Erosion of Cape Cod Beaches explained.....This is the real deal!!!

OK.....I had to post this one.....Kudos to the author, one Ms. Rose Grant of Fall River, MA.....

Beach Erosion solved !!!!

3-year-olds hold the secret to Marconi's missing sand

August 10, 2010

Officials at the National Seashore have been telling us that relentless wave action over the centuries have caused the Cape shoreline to continually erode. This is all a hoax.

The loss of dunes along the Cape results from the visits of toddlers from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Coming to the Cape every summer in minivans and Volvo wagons, bearing plates such as WLFT, PTWN and ILVCC, they are stealing the Cape from right under our noses!
It has been determined that the average 3-year-old carries 2.3 pounds of sand home each year in his water shoes, bathing suit liner and in the previously mentioned minivan.

After several generations of summer bridge crossings, several tons of sand from Marconi Beach alone have been relocated to Passaic, N.J.

To stop this one-way flow of our precious resource, I suggest the following:
Weigh stations at the Bourne and Sagamore bridges. Cars with young children must stop and be weighed entering and leaving the Cape. Cars weighing more at departure would require a search by sand-sniffing dogs.

Upon arrival home, all vacuum cleaner bags would be emptied into pre-paid mailers so that sand could be returned to its rightful place, no questions asked.

It's time to save our Cape!

Rose M. Grant
Fall River

DEMS provide for the HACKS at the expense of the Average American Workers..and people wonder why I criticize POTUS and his Euro-Jetting Wife

Politics is not a game for those who don't understand that it is a "blood sport"....especially in the venue of the national scene......

I considered myself a " Jack Kennedy " Democrat, which means that the present day DEMS DO NOT represent my beliefs....they are full of the dregs of the hippie movement, PC idiots, 1960's peace movement left overs, and those who believe you can solve problems with "Other people's" money....Not the DEMS that I knew as the real Democratic Party,,,,,more like religous zealots who hijacked the Good Democratic Party for their own perverted ways.....

That made me a " unalligned" voter, who votes his own POV and let's the party politics be damned.....I will criticize candidates based on what they do (or don't do) as I see fit....I vote the candidate and what they represent and steer clear of being "lock-step" with any party lines....

I am not a Republican.....BUT I supported John McCain and felt he was the better canididate for President. He is a bonefide war hero, a man of honor and someone I call my friend as we have met and he knows me.

Read the enclosed article.....The FACT that the DEMS & POTUS rushed back to WASH DC to pass a $26 Billion dollar spending bill to make sure PUBLIC EMPLOYEES don't get lay-offs but leave the average worker to struggle on unemployment for months/years show they are only interested in helping the "HACKS", not the average family who has been struggling for the past two years......It is disgusting as the Public Employees will be getting bennies for life, while the hard working average American has seen their 401k evaporate and will struggle during their retirement.....and for years until they reach retirement.

And some have wondered why I criticize POTUS and his Euro-jetting Wife.....please......wake up and see that this elitist fool thinks we are stupid and unworthy of making up our own minds for what works best for our country...

November is coming and the ARSE-kicking that is in store for the DEMS and their clue-less leader will be pure " Schadenfreude".....

( A German word for gaining pleasure at the misfortune of others.)

Go figure that the Germans had a word for that !

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latimes.com
Democratic candidates all but ignore their legislative successes
Avoid bragging, strategists advise, and warn against putting Republicans back in charge.
By Janet Hook, Tribune Washington Bureau
August 9, 2010
Reporting from Washington

As Democrats fan out across the country to campaign for reelection this month, many are surprisingly quiet about their hard-won accomplishments — the major bills they have passed under President Obama.In an effort coordinated with the White House, congressional leaders are urging Democrats to focus less on bragging about what they have done — a landmark healthcare law, a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street regulation and other far-reaching policy changes — and more on efforts to fix the economy and on the perils of Republican control of Congress.

One year after many town hall meetings were upended by raucous anti-government protesters, congressional Democrats are trying to ensure that this summer's debate sheds a more flattering light on their party as they navigate a bruising midterm election campaign.To bulk up their record on job creation, Democratic leaders have gone to great lengths — even calling House members back from recess for a special session Tuesday — to pass a $26-billion bill to avert public employee layoffs.

And in an effort to turn attention to their opponents, Democrats from Obama on down have taken to warning that giving Republicans control of Congress would be akin to reelecting George W. Bush."The question for 2010 is: Whose side are you on?" Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said to reporters Thursday. He spoke after a closed meeting with Democratic senators, where palm cards itemizing contrasts between the parties were distributed for lawmakers to carry around during the recess."Democrats moving us forward, while Republicans take us back," the card says.

Obama has been reading from the same playbook, comparing Republicans to bad drivers who want to retrieve keys to a car they had driven into a ditch."When you get in your car, when you go forward, what do you do? You put it in 'D,' " Obama said last week at a Democratic National Committee event in Atlanta. "When you want to go back, what do you? You put it in 'R.' "Republicans see those attacks as an effort to divert attention from the weak economy."Democrats plan to spend the next month asking voters to overlook their job-killing policies by distracting them with dishonest attacks on Republican candidates," the National Republican Congressional Committee wrote in a recent memo to House Republicans and GOP candidates.

Democratic strategists privately acknowledge that their party's legislative record, while far-reaching and popular with party regulars, has limited political benefit in swing districts and in a stubbornly sluggish economy."Our candidates' job is not to sell the accomplishments of the past but to send a message that strikes a chord," said a senior Democratic advisor who did not want to be identified while discussing strategy. "I am not one who thinks our candidates should go out and sell healthcare reform. They have to stay focused on jobs, the economy and shaking up Washington."

Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-Ind.), campaigning for an open Senate seat, holds most of his political events at work sites to emphasize his commitment to job creation. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), running for reelection in a GOP-dominated district, uses one of his first campaign ads to highlight his opposition to the healthcare bill and his effort to "protect coal jobs" in a controversial energy bill.Rep. Kendrick B. Meek (D-Fla.), in a two-day campaign swing through Democratic strongholds in South Florida, barely mentioned the Democrats' legislative record.The focus on the economy is a nod to a political reality documented by polling in both parties.

For most voters, persistent bad employment news trumps perceived or anticipated benefits of Obama's healthcare bill and other initiatives.With the House and Senate adjourned until after Labor Day, the White House and congressional Democratic leaders have coordinated their summertime message and strategy in part to avoid the imbroglio that marked last year's August recess, which laid bare the political risks of the healthcare debate that was underway.Many Democrats' town hall meetings were disrupted by angry conservatives criticizing the legislation — a spectacle that riveted cable news television and amounted to the public relations debut of the "tea party" movement, which portrayed the healthcare bill as the epitome of big-government excess.

This year, town hall meetings are likely to be more low key, in part because many Democrats are seeking alternative venues such as teleconference town hall meetings that are easier to control.But conservatives are also finding it harder to galvanize people around issues rather than candidates now that healthcare is receding in prominence."It's just a little quieter because there isn't an imminent bill to focus on," said Adam Brandon, spokesman for FreedomWorks, a conservative group that has helped fund and organize tea party protests.That's fine with Menendez, who is doing all he can to make sure that voters view the election as a choice between political parties, not a referendum on "whether you like or don't like what we did.""In everything we do, we have to drive that contrast," he said as the Senate wrapped up its legislative business and disbanded Thursday for the August recess.

janet.hook@latimes.com

James Oliphant of the Washington bureau contributed to this report from Miami.
Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

BRITISH Press have no love for POTUS...and they are not as easily influenced as the US Press is by the White House

In a Global World, information is the newest " weapon-of-mass-destruction". It used to be that the American public relied on AMERICAN news sources to supply thier info.....Now, due to the Internet and the ability to gain info from around the world in seconds, the press we see is more gloablized.....

That makes it difficult for the White House to control the flow of news and * influence * what is put out regarding the story of the day.....

The article enclosed states the view of the BRITS who don't have a lot of love for POTUS...His removal of the bust of Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office, where it had held a place of honor for years left a "bad-taste" in the mouths of the Brits...some have attributed this to POTUS' family being mistreated back-in-the-day in Kenya when it was under British rule.....He carries a grudge about this issue that he details in one of his two autobiographies......well, as they can write him up and make sure it gets out for all the world to read, it seems that "payback is a B*tch...."

UK Telegraph By Nile Gardiner

The Obama presidency increasingly resembles a modern-day Ancient Régime: extravagant and out of touch with the American people

By Nile Gardiner August 7th, 2010

What the great French historian Alexis de Tocqueville would make of today’s Obama administration were he alive today is anyone’s guess. But I would wager that the author of L’Ancien Régime and Democracy in America would be less than impressed with the extravagance and arrogance on display among the White House elites that rule America as though they had been handed some divine right to govern with impunity.

It is the kind of impunity that has been highlighted on the world stage this week by Michelle Obama’s hugely costly trip to Spain, which has prompted a New York Post columnist Andrea Tantaros to dub the First Lady a contemporary Marie Antoinette. As The Telegraph reports, while the Obamas are covering their own vacation expenses such as accommodation, the trip may cost US taxpayers as much as $375,000 in terms of secret service security and flight costs on Air Force Two.

The timing of this lavish European vacation could not have come at a worse moment, when unemployment in America stands at 10 percent, and large numbers of Americans are fighting to survive financially in the wake of the global economic downturn. It sends a message of indifference, even contempt, for the millions of Americans who are struggling just to feed their families on a daily basis and pay the mortgage, while the size of the national debt balloons to Greek-style proportions.

While the liberal-dominated US mainstream media have largely ignored the story, it is all over the blogosphere and talk radio, and will undoubtedly add to the President’s free falling poll ratings. As much as the media establishment turn a blind eye to stories like this, which are major news in the international media, the American public is increasingly turning to alternative news sources, including the British press, which has a far less deferential approach towards the White House.

The First Lady’s ill-conceived trip to Marbella and the complete disregard for public opinion and concerns over excessive government spending is symbolic of a far wider problem with the Obama presidency – the overarching disdain for the principles of limited government, individual liberty and free enterprise that have built the United States over the course of nearly two and a half centuries into the most powerful and free nation on earth.

It is epitomised above all by the President’s relentless drive towards big government against the will of the American people, and the dramatic increases in government spending and borrowing, which threaten to leave the US hugely in debt for generations. It is also showcased by Barack Obama’s drive towards a socialised health care system, which, as I’ve noted before, is “a thinly disguised vanity project for a president who is committed to transforming the United States from the world’s most successful large-scale free enterprise economy, to a highly interventionist society with a massive role for centralized government.”

There is however a political revolution fast approaching Washington that is driven not by mob rule but by the power of ideas and principles, based upon the ideals of the Founding Fathers and the US Constitution. It is a distinctly conservative revolution that is sweeping America and is reflected in almost every poll ahead of this November’s mid-terms. It is based on a belief in individual liberty, limited government, and above all, political accountability from the ruling elites. The Obama administration’s mantra may well be “let them eat cake”, as it continues to gorge itself on taxpayers’ money, but it will be looking nervously over its shoulder as public unease mounts.

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Funny how they portray the Tea-party people as "a political revolution fast approaching Washington that is driven not by mob rule but by the power of ideas and principles, based upon the ideals of the Founding Fathers..." and NOT as a bunch of racist whack-jobs like you hear on CNN, MSNBC, etc.

That is why it is good to have the British view sometimes.....it adds to the debate.

A true " Liberty Bell" report....Al-Qaida in Pakistan gravest threat to US

Back in the day when I was a young college lad, I had the opportunity to visit with a friend who resided in Pennsylvania.....at Villanova University to be precise.

We had the usual fun one would expect to occur at such a seat of "higher learning", and ventured down to Philadelphia for some evening pub crawling...

Late upon the evening in question, my buddy led us down to the Liberty Bell Museum, where you could observe the Liberty Bell, 24 hours a day, as it was in a building that featured a large glass window, illuminated brightly for late night Bell Observers like ourselves.....

In the state of mind we were in at the time, he showed us the Liberty Bell, and then pressed a button on the wall next to the outside window....in a second or two, an automated voice started speaking from the small speaker mounted on the wall extoling, " THIS IS THE LIBERTY BELL..."

At this point, my buddy and his local pals yelled out at the top of their voices,

" NO SHIT ! ", and then proceeded to laugh themselves silly....

They apparently developed this "ritual" over a number of excursions to the site late at night....

From that day on, any " No Shit " issue became a " Liberty Bell" as this was the inside joke and a politer way of stating the obvious....

And here we arrive at the latest info put out by the present Administration that qualifies for a large " LIBERTY BELL" response....

Now the key question is, What the #$@% are you going to do about it Mr. President???

Especially since Pakistan has nuclear weapons, and they represent a clear & present danger to all the world if these idiots get them....

To quote Dr. Alfred Lanning: *That*, Detective, is the right question.

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Report: Al-Qaida in Pakistan gravest threat to US

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer – Thu Aug 5, 4:56 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration said Thursday that al-Qaida's core membership in Pakistan, along with affiliates in Africa and Yemen, poses the most dangerous terrorist threat to the United States and its interests abroad.

In its annual report on global terrorism, the

State Department said that although al-Qaida suffered some setbacks in Pakistan last year, it is "adaptable and resilient" and has expanded its reach through proxy groups.

The report for 2009 also said the terrorist network remains "actively engaged in operational plotting" of attacks against U.S. and Western targets around the world.

As in previous years, the report identified Iran as the most active "state sponsor of terrorism" and said its backing of militant groups in the Middle East and Central Asia played a highly destabilizing role in those regions. The report also left unchanged "state sponsor" designations for Cuba,

Sudan and Syria.

It also found that an increase in terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan triggered a spike in the number of civilians killed or wounded there last year, pushing South Asia past the

Middle East as the top terror region in the world. Those statistics are contained in an annex to the report first published in late April.

On al-Qaida in Pakistan, the report said the group is "the most formidable terrorist organization" targeting the U.S. homeland and "has proven to be an adaptable and resilient terrorist group whose desire to attack the United States and

U.S. interests abroad remains strong."

It said the organization was "was actively engaged in operational plotting against the United States and continued recruiting, training, and deploying operatives, including individuals from

Western Europe and North America."

Although the Pakistani government has taken some steps to rein in the group, al-Qaida's losses have been at least "partially offset" by partnerships, shared connections and objectives with groups such as the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa-based al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and Somalia-based al-Shabab, the report said.

The State Department noted with concern that al-Qaida, particularly in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, appeared to be attracting growing numbers of radicalized Americans to its cause. Underscoring that concern, the Justice Department on Thursday announced indictments against a number of U.S. citizens for supporting al-Shabab.

"The assumption that Americans have some special immunity to al-Qaida's ideology (has been) dispelled," said Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's counterterrorism coordinator.

In 2009, five Americans were arrested on terrorism charges in Pakistan, while the Yemeni group was held responsible for the attempted Dec. 25 bombing of a U.S. jetliner as it landed in Detroit, he noted.

U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a spiritual leader believed to be in Yemen, had links with both the failed bombing and the Fort Hood, Texas, shooting suspect, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
Awlaki "has catalyzed a pool of potential recruits that others have failed to reach,"

Benjamin said.

"We should make no mistake about the nature of Awlaki. This is not just an ideologue but someone at the heart of a group plotting terrorist acts against Americans."

Return to Afghanistan....."We do what we must.."

Arrived back in country a few days ago after an extended R&R stay at home.....United had issues with trying to get me back here on my original schedule, so I got 5 extra days ( w/o pay of course ) at home to enjoy time at home with family, friends and the puppies.....weather in SE Massachusetts was awesome.....low humidity, cool crisp nights....perfect in July.

Segwaying back into the routine here was easier this time compared to last....got to spend a night in Kuwait prior to flying to KAF and that seemed to help....Jet lag sux.....next R&R will be at the Holidays.....131 days & counting....

Busy here in AFGHN, busier than I have ever seen it.....lots going on and it is something that makes one proud....The US Military and our Allies are making a herculean effort to free the people from the grip of a group of murderous thugs, dealing with huge cultural differences, political infighting, and the instability of the whole AF/PAK region.....no easy feat and the arm-chair Generals who kibutz from the sidelines can get off their arse and get in the game if they think they can do a better job...

Heading back to Leatherneck where I am needed - Work here is good, my company is good and I enjoy assisting the military in their mission.....It is only the aspect of waking up 7500 miles away from my home that makes it difficult each day....basicly it is like taking a kick in the "hurt locker" each and every day...but like others, we will rise to the challenge as we have no other alternative at present....

Words from a wiser man than I resonate:

" We do what we must, and call it by the best names we can, and would fain have the praise of having intended the result which ensues. I cannot recall any form of man who is not superfluous sometimes. But is not this pitiful? Life is not worth the taking, to do tricks in. "

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Afghanistan's bloody hell: Where any field can be a killing field

The IED is the signature weapon in Afghanistan and Iraq.....I have heard them go off in close proximity but luckily, I have never been in the "kill zone" of one detonating. This reporter for the Toronto Star gives a ringside seat to what the troops deal with, especially the combat medics who fly into the kill-zone whenever & wherever needed.....If this doesn't fill you with awe, then I regret to inform you that you are without a heart or a human soul....

Afghanistan's bloody hell: Where any field can be a killing field

Louie Palu Special to the Star

I sit strapped in on another express ride to hell. I am flying on a medevac bird. The crews who fly these helicopter air ambulances of the US 101st combat aviation brigade medevac company are the most insane heroes I have ever seen. They fly into the worst places not to fight, but to selflessly pick up the wounded; soldiers, civilians and, yes, insurgents. This Blackhawk carries no weapon system. We are racing over Kandahar’s grape fields in Panjwaii to one of Canada’s last battlefields in Kandahar.

The bird dips, drops and drowns in a swirling cloud of dirt, and then hits the landing zone. The medic leaps out and a desperate group of people rush forward carrying the wounded. Then it arrives, the blood and body parts that look like they’ve been through a grinder.

I fly nine days with them, and slowly it begins to wear on me, mission after mission, body after body. What seemed to get to me the most on some days was the smell of hot blood as the bird heated up. Apparently, over time blood leaks down into the belly of the helicopter and is baked into the fuselage.

When it heats up the smell can come to life in the cabin.

These missions provide a window into what weapons deal to the human body. Most of the casualties are from Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) and mines. Many victims become amputees, legs blown off by the blast. The stumps have tourniquets holding what’s left of their life in. Some casualties have so many holes they bleed out. One day two boys are carried into the bird, both blinded by a mine, staring into space in shock. An Afghan police officer comforted them to the NATO hospital. The parade of blood and tears that moves in and out of the helicopter seemed endless, yet the medevac crews never stop.

The I.E.D. has begun to symbolize, in this war, what the stinger missile was for the mujahedeen when fighting the Russians. This indiscrimiate weapon is the primary tool used by the insurgents to sow terror throughout the countryside. Many of the victims this year are ordinary citizens, including many children, their little feet ripped from their lives forever. Caught between growing numbers of NATO troops and insurgents bent on matching any possible offensive, civilians have suffered the most, as they always do here.

In May I joined the 82nd Airborne and some Canadians in Arghandab District as they made the initial push to secure the first layer of security around Kandahar City. ....There are so many IED’s that patrols become acrobatic feats climbing on, around, over and through every land feature including rivers and trees. On one patrol I jump over a wall, walk five metres and “boom!,” a blast. I hit the ground. We think we are under attack, then comes the shriek from a cloud of dust behind me. I have just walked over a mine. The soldier behind sets it off, his foot shattered. A few days later “bang!,” another IED goes off after I pass it.

During the weeks and months explosions echo in the distance all day. Engineers destroy IED’s, people are also maimed and killed. The deadliest thing you can do here is take a walk. We start to do a “low five” after patrols — a dance where we tap each others’ feet like an Irish jig, celebrating that we still have our feet.

I tour the hell holes of Kandahar and end up in Nakhonay in Panjwaii District, where within sight of the combat outpost an IED explodes behind me again. I am so close to the blast I think my legs are gone in the blinding dust. I run my hands quickly down my legs and they are still there.
One of the most disturbing days unfolds in nearby Fathullah. I join Canadian soldiers for a patrol that ends without incident. Children are running and joking, asking for a “qalam” which in Pashto means pen — they always want pens.

We are about to leave the area when “kapow!” a mushroom cloud bursts into the sky 150 meters away. There is confusion: are we under attack, or did an insurgent blow himself up setting an IED? In the chaos, people come running. An 8-year-old boy is being carried on a man’s back, soaked in blood. He was hit by an IED. His situation is grave.

The soldiers begin first aid, a medevac is called in — the 101s t who answer the call. The boy lives.

In the armoured vehicle on the way back to base, I reflect: How will Afghans deal with these tragedies, when we leave? Will we leave them with the capacity to deal with this threat, or will IED explosions become a way of life and death, for years into the future?

Louie Palu is a Canadian photojournalist who has been covering the war in Kandahar since 2006

“The New Deal is demographically obsolete. You can’t fund the dream of the 1960s on the economy of 2010.”

This was an issue that I brought to the attention of many people when I was on the Town of Middleboro Personnel Board.....Not that anyone in local government gave a damn because they knew they were " in" the system, and had no worries about getting benefits for life.... The HACKS always took care of themselves first with an " I got mine" attitude and "don't give a damn who it hurts" outlook on anyone else.....

We are unable to sustain the amount of funds promised to people 20-30 years ago.....The choice that we will need to make is do we devote a majority of our funds to providing a very comfortable retirement for the privileged few who are "in" the system OR do we ensure that our governments is sustained to serve the need of the majority of our citizens ??? And there in lies the rub......
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Battle Looms Over Huge Costs of Public Pensions
By RON LIEBER
Published: August 6, 2010 - NY TIMES

There’s a class war coming to the world of government pensions.
Who should pay for the trillion-dollar pension gap?

The haves are retirees who were once state or municipal workers. Their seemingly guaranteed and ever-escalating monthly pension benefits are breaking budgets nationwide.

The have-nots are taxpayers who don’t have generous pensions. Their

401(k)s or individual retirement accounts have taken a real beating in recent years and are not guaranteed. And soon, many of those people will be paying higher taxes or getting fewer state services as their states put more money aside to cover those pension checks.

At stake is at least $1 trillion. That’s trillion, with a “t,” as in titanic and terrifying.

The figure comes from

a study by the Pew Center on the States that came out in February. Pew estimated a $1 trillion gap as of fiscal 2008 between what states had promised workers in the way of retiree pension, health care and other benefits and the money they currently had to pay for it all. And some economists say that Pew is too conservative and the problem is two or three times as large.

So a question of extraordinary financial, political, legal and moral complexity emerges, something that every one of us will be taking into town meetings and voting booths for years to come: Given how wrong past pension projections were, who should pay to fill the 13-figure financing gap?
Consider what’s going on in Colorado — and what is likely to unfold in other states and municipalities around the country.

Earlier this year, in an act of rare political courage, a bipartisan coalition of state legislators passed a

pension overhaul bill. Among other things, the bill reduced the raise that people who are already retired get in their pension checks each year.

This sort of thing just isn’t done. States have asked current workers to contribute more, tweaked the formula for future hires or banned them from the pension plan altogether. But this was apparently the first time that state legislators had forced current retirees to share the pain.

Sharing the burden seems to be the obvious solution so we don’t continue to kick the problem into the future. “We have to take this on, if there is any way of bringing fiscal sanity to our children,” said former Gov. Richard Lamm of Colorado, a Democrat. “The New Deal is demographically obsolete. You can’t fund the dream of the 1960s on the economy of 2010.”

But in Colorado, some retirees and those eligible to retire still want to live that dream. So they sued the state to keep all of the annual cost-of-living increases they thought they would be getting in perpetuity.

The state’s case turns, in part, on whether it is an “actuarial necessity” for the Legislature to make a change. To Meredith Williams, executive director of the Public Employees’ Retirement Association, the state’s pension fund, the answer is pretty simple. “If something didn’t change, we would have run out of money in the foreseeable future,” he said. “So no one would have been paid anything.”

Meanwhile,

Gary R. Justus, a former teacher who is one of the lead plaintiffs in the case against the state, asks taxpayers in Colorado and elsewhere to consider an ethical question: Why is the state so quick to break its promises?

After all, he and others like him served their neighbors dutifully for decades. And along the way, state employees made big decisions (and built lifelong financial plans) based on retiring with a full pension that was promised to them in a contract that they say has the force of the state and federal constitutions standing behind it. To them it is deferred compensation, and taking it away is akin to not paying a contractor for paving state highways.

And actuarial necessity or not, Mr. Justus said he didn’t believe he should be responsible for past pension underfunding and the foolish risks that pension managers made with his money long after he retired in 2003.

The changes the Legislature made don’t seem like much: there’s currently a 2 percent cap in retirees’ cost-of-living adjustment for their pension checks instead of the 3.5 percent raise that many of them received before.

But

Stephen Pincus, a lawyer for the retirees who have filed suit, estimates that the change will cost pensioners with 30 years of service an average of $165,000 each over the next 20 years.
Mr. Justus, 62, who taught math for 29 years in the Denver public schools, says he thinks it could cost him half a million dollars if he lives another 30 years. He also notes that just about all state workers in Colorado do not (and cannot) pay into Social Security, so the pension is all retirees have to live on unless they have other savings.

No one disputes these figures. Instead, they apologize. “All I can say is that I am sorry,” said Brandon Shaffer, a Democrat, the president of the Colorado State Senate, who helped lead the bipartisan coalition that pushed through the changes. (He also had to break the news to his mom, a retired teacher.) “I am tremendously sympathetic. But as a steward of the public trust, this is what we had to do to preserve the

retirement fund.”

Taxpayers, whose payments are also helping to restock Colorado’s pension fund, may not be as sympathetic, though. The average retiree in the fund stopped working at the sprightly age of 58 and deposits a check for $2,883 each month. Many of them also got a 3.5 percent annual raise, no matter what inflation was, until the rules changed this year.

Private sector retirees who want their own monthly $2,883 check for life, complete with inflation adjustments, would need an immediate fixed annuity if they don’t have a pension. A 58-year-old male shopping for one from an A-rated

insurance company would have to hand over a minimum of $860,000, according to Craig Hemke of Buyapension.com. A woman would need at least $928,000, because of her longer life expectancy.

Who among aspiring retirees has a nest egg that size, let alone people with the same moderate earning history as many state employees? And who wants to pay to top off someone else’s pile of money via increased income taxes or a radical decline in state services?

If you find the argument of Colorado’s retirees wanting, let your local legislator know that you don’t want to be responsible for every last dollar necessary to cover pension guarantees gone horribly awry. After all, many government employee unions will be taking contrary positions and doing so rather loudly.

If you work for a state or local government, start saving money outside of the pension plan if you haven’t already, because that plan may not last for as long as you need it.

And if you’re a government retiree or getting close to the end of your career? Consider what it means to be a citizen in a community. And what it means to be civil instead of litigious, coming to the table and making a compromise before politicians shove it down your throat and you feel compelled to challenge them to a courthouse brawl.

“We have to do what unions call givebacks,” said Mr. Lamm, the former Colorado governor. “That’s the only way to sanity. Any other alternative, therein lies dragons.”

"Our economy is not yet where it needs to be." - NO KIDDING

President Obama: "We’ve still got a long way to go. We’ve gone through a very, very difficult time. The auto industry has gone through a difficult time. And it’s not back to where it needs to be. Our economy is not yet where it needs to be."

REALLY??? Wow! It must be tough to have to say that & really act like you mean it....Those words must be a major comfort to the people losing their homes and who have not been able to find a good paying job for months....NOT !!

Not that you'll ever have to worry about it as you & your wife will be on the Federal DOLE for the rest of your lives.....POTUS was in Michigan on a political tour as his wife is overseas wasting tax-payer money on her 8th vacation this year.......talk about an injustice. Let's see how they would feel if they had to live on an unemployment check for about 7 months.....that would be Justice!

And the hits just keep on coming for the American workers....less jobs, less pay and no end in sight as the present Congress & Administration haven't got a clue to how bad it really is for the average American.

====================

Companies hire at slow pace for 3rd straight month

Private employers added 71,000 jobs in July; unemployment rate unchanged at 9.5 percent

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Companies showed a lack of confidence about hiring for a third straight month in July, making it likely the economy will grow more slowly the rest of the year. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.5 percent.

Private employers added a net total of only 71,000 jobs in July, far below the roughly 200,000 needed each month to reduce the unemployment rate.

Overall, the economy lost a net total of 131,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday, mostly because 143,000 temporary census jobs ended.

Investors reacted by selling stock futures and shifted into safer investments such as Treasury bonds. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which helps set interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans, fell to 2.87 percent from 2.91 percent late Thursday.

The department also revised down its jobs figures for June, saying businesses hired fewer workers than previously estimated. June's private-sector job gains were lowered to 31,000 from 83,000. May's were raised slightly to show 51,000 net new jobs, up from 33,000.

"There is still a labor market recovery, but it's a very, very weak one," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.

The slow pace of hiring will weigh on the recovery, he said, with economic growth in the current quarter likely to come in even lower than the April-to-June quarter's already weak 2.4 percent.

The "underemployment" rate was the same as in June, at 16.5 percent. That includes those working part time who would prefer full-time work and unemployed workers who've given up on their job hunts.

All told, there were 14.6 million people looking for work in July. That's roughly double the figure in December 2007, when the recession began.

Even if hiring picks up, it will take years to regain all the jobs lost during the recession. The economy lost 8.4 million jobs in 2008 and 2009. This year, private employers have added only 559,000 new hires.

Friday's report is being closely watched by the Federal Reserve as it considers ways to energize the recovery. The report could persuade the Fed to take new steps to boost the economy and keep interest rates at record lows when it meets next week.

Without more jobs, consumers won't see the gains in income needed to encourage them to spend more and support economic activity. Even those with jobs may not feel confident enough to ramp up their spending.

That's important because many of the trends driving economic growth earlier in the recovery are fading. Companies boosted production in the winter and spring to rebuild inventories that were depleted in the recession. But that boost won't last much longer. And the impact of the federal government's stimulus package is also declining.

The economy grew at 5 percent in the fourth quarter last year and 3.7 percent in the first three months of 2010. But that slowed to 2.4 percent in the April-June period. That's not fast enough to generate many jobs and reduce the unemployment rate.

Many companies appear to be getting more out of their current employees rather than adding new staff. The average work week increased by one-tenth of an hour to 34.2 hours, the department said. That's up from about 33 hours in the depths of the recession.

Walking Definitions of the word " Hypocritical "

Those who live an honorable life will tell you that the satisfaction is not in doing it, but being an example for others.....leadership by example is a fundamental practice for those who desire to demonstrate that they are willing live what they preach.

NOW then, we come to the polar opposite - The Hypocrtical Person who says one thing, and does another and/or preaches one thing for others, but does something different for themselves....

Defined as follows - " a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs."

POTUS has been saying for months all Americans need to sacrifice. So what does FLOTUS do to show her concern?? She takes a ritzy vacation on the Spanish Coast at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the US Taxpayer.....POTUS goes to Chicago to party with DOPRAH and his friends....

Official travel by POTUS & FLOTUS is a separate subject ( when on official US Business), but by the end of the summer, our First Lady will have taken EIGHT vacations this year alone - 8 ! These are trips not connected to her duties First Lady but trips where they have been on a personal vacation.

While all are entitled to time off, the "image" this projects shows that The First Family are not sacrificing at all.....and are Hypocrites who preach one thing for Americans who are under economic challenges, and do another when it comes to their own self-centered world.

Most Americans will be lucky to afford one vacation this year but when the First Family helps themselves to 8 in one year, we have reached a point where there needs to be a serious course correction....

A course correction coming via a ballot box near you in November 2010. Hopefully...

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First lady under fire for her glitzy Spanish vacation
By Holly Bailey - Yahoo NEWS - 5 Aug 2010

As her husband celebrated his 49th birthday in Chicago with Oprah, first lady Michelle Obama was halfway around the world, on vacation with her 9-year-old daughter, Sasha, in Spain. The two are traveling on what the White House has described as a four-day "private trip" with several Obama family friends along the country's ritzy southern coast.

Of course, no first lady's life is truly ever private, and already plenty of drama is swirling around Michelle Obama's foreign jaunt. Some critics have laid into the trip's price, while others are highlighting an apparent diplomatic gaffe between the United States and Spain.....

Yet the bigger public furor concerns the cost and appearance of the trip. In a scathing editorial published Thursday, New York Daily News writer Andrea Tantaros trashed Michelle Obama as a "modern day Marie Antoinette" for taking such a glitzy vacation while most of the country is struggling to make ends meet.The Obama entourage is staying at the luxury Hotel Villa Padierna, a Ritz-Carlton property often described as one of the world's top 10 hotels. Rates range between $500 and $2,500 a night. It's not clear that the Obama delegation picked this hotel specifically, or if the Secret Service — which often gets final say over where a protectee stays — made the accommodations call.

Either way, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters that the first lady will pay her personal expenses — as will the friends who are traveling with her. But that only covers a small part of the ultimate expense, given that she has full-time Secret Service protection and has to travel with an entourage of staff. That cost, as well as her travel on board an official Air Force charter plane, is covered by taxpayers.

As the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet reports, by the end of the summer, the first lady will have taken eight vacations. That includes a June trip to Los Angeles, where she and her daughters attended the NBA Finals, as well as an upcoming trip to the Florida Gulf Coast next weekend and a 10-day visit to Martha's Vineyard later this month with the president.

Michelle Obama is hardly the only first lady to travel overseas without her husband. Laura Bush and her daughters, Barbara and Jenna, traveled to Africa in 2007, where they went on safari. Yet her trip was regarded as an "official" visit and included several public events. According to the White House, this trip is entirely private, save for a photo-op with the Spanish royal family, who has invited the first lady and her daughter for an official visit.

Color me " Not Surprised"

Color me disgusted as the average American is not seeing things colored as ROSY as POTUS and his collection of knuckleheads paint the picture....Tell that to the guy who is losing his house or his job "everything's just swell".....it really helps him as he sees his life's work go down the drain....

Stimulus Spending Wasteful...no kidding.

And the " Captain Obvious" award goes to the media for reporting on something the average taxpayer had figured out long ago.... Sen. McCain has been valiantly trying to rein in the Pork Barrel spending for the past 20 years.....

Anyone could have told you that the Stimulus Plan was a huge waste of tax dollars that we will be paying for for the rest of our lives....Too bad the Congress and POTUS don't have a clue.

Stimulus Slammed: Republican Senators Release Report Alleging Waste
Sens. Coburn, McCain Rip Stimulus Spending 'Waste'
By JONATHAN KARL, MATTHEW JAFFE and GREGORY SIMMONS
Aug. 3, 2010

The Obama administration has credited its $862 billion stimulus program with pulling the economy out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. But a new report by two Republican senators argues the stimulus is riddled with wasteful projects that do not create jobs.

The report, released by Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and John McCain, R-Ariz., highlights 100 stimulus projects that they say have "questionable goals," are "being mismanaged or were poorly planned" and are even "costing jobs and hurting small businesses."

The Coburn-McCain report takes issue with stimulus spending on projects like one that entailed research on how cocaine affects monkeys. The Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center was awarded $71,623 to study what the report calls, "Monkeys Getting High for Science."

Bonnie Davis, a spokeswoman for The Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, said the "small grant has helped protect very important research that will have significant impact on public health in regards to cocaine addiction and the issue of relapse."

Go a little further down the list and you'll find even bigger spending. The California Academy of Sciences is receiving nearly $1 million in stimulus funds to send researchers to the Southwest Indian Ocean Islands and East Africa to capture, photograph and analyze thousands of exotic ants.

There's also funding for yoga and hot flashes. Researchers at Wake Forest University have received nearly $300,000 to study whether integral yoga "can be an effective method to reduce the frequency and/or severity of hot flashes" in breast cancer survivors.

"I think all of them are waste," McCain told ABC News. "I think none of them really have any meaningful impact on creating jobs. And, of course, some are more egregious than others but all of them are terrible."

In perhaps the most eye-popping instance, the report says oil giant BP, the company behind the worst oil spill in the nation's history, is benefiting from $308 million given to Hydrogen Energy California -- a company it owns -- to build a California power plant that won't even break ground for another two years.

The funds were given to BP by the Department of Energy. While the natural gas electricity plant in Kern County would generate enough low-carbon electricity for 150,000 family homes, according to the company, construction will not start for another two years and the plant is not set to become operational until the end of 2014.

"It's nice to have BP investing in environmentally friendly anything, much less a power plant," McCain quipped.

The White House Recovery Office maintains Recovery Act funding for the project was offered in June 2009 and officially awarded in September 2009, long before the Gulf spill, and that the award went to a joint venture that is a 50/50 cost-share between Rio Tinto and BP -- so BP is not the primary awardee.

In addition, it turns out the $308 million awarded is only made up of $175 million in stimulus funds, with the remaining portion coming from other sources. In fact, the private sector has given the project seven times as much funding as the government has.

"The project directly and indirectly employs more than 150 people to date and $14 million stimulus funds received to date has created or preserved 47 of these jobs, as reported on recovery.gov," Jordan Feilders of Hydrogen Energy California told ABC News.

The project is projected eventually to create more than 1,500 jobs.

According to Feilders, however, construction is not slated to begin until 2012, a year later than the Coburn-McCain report indicated.


Another eyebrow-raising endeavor involves the U.S. Forest Service in Washington state, which is spending more than half a million dollars to replace the windows on a visitor center at Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument that today sits closed with no set re-open date.

The U.S. Forest Service frames the window replacement as a necessary investment.

"The Forest Service is actually in the process of repurposing the visitors' center and plans to reuse the empty space," a U.S. Forest official told ABC News. "This window replacement is necessary to maintain the facility so they are in a position to do so. It's a critical step to protect the original investment and ensure continued good use of taxpayer dollars."

The list goes on, although some of the administrators and recipients of stimulus funds say the report doesn't get all the facts straight.

In Newark, Ohio, Pastor Greg Sheets already has lost his front yard and could lose his entire home as a $1.8 million road project comes right up to his doorstep. Sheets is only one of 25 homeowners whose houses are threatened by the project.

However, the Ohio Department of Transportation told ABC News that plans for the project began in 2005, well before the stimulus bill was even conceived of. The ODT also maintains the acquisition of the property is being handled by the City of Newark's city attorney, who has followed all state and federal procedures for purchasing the property.

Meanwhile, the town of Boynton, Okla., is spending nearly $90,000 to replace a quarter-mile stretch of sidewalk that's only five years old.

However, officials in the Oklahoma Department of Transportation say the $90,000 was a part of a $16 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and was focused on sidewalks for a reason: Sidewalks have to be compliant with the American Disabilities Act as a mandatory precursor to receiving any funding from the Federal Highway Administration. This particular sidewalk in Boyton was too narrow and too sloped to accommodate individuals in wheelchairs.

"It's a major help because now small communities, like Boynton, can receive federal funding for their roads," Casey Shell of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation told ABC News.

However, to Sens. McCain and Coburn's point, Shell admitted he could not point to any jobs created by the project.

Copyright © 2010 ABC News Internet Ventures

K-9 Veterans suffer from PTSD also....

Brave K-9 Soldiers suffer the same effects from war that we do....and need our help after serving in the warzone.


Military dog comes home from Iraq traumatized
By DAN ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer Dan Elliott, Associated Press Writer

.PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. – Gina was a playful 2-year-old German shepherd when she went to Iraq as a highly trained bomb-sniffing dog with the military, conducting door-to-door searches and witnessing all sorts of noisy explosions.

She returned home to Colorado cowering and fearful. When her handlers tried to take her into a building, she would stiffen her legs and resist. Once inside, she would tuck her tail beneath her body and slink along the floor. She would hide under furniture or in a corner to avoid people.

A military veterinarian diagnosed with her post-traumatic stress disorder — a condition that experts say can afflict dogs just like it does humans.

"She showed all the symptoms and she had all the signs," said Master Sgt. Eric Haynes, the kennel master at Peterson Air Force Base. "She was terrified of everybody and it was obviously a condition that led her down that road."

A year later, Gina is on the mend. Frequent walks among friendly people and a gradual reintroduction to the noises of military life have begun to overcome her fears, Haynes said.

Haynes describes her progress as "outstanding."

"Pretty fabulous, actually," added Staff Sgt. Melinda Miller, who's been Gina's handler since May. "She makes me look pretty good."

PTSD is well-documented among American servicemen and women returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but its existence in animals is less clear-cut. Some veterinarians say animals do experience it, or a version of it.

"There is a condition in dogs which is almost precisely the same, if not precisely the same, as PTSD in humans," said Nicholas Dodman, head of the animal behavior program at Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.

But some veterinarians dislike applying the diagnosis to animals, thinking it demeans servicemen and women, Dodman said. He added that he means no offense to military personnel when he uses the term.

The military defines PTSD as a condition that develops after a life-threatening trauma. Victims suffer three types of experiences long afterward, even in a safe environment. They repeatedly re-experience the trauma in nightmares or vivid memories. They avoid situations or feelings that remind them of the event, and they feel keyed up all the time.

When Gina returned to Peterson last year after her six-month deployment in Iraq, she was no longer the "great little pup" Haynes remembered.

She had been assigned to an Army unit, and her job was to search for explosives after soldiers entered a house. The troops sometimes used noisy, blinding "flash-bang" grenades and kicked down doors, Haynes said, and Gina was once in a convoy when another vehicle was hit by an improvised bomb.

Back home at Peterson, Gina wanted nothing to do with people.

"She'd withdrawn from society as a whole," Haynes said.

Haynes, who has worked with more than 100 dogs in 12 years as a handler and kennel master, said he has seen other dogs rattled by trauma, but none as badly as Gina.

Haynes and other handlers coaxed Gina on walks, sending someone ahead to pass out treats for bystanders to give her. They got her over her fear of walking through doors by stationing someone she knew on the other side to reward her with pats and play. They eased her farther into buildings with the same technique.

"She started learning that everyone wasn't trying to get her," Haynes said. "She began acting more social again."

On a sunny afternoon last week, Gina dashed across her training yard, jumping over obstacles on command and deftly pushing a ball with her forelegs and chest. On a visit to a store on base, she trotted calmly down the aisles and sat quietly when a woman bent to pet her.

"She's such a lovable dog," Miller said, describing how the 61-pound Gina will lie in her lap. "I could literally hold this dog like a baby."

But Haynes said they're careful not to let their affection interfere with good training. Treating Gina like a human — for example, comforting her when she's frightened — can leave her thinking that her handler is pleased when she's afraid.

"She's just gorgeous and I love her, but you also have to balance it with — you have to do what's right," he said.

Gina has resumed some of her duties, searching cars for explosives at Peterson or other nearby military facilities. Eventually, she may be able to return to the kind of hazardous duty she did in Iraq, but that's at least a year away, Haynes said.

"We're not planning on doing it anytime in the near future because obviously, we don't want to mess up everything we've already fixed," he said.

Dodman said he doubts Gina can recover completely.

"It's a fact that fears once learned are never unlearned," Dodman said. "The best thing you can do is apply new learning, which is what (Gina's handlers are) doing," he said.

Haynes acknowledged that's a concern, and although he hopes Gina recovers 100 percent he doesn't know if she will.

"Anytime someone has that much fear about anything, then obviously it will be hard just to get it fixed," he said.

"But, I mean, we don't really have many other options," Haynes said. "You can't really give up on them. They're your partner."

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Outta Gas....but not hot air

No need for further comment.....this one says it all.....

Glad to say my 1963 Willys Jeep is exempt from emissions standards as is the 1966 VW Beetle I'm rebuilding, and that suits me just fine. Both are fun to drive and I prefer them to the computerized junk they are selling now.

Take a trip overseas to other countries in Asia and the Middle East....if there is a need to reduce Greenhouse Gases, one only needs to review the 2008 Beijing Olympics to see how much other countries pollute...But the DEMS wanted to add to our tax burden as a way of "incientivizing" us to create less pollution.

While I agree we need to limit pollution, doing so by soaking us with a heavier tax burden is NOT the solution. Let's get the other countires to clean up their act and instill some common sense to the debate along with a course correction for the " Chicken Little" idiots who want to alter our lives to meet their political POV.

Wikileaks / The President & the Press...Lessons from History

A decent write up in the NYT regarding the issue surounding Wikileaks and what needs to be done. The Author has knowledge of the AOR having served on two tours there with the USArmy

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/opinion/01lafortune.html?pagewanted=2

History teaches us that almost 50 years ago, President Kennedy knew of the danger of National Security info being broadcast out to the world without thought or care for the consequences. He deplored secrecy but understood the need for control over information when it came to National Security. His remarks are a stark reminder that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

President Kennedy's address speaks volumes, even to this day;

" I want to talk about our common responsibilities in the face of a common danger. The events of recent weeks may have helped to illuminate that challenge for some; but the dimensions of its threat have loomed large on the horizon for many years. Whatever our hopes may be for the future--for reducing this threat or living with it--there is no escaping either the gravity or the totality of its challenge to our survival and to our security--a challenge that confronts us in unaccustomed ways in every sphere of human activity...

This deadly challenge imposes upon our society two requirements of direct concern both to the press and to the President--two requirements that may seem almost contradictory in tone, but which must be reconciled and fulfilled if we are to meet this national peril. I refer, first, to the need for a far greater public information; and, second, to the need for far greater official secrecy.

" I have selected as the title of my remarks tonight "The President and the Press." Some may suggest that this would be more naturally worded "The President Versus the Press." But those are not my sentiments tonight....

But I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every newsman in the nation to reexamine his own standards, and to recognize the nature of our country's peril. In time of war, the government and the press have customarily joined in an effort based largely on self-discipline, to prevent unauthorized disclosures to the enemy. In time of "clear and present danger," the courts have held that even the privileged rights of the First Amendment must yield to the public's need for national security.

Today no war has been declared--and however fierce the struggle may be, it may never be declared in the traditional fashion. Our way of life is under attack. Those who make themselves our enemy are advancing around the globe. The survival of our friends is in danger. And yet no war has been declared, no borders have been crossed by marching troops, no missiles have been fired.

If the press is awaiting a declaration of war before it imposes the self-discipline of combat conditions, then I can only say that no war ever posed a greater threat to our security. If you are awaiting a finding of "clear and present danger," then I can only say that the danger has never been more clear and its presence has never been more imminent.

I have no intention of establishing a new Office of War Information to govern the flow of news. I am not suggesting any new forms of censorship or any new types of security classifications. I have no easy answer to the dilemma that I have posed, and would not seek to impose it if I had one. But I am asking the members of the newspaper profession and the industry in this country to reexamine their own responsibilities, to consider the degree and the nature of the present danger, and to heed the duty of self-restraint which that danger imposes upon us all.

Every newspaper now asks itself, with respect to every story: "Is it news?" All I suggest is that you add the question: "Is it in the interest of the national security?" And I hope that every group in America--unions and businessmen and public officials at every level-- will ask the same question of their endeavors, and subject their actions to the same exacting tests.

The President and the Press: Address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association
President John F. Kennedy
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
New York City, April 27, 1961