Saturday, February 23, 2008

Global Warming? New Data Shows Ice Is Back

Are the world's ice caps melting because of climate change, or are the reports just a lot of scare mongering by the advocates of the global warming theory?

Scare mongering appears to be the case, according to reports from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that reveal that almost all the allegedly “lost” ice has come back. A NOAA report shows that ice levels which had shrunk from 5 million square miles in January 2007 to just 1.5 million square miles in October, are almost back to their original levels.

Moreover, a Feb. 18 report in the London Daily Express showed that there is nearly a third more ice in Antarctica than usual, challenging the global warming crusaders and buttressing arguments of skeptics who deny that the world is undergoing global warming.

The Daily express recalls the photograph of polar bears clinging on to a melting iceberg which has been widely hailed as proof of the need to fight climate change and has been used by former Vice President Al Gore during his "Inconvenient Truth" lectures about mankind’s alleged impact on the global climate.

Gore fails to mention that the photograph was taken in the month of August when melting is normal. Or that the polar bear population has soared in recent years.

As winter roars in across the Northern Hemisphere, Mother Nature seems to have joined the ranks of the skeptics.

As the Express notes, scientists are saying the northern Hemisphere has endured its coldest winter in decades, adding that snow cover across the area is at its greatest since 1966. The newspaper cites the one exception — Western Europe, which had, until the weekend when temperatures plunged to as low as -10 C in some places, been basking in unseasonably warm weather.

Around the world, vast areas have been buried under some of the heaviest snowfalls in decades. Central and southern China, the United States, and Canada were hit hard by snowstorms. In China, snowfall was so heavy that over 100,000 houses collapsed under the weight of snow.

Jerusalem, Damascus, Amman, and northern Saudi Arabia report the heaviest falls in years and below-zero temperatures. In Afghanistan, snow and freezing weather killed 120 people. Even Baghdad had a snowstorm, the first in the memory of most residents.

AFP news reports icy temperatures have just swept through south China, stranding 180,000 people and leading to widespread power cuts just as the area was recovering from the worst weather in 50 years, the government said Monday. The latest cold snap has taken a severe toll in usually temperate Yunnan province, which has been struck by heavy snowfalls since Thursday, a government official from the provincial disaster relief office told AFP.

Twelve people have died there, state Xinhua news agency reported, and four remained missing as of Saturday.

An ongoing record-long spell of cold weather in Vietnam's northern region, which started on Jan. 14, has killed nearly 60,000 cattle, mainly bull and buffalo calves, local press reported Monday. By Feb. 17, the spell had killed a total of 59,962 cattle in the region, including 7,349 in the Ha Giang province, 6,400 in Lao Cai, and 5,571 in Bac Can province, said Hoang Kim Giao, director of the Animal Husbandry Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, according to the Pioneer newspaper.

In Britain the temperatures plunged to -10 C in central England, according to the Express, which reports that experts say that February could end up as one of the coldest in Britain in the past 10 years with the freezing night-time conditions expected to stay around a frigid -8 C until at least the middle of the week. And the BBC reports that a bus company's efforts to cut global warming emissions have led to services being disrupted by cold weather.

Meanwhile Athens News reports that a raging snow storm that blanketed most of Greece over the weekend and continued into the early morning hours on Monday, plunging the country into sub-zero temperatures. The agency reported that public transport buses were at a standstill on Monday in the wider Athens area, while ships remained in ports, public services remained closed, and schools and courthouses in the more severely-stricken prefectures were also closed.

Scores of villages, mainly on the island of Crete, and in the prefectures of Evia, Argolida, Arcadia, Lakonia, Viotia, and the Cyclades islands were snowed in.

More than 100 villages were snowed-in on the island of Crete and temperatures in Athens dropped to -6 C before dawn, while the coldest temperatures were recorded in Kozani, Grevena, Kastoria and Florina, where they plunged to -12 C.

If global warming gets any worse we'll all freeze to death.

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Abbey
This is one of the kindest, nicest thing I've read in a while. I have no way to know where it originated, but if true there is a beautiful soul working in the dead letter office of the US Postal Service.

The story:

Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month.The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when bbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we�ould so she dictated these words:

Dear God,

Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.

I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her. You will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.

Love, Meredith.

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven.

That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at thepost office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, "To Meredith" in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, "When a Pet Dies". Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven..

Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away. Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays�in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.

Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you.

I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.

By the way, I'm easy to find, I am wherever there is love.

Love,

God
This come in email and is one of the sweetest, nicest stories I have read in a long time. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried reading this. I hope it touches you deeply too.
McCain's Sordid Past?

The New York Times printed a lengthy article implying that Senator John McCain had a "relationship" with a Washington lobbyist. Apparently, the Times did not come out with the type of relationship, leaving it open to reader speculation that it was a "romantic" relationship.

Who really cares about something that happened maybe ten years ago? This is the sort of thing that should be between McCain and his wife, Cindy. I think it's reprehensible of the Times to come out with such a report with no substantiation to it. Had the Times said that because of the relationship, Senator McCain had done things as a Senator that gave favor to the companies this lady (who's name I have yet to hear) represents as a lobbyist, I might have something to say about that. But it didn't; it was all implied, leaving the reader to infer the worst.

If the media is going to try to smear McCain for an implied relationship, how about the relationship that people have been whispering about between Hillary and her top aide? In our society, it's much more acceptable for a man to have a relationship with a woman than for a woman to have a relation with another woman.

The Times article fell flat and may have far reaching implications. This article may be the thing needed to consolidate the Republican party. It may have shown McCain to be a leader who is gracious under this type of smear attack. And finally, it may have gotten McCain sympathy votes.

Good Job, NY Times!
Experience vs. Inspiration
Roseanne Barr
When I fly in an airplane I want the pilot with the most experience, not the one who can inspire hope in me that I get to where I am going. When I pay my taxes, I want the person filing them to be experienced, not the new person who inspires hope in me that he can do the job. When I hire someone to fix my washing machine, I want the tried and true experienced person, not the one who inspires me to hope that he can fix it. When I go to the doctor I do not want to get the one who inspires hope in me that s/he can cure what's wrong, but the one who knows what the hell to do the minute I call. It's not really the job of a public servant to inspire, but to get the job that the people demand done. The democrats think that if they have hope and are inspired things will get better, but they actually won't. When Oprah makes her employees sign her fifty page non-disclosure statement, she doesn't "hope" they can't break it, she pays teams of experienced lawyers to MAKE SURE they can't break it, or be sued in an experienced court by an experienced judge.

find it
here

I'm amazed that I found something on which to agree with Roseanne. I especially like the line It's not really the job of a public servant to inspire, but to get the job that the people demand done.

Actually, it is the job of politicians to inspire; to inspire the public to get out to vote so they can return to office. Representing the voters who hired them is secondary to most politicians (I still want to believe that a few of our politicians really want to make things better). It's got to be a lucrative job; after all they spend millions to get it. And millions more to keep it.
Like Roseanne, I want the best person for the job. I want the person who knows what they are doing. I want someone with experience to run this country. And I want the person with the most experience running it. I don't believe either Clinton or Obama have that experience. McCain has been a senator for how many years? In my opinion, being a Congressman is not necessarily the experience I think is necessary. Huckabee has run a state. He has that much experience that none of the other three candidates have. Is he the best? I think he might be the best of what we have to choose from.
The Real Barack Obama
Thursday, February 21, 2008 10:06 AM

By: Ronald Kessler

Michelle Obama’s comment that, for the first time in her adult life, she feels proud of America helps crystallize who Barack Obama is.

To be sure, the wife of a candidate is perfectly free to have views that are distinct from her husband’s. But on a matter that is so fundamental to one’s being as love of country, it is difficult to imagine that Michelle Obama would publicly twice make such a statement suggesting disdain for America unless she felt it comported with her husband’s views.

Equally important, her statement aligns perfectly with the hate-America views of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s minister, friend, and sounding board for more than two decades. On the Sunday following 9/11, Wright characterized the terrorist attacks as a consequence of violent American policies. Four years later, Wright suggested that the attacks were retribution for America’s racism.

“In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01,” Wright wrote in his church magazine Trumpet. “White America and the Western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.”

Wright has been a key supporter of Louis Farrakhan, and in December, honored the Nation of Islam leader for lifetime achievement, saying he “truly epitomize[s] greatness.”

Farrakhan has repeatedly made hate-filled statements targeting Jews, whites, America, and homosexuals.

Those who think two of the closest people to Obama could publicly make anti-America statements unless Obama himself felt that way, are fooling themselves. To date, Obama has proven himself to be nothing more than a great orator, rendering the statements of those around him even more important in illuminating his true character and agenda. During his Senate career, he skipped 17 percent of the votes and sponsored only one bill that became law. That bill was to promote “relief, security, and democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

Bereft of official accomplishments, Obama has distinguished himself mainly by being against measures that protect American security, such as finishing the mission in Iraq. If we were to leave Iraq quickly, as Obama vows he would do, it would become a launch pad for al-Qaida attacks on the U.S.

Obama avoided voting on extending the Protect America Act, thus putting America at risk when immediate interception of terrorist communications is required. Last August, Obama voted against a measure that would have allowed the U.S. to continue to monitor overseas conversations of terrorists like Osama bin Laden without first obtaining a warrant.

If his radical vote had prevailed, bin Laden would have been given the same rights as Americans.

To this day, Obama has not distanced himself from most of Rev. Wright’s comments. In a statement supposedly issued to address the matter, Obama ignored the point that his minister and friend had spoken adoringly of Farrakhan and that Wright’s church was behind the award to the Nation of Islam leader. Instead, as outlined in a Jan. 17 Newsmax article, he disingenuously claimed he thought the magazine bestowed the award on Farrakhan for his efforts to rehabilitate ex-prisoners.

Neither Wright’s encomiums about Farrakhan nor the Trumpet article mentions ex-prisoners.

Similarly, after John McCain’s wife Cindy responded to Michelle Obama’s remarks by telling a Wisconsin rally, “I have, and always will be, proud of my country,” Barack Obama told a radio interviewer that his wife did not say what people think she said. He then proceeded to rewrite her comments, claiming that she had meant she was encouraged by the “large numbers of people” who have gotten involved in the political process. Michelle Obama then made a similar revision of her remarks.

In her speech in Milwaukee, Michelle Obama said flatly, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.”

And what has been wrong with America up to now? That it gave Michelle the opportunity to attend Princeton and Harvard Law School? That it gave Barack Obama the chance to attend Columbia University and Harvard Law School and become a U.S. senator making more than $1 million a year from book royalties?

Was it that America stopped Nazi Germany from continuing to murder millions of Jews? That America has provided Africa and other countries with $15 billion to combat the spread of AIDS/HIV and that another $30 billion is on the way? That 46 percent of all Americans classified by the Census Bureau as poor own their own homes, 76 percent of them have air conditioning, and 75 percent of them have at least one car? Or that America allows us to express our views freely without fear of being put in jail, as is the case in Russia?

A lawyer, Michelle Obama is perfectly capable of expressing herself precisely. In fact, she spoke from a written speech.

Those who do not want to believe she meant what she said — and that Barack Obama could not be so close to Rev. Wright if he did not himself believe in much of what he has said — are in denial.

The real Barack Obama is starting to emerge, and for those of us who are grateful to America for everything it represents, it is not a pretty sight.

Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com. View his previous reports and get his dispatches sent to you free via e-mail. Go here now.

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

I frankly am appalled at Michelle Obama's statement that "for the first time in her adult life, she feels proud of America". I may not have always agreed with what the politicians and politicial leaders of America have done, but I have always been proud to be an American. If it took her husband running for the office of the President to make her feel proud to be an American, I really feel sorry for her. Of course, I don't know what her background is, maybe she came from an extremely poor family. Maybe she didn't feel she got the breaks in life that other people got. I don't know what's behind that statement.
Isn't it a wonderful country where she can make such a statement?

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Global Warming? New Data Shows Ice Is Back
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 11:55 AM
By: Phil Brennan

Are the world's ice caps melting because of climate change, or are the reports just a lot of scare mongering by the advocates of the global warming theory?

Scare mongering appears to be the case, according to reports from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that reveal that almost all the allegedly “lost” ice has come back. A NOAA report shows that ice levels which had shrunk from 5 million square miles in January 2007 to just 1.5 million square miles in October, are almost back to their original levels.

Moreover, a Feb. 18 report in the London Daily Express showed that there is nearly a third more ice in Antarctica than usual, challenging the global warming crusaders and buttressing arguments of skeptics who deny that the world is undergoing global warming.

The Daily express recalls the photograph of polar bears clinging on to a melting iceberg which has been widely hailed as proof of the need to fight climate change and has been used by former Vice President Al Gore during his "Inconvenient Truth" lectures about mankind’s alleged impact on the global climate.

Gore fails to mention that the photograph was taken in the month of August when melting is normal. Or that the polar bear population has soared in recent years.

As winter roars in across the Northern Hemisphere, Mother Nature seems to have joined the ranks of the skeptics.

As the Express notes, scientists are saying the northern Hemisphere has endured its coldest winter in decades, adding that snow cover across the area is at its greatest since 1966. The newspaper cites the one exception — Western Europe, which had, until the weekend when temperatures plunged to as low as -10 C in some places, been basking in unseasonably warm weather.

Around the world, vast areas have been buried under some of the heaviest snowfalls in decades. Central and southern China, the United States, and Canada were hit hard by snowstorms. In China, snowfall was so heavy that over 100,000 houses collapsed under the weight of snow.

Jerusalem, Damascus, Amman, and northern Saudi Arabia report the heaviest falls in years and below-zero temperatures. In Afghanistan, snow and freezing weather killed 120 people. Even Baghdad had a snowstorm, the first in the memory of most residents.

AFP news reports icy temperatures have just swept through south China, stranding 180,000 people and leading to widespread power cuts just as the area was recovering from the worst weather in 50 years, the government said Monday. The latest cold snap has taken a severe toll in usually temperate Yunnan province, which has been struck by heavy snowfalls since Thursday, a government official from the provincial disaster relief office told AFP.

Twelve people have died there, state Xinhua news agency reported, and four remained missing as of Saturday.

An ongoing record-long spell of cold weather in Vietnam's northern region, which started on Jan. 14, has killed nearly 60,000 cattle, mainly bull and buffalo calves, local press reported Monday. By Feb. 17, the spell had killed a total of 59,962 cattle in the region, including 7,349 in the Ha Giang province, 6,400 in Lao Cai, and 5,571 in Bac Can province, said Hoang Kim Giao, director of the Animal Husbandry Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, according to the Pioneer newspaper.

In Britain the temperatures plunged to -10 C in central England, according to the Express, which reports that experts say that February could end up as one of the coldest in Britain in the past 10 years with the freezing night-time conditions expected to stay around a frigid -8 C until at least the middle of the week. And the BBC reports that a bus company's efforts to cut global warming emissions have led to services being disrupted by cold weather.

Meanwhile Athens News reports that a raging snow storm that blanketed most of Greece over the weekend and continued into the early morning hours on Monday, plunging the country into sub-zero temperatures. The agency reported that public transport buses were at a standstill on Monday in the wider Athens area, while ships remained in ports, public services remained closed, and schools and courthouses in the more severely-stricken prefectures were also closed.

Scores of villages, mainly on the island of Crete, and in the prefectures of Evia, Argolida, Arcadia, Lakonia, Viotia, and the Cyclades islands were snowed in.

More than 100 villages were snowed-in on the island of Crete and temperatures in Athens dropped to -6 C before dawn, while the coldest temperatures were recorded in Kozani, Grevena, Kastoria and Florina, where they plunged to -12 C.

Temperatures in Athens dropped to -6 C before dawn, while the coldest temperatures were recorded in Kozani, Grevena, Kastoria and Florina, where they plunged to -12 C.

If global warming gets any worse we'll all freeze to death.

2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Monday, February 18, 2008

The Roosevelt Buncombe

From the Neal Boortz show website: This alert came from a listeners. He was reading "The Bad Boy of Baltimore" a biography of H.L. Mencken by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers. On page 409 of that book he finds the following"

"By the mid-1930's, thanks to the New Deal, all that self-reliance had changed, prompting Mencken to declare: 'There is no genuine justice in any scheme of feeding and coddling the loafer whose only ponderable energies are devoted wholly to reproduction. Nine-tenths of the rights he bellows for are really privileges and he does nothing to deserve them.' Despite the billions spent on an individual, 'he can be lifted transiently but always slips back again.' Thus, the New Deal had been 'the most stupendous digenetic enterprise ever undertaken by man.... We not only acquired a vast population of morons, we have inculcated all morons, old or young, with the doctrine that the decent and industrious people of the country are bound to support them for all time. The effects of that doctrine are bound to be disastrous soon or late.'

When someone asked, "And what, Mr. Mencken, would you do about the unemployed?" He looked up with a bland expression. "We could start by taking away their vote," he said, deadpan. Mencken was not surprised when the majority disagreed. "There can be nothing even remotely approaching a rational solution of the fundamental national problems until we face them in a realistic spirit," he later reflected, and that was impossible so long as educated Americans remained responsive "to the Roosevelt buncombe."


"Buncombe," by the way, means either a county in North Carolina, a city in Illinois or another word for "nonsense."
I think I'll be looking for this book.
JOE SMITH NEEDS A JOB!

Joe Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6am. While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG).

He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA). After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much he could spend today.

After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) filled it with gas from Saudi Arabia and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN/CANADIAN JOB.

At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day checking his computer (Made In Malaysia), Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in AMERICA/CANADA.
Semper Fi
by Rep. John Campbell

You might have heard about Berkeley’s City Council's recent vote to tell the Marines to close their recruiting station in the city. With this vote, they told the Marines that their recruiting office is not welcome in their city, and if recruiters choose to stay, they do so as an uninvited and unwelcome intruders.

In response to this, I will be introducing the “Semper Fi Act” in the House of Representatives. This act rescinds all of the funding contained in the FY 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Act for the City of Berkeley, CA and transfers those funds to the Marines for recruiting.

During the meeting, the City Council also voted to give protest group Code Pink a parking space in front of the recruiting office once a week for six months and a free sound permit for protesting once a week. According to the City Council agenda, they "Encourage all people to avoid cooperation with the Marine Corps recruiting station, and applaud residents and organizations such as Code Pink, that may volunteer to impede, passively or actively, by nonviolent means, the work of any military recruiting office located in the City of Berkeley."

The Marine Corps has been protecting Americans and our freedoms for 233 years. Americans understand and appreciate that. You don’t have to join the Marine Corps, or even like it, but you should at the very least let the Marines do their job and respect them for it.

The action by the Berkeley City Council indicates that they have a disdain for and do not appreciate Marines for what they do and have done for this country, our democracy, and our freedoms. If they have so little respect and understanding of that, there is no reason for the rest of us, outside the city of Berkeley, to subsidize their actions with our taxpayer funds.
I had no plans to visit Berkeley, but will take pains to avoid that city in the future. You may not like what the military does, but these men and women deserve our respect and our support.
Who would be screaming the loudest if America were invaded by an enemy force and there were no military to defend us? The police certainly couldn't. They don't have nearly enough manpower or training to repel an invasion. If liberals have their way, private citizens couldn't protect their homes or family because they wouldn't be allowed by law to have guns. Who would we call on to help when natural disasters such as hurricanes and flooding occur? Remember the stories that came out of the Super Dome after Katrina? The National Guard couldn't respond because under mindsets such as the Berkeley city council, the guard wouldn't exist.
Becareful of what you wish for; you might get it.
Gore Working Behind the Scenes
Sunday, February 17, 2008 5:44 PM

Former Vice President Al Gore is working in the shadows of the Democratic presidential nomination battle, working to ensure the party is not ripped apart by a bitterly divided convention.

According to The New York Times, Gore and other senior Democratic leaders are staying neutral in the race between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, because they're worried that a pre-convention fight for 795 superdelegates could be disastrous for the general election.

Democrats want to avoid public perception of a back-room deal that would nullify the will of millions of voters who have cast ballots in primaries and caucuses.

“It would be a problem for the party if the verdict would be something different than the public has decided,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

Also at issue: Whether delegates from Michigan and Florida -- states won by Clinton -- should be counted in the final delegate total. Both states were officially stripped of their delegates by the Democratic Party for holding their primaries earlier than the party wanted.

Gore's endorsement has been sought by both camps, but he has not voiced his support for either candidate yet. A close ally of Gore told the Times: “He recognizes the need for a few party elders to stay on the sidelines to ensure, if needed, that the process is fair and honest. It could very likely take a group of senior party people, including Gore, to settle this, but the only way they can settle it is if they stay on the sidelines now.”

© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Cheating Wife...

A man, returning home a day early from a business trip, got into a taxi at the airport. It was after midnight. While en route to his home, he asked the cabby if he would be a witness. The man suspected is wife was having an affair and he intended to catch her in the act. For $100, the cabby agreed.

Quietly arriving at the house, the husband and cabby tiptoed into the bedroom. The husband switched on the lights, yanked the blanket back and there was his wife in bed with another man. The husband put a gun to the naked man's head.

The wife shouted, "Don't do it! This man has been very generous! I lied when I told you I inherited money. He paid for the Corvette I bought for you He paid for our new cabin cruiser. He paid for your season New York Giant's tickets. He paid for our house at the lake. He paid for our country club membership, and he even pays the monthly dues."

Shaking his head from side-to-side the husband slowly lowered the gun.

He looked over at the cab driver and said, "What would you do?

The cabby replied; "I'd cover his ass with that blanket before he catches a cold."
McCain Says No New Taxes

By AP STAFF
Associated Press
February 18, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican John McCain says there will be no new taxes during his administration if he is elected president.

''No new taxes,'' the likely GOP presidential nominee said during a taped interview broadcast Sunday.

McCain told ABC's ''This Week'' that under no circumstances would he increase taxes, and added that he could ''see an argument, if our economy continues to deteriorate, for lower interest rates, lower tax rates, and certainly decreasing corporate tax rates,'' as well as giving people the ability to write off depreciation and eliminating the alternative minimum tax.

McCain was defending his support for an extension of tax cuts sought by President Bush, which McCain voted against. The Arizona senator now says allowing the tax breaks to expire would amount to an unacceptable tax increase.

Later Sunday, the Democratic Party criticized John McCain's statements on continuing the tax cuts, saying his policies would not differ from the past eight years under the Bush administration.

''John McCain showed today that he is about as far from a maverick as they come,'' said Karen Finney, spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee.

McCain's ''no new taxes'' statement marked a turnaround. Last September, he was forced to defend his refusal to sign a no-new tax pledge offered by the conservative Americans for Tax Reform.

''I stand on my record,'' he said during a televised debate in Durham, N.H. ''I don't have to sign pledges.''

The leading contender for his party's presidential nomination, McCain blamed out-of-control spending for a lack of enthusiasm among Republican voters.

''Spending restraint is why our base is not energized,'' he said. ''I think it's very important that we send a signal to the American people we're going to stop the earmark pork-barrel spending.''

McCain said the $35 billion worth of spending on special projects that Bush signed into law in the last two years amounts to a $1,000 tax credit for every child in America, and would have been better for the economy if spent that way.

McCain also said he was open to the idea of helping homeowners facing foreclosure, provided they were ''legitimate borrowers'' and not ''engaged in speculation.''

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


Seems we've heard "No new taxes" before.

Buffett: ‘I’m a Huge Bull on the American Economy’

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008 1:59 p.m. EST

No bailout needed, says billionaire investor Warren Buffett.

The investing legend said this week that he thinks the U.S. economy can fix itself soon enough, and without a federal stimulus plan.

"I am a huge bull on the American economy," Buffett told Ontario daily The National Post.

A recession is looming, but Buffett says the United States has overcome worse and come out ahead.

"It is not a smart thing to sell the United States short over the years -- or Canada for that matter,” Buffett said. "The world does get better. People get more productive. More human capacity is unleashed over time.”

Buffett said that the financial institutions who got wrapped up in sour mortgage loans can and will sort out those bad investment vehicles without government help.

"The ones that have taken the big write-offs, they're not going out of business but they're selling a lot of new shares in the process so they're diluting future earnings. They're paying a price,” Buffett said.

The banks might not be great investments for a while, even for a few years, but they are not "permanently crippled” by all those subprime loans.

In any case, a government-led bailout simply won’t be necessary, Buffett said. The banks took the risks, and they should take the losses, not American taxpayers, he said.

"Somebody has to bear those losses. Is it better that the XYZ bank bears it or is it better to socialize it for the American public?” Buffett asked.

"I'd rather have the XYZ bank pay for it,” he said.

Buffett also spoke in relative favor of the investments made by foreign countries, often using U.S. dollars from their exports or from high-priced crude oil.

He said the rise of sovereign wealth funds was the "inevitable consequence” of the U.S. trade deficit.

"If we're going to consume US$2 billion a day more of foreign goods than we sell to the rest of the world we have to ship them something in exchange,” Buffett said.

What they get is dollars, which inevitably find their back to the United States in the form of investments here.

"The United States is fueling the sovereign wealth funds. We're making deposits in their wealth funds in effect,” Buffett said.

As for the housing crunch, Buffett says he does not see a major credit problem ahead, or at least not enough to seriously damage the U.S. economy.

"I went through 1982 when short-term money cost 21%. This is not a tough period,” Buffett said.

© NewsMax 2008. All rights reserved.
If Warren Buffet is bullish on the American economy, who am I to argue? Actually, I've felt the same way. Yes, there are people who are hurting right now, but someone suffers during any change in the economy. Remember 9/11? Everyone was suffering in some way because we were hit so hard, emotionally as well as financially. Will it get worse. Possibly, but it will also get better.
I've lived through recessions before and will live through more. I'll cut back on personal spending where appropriate, change my plans for doing some remodeling in my condo, and wait to buy a new car, but I'm not going to worry needlessly about something I can't control.
Change of Attitude

An atheist was spending a quiet day fishing when suddenly his boat was attacked by the Loch Ness monster. In one easy flip, the beast tossed him and his boat high into the air. Then it opened its mouth to swallow both.

As the man sailed head over heels, he cried out, "Oh, my God! Help me!"

At once, the ferocious attack scene froze in place, and as the atheist hung in mid-air, a booming voice came down from the heavens, "I thought you didn't believe in Me!"

"Come on God, give me a break!!" the man pleaded. "Two minutes ago I didn't believe in the Loch Ness monster either!"