California’s Drought

The Los Angeles Times reports that the California drought may be over.  No one knows if it is really over or is the filling of our reservoirs a temporary situation.  Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t lifting his drought declaration. Los Angeles isn’t ending its watering restrictions and Southern California’s major water wholesaler isn’t reversing delivery cuts.

There is more than one reason.  The first is that that this rainy season was caused by an El Nino effect.  That is a warming of Pacific Ocean waters which results in more rain on the California coast.  This occurrence has been proven from prior El Nino years.

The second is the continuing construction industry search for new business.  The state will include a proposal on November’s ballot for $11 Billion in water conservation bonds.  As I pointed out this past November 5, 2009, building more reservoirs and channels will not increase the water supply.  It will, however, put money in the pockets of contractors.  As I pointed out then, we have already spent over $13 Billion on water projects since the year 2000.  The great water projects were built at an earlier date and continue to provide adequate distribution of water throughout the state.

Canada’s Economy is the Envy of the World

A Summary of an Associated Press article.

It should be noted that the total population of Canada is less than the population of California.

TORONTO (AP) — Canada thinks it can teach the world a thing or two about dodging financial meltdowns.

While others have floundered, Canada’s economy grew at a 6.1 percent annual rate in the first three months of this year. President Barack Obama says the U.S. should take note of Canada’s banking system, and Britain’s Treasury chief is looking to emulate the Ottawa way on cutting deficits.

“We should be proud of the performance of our financial system during the crisis,” said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in an interview with The Associated Press.

The banks are stable because, in part, they’re more regulated. As the U.S. and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries over the last 15 years, Canada refused to do so. The banks also aren’t as leveraged as their U.S. or European peers.

In Canada’s concentrated banking system, five major banks dominate the market and regulators know each of the top bank executives personally. [editor’s note: There are eight major banks in the United States]

Although Canada did experience the recession of 2008-2010 it is recovering from the recession faster than others, and although its deficit is currently at a record high, the International Monetary Fund expects Canada to be the only one of the seven major industrialized democracies to return to surplus by 2015.  The proof?  This month Canada became the first among them to raise interest rates since the global financial crisis began.

George Osborne, Britain’s Treasury chief, has vowed to follow Canada’s example on deficit reduction.  “They brought together the best brains both inside and outside government to carry out a fundamental reassessment of the role of the state,” Osborne said in a speech.

“The rest of the world certainly thinks we’re the model to follow,” said Martin, who was prime minister from 2003 to 2006. “I’ve been asked by a lot of countries as to how to go about it.”

Don Drummond, Martin’s budget chief at the time, “There’s a lot to learn from Canada but their starting conditions are worse,” he said. “Even though we were on the precipice of a crisis we weren’t in as bad a shape as many of them are.”

Creating Private Sector Jobs

Nevada has a distinction it probably doesn’t want: the nation’s highest unemployment rate — 14%. That’s up from 13.7% in April and 11.5% in May 2009 and an all-time low of 3.8% in April 2000.  California’s unemployment rate decreased to 12.4 percent in May.  April’s unemployment rate was 12.5%.  The number of people unemployed in California, for May, was 2,277,000 – down by 21,000 over the month, but up by 212,000 compared with May of last year.

The Associated Press reported that President Barack Obama dashed into Ohio for the groundbreaking of a road project, hoping to remind Americans that the massive, costly stimulus act is still churning out jobs for a nation plagued by high unemployment.

In all of this political grandstanding there is one simple fact.  The government has failed to take any consequential action that will increase the number of private sector jobs.  The dismal reality is that no politicians have offered any new ideas to induce new job growth.  That includes those who want to replace incumbents.

A good example is Carly Fiorina, Republican candidate for Senator in California. She is focusing on job creation in her campaign.  The problem is that she sent 40,000 jobs overseas as CEO of Hewlett-Packard Company.  Read her web site    and you quickly learn she does not have one new or different idea.

The president is no better than Ms. Fiorina.  His ideas are all about government jobs.  When the money runs out what will happen to those government employees?

My idea (actually my wife’s idea) is the two tier business tax.  Every dollar earned as the result of American made products will be taxed at a lower rate than those dollars earned from foreign products.  That means Walmart, Toyota car dealers (some Toyotas are partially made in America), and other who rely on imports will pay a higher income tax rate on at least part of their earnings.  That just might help bring some jobs back to America.

The Muslim Invasion

ABC World News provided this same information on today’s newscast.  http://barenakedislam.wordpress.com provides the same information.  This is copy pasted from that site.  I have added nothing to this.  The Red color is not mine.  Add this plan for a 52,000 square foot mosque to the plans for a mosque two blocks from the World Trade Center and you get the picture.

Freedom of religion does not mean the right to dominate.  I fear that the Muslim intention is to gain control of the the entire world.

—

TENNESSEE town fighting construction of new mega-mosque

For the second time in two months, in Murfreesboro, a mosque is facing opposition from local residents who don’t want the monster-sized mosque constructed in their small, farming community.

With a growing Muslim community in Rutherford County, the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro wants to build on Veals Road. The project done in phases could take years to finish: a 52,000-square-foot mosque, with a community center and athletic fields.

Terrorist Front Group CAIR says this “NOT WELCOME” vandalism is a hate crime

“I believe this has been approved and run through without public notice,” resident Kevin Fisher said. ”Why have a mosque nine times the size of Nashville’s in the middle of a farming, residential community?” 

Last month, plans for a separate mosque in Brentwood were soundly defeated when residents who were against rezoning the land mounted a campaign that raised suspicions about the mosque and its leaders. Opponents encouraged residents to write letters to the city commission, and stirred more controversy by questioning links to terrorist groups.

The Muslim community is confused over the opposition. They have been good neighbors and residents in Rutherford County, they said. ”No one really comes out to speak against people, using traffic, which is malleable, to manipulate to the detriment of those applying for the property,” he said.

Delbert Ketner, a retired resident who opposes the mosque, questions the goals of those who practice Islam.
“If their goal is to advance Islam, advance their culture, then there is no real affection for our Constitution and the precepts we were founded on,” Ketner said.

Local Muslims have no idea why people don’t want a giant mosque in their town.

Imam Ossama Bahloul wants to dispel any worries, and said any disagreements should be worked out. He had to answer tough questions from his own as well. A child asked, “Why do they hate us?” (Oh, please, don’t get me started) 

When they announced their plans to build their dream facility, they also invited residents. They didn’t expect a backlash. Now they are answering to rumors of polygamy, Islamic doctrine and whether they will adhere to the U.S. Constitution, said Essam Fathy, a physical therapist who has lived in Murfreesboro since the 1980s. 

“We have nothing to hide,” Fathy said. “We do not have a hidden agenda. We’re not affiliated with anyone. Where is the tolerance?” (TOLERANCE? When you let us build churches or synagogues in your Muslim countries, we’ll consider your request)

Muslims need room (Saudi Arabia has lots of room) Fathy said the Muslim community, with 250 families, has outgrown its digs at 862 Middle Tennessee Blvd. (Who cares?) TENNESSEAN.

Muslims Want to Control the U.S.A.

(Fact or Fiction………You Decide.)

  
 

This is an excellent commentary on what is really going on here.

——

Apparently they think that putting hearts and butterflies on will make most people not realize that the rest is Arabic and probably not something we want to support.

  
New Stamp – the second one!!!
USPS New 44-Cent Stamp Celebrates a Muslim holiday.
If there is only ONE thing you forward today… let it be this!

 
To use this stamp would be a slap in the face to all those AMERICANS who died at the hands of those whom this stamp honors.      

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of Pan Am Flight 103! REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the American Embassies in Africa !  
Honor the United States of America !

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993!

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebanon ! 

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the Military Barracks in Saudi Arabia ! 

REMEMBER to adamantly & vocally BOYCOTT this stamp, when you are purchasing your stamps at the post office.

All you have to say is “No thank you, I do not want that Muslim Stamp on my letters!“

 

REMEMBER the MUSLIM bombing of the USS COLE! 

REMEMBER the MUSLIM attack on 9/11/2001 ! 

REMEMBER all the AMERICAN lives that were lost in those vicious MUSLIM attacks!

 
Pass this along to every Patriotic American that you know and get the word out! 

 

David

Letter From Istanbul

One of my favorite writer/authors is Thomas Friedman.  This column of his appeared in the New York Times on June 15, 2010.

Turkey is a country that had me at hello. I like the people, the culture, the food and, most of all, the idea of modern Turkey — the idea of a country at the hinge of Europe and the Middle East that manages to be at once modern, secular, Muslim, democratic, and has good relations with the Arabs, Israel and the West. After 9/11, I was among those hailing the Turkish model as the antidote to “Bin Ladenism.” Indeed, the last time I visited Turkey in 2005, my discussions with officials were all about Turkey’s efforts to join the European Union. That is why it is quite shocking to come back today and find Turkey’s Islamist government seemingly focused not on joining the European Union but the Arab League — no, scratch that, on joining the Hamas-Hezbollah-Iran resistance front against Israel.

Now how did that happen?

Wait one minute, Friedman. That is a gross exaggeration, say Turkish officials.

You’re right. I exaggerate, but not that much. A series of vacuums that emerged in and around Turkey in the last few years have drawn Turkey’s Islamist government — led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party — away from its balance point between East and West. This could have enormous implications. Turkey’s balancing role has been one of the most important, quiet, stabilizers in world politics. You only notice it when it is gone. Being in Istanbul convinces me that we could be on our way to losing it if all these vacuums get filled in the wrong ways.

The first vacuum comes courtesy of the European Union. After a decade of telling the Turks that if they wanted E.U. membership they had to reform their laws, economy, minority rights and civilian-military relations — which the Erdogan government systematically did — the E.U. leadership has now said to Turkey: “Oh, you mean nobody told you? We’re a Christian club. No Muslims allowed.” The E.U.’s rejection of Turkey, a hugely bad move, has been a key factor prompting Turkey to move closer to Iran and the Arab world.

But as Turkey started looking more South, it found another vacuum — no leadership in the Arab-Muslim world. Egypt is adrift. Saudi Arabia is asleep. Syria is too small. And Iraq is too fragile. Erdogan discovered that by taking a very hard line against Israel’s partial blockade of Hamas-led Gaza — and quietly supporting the Turkish-led flotilla to break that blockade, during which eight Turks were killed by Israel — Turkey could vastly increase its influence on the Arab street and in the Arab markets.

Indeed, Erdogan today is the most popular leader in the Arab world. Unfortunately, it is not because he is promoting a synthesis of democracy, modernity and Islam, but because he is loudly bashing Israel over its occupation and praising Hamas instead of the more responsible Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, which is actually building the foundations of a Palestinian state.

There is nothing wrong with criticizing Israel’s human rights abuses in the territories. Israel’s failure to apply its creativity to solving the Palestinian problem is another dangerous vacuum. But it is very troubling when Erdogan decries Israelis as killers and, at the same time, warmly receives in Ankara Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the bloodshed in Darfur, and while politely hosting Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose government killed and jailed thousands of Iranians demanding that their votes be counted. Erdogan defended his reception of Bashir by saying: “It’s not possible for a Muslim to commit genocide.”

As one Turkish foreign policy analyst said to me: “We are not mediating between East and West anymore. We’ve become spokesmen for the most regressive elements in the East.”

Finally, there is a vacuum inside Turkey. The secular opposition parties have been in disarray most of the decade, the army has been cowed by wiretaps and the press has been increasingly intimidated into self-censorship because of government pressures. In September, the Erdogan government levied a tax fine of $2.5 billion on the largest, most influential — and most critical — media conglomerate, Dogan Holdings, to bring it to heel. At the same time, Erdogan lately has spoken with increasing vitriol about Israel in his public speeches — describing Israelis as killers — to build up his domestic support. He regularly labels his critics as “Israel’s contractors” and “Tel Aviv’s lawyers.”

Sad. Erdogan is smart, charismatic and can be very pragmatic. He’s no dictator. I’d love to see him be the most popular leader on the Arab street, but not by being more radical than the Arab radicals and by catering to Hamas, but by being more of a democracy advocate than the undemocratic Arab leaders and mediating in a balanced way between all Palestinians and Israel. That is not where Erdogan is at, though, and it’s troubling. Maybe President Obama should invite him for a weekend at Camp David to clear the air before U.S.-Turkey relations get where they’re going — over a cliff.

Creating More Jobs is Job 1!

The Obama administration has failed to focus on the one most important issue in the United States right now.  That is the lack of jobs.  The Gulf oil spill only makes things worse.

Phony meetings of leading corporate executives conferring with the president do not create jobs.  There have been no publicly spoken thoughts that indicate any thinking “outside the box.”  I believe that is the case, because President Obama’s advisors are just the same old people that are part of the Democratic Party machinery.  The Republican Party is no better.

An idea that is unique is the report by Michael Porter in the May 31-June 6, 2010 Businessweek.  Michael Porter is a Harvard Business School Professor. The essence of the article is as follows.

A small struggling printer-toner distributor, in a poor neighborhood of Boston, made a connection with the CEO of Staples, the giant office supply company.  The result is that the company is now a manufacturer and now successfully employs 65 people.  Three things result from this relationship.  1) More people are employed. 2) Staples has an improved image in the community. 3) Staples has a reliable supplier in this nation.

The administration needs to look for more of these examples and find ways to encourage more of the same.  Tax incentives would be a good place to start.  Or perhaps tax penalties for those companies that do not participate.   

The Jewish Land


Palestine/Eretz Israel: A National Home of Only One People 

June 14, 2010 | Eli E. Hertz  

The following is an excerpt from the U.S. Congressional Record of 1922 that demonstrates the powerful sense of the members of Congress in favor of reestablishing of a Jewish national home in Palestine:

“Palestine of to-day, the land we now know as Palestine, was peopled by the Jews from the dawn of history until the Roman era. It is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people. They were driven from it by force by the relentless Roman military machine and for centuries prevented from returning.

“At different periods various alien people succeeded them, but the Jewish race had left an indelible impress upon the land. To-day it is a Jewish country. Every name, every landmark, every monument, and every trace of whatever civilization remaining there is still Jewish . And it has ever since remained a hope, a longing, as expressed in their prayers for these nearly 2,000 years. No other people has ever claimed Palestine as their national home. No other people has ever shown an aptitude or indicated a genuine desire to make it their homeland. The land has been ruled by foreigners. Only since the beginning of the modern Zionist effort may it be said that a creative, cultural, and economic force has entered Palestine. The Jewish Nation was forced from its natural home. It did not go because it wanted to. A perusal of Jewish history, a reading of Josephus, will convince the most skeptical that the grandest fight that was ever put up against an enemy was put up by the Jew. He never thought of leaving Palestine.

“But he was driven out. But did he, when driven out, give up his hope of getting back? Jewish history and Jewish literature give the answer to that question. The Jew even has a fast day devoted to the day of destruction of the Jewish homeland. Never throughout history did they give up hope of returning there. I am told that 90 per cent of the Jews to-day are praying for the return of the Jewish people to its own home. The best minds among them believe in the necessity of reestablishing the Jewish land. To my mind there is something prophetic in the fact that during the ages no other nation has taken over Palestine and held it in the sense of a homeland; and there is something providential in the fact that for 1,800 years it has remained in desolation as if waiting for the return of its people.”

David