30 September 2008

Smoking Gun - Freddie Mac Spared by Democrats


Here it is, the smoking gun we've been looking for. The proof that everyone needs to see the real cause of the Housing Crisis. How Democrats let bad loans spread like a cancer throughout the financial system bringing it to utter ruin. I've already written about how this all started, back in the Clinton Era, but here's just to show you that it wasn't something where no one kn
ew what was going on, and people were clueless. There were willing and able accomplices to keep the scam on America going. Where's the coverage. Where's the spotlights. Where's CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and their Coverage?
I've seen some of the reviews on this video on YouTube and I
was pretty shocked, there are some saying that Obama knew nothing of this and was clueless. First of all, the video shows his own economic adviser defending Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Second, who do you think was first put in charge of finding his VP? Third, Obama was the largest recipient of Political Contributions from these Organizations.

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The Proof is clear. Democrats defended these guys so they could rake in their bonuses, then turn around and kick some cold hard cash back to them. Will anything be done about this? With Democrats in charge of congress I doubt it.
McCain knew about this 3 years ago, he led efforts to try to stop it, but with Democrats in charge of Congress, it was practically impossible. Fox News is the only network doing stories on this. Where is everyone else?

26 September 2008

Broward Teachers Are Asking Too Much


Teachers Are Asking For Too Much

BY MARTY RUBINSTEIN
Guest Columnist  
 
  Last year, while the Teacher contract really wasn’t up for dispute, I went to bat for the Teachers of Broward County Schools. 
 What I posted here a year ago wound up not only as a published Letter To The Editor in the Sun-Sentinel, but likewise as an Editorial produced by the Sentinel Editorial Board as well after their investigation of the information I exposed.
Nice to know that I was ahead of the pack even then. 
This year I say NO.
Don’t be bamboozled by the hype that Broward Teachers are getting no raise this year, or the School Board is offering Zero percent.  Teachers have already received a 3 percent raise as of July 1st.
From the BTU Negotiation news posted July 8th:  “BTU-EP Chief Negotiator Dane Ramson said the requested information (School Board finances) was to help the union’s team identify possible “pots” of money during such difficult economic times. The funds could be utilized for the salary increases of instructional staff.”
“District negotiators flatly rejected the union’s salary increase proposal above the negotiated step movement that took place effective July 1, 2008.”
Don’t swallow the mis-information that Teachers are underpaid.  They aren’t.  Give that a moment to sink in and then read on…
Let me debunk some common myths.
Teachers need to be paid like professionals.  Broward Teachers start at $38,500 while most professionals start at $24,000.  Broward Teachers top out at $72,000 while most professionals top out at $55,000. And with Master’s, PHDs and other certifications, there are many Teachers in Broward making upwards of $92,000.  Hardly slave wages.
Teachers don’t get paid vacations.  Most professionals get two weeks off each year for the salaries they earn. Teachers get thirteen weeks.  Two weeks for winter break, one week for spring break and ten weeks for summer break.  Most professionals get five sick days each year, use them or lose them by December 31st. Teachers not only get ten sick days per year, but they can accumulate unused leave year to year.
Teachers don’t get paid holidays.  Yes they do.  While not defined as holidays in their contact, holidays are defined as days off through school closing. Even though Teachers don’t work on Columbus Day, they still get paid for the day as though it was a regular work day.  Ditto with New Year’s Day.  July 4th, too.  And just how many professionals are required to work on those days for no extra pay?
Teachers work long hours.  Yes they do.  So do most professionals.  60 and 70 hour weeks with weekends are not uncommon in either the professional or teaching world.
As I mentioned, teachers have already received a 3 percent raise as of July 1, negotiated LAST YEAR. 
 But that’s not enough for some, despite the fact that the voters have mandated reductions in cost of government and lower taxes. 
 TEACHERS HAVE GOTTEN THEIR RAISES THIS YEAR DESPITE THE MANDATE, but the union wants more.  Everybody else is suffering in the current economy.  Miami Dade is getting no raise as of this writing, but the BTU wants more.
The issue last year and the year before as a School Board Member was not one of percentages, but of equitable distribtuion.  The Union distribution of raises was and still is a JOKE.  It’s called a step system and MUST be dismantled at all costs. 
 The joke is that Teachers with less than 18 years get next to nothing, while Teachers with 18 years or more get 10, 17 and even 20 percent raises.  And that’s exactly the case with this year’s raises.  Just go to btuonline.com and take a look at the contract salary schedule.  $50, $75, $100 raises.  Not per week.  Per year.  Enough for a tank of gas.  Maybe.
That changed in 2006 with my leadership and again in 2007.  In 2006, Teachers received 6.3 percent ACROSS THE BOARD, not distributed according to the step scale.  Every teacher received a $2,050 raise and in 2007, that raise was $1,725.
The bottom line here is that while Teachers are feeling the pain with rising prices as are the rest of us, they’ve already gotten something that most of us haven’t. Demanding more is just plain piggy.
Me?  Like Will Rogers; “I’m not a member of any organized party.  I’m a Democrat.”
 (Marty Rubinstein is a former Broward County School Board member.  See more of his views on martyrubinstein.com)

23 September 2008

The Root of All Evil

It's interesting to see the candidates trying to bloody each other over who's at fault for this Housing mess. The real root of the Problem is Bill Clinton, the problem however, is that most American's are so short sighted that they can't believe that someone who served so long ago, is still having an impact on our economy. Consider this though, before Bill Clinton's policy changes, if a bank was going to underwrite a loan to you or anyone else, it had to make the vast majority of these loans out to strict policy guidelines set by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Income had to be verified, if there were no W2's there had to be at least 2 years of Tax Returns verifying your income. Credit had to be at least reasonably good and a strong 5 to 10% or better down payment was generally required (depending on Credit). If there was no income verification, and no tax returns, the only way it could be done was with a hefty 25% down payment. The reasons behind this was simple, if the bank could not sell the loan to investors, the bank was stuck with the loan for the life of the loan. Most banks had Community Reinvestment programs where they would allocate possibly 1% of local profits to go to low income families or no doc type loans, but generally these types of loans were very few and far between. Also, if you had a good relationship with the bank, they might do Investment loans for you, since they figured you would sell the home in a fairly short period of time and they would get their cash back. Finally, cities often put together Community Development loans offered to first time home buyers that often required no more than 1 to 3% down and were generally available at reduced interest rates. The vast majority of these "risky" loans though were simply not forwarded to Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Investors. They knew that these types of loans would undermine confidence in the system.

Clinton Chages the Game:
The Clinton Administration had a goal of making housing affordable to more people and so they made some very basic and fundamental changes at Freddie Mac and Fannie mae that basically said that these two companies could now start taking these types of "No Doc" loans that would usually only be available with a significant down payment The argument was that there were a lot of people that were self employed as Painters, Tile Setters, and other service professions making decent money, but writing off a lot of their personal expenses as Business expenses. These people could definitely afford to keep up with their mortgage payments even if they didn't have w2's. While that may have been the target audience, the abuses that happened when people thought they could buy homes for the sole purpose of flipping them was an unintended consequence. For nearly a decade after these regulation changes were made, they seemed to be working just as intended, but at some point the abuses started and as Wall Street saw money to be made, they jumped in with both feet into the bandwagon.

The last banking crisis 18 years ago (the Savings and Loan Mess) taught investors that the only S&L's that were saved from the mess were the ones who invested most of their cash in Home Mortgages, so they figured that this time would be the same thing. Unfortunately, they didn't realize that the rules had changed and this was now a different game.
The biggest problems came when the very same institutions that were supposed to be monitored by Congress started becoming some of it's biggest campaign contributors. These guys basically started cooking the books to make sure the Companies hit targets required to trigger their Bonuses. McCain began to blow the wistle on this 2 years ago, but of course no one listened, since they were doling out cold hard cash to practically everyone in Congress that had anything to do with thier oversight. Obama was one of the biggest beneficiaries of this money and he now acts as if McCain is somehow to blame, when McCain is the only one on record trying to stop these guys!

You Want It, We've Got It

There are those who say that the Bible says that Money is the root of all evil, but that's not what it says in the Bible. What it says is that "The Love of money" is the root of all evil. Well this love fest got just a bit out of control didn't it.

21 September 2008

Barrack Obama - The Media Love Fest Continues

I was poking around the Internet when I stumbled across this video by 60 Min. and my jaw nearly dropped to the ground. In an interview with Barrack Obama, 60 min. highlighted the fact that Joe Biden hammered on his lack of experience, Hillary Clinton hammered on his lack of experience and now John McCain is hammering on his lack of experience. 60 min. then went on to say "does the fact that he chose someone as his vice president someone who has less experience than you take that weapon out of his arsenal?"
I couldn't believe what I was hearing!! I had to rewind that several times to make sure I heard it correctly! The interviewer is talking to a man who has done absolutely nothing with his life. Well, other than spend about a Million a day of your money on Pork and his trying to get money for his wife's Hospital (where she received a hefty raise thank you very much). He hasn't run any companies, hasn't run a town a city a state, absolutely zero executive experience and the man is actually suggesting that a sitting governor somehow has less experience than he has!?!

Not only is Sarah Palin a sitting Governor, but in the short time she's been running Alaska, (a state with a population fairly equal to Joe Biden's State) she's cut wasteful spending in Alaska even though the state's awash in Petro Dollars. The type of fiscal conservative needed in Washington. In addition, Palin has eliminated fraud, busted up scams and hasn't been afraid to take anyone on, including members of her own party. What has Obama done? Nothing, absolutely nothing, other than his ethics bill of course. However, let's examine Mr. Obama on Ethics. Did his ethics bill stop him from taking massive amounts of Cash from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae? Is that why he didn't want to go along with John McCain when McCain called for their reform 2 years ago? Apparently Obama talks about ethics reform, while McCain actually tries to make it happen. McCain's bill was defeated, but apparently he was right.

You Want It, We've Got It

15 September 2008

Woopie Goldberg - A Slave To Her Ignorance

It amazes me that people accept the one sided bias of the media with their usual sheepishness, such as how Michelle Obama goes on to The View with a list of topics she won't discuss, and gets the soft ball treatment from them. McCain on the other hand goes on the view and he gets the Major League treatment, but not only that, gets downright outrageous comments and accusations lobbed at him.

In response to McCain asserting that he would appoint judges that would not "legislate from the bench", in other words make up their own laws and instead stick to interpreting our constitution, Ms. Goldberg asked the question, "Do I have to worry about the return of Slavery". What?!?! Is she
really that dim?

First, let's explore the history of slavery a bit. Slavery was not an institution suffered only by blacks, throughout the history of mankind, many societies such as Greece, the Baghdad Caliphate (Iraq) and Rome were constantly invading their neighbors to fill an unending appetite for slave labor. Just like the spectacle of the Colosseum, with it's "to the death" battles, is no longer considered a civilized event that no civilized society would partake in any longer, slavery as well is a barbaric thing of the past.

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Next, let's go on to the conditions that allowed slavery. In the early days of the Colonies, slavery was allowed by our British masters and so land owners especially in the South utilized these rules as a way to farm their vast land holdings. When the colonies wanted to break away from the rule of England, they needed the South to help out in the effort, so as a compromise, in order to bring everyone together, slavery was basically put off by the constitution for 20 years, to give states time to transition their societies away from slavery, this is what happened in the North where slavery was officially ended without federal intervention in most states. The South however, saw things differently and wanted slavery to continue. Clearly, Democrats were not up to the task of ending slavery and it took
a Republican and the religious right to make it happen. The first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln ended slavery, while the Democrats fought to keep it alive. Ms. Goldberg, why do you think the Civil War happened? There are the revisionist out there that say that it was fought over some other issue, but let's take a look at the facts shall we? Lincoln's major campaign theme was the campaign against the expansion of Slavery, he claimed that Slavery was unconstitutional and that Science had taught us that Blacks were not "Three Fifths" of a person as we were told by the Democrats (it took another Republican law to end Democrat Primaries counting "Negro" votes as Three Fifths a vote too), upon the Republican victory, seven souther states declared their succession and independence from the U.S. After the south attacked the north at Fort Sumter, 4 more slave holding states declared their independence. Any student of history will tell you that Slavery was the ONLY issue that the Civil War was fought over, all other issues were nothing but peripheral instances that could have easily been resolved without a war.

So the short answer is, No Whoopi, you don't have to worry about the return of Slavery, Slavery is unconstitutional. The definition of rights, true rights, basically ends at the beginning of another person's rights. Science has also shown us that people of color are every bit as human as the rest of us and therefore not subject to the Democrats "Three Fifth's" rules where they could be enslaved, deprived of voting rights and so on.

28 August 2008

Why Star Wars Galaxies Online SuX!

I've been playing Star Wars Galaxies on and off for the past 3 years or so. Ever since the Combat Upgrade or "CU" and New Game Experience or "NGE", they've just REALLY fouled up the game. I tend to jump in for a month or two, reminisce about how the game used to be and then cancel my account for another 6 months to a year.
First of all, let me go over what made the game interesting to begin with. For me, I like not only the Combat aspect of games, but also the ability to build things online, so SWG was like a gift from the gaming Gods. It had (and still has) one of the best crafting systems out of practically any MMO out there. Eve Online comes pretty close, but SWG has the ability to create truly unique versions of in game items that Eve doesn't have. By utilizing raw materials with Superior qualities, you could craft components that work in a superior fashion to those made by other less discerning crafters. Therefore, you could truly make a name for yourself in the game as someone who makes superior products. As an example, by utilizing high conductivity metals in crafting certain weapons, their energy output could be markedly improved. So the quest was on for Crafters to get the best materials to work with, and the fighters to find the best crafters to buy from.
In addition, there were mind expanding "Illegal drugs" that could be made in the game by characters who were part chef, part medic that would give the user temporary abilities that made them fighting machines. However, once they wore off, that person would drop and throw up leaving them vulnerable to attack and death. They had to run quick to a Doc to heal the battle wounds and an Entertainer to heal the Battle Fatigue. For this reason, all the cantina's or Bars in all the cities in SWG, were always filled with Entertainers and Medics. While death was easily overcome with a decent clone, it did take it's toll on your goods to where they decayed faster and had to be replaced or repaired to stay in good working order. Keeping your clone up to date made this less of a problem.
What made the game interesting was the unique interdependency's that the game relied upon so that each of the 33 professions had something to contribute to the game. Each was an integral part of a greater machine that made life in the game very interesting and fulfilling.
Additionally, factional warfare was a daily part of life and if you wanted to take part in the Rush that it was to be part of the Galactic Civil War (GCW), then you could Ally yourself with either the Rebel Army or the Imperials and engage in Player VS Player combat at any time and at any place.

Then the Socialist Took Over.

As usual and just like every other game, especially EVE, War is expensive. Swords break, blasters fall apart, armor gets holes in it and people lose things. The ones who complained the most were the ones who simply wanted to jump in, get a good fight then jump out. Those people however, already had a game, it's called Planetside.
Some at Sony started thinking that it wasn't fair that some people actually lost their precious weapons or armor, so they removed decay from the game. Things no longer broke, ruining the economy for the crafters.
Additionally, since those greedy Doctors had to heal battle wounds from those who went out to fight, they removed Battle wounds from the game and simply made it to where people would heal automatically after being away from combat for a few minutes.
To top it off, the game originally had 3 bars for your character's health. Health, Action and Mind or HAM for short. To keep greedy entertainers from making a buck off healing your Battle Fatique on your mind, they basically eliminated the Mind bar, which fits in perfectly with how the new design team at Sony thought about their pllayer base, they thought we didn't have a mind, so why reflect that in the game. Of course this also meant that our drugs would no longer work, since they were Mind Expanding drugs, so those were eliminated from the game, along with the Chefs that used to make them.
Additionally, since the Game Masters figured that us Artisans and Crafters were making too much cash, they simply started giving away all the best stuff on quests that most players could complete on their own.
Now the game is a boring little utopia, where you obviously can't win, because you can't lose either. Anything that you lose in the game is automagically respawned so you never lose anything. I could jump into one of the worst battles in my life and if my wife calls me for dinner, I can just drop everything and go, which makes it very convenient, but at the same time, very boring. You can't ahve an adrenaline rush over the possibility of a loss, when you can't lose anything.
Even participating in PVP is no longer the RUSH that it used to be. While you can still align yourself to the Imperials or Rebels, it's now much easier to be part of either group, while staying out of Combat, so people have to give "consent" to be attacked!! Yes I can see it now:
Imperial - Halt Rebel Scum, or I'll shoot.
Rebel - See ya, ***Climbs on his Swoop Bike and takes off
Imperial - Please Click Accept to Duel
Rebel - Sorry, maybe you can kick my butt some other time
Unfortunately, the Socialists have destroyed the game and most people have left it because of this. Only 2 servers remain popular in the game, Bria and Bloodfin, and even those two don't have anywhere near the populations they used to have before all the changes. You would think that this alone would be enough for Sony to demand their game designers go back to the old system, but in typical Socialist fashion they'd rather have their little group in shared equal Misery then go back to a system were some prospered, some got ripped off, some got hurt and most did OK but everyone had fun.

14 July 2008

Bush Finally Lifting Executive Ban on Offshore Oil Drilling

President Bush will announce today that he is lifting the executive order banning offshore oil drlling.
Unfortunately for us stuck paying $4.00+ per gallon for Gas, Congress still needs to repeal the Moratorium on Offshore Oil drilling as well. Unlikely to happen with the Democrats in Control of Congress. They are still beholden to the Sierra Club and other environmental groups vehemently opposed to offshore oil drilling, even though they can't point to a single instance of an Oil rig destroying a beach or the other nonsense that they spout about environmental damage.

"There is no excuse for delay," the president said in a last month in a Rose Garden statement.

"In the short run, the American economy will continue to rely largely on oil, and that means we need to increase supply here at home," Bush said, adding that there is no more pressing issue for many Americans than gas prices.

Bush's father, concerned about the effects of falling Oil prices on the Mexican Economy, President George H.W. Bush, signed the executive order in 1990 banning offshore drilling.

Experts have gone from saying it would take 10 years to 3 years before we see any oil, once all the Moratoriums are lifted, but only time will tell who will be proven correct. One thing is for sure, if we do nothing, prices will continue to spiral upwards. Doubts on Global Warming, shouldn't stop us from sourcing our Oil from the Middle East to sourcing it from ourselves.

One thing is for sure, unless someone puts pressure on Congressman David Obey to re-open the Appropriations Process, we definitely won't see any progress on this issue.

Maybe now is the time to start a fresh round of Operation Drill Bit, to remind Congress that we're still overpaying for Gas.

WalMart - Of The Morons, By The Morons, For The Morons

I was looking over a few forums the other day when people were talking about how terrible Wal-Mart was. Personally I hadn't shopped there in a while because since Sam Walton died, I've felt that the employees there simply don't care any more so I stopped shopping there. I figured I'd stop by a local 'supercenter' and check out what all the Hubbub was about.
What a mess! I went to a Super Center near me and food in the Grocery section just looked, unappetizing, a lot of the surrounding areas were very dirty. I thought to myself, "No... definitely wouldn't buy any food from this place". So I looked around in Electronics, and saw entire bins of old crappy movies for $5.00, movies that I've long since either rented and thought, OK that was a waste of 2 hours, or simply thought to myself, "I'm not going to waste 2 hours on that". What I found astonishing is that most of the employees that I ran into, didn't speak English (or just barely - or maybe they were just pretending?), and seemed very annoyed with me for even bothering to ask them questions.


I thought OK, they must be selling things here that people
actually want for decent prices, but everything that I saw was either the same price, or maybe 1 or 2% lower than where I normally buy these things. Places that usually keep their stores clean, well stocked and filled with employees that are only too happy to help you. Like Whole Foods, Publix, Ace Hardware, Target, Game Stop and Brandsmart.

So I started thinking, OK, I can see the Morons who work here, people who mostly are unemployable in every other sector of the economy, maybe that's why Wal-Mart's cases of theft have gone up so dramatically.

What about those who shop here? What kind of Moron puts himself through the harrowing experience of shopping at Wal-Mart, then waiting in line for a half hour, just to save a few pennies? So let's say you save 5%. The average shopper spends $50.00, is the $2.50 worth your dignity, and the dignity of those that Wal-mart employs?

I used to work at Home Depot when Home Depot actually cared about their employees. There were no caps on Overtime, there were no caps on Salaries, and we would get a raise every 6 months (at least those of us who deserved a raise for hard work). After about 8 years, the company decided to invest a half billion dollars in the Olympics, and take it out of the employees hides. First to go was the overtime, then the raises were cut back to every year, then they put caps on Salaries. Keep in mind that up until they instituted these changes, the company had double digit increases in sales and more importantly profitability the entire time that I worked there. When the changes started coming through, I was in management, so I wasn't as affected by the changes, but all my best people were leaving. After 2 years of these shenanigans, I cashed in my chips and left. I didn't feel that I could be part of a company that no longer believed their employees were their greatest asset. My wife couldn't believe that I sold my stock in the company after I had seen the incredible rises in value over the previous 10 years. I told her, if the company continues to treat employees this way, short term, they may see a rise in profits, but eventually the company will fall. That was back in January of 1999, and while the stock did continue to go up by about 20% over the next year, by January of 2000, Home Depot Started a decline that led to the stock falling to less than half what I had sold it for. Home Depot has now announced that they will be closing stores. Big difference from the days me and my crew were the "Big Dogs" over there. Sure some of it has to do with the housing crisis, by their decline started, well before the housing slump hit.

I see the same things going on with Wal-Mart. It is a company perpetually in decline since the death of Sam Walton. Their stock peaked in January of 2000, eight years after Sam Walton died and over 8 years ago
and has been in decline since. How many stores have they opened in the past 8 years? Yet, their market share has fallen considerably in the Retail Sector. Wal-Mart is a company running on borrowed time and running on the Ghost of Sam Walton. Sam actually cared about his employees, he didn't have salary caps, he gave them health benefits, he made them feel like they were part of the team, the current management just sees them as just another cost to be controlled, tells them to get Government assistance for Health Care and limits growth in employee earnings with Salary Caps along with a Zero overtime policy.

I find it amusing though, all these websites out there that pushing:

  • We need to regulate Wal-Mart.
  • Chicago won't let them build, because they want Wal-Mart to pay a higher Minimum wage than every other business.
  • People want Wal-Mart to stop using cheap Chinese Labor.
  • People say Wal-Mart destroys their Towns (As if small towns haven't been disappearing for decades)
I'm not for any sort of regulation of Wal-Mart or any government intervention what so ever. All I'm saying is we should do like we did with Sears when they cut out all the full time employees and replaced them with kids that didn't care. Stop going there. that's what drove them into Bankruptcy. Sure at Sears it was easy, because they had high prices, and we figured Wal Mart had better prices AND better service. Well they don't have the better services anymore, but there are plenty of other choices out there that do. Sure you might pay a buck or two more, but isn't that worth the headache of dealing with Wal-Mart's shoddy enterprise? Maybe it's just me, but I've been to at least 5 Wal-Marts around Delray Beach, Florida and found every single one of them to be dirty, unwelcoming, filled with people who don't speak English, and filled with people who don't want to help you. So why go there?

Overall, I feel that Wal-Mart has been good for the economy in that it has greatly helped to keep prices low, but Wal-Mart sacrificed customer service to continue to lower prices, while trying to increase profitably. This one catastrophic decision, has left Wal-Mart losing market share, the only reason their sales are up, is because they continue to open new stores, but their percentage of the overall pie in Retail is slipping. A few more years of this will not be sustainable for them and they'll end up going the way of Sears, until a new contender rises up to over power them with the right combination of Better service and decent prices. There's a reason why Wal-Mart is the only company on Fortunes list of the 20 most profitable companies that doesn't offer all it's employees great pay and benefits. It's because it's a model that is unsustainable. Sure, just like Home Depot, you can have short term gains, but they all eventually come back to haunt you. What's ashame is that Sam Walton left David Glass a perfectly decent company that everyone from Wall Street to Main Street loved, and today it's a company that neither feels very comfortable with.

The greatest thing about Capitalism is that we have choices, and we can choose not to patronize businesses who we don't feel are good for the community, so here's one for all you Wal-Mart Morons out there. Just Say No!

Sources for this story:
Wal-Mart Tries Again to Salvage it's Declining Public Image.
Wal-Mart Chart
Wal-Mart Declining Morals
Wal-Mart Movie

Bush Administration Puts Off Greenhouse Gas Regulation


Now that Global Warming has ended, gas prices have gone insane and Nasa has backtracked on 1998 being the warmest year ever, Bush has decided to leave Climate change to his successor. I think it's a good move considering the direction the economy is going. Bush figures he doesn't want to go down as the President who destroyed the Economy, but boy oh boy, are the Enironuts going to go crazy!

Here's the text:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Environmentalists are seething after the administration of US President George W. Bush delayed any decision on regulating greenhouse gases, likely leaving any substantive action to his successor.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a 588-page report Friday that cites "the complexity and magnitude" of the issue and calls for 120 days of public comment.

The decision follows a Supreme Court ruling ordering the EPA last year to devise ways to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from motor vehicles under the Clean Air Act.

"The Bush administration's refusal to respond to the Supreme Court and do something about global warming is not just illegal, it is grossly immoral," said Danielle Fugere of Friends of the Earth, an environmental group.

"President Bush's inaction in the face of this crisis is one of the greatest failures of leadership in presidential history," she said in a statement.

The EPA said there were doubts whether "greenhouse gases could be effectively controlled under the Clean Air Act."

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson wrote that regulating greenhouse gases under any portion of the act "could result in an unprecedented expansion of EPA authority that would have a profound effect on virtually every sector of the economy and touch every household in the land."

David Bookbinder, the climate counsel for the Sierra Club environmental group, said the EPA's decision underscores Johnson's "utter lack of credibility."

"The American public, Congress, world leaders, and even career government officials are counting down the days until this administration leaves town and a new president undoes the damage done by President Bush and makes up for nearly a decade of lost time -- time we didn't have to waste in the first place," Bookbinder said in a statement.

The EPA decision came after Bush agreed during the Group of Eight industrialized nations meeting in Japan this week to cut carbon emissions blamed for global warming by at least half by 2050. It was the strongest language yet signed by the US leader.

The Bush administration has fiercely opposed any imposition of binding emissions limits on the nation's industry and has refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas blamed for global warming. (Though in all honesty Clinton signed it, but never presented it to congress).

But the Supreme Court ruled in April 2007 that the EPA must consider greenhouse gases as pollutants and deal with them.

The ruling came in response to legal action undertaken by Massachusetts and a dozen other states and environmental groups that went to court to determine whether the agency had the authority to regulate greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide emissions.


Environmentalists have alleged that since Bush came to office in 2001 his administration has ignored and tried to hide looming evidence of global warming and the key role of human activity in climate change.

At a hearing in November 2006, Massachusetts argued that it risked losing more than 4.5 meters (15 feet) of land all along its coastline if the sea level should rise by 30 centimeters (one foot).

But the Bush administration, backed by nine states and several auto manufacturers, urged the court not to intervene, arguing that if the situation was so dire it could not be solved by a simple legal decision.

It further argued that reducing emissions from new US motor vehicles would have only a minor effect on global climate change.

While the court's decision is unlikely to change US policy, it has ramifications on several other ongoing issues, such as the agency's refusal to regulate emissions from electricity plants which produce some 40 percent of US carbon dioxide emissions. Motor vehicles are responsible for just 20 percent.


12 July 2008

Global Warming Has Officially Ended

The Space and Science Research Center Issues A Formal Declaration:

Global Warming Has Ended – The Next Climate Change to A Pronounced Cold Era Has Begun.

In a news conference held in Orlando, Florida, Mr. John L. Casey, Director of the Space and Science Research Center, issued a landmark declaration on climate change.

“After an exhaustive review of a substantial body of climate research, and in conjunction with the obvious and compelling new evidence that exists, it is time that the world community acknowledges that the Earth has begun its next climate change. In an opinion echoed by many scientists around the world, the Space and Science Research Center (SSRC), today declares that the world’s climate warming of the past decades has now come to an end. A new climate era has already started that is bringing predominantly colder global temperatures for many years into the future. In some years this new climate will create dangerously cold weather with significant ill-effects world wide. Global warming is over – a new cold climate has begun.”

According to Mr. Casey, who spoke to print and TV media representatives today, this next cold era is coming about as a result of the reversal of the 206 year cycle of the sun which he independently discovered and announced in May of 2007.

Casey amplified the declaration by adding, “Though the SSRC first announced a prediction of the coming new climate era to the US government and media in early 2007, the formal declaration has been held off pending actual events that validate the previously forecast new cold period. We now have unmistakable signs of accelerating decline in global temperatures and growing glacial ice, coupled with the dramatic if not startling changes in the sun’s surface including unusually low and slow sunspot activity. These signs, in conjunction with the research center’s ‘relational cycle theory ” or “RC Theory” of climate change which predicted these changes, now leaves no doubt that the process has already been initiated. It is also unstoppable. Our world is rapidly cooling. Even though we still may have isolated warm temperature records, the global trend to a colder era is now irreversible.”

As to whether others agree with his declaration, Casey congratulated the many other scientists around the world who had done “many years of outstanding research” which he used to corroborate his own research after he first found these climate-driving solar cycles and formulated the RC Theory. In the news conference he listed and praised more than a dozen other scientists, most in foreign countries, who had come to the same prediction on the Earth’s climate shift to a cold era.



He said, “I have consulted with colleagues world wide who have reached a similar conclusion. They have likewise been attempting to advise their own governments and media of the impending cold era and the difficult times that the extreme cold weather may bring. They are to be commended for their bold public stances and publication of their research which of course has been in direct opposition to past conventional thought on the nature and causes of the last twenty years of global warming. These last one or two decades of increased global warming were essentially the peak heating phase of the 206 year cycle.”

In the one hour presentation, Casey detailed the solar activity cycles that have been driving the Earth’s climate for the past 1,200 years. He condemned the climate change confusion and alarmism which has accompanied seven separate periods over the past 100 years, where scientists and the media flip-flopped on reporting that the Earth was either entering a new ‘ice age’ or headed for a global meltdown where melting glacial ice would swamp the planet’s coastal cities.

Much of the presentation focused on the positive and negative effects the next climate change will have on the State of Florida, the nation and the world.

Some effects of the coming cold climate on NASA’s space program were highlighted including an extended “quiet period’ produced by reduced solar activity. Casey believes this cold climate era will be the best time since the space program began to conduct human spaceflight. Advises Casey, “With the sun going into what I call “solar hibernation,” the harmful effects of solar radiation on astronauts in space will be minimized.”

Regarding the impacts of the next cold climate period on hurricanes, Casey summarized by saying “I would not be surprised to see the lowest number and least intense storms ever recorded in the US during this cold epoch, for obvious reasons. We should not forget however, the buildup along coastlines and an ever increasing population may continue to make Florida’s hurricanes potentially more destructive in the future, regardless of the number we have.”

On the subject of cold climate effects on agriculture, Casey was not optimistic. “I can see,” he added, “just like the last time this 206 year cycle brought cold, that there will be substantial damage to the world’s agricultural systems. This time however we will have eight billion mouths to feed during the worst years around 2031 compared to previously when we had only one billion. Yet even then, many died from the combined effects of bitter cold and lack of food.”

In his concluding remarks, Casey called on all leaders to immediately move from the past global warming planning to prepare for the already started change to a cold climate.

He ended with, “Now that the new cold climate has begun to arrive, we must immediately start the preparation, the adaptation process. At least because of the RC Theory we now have some advance warning. No longer do we need to wonder what the Earth’s next climate changes will be two or three generations out. But we must nonetheless be ready to adjust with our now more predictable solar cycles that are the primary determinants of climate on Earth.”

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