Maytag repairman can easily fix.

Vandalism And A Diet To Stop Global Warming

2008-09-16T04:17:00.000-07:00

The Jury's "Not Guilty"verdict was certainly a surprise. The Greenpeace defendents had already admitted to their crime and did not deny the 35000 British pounds worth of vandalism to the Kingsnorth coal plant in Kent in the United Kingdom.

During the trial the five defendants said they had acted lawfully, owing to an honestly held belief that their attempt to stop emissions from Kingsnorth would prevent further damage worldwide caused by global warming.

Their aim, they said, was to rein back CO2 emissions and bring urgent pressure to bear on the Government and E.ON to change policies. They insisted their action had caused the minimum amount of damage necessary to close the plant down and constituted a "proportionate response" to the increasing environmental threat.

The acquittal was the second time in a decade that the "lawful excuse" defense has been successfully used by Greenpeace activists in the United Kingdom. In 1999, 28 Greenpeace campaigners were cleared of criminal damage after trashing an experimental field of GM crops in Norfolk, causing a similar amount of damage.

The "lawful excuse" defense allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage such as breaking down the door of a burning house to tackle a fire.

Meanwhile, as the Greenpeace defendents were being being acquitted of their vandalism due to the "lawful excuse" of preventing global warming, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was suggesting another solution to the problem of global warming.

Dr. Pachauri said that people should have one meat-free day a week. He said diet change was important because of the huge greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems including habitat destruction associated with rearing cattle and other animals. Needless to say, the meat and restaurant industry sharply disagreed.

So, its environmental criminal vandalism and a United Nations suggested diet change to reduce CO2 gas emissions in order to stop man made global warming. It seems that even if CO2 gas is responsible for global warming that the activism of global climate change appears to be more important than any realistic, economic cure.

For more on global climate change read: "To Predict Global Climate Change Look To The Sun" on eworldvu.com.

A Financial Crisis Of A Century

2008-09-15T02:19:00.000-07:00

Alan Greenspan has just called this ongoing United States economic disaster a "once in a century financial crisis."

The problem for Greenspan is that he sounds like an impartial, detached observer providing commentary on the sinking of the Titanic. The reality is that he was the captain of what is now the sinking American economic ship.

The truth is that today's financial crisis can trace its origin back to 2001, amid the end of the Internet boom and the shock of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

It was at that point that the Fed under its Chairman, Alan Greenspan turned on the monetary pump to try to combat an economic slowdown. The Fed poured money into the US economy and slashed the Federal Funds rate from 3.5% in August 2001 to 1% in 2003.

Then, Greenspan's Federal Reserve made two fatal mistakes. First,it kept the Federal Funds rate too low for much too long. In doing so it created the environment of speculation for the creation of a housing bubble which is now exploding.

Next, Greenspan failed to closely regulate the bankers. Lending standards became shamefully lax and the Fed should have done something about it, not to mention the deceptive and in some cases fraudulent sub prime mortgage practices.

The problem is that as Fed Chairman, Greenspan actually encouraged the development of the housing bubble which has led to this "once in a century financial crisis". Remember when Greenspan suggested that many homeowners could have saved tens of thousands of dollars in the last decade if they just had Adjustable Rate Mortgages?

How about his request that encouraged greedy bankers to create those unique alternative products which led directly to the sub prime mortgage problems of today. In 2004 Greenspan said: "American consumers might benefit if lenders provided greater mortgage product alternatives to the traditional fixed-rate mortgage."

So, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan created the environment and without any real oversight, the immense greed of the investment banks did the rest to create this financial mess. Now, one by one these banks march to the United States taxpayer for a bailout.

It is hard for many American citizens to understand the sheer arrogance and greed of all this. Consider that Lehman Brother's CEO Richard Fuld made over twenty two million dollars in compensation in 2007 alone. Twenty two Million dollars paid to a man who was about to run his company into bankruptcy. He is hardly alone. Tens of millions of dollars in annual compensation is the going rate for all these failed financial bank CEO's.

Indeed, it seems like every weekend brings headline news of another major failure in financial corporate America. Bear Sterns was bought by J.P. Morgan with government guarantees. FannieMae and Freddie Mac are now owned by the Federal government and the American taxpayer. Lehman Brothers has just declared bankruptcy. Merrill Lynch was bought by Bank Of America in a rush to avoid another impending disaster.

The problem is that this economic crisis is far from over and there are many more financial corporate failures to come during the remaining months of 2008. The sad truth is that there have already been 100,000 layoffs in financial services this year. It now looks like there are at least 50,000 more to go.