Category: politics

Sarah Palin may yet enter the Republican field. It is not too late. Do the math.

Who said: “It is not yet too late to jump in”?

And said it no less with a Cheshire cat grin?

 Why, it’s Sarah, of course.

She will throw them off course.

Cards close to her vest; she is destined to win.

“You know, it’s not too late for folks to jump in. Who knows what will happen in the future?” former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said near the close of her two-segment interview with Eric Bolling of Follow the Money from her home in Wasilla, Alaska, Dec 19, 2011. Bolling had questioned Gov. Palin if she would be entering the race even after Iowa and New Hampshire. Gov. Palin will not currently endorse a declared candidate. After this quote she very skillfully changed the topic to her desire to host a candidate debate together with Bolling about energy policy, and so she cut off all follow-up questions.

State….                     Deadline            Primary/Caucus               Delegates

Iowa                             closed                                1/3                     28

New Hampshire        closed                1/10                                   12

South Carolina           closed                1/21                                   25* no write-ins

Florida                          closed                1/31                                  50

Michigan                     closed                 2/28                                30*

Arizona                         closed                2/28                                 29

Tennessee                    closed                 3/6                                   58

Virginia                         closed                 3/6                                  50

Oklahoma                     closed                 3/6                                  43

Massachusetts             closed                  3/6                                   41

Vermont                       closed                  3/6                                    17

Alabama                       closed                  3/13                                  50

Mississippi                   closed                  3/13                                 40

Illinois                           closed                  3/20                                69

Louisiana                     closed                  3/24                                 46

Maryland                      closed                  4/3                                    37   Winner take all

Wisconsin                    closed                  4/3                                    42    Winner take all

Dist of Columbia         closed                 4/3                                    19     Winner take allnner take all

Rhode Island               closed                  4/24                                 19     Winner take all

West Virginia               closed                  5/8                                   31     Winner take all

Kentucky                       closed                 5/22                                 45     Winner take all

Texas                              closed                 4/3                                   155    Winner take all

Caucuses , proportional

Nevada                          none                  2/4                                   28

Maine                            none                  2-4 till 2/11                     24

Colorado                       none                   2/7                                  36

Minnesota                     none                   2/7                                 40

Washington                  none                   3/3                                  43

Georgia                          none                   3/6                                 76

Alaska                            none                   3/6                                 27

North Dakota               none                   3/6                                 28

Idaho                              none                  3/6                                 32

Wyoming                       none                  3/6 til 3/10                   29

Kansas                            none                 3/10                                40

Virgin Islands                none                 3/10                                  9

American Samoa          none                 3/13                                   9

Hawaii                             none                 3/13                               20

Missouri                          none                3/17                                52

Puerto Rico                     none                3/18                                23

Guam                               none                tba                                     9

Northern Marianas       none                 tba                                    9

Primaries  winner take all

New York                        2/9                   4/24                               95

Indiana                           2/10                  5/8                                 46

Pennsylvania                  2/14                 4/24                               72

Delaware                         2/24                 4/24                               17

Arkansas                        3/1                     5/22                               36

Connecticut                   3/2                    4/24                               28

Oregon                          3/6                    5/15                                 29

Nebraska                      3/7                    5/15                                  35

Montana                       3/12                   6/5                                   26

Utah                             3/15                   6/26                                 40

New Mexico                 3/16                  6/5                                    23

California                     3/23                  6/5                                  172

South Dakota              3/27                  6/5                                    28

New Jersey                  4/2                    6/5                                    50

Ohio                               ???                    3/6                                    66

North Carolina             ???                    5/8                                    55

January 3 – March 5, 2012: Contests of traditional early states Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina March 6 – March 31, 2012: Contests that proportionally allocate delegates April 1, 2012 and onward: Florida is winner take all, but is under challenge. All other contests including winner-take-all elections

Do the math. If Ron Paul wins Iowa all bets are off, and another entry is not only possible but probable. If Sarah gets in at this late stage she will get proportional delegates from 16 caucases totaling 534 delegates. Sarah Palin will have to catch on in the caucuses to make a challenge possible. It is a tall order, but not impossible.

Obama and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Keystone XL pipeline decision.

The Obama administration announced Nov. 10 it would delay a politically explosive decision on the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline until after the 2012 elections.

Congress corrected this dithering by forcing Obama to make a decision one way or another. He chose not to build it.

This decision was bad on so many levels it is hard to count them all.

Let’s try to look at the ways: Canada has oil sands and is exploiting the resources.

U.S. is dependent on importing a large portion of its crude oil.

The cheapest and most efficient way to transport crude oil is through a pipe line. It is also the safest and most reliable way of getting crude oil from point A to point B. To not O.K. the pipeline increases the cost and makes us more dependent of crude oil from the Middle East and Nigeria, as well as Venezuela. The cost of shipping this oil via pipeline is $5/barrel. To ship it via rail is about $15/barrel. This is the way it is done right now.

Canada really, really wanted this deal. It would help improve our relations. Now they are strained.

The unions really wanted the jobs. It would supply them with more than 20000 direct, well-paid jobs. In addition there is secondary business generated whenever a project of this magnitude is undertaken. Why not generate jobs?

The newly discovered oil fields in North Dakota and Montana could use the pipeline as well. Now they will have to go it alone or transport their oil on railroad or barge traffic instead, a more expensive and less safe option.

So why did Obama delay the decision? It was because of the environmentalists.

Let us examine why this decision was equally horrible from an environmentalist’s perspective.

Canada is a sovereign nation. They have the oil and will sell or use it one way or another.

The most energy conserving way is to transport it through a pipeline. Transport via train, truck or barge uses more energy (read more CO2), Canada will sell it’s oil to China if we don’t want it. China has a well deserved reputation for producing a lot of pollution.

The best environmental solution is for us to import this oil.

Nebraska protested there was a danger to damage their aquifer. The Keystone XL management offered to reroute the pipeline away from this sensitive aquifer, thereby solving that objection.

By not importing oil from Canada the total carbon footprint will increase. We lose, and Canada loses. (I am not concerned that the CO2 is increasing, but that a valuable natural resource is excessively depleted.) Now it turns out that Canada has left the Kyoto Protocol, thereby being free to burn as much of its carbon as they want. Was that really what the environmentalists wanted?

So why did Obama first delay the decision until after the 2012 election, and then, when forced, deny the permit? Here are five possibilities:

1. Obama is a true believer that ”this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal”. As a true environmentalist his role can not be overestimated .

2. Obama is deliberately wrecking our economy, refuses to have an energy policy that will create jobs, but will support protest movements and foment unrest.

3. Obama is acting on orders from Global Governance people that do want U.S. to be totally dependent on international law and U.N. mandates.

4. Obama promised to be Brazil’s best customer from their deep sea oil drilling success, paid for by U.S. loan guarantees. He must be true to his promises.

5. Obama is half insane and surrounded by bad advisors.

This is the best I can do to explain the reasons for this decision.

The Keystone XL pipeline decision: A view from Canada and rebuttal from the Obama campaign.

From our neigbor in the North comes this unbiased opinion about the Keystone XL pipeline decision:

Here is the other side of the story, given to you by your friendly Obama/Biden 2012 campaign:

Obamacare and religious freedom. A Limerick.

The most telling moment of the debate in Florida Jan 26 2012 was Romney’s response to Rick Santorum’s eloquent explanation of Obamacare’s importance to the GOP’s strategy in the general election and why giving Romney the nomination would be tantamount to surrendering the high ground on health reform: “Folks, we can’t give this issue away in this election. It is about fundamental freedom.” The former Massachusetts governor responded with the usual rote talking points, which Santorum vehemently rejected. Romney then uttered the most revealing words of the debate: “First of all, it’s not worth getting angry about.”

 

“First of all, it’s not worth getting angry about.”

Said Obamacare Romney, he’ll lose in a rout.

Religious freedom,

Replaced by a serfdom.

Force the Catholic healthcare to close? Vote them out!

The first trillion dollar month for the U.S. treasury. A Limerick.

February 2011, the first trillion dollar month for the U.S. Treasury. Look at the sum 1.009.944.000.000 dollars as the monthly sum. Something to be proud of?

Click to access viewDTSFiles

The treasury just broke a record of sort.

Last month they came up a trillion bucks short.

 The media is mum.

And I do feel numb.

Other than that, no real news to report.

Energy from Thorium. Save 500 Million from the Budget now!

Here is an idea on how to save money that comes from the Thorium community on how to save more than 500 million dollars in the federal budget and energy, scientific and medical benefits as a bonus.(1)

The situation:  The Department of Energy has 1400 Kg Uranium-233 stored at Oak Ridge National Lab. They are in process of downgrading it to natural uranium by downblending it with depleted uranium. They need 200 tons of depleted uranium to do the task, rendering it unusable for anything.

The decommissioning was approved in 2003 and to date 130 million has been spent, but the actual downblending hasn’t even started yet.

Proposal 1. Sell it to India which has an active Thorium nuclear reactor program. There it can be used as a fuel producing an estimated 600 million dollars worth of electricity. India is building full scale Thorium reactors. India would be an ideal partner for cooperation in future of nuclear power generation.

Proposal 2. Stop the decommissioning immediately. Build our own Thorium Nuclear Reactor and over time get 600 million dollars worth of electric power and 45g of Plutonium-238. We are out of Pu-238 and can do no more planetary exploration satellites (3).

All  deep space satellites all had Pu-238 power sources. Only Russia has Pu-238 left, and the U.S. is banking on getting it for a friendship price. In addition there are significant unique medical applications in treatment of cancer that can be obtained by radiation from byproduct of the Thorium process. Below are pictures of the Thorium process and what a Thorium Power plant might look like. (4)

 

 

 

(1) http://energyfromthorium.com/

(2) http://conclave.intoday.in/conclave/conclave2011.php

(3) http://www.satnews.com/cgi-bin/story.cgi?number=598732652

(4) http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/archibald-ncc-5th-february-2010.pdf

Chrislam, Crusade or Jihad? Or maybe Marx?

The type of belief that Chrislam marks;

It has no convictions, unlike Rosa Parks.

Obama the conman

deceiver and corps(e)man;

His faith is to emulate ChrIslaMarx.

 

A very good article explains the movement:

One weekend in Nov 2010, the Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston along with Christian communities in Atlanta, Seattle, and Detroit will initiate a series of sermons that have been designed to produce an ecumenical reconciliation between Christianity and Islam. In addition to the sermons, the Sunday school lessons will center on the inspired teachings of the Prophet Mohammad. Qurans will be placed in the pews next to the Bibles. The concept of Chrislam, now embraced by such preachers as Rick Warren and Robert Schuller, appears to have emerged from a program on the meaning of “love your neighbor” at Grace Fellowship Church in Atlanta, Georgia “In 2001, like most Americans, we were pretty awakened to the true Islamic presence in the world and in the United States,” says Jon Stallsmith, the outreach minister at Grace Fellowship. “Jesus says we should love our neighbors. We can’t do that without having a relationship with them.” Stallsmith maintains that a rapprochement between Muslims and Christians can be achieved by the fact that Jesus is mentioned twenty-five times in the Quran. The Chrislam movement has gained impetus by statements from President George W. Bush and that Christians, Jews, and Muslims all worship the same God and by Rick Warren’s reference to Isa (the Muslim name for Jesus) in his prayer at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Only 30 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Muslims, according to a Pew Forum poll. At the same time, more than half the country says they know “not very much” or “nothing at all” about the Islamic faith. “The recent political developments and the fact that we’re fighting two wars in Muslim countries should sharpen that need to know how to talk to these guys,” Stallsmith insists “We want to find peace, reconciliation around a scriptural understanding of Jesus.” Jesus in the Quran is neither the only-begotten Son of God nor the Messiah who was divinely appointed to restore the House of David. He is rather viewed as a prophet who was appointed by Allah to prepare mankind for the coming of Mohammad. In the Quran, Jesus neither suffers nor dies on the cross but is rather raised alive into heaven: “That they said (in boast), “We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of God”;- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:- Nay, God raised him up unto the himself; and God is Exalted in Power, Wise” (4: 157-158) The victim at Calvary, Islam teaches, was either Simon of Cyrene or Judas Iscariot. The Quran mentions that Jesus was born of the virgin Maryam – – not by an immaculate conception but rather the will of Allah and that He performed miracles to show the Jewish people that He was a maseh in the manner of Moses and Ibrahim (Abraham): “In blasphemy indeed are those that say that God is Christ the son of Mary. Say: “Who then hath the least power against God, if His will were to destroy Christ the son of Mary, his mother, and all every – one that is on the earth? For to God belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between. He createth what He pleaseth. For God hath power over all things” (5:17).

Belief in the divinity of Jesus is condemned in Islam as shirk (filth). Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.

http://thelastcrusade.org/2010/11/04/chrislam-spreads-throughout-america/

The Rev Wright’s Church in which Obama was a member for 20 years had a more than life size portrait of Karl Marx in their Library as a centerpiece painting in 2008.

Afghan Red Cross worker,sentenced to die for converting to Christianity freed..

A therapist worked hard in Afghanistan.

He did lose a leg but became a new man.

Among Muslim strife

Christ gave him new life.

He is to be hanged, that’s the Muslim God’s plan.

Afghans face death penalty for converting to Christianity

Right:Said-Musa-With-Amputee-Child. Right 2,3,4 Pictures of Afghan hangings.

Said Musa, a physiotherapist for the Afghan Red Cross, will be hanged in three days if he does not convert back to Islam.

He was arrested in May of 2010 after a television show broadcast a video showing some western men baptizing people in secret.

He was on his way to seek asylum at the German embassy when he was seized and imprisoned. He told a news agency he has been raped and tortured by both prisoners and his guards. He tells of being visited by a judge who told him he would be hung in three days if he did not convert back to Islam.

BC Forums reports: An Afghan physiotherapist will be executed within three days for converting to Christianity. Blazingcatfur comments: Our troops are fighting for the right of the Government of Afghanistan to hang Said Musa. Don’t expect much Hue and Cry from the Red Cross they actively aid the Taliban.

Ad Orientem tells us: He told the Sunday Times: “My body is theirs to do what they want with. Only God can decide if my spirit goes to hell.” Mr. Musa has no legal representation as appointed defense lawyers have refused to defend him and other lawyers have abandoned the case after receiving death threats. He maintains he will remain a believer in Christ and will die for his religion if necessary. Mr. Musa lost his leg to a land mine and has been helping amputees for fifteen years for the Afghan Red Cross. Some bloggers are saying that the Red Cross in Afghanistan will not help him or even try to talk with government officials.

Update : Feb 25, 2011.“An Afghan Red Cross worker who was arrested last spring for converting to Christianity has been released from an Afghanistan prison.

The worker, Said Musa, 46, was released from prison last week “after aggressive international diplomacy engaged Afghanistan’s government,” International Christian Concern, an organization that worked directly with his case, said in a written statement Thursday.

Musa, who left Islam roughly eight years ago, was arrested in May after an Afghan TV report showed locals being baptized and called for the government to crack down on apostasy.

The father of six who lost a leg to a land mine and was working to help amputees reportedly was abused in prison and threatened with death if he did not renounce his faith.

According to ICC, Musa wrote in a Feb. 13 letter that U.S. and Italian Embassies offered him asylum but that Afghan officials subsequently told him that he would only be released if he wrote a statement declaring that he regretted his conversion to Christianity.

“I refused their demands,” he wrote.

Even so, on Feb. 21 an official from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul told the organization Musa was released and safely out of the country.

“We cannot be more thrilled about Said Musa’s release. It has been encouraging to see the international community, including churches, reporters and government officials in Europe and North America, work together for the common goal of freeing Said,” Aidan Clay, ICC’s regional manager for the Middle East, said in the statement. “Many sleepless nights, prayers and tears have paid off.”

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, which advises the federal government on international violations of religious freedom, said Musa’s release is a good start in addressing a bigger problem.

“While the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) welcomes Said Musa’s release, the fact that he was in jail demonstrates the serious deficiencies in the Afghan legal system,” USCIRF chair Leonard Leo told FoxNews.com. “The U.S. government and international community need to seriously engage the Karzai government about protecting the religious freedoms of all Afghanis.”

Trouble in Sweden. “The State is always Right”. Children taken from parents without due process.

Every now and then there is a news story that upsets me, and I am not clear why this story and not the riots in Egypt, the disregard for constitutional law, the general breakdown of civility and countless other stories that should upset you. The video shown below is of a Russian woman living in Sweden with her twin daughters and the government takes them away from her to protect the children from her. I know nothing of the case except it does not pass the smell test.

Maybe it is because as a child growing up in Sweden we lived in a textile town with an unusual amount of refugees from WWII, mostly from Estonia, but also Finland and Lithuania. I had many Estonian playmates. They spoke perfect Swedish, but their parents, often a single mom spoke none and were dependent on their children to function in the Swedish society. The Children translated the letters the government sent them and tried as a family to cope in this foreign land. They made it through only because their family unit, broken as it was, was all they had and this was enough.

Fast forward to today. Sweden is a total welfare state, champion of Children’s rights (against their parents). This means that the State, not the parents has total control over the children. There is a strong movement to take away the Parents Rights here in the U.S.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s goal is to make this country sign the UNITED NATIONS Convention on the Rights of the Child. This convention is signed by 194 countries but not US and Somalia. While looking good on paper the effect of this convention is that the State (Remember “separation of Church and State”) has first dibs on the children, not the parents. This clip is from Russian Television.