Human

Hey!!!! the Democrats CONTROLL the Purse Strings on this one. As for me accounting is NOT my forte, but Information IS. I've given my bank ALL the very best directories that I have. Now that may not sound like a whole lot, but when you consider that one person that I know was going into the financials, and I gave him the entire financials for brazil, and told him to keep it to himself "sadly it didn't work out that way". He told everyone else about it just to look like a big shot. <One of these days' I'm going to learn not to be so nice.> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It should be noted that Nancy Pelosi is worth 54 million dollars.

Yeah! I'm sure that there will be many a law suits coming. But even lawyers NEED jobs too. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.lawjobs.com/

Amen, and that's why I and others wanted the infrastructure in place. Because people ARE going to forget, but the infrastructure wont. Just to do what is right "It's very tiring". -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I also wish to add these comments from the french. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Kouchner said France is ``ready to work with our Venezuelan friends'' to develop a civilian nuclear power program." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=...ec=Worldupdates Monday September 29, 2008 Chavez says Venezuela will develop nuclear power CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday Venezuela will develop a nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes, in another challenge to Washington just days after Russia offered nuclear assistance to the socialist Latin American leader. "In Venezuela we are interested in development of nuclear energy, of course for peaceful purposes, for medical purposes, for purposes of electricity generation," Chavez said at a political rally. Brazil has various nuclear reactors, so does Argentina. We will have ours." Chavez noted that Venezuela, which is a member of the oil-producing cartel OPEC, developed a nuclear reactor decades ago but abandoned it under pressure from the United States. He said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had offered help with a reactor, adding that "we already have a commission working on this issue." Chavez did not offer details or say when a reactor could be ready, but the news could further strain relations with Washington, which views Chavez as autocratic and erratic. He has repeatedly challenged Washington, notably by defending Iran's nuclear activities despite strong condemnation by the United States and Europe. This month Chavez expelled the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela and repeated his frequent threats to halt oil sales that make up around 10 percent of U.S. oil imports. Venezuela has boosted cooperation with Moscow since Russia came under strong U.S. condemnation for fighting a war against Georgia last month, strengthening ties between two of the United States' strongest critics. Russia and Venezuela have also signed 12 arms contracts worth a total of $4.4 billion in the last two years, according to a Kremlin source.

Hey!!! Folks; We can work out the rest of the details later, and some are not going to be sweet for everyone. Let me give you an example; Part of the package for the next congress will be illegal immigration reform "I'm not going to call it undocumented workers, or anything of that sort. I am being blunt about it". Part of the next package whether we like it or not is going to include it. Plain, Pure, and Simple, we need the help of the workers who are now here illegally to be part of the system. I AM A REPUBLICAN FOLKS. We can let this go till the next congress, but right now we NEED a Bill that Protects Consumers as well as the Market. PERIOD

I'm in FULL agreement there Luke. Because if We as A COUNTRY don't come together? WE WILL BE LOOKING AT A DEPRESSION. It is that Serious. But a Word to the Wise out there; DON'T PLAY POLITICS WITH THIS "OUR NATION IS AT STAKE". This goes out to Both Democrats, and Republicans. People ARE LOSING their PENSIONS Even as I type this out. We NEED a BILL, and FAST. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AND ONE LAST THING; Read this like you have NEVER READ ANYTHING ELSE IN YOUR LIVES; When you have 25 to 30 year olds making legislation who have no bleeping clue in life as to what life is; You get exactly what you are getting now............................................................................. .... DO ALL OF YOU UNDERSTAND CRYSTAL CLEAR? Hummm!!

I know that there is alot of wrong in this BILL, and we all know that the democrats were behind this disaster, BUT RIGHT NOW "THE GOOD OF THE COUNTRY TRUMPS POLITICS". When I back off from what I can post about Latin America, the only bleeping reason I back off IS BECAUSE OF WHAT IS IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE UNITED STATES.............................. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To ALL Politicians, STOP your Games and PASS A BILL NOW. Or suffer at Election Day. To my group "The Republicans", This Aint no game and suck it up.................................... To the Democrats; DON'T EVEN THINK OF PLAYING WITH IT ANYMORE.

Just thought that you should know. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10575351 By Thomas Burr The Salt Lake Tribune Article Last Updated: 09/27/2008 02:34:19 AM MDT WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats made a last-minute stab Friday at blocking oil-shale production on federal lands in the West by tagging it to an economic-stimulus package. But the measure failed to garner enough votes to proceed to a final debate and there may not be another vehicle to attach it to before the ban expires Monday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., included a 12-month extension of the oil-shale ban in a $57 billion stimulus bill the majority had hoped to push through before Congress adjourns. But Democrats came eight votes short of moving forward on the bill. Several environmental groups tried to rally support late Thursday, arguing the measure held several items to boost clean water, energy efficiency and millions to improve national parks. The Reid bill also would have barred the Interior Department from finalizing regulations on leasing federal lands for oil-shale production, extending a moratorium that expires with the new federal budget Wednesday. Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, led the charge in the House recently to allow the leasing program to move forward in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming if the states choose to allow it. His provision passed the House but failed in the Senate, where fellow Democrats balked.

The democrats really need to get in touch with REALITY. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news/...hale.html?imw=Y Ban on oil shale revived By GARY HARMON Thursday, September 25, 2008 A moratorium on oil shale development that appeared to be dead was sparked back to life Thursday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Reid, a Nevada Democrat, sought to have the moratorium placed before the Senate. “There is a possibility the Senate will be asked to vote on re-establishing the moratorium on oil shale extraction,” Reid’s office said in a statement. It didn’t elaborate on the form that the revived moratorium might take, however. A group of 140 members of the House, meanwhile, wrote to the House leadership declaring Oct. 1 American Energy Freedom Day and promising they would uphold a veto should the moratorium be revived. Unless Congress extends the moratorium, it expires at the end of September with the end of the current fiscal year. Shell Oil. Co., generally considered a leader in the technology needed to boil petroleum from shale, said it welcomed the end of the moratorium that has prevented the writing of regulations and commercial leasing of oil shale. “Shell is eager to see the moratorium on finalizing oil shale regulations lifted,” the company said in an e-mail statement. Establishing regulations for commercial development “is an important step for all companies seeking to understand the commercial terms on which oil shale development will take place in order to allow them to plan for the future,” Shell said. Shell operates three, 160-acre research-and-development plots on federal land in northwest Colorado. The Bureau of Land Management administers six demonstration leases overall, five in Colorado and one in Utah. The Bush administration, meanwhile, said it had made no decision on the legislation that would keep the federal government operating into the coming fiscal year. The shale moratorium will lapse if it’s not included in that continuing resolution. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., said Wednesday the moratorium died at the insistence of President Bush, but administration officials said otherwise. The White House continues to review legislation that would allow the government to continue operating beyond the end of the fiscal year and has not made a decision to accept the continuing resolution,” a spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget said. “I can say with absolute certainty” the White House never made lifting the bans on oil shale or offshore drilling a condition of his approval of the continuing resolution, OMB spokeswoman Corinne E. Hirsch said Thursday. Reid’s effort to revive the shale moratorium drew criticism from House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio, who called it an “insult to the American people and yet another example of Democrats acting to make energy more expensive for working families and small businesses.” The oil shale of the Green River Formation in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming contains 800 billion to 1.8 trillion barrels of the equivalent of oil. An energy source that rich deserves careful treatment, said Jim Bartis of the Rand Corp., a think tank that has monitored shale. Treating shale with royalties structured on the same lines as coal or oil won’t work, Bartis said. “It’s about how you do this so you can develop without having to compromise our values of air quality and environmental protection,” he said. At the same time, he said, “it’s important to get this early commercial experience. We need to develop an approach that motivates a few firms to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars that are required,” ensure them an honest profit and make sure taxpayers benefit, as well.

Add to this article that Chavez is going to France as well, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out what he wants. I know I keep on harping on the democrats for starting this Massive disaster because this IS really what you started. Why do I keep bringing this up? Because I don't want us to get hit by dirty bombs. You people honestly think that immigration was the only reason some of us wanted the border fence? "Which is mostly electronic". ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080925/wl_af...ar_080925202725 Thu Sep 25, 4:27 PM ET NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia (AFP) - Russia may launch nuclear energy cooperation with Venezuela, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday during talks with the country's fiercely anti-US leader Hugo Chavez "We are ready to consider a possibility of cooperation in using nuclear energy," Putin said. Putin also noted "development of our ties in all spheres," with "new possibilities in energy, high-tech, machine construction and chemicals." Russian and Venezuelan companies "have good perspectives not only in bilateral sense but also on third markets," Putin stressed, voicing satisfaction at "a launch of a first oil bore in the Gulf of Venezuela due in late October." The Russian premier also thanked Chavez "for the warm welcome for our strategic aviation airplanes which had spent many days in Venezuela," pledging "realization of all our accords on cooperation between our navies." "I am ready to discuss our cooperation in military and technical sphere," Putin said, explaining that "Latin America has become an important chain-link in creating a multipolar world, and we will pay more attention to this vector." In deployments not seen since the Cold War, Russia this month sent two long-range bombers to Venezuela for exercises and has dispatched a flotilla of warships from the Arctic base of Severomorsk to Venezuela, near US waters. "Today like never before all that you said on the multi-polar world becomes reality. Let us not lose time," Chavez agreed, thanking "dear" Putin for "having invited me to Moscow before winter began." "The world is fast developping geopolitically," Chavez added. Chavez's visit comes as Russia's relations with the United States are in a deep chill because of Russia's war with Georgia last month -- a conflict where Chavez was one of the few world leaders to support Moscow. In the latest sign of closer ties, a Kremlin source said Thursday that Russia had granted Venezuela the one-billion-dollar (682-million-euro) loan to Venezuela to buy Russian arms. "Russia has taken the decision to grant Venezuela a credit of one billion dollars for implementing programmes in the field of military-technical cooperation," the source said, using diplomatic jargon for arms sales. Venezuela has been asking for the loan for months, according to Russian media reports. Venezuela has signed 4.4 billion dollars' (three billion euros') worth of contracts to buy Russian arms since 2005, according to the Kremlin. It has bought fighter jets, tanks and assault rifles, and the Kommersant daily reported last week that it was planning to purchase anti-aircraft systems, armoured personnel carriers and more combat aircraft. Chavez could also discuss broader economic cooperation with Russia, including the creation of a Russian-Venezuelan bank and business opportunities for Russian energy giant Gazprom in Venezuela, Kommersant reported. Trade turnover between the two countries was 1.1 billion dollars (750 million euros) in 2007, more than double that of 2006, the Kremlin said.

To the democrats; NONE of this would not have been possible with out your Cooperation. I have to ask; Just on whos' side are you on??????? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=374...c=EUR&s=TOP agence france-presse Published: 25 Sep 08:04 EDT (12:04 GMT) MANAGUA - Russia will help Nicaragua repair or update its aging military arsenal, most of which was furnished by the former Soviet Union in the 1980s, Moscow's envoy to Managua said. "We do not want to increase Nicaragua's [military] potential," Ambassador Igor Kondrashev said Sept. 24 on a private television broadcast. "We merely want to provide maintenance and spares to equipment that already exists." Nicaragua's military equipment dates back to the country's Sandinista guerillas and the subsequent revolutionary government in 1979. Ninety percent of the arsenal came from the USSR, with much of it outdated due to a lack of investment in equipment makeovers, according to Nicaragua military sources. "We will help Nicaragua," Kondrashev said, "but there is no question whatsoever of any political change intended by the military upgrade" of the country led again by President Daniel Ortega, the former Soviet-backed Sandinista revolutionary. In the 1980s, Nicaragua acquired thousands of surface-to-air missiles from the USSR, remnants of the civil war between Ortega's Sandinista National Liberation Front and U.S.-backed Contra rebels in the 1980s. Washington has long pressured Managua to destroy the shoulder-fired SAM-7 anti-aircraft missiles. The U.S. offered Nicaragua health care aid in exchange for the missiles' destruction as part of a global effort to eliminate weapons that could fall into the hands of terrorists. Nicaragua had already destroyed about half of its original stockpile of 2,000 missiles. After a 16-year interruption, the Central American nation re-established diplomatic ties with Russia in 2007 with the re-election of Ortega, who served as Nicaragua's president from 1985 to 1990. Their ties appeared to strengthen markedly in early September, when Ortega formally recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, supporting Russia's stance on the breakaway Georgian regions.

It's very gutsy and Senator McCain is RIGHT. http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0924/uselection.html Irrelevant if the democrats like it or not, and I hope that the democrats decide to play politics with this economic crisis. VERY,VERY,VERY WELL DONE JOHN MCCAIN. <To heck with whom ever thinks that this is political. I didn't much like John McCain till NOW. NO ONE now can say that McCain didn't put country FIRST.> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The article is below. I have a friend who keeps on telling me about the advantages of Nutraceuticals. So what are Nutraceuticals? He could not tell me. By the way; It's a very informative article. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/18/tra...ents.php?page=3 By Julia Moskin Published: September 18, 2008 Off the coast of Peru swim billions of sardines and anchovies: oily, smelly little fish, rich in nutritious omega-3 fatty acids. Their spot on the food chain is low; many will be caught, ground up, and fed as fishmeal to bigger animals. But a few have a more exalted destiny: to be transported, purified and served at North American breakfast tables in the form of Tropicana Healthy Heart orange juice and Wonder Headstart bread. These new products promise to deliver the health benefits of fish oil without the smell and the taste — without, in fact, the fish. The possible benefits of eating omega-3s include cardiovascular protection and improved neural development in children. However, "People just aren't eating salmon or sardines twice a day," said Ellie Halevy, director for marketing of Tropicana, which is owned by PepsiCo. "But they will drink two glasses of orange juice, if it has no fishy taste and all the benefits." Orange juice laced with anchovies is one example of the latest way major food companies are competing for health-conscious consumers: plugging one food into another and claiming the health benefits of both. Shoppers are offered green tea extracts in their ginger ale, yogurt bacteria in their salsa, and powdered beets in their peanut butter. Market staples like blueberries (high in certain antioxidants), cherries (may have anti-inflammatory benefits) and bananas (when unripe, particularly rich in fiber) are being broken down, shaken up, microencapsulated, and put to work in new ways. These additives are often called nutraceuticals, broadly defined as ingredients that are derived from food, and that offer health benefits associated with that food. Nutraceuticals like garlic pills and cranberry capsules became popular in the 1990s, usually taken alone in the form of dietary supplements. Now Kraft, Dannon, General Mills and many other companies are adding nutraceuticals to existing foods: "fat-burning waffles" made from a newly developed corn flour, cheese that kills intestinal parasites, even ketchup that regulates digestion, are on the shelves or in the works. New technologies in food processing, and a landmark 1999 court decision giving the makers of supplements broad leeway to advertise their health benefits, have brought this new class of enhanced foods to supermarket shelves. These products are known as functional foods, meaning they have been modified to make them more nutritious, like genetically modified rice or fortified milk. "One day, we believe, you will be able to walk into a supermarket and all the products could be enriched with omega-3s: milk, yogurt, tortillas," said Ian Lucas, head of marketing for Ocean Nutrition Canada, maker of the fish oil used by Tropicana. Are we really that close to a world in which food functions as a nutrient delivery system, made possible by microencapsulation and fine-spray coating? And what would this mean for food and human nutrition? "This whole area is far more complex than we thought just one or two years ago," said Alice Lichtenstein, a professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University. Since the 1970s, as nutrition research has progressed beyond "vitamins and minerals," a variety of new compounds have been touted as the key to health: antioxidants (related to vitamins, these include lycopene, beta-carotene and other plant-based nutrients); long-chain fatty acids like omega-3s, plentiful in fish and some plants; and "probiotics," the live bacteria in yogurt and fermented vegetables. There is significant scientific agreement — the standard the Food and Drug Administration requires before foodmakers can place unqualified health claims on packaging — on the benefits of certain nutrients, including calcium, fiber, folate, soy protein, omega-3 fatty acids, lactic acid bacteria and a few others. In food, these have proved to help protect against specific diseases (calcium against osteoporosis, omega-3 fatty acids for heart disease), and many nutritionists believe that they are beneficial in supplement form. However, recent studies on supplemental vitamin E, beta-carotene and folate (all of which fall into the broad category of "antioxidants") surprised everyone by showing no benefits whatsoever for cardiovascular disease. "There is a great deal we don't know about how the compounds in food are made available to the body," Lichtenstein said. "Now we have to be more cautious about individual nutrients, though we should not close our minds, given the successes of the past." Fortified food is certainly one of the great triumphs of public-health policy. When vitamin-B-enriched flour was introduced in the 1940s, rates of pellagra plummeted. Iodine-fortified salt virtually wiped out goiter, and vitamin-D-enriched milk eliminated rickets in children. But some experts say that such carefully designed campaigns have little in common with the fortified products now turning up in supermarkets. "Those decisions were based on rigorous public-health studies," said Jeffrey Mechanick, a professor of endocrinology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "But the science hasn't been done on the new nutraceutical products, and the FDA's current labeling standards are inadequate." The agency does not have specific rules for the labeling of functional foods. "It all depends on what type of claim is being made," said Michael Herndon, an agency spokesman. "An unqualified health claim like 'calcium reduces your risk of osteoporosis,' has to be proved in advance. A more general claim like 'X keeps your heart healthy' has to be provable by the manufacturer, but we would not require proof in advance." As with conventional foods, functional foods must clearly state the presence of allergens, like milk or fish, in the ingredients list. The Food and Drug Administration does not conduct nutritional research. Several other U.S. government agencies do so, but functional foods are not evaluated by any specific office. "Nutraceutical products have characteristics of both food and drugs," said David A. Kessler, a former commissioner of the FDA "It's easy for them to slip through the cracks, and the industry is always ahead of the agency." The free-market policy on claims for nutraceuticals benefits companies like LycoRed, a global provider of compounds pulled out of tomatoes that grow in desert greenhouses in Israel. LycoRed, like FutureCeuticals, National Starch, the German chemical giant BASF and other companies, produces a range of additives for the food industry. "Everybody already knows that a tomato is healthy," said Udi Alroy, the company's chief marketer. "We don't have to sell something from Mars." But the form in which the tomato appears in LycoRed products is somewhat unearthly. Specially bred tomatoes, bright red and flavorless, are pulped and then treated to extract the valuable compounds of lycopene, beta-carotene and lutein — which are then encapsulated in "beadlets" so tiny they cannot be felt by the human tongue. People want their food to have the same organoleptic qualities, not be gritty or taste different or feel weird," said Kevin Stark, head of the food technology division of NineSigma, a research company that helps put clients like General Mills and Procter & Gamble in touch with scientists and technologists around the world. The tiny capsules, made of fat, protein or sometimes plastic, can be designed to deliver foods to a particular part of the digestive tract. Some capsules can wait out long periods on shelves or even survive heat treatment, the method used to cook and sterilize most canned foods. Other new technologies can remove the fishy smell of fish, distill a pomegranate into flavorless powder and possibly deliver the nutritional benefits of a green bean via a slice of pound cake, and major players like Dannon, Nestlé and PepsiCo are plunging in. A new brand of peanut butter, Zap, is imperceptibly fortified with powdered beets, carrots and bananas. Nutritious Chocolate, a new product from Gary Null, a health-food marketer, includes the usual ingredients of chocolate: cocoa butter, cocoa beans, cane sugar, vanilla. Oh, and broccoli, cranberries, nectarines, parsley, pomegranates, watermelons, kale and more — a total of 30 additional plants, all in powdered form. But whether the nutritional benefits of the original foods survive in additive form is still to be determined. "Whether a tomato is good for you, that's one thing," Kessler said. "Whether the lycopene in a tomato is good for you, that's another. And then whether synthetic lycopene and microencapsulated lycopene are also good for you, that's yet another thing." In a manufacturing plant outside Paris, the Danone Group, parent company of Dannon, nourishes more than 3,000 different strains of lactic acid bacteria for its lines of "probiotic" yogurts. All yogurt is fermented with live cultures, but Danone claims to have harnessed yogurt's healing potential to particular ends. "Different strains work for different problems," said Miguel Freitas, Dannon's scientific affairs director. "The one for Activia works on slow transit" — the company's elegant term for constipation — "and the one for DanActive on immunity." Tropicana offers an orange juice tailored for bone loss, another for acid reflux, and one for weight loss. Many factors are pushing this trend toward health-specific foods: the aging population, changes in labeling rules, the general trend toward micromarketing that makes consumers accept, and soon expect, 12 slightly different Tropicana orange juices on the shelf where one used to be enough for everyone. Additionally, with recent rising costs in raw materials, flavorings and transport, many food companies are refocusing their research and development; instead of adding expensive ingredients like sun-dried tomatoes or honey-roasted almonds to existing products, the search is on for inexpensive "value-added" products that customers will pay extra for. Mars's CocoaVia line of chocolate claims to offer health benefits because of high levels of antioxidants; an ounce of CocoaVia blueberry almond chocolate costs about $1.25, while an ounce of the same manufacturer's Dove blueberry almond chocolate costs about 75 cents. In order to get the nutritional benefits from CocoaVia, the company recommends eating two bars a day — an investment of more than $700 and 4,000 fat grams in the course of a year. Eating the right nutrients is a complicated question, one that nutritionists say could most easily be solved by eating a wide range of basic foods. Lichtenstein of Tufts says that the recent setbacks and surprises in nutrition research have made her rethink the whole model of adding nutrients to the diet, despite the effectiveness of vitamin fortification. "Maybe the true benefit of eating a lot of fish is that you are actually eating less of something else, like steak," she said. "Maybe a subtraction model is the key. We have a long way to go to find out."

Posted on Fri, Sep. 19, 2008 My own thoughts on this mess; Maybe if we all played a little less of "Speak No evil, hear no evil, See no evil" then just maybe we can all move forward, because in seeing a problem and just ignoring it "won't make it go away". So when you folks see me post on Latin America? Don't act like you "see no evil" JUST to be loyal to the democrat party cause in the end it still affects us all. FOR THE RECORD; I WILL try to do the same. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By DAVID LIGHTMAN McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON -- The next president will take office in January with little hope of getting his pet programs enacted quickly, if at all, because of already-massive budget deficits likely to balloon even further from the hundreds of billions expected to be used to bail out Wall Street. "The next president is just not going to have the money to meet his promises," said Maya MacGuineas, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan budget-research group. Democratic nominee Barack Obama and Republican rival John McCain have big plans that would add substantially to the deficit. By 2013, when his changes would be fully implemented, Obama would boost the deficit by $360 billion with his tax cuts and by another $65 billion with his health-care plan while partially offsetting that with $139 billion saved through winding down the Iraq war and making other spending cuts, according to US Budget Watch, a nonpartisan research group. McCain's tax cut plan would add $417 billion to $485 billion to the deficit, while his health-care policies would cost another $54 billion to $65 billion. Iraq troop reductions and "unspecified cuts to balance the budget" could save $291 billion to $304 billion, however. The bottom line: Both would sharply increase the deficit, which already is headed to record territory. "They've got to be asleep not to see this is bad news," said David Walker, the president and chief executive officer of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which promotes sound fiscal policy. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the deficit for fiscal 2008, which ends Sept. 30, will rise to $407 billion, while next year's figure could hit $438 billion, shattering the record of $413 billion in fiscal 2004. The 2008 and 2009 numbers are conservative estimates, since they don't include the federal bailouts of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or failed insurer American International Group. Friday, the government unveiled what's likely to be the most expensive twist of all: a still-evolving plan to create a way for the government to buy troubled bank assets, probably the biggest bailout in U.S. history. "We're talking hundreds of billions" of dollars, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said. As a result, "what was already a very difficult decision for the next president - how to deal with taxes and spending - has now become extremely difficult," said Brian Riedl, senior policy analyst at Washington's Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group. Traditionally, the first few months of a new presidency are the White House's most successful. Ronald Reagan won approval of his 25 percent, three-year tax cut in July 1981. Bill Clinton saw his $496 billion, five-year deficit-reduction plan pass in August 1993, and George W. Bush got his $1.35 trillion tax cut through Congress in May 2001. McCain and Obama are touting ambitious efforts to revamp health care and provide tax breaks. Add to that billions in new spending. McCain would increase funding to the No Child Left Behind education program, which would cost an estimated $13 billion in 2013, and would boost the size of the military, a $10 billion plan. Obama also would spend more on education - an estimated $18 billion - would create an "infrastructure reinvestment bank" for $6 billion, would double foreign aid - a $25 billion expense - and increase the size of the military, which would carry a $20 billion price tag. Getting any expansion of health care will be particularly tough, MacGuineas said. "There's no bigger budget buster than health care," she said, as Medicare and Medicaid costs are projected to continue increasing steadily. Both candidates want to preserve at least some of the tax cuts that are due to expire Jan. 1, 2011. McCain would keep all the key cuts, while Obama would end most of those that affect individuals who earn more than $200,000 a year and families that make more than $250,000. Analysts think they eventually may be able to get some of their more ambitious plans enacted, but they warn that there are a lot of "ifs." Experts agree on this much: It'll be hard to do in 2009. "I suspect what may have been economically and politically palatable six months ago will have to be reviewed," said Doug Rediker, co-director of the New America Foundation's Global Strategic Finance Initiative. James Horney, the director of federal fiscal policy at Washington's Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, thought that one way the new president could use his mandate is to say, "The short-term problems are worse than expected, but let's look ahead to 2012. Everything I planned still makes sense." Looking ahead has other dangers, however, notably the rising costs of Social Security and Medicare. There's one glimmer of hope. David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's, recalled that when the government set up the Resolution Trust Corp. in 1989 to help ailing savings and loan institutions, "the cost was less than expected." When the government bailed out Chrysler Corp. in 1979 with a $1.2 billion loan, it earned an estimated $300 million profit. However, even if the government winds up in the black from this financial crisis, it's unlikely that that'll show up on next year's balance sheet. No one knows how much the bailouts will cost at first, but most see the new president as inheriting a huge deficit. As MacGuineas put it, "It's stifling." ON THE WEB US Budget Watch's analysis of the McCain and Obama fiscal plans: http://usbudgetwatch.org/files/crfb/usbw0915promises.pdf

Now why aren't we doing the same???????? I am as all of you, Wind, Nuclear, Solar Etc Etc. But we got to get a moving. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brazil plans to build 50 more nuclear power plants www.chinaviewspam 2008-09-13 13:19:45 RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao announced Friday Brazil plans to build 50 to 60 nuclear power plants in half a century, with each having capacity of 1,000 megawatts. "The general idea is to build one plant per year," he said during a visit to the construction site of Brazil's third nuclear power plant, Angra 3. The ambitious plan, a priority for the administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has yet to be approved by Brazil's National Council of Energy Policy, he added. The construction of Angra 3 started in 1984, but was halted for21 years. The decision to resume the project and expand the nuclear program was welcomed by Brazil's industrial sector as a way to prevent an energy crisis in future decades, but environmentalists warned of the problem of the residues storage. Angra 1 and Angra 2, both located in the southeastern state of Rio De Janeiro, currently have a combined installed capacity of 2,000 megawatts. Besides the three plants, four others, two in northeastern Brazil and two in the southeastern part, are due to start operation by 2020. It is said Brazil's environment ministry will not allow Angra 3to start operation until the residues problem is resolved. According to Lobao, the construction of Angra 3 is due to be resumed in April 2009 and will take almost five years to complete, at a cost of 7 billion reais (3.7 billion U.S. dollars). Editor:

http://www.ogj.com/display_article/339441/...nIn/1/Venezuela Venezuela's Chavez threatens to halt oil exports to US Eric Watkins Oil Diplomacy Editor LOS ANGELES, Sept. 12 -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, claiming that neighboring Bolivia is the victim of a US plot, has threatened to halt oil exports to the US and ordered its ambassador to leave his country. "The US is behind the plan against Bolivia, behind the terrorism," said Chavez to political supporters in his United Socialist Party of Venezuela. "We're committed to being free. Enough crap from you Yankees." Chavez explained his decision as an expression of solidarity with Bolivian President Evo Morales who earlier expelled the American ambassador there, accusing him of supporting rebel groups in eastern Bolivia. Chavez threatened to halt Venezuelan oil shipments to the US if it attacks his country. Venezuela is the fourth-biggest supplier of foreign crude oil to the US, exporting some 1.42 million b/d in 2007. Chavez denunciation of Washington came as the US Treasury Department alleged that Venezuela's top two intelligence officials and the country's former Interior Minister have assisted narcotics trafficking by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The spat is unlikely to cause a permanent split between the two countries, according to Jose Vicente Carrasquero, a professor of political science at the Universidad Simon Bolivar in Caracas. Trade between the two countries is too great and Venezuela would have nowhere to put all the oil it sells the US so quickly, Carrasquero said.

http://www.blacksmithsjournal.com/top/ <~~~~~~ it's a pretty cool web site.

These little critters are close to indestructible. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ilUoGY...Vke4M89y77_AA5w Tiny 'water bears' can survive in outer space: study 3 days ago WASHINGTON (AFP) — Minuscule eight-legged invertebrate creatures known as "water bears" can survive the vacuum and radiation of space, according to research published Tuesday in a US journal. It was the first time that an animal has been tested for survival under open-space conditions, the European scientists that authored the report wrote in the September 9 edition of the journal Current Biology. The creatures, known as tardigrades, are tiny -- between 0.1 to 1.5 mm long -- and are commonly found on wet lichens and moss. They are resistant to drying out, show strong resistance to heat, cold and radiation, and can be brought back to life after years of dryness, scientists say. The animals have been able to survive in extreme environments ranging in temperature from minus 272 degrees Celsius (-522 degrees Fahrenheit) to more than 151 degrees Celsius (303 degrees Fahrenheit), as well as pressure equivalent to 300 times the pressure of the atmosphere. Researchers exposed dried-up tardigrades to open space conditions -- vacuum, ultra-violet radiation from the sun and cosmic radiation -- while aboard the FOTON-M3, a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft launched in September 2007 that orbited 270 kilometers (170 miles) above the Earth. Upon returning home, scientists determined that most of the tardigrades survived exposure to vacuum and cosmic rays. Some even survived the exposure to solar ultra-violet radiation that is more than 1,000 times higher than ultra-violet radiation on the Earth's surface. The survivors were even able to reproduce well after their space trip, the researchers wrote. The tardigrades extreme resistance to UV radiation "is perhaps most surprising," the authors wrote. "How these animals were capable of reviving their body after receiving a dose of UV radiation ... under space vacuum conditions remains a mystery," wrote the team of authors led by Ingemar Jönsson, Kristianstad University in Kristianstad, Sweden. "It is conceivable that the same cellular adaptations that let them survive drying out might also account for their overall hardiness." Tardigrades, of which there are some 600 species, are found across the Earth, from mountaintops to the depths of oceans.

For Washington D.C. "Out of 550,521 total population” 128,809 have cardiovascular disease, and I've been looking at the Counties in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, and It's Across the board. Same results; CardioVascular Disease is the main culprit. In other words, it's the diet "Or better put, what foods we eat". ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.vsdc.org/sitedir.html There use to be another vegen site for D.C., but for some odd reason the folks who use to have it never updated it "Pity! It was a good resource link".

If you mean by Democrat vs Republican, then Barack is doing an out standing job in keeping us apart. And as hard it may be for you to figure out? Some of us Don't do You tube, or face book. The media does, kids do, but for the rest of working, we don't run to You Tube to look at the latest vid out there. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------