And this one is in our own backyard. I wonder if "Porky" Oberstar had anything to do with this one?
Car accidents and house fires may soon cost Duluth residents more.
Duluth city administrators are considering charging property owners and drivers fees for police and fire responses.
City spokesman Jeff Papas says the amount of the fee hasn't been set yet.
If the Duluth City Council agrees to charge fees, it would then set an amount. The council could vote July 28.
Papas says the city is looking into whether it can charge different fees for residents and nonresidents. If so, fire and vehicle extraction fees would apply to everyone, but only nonresidents would pay to have accidents investigated.
Papas says the fees could bring in an extra $100,000 per year for the city facing a $4.5 million deficit.
How about spending within your means, then you guys up in Duluth wouldn't have a budget deficit, and you would have no excuse to pawn off your irresponsibility on the good folks who live there. Sounds like a plan to me!
Hours after Tony Blair dodged the issue at question time, promising a full debate in Parliament before any decision is made, Gordon Brown, whose position as PM in waiting is so far unchallenged, announced his commitment to Britain's retention of her independent nuclear capability.
We may ask ourselves, however, where the line is drawn between "retention" and "proliferation".
Treasury sources have made it clear that, while Brown spoke of retaining the nuclear deterrent, he is prepared to set aside £20bn to replace Trident.
Straight talk on the right to life... versus the Obama double-speak support for the culture of death...
From LifeNews:
Thank you for inviting me to address the 2008 National...
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
...he (Jackson) and the entire civil rights establishment pursued equality through the manipulation of white guilt.
Their faith was in the easy moral leverage over white America that the civil rights victories of the 1960s had suddenly bestowed on them. So Mr. Jackson and his generation of black leaders made keeping whites "on the hook" the most sacred article of the post-'60s black identity.
They ushered in an extortionist era of civil rights, in which they said to American institutions: Your shame must now become our advantage. To argue differently -- that black development, for example, might be a more enduring road to black equality -- took whites "off the hook" and was therefore an unpardonable heresy. For this generation, an Uncle Tom was not a black who betrayed his race; it was a black who betrayed the group's bounty of moral leverage over whites. And now comes Mr. Obama, who became the first viable black presidential candidate precisely by giving up his moral leverage over whites.
Mr. Obama's great political ingenuity was very simple: to trade moral leverage for gratitude. Give up moral leverage over whites, refuse to shame them with America's racist past, and the gratitude they show you will constitute a new form of black power. They will love you for the faith you show in them.
I think he's right about the root cause of the Jackson's enmity although I'd throw in a little jealousy as well. However I don't think he's entirely right about the gratitude part. That may play a small part but it occurred to me that a large portion of Obama's appeal is the fact that he is in all visible ways the opposite of George W Bush. I'd even argue that many of his supporters on some level see their choice of candidate as a refutation of the current administration. I'd even go so far as to argue that had someone seemingly more thoughtful and eloquent been president that eight years that Hillary would probably have gotten the nomination. It seems to me that W literally set the stage for Obamania.
Having said that I do however give points to Obama for eschewing Jackson's guilt strategy. That is indeed change I can believe in. Additionally it shows that Obama is smart enough to realize that that song just doesn't play as well with those born in the post Vietnam era. That may say more about him than anything else we know from his record. Because love him or hate him you have to appreciate the fact that he can figure out exactly which way the wind blows.
After essentially caving on FISA legislation, Democrats have started to turn on each other, according to the Washington Post. Activists blame Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for failing to use their majorities to turn back Bush administration policies, while conservative...
I found something to put on my Xmas list.
Put it in your car, speed up to 88 mph and it’ll help you travel back (or forward) in time. It does work better with a Delorean.
For those of you who don’t have a clue what it is or what I am talking about, it is [...]
You may have heard this tear-jerker on this morning’s news or read about it:
Dateline, Andover, Massachusetts: Sarah Pearson is two credits short of the requirements for graduating with the rest of her Andover High School senior class — she knows this and doesn’t debate that fact. The reason she is short on her credits [...]
Congress works better when Members and Senators pay attention to the opinions of their constituents. After all, this is a representative form of government, and my Representatives and Senators do represent me. So why should they listen to me, a mere citizen?
They should listen more closely because they get into trouble when they forget from whence they came. Congressional leaders cannot trust them, and neither can legitimate special interests, let alone their constituents. They run the risk of helping to lower Congress' public opinion ratings. And, finally, they run the risk of becoming a target of press investigations.
Does all this sound a bit silly and wide-eyed? Of course it does, because all of the above would happen in an ideal world. And the legislative world is far from ideal. The reality is that this is not a good representative form of government, if redistricting makes incumbents too safe. My representatives will not listen to me, becuse I have not purchasesd access. Congressional leaders are no better than run of the mill legislators, and the press gave up investigating for the easier form of he-said/she-said stories.
But I am not giving up just yet, even though I am disagreeable and disgusted right now. I'll see you in a few days back in Texas. I'll be back to regular blog posting and maybe back to my old self. I certainly hope so, at any rate.
Peace!
View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.
While PM Clark has yet to reveal her preferred date for this year's General Election in New Zealand, the action is heating up online as political parties prepare for a tough campaign.
A new website is looking to take advantage of the increased awareness of internet campaigning for this election. Decision 08 relies heavily on stories and video coverage from 3 News, but also includes a full listing of political parties and candidates.
The name "Decision 08" is already being used by TV One around their election year coverage, and was also the name of their live election night show in 2005. (I see however that TV3 have already got in early for the 2011 domain as well ;-)
The site stretches the claim a little as being "New Zealand's only dedicated elections website", but does seem to one of the first out of the gates with a completed site this year. (The nzvotes.org doesn't appear to have been updated yet for the 2008 election, but was a good source of information in 2005.)
As well as the regular stories and video clips, the website is promising blogs from members of the 3 News and Campbell Live team, as well as "guest political experts".
Decision08.co.nz is also hoping to persuade candidates from across the country to sign up for their own "personalised page" within the website. For a $299 charge, registered candidates can list their background, views, update their movements, and upload photos to their own page.
First, his opening shot (emphasis mine)…
What worries me is the complete lack of accountability by Fannie’s and Freddie’s executives, as well as Wall Street investment bankers also now being insured by taxpayers. We’ve created the worst form of socialized capitalism—private gains combined with public losses.
These executives and bankers are among the best paid in all [...]
The myth of a worldwide consensus on Anthropogenic Global Warming takes another hit as the American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, reverses its position on climate change and starts a public debate on the topic.[1][2][3]
There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC [...]
Our society' secular you/he/she has created a MATRIX in which the people imprisoned you/they are forced by the birth to believe that the shades that you/they see are her/it reality, ignoring of fact the existence of the light and the truth, vision which would wake up the ready individuals to such revelation. But the Warrior of Light, freed once him by the chains that they imprison him/it to the illusion, she acts for to wake up again the others imprisoned. Truth and lies of our society in the advent of an global order 666 mark and microchip of the system of the beast antichrist under the control of the people from the alien vigilantes against the true Father of the man that makes true liberty to the man of sincere faith. La nostra societa' secolare ha creato un MATRIX in cui i popoli prigionieri vengono costretti dalla nascita a credere che le ombre che vedono siano la realtà, ignorando di fatto l'esistenza della luce, la verita', visione la quale sveglierebbe gli individui pronti a tale rivelazione. Ma il Guerriero di Luce, una volta liberatosi dalle catene che lo imprigionano all'illusione, agisce per risvegliare gli altri prigionieri di matrix. Verità e falsità della nostra società nell'avvento di un ordine globale 666 marchio e microchip del sistema della bestia anticristo sotto il controllo dei popoli da parte dei vigilanti alieni contro il vero Padre dell'uomo che rende libertà vera all'uomo di fede sincera.
GATINEAU, QUEBEC--News reports up here make it sound as if two wise guys were getting rid of a kilo of coke one happy meal at a time when cops arrested them parked at a McDonald's restaurant.
Cops seized 400 grams of crack cocaine from these "organized crime" persons, it's claimed, they were "pushing" we are to suppose, upon innocent children.
Of course, nothing in the reports said they were dealing crack to kids, but c'mon, what else must the public assume when the story is thusly written. Organized crime dudes are loitering at the local McDonald's, dealing crack cocaine.
A subsequent search of an apartment turned up a total of 1 kilo of coke. The unnamed suspects (these organized criminals) scored the dope from bikers in Montreal, who either set them up or gave them up. Cops were alerted by an informant.
