Day: July 8, 2008

A New Plan For Palestinians

Mr. Fayyad is floating the proposal, first reported by Ha’aretz, just as Israel is announcing a crackdown on Islamic charities that it says are used to finance the Hamas government in Gaza. Israel has long opposed any reconciliation with Hamas, which does not recognize the Jewish state’s right to exist.

The prime minister reportedly has already sounded out the idea, aimed at bringing Hamas’s armed soldiers in Gaza under the umbrella of the Palestinian Authority, with Arab and Western diplomats

Mr. Fayyad — a pro-Western former official at the World Bank who was appointed prime minister last year as a compromise candidate belonging neither to Hamas nor to Fatah, which controls the West Bank — says his aim is to reunite Gaza and the West Bank under one government. Shortly after a bid to unite the two factions in 2007, Hamas, a fundamentalist group backed by Iran, took over Gaza and ousted all the security forces loyal to the more secular Fatah.

The new proposal includes “seeking Arab security support to help with the security situation in Gaza and deal with the obvious need for help that we have in restructuring our security capabilities and provide security services in a manner that is reassuring and effective to all during a transitional period,” Mr. Fayyad told Reuters yesterday.

This is a sound idea, but that does not mean that it will be successful.  At least the players in this conflict are trying to work out a deal for a lasting peace among themselves.  That is what needs to be done to achieve that peace.  I say let the US be a by-stander and peace is possible.

Obama In A Change In Venue

He and his campaign are pushing the rock star atmosphere around the candidate.

Borrowing from the political repertory of John F. Kennedy, Senator Barack Obama will accept his party’s nomination outside of the main Democratic convention hall this August, in the Denver Broncos’ football stadium that seats more than 75,000 people.

Mr. Obama, who will be the first African-American presidential nominee for a major party, will give his acceptance speech at Invesco Field on Aug. 28, the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” address. And he will be the first nominee to give his speech outside the convention hall since Kennedy did so in 1960, when he drew a crowd some estimated at 50,000 at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles.

Though clearly enticed by what they believe will be a powerful television image of Mr. Obama speaking before tens of thousands of people, his aides said Monday that they hoped to open the convention to regular voters who typically did not attend party conventions. The Pepsi Center, with a capacity of 21,000 people, would accommodate only the usual convention crowd, party officials said.

Bet there will be a bunch of people praying for no rain and the Repubs will be asking for a storm.

Today In Labor History

O8 July
First anthracite coal strike in U.S. – 1842

Labor organizer Ella Reeve “Mother” Bloor born on Staten Island, NY. Among her activities: investigating child labor in glass factories and mines, and working undercover in meat packing plants to verify for federal investigators the nightmarish working conditions that author Upton Sinclair had revealed in “The Jungle” – 1862

Founding convention of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W., or Wobblies) concludes in Chicago. Charles O. Sherman, a former American Federation of Labor organizer, is elected president – 1905

A Balanced Budget?

This story was everywhere yesterday.

Sen. John McCain pledged yesterday that he would balance the federal budget by 2013, the end of what would be his first term in office, returning to a promise he had strayed from as he sought to emphasize his concern about the plight of the U.S. economy.

At the same time, McCain’s campaign released a document detailing his already announced economic proposals: more offshore oil drilling and a gas-tax holiday; aggressive efforts to control government spending; lower taxes for businesses and individuals; new energy research; and tax credits to spur a private health insurance market.

His promise to balance the budget within four years brought him full circle. Earlier this year, he had chosen his words carefully on the topic, saying only that he would accomplish the task by the end of eight years, should he be elected and reelected.

Democrats immediately criticized McCain, asserting that his promise is unrealistic, given his stated goals of tax cuts and other government spending. Sen. Barack Obama accused his rival of peddling tired economic policies.

“John McCain’s policies are essentially a repeat, a regurgitation of what we’ve been hearing from the Republican Party over the last two decades, maybe three,” he said. “It’s part of the reason that we’re in the situation that we find ourselves in right now.”

Now think about this promise.  He will balance the budget in four years, but yet the war will continue, taxes would be cut, etc.  Now where would you think the savings will come from?  Most likely from the programs that will effect your children and other domestic programs.

This promise is just that–a promise that cannot be kept and its faliure will be blamed on the Congress and those damn Democrats.  See it for what it is–PANDERING!

Anal-Ocity–2008

In my first blog I started a contest called the Anal-Ocity Awards, it was designed to let all knoiw the most anal and moronic statement made by anyone in the course of the year. I am moving the award to Info Ink and will transfer the ones from my other blog. But to start I offer this .

Recently I heard an ad for Fox News and it went like this:

“FOX News: Fair And Balanced”

GM’s Woes Continue

General Motors Corp. may turn to salaried job cuts, as well as more extreme measures such as shelving a brand or borrowing from the UAW, to stanch North American losses in this year’s sinking auto industry, according to reports. The company isn’t commenting.

After falling to a half-century low last week, GM shares jumped Monday morning on a Wall Street Journal report about the possibility of job cuts and brand sales. But the shares fell back to a modest gain when spokespeople declined to comment on the job cuts and denied that any brand other than Hummer was under strategic review.

GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner announced June 3 that the company is considering “all options” for the brand.

But GM has many options.

The automaker may be able to raise $5 billion to $6 billion from banks and another $6 billion by persuading the UAW to let it borrow some money pledged to a retiree health care fund, Brian Johnson, a New York-based Lehman Brothers Inc. analyst, said Monday.

NOW, that last statement is the one I zeroed in on…the Corporation will go to the Union, it has spent so much time trying to destroy, and ask for money, a loan.  Here is the chance to get even.  But will they?

He Wants An Iraq Pull-Out Timetable

I recently read this turn of events in Iraq in The Dreyfuss Report.

The long-running showdown over the proposed US-Iraq treaty, aimed at legitimizing the American occupation of Iraq, is coming to a head, and it doesn’t look good for the United States.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tossed a bombshell today. In a news conference about the still-secret US-Iraqi talks, which began in March, Maliki for the first time said that the chances of securing the pact are just about nil, and instead he said Iraq will seek a limited, ad hoc renewal of the US authority to remain in Iraq, rather than a broad-based accord.

More important, Maliki and his top security adviser, Mouwaffak al-Rubaie added that Iraq intends to link even a limited accord to a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces.

OK, then I say let us give it to them and bring our troops home.  We have had enough sadness and death.

Toyota To Use Solar Panels

When Toyota’s popular hybrid gets a makeover in 2010, the car will now harness the power of the sun to operate its own air conditioning.

The first Priuses shipped in 1997 in Japan, and worldwide in 2000. Toyota last redesigned the car in 2003 to make it quicker and more efficient, and automotive analysts have widely expected another revision to come soon with additional enhancements.

Toyota is not commenting on these reports, although a company source told the Associated Press that details of the third-generation Prius would be revealed next May.

Solar panels would appear on higher-end models. If true, the Prius would be the first vehicle to include the technology commercially. While scientists have been building solar cars for awhile, the designs are nowhere near practical or fast enough to operate on highways.

Powering the air conditioning with solar energy does have an environmental benefit. No doubt you’ve already noticed, whenever you run your AC in your vehicle, there’s a significant drop in fuel efficiency. In this day of $4-per gallon-gas in the US, any way to save fuel can be seen as a good thing.

Those same gas prices are also contributing to a surge in hybrid sales. Toyota expects to sell a million hybrids per year by 2010, and have a hybrid version of every model in its lineup by 2020. Other companies such as Nissan, Honda, and Ford are also all working towards expanding their hybrid lines.

Question? Do you think that the US auto industry would be in better shape if they had just a touch of foresight?