Foundation Accepting Applications for Funding for Prototype Development
December 20th, 2006When something seems to good to be true… You know the rest. But one has to grasp for some good news, once in a while.
So, if you have some weird and good idea, maybe these guys can help.
Via: PES Network:
The Phoenix Science Foundation posted an online form yesterday where inventors can submit an application to receive funding to develop a clean energy device prototype.
The foundation was established recently to provide material supply funding, technical advice, and design-for-manufacturing support for new energy prototype development. The foundation sees the demand for such new energy generation capacity to be higher than ever, and thus a need for industrial leadership in new product development to answer that demand.
This is Where George Bush Gets Dangerous
December 20th, 2006Escalation.
Via One Thousand Reasons:
The man is a gambling fool – the kind of loser who doubles up as his political fortunes evaporate.
…
This is where Bush gets dangerous. Witness his utter disdain for the report issued by the Iraq Study Group. Brushing aside its recommendations, he is reportedly discarding its findings for an alternative ‘military solution’ proposed by Jack Keane and Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute – the home of the Likudnik neo-cons who spared no effort in promoting the war. Their recommendations can be summed up in one word – escalation. According to these neo-con wizards, an additional thirty to fifty thousand troops will snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Bush, Democrats Agree: More Troops to Fight the War on Terror
December 20th, 2006The Democrats take over and what’s going to be the result? A larger military, and more troops for Iraq and Afghanistan! That’s right.
* yawn *
Who actually thought that the last midterm election was going to result in a course change on the ship of fools? Anyone?
The old and overused Carroll Quigley quote sums it all up, yet again. From Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in our Time:
The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can “throw the rascals out” at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.
Shit for Brains Democrats? No. Enemy Collaborator Democrats.
Via: Washington Post:
President Bush acknowledged for the first time yesterday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq and said he plans to expand the overall size of the “stressed” U.S. armed forces to meet the challenges of a long-term global struggle against terrorists.
As he searches for a new strategy for Iraq, Bush has now adopted the formula advanced by his top military adviser to describe the situation. “We’re not winning, we’re not losing,” Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. The assessment was a striking reversal for a president who, days before the November elections, declared, “Absolutely, we’re winning.”
In another turnaround, Bush said he has ordered Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to develop a plan to increase the troop strength of the Army and Marine Corps, heeding warnings from the Pentagon and Capitol Hill that multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan are stretching the armed forces toward the breaking point. “We need to reset our military,” said Bush, whose administration had opposed increasing force levels as recently as this summer.
…
Democrats have been calling for additional troops for years. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) proposed an increase of 40,000 troops during his 2004 campaign against Bush, only to be dismissed by the administration. As recently as June, the Bush administration opposed adding more troops because restructuring “is enabling our military to get more war-fighting capability from current end strength.”
But Bush yesterday had changed his mind. “I’m inclined to believe that we do need to increase our troops — the Army, the Marines,” he said. “And I talked about this to Secretary Gates, and he is going to spend some time talking to the folks in the building, come back with a recommendation to me about how to proceed forward on this idea.”
In describing his decision, Bush tied it to the broader struggle against Islamic extremists around the world rather than to Iraq specifically. “It is an accurate reflection that this ideological war we’re in is going to last for a while and that we’re going to need a military that’s capable of being able to sustain our efforts and to help us achieve peace,” he said.
The United States is Insolvent
December 20th, 2006And somehow, the band plays on…
Via: Financial Sense University:
Despite improvement in both the fiscal year 2006 reported net operating cost and the cash-based budget deficit, the U.S. government’s total reported liabilities, net social insurance commitments, and other fiscal exposures continue to grow and now total approximately $50 trillion, representing approximately four times the Nation’s total output (GDP) in fiscal year 2006, up from about $20 trillion, or two times GDP in fiscal year 2000.
U.S. Supreme Court to Consider Eminent Extortion Case for Review
December 20th, 2006Via: Institute for Justice:
A federal court has now approved an extortion scheme using eminent domain under last year’s Kelo decision. Unless the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the rulings, developers may threaten property owners, “Your money or your land.â€
Think this is an overstatement?
Consider what is happening right now in Port Chester, N.Y., to entrepreneur Bart Didden and his business partner, whose case will be considered for review by the U.S. Supreme Court on January 5, 2007.
With the blessing of officials from the Village of Port Chester, the Village’s chosen developer approached Didden and his partner with an offer they couldn’t refuse. Because Didden planned to build a CVS on his property—land the developer coveted for a Walgreens—the developer demanded $800,000 from Didden to make him “go away†or ordered Didden to give him an unearned 50 percent stake in the CVS development. If Didden refused, the developer would have the Village of Port Chester condemn the land for his private use. Didden rejected the bold-faced extortion. The very next day the Village of Port Chester condemned Didden’s property through eminent domain so it could hand it over to the developer who made the threat.
French Troops ‘Had bin Laden in Sights’
December 20th, 2006Via: news.com.au:
A DOCUMENTARY says French special forces had Osama bin Laden in their sights twice about three years ago but their US superiors never ordered them to fire.
The documentary, due to air next year and seen by Reuters on Tuesday, says the troops could have killed the al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan but the order to shoot never came, possibly because it took too long to request it.
“In 2003 and 2004 we had bin Laden in our sights. The sniper said ‘I have bin Laden’,” an anonymous French soldier is quoted as saying.
The French military, however, said that the incidents never happened and the report was “erroneous information”.
Made in USA: A Big Slump
December 20th, 2006Via: Newsweek:
The world is unprepared for a slump made in America. That’s the distinct impression I gather from six weeks of globe-hopping that took me to Japan, South Africa, the Middle East, Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Australia.
Most I met believe that the world has now “decoupled” from the United States—with increasingly robust economies from Asia to Europe fully capable of standing on their own in the event of an American soft patch. Two key questions come to mind: What if the U.S. soft patch isn’t all that soft after all? What if a supposedly robust world turns out to be more dependent on American than it is willing to admit?
The overseas view is that America is fine—that there’s no need to sweat the current downshift. There is deep trust in the line of analysis favored by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke—that any slowing is nothing more than a housing-related pullback that shouldn’t spill over to the rest of the $13 trillion U.S. economy.
Oh really?
Thailand: Made Ya Look!
December 20th, 2006Via: Guardian:
Shares on the battered Bangkok market staged a recovery this morning after Tuesday’s 15% plunge, but dealers said confidence remains fragile amid fears of a re-run of the Asian financial crisis a decade ago.
By 12.30 local time, the Thai SET Index had jumped 11% to 688.17, its biggest gain in almost eight years. The market crashed by 15% on Tuesday as the Bank of Thailand and the finance ministry imposed currency controls in an attempt to curb the strength of the Thai baht.
The move sparked a wave of selling, sending shares into freefall. The 15% drop was the biggest-ever one-day fall suffered by the Thai stock market and the subsequent reversal of some of the currency restrictions by the government did little to reassure investors.
Solar Towers
December 20th, 2006When the lights go off and the governments of the world try to sell you a chaos theory about energy, remember these two words: heat rises.
Here’s something else to remember:
Cost of the war in Iraq per week: $3 billion
Cost to build this solar tower: $1 million
That is, with the money spent on the criminal war in Iraq, over the period of just seven days, three thousand solar towers could be built.
This is proof, with mathematical certainty, that the energy crisis is a complete and total scam.
Related: Enviromission
Blackwater USA and the Rise of Private Military Contractors
December 20th, 2006Do we really need another Blackwater Whores of War story? Oh, why not…
Via: The Weekly Standard:
For obvious reasons, the location of the headquarters of Blackwater USA isn’t well-publicized. Officially, the only public trace of the world’s largest private military training facility is a post office box in Moyock, North Carolina, an unremarkable rib-shack pit-stop on the way to the Outer Banks.
But the place isn’t hard to find. From Washington, D.C., head south. As soon as you cross the state line, follow the sound of gunfire until you find an armed compound half the size of Manhattan.
