From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec  1 01:46:03 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:46:03 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Greenville, SC, makes national news wire
In-Reply-To: <400985d70911302059x757ec0fax9918582b9fd1ef49@mail.gmail.com>
References: <B21EAE69622046339AB8FA387AF0F74C@YOURB88038198E>
	<400985d70911301551k78fa04a8l4d44e7a0f1018155@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0911301714q587b616ew7c198ecd441937fe@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70911301737k1d1d9d9dv3bc5d8912c15ff3e@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0911301828h4a06d186o1ec266e253ca97c1@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70911302059x757ec0fax9918582b9fd1ef49@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0911302246t1659437if61a7be01bee3bae@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

I wouldn't mind a Palin/Pawlenty ticket, although I must admit to being
pretty pissed off a couple years back when he balanced the budget on the
backs of tobacco users. He is pretty responsible fiscally for the most part.
I don't know enough about Jindahl to make a judgment although I have heard
good things. However, after hearing him speak after the last election I
can't say I exactly got a tingle up my leg listening to him. Huckabee is
poison in my mind, considering the events in Washington yesterday. Romney
..... MA health care .... need I say more?? Cantor, heard of him, but that's
what I know. M/M mentioned somebody named Spencer I think, the other day
too. Don't know anything about him either.

Will the D's even have a primary in 2012? One could hope that Obie won will
have made enough enemies even in his own party by then that they'd want to
challenge him from within.

Somebody HAS to get a handle on this spending. Palin is the only one I've
heard that has said anything about getting back to living within our means.
Once the entitlement spending is gotten back under control, I think the
socialist tendencies will die a natural death from lack of funds.

Rik

On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 10:59 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Rik,
>
> Someone has to take Barry on in his own party. Hilary is the natural
> choice. On the other side, Hukabee is out (never liked him as a
> candidate anyway).  There's your guv, Jindal would be a good VP pick,
> I don't like Romney (but voted for him in the TN primary), who's left?
>  I really like Eric Cantor but no one else has ever heard of him
> (kinda like Palin in early 08). Forget Newt, he's done (besides being
> an asshat).  I'm thinking Palin/Patreus or Palin/Jindal, or
> Palin/Cantor. At this point I really don't care as long as we have
> someone/anyone who understands that you can't vote "present" as the
> POTUS.
>
> Brad
>
> On 11/30/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Brad,
> >
> > Yeah, Sarah'd work for me.
> >
> > I'd be pretty happy if we could just find somebody who knew more than how
> to
> > recruit dead people to vote.
> >
> > Rik
> >
> > On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 7:37 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Rik,
> >>
> >> The neighborhood might get a bit noisy, but -
> >>
> >> http://www.cumminsonan.com/residential/products/naturalgas
> >>
> >> After living on the MS Gulf Coast for over three months without
> >> electricity and over a week here in Memphis after Hurricane Elvis
> >> (freak line of thunderstorms) I've learned to live off grid.
> >>
> >> How about this idea?  Elect Sarah!  BTW, she set the goal for Alaska
> >> to use 50% alternative energy which makes sense given the remoteness
> >> of most of the AK villages. She knows oil & gas extremely well (and
> >> the competing forms of energy).
> >>
> >> Brad
> >>
> >> On 11/30/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > Brad,
> >> >
> >> > Got your cave picked out yet??
> >> >
> >> > No nukes, no coal, we're gonna' be twiddlin' out thumbs is the dark
> >> pretty
> >> > damned quick.
> >> >
> >> > Some say population control is the answer. Maybe we could start with
> >> those
> >> > four and Al.
> >> >
> >> > Rik
> >> >
> >> > On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> Ed,
> >> >>
> >> >> Interesting side story about the protesters, guess they didn't get
> the
> >> >> word about Saint Al and his "researchers".  They should be rejoicing
> >> >> that cleaner burning turbines are being installed. We can burn coal
> >> >> with very little emissions provided we're willing to spend the money.
> >> >> Now get the word to China (they're bringing on two coal plants per
> >> >> month). A fellow from my airplane list was in town to visit his
> wife's
> >> >> relatives for T'giving and we met at my hangar for a beer.  He's in
> >> >> the race car business in Indianapolis but is currently working on a
> >> >> 100 MPG car for a company in Virginia competing for the X Prize
> >> >> Foundation money.  His take was that plug & drive cars won't hack it
> -
> >> >> the batteries are too heavy and the grid won't handle everyone
> >> >> plugging in at night.  Reduce the grid output by outlawing coal and
> >> >> we're toast (actually we couldn't make toast).  Without nukes, we're
> >> >> stuck with coal for a long time.  These protesters are tilting at
> >> >> windmills. Nope, can't be that, windmills are ugly and they harm
> >> >> birds.  These protesters are just clueless.
> >> >>
> >> >> Brad
> >> >>
> >> >> On 11/30/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
> >> >> > See:
> >> >> >
> >> >> > http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20091130/NEWS01/91130023
> >> >> >
> >> >> > About 5 miles south of me.  Went past it Sunday, it was parked at a
> >> >> > truck
> >> >> > supply and trailer repair facility.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > It has to make a funny dog leg to less than 1/2 mile from me.  I
> >> suspect
> >> >> a
> >> >> > bridge over the road it wants to use is too low.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Ed K
> >> >> _______________________________________________
> >> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > You know, I can remember a time when a common citizen didn?t have to
> >> explain
> >> > American greatness to the President, but rather the other way around.
> ?
> >> Bill
> >> > Whittle
> >> >
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > You know, I can remember a time when a common citizen didn?t have to
> explain
> > American greatness to the President, but rather the other way around. ?
> Bill
> > Whittle
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
You know, I can remember a time when a common citizen didn?t have to explain
American greatness to the President, but rather the other way around. ? Bill
Whittle
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Tue Dec  1 06:52:48 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 06:52:48 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] These protesters are just clueless.
Message-ID: <81589DEA2ED2439EAF159E576B3E55D7@YOURB88038198E>

Brad said, "These protesters are just clueless."  What is really wrong is the coverage they get.  Our communists media.

Rik found, ""cut off the electricity to their homes and let them practice what they preach."  I saw that comment too.  One good comment in reply to all the media goobledegook.  Why wasn't that said by the reporter?  Why do they protesters get front page news in the local communists rag?

Someone suggested, "Patreus".  What party?  How far would he get if he ran on Democrat side?  He has management and foreign affairs experience, but what economic background.

I still think that someone early 50's who know economics and can think and talk well on his feet.  I was always interested in running for office but know full well that my quick reply language upsets too many.  I call a Marxist a Marxist.  They cry foul.  But they are what they are, and just either will not publically admit it nor admit that do not understand Marxism and what effect it has on humankind.

Ed K
Addendum (paraphrase):  
Success depends on those who stand somewhat larger than life and are never content unless struggling to climb above the ordinary.


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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec  1 08:11:31 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 07:11:31 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] About Dinner Last Night
In-Reply-To: <577991.33707.qm@web111202.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
References: <400985d70911290555p2881df8an76ad6bb584238ef5@mail.gmail.com>
	<577991.33707.qm@web111202.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912010511q46d716bete2c4822b8a717f1f@mail.gmail.com>

Elle,

Let's connect some more dots, shall we?  The Salahis have a series of
e-mail exchanges with someone from the Pentagon (so sayeth the WaPo).
What the WaPo won't say is that this "Pentagon" official actually
works for the White House. WH spokesman Gibbs blames it on the
Pentagon as well.  Here's what they don't want to acknolodge - her
name is Michele Jones and she was the highest ranking enlisted female
African-American in the Army prior to retiring in 2007. You've
probably seen her before, she spoke at the Democratic convention in
2008. The person responsible for "making a list and checking it twice"
is Desiree Rogers, long time friend and bundler for Barack & Michelle
and close friend of Valerie Jarett. Ms. Hargrove, the WH career
employee who used to perform this job, was demoted earlier in the year
because she was hired by Bush 43 and Rogers took over the function.
Desiree Rogers likes to get her photo published in society magazines
and apparently on the night of the dinner is hobnobbing around instead
of minding the gate.  So who is going to get thrown under the bus on
this one?  My guess is that the Secret Service won't take a bullet on
what is obviously looking more and more like an inside job. You don't
just sneak in the WH - someone gave permission.

Wanna bet?

Brad

"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the
urge to rule it." [H.L. Mencken]



On 11/30/09, elle <ragdollelle at yahoo.com> wrote:
> the Salahis are personas -non-grata in Fauquier county, Va...where I lived
> for 35 years...they bought a vineyard in Markham, VA and proceeded to defy
> all zoning laws regulating the number of and kinds of events that could be
> held in that area or environment.....they did whatever they wanted w/ a
> 'screw'em' attitude.Incidentally...Markham is close to Hume, VA....family
> land of a noted TV reporter.
> elle
>
> --- On Sun, 11/29/09, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> From: Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] About Dinner Last Night
> To: "Letters to the Editor"
> <swiftwatergazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com>
> Date: Sunday, November 29, 2009, 8:55 AM
>
> So a couple of "party crashers" made it past the Secret Service for
> the first time in know history to a White House state dinner.  Obama
> demands a "full investigation".  Hey Barry, why not start here -
>
> http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/17310
>
> Tereq Salahi was on the board of directors of the American Task Force
> for Palestine. Don't bother to go to their website, he's already been
> scrubbed.  Who is ATFP?  Try here -
>
> http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/10/nation/na-obamamideast10
>
> Khalidi and Saed were influences on Obama at Columbia (his words not mine).
>
> Yeah, hard to figure out how this couple "crashed" the White House
> dinner.  Keep trying to connect those dots Mr. Soeroto, er, I mean Mr.
> President.
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>
>
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec  1 08:23:19 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 07:23:19 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] These protesters are just clueless.
In-Reply-To: <81589DEA2ED2439EAF159E576B3E55D7@YOURB88038198E>
References: <81589DEA2ED2439EAF159E576B3E55D7@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <400985d70912010523s4dd9c0f9s39db3807b2d756e7@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

People are catching on to the act - latest polling from Missouri (a
swing state) has approval of our current Mr. Present at 33%.  More
importantly, his disapproval rating in the 18-24 demographic in MO is
67%.  Trust me, those kind of numbers get reactions from nearby
lieutenants similar to turning on a light around cockroaches. It is
truly amateur hour at the White House.  Next in line is Joe Biden and
after that Nancy Pelosi.  Scary!

Expect Cloward-Piven actions to begin in five...four...three...two.....

Brad

"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the
urge to rule it." [H.L. Mencken]

On 12/1/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
> Brad said, "These protesters are just clueless."  What is really wrong is
> the coverage they get.  Our communists media.
>
> Rik found, ""cut off the electricity to their homes and let them practice
> what they preach."  I saw that comment too.  One good comment in reply to
> all the media goobledegook.  Why wasn't that said by the reporter?  Why do
> they protesters get front page news in the local communists rag?
>
> Someone suggested, "Patreus".  What party?  How far would he get if he ran
> on Democrat side?  He has management and foreign affairs experience, but
> what economic background.
>
> I still think that someone early 50's who know economics and can think and
> talk well on his feet.  I was always interested in running for office but
> know full well that my quick reply language upsets too many.  I call a
> Marxist a Marxist.  They cry foul.  But they are what they are, and just
> either will not publically admit it nor admit that do not understand Marxism
> and what effect it has on humankind.
>
> Ed K
> Addendum (paraphrase):
> Success depends on those who stand somewhat larger than life and are never
> content unless struggling to climb above the ordinary.
>
>
>

From ekroposki at charter.net  Tue Dec  1 09:18:37 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 09:18:37 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Checklist of Principles for GOP Candidates
Message-ID: <9DFD9486FBF34208891D45BB4CCDAEAF@YOURB88038198E>

Latest Republican/conservative confrontation:

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/29/armey-defends-checklist-of-principles-for-gop-candidates/

As an alternative to:

http://www.kirkcenter.org/kirk/ten-principles.html

Ed K
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec  1 09:42:11 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 08:42:11 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] A Beautiful Idea
Message-ID: <400985d70912010642u4a3a258dv640b50cb37e03ffa@mail.gmail.com>

Recall this from the inauguration speech in JAN09? President Obama
pledged to "roll back the specter of a warming planet" and "restore
science to its rightful place,"

How 'bout that science, Mr. Prez?

Maybe this guy is closer to the mark -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzGm-z-kB_s&feature=player_embedded

Brad

"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the
urge to rule it." [H.L. Mencken]

From ekroposki at charter.net  Tue Dec  1 11:53:25 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 11:53:25 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Sailing subject for Brad
Message-ID: <EF9B690667964A1E9E8A802B973D12AB@YOURB88038198E>

I got the 'good old boats' newsletter and saw this:

CDI system works for furling the main
I have owned a CDI mainsail system for the last two seasons. I sail a Southern Cross 28 on Cayuga Lake in upstate New York. The CDI system allows one to set as much sail as desired, without having to come into the wind. It allows a sailor to get under way and singlehand much easier. Pull the outhaul and your main is set. The system can be owner-installed and maintained. I would highly recommend this system to a cruising sailor who wants a cost-effective, bullet-proof mainsail reefing/furling system. 
David Lynn

Ed K


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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec  1 12:58:09 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 11:58:09 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Sailing subject for Brad
In-Reply-To: <EF9B690667964A1E9E8A802B973D12AB@YOURB88038198E>
References: <EF9B690667964A1E9E8A802B973D12AB@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <400985d70912010958w709bb776t56acf962a581061c@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

Funny you should mention that now, that's on my to-do list.  My slip
space is up for renewal in JAN10 and I'm moving the boat to Decatur,
AL on Wheeler Lake - about a 2-3 day journey upstream (about another
75 minute drive from home).  The CoraShen hasn't received much
attention since I bought N4451V and the maintenance projects keep
piling-up.  I have a niece and a nephew who live near Huntsville about
20 minutes from Decatur, AL.  My nephew works 4 days per week as a
maintenance manager for a large restaurant and has time on his hands.
He's going to start using the boat in exchange for keeping up the
maintenance.  My niece is married to the manager of a PF Changs
restaurant and although her husband is quite busy, she'll probably use
the boat as well with her kids. I don't mind putting in the extra time
on the road, 2 + 45 hour drive total, if I can just get on the boat
and go sailing without investing the time I do now with cleaning and
fixing little things. There's probably about 6 mechanical nit-noys
that need attention first, then another half-dozen cosmetic issues to
be dealt with, and then we can start working on upgrades.  I don't
mind spending money, but the airplane simply eats into my time
available.  Hopefully this will be a win/win situation for everyone.
There's even a small airport 5 minutes away so I can fly to the marina
if I want to.  Getting away from being directly downstream from a
paper plant won't be a bad change of scenery either.

That CDI system is available for my boat with a new sail for about
$2800 from Somerset Sails.  I need a new mainsail anyway.  Finally, I
got the Pfaff 332 sewing machine I purchased off of eBay up and
running and plan to sew some projects for the boat, starting with a
new binnacle cover. Frankly, if there was a market, any market at all
for used sailboats, I might consider selling it and going back to an
R-22.  But, the toy market has almost disappeared - no one can get
financing.  This new home for the CoraShen and caretaker situation
should work well. The new CDI furler will get installed soon, probably
next Spring.

Brad

On 12/1/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
> I got the 'good old boats' newsletter and saw this:
>
> CDI system works for furling the main
> I have owned a CDI mainsail system for the last two seasons. I sail a
> Southern Cross 28 on Cayuga Lake in upstate New York. The CDI system allows
> one to set as much sail as desired, without having to come into the wind. It
> allows a sailor to get under way and singlehand much easier. Pull the
> outhaul and your main is set. The system can be owner-installed and
> maintained. I would highly recommend this system to a cruising sailor who
> wants a cost-effective, bullet-proof mainsail reefing/furling system.
> David Lynn
>
> Ed K
>
>
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec  1 13:40:11 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 12:40:11 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] A German's View of Islam
Message-ID: <400985d70912011040y3e0a1a41n5ce40a3484fcc3c5@mail.gmail.com>

This came via e-mail today -

http://www.icjs-online.org/index.php?article=1414

It took some research on my part to verify but the above site has the
real story.  Dr. Tanay is a holocaust survivor and lives in Ann Arbor,
MI.  Several accounts have him as the author but he explains in the
sidebar of this site that he is merely relaying the message.

Brad

From ekroposki at charter.net  Tue Dec  1 14:01:19 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 14:01:19 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] A German's View of Islam
Message-ID: <4F8CF5A7CE364557BF1B164F3431CCD4@YOURB88038198E>

Brad, 

The date was Jan 2008 and it sounds like he is repeating Reverend Martin Niem?ller.

However, the logic needs to repeated.  And again.

In fact, it needs to be repeated to all those ostriches burying there heads and claiming that they do not like politics.  Meanwhile the Marxist keep pushing.  

Ed K
"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow - what a ride!"

 
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec  1 14:33:44 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 13:33:44 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] A German's View of Islam
In-Reply-To: <4F8CF5A7CE364557BF1B164F3431CCD4@YOURB88038198E>
References: <4F8CF5A7CE364557BF1B164F3431CCD4@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <400985d70912011133u4ca022dcr64a5b714106587e4@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

Another site for the original source -

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/6996

Perhaps you recall someone from the "old list" taking offense for my
use of the word 'sheeple'.

If the shoe fits ........

Brad

On 12/1/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> The date was Jan 2008 and it sounds like he is repeating Reverend Martin
> Niem?ller.
>
> However, the logic needs to repeated.  And again.
>
> In fact, it needs to be repeated to all those ostriches burying there heads
> and claiming that they do not like politics.  Meanwhile the Marxist keep
> pushing.
>
> Ed K
> "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in
> a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside,
> thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow - what a
> ride!"
>
>
>


From ragdollelle at yahoo.com  Tue Dec  1 18:30:00 2009
From: ragdollelle at yahoo.com (elle)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 15:30:00 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] About Dinner Last Night
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912010511q46d716bete2c4822b8a717f1f@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <401993.63160.qm@web111216.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>

I'm with you...but you can be sure (ater listenng to the idiot gibbs) that they are doing everything they can to balme the Secret Service...Socialite Desiree will walk away unscathed....these folks do what they want when they want the way they want...to hell& back w/convention.
I wonder what the fallout would have been had something actually happened to OBaby.
elle

--- On Tue, 12/1/09, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Swiftwater Gazette] About Dinner Last Night
To: SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 8:11 AM

Elle,

Let's connect some more dots, shall we?? The Salahis have a series of
e-mail exchanges with someone from the Pentagon (so sayeth the WaPo).
What the WaPo won't say is that this "Pentagon" official actually
works for the White House. WH spokesman Gibbs blames it on the
Pentagon as well.? Here's what they don't want to acknolodge - her
name is Michele Jones and she was the highest ranking enlisted female
African-American in the Army prior to retiring in 2007. You've
probably seen her before, she spoke at the Democratic convention in
2008. The person responsible for "making a list and checking it twice"
is Desiree Rogers, long time friend and bundler for Barack & Michelle
and close friend of Valerie Jarett. Ms. Hargrove, the WH career
employee who used to perform this job, was demoted earlier in the year
because she was hired by Bush 43 and Rogers took over the function.
Desiree Rogers likes to get her photo published in society magazines
and apparently on the night of the dinner is hobnobbing around instead
of minding the gate.? So who is going to get thrown under the bus on
this one?? My guess is that the Secret Service won't take a bullet on
what is obviously looking more and more like an inside job. You don't
just sneak in the WH - someone gave permission.

Wanna bet?

Brad

"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the
urge to rule it." [H.L. Mencken]



On 11/30/09, elle <ragdollelle at yahoo.com> wrote:
> the Salahis are personas -non-grata in Fauquier county, Va...where I lived
> for 35 years...they bought a vineyard in Markham, VA and proceeded to defy
> all zoning laws regulating the number of and kinds of events that could be
> held in that area or environment.....they did whatever they wanted w/ a
> 'screw'em' attitude.Incidentally...Markham is close to Hume, VA....family
> land of a noted TV reporter.
> elle
>
> --- On Sun, 11/29/09, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> From: Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] About Dinner Last Night
> To: "Letters to the Editor"
> <swiftwatergazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com>
> Date: Sunday, November 29, 2009, 8:55 AM
>
> So a couple of "party crashers" made it past the Secret Service for
> the first time in know history to a White House state dinner.? Obama
> demands a "full investigation".? Hey Barry, why not start here -
>
> http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/17310
>
> Tereq Salahi was on the board of directors of the American Task Force
> for Palestine. Don't bother to go to their website, he's already been
> scrubbed.? Who is ATFP?? Try here -
>
> http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/10/nation/na-obamamideast10
>
> Khalidi and Saed were influences on Obama at Columbia (his words not mine).
>
> Yeah, hard to figure out how this couple "crashed" the White House
> dinner.? Keep trying to connect those dots Mr. Soeroto, er, I mean Mr.
> President.
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>
>
>
_______________________________________________
SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette



      
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec  1 19:42:26 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 2009 18:42:26 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] De-Construction
Message-ID: <400985d70912011642q9d117fdi30f0b4c529badf8d@mail.gmail.com>

It appears that the so-called stimulus is having the same effect on
construction revenues as "cash-4-clunkers" did for auto sales (see WSJ
article below).  While driving to Huntsville, AL last weekend we
passed over about a half-dozen mile-long stretches of US 72 that were
freshly paved (with the Recovery.gov signs posted). All of US 72 is in
good shape and I can't for the life of me figure out how they chose
the sections to repave they did (whoever they are).  The construction
industry is hurting badly.  I get about 10 free construction industry
magazines each month, mostly advertising equipment.  They are about
half the size of two years ago because the advertisers just aren't
there. We continue to see small construction companies go belly-up on
the coast.  If you're not debt free and haven't laid off all but the
essential people, you won't make it in this environment. Drive by any
equipment dealer and notice how much inventory they have on the lot.
Most are bare and they aren't ordering anymore anytime soon. If you
want to buy something used and have cash, it's a buyers market.

Unfortunately, we've got a ways to go before this recession turns around.

Brad

--------------

    * DECEMBER 2, 2009

Job Cuts Loom as Stimulus Fades



By GARY FIELDS

WASHINGTON?Highway-construction companies around the country, having
completed the mostly small projects paid for by the federal
economic-stimulus package, are starting to see their business run
aground, an ominous sign for the nation's weak employment picture.

Tim Word, vice president of Dean Word Co., a heavy-construction
company in New Braunfels, Texas, said his income is now coming mostly
from projects that are winding up. He said that in normal times he has
about $100 million of signed contracts in hand. But that number has
fallen to $30 million, and the pipeline is empty. In the past two
years, his work force has shrunk nearly 40% to 260 from 420.

"Having something to bid on is the lifeblood of the industry, and it's
running out," said Mr. Word. He isn't sure what will happen next year
without new projects. "There's no pavement fairy that's going to
help."


Since the recession began in 2007, employment in the construction
industry has fallen by 1.6 million, the Labor Department says. Though
the housing sector accounts for many of those job losses, road
builders have also suffered, and executives in the industry expect
layoffs to rise next year.

More broadly, the Congressional Budget Office late Monday said it
estimates that the federal stimulus package sustained between 600,000
and 1.6 million jobs in the third quarter, and raised gross domestic
product by 1.2 to 3.2 percentage points higher than it would have been
without the program.

The construction industry's unemployment rate, including related
extraction businesses, such as gravel processing, climbed to 19.1% in
October, up from 10.7% a year earlier. The transportation and
material-moving sectors saw unemployment rise to 11.6% from 7.9% over
the same period.

State officials and local contractors trace the industry's woes to the
recession and the collapse of the residential and commercial
real-estate markets. In addition, they cite the federal government's
delayed plans to enact a transportation bill. In one version, the law
would have provided $450 billion for highways and infrastructure
projects over the next six years.

Journal Community

      ? Their idea of 'wealth equalization' in reality means equal
misery and poverty for all. Next November cannot come fast enough. ?

?Jean Balloon

Congress is no longer actively considering the bill, which has been
bumped aside by competing priorities such as the Obama
administration's health-care overhaul and by growing support for
reducing the federal budget deficit. Some lawmakers fear that
continued stimulus spending could harm the economy down the road by
saddling the nation with higher debt-servicing bills.

But high unemployment could revive the transportation-spending bill's
prospects. Earlier this year the Obama administration was opposed to
pushing a big highway bill, deterred in part by the prospect of
raising gasoline taxes to pay for it. Faced with a 10.2% jobless rate,
however, officials here are rethinking their stance. Thursday, the
White House will hold a "jobs summit" to discuss ideas, which are
likely to include shifting some spending to transportation projects.

Without an infusion of federal funding, state transportation
departments say they can't develop long-term roadway projects, which
are critical to the industry. About half of states' funding for such
projects comes from the federal highway trust fund, which is funded by
the gasoline tax.

Christian Zimmermann, chief executive of Pike Industries Inc., a
1,200-employee company in Belmont, N.H., that paves roads and operates
gravel pits and asphalt plants, recalls waiting out 2003 and 2004
while Congress deliberated on the last highway bill. "It was
miserable," he said.

The industry's saving grace then was a booming private sector. This
time around, the private sector isn't picking up the slack. "Two years
ago, our phones would have been ringing off the hook with the good
weather," Mr. Zimmermann said. "This year the phones ain't ringing."

Without long-term government projects, Mr. Zimmermann said he may have
to lay off as many as 150 people next year. "The stimulus was a shot
in the arm, but that's all it was," he said.

Industry executives say that the $27 billion out of the $787 billion
stimulus package that went to highway construction went mostly to
relatively small "shovel ready" projects, those that didn't require
much lead time. The $27 billion?77% of which had been committed as of
Nov. 13, according to the Associated General Contractors of
America?has saved some jobs.

"But if I'm a big company, I need major freeway rehabilitation work
and bigger projects," said Steve Simmons, deputy executive director of
the Texas Department of Transportation. Texas's wish list is taking "a
back seat because we have no funding for it," Mr. Simmons said.

In the near term, House Democratic leaders are considering paying for
some transportation projects that weren't funded by the stimulus
package. The size of the spending package hasn't been decided, nor has
the question of how it would be funded. Congress is also weighing a
broader set of initiatives to spark job growth.

Jim Berard, spokesman for Rep. James Oberstar (D., Minn.), chairman of
the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the White
House is "warming" to the idea of considering a bigger highway bill
sooner than it had initially planned.

A recent survey by the Transportation Construction Coalition found
that more than 76% of contractors expect state transportation
departments to put less work up for bid in 2010 than this year. And
44% said they are likely to lay off employees next year.

John McCaskie, chief engineer at Swank Associated Cos., said his New
Kensington, Pa., bridge-and-highway rehabilitation company faces more
competition for the few projects out there. He said contracts worth
less than $2 million are attracting a dozen competitors these days,
compared with around four previously. "You end up bankrupting your
company to be the low bidder."

If contractors cut back, their equipment suppliers will be hurt as
well, said Ken Taylor, president of Ohio CAT, Broadview Heights, Ohio,
which sells equipment made by Caterpillar Inc. Contractors have
usually placed orders for the spring construction season by now, he
said. That hasn't happened, and he may need to eliminate $50 million
of his $175 million inventory.

Mr. Taylor has pared his staff to about 750, down from 1,000 in June
2008. "I feel like I'm at a spot where we've done a lot of things, and
we should be able to manage through. But if it gets worse I may be
looking at closing a couple locations."

Write to Gary Fields at gary.fields at wsj.com

Correction
A survey cited by a page-one article on about employment in the
construction industry was conducted by the Transportation Construction
Coalition, a coalition of trade groups and unions. A previous version
of this article incorrectly said the survey was conducted by the
Associated General Contractors of America, which is one of the
coalition's 28 member organizations.


From ragdollelle at yahoo.com  Wed Dec  2 10:42:36 2009
From: ragdollelle at yahoo.com (elle)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 07:42:36 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Fw: slate
Message-ID: <889043.50844.qm@web111214.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>

Saw this on this AM's Slatest Edition.
elle

--- On Wed, 12/2/09, windlass <windlass at yahoo.com> wrote:


To: ragdollelle at yahoo.com
Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 10:41 AM

The?Slatest? EditionPRINT?RECOMMENDED?RSS?GET THE?SLATEST?BY E-MAILE-mails Show White House Crashers Weren't InvitedWhen they appeared on NBC's?Today?yesterday morning,?Tareq?and?Michaele?Salahi?insisted they had e-mails that showed they were, in fact,
 invited to President Obama's first state dinner but said they couldn't produce them just yet due to the ongoing investigation. Well, the Associated Press got copies of the e-mails and says they show precisely the opposite. The e-mails show that Michele Jones, a special assistant to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said she would try to get the?Salahis?tickets. The day before the dinner, Jones e-mailed to say that "it doesn't seem likely" andthe day of the dinner she left the couple a voicemail saying they couldn't attend. Hours after the dinner, the?Salahis?e-mailed Jones to tell her they didn't get her voicemail due to a dead cell phone battery but they decided to go anyway "to just check in, in case it got approved since we didn't know, and our name was indeed on the list!"?Meanwhile,?the problems seem to just be starting for the?Salahis, who are quickly finding out that being
 famous?isn't all fun and games. The?Washington Post?looked into the annual polo event the couple organizes that has always been touted as their connection to the Washington social scene, as well as to Indian dignitaries, and discovered that it's all a tad bit fishy. Or, actually, really fishy. The annual Land Rover America's Polo Cup is supposed to be a charity event that benefits an organization run by the?Salahis?called Journey for the Cure. But?many of the companies listed as sponsors of the event scheduled for June say they aren't sponsors, and several vendors from previous years say they were never paid and have even filed
 lawsuits. While the?Salahis?have claimed the event has raised?hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity, that amount isn't reflected in their nonprofit that was supposed to benefit. In short, the "two ventures ? have left many customers angry at poor service and many business partners furious," concludes the?Post.Read original story in?The Associated Press?| Wednesday, Dec.?2,?2009

HSA 8

You don't get much--but it's free!




      


      
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Wed Dec  2 10:56:10 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 10:56:10 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] humor for brad
Message-ID: <550B48B17EBB4416B0AEF3C7DB49BE09@YOURB88038198E>

This one is for Brad, he needs the laught!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw23N9xXM60&feature=channel

Ed K
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec  2 11:56:45 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 10:56:45 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] humor for brad
In-Reply-To: <550B48B17EBB4416B0AEF3C7DB49BE09@YOURB88038198E>
References: <550B48B17EBB4416B0AEF3C7DB49BE09@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <400985d70912020856y79950638m9b508db44ec9bbad@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

That's funny!

This isn't -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

The clip IS partisan.  There's only one person on the horizon who can
say with a straight face (a pretty face I might add) what we need to
do. That "airhead" from Alaska has been the only straight-shooter in
the last year.

We'll see. Give me liberty or give me death (or Sarah or Hilary).
Don't advertise my affection for Hilary, PLEASE!

Brad

On 12/2/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
> This one is for Brad, he needs the laught!
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw23N9xXM60&feature=channel
>
> Ed K

From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec  2 12:05:21 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 11:05:21 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Fw: slate
In-Reply-To: <889043.50844.qm@web111214.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
References: <889043.50844.qm@web111214.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912020905h3b19b7bes35a30c8a620749e2@mail.gmail.com>

Elle,

Patience my dear!  I'm thinking about filming a DVD for next
Christmas, "Mr. Springer Goes To Washington".  Wanna invest?  So this
pleasant looking couple were just the victims of a misunderstanding.
Fine!  Once, just once, could we pick up a rock in the vicinity of
I-One and NOT find a radical?  These people keep funny company.

So the Salahis are fakes and phoney. And that makes them different,
how?  Seems like they're pretty hopey and changey to me.

Brad



On 12/2/09, elle <ragdollelle at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Saw this on this AM's Slatest Edition.
> elle
>
> --- On Wed, 12/2/09, windlass <windlass at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> To: ragdollelle at yahoo.com
> Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 10:41 AM
>
> The Slatest  EditionPRINT RECOMMENDED RSS GET THE SLATEST BY E-MAILE-mails
> Show White House Crashers Weren't InvitedWhen they appeared on
> NBC's Today yesterday morning, Tareq and Michaele Salahi insisted they had
> e-mails that showed they were, in fact,
>  invited to President Obama's first state dinner but said they couldn't
> produce them just yet due to the ongoing investigation. Well, the Associated
> Press got copies of the e-mails and says they show precisely the opposite.
> The e-mails show that Michele Jones, a special assistant to Defense
> Secretary Robert Gates, said she would try to get the Salahis tickets. The
> day before the dinner, Jones e-mailed to say that "it doesn't seem likely"
> andthe day of the dinner she left the couple a voicemail saying they
> couldn't attend. Hours after the dinner, the Salahis e-mailed Jones to tell
> her they didn't get her voicemail due to a dead cell phone battery but they
> decided to go anyway "to just check in, in case it got approved since we
> didn't know, and our name was indeed on the list!" Meanwhile, the problems
> seem to just be starting for the Salahis, who are quickly finding out that
> being
>  famous isn't all fun and games. The Washington Post looked into the annual
> polo event the couple organizes that has always been touted as their
> connection to the Washington social scene, as well as to Indian dignitaries,
> and discovered that it's all a tad bit fishy. Or, actually, really fishy.
> The annual Land Rover America's Polo Cup is supposed to be a charity event
> that benefits an organization run by the Salahis called Journey for the
> Cure. But many of the companies listed as sponsors of the event scheduled
> for June say they aren't sponsors, and several vendors from previous years
> say they were never paid and have even filed
>  lawsuits. While the Salahis have claimed the event has raised hundreds of
> thousands of dollars for charity, that amount isn't reflected in their
> nonprofit that was supposed to benefit. In short, the "two ventures ? have
> left many customers angry at poor service and many business partners
> furious," concludes the Post.Read original story in The Associated Press |
> Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009
>
> HSA 8
>
> You don't get much--but it's free!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


From ekroposki at charter.net  Wed Dec  2 13:11:17 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 13:11:17 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Lake Hartwell
Message-ID: <A92CC39CF5A34173B4184F009CE434A1@YOURB88038198E>

If you recall, Lake Hartwell was a disaster this time last year, lowest lake levels on record.  So, how is it doing today?  

For the last week it has been above full pond.

http://water.sas.usace.army.mil/home/indexDU.htm

Maybe Rummy's dock in floating towards his back door?

Ed K
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Wed Dec  2 13:16:01 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 13:16:01 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] President Obama's decision to escalate in
	Afghanistan
Message-ID: <5401DFFD42324BB88CC6B11696B31249@YOURB88038198E>





This I Believe 

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

Published: December 1, 2009 

Let me start with the bottom line and then tell you how I got there: I can't agree with President Obama's decision to escalate in Afghanistan. I'd prefer a minimalist approach, working with tribal leaders the way we did to overthrow the Taliban regime in the first place. Given our need for nation-building at home right now, I am ready to live with a little less security and a little-less-perfect Afghanistan. 

I recognize that there are legitimate arguments on the other side. At a lunch on Tuesday for opinion writers, the president lucidly argued that opting for a surge now to help Afghans rebuild their army and state into something decent - to win the allegiance of the Afghan people - offered the only hope of creating an "inflection point," a game changer, to bring long-term stability to that region. May it be so. What makes me wary about this plan is how many moving parts there are - Afghans, Pakistanis and NATO allies all have to behave forever differently for this to work. 

But here is the broader context in which I assess all this: My own foreign policy thinking since 9/11 has been based on four pillars:

1. The Warren Buffett principle: Everything I've ever gotten in life is largely due to the fact that I was born in this country, America, at this time with these opportunities for its citizens. It is the primary obligation of our generation to turn over a similar America to our kids.

2. Many big bad things happen in the world without America, but not a lot of big good things. If we become weak and enfeebled by economic decline and debt, as we slowly are, America may not be able to play its historic stabilizing role in the world. If you didn't like a world of too-strong-America, you will really not like a world of too-weak-America - where China, Russia and Iran set more of the rules.

3. The context within which people live their lives shapes everything - from their political outlook to their religious one. The reason there are so many frustrated and angry people in the Arab-Muslim world, lashing out first at their own governments and secondarily at us - and volunteering for "martyrdom" - is because of the context within which they live their lives. That was best summarized by the U.N.'s Arab Human Development reports as a context dominated by three deficits: a deficit of freedom, a deficit of education and a deficit of women's empowerment. The reason India, with the world's second-largest population of Muslims, has a thriving Muslim minority (albeit with grievances but with no prisoners in Guant?namo Bay) is because of the context of pluralism and democracy it has built at home. 

4. One of the main reasons the Arab-Muslim world has been so resistant to internally driven political reform is because vast oil reserves allow its regimes to become permanently ensconced in power, by just capturing the oil tap, and then using the money to fund vast security and intelligence networks that quash any popular movement. Look at Iran.

Hence, post-9/11 I advocated that our politicians find sufficient courage to hike gasoline taxes and seriously commit ourselves to developing alternatives to oil. Economists agree that this would ultimately bring down the global price, and slowly deprive these regimes of the sole funding source that allows them to maintain their authoritarian societies. People do not change when we tell them they should; they change when their context tells them they must. 

To me, the most important reason for the Iraq war was never W.M.D. It was to see if we could partner with Iraqis to help them build something that does not exist in the modern Arab world: a state, a context, where the constituent communities - Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds - write their own social contract for how to live together without an iron fist from above. Iraq has proved staggeringly expensive and hugely painful. The mistakes we made should humble anyone about nation-building in Afghanistan. It does me.

Still, the Iraq war may give birth to something important - if Iraqis can find that self-sustaining formula to live together. Alas, that is still in doubt. If they can, the model would have a huge impact on the Arab world. Baghdad is a great Arab capital. If Iraqis fail, it's religious strife, economic decline and authoritarianism as far as the eye can see - the witch's brew that spawns terrorists.

Iraq was about "the war on terrorism." The Afghanistan invasion, for me, was about the "war on terrorists." To me, it was about getting bin Laden and depriving Al Qaeda of a sanctuary - period. I never thought we could make Afghanistan into Norway - and even if we did, it would not resonate beyond its borders the way Iraq might.

To now make Afghanistan part of the "war on terrorism" - i.e., another nation-building project - is not crazy. It is just too expensive, when balanced against our needs for nation-building in America, so that we will have the strength to play our broader global role. Hence, my desire to keep our presence in Afghanistan limited. That is what I believe. That is why I believe it. 

 




submitted by EK
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Wed Dec  2 17:51:36 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 17:51:36 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Health Care Vote
Message-ID: <7F2B151BBA0B422F8EF2EEB805ACE0D1@YOURB88038198E>

See:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/votes/senate/healthcarecloture/

EK
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Wed Dec  2 18:44:47 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 17:44:47 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Fw: slate
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912020905h3b19b7bes35a30c8a620749e2@mail.gmail.com>
References: <889043.50844.qm@web111214.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
	<400985d70912020905h3b19b7bes35a30c8a620749e2@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912021544h2f38d5e8ka63d094098d83b70@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Owanabe collects frauds like my cat used to collect hairballs. Had to get
rid of him too!!

Rik

On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 11:05 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Elle,
>
> Patience my dear!  I'm thinking about filming a DVD for next
> Christmas, "Mr. Springer Goes To Washington".  Wanna invest?  So this
> pleasant looking couple were just the victims of a misunderstanding.
> Fine!  Once, just once, could we pick up a rock in the vicinity of
> I-One and NOT find a radical?  These people keep funny company.
>
> So the Salahis are fakes and phoney. And that makes them different,
> how?  Seems like they're pretty hopey and changey to me.
>
> Brad
>
>
>
> On 12/2/09, elle <ragdollelle at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Saw this on this AM's Slatest Edition.
> > elle
> >
> > --- On Wed, 12/2/09, windlass <windlass at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > To: ragdollelle at yahoo.com
> > Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 10:41 AM
> >
> > The Slatest  EditionPRINT RECOMMENDED RSS GET THE SLATEST BY
> E-MAILE-mails
> > Show White House Crashers Weren't InvitedWhen they appeared on
> > NBC's Today yesterday morning, Tareq and Michaele Salahi insisted they
> had
> > e-mails that showed they were, in fact,
> >  invited to President Obama's first state dinner but said they couldn't
> > produce them just yet due to the ongoing investigation. Well, the
> Associated
> > Press got copies of the e-mails and says they show precisely the
> opposite.
> > The e-mails show that Michele Jones, a special assistant to Defense
> > Secretary Robert Gates, said she would try to get the Salahis tickets.
> The
> > day before the dinner, Jones e-mailed to say that "it doesn't seem
> likely"
> > andthe day of the dinner she left the couple a voicemail saying they
> > couldn't attend. Hours after the dinner, the Salahis e-mailed Jones to
> tell
> > her they didn't get her voicemail due to a dead cell phone battery but
> they
> > decided to go anyway "to just check in, in case it got approved since we
> > didn't know, and our name was indeed on the list!" Meanwhile, the
> problems
> > seem to just be starting for the Salahis, who are quickly finding out
> that
> > being
> >  famous isn't all fun and games. The Washington Post looked into the
> annual
> > polo event the couple organizes that has always been touted as their
> > connection to the Washington social scene, as well as to Indian
> dignitaries,
> > and discovered that it's all a tad bit fishy. Or, actually, really fishy.
> > The annual Land Rover America's Polo Cup is supposed to be a charity
> event
> > that benefits an organization run by the Salahis called Journey for the
> > Cure. But many of the companies listed as sponsors of the event scheduled
> > for June say they aren't sponsors, and several vendors from previous
> years
> > say they were never paid and have even filed
> >  lawsuits. While the Salahis have claimed the event has raised hundreds
> of
> > thousands of dollars for charity, that amount isn't reflected in their
> > nonprofit that was supposed to benefit. In short, the "two ventures ?
> have
> > left many customers angry at poor service and many business partners
> > furious," concludes the Post.Read original story in The Associated Press
> |
> > Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009
> >
> > HSA 8
> >
> > You don't get much--but it's free!
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
You know, I can remember a time when a common citizen didn?t have to explain
American greatness to the President, but rather the other way around. ? Bill
Whittle
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec  2 20:26:59 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 19:26:59 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] President Obama's decision to escalate in
	Afghanistan
In-Reply-To: <5401DFFD42324BB88CC6B11696B31249@YOURB88038198E>
References: <5401DFFD42324BB88CC6B11696B31249@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <400985d70912021726i61a694beo4edc14b30b73358c@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

There are no good solutions for Afghanistan. I applaud Obama's efforts
to secure the country and not allow it to become a safe-haven for
terrorists (again), but he telegraphed his intentions (pull out in 18
months, just in time for re-election) and the bad guys aren't that
stupid.  They've proven to be pretty patient (1993 to 9/11/01 for the
WTC for example).  There is no military solution there, ask the
Russians.  If it were me, I'd think outside the box.  We pay farmers
in Iowa to grow corn for ethanol we don't need (there's a huge
oversupply right now).  We don't need to borrow any more money, so
let's quit subsidizing corn and subsidize farmers in Afghanistan not
to grow poppys.  That country will never be anything but a corrupt and
ungovernable cesspool until the drug trade is halted.  Can you sell
that plan in Iowa in the Spring before a Presidential election?  Hell
no, that is why it will never be tried despite its cost effectiveness
and simplicity.

We know where the bad guys are, they're hiding behind women and
children and in Mosques in Pakistan (my sim partner is over there now
as we speak).  The ROEs (rules of engagement) that Obama laid out in
Afghanistan has all but neutered our troops in that country, and they
sure as hell can't take the fight where it needs to go.

What a mess.  I wish the President well on this one, but it doesn't look good.

Brad

On 12/2/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> This I Believe
>
> By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
>
> Published: December 1, 2009
>
> Let me start with the bottom line and then tell you how I got there: I can't
> agree with President Obama's decision to escalate in Afghanistan. I'd prefer
> a minimalist approach, working with tribal leaders the way we did to
> overthrow the Taliban regime in the first place. Given our need for
> nation-building at home right now, I am ready to live with a little less
> security and a little-less-perfect Afghanistan.
>
> I recognize that there are legitimate arguments on the other side. At a
> lunch on Tuesday for opinion writers, the president lucidly argued that
> opting for a surge now to help Afghans rebuild their army and state into
> something decent - to win the allegiance of the Afghan people - offered the
> only hope of creating an "inflection point," a game changer, to bring
> long-term stability to that region. May it be so. What makes me wary about
> this plan is how many moving parts there are - Afghans, Pakistanis and NATO
> allies all have to behave forever differently for this to work.
>
> But here is the broader context in which I assess all this: My own foreign
> policy thinking since 9/11 has been based on four pillars:
>
> 1. The Warren Buffett principle: Everything I've ever gotten in life is
> largely due to the fact that I was born in this country, America, at this
> time with these opportunities for its citizens. It is the primary obligation
> of our generation to turn over a similar America to our kids.
>
> 2. Many big bad things happen in the world without America, but not a lot of
> big good things. If we become weak and enfeebled by economic decline and
> debt, as we slowly are, America may not be able to play its historic
> stabilizing role in the world. If you didn't like a world of
> too-strong-America, you will really not like a world of too-weak-America -
> where China, Russia and Iran set more of the rules.
>
> 3. The context within which people live their lives shapes everything - from
> their political outlook to their religious one. The reason there are so many
> frustrated and angry people in the Arab-Muslim world, lashing out first at
> their own governments and secondarily at us - and volunteering for
> "martyrdom" - is because of the context within which they live their lives.
> That was best summarized by the U.N.'s Arab Human Development reports as a
> context dominated by three deficits: a deficit of freedom, a deficit of
> education and a deficit of women's empowerment. The reason India, with the
> world's second-largest population of Muslims, has a thriving Muslim minority
> (albeit with grievances but with no prisoners in Guant?namo Bay) is because
> of the context of pluralism and democracy it has built at home.
>
> 4. One of the main reasons the Arab-Muslim world has been so resistant to
> internally driven political reform is because vast oil reserves allow its
> regimes to become permanently ensconced in power, by just capturing the oil
> tap, and then using the money to fund vast security and intelligence
> networks that quash any popular movement. Look at Iran.
>
> Hence, post-9/11 I advocated that our politicians find sufficient courage to
> hike gasoline taxes and seriously commit ourselves to developing
> alternatives to oil. Economists agree that this would ultimately bring down
> the global price, and slowly deprive these regimes of the sole funding
> source that allows them to maintain their authoritarian societies. People do
> not change when we tell them they should; they change when their context
> tells them they must.
>
> To me, the most important reason for the Iraq war was never W.M.D. It was to
> see if we could partner with Iraqis to help them build something that does
> not exist in the modern Arab world: a state, a context, where the
> constituent communities - Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds - write their own social
> contract for how to live together without an iron fist from above. Iraq has
> proved staggeringly expensive and hugely painful. The mistakes we made
> should humble anyone about nation-building in Afghanistan. It does me.
>
> Still, the Iraq war may give birth to something important - if Iraqis can
> find that self-sustaining formula to live together. Alas, that is still in
> doubt. If they can, the model would have a huge impact on the Arab world.
> Baghdad is a great Arab capital. If Iraqis fail, it's religious strife,
> economic decline and authoritarianism as far as the eye can see - the
> witch's brew that spawns terrorists.
>
> Iraq was about "the war on terrorism." The Afghanistan invasion, for me, was
> about the "war on terrorists." To me, it was about getting bin Laden and
> depriving Al Qaeda of a sanctuary - period. I never thought we could make
> Afghanistan into Norway - and even if we did, it would not resonate beyond
> its borders the way Iraq might.
>
> To now make Afghanistan part of the "war on terrorism" - i.e., another
> nation-building project - is not crazy. It is just too expensive, when
> balanced against our needs for nation-building in America, so that we will
> have the strength to play our broader global role. Hence, my desire to keep
> our presence in Afghanistan limited. That is what I believe. That is why I
> believe it.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> submitted by EK


From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec  2 20:48:07 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 19:48:07 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Watergate Was Just A Burglary
Message-ID: <400985d70912021748n19e2406x423cf998aac26b38@mail.gmail.com>

Yeah, right!

http://www.breitbart.tv/sen-boxer-you-call-it-climategate-i-call-it-e-mail-theft-gate/

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Wed Dec  2 21:00:39 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 20:00:39 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Watergate Was Just A Burglary
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912021748n19e2406x423cf998aac26b38@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912021748n19e2406x423cf998aac26b38@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912021800p413a1270l1f1db35ac2e11c0e@mail.gmail.com>

Boxer .... what a complete ass!!!

Bet if we tried we could follow some of that G/W money into her purse too.

These guys get it.

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=2778

Rik

On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Yeah, right!
>
>
> http://www.breitbart.tv/sen-boxer-you-call-it-climategate-i-call-it-e-mail-theft-gate/
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
You know, I can remember a time when a common citizen didn?t have to explain
American greatness to the President, but rather the other way around. ? Bill
Whittle
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec  2 21:20:08 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 2009 20:20:08 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Watergate Was Just A Burglary
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912021800p413a1270l1f1db35ac2e11c0e@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912021748n19e2406x423cf998aac26b38@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912021800p413a1270l1f1db35ac2e11c0e@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912021820x1a5fffdo64a6c066122bc847@mail.gmail.com>

Hell, even Jon Stewart gets it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgPUpIBWGp8&feature=player_embedded

On 12/2/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Boxer .... what a complete ass!!!
>
> Bet if we tried we could follow some of that G/W money into her purse too.
>
> These guys get it.
>
> http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=2778
>
> Rik
>
> On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Yeah, right!
>>
>>
>> http://www.breitbart.tv/sen-boxer-you-call-it-climategate-i-call-it-e-mail-theft-gate/
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> You know, I can remember a time when a common citizen didn?t have to explain
> American greatness to the President, but rather the other way around. ? Bill
> Whittle
>


From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Thu Dec  3 02:29:33 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 01:29:33 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Watergate Was Just A Burglary
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912021820x1a5fffdo64a6c066122bc847@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912021748n19e2406x423cf998aac26b38@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912021800p413a1270l1f1db35ac2e11c0e@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912021820x1a5fffdo64a6c066122bc847@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912022329u38c05962v2f4db533e7d70ab@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Stumbled onto this tonight. Hugely long, but it's from the guy who might
have been the first one to request data from the CRU via the FOIA. He lays
all the email stuff out chronologically. It doesn't leave a whole lot of
doubt who is lying to who.

Some of these folks should be looking at real jail time.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/24/the-people-vs-the-cru-freedom-of-information-my-okole%E2%80%A6/

Rik

On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 8:20 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hell, even Jon Stewart gets it!
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgPUpIBWGp8&feature=player_embedded
>
> On 12/2/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Boxer .... what a complete ass!!!
> >
> > Bet if we tried we could follow some of that G/W money into her purse
> too.
> >
> > These guys get it.
> >
> > http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=2778
> >
> > Rik
> >
> > On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Yeah, right!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> http://www.breitbart.tv/sen-boxer-you-call-it-climategate-i-call-it-e-mail-theft-gate/
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > You know, I can remember a time when a common citizen didn?t have to
> explain
> > American greatness to the President, but rather the other way around. ?
> Bill
> > Whittle
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
-------------- next part --------------
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Thu Dec  3 03:17:09 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 02:17:09 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] President Obama's decision to escalate in
	Afghanistan
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912021726i61a694beo4edc14b30b73358c@mail.gmail.com>
References: <5401DFFD42324BB88CC6B11696B31249@YOURB88038198E>
	<400985d70912021726i61a694beo4edc14b30b73358c@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912030017g5a95472bxafd223af85c9e624@mail.gmail.com>

Brad, Ed,

I think it's been well proven in Iraq that 18 months isn't long enough to do
squat. If this is the plan then we might as well bring the troops home now.

What we need to do is either go for it with a real force that means real
business, or get out of there and let it be what it is. Pissing around with
half a surge is not going to do anything but get a lot of good young people
killed .... for nothing. Hell, by the time most of them get there, it'll be
time for them to pull out.

But hey, this appears to be politics as usual for Owannabe.

Rik

On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 7:26 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Ed,
>
> There are no good solutions for Afghanistan. I applaud Obama's efforts
> to secure the country and not allow it to become a safe-haven for
> terrorists (again), but he telegraphed his intentions (pull out in 18
> months, just in time for re-election) and the bad guys aren't that
> stupid.  They've proven to be pretty patient (1993 to 9/11/01 for the
> WTC for example).  There is no military solution there, ask the
> Russians.  If it were me, I'd think outside the box.  We pay farmers
> in Iowa to grow corn for ethanol we don't need (there's a huge
> oversupply right now).  We don't need to borrow any more money, so
> let's quit subsidizing corn and subsidize farmers in Afghanistan not
> to grow poppys.  That country will never be anything but a corrupt and
> ungovernable cesspool until the drug trade is halted.  Can you sell
> that plan in Iowa in the Spring before a Presidential election?  Hell
> no, that is why it will never be tried despite its cost effectiveness
> and simplicity.
>
> We know where the bad guys are, they're hiding behind women and
> children and in Mosques in Pakistan (my sim partner is over there now
> as we speak).  The ROEs (rules of engagement) that Obama laid out in
> Afghanistan has all but neutered our troops in that country, and they
> sure as hell can't take the fight where it needs to go.
>
> What a mess.  I wish the President well on this one, but it doesn't look
> good.
>
> Brad
>
> On 12/2/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > This I Believe
> >
> > By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
> >
> > Published: December 1, 2009
> >
> > Let me start with the bottom line and then tell you how I got there: I
> can't
> > agree with President Obama's decision to escalate in Afghanistan. I'd
> prefer
> > a minimalist approach, working with tribal leaders the way we did to
> > overthrow the Taliban regime in the first place. Given our need for
> > nation-building at home right now, I am ready to live with a little less
> > security and a little-less-perfect Afghanistan.
> >
> > I recognize that there are legitimate arguments on the other side. At a
> > lunch on Tuesday for opinion writers, the president lucidly argued that
> > opting for a surge now to help Afghans rebuild their army and state into
> > something decent - to win the allegiance of the Afghan people - offered
> the
> > only hope of creating an "inflection point," a game changer, to bring
> > long-term stability to that region. May it be so. What makes me wary
> about
> > this plan is how many moving parts there are - Afghans, Pakistanis and
> NATO
> > allies all have to behave forever differently for this to work.
> >
> > But here is the broader context in which I assess all this: My own
> foreign
> > policy thinking since 9/11 has been based on four pillars:
> >
> > 1. The Warren Buffett principle: Everything I've ever gotten in life is
> > largely due to the fact that I was born in this country, America, at this
> > time with these opportunities for its citizens. It is the primary
> obligation
> > of our generation to turn over a similar America to our kids.
> >
> > 2. Many big bad things happen in the world without America, but not a lot
> of
> > big good things. If we become weak and enfeebled by economic decline and
> > debt, as we slowly are, America may not be able to play its historic
> > stabilizing role in the world. If you didn't like a world of
> > too-strong-America, you will really not like a world of too-weak-America
> -
> > where China, Russia and Iran set more of the rules.
> >
> > 3. The context within which people live their lives shapes everything -
> from
> > their political outlook to their religious one. The reason there are so
> many
> > frustrated and angry people in the Arab-Muslim world, lashing out first
> at
> > their own governments and secondarily at us - and volunteering for
> > "martyrdom" - is because of the context within which they live their
> lives.
> > That was best summarized by the U.N.'s Arab Human Development reports as
> a
> > context dominated by three deficits: a deficit of freedom, a deficit of
> > education and a deficit of women's empowerment. The reason India, with
> the
> > world's second-largest population of Muslims, has a thriving Muslim
> minority
> > (albeit with grievances but with no prisoners in Guant?namo Bay) is
> because
> > of the context of pluralism and democracy it has built at home.
> >
> > 4. One of the main reasons the Arab-Muslim world has been so resistant to
> > internally driven political reform is because vast oil reserves allow its
> > regimes to become permanently ensconced in power, by just capturing the
> oil
> > tap, and then using the money to fund vast security and intelligence
> > networks that quash any popular movement. Look at Iran.
> >
> > Hence, post-9/11 I advocated that our politicians find sufficient courage
> to
> > hike gasoline taxes and seriously commit ourselves to developing
> > alternatives to oil. Economists agree that this would ultimately bring
> down
> > the global price, and slowly deprive these regimes of the sole funding
> > source that allows them to maintain their authoritarian societies. People
> do
> > not change when we tell them they should; they change when their context
> > tells them they must.
> >
> > To me, the most important reason for the Iraq war was never W.M.D. It was
> to
> > see if we could partner with Iraqis to help them build something that
> does
> > not exist in the modern Arab world: a state, a context, where the
> > constituent communities - Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds - write their own
> social
> > contract for how to live together without an iron fist from above. Iraq
> has
> > proved staggeringly expensive and hugely painful. The mistakes we made
> > should humble anyone about nation-building in Afghanistan. It does me.
> >
> > Still, the Iraq war may give birth to something important - if Iraqis can
> > find that self-sustaining formula to live together. Alas, that is still
> in
> > doubt. If they can, the model would have a huge impact on the Arab world.
> > Baghdad is a great Arab capital. If Iraqis fail, it's religious strife,
> > economic decline and authoritarianism as far as the eye can see - the
> > witch's brew that spawns terrorists.
> >
> > Iraq was about "the war on terrorism." The Afghanistan invasion, for me,
> was
> > about the "war on terrorists." To me, it was about getting bin Laden and
> > depriving Al Qaeda of a sanctuary - period. I never thought we could make
> > Afghanistan into Norway - and even if we did, it would not resonate
> beyond
> > its borders the way Iraq might.
> >
> > To now make Afghanistan part of the "war on terrorism" - i.e., another
> > nation-building project - is not crazy. It is just too expensive, when
> > balanced against our needs for nation-building in America, so that we
> will
> > have the strength to play our broader global role. Hence, my desire to
> keep
> > our presence in Afghanistan limited. That is what I believe. That is why
> I
> > believe it.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > submitted by EK
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
-------------- next part --------------
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec  3 07:51:30 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 06:51:30 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] President Obama's decision to escalate in
	Afghanistan
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912030017g5a95472bxafd223af85c9e624@mail.gmail.com>
References: <5401DFFD42324BB88CC6B11696B31249@YOURB88038198E>
	<400985d70912021726i61a694beo4edc14b30b73358c@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912030017g5a95472bxafd223af85c9e624@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912030451h67bd7c41v167f93c0b6387ab8@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

You don't need to be a military genius or a history scholar to figure
out why this plan won't work.  Wars are either won or lost, period.
The era of set-piece wars where one large army faces off against
another is from a previous century. Even after bombing Germany and
Japan into submission, we're still present in both countries after
decades of rebuilding.  Tommy Franks argues in his book that the
absence of the 4th ID in Iraq (denied access via Turkey) didn't have a
material affect on the fall of Baghdad. That much is true.  What
Franks missed (as well as the Bush administration) was securing the
peace in the immediate aftermath of the first great battle.  What
eventually worked in Iraq was "the surge", in other words, a
commitment convincing enough to the general population that the US was
committed to stay.  As Michael Yon observed, the insurgents raped one
too many 13 year olds. A combination of US troops, Sunni cooperation,
and a population that chose sides changed the outcome.

Afghanistan is a tribal, lawless land with each valley led by a
different warlord.  There is no effective central government. Each
warlord will form an alliance with whoever they think is the long-term
player. By announcing our withdrawal in advance we've doomed any
chances for long term progress. What little economy there is in
Afghanistan is based on the poppy (heroin) trade. Either address that
issue or concede defeat and territory.

Fighting a political war from the confines of the White House will
yield about as much success as LBJ picking targets in Vietnam. If you
don't have the population behind your efforts, they'll pick sides
every time with who they think will be the long term force. It
happened in Vietnam, it happened in Afghanistan with the Russians, and
it is happening again as we speak.  We'll lose good men and women to
low risk (to the insurgents) roadside bomb attacks, strategic attacks
from safe and almost impenetrable terrain, and after declaring victory
will concede the country back to the terrorists.

I'd be reluctant to criticize the POTUS in whatever policy he or she
chose in Afghanistan, with nuclear Pakistan and soon to be nuclear
Iran on the borders - there are no easy solutions.  In the present
case, it is quite clear the only "victory" being sought is re-election
in 2012.  God be with our troops.

Brad




On 12/3/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad, Ed,
>
> I think it's been well proven in Iraq that 18 months isn't long enough to do
> squat. If this is the plan then we might as well bring the troops home now.
>
> What we need to do is either go for it with a real force that means real
> business, or get out of there and let it be what it is. Pissing around with
> half a surge is not going to do anything but get a lot of good young people
> killed .... for nothing. Hell, by the time most of them get there, it'll be
> time for them to pull out.
>
> But hey, this appears to be politics as usual for Owannabe.
>
> Rik
>
> On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 7:26 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Ed,
>>
>> There are no good solutions for Afghanistan. I applaud Obama's efforts
>> to secure the country and not allow it to become a safe-haven for
>> terrorists (again), but he telegraphed his intentions (pull out in 18
>> months, just in time for re-election) and the bad guys aren't that
>> stupid.  They've proven to be pretty patient (1993 to 9/11/01 for the
>> WTC for example).  There is no military solution there, ask the
>> Russians.  If it were me, I'd think outside the box.  We pay farmers
>> in Iowa to grow corn for ethanol we don't need (there's a huge
>> oversupply right now).  We don't need to borrow any more money, so
>> let's quit subsidizing corn and subsidize farmers in Afghanistan not
>> to grow poppys.  That country will never be anything but a corrupt and
>> ungovernable cesspool until the drug trade is halted.  Can you sell
>> that plan in Iowa in the Spring before a Presidential election?  Hell
>> no, that is why it will never be tried despite its cost effectiveness
>> and simplicity.
>>
>> We know where the bad guys are, they're hiding behind women and
>> children and in Mosques in Pakistan (my sim partner is over there now
>> as we speak).  The ROEs (rules of engagement) that Obama laid out in
>> Afghanistan has all but neutered our troops in that country, and they
>> sure as hell can't take the fight where it needs to go.
>>
>> What a mess.  I wish the President well on this one, but it doesn't look
>> good.
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> On 12/2/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > This I Believe
>> >
>> > By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
>> >
>> > Published: December 1, 2009
>> >
>> > Let me start with the bottom line and then tell you how I got there: I
>> can't
>> > agree with President Obama's decision to escalate in Afghanistan. I'd
>> prefer
>> > a minimalist approach, working with tribal leaders the way we did to
>> > overthrow the Taliban regime in the first place. Given our need for
>> > nation-building at home right now, I am ready to live with a little less
>> > security and a little-less-perfect Afghanistan.
>> >
>> > I recognize that there are legitimate arguments on the other side. At a
>> > lunch on Tuesday for opinion writers, the president lucidly argued that
>> > opting for a surge now to help Afghans rebuild their army and state into
>> > something decent - to win the allegiance of the Afghan people - offered
>> the
>> > only hope of creating an "inflection point," a game changer, to bring
>> > long-term stability to that region. May it be so. What makes me wary
>> about
>> > this plan is how many moving parts there are - Afghans, Pakistanis and
>> NATO
>> > allies all have to behave forever differently for this to work.
>> >
>> > But here is the broader context in which I assess all this: My own
>> foreign
>> > policy thinking since 9/11 has been based on four pillars:
>> >
>> > 1. The Warren Buffett principle: Everything I've ever gotten in life is
>> > largely due to the fact that I was born in this country, America, at
>> > this
>> > time with these opportunities for its citizens. It is the primary
>> obligation
>> > of our generation to turn over a similar America to our kids.
>> >
>> > 2. Many big bad things happen in the world without America, but not a
>> > lot
>> of
>> > big good things. If we become weak and enfeebled by economic decline and
>> > debt, as we slowly are, America may not be able to play its historic
>> > stabilizing role in the world. If you didn't like a world of
>> > too-strong-America, you will really not like a world of too-weak-America
>> -
>> > where China, Russia and Iran set more of the rules.
>> >
>> > 3. The context within which people live their lives shapes everything -
>> from
>> > their political outlook to their religious one. The reason there are so
>> many
>> > frustrated and angry people in the Arab-Muslim world, lashing out first
>> at
>> > their own governments and secondarily at us - and volunteering for
>> > "martyrdom" - is because of the context within which they live their
>> lives.
>> > That was best summarized by the U.N.'s Arab Human Development reports as
>> a
>> > context dominated by three deficits: a deficit of freedom, a deficit of
>> > education and a deficit of women's empowerment. The reason India, with
>> the
>> > world's second-largest population of Muslims, has a thriving Muslim
>> minority
>> > (albeit with grievances but with no prisoners in Guant?namo Bay) is
>> because
>> > of the context of pluralism and democracy it has built at home.
>> >
>> > 4. One of the main reasons the Arab-Muslim world has been so resistant
>> > to
>> > internally driven political reform is because vast oil reserves allow
>> > its
>> > regimes to become permanently ensconced in power, by just capturing the
>> oil
>> > tap, and then using the money to fund vast security and intelligence
>> > networks that quash any popular movement. Look at Iran.
>> >
>> > Hence, post-9/11 I advocated that our politicians find sufficient
>> > courage
>> to
>> > hike gasoline taxes and seriously commit ourselves to developing
>> > alternatives to oil. Economists agree that this would ultimately bring
>> down
>> > the global price, and slowly deprive these regimes of the sole funding
>> > source that allows them to maintain their authoritarian societies.
>> > People
>> do
>> > not change when we tell them they should; they change when their context
>> > tells them they must.
>> >
>> > To me, the most important reason for the Iraq war was never W.M.D. It
>> > was
>> to
>> > see if we could partner with Iraqis to help them build something that
>> does
>> > not exist in the modern Arab world: a state, a context, where the
>> > constituent communities - Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds - write their own
>> social
>> > contract for how to live together without an iron fist from above. Iraq
>> has
>> > proved staggeringly expensive and hugely painful. The mistakes we made
>> > should humble anyone about nation-building in Afghanistan. It does me.
>> >
>> > Still, the Iraq war may give birth to something important - if Iraqis
>> > can
>> > find that self-sustaining formula to live together. Alas, that is still
>> in
>> > doubt. If they can, the model would have a huge impact on the Arab
>> > world.
>> > Baghdad is a great Arab capital. If Iraqis fail, it's religious strife,
>> > economic decline and authoritarianism as far as the eye can see - the
>> > witch's brew that spawns terrorists.
>> >
>> > Iraq was about "the war on terrorism." The Afghanistan invasion, for me,
>> was
>> > about the "war on terrorists." To me, it was about getting bin Laden and
>> > depriving Al Qaeda of a sanctuary - period. I never thought we could
>> > make
>> > Afghanistan into Norway - and even if we did, it would not resonate
>> beyond
>> > its borders the way Iraq might.
>> >
>> > To now make Afghanistan part of the "war on terrorism" - i.e., another
>> > nation-building project - is not crazy. It is just too expensive, when
>> > balanced against our needs for nation-building in America, so that we
>> will
>> > have the strength to play our broader global role. Hence, my desire to
>> keep
>> > our presence in Afghanistan limited. That is what I believe. That is why
>> I
>> > believe it.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > submitted by EK
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>


From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec  3 08:19:34 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 07:19:34 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Watergate Was Just A Burglary
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912022329u38c05962v2f4db533e7d70ab@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912021748n19e2406x423cf998aac26b38@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912021800p413a1270l1f1db35ac2e11c0e@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912021820x1a5fffdo64a6c066122bc847@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912022329u38c05962v2f4db533e7d70ab@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912030519v40cbda97k5696c51a171047f0@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

The One World crowd has too much invested to let this "dream" die
quickly.  Here's another good summary -

http://www.american.com/archive/2009/december-2009/the-meaning-of-motley-cru

It wasn't that long ago that rivers burned in Cleveland and Pittsburgh
was black with soot. Crapping in your own nest is a bad idea.  China
and India need to clean up their act.  By bastardizing science, the
AWG crowd has committed a grievous injustice to the cause of
responsible environmentalism.

President Present will make a fool of himself if he attends
Copenhagen.  I'll put $100 on fool. Any takers?

Brad

On 12/3/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> Stumbled onto this tonight. Hugely long, but it's from the guy who might
> have been the first one to request data from the CRU via the FOIA. He lays
> all the email stuff out chronologically. It doesn't leave a whole lot of
> doubt who is lying to who.
>
> Some of these folks should be looking at real jail time.
>
> http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/24/the-people-vs-the-cru-freedom-of-information-my-okole%E2%80%A6/
>
> Rik
>
> On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 8:20 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hell, even Jon Stewart gets it!
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgPUpIBWGp8&feature=player_embedded
>>
>> On 12/2/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Boxer .... what a complete ass!!!
>> >
>> > Bet if we tried we could follow some of that G/W money into her purse
>> too.
>> >
>> > These guys get it.
>> >
>> > http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=2778
>> >
>> > Rik
>> >
>> > On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Yeah, right!
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> http://www.breitbart.tv/sen-boxer-you-call-it-climategate-i-call-it-e-mail-theft-gate/
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> >>
>> >>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > You know, I can remember a time when a common citizen didn?t have to
>> explain
>> > American greatness to the President, but rather the other way around. ?
>> Bill
>> > Whittle
>> >
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>


From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec  3 08:40:41 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 07:40:41 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Watergate Was Just A Burglary
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912022329u38c05962v2f4db533e7d70ab@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912021748n19e2406x423cf998aac26b38@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912021800p413a1270l1f1db35ac2e11c0e@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912021820x1a5fffdo64a6c066122bc847@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912022329u38c05962v2f4db533e7d70ab@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912030540n19565bf8v796b859c4be89159@mail.gmail.com>

Interesting news here -

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6941974.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093

Wasn't this idea proposed years ago on the Rhodes 22 list?  Someone
research the archives.  Is this guy a sailor?

Brad

On 12/3/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> Stumbled onto this tonight. Hugely long, but it's from the guy who might
> have been the first one to request data from the CRU via the FOIA. He lays
> all the email stuff out chronologically. It doesn't leave a whole lot of
> doubt who is lying to who.
>
> Some of these folks should be looking at real jail time.
>
> http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/24/the-people-vs-the-cru-freedom-of-information-my-okole%E2%80%A6/
>
> Rik
>
> On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 8:20 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hell, even Jon Stewart gets it!
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgPUpIBWGp8&feature=player_embedded
>>
>> On 12/2/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Boxer .... what a complete ass!!!
>> >
>> > Bet if we tried we could follow some of that G/W money into her purse
>> too.
>> >
>> > These guys get it.
>> >
>> > http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=2778
>> >
>> > Rik
>> >
>> > On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Yeah, right!
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> http://www.breitbart.tv/sen-boxer-you-call-it-climategate-i-call-it-e-mail-theft-gate/
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> >>
>> >>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > You know, I can remember a time when a common citizen didn?t have to
>> explain
>> > American greatness to the President, but rather the other way around. ?
>> Bill
>> > Whittle
>> >
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>


From ekroposki at charter.net  Thu Dec  3 10:48:10 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 10:48:10 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Comment on recent emails
Message-ID: <DDDF8B15191045F2A53D6574C8DC9A0A@YOURB88038198E>

In one of the recent emails, one of the web sites mentioned Eisenhowers famous address about the military industrial complex.

A reading of that speech also finds this warning:

"The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.  Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite."

Does this sound like anything we have been posting?

The entire speech is at: 
http://www.h-net.org/~hst306/documents/indust.html



Ed K 

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From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec  3 11:25:30 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 10:25:30 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] One More Seat
Message-ID: <400985d70912030825o731f858fs89770c7441da468c@mail.gmail.com>

This seat is worth fighting for - here's the man for the job.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP2p91dvm6M&feature=player_embedded

website -

http://allenwestforcongress.com/

One seat at a time, that's how it is done.  Support the individual men
and women, forget the party. We'll start that fight again after we get
the country back.

Brad

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Thu Dec  3 11:32:51 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 10:32:51 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Watergate Was Just A Burglary
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912030540n19565bf8v796b859c4be89159@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912021748n19e2406x423cf998aac26b38@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912021800p413a1270l1f1db35ac2e11c0e@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912021820x1a5fffdo64a6c066122bc847@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912022329u38c05962v2f4db533e7d70ab@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912030540n19565bf8v796b859c4be89159@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912030832m2cb34eacl6dfb889fbf92cdea@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

First: The U.N. and people like Al Gore and his followers (Boxer, etc.) have
a much larger agenda than is readily apparent from their talk of saving the
earth. Climate stewardship is just a means to an end that isn't being openly
talked about. What is actually at stake here is our sovereignty. It appears
that these "leaders" would be hoping to be included in the leadership/elite
of their new world order. Quite frankly, it's time for us to throw the U.N.
out on it's ear. If we must insist on having a war, the U.N. would be a
great place to start in my mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMe5dOgbu40

Here's the whole speech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stij8sUybx0

Second: I find it interesting that James Hanson thinks the Copenhagen is not
the way to go. I couldn't agree more!! However, Mr Hanson is another that
can't seem to accept what many physicists have shown. CO2 is not physically
capable of causing the warming the warmists attribute to it.

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html

Rik

On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 7:40 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Interesting news here -
>
>
> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6941974.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093
>
> Wasn't this idea proposed years ago on the Rhodes 22 list?  Someone
> research the archives.  Is this guy a sailor?
>
> Brad
>
> On 12/3/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Brad,
> >
> > Stumbled onto this tonight. Hugely long, but it's from the guy who might
> > have been the first one to request data from the CRU via the FOIA. He
> lays
> > all the email stuff out chronologically. It doesn't leave a whole lot of
> > doubt who is lying to who.
> >
> > Some of these folks should be looking at real jail time.
> >
> >
> http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/24/the-people-vs-the-cru-freedom-of-information-my-okole%E2%80%A6/
> >
> > Rik
> >
> > On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 8:20 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Hell, even Jon Stewart gets it!
> >>
> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgPUpIBWGp8&feature=player_embedded
> >>
> >> On 12/2/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > Boxer .... what a complete ass!!!
> >> >
> >> > Bet if we tried we could follow some of that G/W money into her purse
> >> too.
> >> >
> >> > These guys get it.
> >> >
> >> > http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=2778
> >> >
> >> > Rik
> >> >
> >> > On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> Yeah, right!
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >>
> http://www.breitbart.tv/sen-boxer-you-call-it-climategate-i-call-it-e-mail-theft-gate/
> >> >> _______________________________________________
> >> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > You know, I can remember a time when a common citizen didn?t have to
> >> explain
> >> > American greatness to the President, but rather the other way around.
> ?
> >> Bill
> >> > Whittle
> >> >
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> means
> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec  3 12:44:23 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 11:44:23 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Watergate Was Just A Burglary
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912030832m2cb34eacl6dfb889fbf92cdea@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912021748n19e2406x423cf998aac26b38@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912021800p413a1270l1f1db35ac2e11c0e@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912021820x1a5fffdo64a6c066122bc847@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912022329u38c05962v2f4db533e7d70ab@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912030540n19565bf8v796b859c4be89159@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912030832m2cb34eacl6dfb889fbf92cdea@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912030944h4266a0f5od3be1faeab904ef4@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

This is what people don't get; when we eat cheeseburgers, we convert
them to CO2 and methane gas.  You want to tax us on that?  I spew more
carbon byproducts into the air in one trip to China than my 40 mpg VW
diesel will in a hundred lifetimes. Even though the Boeing 777 is 17%
more efficient at $235 million per copy than the airplane it replaces,
it isn't enough for these folks. Obviously, this doesn't need to be
explained to you.  If there was a truck on the market that ran on
"hope-n-change", you would have bought a whole fleet and kicked the
market's ass. Carbon is getting more expensive via the marketplace
(Peak Oil, etc, restrictions on coal mining (for good reason),
transportation costs for natural gas) but these people aren't happy
because they are not in control.

That's the bottom line. They don't give a shit about pollution, they
want control.  As soon as someone invents a  car, truck, airplane,
backhoe, etc. that runs on hope, I'll be the first in line to buy the
damn thing and pay a premium!

The "climate change" crowd has been busted.  Do we have the courage to
follow through on the obvious response?

Brad


On 12/3/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> First: The U.N. and people like Al Gore and his followers (Boxer, etc.) have
> a much larger agenda than is readily apparent from their talk of saving the
> earth. Climate stewardship is just a means to an end that isn't being openly
> talked about. What is actually at stake here is our sovereignty. It appears
> that these "leaders" would be hoping to be included in the leadership/elite
> of their new world order. Quite frankly, it's time for us to throw the U.N.
> out on it's ear. If we must insist on having a war, the U.N. would be a
> great place to start in my mind.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMe5dOgbu40
>
> Here's the whole speech:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stij8sUybx0
>
> Second: I find it interesting that James Hanson thinks the Copenhagen is not
> the way to go. I couldn't agree more!! However, Mr Hanson is another that
> can't seem to accept what many physicists have shown. CO2 is not physically
> capable of causing the warming the warmists attribute to it.
>
> http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html
>
> Rik
>
> On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 7:40 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Interesting news here -
>>
>>
>> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6941974.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093
>>
>> Wasn't this idea proposed years ago on the Rhodes 22 list?  Someone
>> research the archives.  Is this guy a sailor?
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> On 12/3/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Brad,
>> >
>> > Stumbled onto this tonight. Hugely long, but it's from the guy who might
>> > have been the first one to request data from the CRU via the FOIA. He
>> lays
>> > all the email stuff out chronologically. It doesn't leave a whole lot of
>> > doubt who is lying to who.
>> >
>> > Some of these folks should be looking at real jail time.
>> >
>> >
>> http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/24/the-people-vs-the-cru-freedom-of-information-my-okole%E2%80%A6/
>> >
>> > Rik
>> >
>> > On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 8:20 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Hell, even Jon Stewart gets it!
>> >>
>> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgPUpIBWGp8&feature=player_embedded
>> >>
>> >> On 12/2/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >> > Boxer .... what a complete ass!!!
>> >> >
>> >> > Bet if we tried we could follow some of that G/W money into her purse
>> >> too.
>> >> >
>> >> > These guys get it.
>> >> >
>> >> > http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=2778
>> >> >
>> >> > Rik
>> >> >
>> >> > On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> >> Yeah, right!
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >>
>> http://www.breitbart.tv/sen-boxer-you-call-it-climategate-i-call-it-e-mail-theft-gate/
>> >> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> >> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>> >> >>
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > --
>> >> > You know, I can remember a time when a common citizen didn?t have to
>> >> explain
>> >> > American greatness to the President, but rather the other way around.
>> ?
>> >> Bill
>> >> > Whittle
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> >>
>> >>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
>> means
>> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
>> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that,
>> > and
>> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>> >
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>


From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Thu Dec  3 13:49:20 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 12:49:20 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] One More Seat
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912030825o731f858fs89770c7441da468c@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912030825o731f858fs89770c7441da468c@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912031049s315c9f54kf657576c94fb578e@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Agreed. Lt. Col. West sounds very promising.

When we learn to consider the individual, rather than their party
affiliation, we can completely avoid disasters like we saw recently in
elections like the NY23rd. The obvious choice for anyone who considers
himself even remotely conservative was the conservative Hoffman. Scozzafava,
an obvious RINO, threw a monkeywrench into that election via her party
affiliation, EVEN AFTER withdrawing from the contest and endorsing the
democrat. What could these republican voters have been thinking??

Worse yet, what was the republican committee in NY thinking when they
endorsed an obvious liberal like Scozzafava to begin with?

Rik

On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 10:25 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> This seat is worth fighting for - here's the man for the job.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP2p91dvm6M&feature=player_embedded
>
> website -
>
> http://allenwestforcongress.com/
>
> One seat at a time, that's how it is done.  Support the individual men
> and women, forget the party. We'll start that fight again after we get
> the country back.
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec  3 16:58:38 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 15:58:38 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Watergate Was Just A Burglary
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912030832m2cb34eacl6dfb889fbf92cdea@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912021748n19e2406x423cf998aac26b38@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912021800p413a1270l1f1db35ac2e11c0e@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912021820x1a5fffdo64a6c066122bc847@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912022329u38c05962v2f4db533e7d70ab@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912030540n19565bf8v796b859c4be89159@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912030832m2cb34eacl6dfb889fbf92cdea@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912031358y4928acf5y5ac2f7c17db2085@mail.gmail.com>

Uh Oh!

>From the Washington Times -

 Originally published 03:57 p.m., December 3, 2009, updated 04:09
p.m., December 3, 2009
Gore cancels personal appearance in Copenhagen

Jennifer Harper

Former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday abruptly canceled a Dec. 16
personal appearance that was to be staged during the United Nation's
Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which begins next week.

As described in The Washington Times' Inside the Beltway column
Tuesday, the multimedia public event to promote Mr. Gore's new book
"Our Choice" included $1,209 VIP tickets that granted the holder a
photo opportunity with Mr. Gore and a "light snack."

Berlingkse Media, a Danish group coordinating ticket sales and
publicity for the event, said that "great annoyance" was a factor in
the cancellation, along with unforeseen changes in Gore's program for
the climate summit. The decision affected 3,000 ticket holders.

"We have had a clear-cut agreement, and it is unusual with great
disappointment that we have to announce that Al Gore cancels. We had a
huge expectation for the event. ? We do not yet know the detailed
reasons for the cancellation," said Lisbeth Knudsen, CEO of Berlingske
Media, in a statement posted by the company.

The ClimateDepot,com, an online news aggregator that track global
warming news reports, referred to the situation as "Nopenhagen", and
evidence that popular momentum for the Copenhagen conference "is
fading."

There are a few floor shows taking place stateside as well.

Pajamas Media founder Roger L. Simon and independent filmmaker Lionel
Chetwynd ? both members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences and Oscar nominees ? have called on the Academy to rescind
Mr. Gore's Oscars in light of the Climategate revelations.

"In the history of the Academy, not to my knowledge has an Oscar ever
been rescinded. I think they should rescind this one," Mr. Simon said
Thursday.

News that British and American scientists had manipulated global
warming statistics to suit their agenda was made public two weeks ago
after their personal emails were posted on the Internet. of the last
two weeks.

------------------

Mr. Gore won two Oscars in 2007 for the film version of his book, "An
Inconvenient Truth"; he was awarded Academy Awards for Best
Documentary Feature and Best Original Song.
On 12/3/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> First: The U.N. and people like Al Gore and his followers (Boxer, etc.) have
> a much larger agenda than is readily apparent from their talk of saving the
> earth. Climate stewardship is just a means to an end that isn't being openly
> talked about. What is actually at stake here is our sovereignty. It appears
> that these "leaders" would be hoping to be included in the leadership/elite
> of their new world order. Quite frankly, it's time for us to throw the U.N.
> out on it's ear. If we must insist on having a war, the U.N. would be a
> great place to start in my mind.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMe5dOgbu40
>
> Here's the whole speech:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stij8sUybx0
>
> Second: I find it interesting that James Hanson thinks the Copenhagen is not
> the way to go. I couldn't agree more!! However, Mr Hanson is another that
> can't seem to accept what many physicists have shown. CO2 is not physically
> capable of causing the warming the warmists attribute to it.
>
> http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html
>
> Rik
>
> On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 7:40 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Interesting news here -
>>
>>
>> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6941974.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093
>>
>> Wasn't this idea proposed years ago on the Rhodes 22 list?  Someone
>> research the archives.  Is this guy a sailor?
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> On 12/3/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Brad,
>> >
>> > Stumbled onto this tonight. Hugely long, but it's from the guy who might
>> > have been the first one to request data from the CRU via the FOIA. He
>> lays
>> > all the email stuff out chronologically. It doesn't leave a whole lot of
>> > doubt who is lying to who.
>> >
>> > Some of these folks should be looking at real jail time.
>> >
>> >
>> http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/24/the-people-vs-the-cru-freedom-of-information-my-okole%E2%80%A6/
>> >
>> > Rik
>> >
>> > On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 8:20 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Hell, even Jon Stewart gets it!
>> >>
>> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgPUpIBWGp8&feature=player_embedded
>> >>
>> >> On 12/2/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >> > Boxer .... what a complete ass!!!
>> >> >
>> >> > Bet if we tried we could follow some of that G/W money into her purse
>> >> too.
>> >> >
>> >> > These guys get it.
>> >> >
>> >> > http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=2778
>> >> >
>> >> > Rik
>> >> >
>> >> > On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >> >
>> >> >> Yeah, right!
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >>
>> http://www.breitbart.tv/sen-boxer-you-call-it-climategate-i-call-it-e-mail-theft-gate/
>> >> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> >> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>> >> >>
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > --
>> >> > You know, I can remember a time when a common citizen didn?t have to
>> >> explain
>> >> > American greatness to the President, but rather the other way around.
>> ?
>> >> Bill
>> >> > Whittle
>> >> >
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> >>
>> >>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
>> means
>> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
>> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that,
>> > and
>> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>> >
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>


From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Thu Dec  3 17:58:03 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 16:58:03 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Watergate Was Just A Burglary
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912031358y4928acf5y5ac2f7c17db2085@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912021748n19e2406x423cf998aac26b38@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912021800p413a1270l1f1db35ac2e11c0e@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912021820x1a5fffdo64a6c066122bc847@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912022329u38c05962v2f4db533e7d70ab@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912030540n19565bf8v796b859c4be89159@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912030832m2cb34eacl6dfb889fbf92cdea@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912031358y4928acf5y5ac2f7c17db2085@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912031458h1218919ap703ccdb58f7a9b6c@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

If I were Mr. Gore, I believe my time might be best spent right now, in my
lawyers office trying to figure out a defense for the fraud he has
perpetrated. Or, perhaps looking into countries that have no extradition
treaties with the U.S. Hopefully, if/when he leaves, our new tax laws will
force him to leave most of his ill gotten fortune behind in taxes.

You can run Mr. Gore, but you can't hide. Bruce is patiently waiting in his
cell for his new girlfriend. :-)

Rik

On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 3:58 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Uh Oh!
>
> >From the Washington Times -
>
>  Originally published 03:57 p.m., December 3, 2009, updated 04:09
> p.m., December 3, 2009
> Gore cancels personal appearance in Copenhagen
>
> Jennifer Harper
>
> Former Vice President Al Gore on Thursday abruptly canceled a Dec. 16
> personal appearance that was to be staged during the United Nation's
> Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, which begins next week.
>
> As described in The Washington Times' Inside the Beltway column
> Tuesday, the multimedia public event to promote Mr. Gore's new book
> "Our Choice" included $1,209 VIP tickets that granted the holder a
> photo opportunity with Mr. Gore and a "light snack."
>
> Berlingkse Media, a Danish group coordinating ticket sales and
> publicity for the event, said that "great annoyance" was a factor in
> the cancellation, along with unforeseen changes in Gore's program for
> the climate summit. The decision affected 3,000 ticket holders.
>
> "We have had a clear-cut agreement, and it is unusual with great
> disappointment that we have to announce that Al Gore cancels. We had a
> huge expectation for the event. ? We do not yet know the detailed
> reasons for the cancellation," said Lisbeth Knudsen, CEO of Berlingske
> Media, in a statement posted by the company.
>
> The ClimateDepot,com, an online news aggregator that track global
> warming news reports, referred to the situation as "Nopenhagen", and
> evidence that popular momentum for the Copenhagen conference "is
> fading."
>
> There are a few floor shows taking place stateside as well.
>
> Pajamas Media founder Roger L. Simon and independent filmmaker Lionel
> Chetwynd ? both members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
> Sciences and Oscar nominees ? have called on the Academy to rescind
> Mr. Gore's Oscars in light of the Climategate revelations.
>
> "In the history of the Academy, not to my knowledge has an Oscar ever
> been rescinded. I think they should rescind this one," Mr. Simon said
> Thursday.
>
> News that British and American scientists had manipulated global
> warming statistics to suit their agenda was made public two weeks ago
> after their personal emails were posted on the Internet. of the last
> two weeks.
>
> ------------------
>
> Mr. Gore won two Oscars in 2007 for the film version of his book, "An
> Inconvenient Truth"; he was awarded Academy Awards for Best
> Documentary Feature and Best Original Song.
> On 12/3/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Brad,
> >
> > First: The U.N. and people like Al Gore and his followers (Boxer, etc.)
> have
> > a much larger agenda than is readily apparent from their talk of saving
> the
> > earth. Climate stewardship is just a means to an end that isn't being
> openly
> > talked about. What is actually at stake here is our sovereignty. It
> appears
> > that these "leaders" would be hoping to be included in the
> leadership/elite
> > of their new world order. Quite frankly, it's time for us to throw the
> U.N.
> > out on it's ear. If we must insist on having a war, the U.N. would be a
> > great place to start in my mind.
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMe5dOgbu40
> >
> > Here's the whole speech:
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stij8sUybx0
> >
> > Second: I find it interesting that James Hanson thinks the Copenhagen is
> not
> > the way to go. I couldn't agree more!! However, Mr Hanson is another that
> > can't seem to accept what many physicists have shown. CO2 is not
> physically
> > capable of causing the warming the warmists attribute to it.
> >
> > http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html
> >
> > Rik
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 7:40 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Interesting news here -
> >>
> >>
> >>
> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6941974.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093
> >>
> >> Wasn't this idea proposed years ago on the Rhodes 22 list?  Someone
> >> research the archives.  Is this guy a sailor?
> >>
> >> Brad
> >>
> >> On 12/3/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > Brad,
> >> >
> >> > Stumbled onto this tonight. Hugely long, but it's from the guy who
> might
> >> > have been the first one to request data from the CRU via the FOIA. He
> >> lays
> >> > all the email stuff out chronologically. It doesn't leave a whole lot
> of
> >> > doubt who is lying to who.
> >> >
> >> > Some of these folks should be looking at real jail time.
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/24/the-people-vs-the-cru-freedom-of-information-my-okole%E2%80%A6/
> >> >
> >> > Rik
> >> >
> >> > On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 8:20 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> Hell, even Jon Stewart gets it!
> >> >>
> >> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgPUpIBWGp8&feature=player_embedded
> >> >>
> >> >> On 12/2/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >> > Boxer .... what a complete ass!!!
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Bet if we tried we could follow some of that G/W money into her
> purse
> >> >> too.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > These guys get it.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=2778
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Rik
> >> >> >
> >> >> > On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 7:48 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >> >> >
> >> >> >> Yeah, right!
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >>
> >> >>
> >>
> http://www.breitbart.tv/sen-boxer-you-call-it-climategate-i-call-it-e-mail-theft-gate/
> >> >> >> _______________________________________________
> >> >> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> >> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >>
> >> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> >
> >> >> > --
> >> >> > You know, I can remember a time when a common citizen didn?t have
> to
> >> >> explain
> >> >> > American greatness to the President, but rather the other way
> around.
> >> ?
> >> >> Bill
> >> >> > Whittle
> >> >> >
> >> >>
> >> >> _______________________________________________
> >> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> >> means
> >> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are
> telling
> >> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that,
> >> > and
> >> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >> >
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> means
> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Thu Dec  3 18:27:50 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 18:27:50 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Rik's post
Message-ID: <C1935802A77A461E8FD2D44AFCA9B5E4@YOURB88038198E>

Rik asked, "what was the republican committee in NY thinking when they endorsed an obvious liberal like Scozzafava to begin with?"  

Understand that historically in New York there were Liberal Republicans.  She was nothing new.

Recall the phrase, "Rockefeller Republican".

Recall Jacob Javits?

Unfortunately, there are few openly conservative Democrats anymore.  There used to be some, but doday?

I noticed that Brad's boss went to the White House to hobnob with the Messiah.

Anymore on the NASA manipulation of climatic data?

Ed K 

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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Thu Dec  3 19:40:21 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 18:40:21 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Rik's post
In-Reply-To: <C1935802A77A461E8FD2D44AFCA9B5E4@YOURB88038198E>
References: <C1935802A77A461E8FD2D44AFCA9B5E4@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912031640s7cbc8c59nfdf2277b9aa62399@mail.gmail.com>

Sure Ed,

You can read about the Copenhagen hypocrite's carbon footprint.

Did you get a chance to listen to all of Lord Moncktons speech?? If not, you
should it's a very worth while hour and a half.

More do as I say, not as I do.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/12/03/save-the-planet-erase-copenhagens-carbon-footprint/

Rik

On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 5:27 PM, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:

>  Rik asked, "what was the republican committee in NY thinking when they
> endorsed an obvious liberal like Scozzafava to begin with?"
>
> Understand that historically in New York there were Liberal Republicans.
> She was nothing new.
>
> Recall the phrase, "Rockefeller Republican".
>
> Recall Jacob Javits?
>
> Unfortunately, there are few openly conservative Democrats anymore.  There
> used to be some, but doday?
>
> I noticed that Brad's boss went to the White House to hobnob with the
> Messiah.
>
> Anymore on the NASA manipulation of climatic data?
>
> Ed K
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>


-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec  3 19:45:10 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 18:45:10 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Got Nanny?
Message-ID: <400985d70912031645o7d413f1yb8a3373de5de5388@mail.gmail.com>

Had enough yet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUrxaukGzQw&feature=player_embedded

From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec  3 21:41:53 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 20:41:53 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Dry Run?
Message-ID: <400985d70912031841x38ef70ffj3574fec03fd77762@mail.gmail.com>

The aviation industry is constantly being probed, both the pax and
freight side. A lot that happens stays out of the public eye and the
press.  This incident made the papers briefly in Atlanta and then
died.  What really happened here?  After the recent Minnesota court
decision involving US Air and the flying Imams at MSP, the airline
won't talk for fear of a lawsuit. The TSA is treating it as a
"customer service" issue, and the crew can't talk. I predicted after
the MSP court decision last month that this would happen soon.  It
didn't take long. The whole point of the MSP lawsuit was to put a
"chilling" effect on pax & crew response to unusual passenger
behavior.  The judge in that case in fact allowed PC to be used as a
weapon for future use.  I'm guessing this was a test.

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/faa-to-investigate-cell-202143.html

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/17508

http://oldnfo.blogspot.com/2009/11/testing-testing.html

http://www.luoamerican.com/baldilocks/2009/12/theyre-getting-bold-again.html

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Fri Dec  4 00:01:36 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 23:01:36 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Rik's post
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912031640s7cbc8c59nfdf2277b9aa62399@mail.gmail.com>
References: <C1935802A77A461E8FD2D44AFCA9B5E4@YOURB88038198E>
	<6634e19e0912031640s7cbc8c59nfdf2277b9aa62399@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912032101l6aee82c2r528f3aed38dcc0cc@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

The head denier .... Holdren, Owannabe's unscience czar (czar is really
appropriate for this commie)

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=514279

Rik

On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 6:40 PM, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Sure Ed,
>
> You can read about the Copenhagen hypocrite's carbon footprint.
>
> Did you get a chance to listen to all of Lord Moncktons speech?? If not,
> you should it's a very worth while hour and a half.
>
> More do as I say, not as I do.
>
>
> http://michellemalkin.com/2009/12/03/save-the-planet-erase-copenhagens-carbon-footprint/
>
> Rik
>
> On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 5:27 PM, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
>
>>  Rik asked, "what was the republican committee in NY thinking when they
>> endorsed an obvious liberal like Scozzafava to begin with?"
>>
>> Understand that historically in New York there were Liberal Republicans.
>> She was nothing new.
>>
>> Recall the phrase, "Rockefeller Republican".
>>
>> Recall Jacob Javits?
>>
>> Unfortunately, there are few openly conservative Democrats anymore.  There
>> used to be some, but doday?
>>
>> I noticed that Brad's boss went to the White House to hobnob with the
>> Messiah.
>>
>> Anymore on the NASA manipulation of climatic data?
>>
>> Ed K
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From hparsons at parsonsys.com  Fri Dec  4 01:16:58 2009
From: hparsons at parsonsys.com (Herb Parsons)
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 00:16:58 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Airhead
In-Reply-To: <400985d70911301449o40a879adh15d49b1b6eeb4da7@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70911301449o40a879adh15d49b1b6eeb4da7@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5f889a890912032216w38a0220cjc8be0c3652fdaa40@mail.gmail.com>

Hey Brad, I feel bad. I've neglected to tell you - I had planned on going to
Palin's book signiing in Plano. I assumed it would be a "get in line"
affair. I goofed. Turns out they won't do lines, they sold tickets, and sold
out two days after they started selling them (in mid-November).

I work with a lady that used to be the sr. photo editor for the GWB. I asked
her Monday (when I found out it was a pre-purchased ticket affair) if there
was any way she could get me a ticket (she still "knows people".) She said
she thought she could swing it.

Found out yesterday, Gini and I are to be at the book store an hour before
the event begins and go in the VIP area where we'll meet with Gov. Palin
(and she'll sign our books too).

Sometimes, screwing up turns out good...

Brad, if you want a book, send me an email at hparsons at parsonsys dot com
. Do it quick, we're there at 10.

-- Herb Parsons
   Sent from my Palm Pr?

------------------------------
Brad Haslett wrote:

This is a pretty good summary of Palin -

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/palin-89119-wasilla-carney.html

For those of you unfamiliar with Anita Moncrief, she's the former
ACORN employee turned whistleblower -

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-14913-DC-Conservative-Examiner~y2009m11d24-An-unlikely-Palinista

Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm not even trying to be objective about Sarah.

You Go Girl!

Brad

PS - My 2012 dream is Hilary v Sarah - won't that be a hoot!
_______________________________________________
SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Fri Dec  4 09:15:57 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 09:15:57 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] the problem is ...
Message-ID: <6E33B7093C89408DBA397192946972F6@YOURB88038198E>

Rik,

The problem today is, just as last year, numbers.

There are just not enough to stand up against tyranny.  Most do not even recognize tyranny, subversion, treason.

Political Correctness is just one to describe things.  Tolerance is another.  Keep in mind that quote I posted, "Tolerance teaches that everyone's beliefs are equally valid. Tolerance is a dangerous idea because it destroys our ability to stand up for truth.  Where would our society be if we had been tolerant of the holocaust or slavery?"  Josh McDowell

The truth is that some do not understand nor care to understand that Marxism and that its ways are destructive of America as it was founded.  Some are content to get rich under the guise of doing good.  Erstwhile destroying America that created the highest standard of living for humankind.

Look to the small number of us here?  How can we be more in numbers so as to influence the eventual outcome?

Ed K
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Fri Dec  4 10:55:30 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 09:55:30 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] New Board Game
Message-ID: <400985d70912040755t31ebcc4k7ef9df2f6497becf@mail.gmail.com>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR2ipu20WBQ&feature=player_embedded

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Fri Dec  4 11:32:12 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 10:32:12 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] the problem is ...
In-Reply-To: <6E33B7093C89408DBA397192946972F6@YOURB88038198E>
References: <6E33B7093C89408DBA397192946972F6@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912040832o788466fej56492636952c56c4@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

You're right. The trouble with most conservatives is, well .... they're
conservative. They don't usually make a big flashy production out of things.
That's not their way.

BUT, the times, they are a'changin'.

We are seeing people who usually just mind their own business, increasingly
rising up and shouting to be heard. Yes, I too would like to have seen it
sooner, but I think the giant is awake now.

Here's Bill Whittle taking a few shots at the liberal MSM. I love this guy!

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=2784

Rik

On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 8:15 AM, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:

>  Rik,
>
> The problem today is, just as last year, numbers.
>
> There are just not enough to stand up against tyranny.  Most do not even
> recognize tyranny, subversion, treason.
>
> Political Correctness is just one to describe things.  Tolerance is
> another.  Keep in mind that quote I posted, ?Tolerance teaches that
> everyone's beliefs are equally valid. Tolerance is a dangerous idea because
> it destroys our ability to stand up for truth.  Where would our society be
> if we had been tolerant of the holocaust or slavery??  Josh McDowell
>
> The truth is that some do not understand nor care to understand that
> Marxism and that its ways are destructive of America as it was founded.
> Some are content to get rich under the guise of doing good.  Erstwhile
> destroying America that created the highest standard of living for
> humankind.
>
> Look to the small number of us here?  How can we be more in numbers so as
> to influence the eventual outcome?
>
> Ed K
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>


-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Fri Dec  4 11:32:49 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 10:32:49 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Copenhagen Is A Big Screw Job
Message-ID: <400985d70912040832o16f9d465r6f399e7f51e7df3d@mail.gmail.com>

You can't make this stuff up!  I swear, it gets curiouser, and
curiouser.  At least there's no hand-jobs available, Al Gore canceled
his $1200 per handshake event.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,665182,00.html

From ekroposki at charter.net  Fri Dec  4 13:11:22 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 13:11:22 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] the problem is ...
Message-ID: <29BE08BA102D4A1D871E2C44D323993A@YOURB88038198E>

By now you have all heard of the Medicare cuts controversy.

Interesting point being made by some analyst is that this is socialist inspired.  How, Why?

How did Mao deal with the group of people in China who had a sense of history, knew what worked in the past?  He sent them to the country and worked them to death.

How did Stalin deal with those who had a sense of history and knew how to do things?  Created a famine and sent many to Siberia.

How did Pot Nol deal with the middle class?  Killed them as fast as he could.

How did Hilter deal with opposition?  Concentration camps.

So how do you get rid of opposition? Take away their medical care and get rid of them.

This is how socialist have worked in the past.  This is just the latest version.

Ed K
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Fri Dec  4 17:45:05 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 17:45:05 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Dry Run- Internet email follow up!!!!!!
Message-ID: <494192B1170C4FDD8447462330B21961@YOURB88038198E>

Brad, 

Here is a follow up to your post about Dry Run:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you only read one email today......

Why has it been covered up?

Incredible thinking and judgment by Mr. Petruna and likewise by the first crew and passengers.

 
Sent: Sunday, November 29, 2009 2:31 PM
Subject: AirTran Flight Cancelled

One week ago, I went to Ohio on business and to see my father.  On
Tuesday, November the 17th, I returned home.  If you read the papers
the 18th you may have seen a blurb where a AirTran flight was
cancelled from Atlanta to Houston due to a man who refused to get off
of his cell phone before takeoff.  It was on Fox.

This was NOT what happened.

I was in 1st class coming home.  11 Muslim men got on the plane in
full attire.  2 sat in 1st class and the rest peppered themselves
throughout the plane all the way to the back.  As the plane taxied to
the runway the stewardesses gave the safety spiel we are all so
familiar with.  At that time, one of the men got on his cell and
called one of his companions in the back and proceeded to talk on the
phone in Arabic very loudly and very aggressively.  This took the 1st
stewardess out of the picture for she repeatedly told the man that
cell phones were not permitted at the time.  He ignored her as if she
was not there.

The 2nd man who answered the phone did the same and this took out the
2nd stewardess.  In the back of the plane at this time, 2 younger
Muslims, one in the back, isle, and one in front of him, window, began
to show footage of a porno they had taped the night before, and were
very loud about it.  Now..they are only permitted to do this prior to
Jihad.  If a Muslim man goes into a strip club, he has to view the
woman via mirror with his back to her.  (don't ask me..I don't make
the rules, but I've studied)  The 3rd stewardess informed them that
they were not to have electronic devices on at this time.  To which
one of the men said "shut up infidel dog!"  She went to take the
camcorder and he began to scream in her face in Arabic.  At that exact
moment, all 11 of them got up and started to walk the cabin.  This is
where I had had enough!  I got up and started to the back where I
heard a voice behind me from another Texan twice my size say "I got
your back."  I grabbed the man who had been on the phone by the arm
and said "you WILL go sit down or you Will be thrown from this plane!"
As I "led" him around me to take his seat, the fellow Texan grabbed
him by the back of his neck and his waist and headed out with him.  I
then grabbed the 2nd man and said, "You WILL do the same!"  He
protested but adrenaline was flowing now and he was going to go.  As I
escorted him forward the plane doors open and 3 TSA agents and 4
police officers entered.  Me and my new Texan friend were told to
cease and desist for they had this under control.  I was happy to
oblige actually.  There was some commotion in the back, but within
moments, all 11 were escorted off the plane.  They then unloaded their
luggage.

We talked about the occurrence and were in disbelief that it had
happen, when suddenly, the door open again and on walked all 11!!
Stone faced, eyes front and robotic (the only way I can describe it).
The stewardess from the back had been in tears and when she saw this,
she was having NONE of it!  Being that I was up front, I heard and saw
the whole ordeal.  She told the TSA agent there was NO WAY she was
staying on the plane with these men.  The agent told her they had
searched them and were going to go through their luggage with a fine
tooth comb and that they were allowed to proceed to Houston.  The
captain and co-captain came out and told the agent "we and our crew
will not fly this plane!"  After a word or two, the entire crew,
luggage in tow, left the plane.  5 minutes later, the cabin door
opened again and a whole new crew walked on.

Again...this is where I had had enough!!!  I got up and asked "What
the hell is going on!?!?"  I was told to take my seat.  They were
sorry for the delay and I would be home shortly.  I said "I'm getting
off this plane".  The stewardess sternly told me that she could not
allow me to get off.  (now I'm mad!)  I said "I am a grown man who
bought this ticket, who's time is mine with a family at home and I am
going through that door, or I'm going through that door with you under
my arm!!  But I am going through that door!!"  And I heard a voice
behind me say "so am I".  Then everyone behind us started to get up
and say the same.  Within 2 minutes, I was walking off that plane
where I was met with more agents who asked me to write a statement.  I
had 5 hours to kill at this point so why the hell not.  Due to the
amount of people who got off that flight, it was cancelled.  I was
supposed to be in Houston at 6pm.  I got here at 12:30am.

Look up the date.  Flight 297 Atlanta to Houston.

If this wasn't a dry run, I don't know what one is.  They wanted to
see how TSA would handle it, how the crew would handle it, and how the
passengers would handle it.

I'm telling this to you because I want you to know..
The threat is real.  I saw it with my own eyes..

-Tedd Petruna

A. Gene Hackemack
979-251-2310 cell & home
buttonbox01 at gmail.com
8725 Hwy 290 W
Brenham TX  77833

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From ekroposki at charter.net  Fri Dec  4 19:28:24 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 19:28:24 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Elle's newspaper?
Message-ID: <477FE1C26BC74249ABF6DF68CFDCC897@YOURB88038198E>

See:

http://static.mgnetwork.com/rtd/slideshows/opinion/20091002joke/index.html

EK
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Fri Dec  4 19:45:42 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 18:45:42 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Washington Detox
Message-ID: <400985d70912041645v7bf54870sfedb9df335771fd6@mail.gmail.com>

Interesting story.  So "the Number" was just pulled out of thin air.  Brad

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/04/AR2009120402016_pf.html

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Fri Dec  4 21:02:23 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 20:02:23 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Dry Run- Internet email follow up!!!!!!
In-Reply-To: <494192B1170C4FDD8447462330B21961@YOURB88038198E>
References: <494192B1170C4FDD8447462330B21961@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912041802v310b6603td4d9b7bc02590373@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

Yeah, I saw that gentleman's account of the incident last night on a couple
different sites. People wonder why I don't care to fly anymore. It ain't the
only reason, but it is one of the biggest ones. If I can't take my box
cutter along, I ain't going.

Where the hell is the MSM on this??

Rik

On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 4:45 PM, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:

>  Brad,
>
> Here is a follow up to your post about Dry Run:
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> If you only read one email today????..
>
> Why has it been covered up?
>
> Incredible thinking and judgment by Mr. Petruna and likewise by the first
> crew and passengers.
>
>
> Sent: Sunday, November 29, 2009 2:31 PM
> Subject: AirTran Flight Cancelled
>
> One week ago, I went to Ohio on business and to see my father.  On
> Tuesday, November the 17th, I returned home.  If you read the papers
> the 18th you may have seen a blurb where a AirTran flight was
> cancelled from Atlanta to Houston due to a man who refused to get off
> of his cell phone before takeoff.  It was on Fox.
>
> This was NOT what happened.
>
> I was in 1st class coming home.  11 Muslim men got on the plane in
> full attire.  2 sat in 1st class and the rest peppered themselves
> throughout the plane all the way to the back.  As the plane taxied to
> the runway the stewardesses gave the safety spiel we are all so
> familiar with.  At that time, one of the men got on his cell and
> called one of his companions in the back and proceeded to talk on the
> phone in Arabic very loudly and very aggressively.  This took the 1st
> stewardess out of the picture for she repeatedly told the man that
> cell phones were not permitted at the time.  He ignored her as if she
> was not there.
>
> The 2nd man who answered the phone did the same and this took out the
> 2nd stewardess.  In the back of the plane at this time, 2 younger
> Muslims, one in the back, isle, and one in front of him, window, began
> to show footage of a porno they had taped the night before, and were
> very loud about it.  Now?.they are only permitted to do this prior to
> Jihad.  If a Muslim man goes into a strip club, he has to view the
> woman via mirror with his back to her.  (don?t ask me?.I don?t make
> the rules, but I?ve studied)  The 3rd stewardess informed them that
> they were not to have electronic devices on at this time.  To which
> one of the men said ?shut up infidel dog!?  She went to take the
> camcorder and he began to scream in her face in Arabic.  At that exact
> moment, all 11 of them got up and started to walk the cabin.  This is
> where I had had enough!  I got up and started to the back where I
> heard a voice behind me from another Texan twice my size say ?I got
> your back.?  I grabbed the man who had been on the phone by the arm
> and said ?you WILL go sit down or you Will be thrown from this plane!?
> As I ?led? him around me to take his seat, the fellow Texan grabbed
> him by the back of his neck and his waist and headed out with him.  I
> then grabbed the 2nd man and said, ?You WILL do the same!?  He
> protested but adrenaline was flowing now and he was going to go.  As I
> escorted him forward the plane doors open and 3 TSA agents and 4
> police officers entered.  Me and my new Texan friend were told to
> cease and desist for they had this under control.  I was happy to
> oblige actually.  There was some commotion in the back, but within
> moments, all 11 were escorted off the plane.  They then unloaded their
> luggage.
>
> We talked about the occurrence and were in disbelief that it had
> happen, when suddenly, the door open again and on walked all 11!!
> Stone faced, eyes front and robotic (the only way I can describe it).
> The stewardess from the back had been in tears and when she saw this,
> she was having NONE of it!  Being that I was up front, I heard and saw
> the whole ordeal.  She told the TSA agent there was NO WAY she was
> staying on the plane with these men.  The agent told her they had
> searched them and were going to go through their luggage with a fine
> tooth comb and that they were allowed to proceed to Houston.  The
> captain and co-captain came out and told the agent ?we and our crew
> will not fly this plane!?  After a word or two, the entire crew,
> luggage in tow, left the plane.  5 minutes later, the cabin door
> opened again and a whole new crew walked on.
>
> Again?..this is where I had had enough!!!  I got up and asked ?What
> the hell is going on!?!??  I was told to take my seat.  They were
> sorry for the delay and I would be home shortly.  I said ?I?m getting
> off this plane?.  The stewardess sternly told me that she could not
> allow me to get off.  (now I?m mad!)  I said ?I am a grown man who
> bought this ticket, who?s time is mine with a family at home and I am
> going through that door, or I?m going through that door with you under
> my arm!!  But I am going through that door!!?  And I heard a voice
> behind me say ?so am I?.  Then everyone behind us started to get up
> and say the same.  Within 2 minutes, I was walking off that plane
> where I was met with more agents who asked me to write a statement.  I
> had 5 hours to kill at this point so why the hell not.  Due to the
> amount of people who got off that flight, it was cancelled.  I was
> supposed to be in Houston at 6pm.  I got here at 12:30am.
>
> Look up the date.  Flight 297 Atlanta to Houston.
>
> If this wasn?t a dry run, I don?t know what one is.  They wanted to
> see how TSA would handle it, how the crew would handle it, and how the
> passengers would handle it.
>
> I?m telling this to you because I want you to know?.
> The threat is real.  I saw it with my own eyes?.
>
> -Tedd Petruna
>
> A. Gene Hackemack
> 979-251-2310 cell & home
> buttonbox01 at gmail.com
> 8725 Hwy 290 W
> Brenham TX  77833
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>


-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Fri Dec  4 21:33:14 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 20:33:14 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Washington Detox
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912041645v7bf54870sfedb9df335771fd6@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912041645v7bf54870sfedb9df335771fd6@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912041833r1b376d20j4be8e03bd9af9a10@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

I can't begin to express my joy that it was him and not me!!!

What I've seen of congress in the hearings over the financial situation the
last couple years has not increased my respect for their integrity even one
little bit.

I hope he has the good sense not to go back ..... unless it's to replace one
of those liberal assholes.

Rik

On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 6:45 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Interesting story.  So "the Number" was just pulled out of thin air.  Brad
>
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/04/AR2009120402016_pf.html
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Sat Dec  5 06:12:27 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 06:12:27 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Tiger Field Day
Message-ID: <31A03D5ED81C4742A74497019A3F83E7@YOURB88038198E>

The internet makes circulating humor fast:

Apparently, the only person who can beat Tiger Woods with a golf club is his wife. 

What's the difference between a car and a golf ball? Tiger can drive a ball 400 yards.

Ping just offered Tiger Woods' wife an endorsement contract pushing her own set of drivers. They'll be named Elin Woods."the clubs you can beat Tiger with."

News travels fast. The Chinese are already making a movie about Tiger Woods' crash. They are calling it "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Hydrant."

Tiger is now in trouble with his sponsor Gillette because he said that "this was the closest shave I have had yet."

Tiger crashed his car because he was in a rush to move on to the second hole.

It's not often that Tiger Woods starts out with a bad drive, hits a water hazard, and ends up in the trees.

It's the first time Tiger's driven less then 250 yards.

What were Tiger Woods and his wife doing out at 2.30 in the morning? They went clubbing.

Tiger Woods crashed into a fire hydrant and a tree. Apparently he couldn't decide between a wood and an iron.
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Sat Dec  5 06:53:04 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 06:53:04 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] A Phil Rhodes designed sailboat
Message-ID: <25C1AA8C0C584BBFADCB90B1974C653D@YOURB88038198E>

Sailing on a 32 foot sailboat.  Bogle's home port is evidentially Portland Oregon.

The Traveller 32 was a Rhodes design based on the 1930 Philip Rhodes designed sailboat "Dogstar".  The Traveller 32 was made in fiberglass, first in Tawain then in Portand and the last one in San Francisco.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogUV0UHSlG0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWlimX2L6-s&feature=related

Ed K

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From flybrad at gmail.com  Sat Dec  5 08:29:41 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 07:29:41 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Tiger Field Day
In-Reply-To: <31A03D5ED81C4742A74497019A3F83E7@YOURB88038198E>
References: <31A03D5ED81C4742A74497019A3F83E7@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <400985d70912050529p23307bfbj8af59d3527693bda@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

Haven't figured out yet where in China this originated - Fan says the
Mandarin is pretty bad.  That said, it's still funny -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV85rD0gfqo

I haven't paid a whole lot of attention to the Tiger Woods story.
He's always impressed me as a nice guy and I wish he and his family
the best, whatever path they choose.

Brad


On 12/5/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
> The internet makes circulating humor fast:
>
> Apparently, the only person who can beat Tiger Woods with a golf club is his
> wife.
>
> What's the difference between a car and a golf ball? Tiger can drive a ball
> 400 yards.
>
> Ping just offered Tiger Woods' wife an endorsement contract pushing her own
> set of drivers. They'll be named Elin Woods."the clubs you can beat Tiger
> with."
>
> News travels fast. The Chinese are already making a movie about Tiger Woods'
> crash. They are calling it "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Hydrant."
>
> Tiger is now in trouble with his sponsor Gillette because he said that "this
> was the closest shave I have had yet."
>
> Tiger crashed his car because he was in a rush to move on to the second
> hole.
>
> It's not often that Tiger Woods starts out with a bad drive, hits a water
> hazard, and ends up in the trees.
>
> It's the first time Tiger's driven less then 250 yards.
>
> What were Tiger Woods and his wife doing out at 2.30 in the morning? They
> went clubbing.
>
> Tiger Woods crashed into a fire hydrant and a tree. Apparently he couldn't
> decide between a wood and an iron.
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Sat Dec  5 13:13:37 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 12:13:37 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] MS Word
Message-ID: <400985d70912051013s678dfe6l481af45375358309@mail.gmail.com>

Anyone else getting this pop-up while using MS Word?

http://tinyurl.com/yzat82u

Brad

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Sat Dec  5 13:58:26 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 12:58:26 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] MS Word
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912051013s678dfe6l481af45375358309@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912051013s678dfe6l481af45375358309@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912051058o370419c4l810699e228d2c4f3@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Damn good thing I didn't have a mouth full of coffee when I read that!!!

Owannabe should like this.... degrees saved just like jobs saved.

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=2794

Rik

On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 12:13 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Anyone else getting this pop-up while using MS Word?
>
> http://tinyurl.com/yzat82u
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
-------------- next part --------------
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Sat Dec  5 16:54:27 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 15:54:27 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Tiger Field Day
In-Reply-To: <31A03D5ED81C4742A74497019A3F83E7@YOURB88038198E>
References: <31A03D5ED81C4742A74497019A3F83E7@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <400985d70912051354k3e54629cv4af204713d5a25d@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

I really feel sorry for the guy, but not so sorry to not post this -

http://www.grouchyoldcripple.com/archives/GolfClubs.jpg

Brad

On 12/5/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
> The internet makes circulating humor fast:
>
> Apparently, the only person who can beat Tiger Woods with a golf club is his
> wife.
>
> What's the difference between a car and a golf ball? Tiger can drive a ball
> 400 yards.
>
> Ping just offered Tiger Woods' wife an endorsement contract pushing her own
> set of drivers. They'll be named Elin Woods."the clubs you can beat Tiger
> with."
>
> News travels fast. The Chinese are already making a movie about Tiger Woods'
> crash. They are calling it "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Hydrant."
>
> Tiger is now in trouble with his sponsor Gillette because he said that "this
> was the closest shave I have had yet."
>
> Tiger crashed his car because he was in a rush to move on to the second
> hole.
>
> It's not often that Tiger Woods starts out with a bad drive, hits a water
> hazard, and ends up in the trees.
>
> It's the first time Tiger's driven less then 250 yards.
>
> What were Tiger Woods and his wife doing out at 2.30 in the morning? They
> went clubbing.
>
> Tiger Woods crashed into a fire hydrant and a tree. Apparently he couldn't
> decide between a wood and an iron.
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Sat Dec  5 17:53:05 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 16:53:05 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Unemployment Drops!
Message-ID: <400985d70912051453t3c03850di94fdb4353ee86329@mail.gmail.com>

Great news!  Unemployment fell from 10.2% in October to 10.0% in
November (a .02 drop for the math challenged) based on 10% fewer days
to apply for benefits (Thanksgiving unemployment office closings).
This has been wildly cheered in the press, especially by the NYT (read
article below).

Brad

---------------


Unemployment Fell in August, But Drop Is Called Insignificant
By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: Saturday, September 7, 2002


The labor market improved slightly last month but offered little hope
that the economy would soon emerge from its prolonged weakness.

American employers added 39,000 jobs in August, roughly in line with
the modest growth of recent months, the Labor Department reported
yesterday, but the entire gain came from the hiring of new airport
security guards and other government workers. Companies remain
reluctant to hire until economic growth improves.

The unemployment rate fell to 5.7 percent last month, from 5.9 percent
in July, but economists at the Labor Department and on Wall Street
called the decline almost meaningless. The rate, which is based on a
smaller survey than the payroll numbers, often jumps around from month
to month. Many experts expect the jobless rate to move up at least
slightly later this year.

''The drop in the unemployment rate should be ignored,'' said Ian
Shepherdson, chief United States economist at High Frequency Economics
in Valhalla, N.Y. ''Over all, new jobs are still very scarce.''

Investors seemed relieved, however, that the economy had stabilized
and was not sliding toward a new recession. After the release of the
jobs report, stocks opened higher and held their gains. The Standard &
Poor 500-stock index closed at 893.92, up about 1.7 percent.

As the first broad measure of the economy in August, the report also
contradicted some worrisome signs earlier this week and reinforced the
convictions of most analysts that the Federal Reserve would not cut
its benchmark interest rate later this month. In August, at its most
recent meeting, the Fed held its rate steady, saying that its 11 cuts
last year were still working their way through the economy.

''For financial markets that were fearing a real deterioration, this
is good news,'' Steven Wieting, a senior economist at Solomon Smith
Barney, said yesterday. ''A choppy, gradual and modest recovery seems
most likely.''

In recent months, companies have mostly halted the large-scale layoffs
of early this year and late 2001, and many are now trying to increase
their sales without hiring new workers. Between February 2001 and
February 2002, companies cut more than two million jobs; in the last
six months they have added 26,000.

Even that modest growth stopped in August, however, as private-sector
payrolls fell by 2,000 after three months of gains. In a sign of their
reticence, business executives cut about 50,000 permanent jobs last
month and added roughly the same number of temporary workers, who can
be laid off at almost no cost.

The manufacturing sector also reversed its recent progress,
eliminating 68,000 jobs in August, the biggest cut since January. As
many executives across the economy realized last year that they had
bought more equipment in the late 90's than they could profitably use,
they sharply reduced their spending on technology, machines and
software.

Manufacturers, faced with falling sales and a dollar that remains
expensive compared with other currencies, have eliminated almost one
of every 10 jobs in their sector in the last two years.

The government, meanwhile, has been hiring at a rapid pace. Many
federal agencies are expanding, as part of their response to the Sept.
11 attacks, and state agencies have continued projects that began when
they still had budget surpluses.

With the federal government and many states now facing deficits,
however, the private sector will have to begin hiring in large numbers
for unemployment to drop significantly, economists say.

The government calculates the unemployment rate from a poll of 60,000
households, and it can produce volatile results because it covers less
than one-tenth of 1 percent of the nation's jobs. The so-called
payroll survey covers more than 300,000 factories and offices and 37
million of the economy's 131 million jobs.

In August, the household survey said that the economy had added
429,000 jobs -- a figure economists called unrealistic -- allowing the
unemployment rate to fall. Still, the surge in the household survey's
August job count suggested that the relatively bleak economic picture
it had painted in the last three months was not accurate either.

The unemployment rate has risen from a 30-year low of 3.9 percent in
late 2000 but has remained essentially flat this year. Every previous
recession of the last three decades caused the rate to climb to at
least 7.8 percent. In the early 80's, it exceeded 10 percent.

With the labor market tighter than it was at the end of earlier
downturns, production workers -- the majority of the work force --
continue to get annual raises of about 3 percent.

Few forecasters expect the jobless rate to exceed 6 percent by much --
if at all -- in coming months, but the economy has also offered little
evidence that it is on the verge of returning to the fast growth of
the late 90's.

Production workers spent an average of 34.1 hours on the job last
month, up slightly from July, but still below the level reached for
most of this year. Companies typically ask their existing employees to
work longer hours before they spend money to recruit new workers and
to pay the costs of their health insurance and other benefits.

The Labor Department also reported that slightly more industries were
planning to cut jobs than to add them in coming months, a shift from
earlier this summer when the two groups were evenly split.

Health care continued to stand out as one of the few industries
consistently hiring. In August, it added 26,000 employees, close to
its average growth over the last two years, according to the Labor
Department, which adjusts its numbers to account for normal seasonal
changes.

Amusement parks, mortgage bankers, car dealers and building
contractors also added jobs. Department stores, electronics makers and
trucking and warehousing companies reduced their payrolls.

As part of its regular revisions, the Labor Department said yesterday
that the economy had added 101,000 jobs in June and July, rather than
68,000, as the government reported a month ago. The change helped
support the guarded optimism of many investors and economists.

''The underlying message is that we're making some progress,'' said
Richard D. Rippe, the chief economist at Prudential Securities. ''It's
not strong, it's not consistent, but on balance the economy is
gradually gaining ground.''

Photo: Rita Stopa and Phil Clark went over some numbers recently in
the career resource center of the Illinois Department of Employment
Security in Grayslake, Ill. (Bloomberg News) Chart: ''Hiring, but
Slowly'' Job growth has turned positive in recent months, but it
remains well below the levels of the late 1990's. Graph tracks change
in nonfarm payrolls from 1998-2002. (Source: Bloomberg Financial
Markets)(pg. C1) Chart: ''The Labor Picture in August'' UNEMPLOYMENT
Graph tracks civilian unemployment: 5.7 percent BY DEMOGRAPHIC White:
5.1 Black: 9.6 Hispanic*: 7.5 Men 20 and over: 5.2 Women 20 and over:
4.9 Teenagers (16-19): 17.2 OUT OF WORK (millions) Total: 8.1 Lost
job: 4.6 Left job: 0.8 Returning to labor market: 2.3 New to labor
market: 0.6 EMPLOYMENT Household survey: 134.5 million Nonfarm payroll
survey: 130.8 million BY TYPE OF WORK (millions) July Nonfarm: 130.8
Goods: 23.8 Services: 107.0 Agriculture: 3.3 Aug. Nonfarm: 130.8
Goods: 23.8 Services: 107.1 Agriculture: 3.2 SHARE OF POPULATION
(percent) July Work force: 62.6 Labor force (workers and unemployed):
66.5 Aug. Work force: 62.8 Labor force (workers and unemployed): 66.6
All figures are seasonally adjusted. *Hispanics can be of any race.
(Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)(pg. C4)
A version of this article appeared in print on Saturday, September 7,
2002, on section C page 1 of the New York edition.

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Sat Dec  5 18:12:00 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 17:12:00 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Unemployment Drops!
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912051453t3c03850di94fdb4353ee86329@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912051453t3c03850di94fdb4353ee86329@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912051512i186c8030u3577b0c47492b8ff@mail.gmail.com>

Hard to tell your recessions without a program, eh??

Rik

On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 4:53 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Great news!  Unemployment fell from 10.2% in October to 10.0% in
> November (a .02 drop for the math challenged) based on 10% fewer days
> to apply for benefits (Thanksgiving unemployment office closings).
> This has been wildly cheered in the press, especially by the NYT (read
> article below).
>
> Brad
>
> ---------------
>
>
> Unemployment Fell in August, But Drop Is Called Insignificant
> By DAVID LEONHARDT
> Published: Saturday, September 7, 2002
>
>
> The labor market improved slightly last month but offered little hope
> that the economy would soon emerge from its prolonged weakness.
>
> American employers added 39,000 jobs in August, roughly in line with
> the modest growth of recent months, the Labor Department reported
> yesterday, but the entire gain came from the hiring of new airport
> security guards and other government workers. Companies remain
> reluctant to hire until economic growth improves.
>
> The unemployment rate fell to 5.7 percent last month, from 5.9 percent
> in July, but economists at the Labor Department and on Wall Street
> called the decline almost meaningless. The rate, which is based on a
> smaller survey than the payroll numbers, often jumps around from month
> to month. Many experts expect the jobless rate to move up at least
> slightly later this year.
>
> ''The drop in the unemployment rate should be ignored,'' said Ian
> Shepherdson, chief United States economist at High Frequency Economics
> in Valhalla, N.Y. ''Over all, new jobs are still very scarce.''
>
> Investors seemed relieved, however, that the economy had stabilized
> and was not sliding toward a new recession. After the release of the
> jobs report, stocks opened higher and held their gains. The Standard &
> Poor 500-stock index closed at 893.92, up about 1.7 percent.
>
> As the first broad measure of the economy in August, the report also
> contradicted some worrisome signs earlier this week and reinforced the
> convictions of most analysts that the Federal Reserve would not cut
> its benchmark interest rate later this month. In August, at its most
> recent meeting, the Fed held its rate steady, saying that its 11 cuts
> last year were still working their way through the economy.
>
> ''For financial markets that were fearing a real deterioration, this
> is good news,'' Steven Wieting, a senior economist at Solomon Smith
> Barney, said yesterday. ''A choppy, gradual and modest recovery seems
> most likely.''
>
> In recent months, companies have mostly halted the large-scale layoffs
> of early this year and late 2001, and many are now trying to increase
> their sales without hiring new workers. Between February 2001 and
> February 2002, companies cut more than two million jobs; in the last
> six months they have added 26,000.
>
> Even that modest growth stopped in August, however, as private-sector
> payrolls fell by 2,000 after three months of gains. In a sign of their
> reticence, business executives cut about 50,000 permanent jobs last
> month and added roughly the same number of temporary workers, who can
> be laid off at almost no cost.
>
> The manufacturing sector also reversed its recent progress,
> eliminating 68,000 jobs in August, the biggest cut since January. As
> many executives across the economy realized last year that they had
> bought more equipment in the late 90's than they could profitably use,
> they sharply reduced their spending on technology, machines and
> software.
>
> Manufacturers, faced with falling sales and a dollar that remains
> expensive compared with other currencies, have eliminated almost one
> of every 10 jobs in their sector in the last two years.
>
> The government, meanwhile, has been hiring at a rapid pace. Many
> federal agencies are expanding, as part of their response to the Sept.
> 11 attacks, and state agencies have continued projects that began when
> they still had budget surpluses.
>
> With the federal government and many states now facing deficits,
> however, the private sector will have to begin hiring in large numbers
> for unemployment to drop significantly, economists say.
>
> The government calculates the unemployment rate from a poll of 60,000
> households, and it can produce volatile results because it covers less
> than one-tenth of 1 percent of the nation's jobs. The so-called
> payroll survey covers more than 300,000 factories and offices and 37
> million of the economy's 131 million jobs.
>
> In August, the household survey said that the economy had added
> 429,000 jobs -- a figure economists called unrealistic -- allowing the
> unemployment rate to fall. Still, the surge in the household survey's
> August job count suggested that the relatively bleak economic picture
> it had painted in the last three months was not accurate either.
>
> The unemployment rate has risen from a 30-year low of 3.9 percent in
> late 2000 but has remained essentially flat this year. Every previous
> recession of the last three decades caused the rate to climb to at
> least 7.8 percent. In the early 80's, it exceeded 10 percent.
>
> With the labor market tighter than it was at the end of earlier
> downturns, production workers -- the majority of the work force --
> continue to get annual raises of about 3 percent.
>
> Few forecasters expect the jobless rate to exceed 6 percent by much --
> if at all -- in coming months, but the economy has also offered little
> evidence that it is on the verge of returning to the fast growth of
> the late 90's.
>
> Production workers spent an average of 34.1 hours on the job last
> month, up slightly from July, but still below the level reached for
> most of this year. Companies typically ask their existing employees to
> work longer hours before they spend money to recruit new workers and
> to pay the costs of their health insurance and other benefits.
>
> The Labor Department also reported that slightly more industries were
> planning to cut jobs than to add them in coming months, a shift from
> earlier this summer when the two groups were evenly split.
>
> Health care continued to stand out as one of the few industries
> consistently hiring. In August, it added 26,000 employees, close to
> its average growth over the last two years, according to the Labor
> Department, which adjusts its numbers to account for normal seasonal
> changes.
>
> Amusement parks, mortgage bankers, car dealers and building
> contractors also added jobs. Department stores, electronics makers and
> trucking and warehousing companies reduced their payrolls.
>
> As part of its regular revisions, the Labor Department said yesterday
> that the economy had added 101,000 jobs in June and July, rather than
> 68,000, as the government reported a month ago. The change helped
> support the guarded optimism of many investors and economists.
>
> ''The underlying message is that we're making some progress,'' said
> Richard D. Rippe, the chief economist at Prudential Securities. ''It's
> not strong, it's not consistent, but on balance the economy is
> gradually gaining ground.''
>
> Photo: Rita Stopa and Phil Clark went over some numbers recently in
> the career resource center of the Illinois Department of Employment
> Security in Grayslake, Ill. (Bloomberg News) Chart: ''Hiring, but
> Slowly'' Job growth has turned positive in recent months, but it
> remains well below the levels of the late 1990's. Graph tracks change
> in nonfarm payrolls from 1998-2002. (Source: Bloomberg Financial
> Markets)(pg. C1) Chart: ''The Labor Picture in August'' UNEMPLOYMENT
> Graph tracks civilian unemployment: 5.7 percent BY DEMOGRAPHIC White:
> 5.1 Black: 9.6 Hispanic*: 7.5 Men 20 and over: 5.2 Women 20 and over:
> 4.9 Teenagers (16-19): 17.2 OUT OF WORK (millions) Total: 8.1 Lost
> job: 4.6 Left job: 0.8 Returning to labor market: 2.3 New to labor
> market: 0.6 EMPLOYMENT Household survey: 134.5 million Nonfarm payroll
> survey: 130.8 million BY TYPE OF WORK (millions) July Nonfarm: 130.8
> Goods: 23.8 Services: 107.0 Agriculture: 3.3 Aug. Nonfarm: 130.8
> Goods: 23.8 Services: 107.1 Agriculture: 3.2 SHARE OF POPULATION
> (percent) July Work force: 62.6 Labor force (workers and unemployed):
> 66.5 Aug. Work force: 62.8 Labor force (workers and unemployed): 66.6
> All figures are seasonally adjusted. *Hispanics can be of any race.
> (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)(pg. C4)
> A version of this article appeared in print on Saturday, September 7,
> 2002, on section C page 1 of the New York edition.
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Sat Dec  5 18:29:28 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 18:29:28 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Baucus: Girlfriend merited US attorney
	nomination
Message-ID: <0A2867BBE1474C37BBEF73B380F694A1@YOURB88038198E>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/05/AR2009120502116.html

Ethics?

Ed K
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Sat Dec  5 19:16:06 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 2009 18:16:06 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Baucus: Girlfriend merited US attorney
	nomination
In-Reply-To: <0A2867BBE1474C37BBEF73B380F694A1@YOURB88038198E>
References: <0A2867BBE1474C37BBEF73B380F694A1@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <400985d70912051616o76b88338ndf9db9ce12a86a37@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

What's wrong with that?  So the woman worked under him.  She's an
attorney - she gives good oral arguments, can handle briefs, and knows
her way around a penal colony.

Sounds qualified to me.

Brad.

On 12/5/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/05/AR2009120502116.html
>
> Ethics?
>
> Ed K

From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec  6 07:46:00 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 06:46:00 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Hu's The Communist
Message-ID: <400985d70912060446t5b581ba8pb058d2746776c362@mail.gmail.com>

Don't know who's writing for Sarah these days but there were some
"zingers" in her Gridiron appearance.

Brad

---------------

Palin cracks wise at Gridiron dinner
By: Jeanne Cummings and Andrew Glass
December 5, 2009 09:43 PM EST

Sarah Palin's 11-minute speech before Washington?s Gridiron Club at
its Winter Dinne tossed a few barbs at the gathering of journalists,
who she compared to "death panels."


"Sometimes you got to trust your instincts, and if you don't, you end
up in a place like this," said the former GOP vice presidential
candidate.



While the Gridiron winter meeting is usually a small, low key affair,
Palin?s appearance attracted a crowd of 195 ? about double the average
attendance of Gridiron members and their guests.

These ho-hum media values, however, were upended when Rep. Barney
Frank, a liberal, openly gay Democratic congressman from Massachusetts
was matched up with Palin, the perky and pretty former governor of
Alaska. For Palin, fortune followed fame when she became the darling
of the populist wing of the Republican Party as the 2008 GOP?s
vice-presidential nominee.


Palin, in a smart black suit with what appeared to be a fur-lined
purse, showed up Palin showed up to burnish her political credentials
after a stop in Farfax for her nationwide tour to flog her bestselling
book, ?Going Rogue.? Frank was also in full biographical dress:
?Barney Frank: The Story of America's Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish
Congressman,? by Stuart Weisberg was published in September.

During the cocktail hour, Frank held court by the appetizers while
Palin set up about 20 feet away by the ballroom doors.


Addressing the crowd of journalists, the former Alaska governor poked
fun at the penchant of political reporters to leaf through campaign
book indexes to find their names, noting that she decided to skip the
index on her book.


So, at the dinner, she created one: "A: Alaska, media not
understanding it, page 1-432.


"B: Biased, Page 1-432."


But Palin also took the opportunity to take a few shots at her running
mate from last year, and also her Democratic rival.


?The view is so much better inside the bus than under the bus," she
said, neatly putting together a reference to her book tour and a crack
at the former ticket mate, And if she ever need a bald campaign
manager, "I'm left with James Carville," a reference to President
Clinton?s 1992 campaign manager and a dig at Steve Schmidt, McCain's
manager in 2008.


Staying with the book theme, she joked that ?If the election had
turned out differently, I could be the one overseeing the signing of
bailout checks and Vice President Biden could be on the road selling
his book, 'Going Rogaine.'?


As for the president, Palin joked that she was looking at a magazine
cover of Obama and Chinese president Hu Jinato during an airplane
flight. A nearby passenger stated, "Hu's the Communist," she related.


And, Palin said, "I thought he was asking a question."




This is the first year that Gridiron officers have dropped the
off-the-record rule that had been in place for more than a century.
Modest twittering is permitted, though not during the speeches or
songs. At a meeting this morning, the officers explained that the
change is a bow to media realities ? the rule was often broken and
Palin's appearance was certain to leak anyway.

As was the case with the spring dinner, the event remained closed to
general media coverage so that only reporters who are members of the
club or their invited guests could cover the proceedings. In theory,
no photographs were allowed; in practice, shooters abounded.


As for her own presidential ambitions. Palin was mum.. She did tell
the crowd that on Sunday she'd be in Iowa ? "from noon to three at
Barnes and Noble. Come early, long lines are expected."


The night closed with the Gridiron Singers rendition of the 12 Days of
Christmas, with gifts bestowed by a certain Ruth Limbaugh rather than
the traditional ?True Love.?


?On the first day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: A Marxist in
a dead tree.
On the second day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Two tea-bag goons.
On the third day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Three hell-no's
On the fourth day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Four bawling Becks
On the fifth day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Five Sarah swoon-ins
On the sixth day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Six health
care death squads
On the seventh day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Seven
bug-eyed birthers
On the eight day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Eight Cheney boomlets
On the ninth day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Nine ACORN busters
On the tenth day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Ten
thundering mossbacks
On the eleventh day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Eleven
loony liberals
On the twelfth day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: twelve
flaming liberals, hunted down in the wild and field dressed, medium
well-done, seared on the fatty edges??


And then Palin joned the chorus for the final line:


"Right next to the mashed potatoes," she sang.


From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec  6 08:37:11 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 07:37:11 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] A View From The Middle
Message-ID: <400985d70912060537wacc79c0t6dbf31491c28eff6@mail.gmail.com>

Desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm guessing this writer
has it about right, we'll make the tough choices and sacrifices when
there are no other options left on the table. This won't happen under
our current leadership.

Brad

-------------

Middle Israel: Obama's naivete will result in isolationism
Dec. 3, 2009
Amotz Asa-El , THE JERUSALEM POST

Had there been a type of Moody's rating for world leaders, and had
those ratings not been delivered in sterile characters like "BBB+" but
in unambiguous terms like "go for it" or "you don't want to go there,"
Barack Obama's performance would have likely been downgraded these
days from "disappointing" to "alarming."

What began with a brave declaration of intentions to reinvent history
has since emerged as a series of improvisations and embarrassments
which remind Israelis of the first Netanyahu premiership. Obama, too,
didn't plan to win and reached power unprepared.

First there was health care reform. Even if the bill that has finally
reached the Senate passes, a precious year has been wasted because the
president arrived at the White House without a blueprint. Then,
instead of writing one up at least now that he was selected, he
outsourced that task to Congress.

People expected that the charisma he displayed as a candidate would
translate into executive resolve. It should have been him showing the
legislature a bill, and not the other way around. And the fact that a
similar attitude had failed during the Clinton presidency is
immaterial, as there was no sense of emergency at the time; on the
contrary, those were the days when America rested on the laurels of
its victory in the Cold War. Everybody had time and universal health
care seemed like an extension of the victors' generosity.

When Obama entered office, people feared for America's economic
viability. Anything he would have proposed would have passed in those
first weeks, but Obama had no bill of his own because he did not
expect his own victory, and because his legislative experience was
minimal and his executive experience even less than that. Hopes that
Obama would be to the Great Meltdown what FDR was to the Great
Depression quickly faded.

Even worse, promises that the current US budget can foot this reform's
bills are about as valid as Dubai's promises were when it insisted
that its towers of Babel were not being built in quicksand. Regardless
of his future plans, Obama should first of all have cut spending.
True, the kind of cold-blooded fiscal slashing the whole situation
demands would not be delivered overnight even if Jack the Ripper had
been treasury secretary. However, a beginning could have been made.
Instead, here too Obama only spoke in generalities, promising to
"eventually" fine-tooth comb the budget "page by page and line by
line." That's like a drinker vowing to stop drinking - after next
year. Yet instead of cutting spending upon assuming office, Obama
presided over the most extravagant inaugural celebrations ever, thus
sending a message that people can go on borrowing, spending and
wasting because that's what the president is doing.

No wonder the dollar plunged, joblessness rose and the prospect of
stagflation seems increasingly likely.

ALL THIS economic conceit paled compared with Obama's diplomatic aloofness.

What began with a failure to respond to North Korea's blasting of a
nuclear bomb that came both unannounced and in brazen violation of
agreements with America, soon proceeded to a show of magnificent
naivete in the Middle East.

In his Cairo speech, Obama decried the deficit in innovation and
investment education "in too many Muslim communities" while promising
to host a summit "this year" on entrepreneurship in Muslim communities
around the world.

Never mind right now that his summit was never held - they are now
talking of next spring. What matters is that Middle Eastern leaders
listened attentively and heard no programmatic statement, say an
announcement that US arms sales in the region would be cut,
immediately and across the board, with the balance diverted to
educational spending. Had he done so, people would have said, "Obama
means business," that his impassioned speeches are accompanied by
plans and the kind of resolve it takes to make them happen.

Middle Israelis hoped at the time to learn that Obama had reached
early understandings with local leaders; that Israel would announce
some concessions in the morning and Washington's Arab allies would
announce others in the evening. It turned out there was no such
preparation with either side, because for this president oration was
not a way to announce plans, it was the plan itself. Now all
understood that just like he wasn't asking Americans to sacrifice
anything economically, Obama also wasn't asking much from the rest of
the world (except Israel.)

THE DIPLOMATIC cost of all this is exorbitant. Governments across the
world are losing respect for the US. Turkey, which once didn't lift a
finger without America's approval, is openly waltzing into the sunset
with Syria and Iran. Iran has made a mockery of Obama's dialogue
gesture. China has made a joke of Obama personally, when it censored
his very plea that Beijing ease censorship. Saudi Arabia has ignored
Washington's pleas to deliver a peace gesture. And finally, in a
natural extension of all this accelerating disparagement, Hugo Chavez
publicly backed Iran's nuclear adventurism with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
alongside him in Venezuela - a three-hour flight from Miami.

All of them, from Chavez to Kim, are humiliating America because they
have concluded that the decade that began with the 9/11 attacks and
later saw a meltdown in Wall Street and now a military entanglement in
Afghanistan is about to end with America as dwarfed as Russia was last
decade.

Where, then, is all this leading?

Eventually, when the deficit and the dollar sink even deeper while
unemployment and interest rates rise that much higher, Americans will
understand that action must be painful, swift and immediate. That is
when, with or without Obama, they will set the world aside and focus
on nothing but economic rehabilitation. The US will cut defense
spending deeply, possibly retrieving the entire mini-armies it has in
Japan and Germany. Afghanistan, like Iraq and Vietnam before it, will
be quit, and all foreign aid programs will be discontinued.

A neo-isolationist Washington will effectively tell the world to try
to run its affairs alone, just for several years, during which the US
will be geopolitically closed for economic renovations. Then, with
defense spending and foreign aid slashed, other budgets will follow
suit. The deficit will then be narrowed, the dollar will resurrect,
bond yields will drop, investments will soar, new jobs will appear,
the US economy will flourish and dictators the world over, when told
anything by an American leader, will respond with respect.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com
/servlet/Satellite?cid=1259831449403&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec  6 09:48:55 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 08:48:55 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] A Black Pastor Speaks
Message-ID: <400985d70912060648q722d930dg9cf8de4b06159c9f@mail.gmail.com>

A Black Pastor Speaks Out on President Obama?s Past

Posted By Ron Radosh On December 5, 2009

President Barack Obama?s past continues to haunt him. A friend
e-mailed me this revealing post [1] by Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr., pastor
of The Exodus Faith Ministries [2] in Chesapeake, Virginia.  Bishop
Jackson wrote it last June, but I have not seen it circulated or
mentioned before now. Now, someone found it and put it on their own
blog.

Like so many of us, Bishop Jackson describes himself as once a leftist
Democrat; an African-American who grew up in a black urban community
in Pennsylvania, and a man who is disturbed about what he calls ?a
strain of anti-Semitism in the black community.?

Bishop Jackson is also a Harvard Law School graduate, and evidently,
was aware of Barack Obama during the year of Nation of Islam leader
Louis Farrakhan?s ?Million Man March.? He asks the following question:
 ?The question is whether Obama, given his Muslim roots and experience
in Farrakhan?s Chicago, shares this antipathy for Israel and Jewish
people. Is there any evidence that he does??  This is the Bishop?s
considered answer:

First, the President was taught for twenty years by a virulent
anti-Semite, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. In the black community it
is called ?sitting under?. You don?t merely attend a church, you ?sit
under? a Pastor to be taught and mentored by him. Obama ?sat under?
Wright for a very long time. He was comfortable enough with Farrakhan
and Wright?s friend to attend and help organize his ?Million Man
March?. I was on C-Span the morning of the march arguing that we must
never legitimize a racist and anti-Semite, no matter what ?good? he
claims to be doing. Yet a future President was in the crowd giving
Farrakhan his enthusiastic support.

The Pastor continues to argue that he thinks today President Obama
holds the ?classic left-wing view? that ?Israel is the oppressive
occupier, and the Palestinians are Israel?s victims.?  He continues:

In speaking to the ?Muslim World,? he did not address the widespread
Islamic hatred of Jews. Instead he attacked Israel over the growth of
West Bank settlements. Surely he knows that settlements are not the
crux of the problem. The absolute refusal of the Palestinians to
accept Israel?s right to exist as a Jewish state is the insurmountable
obstacle. That?s where the pressure needs to be placed, but this
President sees it differently. He also made the preposterous
comparison of the Holocaust to Palestinian ?dislocation?.

He also thinks that ?Obama clearly has Muslim sensibilities?  and that
this explains ?the dramatic policy reversal of joining the
unrelentingly ant-Semitic, anti-Israel and pro-Islamic UN Human Rights
Council is in keeping with the President?s truest albeit undeclared
sensibilities.?

I do not agree that Obama?s indecisiveness and wrong-headed policy on
the Middle East stems from that factor; I suspect it has more to do
with the influence on him of former friends like Rashid Khalidi and
the milieu of both left-wing Chicago and radical black nationalism
that he was part of for many years. But this is a minor disagreement
about motives.

All of Bishop Pastor?s concerns, however, are valid, and it is
important that a black Pastor of a congregation is willing to speak
out publicly and make his concerns known.  Now that others have begun
to raise the issue [3] of the State dinner gate-crashers? ties with
Khalidi and Chicago, and have posted photos of Obama with the same
couple in 2005, it appears that one possibility surrounding the White
House announcement that the Social Secretary will invoke Executive
Privilege if asked to testify before Congress, is that the
administration hopes to keep under wraps the President?s ties with the
couple, whose opposition to Israel is evidently well known.

Is the above too much of a conspiracy theory? Perhaps. It stands as a
question until we begin to get answers.









Article printed from Ron Radosh: http://pajamasmedia.com/ronradosh

URL to article:
http://pajamasmedia.com/ronradosh/2009/12/05/a-black-pastor-speaks-out-on-president-obamas-past/

URLs in this post:

[1] post: http://freemenow.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/the-source-of-obama%e2%80%99s-anti-israel-policy/

[2] The Exodus Faith Ministries: http://exodusfaithministries.org/

[3] raise the issue:
http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/obama-salahi-connection-why-no-invite.html


From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Sun Dec  6 13:03:30 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 12:03:30 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] A Black Pastor Speaks
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912060648q722d930dg9cf8de4b06159c9f@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912060648q722d930dg9cf8de4b06159c9f@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912061003u7314177cyfb58429c37d3d742@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

It's pretty funny (queer) to watch this whole Israeli/Palestinian thing.

First, the scale is amazing. Looking at a map of the middle east, Israel
can't represent more than one tenth of one percent of the area. In other
words, Israel compared to the arab areas of the middle east is like Rhode
Island compared to the whole of the United States. For an Arab, finding
someplace to settle down and make a life shouldn't be a problem. But, this
doesn't have one damned thing to do with the sliver of land that is Israel.
What it's about is that the Palestinians hate the Israelis and it's not
going to matter where the Israelis go, the Palestinians will still hate them
and look for excuses to kill them. That's the beauty of Islam, not only do
you get to kill people who's religion is different from yours, it is your
duty to do so.

Second: Advice to Palestinians; if you want to have a piece of land to live
on .... win the friggin' war.

Now, go find someplace amongst the millions of square miles that are Arab
land in the middle east and set up shop. Once your there, here's two bits,
run uptown and see if you can buy yourself a life. You lost your war ....
get over it.

Oh and O won: So far, nothing in the Israel/Palestinian thing is comparable
to the holocaust and to make that comparison is purely and simply stupid.
However, if you keep on the way you are, there soon will be and it'll be
your doing. If you think the war over there has been a terrible waste of
human life, just keep on your path, the body count will surely increase by a
factor of 100. What a guy you are, Mr. President!!!

Rik



On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 8:48 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> A Black Pastor Speaks Out on President Obama?s Past
>
> Posted By Ron Radosh On December 5, 2009
>
> President Barack Obama?s past continues to haunt him. A friend
> e-mailed me this revealing post [1] by Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr., pastor
> of The Exodus Faith Ministries [2] in Chesapeake, Virginia.  Bishop
> Jackson wrote it last June, but I have not seen it circulated or
> mentioned before now. Now, someone found it and put it on their own
> blog.
>
> Like so many of us, Bishop Jackson describes himself as once a leftist
> Democrat; an African-American who grew up in a black urban community
> in Pennsylvania, and a man who is disturbed about what he calls ?a
> strain of anti-Semitism in the black community.?
>
> Bishop Jackson is also a Harvard Law School graduate, and evidently,
> was aware of Barack Obama during the year of Nation of Islam leader
> Louis Farrakhan?s ?Million Man March.? He asks the following question:
>  ?The question is whether Obama, given his Muslim roots and experience
> in Farrakhan?s Chicago, shares this antipathy for Israel and Jewish
> people. Is there any evidence that he does??  This is the Bishop?s
> considered answer:
>
> First, the President was taught for twenty years by a virulent
> anti-Semite, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. In the black community it
> is called ?sitting under?. You don?t merely attend a church, you ?sit
> under? a Pastor to be taught and mentored by him. Obama ?sat under?
> Wright for a very long time. He was comfortable enough with Farrakhan
> and Wright?s friend to attend and help organize his ?Million Man
> March?. I was on C-Span the morning of the march arguing that we must
> never legitimize a racist and anti-Semite, no matter what ?good? he
> claims to be doing. Yet a future President was in the crowd giving
> Farrakhan his enthusiastic support.
>
> The Pastor continues to argue that he thinks today President Obama
> holds the ?classic left-wing view? that ?Israel is the oppressive
> occupier, and the Palestinians are Israel?s victims.?  He continues:
>
> In speaking to the ?Muslim World,? he did not address the widespread
> Islamic hatred of Jews. Instead he attacked Israel over the growth of
> West Bank settlements. Surely he knows that settlements are not the
> crux of the problem. The absolute refusal of the Palestinians to
> accept Israel?s right to exist as a Jewish state is the insurmountable
> obstacle. That?s where the pressure needs to be placed, but this
> President sees it differently. He also made the preposterous
> comparison of the Holocaust to Palestinian ?dislocation?.
>
> He also thinks that ?Obama clearly has Muslim sensibilities?  and that
> this explains ?the dramatic policy reversal of joining the
> unrelentingly ant-Semitic, anti-Israel and pro-Islamic UN Human Rights
> Council is in keeping with the President?s truest albeit undeclared
> sensibilities.?
>
> I do not agree that Obama?s indecisiveness and wrong-headed policy on
> the Middle East stems from that factor; I suspect it has more to do
> with the influence on him of former friends like Rashid Khalidi and
> the milieu of both left-wing Chicago and radical black nationalism
> that he was part of for many years. But this is a minor disagreement
> about motives.
>
> All of Bishop Pastor?s concerns, however, are valid, and it is
> important that a black Pastor of a congregation is willing to speak
> out publicly and make his concerns known.  Now that others have begun
> to raise the issue [3] of the State dinner gate-crashers? ties with
> Khalidi and Chicago, and have posted photos of Obama with the same
> couple in 2005, it appears that one possibility surrounding the White
> House announcement that the Social Secretary will invoke Executive
> Privilege if asked to testify before Congress, is that the
> administration hopes to keep under wraps the President?s ties with the
> couple, whose opposition to Israel is evidently well known.
>
> Is the above too much of a conspiracy theory? Perhaps. It stands as a
> question until we begin to get answers.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Article printed from Ron Radosh: http://pajamasmedia.com/ronradosh
>
> URL to article:
>
> http://pajamasmedia.com/ronradosh/2009/12/05/a-black-pastor-speaks-out-on-president-obamas-past/
>
> URLs in this post:
>
> [1] post:
> http://freemenow.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/the-source-of-obama%e2%80%99s-anti-israel-policy/
>
> [2] The Exodus Faith Ministries: http://exodusfaithministries.org/
>
> [3] raise the issue:
>
> http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/obama-salahi-connection-why-no-invite.html
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Sun Dec  6 18:14:10 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 18:14:10 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Lets keep jargon correct
Message-ID: <E8592B9E1869437D92E77F79DFC15B62@YOURB88038198E>

  From the Las Vegas Paper

  To the editor:

  I don't understand why the White House is so upset about the two party crashers at Barack Obama's steak dinner the other night.

  Is it really appropriate and politically correct to call them party crashers just because they trespassed on Mr. Obama? Does that make them criminals? Isn't that discrimination? Shouldn't they be rewarded for such bold and brave behavior? Maybe they were just trying to feed their family?

  I would suggest that it's more appropriate to call them "undocumented guests."

  Just because they weren't officially invited doesn't mean they should be treated like criminals. Maybe they should get free health care, free housing, free legal services and free White House green cards so next time they can enter legally. And they should be able to bring all of their relatives and family members, too.

  How can Mr. Obama be mad at them just because they crossed over some arbitrary man-made border? They were there only to do the things that regularly invited guests don't want to do. (Like hang out with Joe Biden.)

  How can the White House punish these poor oppressed undocumented visitors?

  Brian K. Shoemake


   

  .
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Sun Dec  6 18:20:22 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 18:20:22 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Special youtube for Michael Meltzer
Message-ID: <EB1E0A2668AC4A84B2672EFC9337FC10@YOURB88038198E>

Here is a special youtube for Michael Meltzer.  Is he still on this forum?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p9TE8dRPX0&feature=email

Of course there are a couple of others around who will enjoy this.

Ed K
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Sun Dec  6 18:24:01 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 18:24:01 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] From a souther TV station - had to be
Message-ID: <74385AAAC0E44C07946B9A6C89DA9828@YOURB88038198E>

http://www.wtoc.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=4285612&h1=Editorial+-+11/09/09&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=186467&LaunchPageAdTag=News
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec  6 19:06:55 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 18:06:55 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Special youtube for Michael Meltzer
In-Reply-To: <EB1E0A2668AC4A84B2672EFC9337FC10@YOURB88038198E>
References: <EB1E0A2668AC4A84B2672EFC9337FC10@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <400985d70912061606l1d0255cen71a2986996a6ff2c@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

Forgive me if I've told this story before.  A good friend of my from
Brownstown (population 650) met a gal from Sri Lanka at the University
of Illinois and fell in love. Her Muslim father said "not no, but hell
no" could they get married and his Lutheran minister father said
basically the same thing. So, they go to the courthouse and get
married anyway in secret.  Eventually, Muslim dad gives permission to
bride's brother to represent him in a Muslim ceremony and Lutheran dad
has a ceremony in his church.  The couple doesn't bother to explain to
anyone that they're already married.  For over 25 years they get calls
twice a year wishing them "Happy Anniversary"  but they celebrate the
real date in secret.  My buddy's wife was ecstatic when she met Fan
because B'town would have another foreigner to talk about.  All this
reminds me of Ben Stein's comments about Christmas -

http://www.benstein.com/121805xmas.html

Thank god for my next door Jewish neighbor that moved in about three
years ago. I'm too lazy to deal with the Christmas light BS and now
I'm not the only Scrooge on the street!

Brad


On 12/6/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
> Here is a special youtube for Michael Meltzer.  Is he still on this forum?
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p9TE8dRPX0&feature=email
>
> Of course there are a couple of others around who will enjoy this.
>
> Ed K

From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec  6 19:36:54 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 18:36:54 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] A Black Pastor Speaks
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912061003u7314177cyfb58429c37d3d742@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912060648q722d930dg9cf8de4b06159c9f@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912061003u7314177cyfb58429c37d3d742@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912061636m6366069ic347eb01ce67c3ca@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

Yup, that about sums it up, only one problem, the Arabs really don't
want the Palestinians either.  Were I a Palestinian, I'd move to
Israel where I could live well provided I don't blow-up my neighbors.
Clinton negotiated a deal that gave Arafat 95% of his demands and he
turned it down.  Bush 43 basically said "screw it", what's the point
in talking to these people? Of course, you and I aren't intelligent
enough to understand the nuance of complicated issues like this,
that's why we elect Harvard educated lawyers who have never practiced
law, never run a hot dog stand, never sweated a payroll, and voted
"present" when they might leave a record to defend later.  You can put
me in the same category as those other simpletons, like Sarah Palin,
who don't waver in their support for Israel and aren't really all that
interested in explaining why.  Just call us rednecks - or realists.

Brad

On 12/6/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> It's pretty funny (queer) to watch this whole Israeli/Palestinian thing.
>
> First, the scale is amazing. Looking at a map of the middle east, Israel
> can't represent more than one tenth of one percent of the area. In other
> words, Israel compared to the arab areas of the middle east is like Rhode
> Island compared to the whole of the United States. For an Arab, finding
> someplace to settle down and make a life shouldn't be a problem. But, this
> doesn't have one damned thing to do with the sliver of land that is Israel.
> What it's about is that the Palestinians hate the Israelis and it's not
> going to matter where the Israelis go, the Palestinians will still hate them
> and look for excuses to kill them. That's the beauty of Islam, not only do
> you get to kill people who's religion is different from yours, it is your
> duty to do so.
>
> Second: Advice to Palestinians; if you want to have a piece of land to live
> on .... win the friggin' war.
>
> Now, go find someplace amongst the millions of square miles that are Arab
> land in the middle east and set up shop. Once your there, here's two bits,
> run uptown and see if you can buy yourself a life. You lost your war ....
> get over it.
>
> Oh and O won: So far, nothing in the Israel/Palestinian thing is comparable
> to the holocaust and to make that comparison is purely and simply stupid.
> However, if you keep on the way you are, there soon will be and it'll be
> your doing. If you think the war over there has been a terrible waste of
> human life, just keep on your path, the body count will surely increase by a
> factor of 100. What a guy you are, Mr. President!!!
>
> Rik
>
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 8:48 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> A Black Pastor Speaks Out on President Obama?s Past
>>
>> Posted By Ron Radosh On December 5, 2009
>>
>> President Barack Obama?s past continues to haunt him. A friend
>> e-mailed me this revealing post [1] by Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr., pastor
>> of The Exodus Faith Ministries [2] in Chesapeake, Virginia.  Bishop
>> Jackson wrote it last June, but I have not seen it circulated or
>> mentioned before now. Now, someone found it and put it on their own
>> blog.
>>
>> Like so many of us, Bishop Jackson describes himself as once a leftist
>> Democrat; an African-American who grew up in a black urban community
>> in Pennsylvania, and a man who is disturbed about what he calls ?a
>> strain of anti-Semitism in the black community.?
>>
>> Bishop Jackson is also a Harvard Law School graduate, and evidently,
>> was aware of Barack Obama during the year of Nation of Islam leader
>> Louis Farrakhan?s ?Million Man March.? He asks the following question:
>>  ?The question is whether Obama, given his Muslim roots and experience
>> in Farrakhan?s Chicago, shares this antipathy for Israel and Jewish
>> people. Is there any evidence that he does??  This is the Bishop?s
>> considered answer:
>>
>> First, the President was taught for twenty years by a virulent
>> anti-Semite, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. In the black community it
>> is called ?sitting under?. You don?t merely attend a church, you ?sit
>> under? a Pastor to be taught and mentored by him. Obama ?sat under?
>> Wright for a very long time. He was comfortable enough with Farrakhan
>> and Wright?s friend to attend and help organize his ?Million Man
>> March?. I was on C-Span the morning of the march arguing that we must
>> never legitimize a racist and anti-Semite, no matter what ?good? he
>> claims to be doing. Yet a future President was in the crowd giving
>> Farrakhan his enthusiastic support.
>>
>> The Pastor continues to argue that he thinks today President Obama
>> holds the ?classic left-wing view? that ?Israel is the oppressive
>> occupier, and the Palestinians are Israel?s victims.?  He continues:
>>
>> In speaking to the ?Muslim World,? he did not address the widespread
>> Islamic hatred of Jews. Instead he attacked Israel over the growth of
>> West Bank settlements. Surely he knows that settlements are not the
>> crux of the problem. The absolute refusal of the Palestinians to
>> accept Israel?s right to exist as a Jewish state is the insurmountable
>> obstacle. That?s where the pressure needs to be placed, but this
>> President sees it differently. He also made the preposterous
>> comparison of the Holocaust to Palestinian ?dislocation?.
>>
>> He also thinks that ?Obama clearly has Muslim sensibilities?  and that
>> this explains ?the dramatic policy reversal of joining the
>> unrelentingly ant-Semitic, anti-Israel and pro-Islamic UN Human Rights
>> Council is in keeping with the President?s truest albeit undeclared
>> sensibilities.?
>>
>> I do not agree that Obama?s indecisiveness and wrong-headed policy on
>> the Middle East stems from that factor; I suspect it has more to do
>> with the influence on him of former friends like Rashid Khalidi and
>> the milieu of both left-wing Chicago and radical black nationalism
>> that he was part of for many years. But this is a minor disagreement
>> about motives.
>>
>> All of Bishop Pastor?s concerns, however, are valid, and it is
>> important that a black Pastor of a congregation is willing to speak
>> out publicly and make his concerns known.  Now that others have begun
>> to raise the issue [3] of the State dinner gate-crashers? ties with
>> Khalidi and Chicago, and have posted photos of Obama with the same
>> couple in 2005, it appears that one possibility surrounding the White
>> House announcement that the Social Secretary will invoke Executive
>> Privilege if asked to testify before Congress, is that the
>> administration hopes to keep under wraps the President?s ties with the
>> couple, whose opposition to Israel is evidently well known.
>>
>> Is the above too much of a conspiracy theory? Perhaps. It stands as a
>> question until we begin to get answers.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Article printed from Ron Radosh: http://pajamasmedia.com/ronradosh
>>
>> URL to article:
>>
>> http://pajamasmedia.com/ronradosh/2009/12/05/a-black-pastor-speaks-out-on-president-obamas-past/
>>
>> URLs in this post:
>>
>> [1] post:
>> http://freemenow.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/the-source-of-obama%e2%80%99s-anti-israel-policy/
>>
>> [2] The Exodus Faith Ministries: http://exodusfaithministries.org/
>>
>> [3] raise the issue:
>>
>> http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/obama-salahi-connection-why-no-invite.html
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>


From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Sun Dec  6 20:34:32 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 19:34:32 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] A Black Pastor Speaks
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912061636m6366069ic347eb01ce67c3ca@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912060648q722d930dg9cf8de4b06159c9f@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912061003u7314177cyfb58429c37d3d742@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912061636m6366069ic347eb01ce67c3ca@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912061734m5931e555qa6290c32ae5311a@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

"Were I a Palestinian, I'd move to Israel where I could live well provided I
don't blow-up my neighbors."

EXACTLY

That wasn't so hard for a "reasonable" guy to figure out, was it?

Rik

On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 6:36 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Rik,
>
> Yup, that about sums it up, only one problem, the Arabs really don't
> want the Palestinians either.  Were I a Palestinian, I'd move to
> Israel where I could live well provided I don't blow-up my neighbors.
> Clinton negotiated a deal that gave Arafat 95% of his demands and he
> turned it down.  Bush 43 basically said "screw it", what's the point
> in talking to these people? Of course, you and I aren't intelligent
> enough to understand the nuance of complicated issues like this,
> that's why we elect Harvard educated lawyers who have never practiced
> law, never run a hot dog stand, never sweated a payroll, and voted
> "present" when they might leave a record to defend later.  You can put
> me in the same category as those other simpletons, like Sarah Palin,
> who don't waver in their support for Israel and aren't really all that
> interested in explaining why.  Just call us rednecks - or realists.
>
> Brad
>
> On 12/6/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Brad,
> >
> > It's pretty funny (queer) to watch this whole Israeli/Palestinian thing.
> >
> > First, the scale is amazing. Looking at a map of the middle east, Israel
> > can't represent more than one tenth of one percent of the area. In other
> > words, Israel compared to the arab areas of the middle east is like Rhode
> > Island compared to the whole of the United States. For an Arab, finding
> > someplace to settle down and make a life shouldn't be a problem. But,
> this
> > doesn't have one damned thing to do with the sliver of land that is
> Israel.
> > What it's about is that the Palestinians hate the Israelis and it's not
> > going to matter where the Israelis go, the Palestinians will still hate
> them
> > and look for excuses to kill them. That's the beauty of Islam, not only
> do
> > you get to kill people who's religion is different from yours, it is your
> > duty to do so.
> >
> > Second: Advice to Palestinians; if you want to have a piece of land to
> live
> > on .... win the friggin' war.
> >
> > Now, go find someplace amongst the millions of square miles that are Arab
> > land in the middle east and set up shop. Once your there, here's two
> bits,
> > run uptown and see if you can buy yourself a life. You lost your war ....
> > get over it.
> >
> > Oh and O won: So far, nothing in the Israel/Palestinian thing is
> comparable
> > to the holocaust and to make that comparison is purely and simply stupid.
> > However, if you keep on the way you are, there soon will be and it'll be
> > your doing. If you think the war over there has been a terrible waste of
> > human life, just keep on your path, the body count will surely increase
> by a
> > factor of 100. What a guy you are, Mr. President!!!
> >
> > Rik
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 8:48 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> A Black Pastor Speaks Out on President Obama?s Past
> >>
> >> Posted By Ron Radosh On December 5, 2009
> >>
> >> President Barack Obama?s past continues to haunt him. A friend
> >> e-mailed me this revealing post [1] by Bishop E.W. Jackson Sr., pastor
> >> of The Exodus Faith Ministries [2] in Chesapeake, Virginia.  Bishop
> >> Jackson wrote it last June, but I have not seen it circulated or
> >> mentioned before now. Now, someone found it and put it on their own
> >> blog.
> >>
> >> Like so many of us, Bishop Jackson describes himself as once a leftist
> >> Democrat; an African-American who grew up in a black urban community
> >> in Pennsylvania, and a man who is disturbed about what he calls ?a
> >> strain of anti-Semitism in the black community.?
> >>
> >> Bishop Jackson is also a Harvard Law School graduate, and evidently,
> >> was aware of Barack Obama during the year of Nation of Islam leader
> >> Louis Farrakhan?s ?Million Man March.? He asks the following question:
> >>  ?The question is whether Obama, given his Muslim roots and experience
> >> in Farrakhan?s Chicago, shares this antipathy for Israel and Jewish
> >> people. Is there any evidence that he does??  This is the Bishop?s
> >> considered answer:
> >>
> >> First, the President was taught for twenty years by a virulent
> >> anti-Semite, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. In the black community it
> >> is called ?sitting under?. You don?t merely attend a church, you ?sit
> >> under? a Pastor to be taught and mentored by him. Obama ?sat under?
> >> Wright for a very long time. He was comfortable enough with Farrakhan
> >> and Wright?s friend to attend and help organize his ?Million Man
> >> March?. I was on C-Span the morning of the march arguing that we must
> >> never legitimize a racist and anti-Semite, no matter what ?good? he
> >> claims to be doing. Yet a future President was in the crowd giving
> >> Farrakhan his enthusiastic support.
> >>
> >> The Pastor continues to argue that he thinks today President Obama
> >> holds the ?classic left-wing view? that ?Israel is the oppressive
> >> occupier, and the Palestinians are Israel?s victims.?  He continues:
> >>
> >> In speaking to the ?Muslim World,? he did not address the widespread
> >> Islamic hatred of Jews. Instead he attacked Israel over the growth of
> >> West Bank settlements. Surely he knows that settlements are not the
> >> crux of the problem. The absolute refusal of the Palestinians to
> >> accept Israel?s right to exist as a Jewish state is the insurmountable
> >> obstacle. That?s where the pressure needs to be placed, but this
> >> President sees it differently. He also made the preposterous
> >> comparison of the Holocaust to Palestinian ?dislocation?.
> >>
> >> He also thinks that ?Obama clearly has Muslim sensibilities?  and that
> >> this explains ?the dramatic policy reversal of joining the
> >> unrelentingly ant-Semitic, anti-Israel and pro-Islamic UN Human Rights
> >> Council is in keeping with the President?s truest albeit undeclared
> >> sensibilities.?
> >>
> >> I do not agree that Obama?s indecisiveness and wrong-headed policy on
> >> the Middle East stems from that factor; I suspect it has more to do
> >> with the influence on him of former friends like Rashid Khalidi and
> >> the milieu of both left-wing Chicago and radical black nationalism
> >> that he was part of for many years. But this is a minor disagreement
> >> about motives.
> >>
> >> All of Bishop Pastor?s concerns, however, are valid, and it is
> >> important that a black Pastor of a congregation is willing to speak
> >> out publicly and make his concerns known.  Now that others have begun
> >> to raise the issue [3] of the State dinner gate-crashers? ties with
> >> Khalidi and Chicago, and have posted photos of Obama with the same
> >> couple in 2005, it appears that one possibility surrounding the White
> >> House announcement that the Social Secretary will invoke Executive
> >> Privilege if asked to testify before Congress, is that the
> >> administration hopes to keep under wraps the President?s ties with the
> >> couple, whose opposition to Israel is evidently well known.
> >>
> >> Is the above too much of a conspiracy theory? Perhaps. It stands as a
> >> question until we begin to get answers.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Article printed from Ron Radosh: http://pajamasmedia.com/ronradosh
> >>
> >> URL to article:
> >>
> >>
> http://pajamasmedia.com/ronradosh/2009/12/05/a-black-pastor-speaks-out-on-president-obamas-past/
> >>
> >> URLs in this post:
> >>
> >> [1] post:
> >>
> http://freemenow.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/the-source-of-obama%e2%80%99s-anti-israel-policy/
> >>
> >> [2] The Exodus Faith Ministries: http://exodusfaithministries.org/
> >>
> >> [3] raise the issue:
> >>
> >>
> http://americanpowerblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/obama-salahi-connection-why-no-invite.html
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> means
> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec  6 20:44:03 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 19:44:03 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Hu's The Communist
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912060446t5b581ba8pb058d2746776c362@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912060446t5b581ba8pb058d2746776c362@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912061744k5ed166easa7224df50f8419c3@mail.gmail.com>

The whole spiel posted below.  Before she started she pointed out her
parents in the back of the room and apologized for them "crashing" the
event.

--------------

Good evening. It?s great to be in Washington and I am loving the weather.

I braved the elements and went out for a jog! Or, as Newsweek calls
it, a cover-shoot.

It?s a privilege to be here tonight at the Washington DC Barnes & Noble.

Tonight, I'll be reading excerpts from my new book.

Perhaps you?ve heard of it?

?Going Rogue?

Yukon wasn?t sure if I?d go with that title and somebody suggested I
follow the East Coast selfhelp

trend and go with, ?How To Look Like A Million Bucks?For Only 150 Grand.?

Todd liked, ?The Audacity of North Slope.?

Hey, I considered not having a title at all.

I?ve said it before, but you Beltway types just don?t seem to get it.
You don?t need a title to

make an impact.

But anyway, let?s get started.

I?ll begin my first reading on Page 209.

It was pitch black when we touched down in Arizona late on August 27,
2008. The next

morning we drove to John McCain?s ranch in Sedona. John was waiting on
the porch. Before he

can say a word, I tell him,

I'm quoting now.

I know why I?m here, and I?m ready. But, I'm worried.

The cost of credit protection for the largest U.S. banks is rising
precipitously. Have you given

any thought to the run on the entities in the parallel banking system?
Do you realize the

vulnerability created when these institutions borrow short term in
liquid markets to invest long

term in illiquid assets?

John said, ?you betcha!?

I thought, ?you betcha??

Who talks that way?

Well, sometimes you just have to trust your instincts.

2

When you don?t, you end up in places like this.

Who would have guessed that I?d be palling around with this group?

At least now I can put a face to all the newspapers I read.

It is good to be here and in front of this audience of leading
journalists and intellectuals. Or, as I

call it, a death panel.

To be honest, I had some serious reservations about coming to visit
your cozy little club. The

Gridiron still hasn?t offered membership to anyone from my hometown
paper in Wasilla, the

Matanuska-Susitna Valley Frontiersman.

And my dad thought it was just a plain bad idea to leave the book tour
for some football game.

He might have a point!

I?ve been touring this great, great land of ours over the last few
weeks. I have to say, the view is

much better from inside the bus, than under it!

But really, I am thrilled to be with you. And I?d like to thank the
Gridiron for the invitation and

Dick Cooper for his introduction.

To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, this has to be the most extraordinary
collection of people who

have gathered to viciously attack me since the last corporate gathering at CBS.

Despite what you have read, or more likely, despite what you have
written, I do feel a real bond

with all of you. I studied journalism, earned a communications degree
and for a time only

wanted to be a journalist. I was even a television sportscaster back home.

I?m guessing some of you probably got your start the exact same way?
once there was

television.

Let me get back to the book.

I know that many of you are still upset because I wouldn?t play that
silly Washington game. You

know, the one where all of you read a book in its entirety, from the
first page of the index to the

last.

But think about it, because you actually had to read the whole book in
the vein hope of finding

your name, you now know all about Denali, mom, dad, ungulate eyeballs,
slaying salmon on the

Nushagak and Ugashik near Alegnigak, where we make AGOOTAK and moose chili!

You?re welcome.

3

Still, I want to do something very special for this audience of
Washington elite. So, I?ll read

from the index--which I chose not to include in the hardback.

Would you believe me if I said I didn?t include it because we wanted
to save trees?

Under A we have?

Alaska, media not understanding. Pages 1-432.

Under B?

Biased media. Pages 1-432

And under C?

Conservative media. See acknowledgments.

I?ll stop there.

I know this can be a long night, and as I understand it, we?re going
to break with a Gridiron

tradition. Normally, the Democrat speaker would deliver a speech after
me. But instead, John

McCain?s campaign staff asked if they could use that time for a rebuttal.

A lot has been made of a few campaign relationships. The closeness.
The warm fuzzy feelings.

John and I both agree all those staffers should just move past it. It?s history.

Let?s just say, if I ever need a bald campaign manager, it appears all
I?m left with is James

Carville.

I don?t want to say that I?ve burned a bridge, but I know all about
cancelling a bridge to

nowhere.

That Democrat speaker I referred to is, of course, the one-and-only
Barney Frank.

And I?m the controversial one?

Barney, the nation owes you and the government a debt. A huge,
historic, unbelievable debt.

But, it?s good to be here with you, Mr. Chairman.

Because by Chairman, I don?t just mean the House Financial Services
Committee. As far as I

can tell, Barney?s also the Chair of AIG, CITI, and the Bank of America.

I don?t want to say that the U.S. Government is taking over the role
of the private sector, but I

have to admit, on the flight here, thumbing through a magazine and
looking at a photo of

4

President Obama with the President of China, the person next to me
pointed at it and said, ?Hu?s

a communist.?

I thought they were asking a question.

Still, when I see this administration in action, I can?t help think of
what might have been.

I could be the Vice President overseeing the signing of bailout
checks. And Joe Biden would be

on the road, selling his new book, Going Rogaine.

Speaking of books?.

Did I mention mine?

?Going Rogue?

Makes a great stocking stuffer. Available now at a bookstore near you.

Hey, I have to pay for my campaign vetting bill somehow.

Really, the response has been great. So I?ll close by reading a final passage.

Page 403:

I?ve been asked a lot lately, ?Where are you going next??

Good question!

Wherever I go I know that, as with anyone in the public eye, I?ll
continue to have my share of

disagreements with those in the media. Maybe even more than my share.
It will come as no

surprise that I don?t think I was always treated fairly, or equally.

But despite that, I respect the media very much. It?s important. A
free press allows for vigorous

debate! And that debate is absolutely vital for our democracy.

So as hard as it can sometimes be, we must all look past personal
grievances. We must move

beyond petty politics. And we must allow these incredibly talented and
hard-working women

and men to ask the hard questions and hold us, and our government, accountable.

Because their mission is as true as the sun rising over the Talkeetna
and Susitna Mountains.

Okay ? so none of that is actually in the book. Not a word.

But I do believe it!

5

And I believe we live in a beautiful country blessed with so many
different people who want the

best for their children, families and for our great nation. I?m so
proud to be an American.

And that is what I?ll be talking about when I travel to, really where
I?m headed.

No better place than here to announce where I?m going. I?m going to Iowa!

I?ll be there tomorrow from noon to 3:00 pm at the Barnes & Noble on
Sergeant Road in Sioux

City.

Come early. Long lines are expected.

Thank you everyone. God Bless the U.S.A!

###

On 12/6/09, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> Don't know who's writing for Sarah these days but there were some
> "zingers" in her Gridiron appearance.
>
> Brad
>
> ---------------
>
> Palin cracks wise at Gridiron dinner
> By: Jeanne Cummings and Andrew Glass
> December 5, 2009 09:43 PM EST
>
> Sarah Palin's 11-minute speech before Washington?s Gridiron Club at
> its Winter Dinne tossed a few barbs at the gathering of journalists,
> who she compared to "death panels."
>
>
> "Sometimes you got to trust your instincts, and if you don't, you end
> up in a place like this," said the former GOP vice presidential
> candidate.
>
>
>
> While the Gridiron winter meeting is usually a small, low key affair,
> Palin?s appearance attracted a crowd of 195 ? about double the average
> attendance of Gridiron members and their guests.
>
> These ho-hum media values, however, were upended when Rep. Barney
> Frank, a liberal, openly gay Democratic congressman from Massachusetts
> was matched up with Palin, the perky and pretty former governor of
> Alaska. For Palin, fortune followed fame when she became the darling
> of the populist wing of the Republican Party as the 2008 GOP?s
> vice-presidential nominee.
>
>
> Palin, in a smart black suit with what appeared to be a fur-lined
> purse, showed up Palin showed up to burnish her political credentials
> after a stop in Farfax for her nationwide tour to flog her bestselling
> book, ?Going Rogue.? Frank was also in full biographical dress:
> ?Barney Frank: The Story of America's Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish
> Congressman,? by Stuart Weisberg was published in September.
>
> During the cocktail hour, Frank held court by the appetizers while
> Palin set up about 20 feet away by the ballroom doors.
>
>
> Addressing the crowd of journalists, the former Alaska governor poked
> fun at the penchant of political reporters to leaf through campaign
> book indexes to find their names, noting that she decided to skip the
> index on her book.
>
>
> So, at the dinner, she created one: "A: Alaska, media not
> understanding it, page 1-432.
>
>
> "B: Biased, Page 1-432."
>
>
> But Palin also took the opportunity to take a few shots at her running
> mate from last year, and also her Democratic rival.
>
>
> ?The view is so much better inside the bus than under the bus," she
> said, neatly putting together a reference to her book tour and a crack
> at the former ticket mate, And if she ever need a bald campaign
> manager, "I'm left with James Carville," a reference to President
> Clinton?s 1992 campaign manager and a dig at Steve Schmidt, McCain's
> manager in 2008.
>
>
> Staying with the book theme, she joked that ?If the election had
> turned out differently, I could be the one overseeing the signing of
> bailout checks and Vice President Biden could be on the road selling
> his book, 'Going Rogaine.'?
>
>
> As for the president, Palin joked that she was looking at a magazine
> cover of Obama and Chinese president Hu Jinato during an airplane
> flight. A nearby passenger stated, "Hu's the Communist," she related.
>
>
> And, Palin said, "I thought he was asking a question."
>
>
>
>
> This is the first year that Gridiron officers have dropped the
> off-the-record rule that had been in place for more than a century.
> Modest twittering is permitted, though not during the speeches or
> songs. At a meeting this morning, the officers explained that the
> change is a bow to media realities ? the rule was often broken and
> Palin's appearance was certain to leak anyway.
>
> As was the case with the spring dinner, the event remained closed to
> general media coverage so that only reporters who are members of the
> club or their invited guests could cover the proceedings. In theory,
> no photographs were allowed; in practice, shooters abounded.
>
>
> As for her own presidential ambitions. Palin was mum.. She did tell
> the crowd that on Sunday she'd be in Iowa ? "from noon to three at
> Barnes and Noble. Come early, long lines are expected."
>
>
> The night closed with the Gridiron Singers rendition of the 12 Days of
> Christmas, with gifts bestowed by a certain Ruth Limbaugh rather than
> the traditional ?True Love.?
>
>
> ?On the first day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: A Marxist in
> a dead tree.
> On the second day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Two tea-bag
> goons.
> On the third day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Three hell-no's
> On the fourth day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Four bawling
> Becks
> On the fifth day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Five Sarah
> swoon-ins
> On the sixth day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Six health
> care death squads
> On the seventh day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Seven
> bug-eyed birthers
> On the eight day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Eight Cheney
> boomlets
> On the ninth day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Nine ACORN busters
> On the tenth day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Ten
> thundering mossbacks
> On the eleventh day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: Eleven
> loony liberals
> On the twelfth day of Christmas, Rush Limbaugh gave to me: twelve
> flaming liberals, hunted down in the wild and field dressed, medium
> well-done, seared on the fatty edges??
>
>
> And then Palin joned the chorus for the final line:
>
>
> "Right next to the mashed potatoes," she sang.
>


From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec  6 21:49:06 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 20:49:06 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] It Is Worse Than You Think
Message-ID: <400985d70912061849x6fe16f3ds405a835a48bd44db@mail.gmail.com>

We're just talking about two months -

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0418093920091204

The actual spending is ONLY 25% over the highest projections of record
spending. Buy hey, it's only two months of spending.

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 00:17:14 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 23:17:14 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] It Is Worse Than You Think
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912061849x6fe16f3ds405a835a48bd44db@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912061849x6fe16f3ds405a835a48bd44db@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912062117q20fb2b24l13149d6f1e957021@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

"I'm gonna' go through the budget line by line"

Yeah, right!!!

Do ya think he's even looked at it??? Better yet, do ya think he'd have a
clue if he did???

Rik

On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 8:49 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> We're just talking about two months -
>
> http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0418093920091204
>
> The actual spending is ONLY 25% over the highest projections of record
> spending. Buy hey, it's only two months of spending.
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From mjm at michaelmeltzer.com  Mon Dec  7 01:05:51 2009
From: mjm at michaelmeltzer.com (michael meltzer)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 00:05:51 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Special youtube for Michael Meltzer
In-Reply-To: <EB1E0A2668AC4A84B2672EFC9337FC10@YOURB88038198E>
References: <EB1E0A2668AC4A84B2672EFC9337FC10@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <005e01ca7703$54696140$fd3c23c0$@com>

Cute Ed.

 

 

From: Ed Kroposki [mailto:ekroposki at charter.net] 
Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2009 5:20 PM
To: Swift Water
Subject: Special youtube for Michael Meltzer

 

Here is a special youtube for Michael Meltzer.  Is he still on this forum?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p9TE8dRPX0
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p9TE8dRPX0&feature=email> &feature=email

 

Of course there are a couple of others around who will enjoy this.

 

Ed K

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From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 08:09:51 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 07:09:51 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] It Is Worse Than You Think
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912062117q20fb2b24l13149d6f1e957021@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912061849x6fe16f3ds405a835a48bd44db@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912062117q20fb2b24l13149d6f1e957021@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912070509i8cb1f3h3536166812203a87@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

Some time ago I posted a calculator that one could use to determine
their share of the national debt based on marginal income tax rates.
Remember, last year, 49% of all taxable persons paid zip, nothing,
nada to the federal treasury in income taxes.  My family's portion at
the time was almost double what I owe on EVERYTHING else and more than
our annual income.  Here's where it gets really scary, interest rates
are at all time lows. This becomes unmanageable when rates return to
normal levels, much less hyper-inflation levels, or just high levels
as they were in the late 70's and early 80's. Just the spending for
October and November of this year was greater than the entire budget
for 2006 after 9/11, Iraq, and Katrina!

The idea that this is unsustainable is hardly new -

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can
only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves
largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority
always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the
public  treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses
over loose fiscal  policy, always followed by a dictatorship." -
Alexander Tyler 1787 -

There is only one explanation I can give for this recklessness -

CLOWARD - PIVEN

Brad

On 12/6/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> "I'm gonna' go through the budget line by line"
>
> Yeah, right!!!
>
> Do ya think he's even looked at it??? Better yet, do ya think he'd have a
> clue if he did???
>
> Rik
>
> On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 8:49 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> We're just talking about two months -
>>
>> http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0418093920091204
>>
>> The actual spending is ONLY 25% over the highest projections of record
>> spending. Buy hey, it's only two months of spending.
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>

From bill at effros.com  Mon Dec  7 08:56:14 2009
From: bill at effros.com (Bill Effros)
Date: Mon, 07 Dec 2009 08:56:14 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Generator on Board
Message-ID: <4B1D097E.1020201@effros.com>

Several years ago Wally and ... Brad? started talking about putting 
small gas-powered generators on board -- an idea I pooh-poohed at the time.

Last summer I tried my little Honda on board, and while it didn't work 
out in terms of what I intended (a hybrid boat) I did find I really 
liked having shore power wherever I went.

Does anyone else have a stand-alone generator on board?  If so, where do 
you keep it?  How do you use it?

B.


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From ekroposki at charter.net  Mon Dec  7 09:26:29 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 09:26:29 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] muzzle critics
Message-ID: <133009FCCCDC4DA6A3067E2F3B6E42DE@YOURB88038198E>

NPR reporter pressured over Fox role      http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29892.html

 

By JOSH GERSTEIN | 12/6/09 11:26 PM EST 

 

Executives at National Public Radio recently asked the network's top political correspondent, Mara Liasson, to reconsider her regular appearances on Fox News because of what they perceived as the network's political bias, two sources familiar with the effort said. 

According to a source, Liasson was summoned in early October by NPR's executive editor for news, Dick Meyer, and the network's supervising senior Washington editor, Ron Elving. The NPR executives said they had concerns that Fox's programming had grown more partisan, and they asked Liasson to spend 30 days watching the network. 

At a follow-up meeting last month, Liasson reported that she'd seen no significant change in Fox's programming and planned to continue appearing on the network, the source said. 

NPR's focus on Liasson's work as a commentator on Fox's "Special Report" and "Fox News Sunday" came at about the same time as a White House campaign launched in September to delegitimize the network by painting it as an extension of the Republican Party. 

One source said the White House's criticism of Fox was raised during the discussions with Liasson. However, an NPR spokeswoman told POLITICO that the Obama administration's attempts to discourage other news outlets from treating Fox as a peer had no impact on any internal discussions at NPR. 

Liasson defended her work for Fox by saying that she appears on two of the network's news programs, not on commentary programs with conservative hosts, the source said. She has also told colleagues that she's under contract to Fox, so it would be difficult for her to sever her ties with the network, which she has appeared on for more than a decade. 

Liasson did not return phone calls seeking comment on the meetings. In an e-mail message, she declined to be interviewed for this article. 

NPR spokeswoman Dana Rehm declined to discuss Liasson and her work on Fox. 

"It isn't our practice to comment about internal conversations or about personnel matters, and we're not going to be changing that policy," she said. "As part of our ongoing work we have internal conversations about talent appearances all the time that are part of our regular editorial evaluation." 

Rehm added, "There's no relationship between the White House's criticism of Fox and any discussions about Fox that we're having." 

A Fox spokesperson declined to comment on specific questions about Liasson. However, the spokesperson, who asked not to be named, said in an email: "With the ratings we have, NPR should be paying us to even be mentioned on our air." 

The White House aide behind the campaign to denounce alleged bias at Fox, then-Communications Director Anita Dunn, said she had no discussions with NPR executives about the issue. However, in an interview with NPR in mid-October, she said, "We see Fox right now as the source and the outlet for Republican Party talking points." Dunn recently left the White House communications post. 

Liasson is one of the most high-profile journalists to appear as a regular guest commentator on Fox News. A bio of Liasson posted on Fox's website describes her as a "political contributor" and says she joined the network in 1997. 

Fox disputes White House charges that it is a conservative media outlet, saying it clearly differentiates between news programs and commentary from hosts such as Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly. 

As the White House's campaign against Fox heated up in October, Liasson's work on Fox drew fire from Jacob Weisberg, the editor of Slate. 

"By appearing on Fox, reporters validate its propaganda values and help to undermine the role of legitimate news organizations," Weisberg wrote in an Oct. 17 Newsweek column, "Why Fox News Is Un-American." "Respectable journalists - I'm talking to you, Mara Liasson - should stop appearing on its programs."

In the past, NPR has caught flak over its personnel appearing on Fox News and has taken some steps to put distance in the relationship. 

In February, NPR asked that journalist Juan Williams, who is a political analyst for the radio network, no longer identify himself as such when appearing on Fox's "O'Reilly Factor." The request followed a "Factor" appearance in January in which Williams said of first lady Michelle Obama, "She's got this Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going." 

NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard wrote that she had received dozens of "angry e-mails" about Williams's remark. However, she said NPR officials were "in a bind" because he is not a full-time NPR employee and instead works on a contract that gives him broad latitude over his non-NPR work. Williams later said he regretted the remark. In recent months, Williams has filled in on occasion as a guest host of O'Reilly's show. Liasson has not taken such a role. 

One source close to NPR executives said their discomfort with the Fox appearances by NPR personnel has been long-standing and has intensified over time. 

"This has been a building thing. There has been a concern in the upper regions of NPR that Fox uses Mara and Juan as cover" to defuse arguments that the TV network is populated with right-wing voices, said the source, who asked not to be named. 

One complaint from NPR executives is that this very perception that Liasson and Williams serve as ideological counterweights reinforces feelings among some members of the public that NPR tilts to the left. "NPR has its own issues in trying to convince people that, 'Look, we're down the middle,'" the source said. "This is a public and institutional problem that has nothing to do with Mara. Obviously, you can't give Mara a hard time for what's coming out of her mouth. ... She's very careful. She isn't trashing anybody." 

The White House's more aggressive stance against Fox took shape back in September after officials became concerned that unfair stories were migrating from Fox to other news outlets, including The New York Times. By month's end, the White House had gone from pointing out inaccuracies on Fox to using an official blog post to denounce "even more Fox lies." 

The anti-Fox campaign became more overt in an Oct. 8 Time story in which Dunn denounced Fox as "opinion journalism masquerading as news." 

White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod later escalated the fight by calling on other news outlets to reconsider their approach to Fox. "They are not really a news organization," Axelrod said in an Oct. 18 interview on ABC. "It's really not news, it's pushing a point of view; and the bigger thing is that other news organizations, like yours, ought not to treat them that way." 

Last month, Dunn declared that the White House's effort to raise other journalists' doubts about Fox's reports had succeeded. 

"What was important was the idea that just because something gets aired on them didn't mean that they - that everybody else needed to go chasing it. And I think that if you looked at some of the fake stories that were created that the mainstream media felt they needed to go chase - because, you know, for whatever reason, they were getting pressure to, quote, 'Why aren't you being balanced?'" she said at a conference sponsored by Bloomberg News. "I think it did - it did help people get a sense of perspective again ... to the extent that, you know, people took a step back and said, 'Hmm, am I really wanting to go chase those stories?'" 

"I kept saying to people, 'You know, if you're going to go chase those stories, get a second source,'" Dunn said.
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 09:28:12 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 08:28:12 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Generator on Board
In-Reply-To: <4B1D097E.1020201@effros.com>
References: <4B1D097E.1020201@effros.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912070628g36100bc8xc091c55cdfcb8cd3@mail.gmail.com>

Bill,

Ask the question again in a couple of weeks - I'm moving the CoraShen
100 miles upstream and plan to carry the Honda EU1000 onboard to avoid
running the batteries down overnight (estimated 2-3 day trip).

Some of what I've learned in the last five years using the Honda is
that some appliances (with the same stated rating) are more efficient
than others.  I went through 3 different small microwaves before I
found one the generator could handle (all three were supposedly the
same power rating).  It will handle a 5000 BTU window air-conditioner
if the genset is running wide-open on AC start-up.  Refrigerators are
no problem - it will handle two full size ones at a time.  Ceramic
heaters can be run at the low setting only.  Battery chargers are no
problem or you can just hook the genset to a battery direct from the
DC side for a quick 10 amp charge. I haven't used a power-tool yet it
couldn't handle.

Someone from the R-22 list (or maybe I read it somewhere else)
suggested hoisting a flexible tube using a halyard to direct exhaust
away from the cabin (you really need an extension on the exhaust pipe
to do this).  I haven't tried that yet but it makes sense.  Here's my
idea for a permanent installation on the boat; line a small dog
carrier (only slightly larger than the genset) with sound deadening
material (even though the genset is only 56db). Glue a plastic fitting
on the back of the dog carrier to slip the exhaust hose over (and
support the exhaust pipe extension). Mount a CO2 monitor in the cabin.
The idea behind the dog carrier is to (1) protect the generator from
the elements (2) make it even more quiet (3) hide it from view (4)
allow for the attachment of more rubber "feet" or surface padding to
keep from sliding on deck and marring the gelcoat.

The Honda clones keep getting cheaper -

http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Honeywell-HW1000i/p2568.html

Frankly, I doubt if they are as good but the price is right. For boat
use, perhaps cheaper is better.

Brad

On 12/7/09, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
> Several years ago Wally and ... Brad? started talking about putting
> small gas-powered generators on board -- an idea I pooh-poohed at the time.
>
> Last summer I tried my little Honda on board, and while it didn't work
> out in terms of what I intended (a hybrid boat) I did find I really
> liked having shore power wherever I went.
>
> Does anyone else have a stand-alone generator on board?  If so, where do
> you keep it?  How do you use it?
>
> B.
>
>
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 09:54:49 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 08:54:49 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] muzzle critics
In-Reply-To: <133009FCCCDC4DA6A3067E2F3B6E42DE@YOURB88038198E>
References: <133009FCCCDC4DA6A3067E2F3B6E42DE@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <400985d70912070654xd3d383cnf725a6e1b3300bf8@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

You have to wonder some time if these people even watch Fox News or
just repeat talking points.  Shepard Smith (supposedly a straight news
guy) is so liberal I want to throw shoes at the screen.  Bill O'Reilly
(we look identical but I have more hair and am younger) has treated
Obama with kid gloves and often defends him against critics. Hannity
is a pure partisan but doesn't hide the fact that his show is an
opinion show.  That said, he always has at least one panelist from
"the Left" or a Democrat Party operative on his show every night.
Greta is pretty much down the middle but doesn't hide the respect and
friendship she developed with Sarah Palin. I cannot stand Riviera and
usually change the channel when he's on.  Compare FOX to the alphabet
networks and especially the cable shows MSNBC and CNN and, yeah, they
do appear right leaning.  Any network would against those people. That
might account for FOX ratings being higher than all the others
COMBINED.  People get tired of Obama propaganda 24/7.

Read any or all of Bernie Goldberg's books, "Bias", "Arrogance", and
especially "A Slobbering Love Affair". There is no "main stream media"
anymore.

Brad

On 12/7/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
> NPR reporter pressured over Fox role
> http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29892.html
>
>
>
> By JOSH GERSTEIN | 12/6/09 11:26 PM EST
>
>
>
> Executives at National Public Radio recently asked the network's top
> political correspondent, Mara Liasson, to reconsider her regular appearances
> on Fox News because of what they perceived as the network's political bias,
> two sources familiar with the effort said.
>
> According to a source, Liasson was summoned in early October by NPR's
> executive editor for news, Dick Meyer, and the network's supervising senior
> Washington editor, Ron Elving. The NPR executives said they had concerns
> that Fox's programming had grown more partisan, and they asked Liasson to
> spend 30 days watching the network.
>
> At a follow-up meeting last month, Liasson reported that she'd seen no
> significant change in Fox's programming and planned to continue appearing on
> the network, the source said.
>
> NPR's focus on Liasson's work as a commentator on Fox's "Special Report" and
> "Fox News Sunday" came at about the same time as a White House campaign
> launched in September to delegitimize the network by painting it as an
> extension of the Republican Party.
>
> One source said the White House's criticism of Fox was raised during the
> discussions with Liasson. However, an NPR spokeswoman told POLITICO that the
> Obama administration's attempts to discourage other news outlets from
> treating Fox as a peer had no impact on any internal discussions at NPR.
>
> Liasson defended her work for Fox by saying that she appears on two of the
> network's news programs, not on commentary programs with conservative hosts,
> the source said. She has also told colleagues that she's under contract to
> Fox, so it would be difficult for her to sever her ties with the network,
> which she has appeared on for more than a decade.
>
> Liasson did not return phone calls seeking comment on the meetings. In an
> e-mail message, she declined to be interviewed for this article.
>
> NPR spokeswoman Dana Rehm declined to discuss Liasson and her work on Fox.
>
> "It isn't our practice to comment about internal conversations or about
> personnel matters, and we're not going to be changing that policy," she
> said. "As part of our ongoing work we have internal conversations about
> talent appearances all the time that are part of our regular editorial
> evaluation."
>
> Rehm added, "There's no relationship between the White House's criticism of
> Fox and any discussions about Fox that we're having."
>
> A Fox spokesperson declined to comment on specific questions about Liasson.
> However, the spokesperson, who asked not to be named, said in an email:
> "With the ratings we have, NPR should be paying us to even be mentioned on
> our air."
>
> The White House aide behind the campaign to denounce alleged bias at Fox,
> then-Communications Director Anita Dunn, said she had no discussions with
> NPR executives about the issue. However, in an interview with NPR in
> mid-October, she said, "We see Fox right now as the source and the outlet
> for Republican Party talking points." Dunn recently left the White House
> communications post.
>
> Liasson is one of the most high-profile journalists to appear as a regular
> guest commentator on Fox News. A bio of Liasson posted on Fox's website
> describes her as a "political contributor" and says she joined the network
> in 1997.
>
> Fox disputes White House charges that it is a conservative media outlet,
> saying it clearly differentiates between news programs and commentary from
> hosts such as Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly.
>
> As the White House's campaign against Fox heated up in October, Liasson's
> work on Fox drew fire from Jacob Weisberg, the editor of Slate.
>
> "By appearing on Fox, reporters validate its propaganda values and help to
> undermine the role of legitimate news organizations," Weisberg wrote in an
> Oct. 17 Newsweek column, "Why Fox News Is Un-American." "Respectable
> journalists - I'm talking to you, Mara Liasson - should stop appearing on
> its programs."
>
> In the past, NPR has caught flak over its personnel appearing on Fox News
> and has taken some steps to put distance in the relationship.
>
> In February, NPR asked that journalist Juan Williams, who is a political
> analyst for the radio network, no longer identify himself as such when
> appearing on Fox's "O'Reilly Factor." The request followed a "Factor"
> appearance in January in which Williams said of first lady Michelle Obama,
> "She's got this Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going."
>
> NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard wrote that she had received dozens of "angry
> e-mails" about Williams's remark. However, she said NPR officials were "in a
> bind" because he is not a full-time NPR employee and instead works on a
> contract that gives him broad latitude over his non-NPR work. Williams later
> said he regretted the remark. In recent months, Williams has filled in on
> occasion as a guest host of O'Reilly's show. Liasson has not taken such a
> role.
>
> One source close to NPR executives said their discomfort with the Fox
> appearances by NPR personnel has been long-standing and has intensified over
> time.
>
> "This has been a building thing. There has been a concern in the upper
> regions of NPR that Fox uses Mara and Juan as cover" to defuse arguments
> that the TV network is populated with right-wing voices, said the source,
> who asked not to be named.
>
> One complaint from NPR executives is that this very perception that Liasson
> and Williams serve as ideological counterweights reinforces feelings among
> some members of the public that NPR tilts to the left. "NPR has its own
> issues in trying to convince people that, 'Look, we're down the middle,'"
> the source said. "This is a public and institutional problem that has
> nothing to do with Mara. Obviously, you can't give Mara a hard time for
> what's coming out of her mouth. ... She's very careful. She isn't trashing
> anybody."
>
> The White House's more aggressive stance against Fox took shape back in
> September after officials became concerned that unfair stories were
> migrating from Fox to other news outlets, including The New York Times. By
> month's end, the White House had gone from pointing out inaccuracies on Fox
> to using an official blog post to denounce "even more Fox lies."
>
> The anti-Fox campaign became more overt in an Oct. 8 Time story in which
> Dunn denounced Fox as "opinion journalism masquerading as news."
>
> White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod later escalated the fight by
> calling on other news outlets to reconsider their approach to Fox. "They are
> not really a news organization," Axelrod said in an Oct. 18 interview on
> ABC. "It's really not news, it's pushing a point of view; and the bigger
> thing is that other news organizations, like yours, ought not to treat them
> that way."
>
> Last month, Dunn declared that the White House's effort to raise other
> journalists' doubts about Fox's reports had succeeded.
>
> "What was important was the idea that just because something gets aired on
> them didn't mean that they - that everybody else needed to go chasing it.
> And I think that if you looked at some of the fake stories that were created
> that the mainstream media felt they needed to go chase - because, you know,
> for whatever reason, they were getting pressure to, quote, 'Why aren't you
> being balanced?'" she said at a conference sponsored by Bloomberg News. "I
> think it did - it did help people get a sense of perspective again ... to
> the extent that, you know, people took a step back and said, 'Hmm, am I
> really wanting to go chase those stories?'"
>
> "I kept saying to people, 'You know, if you're going to go chase those
> stories, get a second source,'" Dunn said.
>

From bill at effros.com  Mon Dec  7 10:20:31 2009
From: bill at effros.com (Bill Effros)
Date: Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:20:31 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Generator on Board
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912070628g36100bc8xc091c55cdfcb8cd3@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4B1D097E.1020201@effros.com>
	<400985d70912070628g36100bc8xc091c55cdfcb8cd3@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4B1D1D3F.3000107@effros.com>

Brad,

I'm using the same generator.  I store it in the R-22 Laz.  I'm afraid 
of CO, so I won't run it anywhere except open air, leeward.  Sometimes I 
lash it to the bow cleat and stern anchor.  Sometimes I lash it in the 
cockpit--it's just a question of sound.

I brought a CO monitor on board and never got a reading.  I'm concerned 
about heat in a doghouse.  That thing runs so well, I'd hate to do 
anything that might harm it.

Had a police boat check me out one time when I was stern anchored. The 
cop told me it was amazing--he couldn't hear the generator at all (in 
eco setting).

Thanks for the heads-up on appliances.  I'm planning to put an induction 
stove on board next year.  The Honda should have no problems handling 
the lower power settings.

Keep me posted, that little generator is a game-changer.

B.



Brad Haslett wrote:
> Bill,
>
> Ask the question again in a couple of weeks - I'm moving the CoraShen
> 100 miles upstream and plan to carry the Honda EU1000 onboard to avoid
> running the batteries down overnight (estimated 2-3 day trip).
>
> Some of what I've learned in the last five years using the Honda is
> that some appliances (with the same stated rating) are more efficient
> than others.  I went through 3 different small microwaves before I
> found one the generator could handle (all three were supposedly the
> same power rating).  It will handle a 5000 BTU window air-conditioner
> if the genset is running wide-open on AC start-up.  Refrigerators are
> no problem - it will handle two full size ones at a time.  Ceramic
> heaters can be run at the low setting only.  Battery chargers are no
> problem or you can just hook the genset to a battery direct from the
> DC side for a quick 10 amp charge. I haven't used a power-tool yet it
> couldn't handle.
>
> Someone from the R-22 list (or maybe I read it somewhere else)
> suggested hoisting a flexible tube using a halyard to direct exhaust
> away from the cabin (you really need an extension on the exhaust pipe
> to do this).  I haven't tried that yet but it makes sense.  Here's my
> idea for a permanent installation on the boat; line a small dog
> carrier (only slightly larger than the genset) with sound deadening
> material (even though the genset is only 56db). Glue a plastic fitting
> on the back of the dog carrier to slip the exhaust hose over (and
> support the exhaust pipe extension). Mount a CO2 monitor in the cabin.
> The idea behind the dog carrier is to (1) protect the generator from
> the elements (2) make it even more quiet (3) hide it from view (4)
> allow for the attachment of more rubber "feet" or surface padding to
> keep from sliding on deck and marring the gelcoat.
>
> The Honda clones keep getting cheaper -
>
> http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Honeywell-HW1000i/p2568.html
>
> Frankly, I doubt if they are as good but the price is right. For boat
> use, perhaps cheaper is better.
>
> Brad
>
> On 12/7/09, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
>   
>> Several years ago Wally and ... Brad? started talking about putting
>> small gas-powered generators on board -- an idea I pooh-poohed at the time.
>>
>> Last summer I tried my little Honda on board, and while it didn't work
>> out in terms of what I intended (a hybrid boat) I did find I really
>> liked having shore power wherever I went.
>>
>> Does anyone else have a stand-alone generator on board?  If so, where do
>> you keep it?  How do you use it?
>>
>> B.
>>
>>
>>
>>     
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>   
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 10:27:28 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 09:27:28 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] It Is Worse Than You Think
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912070509i8cb1f3h3536166812203a87@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912061849x6fe16f3ds405a835a48bd44db@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912062117q20fb2b24l13149d6f1e957021@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912070509i8cb1f3h3536166812203a87@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912070727i68e7d93fmd2b8f4d33b29ae88@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Hard as I try to avoid being labeled as a conspiracy theorist, it's becoming
harder for me not to come to the same conclusion.

As we speak, interest costs on the national debt run around 220B. It is
expected that will rise over the next few years to 700B. I cannot imagine
anyone who might actually believe it possible to pay that .... let alone
multiple years of it.

Rik

On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 7:09 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Rik,
>
> Some time ago I posted a calculator that one could use to determine
> their share of the national debt based on marginal income tax rates.
> Remember, last year, 49% of all taxable persons paid zip, nothing,
> nada to the federal treasury in income taxes.  My family's portion at
> the time was almost double what I owe on EVERYTHING else and more than
> our annual income.  Here's where it gets really scary, interest rates
> are at all time lows. This becomes unmanageable when rates return to
> normal levels, much less hyper-inflation levels, or just high levels
> as they were in the late 70's and early 80's. Just the spending for
> October and November of this year was greater than the entire budget
> for 2006 after 9/11, Iraq, and Katrina!
>
> The idea that this is unsustainable is hardly new -
>
> "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can
> only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves
> largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority
> always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the
> public  treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses
> over loose fiscal  policy, always followed by a dictatorship." -
> Alexander Tyler 1787 -
>
> There is only one explanation I can give for this recklessness -
>
> CLOWARD - PIVEN
>
> Brad
>
> On 12/6/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Brad,
> >
> > "I'm gonna' go through the budget line by line"
> >
> > Yeah, right!!!
> >
> > Do ya think he's even looked at it??? Better yet, do ya think he'd have a
> > clue if he did???
> >
> > Rik
> >
> > On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 8:49 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> We're just talking about two months -
> >>
> >> http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0418093920091204
> >>
> >> The actual spending is ONLY 25% over the highest projections of record
> >> spending. Buy hey, it's only two months of spending.
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> means
> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From bill at effros.com  Mon Dec  7 10:29:21 2009
From: bill at effros.com (Bill Effros)
Date: Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:29:21 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Sound Down
Message-ID: <4B1D1F51.1010109@effros.com>

Brad,

Don't know if you're up on sound-deadening materials--I haven't looked 
in many years.  The last time I looked the leader was "Sound Down".  A 
very expensive lead and foam thick-sheet that is amazing.  I've used it 
in my house to eliminate the sound of plumbing waste pipes.  Also, I put 
some inside my Tohatsu 2 stroke cover to quiet it down to 4-stroke levels.

B.


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From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 10:54:50 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 09:54:50 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Generator on Board
In-Reply-To: <4B1D1D3F.3000107@effros.com>
References: <4B1D097E.1020201@effros.com>
	<400985d70912070628g36100bc8xc091c55cdfcb8cd3@mail.gmail.com>
	<4B1D1D3F.3000107@effros.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912070754q4d0f5da8g66b23a6d41bb6ba9@mail.gmail.com>

Bill,

The CO issue has to be taken seriously (not the CO2 - thanks).  There
was a houseboat manufacturer (forget which one) that had a series of
deaths a few years back.  The exhaust for the genset was above the
waterline but near the swim platform.  People would hang around the
platform and pass out.  Frankly, I think the slightest breeze would
cure the problem, and certainly being underway wouldn't be an issue
but overnight is a different problem. I've started my Honda in the
garage before with the door closed (it was cold outside) and it filled
with noxious fumes immediately. I started my airplane tug (14hp riding
mower) in the hangar once (3000 sq. ft. with high ceilings) and it
instantly set off my hangarmate's CO detector.

This is where I see it being a game changer.  Forget cold-plates and
ice, you can run a dorm room size refrigerator with very little power.
If you keep the door closed, fridges don't run that often or for that
long.  I've got a CNG stove on board but don't use it because you
can't easily find CNG.  Propane has its own hazards and special
storage needs.  A small microwave will cook 90% of what I want to cook
on board. My biggest issue is running the batteries down at anchor
(I've done it twice).

I'm still toying with the idea of building a micro-size ductless
mini-split HVAC system for boats -

http://www.mrslim.com/

This is what we have in our house addition and in our apartments in
Beijing. Getting the air handling package cut down to size for a boat
bulkhead is the challenge.  Building the compressor side using
existing parts is not difficult.  The real challenge is building a
system that can run on less than 800 watts.  Now THAT'S a game
changer!

Brad


On 12/7/09, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> I'm using the same generator.  I store it in the R-22 Laz.  I'm afraid
> of CO, so I won't run it anywhere except open air, leeward.  Sometimes I
> lash it to the bow cleat and stern anchor.  Sometimes I lash it in the
> cockpit--it's just a question of sound.
>
> I brought a CO monitor on board and never got a reading.  I'm concerned
> about heat in a doghouse.  That thing runs so well, I'd hate to do
> anything that might harm it.
>
> Had a police boat check me out one time when I was stern anchored. The
> cop told me it was amazing--he couldn't hear the generator at all (in
> eco setting).
>
> Thanks for the heads-up on appliances.  I'm planning to put an induction
> stove on board next year.  The Honda should have no problems handling
> the lower power settings.
>
> Keep me posted, that little generator is a game-changer.
>
> B.
>
>
>
> Brad Haslett wrote:
>> Bill,
>>
>> Ask the question again in a couple of weeks - I'm moving the CoraShen
>> 100 miles upstream and plan to carry the Honda EU1000 onboard to avoid
>> running the batteries down overnight (estimated 2-3 day trip).
>>
>> Some of what I've learned in the last five years using the Honda is
>> that some appliances (with the same stated rating) are more efficient
>> than others.  I went through 3 different small microwaves before I
>> found one the generator could handle (all three were supposedly the
>> same power rating).  It will handle a 5000 BTU window air-conditioner
>> if the genset is running wide-open on AC start-up.  Refrigerators are
>> no problem - it will handle two full size ones at a time.  Ceramic
>> heaters can be run at the low setting only.  Battery chargers are no
>> problem or you can just hook the genset to a battery direct from the
>> DC side for a quick 10 amp charge. I haven't used a power-tool yet it
>> couldn't handle.
>>
>> Someone from the R-22 list (or maybe I read it somewhere else)
>> suggested hoisting a flexible tube using a halyard to direct exhaust
>> away from the cabin (you really need an extension on the exhaust pipe
>> to do this).  I haven't tried that yet but it makes sense.  Here's my
>> idea for a permanent installation on the boat; line a small dog
>> carrier (only slightly larger than the genset) with sound deadening
>> material (even though the genset is only 56db). Glue a plastic fitting
>> on the back of the dog carrier to slip the exhaust hose over (and
>> support the exhaust pipe extension). Mount a CO2 monitor in the cabin.
>> The idea behind the dog carrier is to (1) protect the generator from
>> the elements (2) make it even more quiet (3) hide it from view (4)
>> allow for the attachment of more rubber "feet" or surface padding to
>> keep from sliding on deck and marring the gelcoat.
>>
>> The Honda clones keep getting cheaper -
>>
>> http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Honeywell-HW1000i/p2568.html
>>
>> Frankly, I doubt if they are as good but the price is right. For boat
>> use, perhaps cheaper is better.
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> On 12/7/09, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Several years ago Wally and ... Brad? started talking about putting
>>> small gas-powered generators on board -- an idea I pooh-poohed at the
>>> time.
>>>
>>> Last summer I tried my little Honda on board, and while it didn't work
>>> out in terms of what I intended (a hybrid boat) I did find I really
>>> liked having shore power wherever I went.
>>>
>>> Does anyone else have a stand-alone generator on board?  If so, where do
>>> you keep it?  How do you use it?
>>>
>>> B.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>>
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 11:17:29 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 10:17:29 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Sound Down
In-Reply-To: <4B1D1F51.1010109@effros.com>
References: <4B1D1F51.1010109@effros.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912070817q7b546fefh8c4ae5489bb929df@mail.gmail.com>

Bill,

This is the product I have recent experience with -

http://www.soundexproducts.com/

Weight isn't as big a factor on a boat as an airplane, and certainly
not on a house, but the requirements for non-flammability and
non-absorption of liquids are similar. SoundEx is a local Memphis
company.  I've used their product sparingly in a few critical places
on my airplane because (1) it is quite expensive, and (2) every ounce
counts dearly on my weight challenged 1948 Beechcraft Bonanza.  It's
cheaper and lighter to spend $500 to $1000 on a good noise-canceling
headset, something I didn't use for the first 23 years of my career,
including 10 years on the "whistling shit-house", otherwise known as
the Boeing 727.

I'll take a look at Sound Down - I'm always up for new and useful information!

Brad


On 12/7/09, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> Don't know if you're up on sound-deadening materials--I haven't looked
> in many years.  The last time I looked the leader was "Sound Down".  A
> very expensive lead and foam thick-sheet that is amazing.  I've used it
> in my house to eliminate the sound of plumbing waste pipes.  Also, I put
> some inside my Tohatsu 2 stroke cover to quiet it down to 4-stroke levels.
>
> B.
>
>
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 11:47:09 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 10:47:09 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] It Is Worse Than You Think
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912070727i68e7d93fmd2b8f4d33b29ae88@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912061849x6fe16f3ds405a835a48bd44db@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912062117q20fb2b24l13149d6f1e957021@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912070509i8cb1f3h3536166812203a87@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912070727i68e7d93fmd2b8f4d33b29ae88@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912070847p151f0981p9dca2e6e5286e80f@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

No one can explain it - "it" being how we're going to pay this off.
I'm a partisan, always have been partisan, probably always will be,
but this is interesting -

http://tinyurl.com/yhjmr84

When I was in DC at the rally I didn't get warm fuzzy GOP feelings
from the crowd.  It wasn't a "party" party, it was thousands of angry
and/or scared people asking WTF, OVER?  Arguing party politics at this
moment is like two basketball team's fans taunting each other while
the gymnasium is burning down.

Where the hell are the sane and rational people?  Someone, anyone,
please explain the math to me in simple terms I can understand.  With
only history,  economics, and the history of economics to use as a
guide, I don't see a happy ending to this.

Conspiracy or clueless?  I can believe either.

Brad

On 12/7/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> Hard as I try to avoid being labeled as a conspiracy theorist, it's becoming
> harder for me not to come to the same conclusion.
>
> As we speak, interest costs on the national debt run around 220B. It is
> expected that will rise over the next few years to 700B. I cannot imagine
> anyone who might actually believe it possible to pay that .... let alone
> multiple years of it.
>
> Rik
>
> On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 7:09 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Rik,
>>
>> Some time ago I posted a calculator that one could use to determine
>> their share of the national debt based on marginal income tax rates.
>> Remember, last year, 49% of all taxable persons paid zip, nothing,
>> nada to the federal treasury in income taxes.  My family's portion at
>> the time was almost double what I owe on EVERYTHING else and more than
>> our annual income.  Here's where it gets really scary, interest rates
>> are at all time lows. This becomes unmanageable when rates return to
>> normal levels, much less hyper-inflation levels, or just high levels
>> as they were in the late 70's and early 80's. Just the spending for
>> October and November of this year was greater than the entire budget
>> for 2006 after 9/11, Iraq, and Katrina!
>>
>> The idea that this is unsustainable is hardly new -
>>
>> "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can
>> only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves
>> largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority
>> always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the
>> public  treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses
>> over loose fiscal  policy, always followed by a dictatorship." -
>> Alexander Tyler 1787 -
>>
>> There is only one explanation I can give for this recklessness -
>>
>> CLOWARD - PIVEN
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> On 12/6/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Brad,
>> >
>> > "I'm gonna' go through the budget line by line"
>> >
>> > Yeah, right!!!
>> >
>> > Do ya think he's even looked at it??? Better yet, do ya think he'd have
>> > a
>> > clue if he did???
>> >
>> > Rik
>> >
>> > On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 8:49 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> We're just talking about two months -
>> >>
>> >> http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0418093920091204
>> >>
>> >> The actual spending is ONLY 25% over the highest projections of record
>> >> spending. Buy hey, it's only two months of spending.
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> >>
>> >>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
>> means
>> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
>> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that,
>> > and
>> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>> >
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 13:24:04 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 12:24:04 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] It Is Worse Than You Think
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912070847p151f0981p9dca2e6e5286e80f@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912061849x6fe16f3ds405a835a48bd44db@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912062117q20fb2b24l13149d6f1e957021@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912070509i8cb1f3h3536166812203a87@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912070727i68e7d93fmd2b8f4d33b29ae88@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912070847p151f0981p9dca2e6e5286e80f@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912071024y503d9e6epdd7cd3d15e205010@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

I used to think of myself as a republican, mostly because, in my view, that
was the more conservative of the two parties. I got over that. I realize now
that I am a conservative, or perhaps even a conservative/libertarian. There
doesn't seem to be a place for me among the republicans anymore.

That said: The problem is, when is the last time we ever saw a conservative
third party win a national election?? Yep, they almost pulled it off in NY23
this year, but that's not national. Jesse Ventura did it in MN a while back.
I liked Jesse, he was a plain spoken man. He said what he meant and meant
what he said and while you might not agree with him, at least you knew where
he stood. But again, not national. Through history, a 3rd party has never
done anything but help the liberal candidate in any national election I can
remember. Somehow, somebody has to convince the republican party to stop
making asses of themselves and get back to their conservative roots.
Scozzafava .... or, that shit for brains from LA, Cao. What the hell are
these obvious liberals doing with Rs behind their names???

I've seen the polls that say a large majority of Americans consider
themselves conservative. One has to wonder then, why so many free lunch
programs and the congress people that offer them are still around. Do people
understand what they are talking about when they declare themselves
conservative?? I'm not so sure ....

Rik

On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 10:47 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Rik,
>
> No one can explain it - "it" being how we're going to pay this off.
> I'm a partisan, always have been partisan, probably always will be,
> but this is interesting -
>
> http://tinyurl.com/yhjmr84
>
> When I was in DC at the rally I didn't get warm fuzzy GOP feelings
> from the crowd.  It wasn't a "party" party, it was thousands of angry
> and/or scared people asking WTF, OVER?  Arguing party politics at this
> moment is like two basketball team's fans taunting each other while
> the gymnasium is burning down.
>
> Where the hell are the sane and rational people?  Someone, anyone,
> please explain the math to me in simple terms I can understand.  With
> only history,  economics, and the history of economics to use as a
> guide, I don't see a happy ending to this.
>
> Conspiracy or clueless?  I can believe either.
>
> Brad
>
> On 12/7/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Brad,
> >
> > Hard as I try to avoid being labeled as a conspiracy theorist, it's
> becoming
> > harder for me not to come to the same conclusion.
> >
> > As we speak, interest costs on the national debt run around 220B. It is
> > expected that will rise over the next few years to 700B. I cannot imagine
> > anyone who might actually believe it possible to pay that .... let alone
> > multiple years of it.
> >
> > Rik
> >
> > On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 7:09 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Rik,
> >>
> >> Some time ago I posted a calculator that one could use to determine
> >> their share of the national debt based on marginal income tax rates.
> >> Remember, last year, 49% of all taxable persons paid zip, nothing,
> >> nada to the federal treasury in income taxes.  My family's portion at
> >> the time was almost double what I owe on EVERYTHING else and more than
> >> our annual income.  Here's where it gets really scary, interest rates
> >> are at all time lows. This becomes unmanageable when rates return to
> >> normal levels, much less hyper-inflation levels, or just high levels
> >> as they were in the late 70's and early 80's. Just the spending for
> >> October and November of this year was greater than the entire budget
> >> for 2006 after 9/11, Iraq, and Katrina!
> >>
> >> The idea that this is unsustainable is hardly new -
> >>
> >> "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can
> >> only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves
> >> largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority
> >> always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the
> >> public  treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses
> >> over loose fiscal  policy, always followed by a dictatorship." -
> >> Alexander Tyler 1787 -
> >>
> >> There is only one explanation I can give for this recklessness -
> >>
> >> CLOWARD - PIVEN
> >>
> >> Brad
> >>
> >> On 12/6/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > Brad,
> >> >
> >> > "I'm gonna' go through the budget line by line"
> >> >
> >> > Yeah, right!!!
> >> >
> >> > Do ya think he's even looked at it??? Better yet, do ya think he'd
> have
> >> > a
> >> > clue if he did???
> >> >
> >> > Rik
> >> >
> >> > On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 8:49 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> We're just talking about two months -
> >> >>
> >> >> http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0418093920091204
> >> >>
> >> >> The actual spending is ONLY 25% over the highest projections of
> record
> >> >> spending. Buy hey, it's only two months of spending.
> >> >> _______________________________________________
> >> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> >> means
> >> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are
> telling
> >> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that,
> >> > and
> >> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >> >
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> means
> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Mon Dec  7 13:41:18 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 13:41:18 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Conservative vs others
Message-ID: <0243F3678FF3415CB19D1166E3496F3B@YOURB88038198E>

Rik,

You need to go back and read some of Bill Buckley's political stuff.  You essentially made points he made 60 years ago.

And, while I am not a regular listener of Rush Limbaugh, when I am driving in early afternoon, he is about the only thing on that is listenable.  He defines himself as a conservative Republican.  As distinguished from those residing in northeast or upper midwest.  He is also concerned with basic honesty of politicians.  He refers to the McCain candidacy as the wrong thinkers candidacy (not those words, but thoughts)

Anyway, you might try him once in a while.  Especially during his first hour where he rants.

You are not alone, unfortunately we are not the electorate that is heard.

Back to that quote I posted sometime back, "Tolerance teaches that everyone's beliefs are equally valid. Tolerance is a dangerous idea because it destroys our ability to stand up for truth.  Where would our society be if we had been tolerant of the holocaust or slavery?"  Josh McDowell

Society has been taught that we have to tolerate those intent on destroying America as it was set up in the Constitution.  And the media yells foul if you point out that their line of reasoning is really treason.

Think of all those on the Rhodes List who are as Brad said, "Sheeple".  How do we communicate your message?

Ed K
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 14:09:09 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 13:09:09 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Conservative vs others
In-Reply-To: <0243F3678FF3415CB19D1166E3496F3B@YOURB88038198E>
References: <0243F3678FF3415CB19D1166E3496F3B@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912071109l21031823q4209f1dc523440ff@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

"How do we communicate your message?"

With most people more concerned with how to "get their share" of the free
lunch, rather than what is best for the country, I'm afraid I am at a bit of
a loss.

The other day, Sandy and I were down seeing Robert. Robert is someone who
had a stroke, much like Sandy's stroke, on almost the same day and very
similar in severity. They spent almost identical times in both Sister Kinney
Institute (8 weeks) and then Courage Center (3 1/2 months). During this time
they got to be fairly close friends. So anyway, we're sitting around the
kitchen table having coffee and the subject of social security comes up.
Roberts wife opines that I should look into collecting S/S because I am
somewhat forced to stay with Sandy as a care-giver rather than having a job.
I allowed as how I didn't really care to do that, because I have always done
for myself and the gov't doesn't need yet one more weight around it's
financial neck. She said, wow, you don't hear many people talk like that
anymore, but is it really in your best interest to look at it that way? I
said probably not... (but I didn't say it's a damned site better for my self
respect.)

This is what we are up against. The entitlement mentality.

Rik

On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 12:41 PM, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:

>  Rik,
>
> You need to go back and read some of Bill Buckley's political stuff.  You
> essentially made points he made 60 years ago.
>
> And, while I am not a regular listener of Rush Limbaugh, when I am driving
> in early afternoon, he is about the only thing on that is listenable.  He
> defines himself as a *conservative* Republican.  As distinguished from
> those residing in northeast or upper midwest.  He is also concerned with *basic
> honesty* of politicians.  He refers to the McCain candidacy as the *wrong
> thinkers candidacy* (not those words, but thoughts)
>
> Anyway, you might try him once in a while.  Especially during his first
> hour where he rants.
>
> You are not alone, unfortunately we are not the electorate that is heard.
>
> Back to that quote I posted sometime back, ?Tolerance teaches that
> everyone's beliefs are equally valid. Tolerance is a dangerous idea because
> it destroys our ability to stand up for truth.  Where would our society be
> if we had been tolerant of the holocaust or slavery??  Josh McDowell
>
> Society has been taught that we have to tolerate those intent on destroying
> America as it was set up in the Constitution.  And the media yells foul if
> you point out that their line of reasoning is really treason.
>
> Think of all those on the Rhodes List who are as Brad said, "Sheeple".  How
> do we communicate your message?
>
> Ed K
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>


-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From bill at effros.com  Mon Dec  7 14:37:38 2009
From: bill at effros.com (Bill Effros)
Date: Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:37:38 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Generator on Board
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912070754q4d0f5da8g66b23a6d41bb6ba9@mail.gmail.com>
References: <4B1D097E.1020201@effros.com>	<400985d70912070628g36100bc8xc091c55cdfcb8cd3@mail.gmail.com>	<4B1D1D3F.3000107@effros.com>
	<400985d70912070754q4d0f5da8g66b23a6d41bb6ba9@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4B1D5982.60609@effros.com>

Brad,

I'm with you on the split HVAC systems being a good solution.  Don't 
really need A/C on my boat, but will be using a small heater with my 
generator so I can do some of that work I just won't do when the other 
option is sailing.

CO kills you in such an interesting way.  It really IS like the frog in 
the hot water.  (I'm told the frog, in real life, always jumps out of 
the water as the temperature rises.)

Ah, but the hot plate isn't a hot plate.  Have you looked at induction 
cookers?

http://theinductionsite.com/

I got a cheap Chinese one for around $100.  Very safe (only the pot and 
the food inside get hot). Extremely efficient.  Fast.  Infinitely 
variable in terms of power use.  Will hold any temperature you set it 
at. It's like an induction train, except that the energy makes magnetic 
pots hot.  And you can really cook on it.

Just read your last paragraph -- use induction to heat the system.  I 
don't know how it will work, but I'll bet you it will work.  It's a 
really good use of electrical energy, and they've just scratched the 
surface of possibilities.

B.

Brad Haslett wrote:
> Bill,
>
> The CO issue has to be taken seriously (not the CO2 - thanks).  There
> was a houseboat manufacturer (forget which one) that had a series of
> deaths a few years back.  The exhaust for the genset was above the
> waterline but near the swim platform.  People would hang around the
> platform and pass out.  Frankly, I think the slightest breeze would
> cure the problem, and certainly being underway wouldn't be an issue
> but overnight is a different problem. I've started my Honda in the
> garage before with the door closed (it was cold outside) and it filled
> with noxious fumes immediately. I started my airplane tug (14hp riding
> mower) in the hangar once (3000 sq. ft. with high ceilings) and it
> instantly set off my hangarmate's CO detector.
>
> This is where I see it being a game changer.  Forget cold-plates and
> ice, you can run a dorm room size refrigerator with very little power.
> If you keep the door closed, fridges don't run that often or for that
> long.  I've got a CNG stove on board but don't use it because you
> can't easily find CNG.  Propane has its own hazards and special
> storage needs.  A small microwave will cook 90% of what I want to cook
> on board. My biggest issue is running the batteries down at anchor
> (I've done it twice).
>
> I'm still toying with the idea of building a micro-size ductless
> mini-split HVAC system for boats -
>
> http://www.mrslim.com/
>
> This is what we have in our house addition and in our apartments in
> Beijing. Getting the air handling package cut down to size for a boat
> bulkhead is the challenge.  Building the compressor side using
> existing parts is not difficult.  The real challenge is building a
> system that can run on less than 800 watts.  Now THAT'S a game
> changer!
>
> Brad
>
>
> On 12/7/09, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
>   
>> Brad,
>>
>> I'm using the same generator.  I store it in the R-22 Laz.  I'm afraid
>> of CO, so I won't run it anywhere except open air, leeward.  Sometimes I
>> lash it to the bow cleat and stern anchor.  Sometimes I lash it in the
>> cockpit--it's just a question of sound.
>>
>> I brought a CO monitor on board and never got a reading.  I'm concerned
>> about heat in a doghouse.  That thing runs so well, I'd hate to do
>> anything that might harm it.
>>
>> Had a police boat check me out one time when I was stern anchored. The
>> cop told me it was amazing--he couldn't hear the generator at all (in
>> eco setting).
>>
>> Thanks for the heads-up on appliances.  I'm planning to put an induction
>> stove on board next year.  The Honda should have no problems handling
>> the lower power settings.
>>
>> Keep me posted, that little generator is a game-changer.
>>
>> B.
>>
>>
>>
>> Brad Haslett wrote:
>>     
>>> Bill,
>>>
>>> Ask the question again in a couple of weeks - I'm moving the CoraShen
>>> 100 miles upstream and plan to carry the Honda EU1000 onboard to avoid
>>> running the batteries down overnight (estimated 2-3 day trip).
>>>
>>> Some of what I've learned in the last five years using the Honda is
>>> that some appliances (with the same stated rating) are more efficient
>>> than others.  I went through 3 different small microwaves before I
>>> found one the generator could handle (all three were supposedly the
>>> same power rating).  It will handle a 5000 BTU window air-conditioner
>>> if the genset is running wide-open on AC start-up.  Refrigerators are
>>> no problem - it will handle two full size ones at a time.  Ceramic
>>> heaters can be run at the low setting only.  Battery chargers are no
>>> problem or you can just hook the genset to a battery direct from the
>>> DC side for a quick 10 amp charge. I haven't used a power-tool yet it
>>> couldn't handle.
>>>
>>> Someone from the R-22 list (or maybe I read it somewhere else)
>>> suggested hoisting a flexible tube using a halyard to direct exhaust
>>> away from the cabin (you really need an extension on the exhaust pipe
>>> to do this).  I haven't tried that yet but it makes sense.  Here's my
>>> idea for a permanent installation on the boat; line a small dog
>>> carrier (only slightly larger than the genset) with sound deadening
>>> material (even though the genset is only 56db). Glue a plastic fitting
>>> on the back of the dog carrier to slip the exhaust hose over (and
>>> support the exhaust pipe extension). Mount a CO2 monitor in the cabin.
>>> The idea behind the dog carrier is to (1) protect the generator from
>>> the elements (2) make it even more quiet (3) hide it from view (4)
>>> allow for the attachment of more rubber "feet" or surface padding to
>>> keep from sliding on deck and marring the gelcoat.
>>>
>>> The Honda clones keep getting cheaper -
>>>
>>> http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Honeywell-HW1000i/p2568.html
>>>
>>> Frankly, I doubt if they are as good but the price is right. For boat
>>> use, perhaps cheaper is better.
>>>
>>> Brad
>>>
>>> On 12/7/09, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>       
>>>> Several years ago Wally and ... Brad? started talking about putting
>>>> small gas-powered generators on board -- an idea I pooh-poohed at the
>>>> time.
>>>>
>>>> Last summer I tried my little Honda on board, and while it didn't work
>>>> out in terms of what I intended (a hybrid boat) I did find I really
>>>> liked having shore power wherever I went.
>>>>
>>>> Does anyone else have a stand-alone generator on board?  If so, where do
>>>> you keep it?  How do you use it?
>>>>
>>>> B.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>>
>>>
>>>       
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>   
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 16:51:16 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 15:51:16 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Cars
Message-ID: <400985d70912071351u4b938343od87543f1b59e0ed2@mail.gmail.com>

Just got the first oil change done on my VW diesel at 10K miles (yes,
the interval is 10K).  Free service and no gripes other than a
firmware change required by a recall on the transmission (I had no
problems before or since).  I expected to do better than the
advertised 40 mpg highway (I'm getting at best, 41 mpg) but am getting
37 mpg in the city, quite a bit better than the EPA estimate.  After
reading this article -

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4338734.html

I went out to the driveway and gave my car another "finger wave" up
the exhaust pipe.  My finger was slightly soiled but there were no
solid particulates.  My old diesel Mercedes would blacken the left
tail light with soot after a single tank of fuel.

GM killed the diesel market in this country over 30 years ago with
shoddy equipment.  I can't believe we haven't forgotten that
experience yet.

Brad

From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 17:14:58 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 16:14:58 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] CEO Letter
Message-ID: <400985d70912071414m48cca47bn414f59f8f1741617@mail.gmail.com>

A "kid" who grew up just down the street from me (all two blocks long)
ended up working as a pilot in the Emerson corporate flight
department.  Here's a letter from their CEO.

---------------

    To: Emerson U.S. based employees

    Attached is a copy of an op-ed that I recently wrote and submitted
to local St. Louis newspapers relative to my concerns as the CEO of
Emerson -- a global manufacturing company.

    As the leader of this company of 120,000 employees, hundreds of
thousands retirees, and 350,000 shareholders, I must be concerned
about strategic global issues that will impact Emerson and our ability
to survive, compete and win.

    We are a diverse company and I realize that opinions vary. My
responsibility is to do my best to represent the overall interests of
our shareholders, our employees and our customers. In this instance, I
want first to share this piece with you as employees of this great
company.

    I wish all of you a very special and joyous holiday season and a
prosperous new year.

    My personal regards,
    David N. Farr

    America's Survival as a Prosperous Nation is at Risk

    Major manufacturers today must compete in global markets if they
want to survive, prosper, and grow. Emerson is no exception. We
compete head-to-head with Asian and European companies here at home
and in virtually every market of the world. The ability to manage
quality, innovation, logistics, customer support, manufacturing cost
and many other factors determines which companies survive or don't.

    Emerson has expanded globally to diversify and ensure that we can
continue to win against intense global competition. We are well
positioned to grow profitably in the USA and in international markets,
like China and India.

    At a recent Chicago investment conference, I stated in strong
terms that excessive federal spending and costly legislation are
destroying the ability of U.S. manufacturers to compete globally, and
to successfully invest in the U.S. Yes, Emerson is a St. Louis
headquartered company with 30,000 U.S. jobs, but we must compete
around the world.

    I spoke in very strong terms to underscore the issues I believe
our nation is facing. I understand that some don't share my concerns.
However, I believe our great country is threatened as the global
economic leader if we don't change our government's course. The issues
we face are not Democratic or Republican issues, or just business
issues. They are real and impact every American, today and in the
future.

    The issues underlying my comments then, as now, impact America's
world economic leadership, quality of life and standard of living.
Rapidly increasing government debt and proposed expensive laws are
placing our nation's future and competitive position at risk. Please
consider these worrisome facts:

    ? Federal debt: Over two administrations, the United States has
created debt that is forecast to exceed $20 trillion within 10 years.
By the end of 2011, our projected government debt will be greater than
our gross domestic product. This is a dangerous situation and is not
the balance sheet of a global leader. Our current weak dollar reflects
the world's concern about America's financial strength, and there is a
clamor abroad for a new world currency standard. The eventual
consequences of a weak dollar are less global investment in America,
fewer jobs and a declining standard of living. Both political parties
have contributed to this situation and both should work together
quickly to resolve it without adding expensive new programs and
spending beyond our means.

    ? Healthcare legislation: America needs health insurance reform
and access to health care for all. Emerson provides health coverage to
employees and their families in the United States -- more than 100,000
people. We would like to continue to do so. However, the bill that
passed the House of Representatives, and the proposed Senate bill,
would raise costs on private sector plans. Basic economics could force
many businesses, like Emerson, to seriously consider exiting
employer-sponsored plans, requiring employees to shop for coverage or
move to the government-based plan. That's not progress. We should look
instead to many targeted, bipartisan proposals to help the uninsured,
such as giving small businesses and individuals access to interstate
insurance pools or investing in federally supported Community Health
Centers that are effective in providing care for the uninsured.

    ? Tax policy: Major competitors in the European Union and Asia are
taxed at lower rates than U.S. companies. That may be hard to believe
but it's true, and it gives them a significant competitive advantage.
Emerson pays a substantial tax bill every year, as we should. But
America needs a tax policy that is fair to all in this country -
individuals and corporations - and that creates a level playing field
against European Union and Asian nations.

    We are a nation of varied beliefs and perspectives, and there is
room for honest disagreement on all of these issues. But none of us
wants to see our country weakened to no longer be the global economic
leader. Greater government debt and diminished competitiveness mean
global investment and good jobs will go elsewhere, and America will
risk slipping into second-tier economic status. That's not the legacy
any of us want to leave future generations. Action is needed now!

    David N. Farr
    Chairman, CEO and President
    Emerson


From bill at effros.com  Mon Dec  7 18:04:53 2009
From: bill at effros.com (Bill Effros)
Date: Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:04:53 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] It Takes Time
Message-ID: <4B1D8A15.6060008@effros.com>

Bruno, Former Albany Leader, Convicted of Corruption

December 8, 2009

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/nicholas_confessore/index.html?inline=nyt-per) 
and DANNY HAKIM 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/danny_hakim/index.html?inline=nyt-per)

ALBANY --- Joseph L. Bruno 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/joseph_l_bruno/index.html?inline=nyt-per), 
the former Senate majority leader and a towering figure in state 
politics, was found guilty on Monday afternoon of failing to disclose 
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gifts disguised as consulting 
fees from a businessman who sought grants and other help from the 
Legislature.

After seven days of deliberating, the jury in Mr. Bruno's federal 
corruption trial handed down a guilty verdict on two felony counts. They 
found Mr. Bruno not guilty on five counts and could not reach a verdict 
on another count.

Mr. Bruno, 80, who was once the top Republican in New York and one of 
the state's most powerful politicians, faces up to 20 years and a 
$250,000 fine on each felony count. He is sure to appeal, and the 
Supreme Court 
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/supreme_court/index.html?inline=nyt-org) 
is preparing to review the controversial "theft of honest services" 
statute underlying his case.

"I am very, very disappointed in the verdict," Mr. Bruno said afterwards 
from the courthouse steps. "The legal process is going to continue. In 
my mind and in my heart, it is not over until it's over. And I think 
it's far from over. Thank you all, have a good night and merry Christmas."

His remarks were uncharacteristically short, lasting 18 seconds. A 
clearly dejected Mr. Bruno, a former boxer known for rarely backing down 
from a fight, stood in the bitter cold and he only showed some signs of 
life when a young woman yelled out "I love you, Joe!" as he was walking 
towards a waiting car. "Thank you very much," he replied, as another 
young woman yelled "love you!" A couple dozen reporters and 
photographers clustered around him. He was guided through the throng by 
his son Kenneth and his handler, Kris Thompson.

The jury entered the courtroom at 4:16 p.m. and as they returned a not 
guilty verdict on the first two counts and no verdict on the third 
count, the mood among supporters of Mr. Bruno who were in attendance 
became euphoric. But when the jury declared guilty on the fourth count 
the mood quickly turned. Mr. Bruno became visibly deflated and his 
normally upright frame sagged.

Prosecutors asked that Mr. Bruno be forced to surrender his passport, 
but the judge denied the request. His sentencing is scheduled for March. 31.

The verdict capped a month-long trial that captivated the state 
political establishment and laid bare the unseemly side of New York's 
Legislature, where most lawmakers hold down second jobs in the private 
sector but are required to disclose very little about what they are paid 
to do.

Prosecutors contended that Mr. Bruno had failed to disclose conflicts 
between his private business dealings and his official business as 
Senate majority leader, the powerful post that he held for almost 14 
years before retiring in 2008 amid a federal investigation. They also 
say he used a sham consulting business as a way to conceal the true 
nature of his business interests.

Prosecutors brought forward more than 70 witnesses and a trove of over 
200 e-mail messages as well as handwritten notes, calendar entries and 
memoranda, many culled from the historically secretive State Senate, 
which Republicans controlled under Mr. Bruno but lost control of last fall.

The trial also delved intimately into Mr. Bruno's private business, 
which spanned work for more than a dozen companies during more than a 
decade and a half, earning Mr. Bruno roughly $3.2 million in fees.

He earned the bulk of that money soliciting pension fund investments 
from labor unions with interests before the Senate, while failing, 
prosecutors said, to fully disclose his ties to the firm --- Wright 
Investors' Service --- that paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars to 
drum up business. Mr. Bruno worked at the firm for almost his entire 
tenure as majority leader, resigning his second job in December 2007, 
shortly after The New York Times disclosed Wright's ties to a host of 
Albany-area labor unions.

Prosecutors also contended that Mr. Bruno used his Senate power to 
benefit an array of other businesses, including an Albany-area 
technology company that paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars in 
fees and a contracting company owned by an old friend, who employed him 
as a management consultant.

Mr. Bruno did not take the stand in his own defense, instead deploying 
only seven witnesses, including friends and former business associates, 
to bolster his case. Characterizing Mr. Bruno as a victim of overzealous 
prosecutors, his lawyers portrayed him as a devoted public servant who 
tried to faithfully adhere to the law, routinely seeking the advice of 
Senate ethics lawyers.

His lawyers relied chiefly on cross-examination of the prosecution's 
witnesses, seeking to unravel the links prosecutors drew between Mr. 
Bruno's official acts and the business he brought in for his clients, 
which included state grants as well as pension fund investment.

The official benefits Mr. Bruno delivered for those who did business 
with his clients, Mr. Bruno's lawyers argued, was indistinguishable from 
the legislative action and earmarks he sought for all his constituents, 
driven by a sincere desire to create jobs and help working people.
-------------- next part --------------
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Mon Dec  7 18:44:27 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 18:44:27 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Rik, I received the answer to your question
Message-ID: <9C4434EBD81944B2BB3908B571B0AFD4@YOURB88038198E>

Rik, 

I received the following email and it explains your question.  In fact I thought that someone on this forum wrote it:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Fundamental Transformation of America

 

When Obama wrote a book and said he was mentored as a youth by Frank, (Frank Marshall Davis) an avowed Communist, people said it didn't matter.

 

When it was discovered that his grandparents, were strong socialists, sent Obama's mother to a socialist school, introduced Frank Marshall Davis to young Obama, People said it didn't matter.

 

When people found out that he was enrolled as a Muslim child in school and his father and step father were both Muslims, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he wrote in another book he authored "I will stand with them (Muslims) should the political winds shift in an ugly direction. "People said it didn't matter.

 

When he admittedly, in his book, said he chose Marxist friends and professors in college, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he traveled to Pakistan, after college on an unknown national passport, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he sought the endorsement of the Marxist party in 1996 as he ran for the Illinois Senate, people said it doesn't matter.

 

When he sat in a Chicago   Church for twenty years and listened to a preacher spew hatred for America and preach black liberation theology, people said it didn't matter.

 

When an independent Washington organization, that tracks senate voting records, gave him the distinctive title as the "most liberal senator", people said it didn't matter.

 

When the Palestinians in Gaza, set up a fund raising telethon to raise money for his election campaign, people said it didn't matter. 

 

When his voting record supported gun control, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he refused to disclose who donated money to his election campaign, as other candidates had done, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he received endorsements from people like Louis Farrakhan and Mummer Kaddafi and Hugo Chavez, people said it didn't matter.

 

When it was pointed out that he was a total, newcomer and had absolutely no experience at anything except community organizing, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he chose friends and acquaintances such as Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn who were revolutionary radicals, people said it didn't matter.

 

When his voting record in the Illinois senate and in the U.S. Senate came into question, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he refused to wear a flag, lapel pin and did so only after a public outcry, people said it didn't matter.

 

When people started treating him as a Messiah and children in schools were taught to sing his praises, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he stood with his hands over his groin area for the playing of the National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he surrounded himself in the White house with advisors who were pro gun control, pro abortion, pro homosexual marriage and wanting to curtail freedom of speech to silence the opposition people said it didn't matter. 

 

When he aired his views on abortion, homosexuality and a host of other issues, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he said he favors sex education in Kindergarten, including homosexual indoctrination, people said it didn't matter.

 

When his background was either scrubbed or hidden and nothing could be found about him, people said it didn't matter.

 

When the place of his birth was called into question, and he refused to produce a birth certificate, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he had an association in Chicago with Tony Rezko, a man of questionable character, who is now in prison and had helped Obama to a sweet deal on the purchase of his home, people said it didn't matter.

 

When it became known that George Soros, a multi-billionaire Marxist, spent a ton of money to get him elected, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he started appointing czars that were radicals, revolutionaries, and even avowed Marxist/Communist, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he stood before the nation and told us that his intentions were to "fundamentally transform this nation" into something else, people said it didn't matter.

 

When it became known that he had trained ACORN workers in Chicago and served as an attorney for ACORN, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he appointed cabinet members and several advisors who were tax cheats and socialist, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he appointed a science czar, John Holden, who believes in forced abortions, mass sterilizations and seizing babies from teen mothers, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he appointed Cass Sunstein as regulatory czar and he believes in "Explicit Consent", harvesting human organs without family consent, and to allow animals to be represented in court, while banning all hunting, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he appointed Kevin Jennings, a homosexual, and organizer of a group called gay, lesbian, straight, Education network, as safe school czar and it became known that he had a history of bad advice to teenagers, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he appointed Mark Lloyd as diversity czar and he believed in curtailing free speech, taking from one and giving to another to spread the wealth and admires Hugo Chavez, people said it didn't matter.

 

When Valerie Jarrett was selected as Obama's senior White House advisor and she is an avowed Socialist, people said it didn't matter.

 

When Anita Dunn, White House Communications director said Mao Tse Tung was her favorite philosopher and the person she turned to most for inspiration, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he appointed Carol Browner as global warming czar, and she is a well known socialist working on Cap and trade as the nation's largest tax, people said it doesn't matter.

 

When he appointed Van Jones, an ex-con and avowed Communist as green energy czar, who since had to resign when this was made known, people said it didn't matter.

 

When Tom Daschle, Obama's pick for health and human services secretary could not be confirmed, because he was a tax cheat, people said it didn't matter.

 

When as president of the United States, he bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he traveled around the world criticizing America and never once talking of her greatness, people said it didn't matter.

 

When his actions concerning the middle-east seemed to support the Palestinians over Israel, our long time friend, People said it doesn't matter.

 

When he took American tax dollars to resettle thousands of Palestinians from Gaza to the United States, people said it doesn't matter.

 

When he upset the Europeans by removing plans for a missile defense system against the Russians, People said it doesn't matter.

 

When he played politics in Afghanistan by not sending troops the Field Commanders said we had to have to win, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he started spending us into a debt that was so big we could not pay it off, people said it didn't matter. 

 

When he took a huge spending bill under the guise of stimulus and used it to pay off organizations, unions and individuals that got him elected, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he took over insurance companies, car companies, banks, etc., people said it didn't matter.

 

When he took away student loans from the banks and put it through the government, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he designed plans to take over the health care system and put it under government control, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he set into motion a plan to take over the control of all energy in the United States through Cap and Trade, people said it didn't matter.

 

When he finally completed his transformation of America into a Socialist State, people finally woke up........ but it was too late.

 

Any one of these things, in and of themselves does not really matter. But.... when you add them up one by one you get a phenomenal score that points to the fact that our Obama is determined to make America over into a Marxist/Socialist society. All of the items in the preceding paragraphs have been put into place. All can be documented very easily. Before you disavow this, do an internet search. The last paragraph alone is not yet cast in stone. You and I will write that paragraph. Will it read as above or will it be a happier ending for most of America? Personally, I like happy endings.

 

If you are an Obama Supporter, please do not be angry with me because I think your president is a socialist. There are too many facts supporting this. If you seek the truth you will be richer for it. Don't just belittle the opposition. Search for the truth. I did. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Constitutionalist, Libertarians and what have you; we all need to pull together. We all must pull together or watch the demise of a society that we all love and cherish. If you are a religious person, pray for our nation.

 

Never before in the history of America have we been confronted with problems so huge that the very existence of our country is in jeopardy. Don't rely on most television news and what you read in the newspapers for the truth. Search the internet. Yes, there is a lot of bad information, lies and distortions there too but you are smart enough to spot the fallacies. Newspapers are a dying breed. They are currently seeking a bailout from the government. Do you really think they are about to print the truth? Obama praises all the television news networks except Fox who he has waged war against. There must be a reason. He does not call them down on any specifics, just a general battle against them. If they lie, he should call them out on it but he doesn't. Please, find the truth, it will set you free.

 

Our biggest enemy is not China, Russia, or Iran; no, our biggest enemy is a contingent of politicians in Washington   DC.

 

 
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 20:36:04 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 19:36:04 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Rik, I received the answer to your question
In-Reply-To: <9C4434EBD81944B2BB3908B571B0AFD4@YOURB88038198E>
References: <9C4434EBD81944B2BB3908B571B0AFD4@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912071736r6d31c54fr37ec9e024277c5ca@mail.gmail.com>

Gotta' admit, that's a helluva list.

But hey, show it to a liberal ..... it's like water off a duck's back.

Apparently they think somebody like Adolf just rose up and became a raging
tyrant overnight.

Got ammo??

Rik

On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 5:44 PM, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:

>  Rik,
>
> I received the following email and it explains your question.  In fact I
> thought that someone on this forum wrote it:
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>
> The Fundamental Transformation of America
>
>
>
> When Obama wrote a book and said he was mentored as a youth by Frank,
> (Frank Marshall Davis) an avowed Communist, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When it was discovered that his grandparents, were strong socialists, sent
> Obama's mother to a socialist school, introduced Frank Marshall Davis to
> young Obama, People said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When people found out that he was enrolled as a Muslim child in school and
> his father and step father were both Muslims, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he wrote in another book he authored ?I will stand with them (Muslims)
> should the political winds shift in an ugly direction. ?People said it
> didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he admittedly, in his book, said he chose Marxist friends and
> professors in college, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he traveled to Pakistan, after college on an unknown national
> passport, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he sought the endorsement of the Marxist party in 1996 as he ran for
> the Illinois Senate, people said it doesn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he sat in a Chicago   Church for twenty years and listened to a
> preacher spew hatred for America and preach black liberation theology,
> people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When an independent Washington organization, that tracks senate voting
> records, gave him the distinctive title as the "most liberal senator?,
> people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When the Palestinians in Gaza, set up a fund raising telethon to raise
> money for his election campaign, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When his voting record supported gun control, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he refused to disclose who donated money to his election campaign, as
> other candidates had done, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he received endorsements from people like Louis Farrakhan and Mummer
> Kaddafi and Hugo Chavez, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When it was pointed out that he was a total, newcomer and had absolutely no
> experience at anything except community organizing, people said it didn't
> matter.
>
>
>
> When he chose friends and acquaintances such as Bill Ayers and Bernadine
> Dohrn who were revolutionary radicals, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When his voting record in the Illinois senate and in the U.S. Senate came
> into question, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he refused to wear a flag, lapel pin and did so only after a public
> outcry, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When people started treating him as a Messiah and children in schools were
> taught to sing his praises, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he stood with his hands over his groin area for the playing of the
> National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he surrounded himself in the White house with advisors who were pro
> gun control, pro abortion, pro homosexual marriage and wanting to curtail
> freedom of speech to silence the opposition people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he aired his views on abortion, homosexuality and a host of other
> issues, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he said he favors sex education in Kindergarten, including homosexual
> indoctrination, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When his background was either scrubbed or hidden and nothing could be
> found about him, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When the place of his birth was called into question, and he refused to
> produce a birth certificate, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he had an association in Chicago with Tony Rezko, a man of
> questionable character, who is now in prison and had helped Obama to a sweet
> deal on the purchase of his home, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When it became known that George Soros, a multi-billionaire Marxist, spent
> a ton of money to get him elected, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he started appointing czars that were radicals, revolutionaries, and
> even avowed Marxist/Communist, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he stood before the nation and told us that his intentions were to
> "fundamentally transform this nation" into something else, people said it
> didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When it became known that he had trained ACORN workers in Chicago and
> served as an attorney for ACORN, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he appointed cabinet members and several advisors who were tax cheats
> and socialist, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he appointed a science czar, John Holden, who believes in forced
> abortions, mass sterilizations and seizing babies from teen mothers, people
> said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he appointed Cass Sunstein as regulatory czar and he believes in
> "Explicit Consent", harvesting human organs without family consent, and to
> allow animals to be represented in court, while banning all hunting, people
> said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he appointed Kevin Jennings, a homosexual, and organizer of a group
> called gay, lesbian, straight, Education network, as safe school czar and it
> became known that he had a history of bad advice to teenagers, people said
> it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he appointed Mark Lloyd as diversity czar and he believed in
> curtailing free speech, taking from one and giving to another to spread the
> wealth and admires Hugo Chavez, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When Valerie Jarrett was selected as Obama's senior White House advisor and
> she is an avowed Socialist, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When Anita Dunn, White House Communications director said Mao Tse Tung was
> her favorite philosopher and the person she turned to most for inspiration,
> people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he appointed Carol Browner as global warming czar, and she is a well
> known socialist working on Cap and trade as the nation?s largest tax, people
> said it doesn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he appointed Van Jones, an ex-con and avowed Communist as green energy
> czar, who since had to resign when this was made known, people said it
> didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When Tom Daschle, Obama's pick for health and human services secretary
> could not be confirmed, because he was a tax cheat, people said it didn't
> matter.
>
>
>
> When as president of the United States, he bowed to the King of Saudi
> Arabia, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he traveled around the world criticizing America and never once
> talking of her greatness, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When his actions concerning the middle-east seemed to support the
> Palestinians over Israel, our long time friend, People said it doesn't
> matter.
>
>
>
> When he took American tax dollars to resettle thousands of Palestinians
> from Gaza to the United States, people said it doesn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he upset the Europeans by removing plans for a missile defense system
> against the Russians, People said it doesn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he played politics in Afghanistan by not sending troops the Field
> Commanders said we had to have to win, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he started spending us into a debt that was so big we could not pay it
> off, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he took a huge spending bill under the guise of stimulus and used it
> to pay off organizations, unions and individuals that got him elected,
> people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he took over insurance companies, car companies, banks, etc., people
> said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he took away student loans from the banks and put it through the
> government, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he designed plans to take over the health care system and put it under
> government control, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he set into motion a plan to take over the control of all energy in
> the United States through Cap and Trade, people said it didn't matter.
>
>
>
> When he finally completed his transformation of America into a Socialist
> State, people finally woke up........ but it was too late.
>
>
>
> Any one of these things, in and of themselves does not really matter.
> But.... when you add them up one by one you get a phenomenal score that
> points to the fact that our Obama is determined to make America over into a
> Marxist/Socialist society. All of the items in the preceding paragraphs have
> been put into place. All can be documented very easily. Before you disavow
> this, do an internet search. The last paragraph alone is not yet cast in
> stone. You and I will write that paragraph. Will it read as above or will it
> be a happier ending for most of America? Personally, I like happy endings.
>
>
>
> If you are an Obama Supporter, please do not be angry with me because I
> think your president is a socialist. There are too many facts supporting
> this. If you seek the truth you will be richer for it. Don't just belittle
> the opposition. Search for the truth. I did. Democrats, Republicans,
> Independents, Constitutionalist, Libertarians and what have you; we all need
> to pull together. We all must pull together or watch the demise of a society
> that we all love and cherish. If you are a religious person, pray for our
> nation.
>
>
>
> Never before in the history of America have we been confronted with
> problems so huge that the very existence of our country is in jeopardy.
> Don't rely on most television news and what you read in the newspapers for
> the truth. Search the internet. Yes, there is a lot of bad information, lies
> and distortions there too but you are smart enough to spot the fallacies.
> Newspapers are a dying breed. They are currently seeking a bailout from the
> government. Do you really think they are about to print the truth? Obama
> praises all the television news networks except Fox who he has waged war
> against. There must be a reason. He does not call them down on any
> specifics, just a general battle against them. If they lie, he should call
> them out on it but he doesn't. Please, find the truth, it will set you free.
>
>
>
> Our biggest enemy is not China, Russia, or Iran; no, our biggest enemy is a
> contingent of politicians in Washington   DC.
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>


-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 22:18:19 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 21:18:19 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Rik, I received the answer to your question
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912071736r6d31c54fr37ec9e024277c5ca@mail.gmail.com>
References: <9C4434EBD81944B2BB3908B571B0AFD4@YOURB88038198E>
	<6634e19e0912071736r6d31c54fr37ec9e024277c5ca@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912071918x47ec0618w90cef9acea5ee2b@mail.gmail.com>

Rik, Ed,

My phone has been pretty quiet lately.  I guess the GOP fundraisers
are tired of getting an earful every time they call and no check. Hold
them all accountable!  Congress holds the purse strings, make them pay
with their seats in November if they continue down this path.  Obama
can and is doing a lot of damage from the Executive branch, but he
can't do it alone. My Congress-critter, Marsha Blackburn, is rock
solid.  One of my Senators, Corker, is mostly on the right path.  The
other one, Lamar Alexander, needs a fantasy v reality check from time
to time.  Don't wear them out with phone calls and e-mails every day,
but start turning up the heat in the days before a big vote.  The
other side of this equation will be painful (and I'm hopeful there
will be another side after NOV10). Anyone who's ever sat on a mountain
of debt understands it is easier to create than eliminate.  Now these
DC idiots want to figure out how to spend approximately 200 Billion of
TARP funds that are coming back early. How about this for an idea?
You want to provide healthcare, right?  Buy it in the open market and
provide a bare-bones policy to the millions of unemployed that will be
unemployed for some time (study Tennessee as an example). But no,
that's too simple and too cost effective.  These people ARE Marxists
and they need to be shown the door.  Keep the pressure on them! The
bulk of the money has yet to be spent, but once it is, we're stuck
with the debt for decades. I'm glad the Tea Party is scaring the crap
out of the GOP - they need a good 'whuppin'. The debate on the floor
of the Senate this week has been about cutting Medicare.  That's my
parents you're talking about, azzholes.  Pay them what they earned and
then be up front with the rest of us - we all know there isn't enough
revenue to keep this Ponzi scheme going forever - or at least some of
us do.

Brad


On 12/7/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Gotta' admit, that's a helluva list.
>
> But hey, show it to a liberal ..... it's like water off a duck's back.
>
> Apparently they think somebody like Adolf just rose up and became a raging
> tyrant overnight.
>
> Got ammo??
>
> Rik
>
> On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 5:44 PM, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
>
>>  Rik,
>>
>> I received the following email and it explains your question.  In fact I
>> thought that someone on this forum wrote it:
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>>
>> The Fundamental Transformation of America
>>
>>
>>
>> When Obama wrote a book and said he was mentored as a youth by Frank,
>> (Frank Marshall Davis) an avowed Communist, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When it was discovered that his grandparents, were strong socialists, sent
>> Obama's mother to a socialist school, introduced Frank Marshall Davis to
>> young Obama, People said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When people found out that he was enrolled as a Muslim child in school and
>> his father and step father were both Muslims, people said it didn't
>> matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he wrote in another book he authored ?I will stand with them
>> (Muslims)
>> should the political winds shift in an ugly direction. ?People said it
>> didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he admittedly, in his book, said he chose Marxist friends and
>> professors in college, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he traveled to Pakistan, after college on an unknown national
>> passport, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he sought the endorsement of the Marxist party in 1996 as he ran for
>> the Illinois Senate, people said it doesn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he sat in a Chicago   Church for twenty years and listened to a
>> preacher spew hatred for America and preach black liberation theology,
>> people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When an independent Washington organization, that tracks senate voting
>> records, gave him the distinctive title as the "most liberal senator?,
>> people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When the Palestinians in Gaza, set up a fund raising telethon to raise
>> money for his election campaign, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When his voting record supported gun control, people said it didn't
>> matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he refused to disclose who donated money to his election campaign, as
>> other candidates had done, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he received endorsements from people like Louis Farrakhan and Mummer
>> Kaddafi and Hugo Chavez, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When it was pointed out that he was a total, newcomer and had absolutely
>> no
>> experience at anything except community organizing, people said it didn't
>> matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he chose friends and acquaintances such as Bill Ayers and Bernadine
>> Dohrn who were revolutionary radicals, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When his voting record in the Illinois senate and in the U.S. Senate came
>> into question, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he refused to wear a flag, lapel pin and did so only after a public
>> outcry, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When people started treating him as a Messiah and children in schools were
>> taught to sing his praises, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he stood with his hands over his groin area for the playing of the
>> National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he surrounded himself in the White house with advisors who were pro
>> gun control, pro abortion, pro homosexual marriage and wanting to curtail
>> freedom of speech to silence the opposition people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he aired his views on abortion, homosexuality and a host of other
>> issues, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he said he favors sex education in Kindergarten, including homosexual
>> indoctrination, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When his background was either scrubbed or hidden and nothing could be
>> found about him, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When the place of his birth was called into question, and he refused to
>> produce a birth certificate, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he had an association in Chicago with Tony Rezko, a man of
>> questionable character, who is now in prison and had helped Obama to a
>> sweet
>> deal on the purchase of his home, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When it became known that George Soros, a multi-billionaire Marxist, spent
>> a ton of money to get him elected, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he started appointing czars that were radicals, revolutionaries, and
>> even avowed Marxist/Communist, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he stood before the nation and told us that his intentions were to
>> "fundamentally transform this nation" into something else, people said it
>> didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When it became known that he had trained ACORN workers in Chicago and
>> served as an attorney for ACORN, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he appointed cabinet members and several advisors who were tax cheats
>> and socialist, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he appointed a science czar, John Holden, who believes in forced
>> abortions, mass sterilizations and seizing babies from teen mothers,
>> people
>> said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he appointed Cass Sunstein as regulatory czar and he believes in
>> "Explicit Consent", harvesting human organs without family consent, and to
>> allow animals to be represented in court, while banning all hunting,
>> people
>> said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he appointed Kevin Jennings, a homosexual, and organizer of a group
>> called gay, lesbian, straight, Education network, as safe school czar and
>> it
>> became known that he had a history of bad advice to teenagers, people said
>> it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he appointed Mark Lloyd as diversity czar and he believed in
>> curtailing free speech, taking from one and giving to another to spread
>> the
>> wealth and admires Hugo Chavez, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When Valerie Jarrett was selected as Obama's senior White House advisor
>> and
>> she is an avowed Socialist, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When Anita Dunn, White House Communications director said Mao Tse Tung was
>> her favorite philosopher and the person she turned to most for
>> inspiration,
>> people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he appointed Carol Browner as global warming czar, and she is a well
>> known socialist working on Cap and trade as the nation?s largest tax,
>> people
>> said it doesn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he appointed Van Jones, an ex-con and avowed Communist as green
>> energy
>> czar, who since had to resign when this was made known, people said it
>> didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When Tom Daschle, Obama's pick for health and human services secretary
>> could not be confirmed, because he was a tax cheat, people said it didn't
>> matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When as president of the United States, he bowed to the King of Saudi
>> Arabia, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he traveled around the world criticizing America and never once
>> talking of her greatness, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When his actions concerning the middle-east seemed to support the
>> Palestinians over Israel, our long time friend, People said it doesn't
>> matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he took American tax dollars to resettle thousands of Palestinians
>> from Gaza to the United States, people said it doesn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he upset the Europeans by removing plans for a missile defense system
>> against the Russians, People said it doesn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he played politics in Afghanistan by not sending troops the Field
>> Commanders said we had to have to win, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he started spending us into a debt that was so big we could not pay
>> it
>> off, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he took a huge spending bill under the guise of stimulus and used it
>> to pay off organizations, unions and individuals that got him elected,
>> people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he took over insurance companies, car companies, banks, etc., people
>> said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he took away student loans from the banks and put it through the
>> government, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he designed plans to take over the health care system and put it
>> under
>> government control, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he set into motion a plan to take over the control of all energy in
>> the United States through Cap and Trade, people said it didn't matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> When he finally completed his transformation of America into a Socialist
>> State, people finally woke up........ but it was too late.
>>
>>
>>
>> Any one of these things, in and of themselves does not really matter.
>> But.... when you add them up one by one you get a phenomenal score that
>> points to the fact that our Obama is determined to make America over into
>> a
>> Marxist/Socialist society. All of the items in the preceding paragraphs
>> have
>> been put into place. All can be documented very easily. Before you disavow
>> this, do an internet search. The last paragraph alone is not yet cast in
>> stone. You and I will write that paragraph. Will it read as above or will
>> it
>> be a happier ending for most of America? Personally, I like happy endings.
>>
>>
>>
>> If you are an Obama Supporter, please do not be angry with me because I
>> think your president is a socialist. There are too many facts supporting
>> this. If you seek the truth you will be richer for it. Don't just belittle
>> the opposition. Search for the truth. I did. Democrats, Republicans,
>> Independents, Constitutionalist, Libertarians and what have you; we all
>> need
>> to pull together. We all must pull together or watch the demise of a
>> society
>> that we all love and cherish. If you are a religious person, pray for our
>> nation.
>>
>>
>>
>> Never before in the history of America have we been confronted with
>> problems so huge that the very existence of our country is in jeopardy.
>> Don't rely on most television news and what you read in the newspapers for
>> the truth. Search the internet. Yes, there is a lot of bad information,
>> lies
>> and distortions there too but you are smart enough to spot the fallacies.
>> Newspapers are a dying breed. They are currently seeking a bailout from
>> the
>> government. Do you really think they are about to print the truth? Obama
>> praises all the television news networks except Fox who he has waged war
>> against. There must be a reason. He does not call them down on any
>> specifics, just a general battle against them. If they lie, he should call
>> them out on it but he doesn't. Please, find the truth, it will set you
>> free.
>>
>>
>>
>> Our biggest enemy is not China, Russia, or Iran; no, our biggest enemy is
>> a
>> contingent of politicians in Washington   DC.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>


From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 22:32:03 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 21:32:03 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Gun Control
Message-ID: <400985d70912071932r75d401beq83828d9f28ef4e43@mail.gmail.com>

No comment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nf1OgV449g&feature=player_embedded

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Mon Dec  7 23:39:33 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2009 22:39:33 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Gun Control
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912071932r75d401beq83828d9f28ef4e43@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912071932r75d401beq83828d9f28ef4e43@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912072039q4b5be278wfd8e03d25fed697f@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

No comment indeed! No one should have to be told this.

Rik

On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 9:32 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> No comment.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nf1OgV449g&feature=player_embedded
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Tue Dec  8 07:31:20 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 07:31:20 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Swiss Gun Control
Message-ID: <DABF9CD1997A49FCB7DAD1DB8F6FCEAE@YOURB88038198E>

Brad,

Great video

Ed K
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec  8 08:34:59 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 07:34:59 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] The Prison Plan
Message-ID: <400985d70912080534w5f64bc68t853f73758beb73ed@mail.gmail.com>

This is long but worth it -

http://msunderestimated.com/2009/12/07/beck-on-breitbarts-exclusive-who-really-wrote-the-healthcare-bill-video/

Check the links to BigGov.com and read the whole story. The current
health care political plan was written in prison.  You'll recognize
the prisoner's wife.  Oh, and BTW, they were at the recent State
dinner.

Beck may be goofy but he does his homework.  He took down Van Jones.
Gee, wonder why the White House hates him so much?

Brad

From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec  8 09:04:18 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 08:04:18 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Big Oil - Follow The Money
Message-ID: <400985d70912080604mb12bea9o900f0db66fdd147@mail.gmail.com>

Before we get lost in Big Oil, don't forget to read about the health
care Prison Plan (this from the same kid who challenged Barney Frank)
-

http://biggovernment.com/2009/12/07/was-democrats-health-care-strategy-written-in-federal-prison/

Now for Big Oil.  Quick, what is the single biggest investment that
George Soros owns?  Here's your answer - Petrobras. (read article
below from the WaPo)

Who loaned Petrobras money?  That's right, your government.
Obviously, Soros doesn't have a problem with oil, just oil from US
sources.

Follow the money.


----------------------

Brazil girds for massive offshore oil extraction
State-run Petrobras is poised to become a major global player

By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 7, 2009

Everything about the shipyard here is colossal -- the 4,000-man
workforce, the billions sunk into it in capital costs, the
half-finished 10-story-high production platforms.

But then, so is the challenge facing Brazil's state-controlled energy
company, Petrobras: developing a group of newly discovered deep-sea
oil fields that energy analysts say will catapult this country into
the ranks of the world's petro-powers. The oil pools are 200 miles out
in the Atlantic and more than four miles down, under freezing seas,
rock and a heavy cap of salt.

Petrobras, which until recently was little known outside oil circles,
has launched a five-year, $174 billion project to provide platforms,
rigs, support vessels and drilling systems to develop tens of billions
of barrels of oil. Energy officials here project that Brazil -- still
an oil importer five years ago -- will in the next decade have one of
the world's biggest oil reserves.

"It's going to change the role of Brazil in the geopolitics of oil,"
Petrobras's president, Jos? Sergio Gabrielli, said in an interview at
the company's headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. "We are going to become
a much bigger producer."

Petrobras estimates that production in Brazil could reach 3.9 million
barrels by 2020, up from more than 2 million a day now. Proven oil
reserves would rise from 14.4 billion barrels to more than 30 billion
barrels, according to government estimates, putting Brazil in the same
league as such major oil exporters as Qatar, Canada, Kazakhstan and
Nigeria.

The new discoveries in Brazil's offshore "pre-salt" region do not mean
that the country will become a major exporter of crude, according to
Gabrielli. He noted that Brazil's economy, which is the world's
eighth-largest and is steadily growing, is expected to consume much of
Petrobras's projected production. But, he added, as the country meets
its own needs, it will also develop for export refined products such
as gasoline, diesel and biofuels.

In an era of drum-tight supply, the discoveries off Brazil's coast and
Petrobras's growing stature are changing the world's oil balance,
because few regions outside the OPEC countries are expected to
generate significant growth in crude production, said Michelle Billig
Patron, senior director of political risk for the New York-based Pira
Energy Group.

"There is really only Canada and Brazil when you're talking about a
million barrels a day more in growth over the next 10 years," Patron
said.
A firm hits it big

The engine of that growth is a multinational that, for much of its
56-year history, was little more than a trading company. It pumped a
few thousand barrels a day almost as a side note to its real function,
overseeing oil imports. Then in 1974 -- a time when oil shocks had
alarmed Brazilian officials -- came a major discovery: the offshore
Campos Basin, east of Rio.

"Petrobras, before Campos, produced 180,000 barrels a day," said Jo?o
Carlos de Luca, a former Petrobras executive who is president of the
Brazilian Petroleum Institute, which represents foreign oil companies
here. "After Campos, it was a company that searched for
self-sufficiency in production."

In its drive to produce, Petrobras became a leader in offshore
production. The Rio-based company is now responsible for more than a
fifth of the world's deep-sea operations, more than any other company,
Gabrielli said. It operates in 26 countries and drills off the African
coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.

With a market capitalization of more than $220 billion, Petrobras is
one of the world's 10 biggest companies. Over the past two years, it
has been the most frequently traded foreign company on the New York
Stock Exchange, trade data show. Among investors bullish on Petrobras
is George Soros, who last year made the oil company the largest single
holding in his investment fund, according to Bloomberg.

Still, the company remains firmly under the control of the state, with
President Luiz In?cio Lula da Silva calling it a national icon whose
fortunes are intertwined with Brazil's.

Though private investors control nearly 60 percent of Petrobras stock,
the Brazilian government has 56 percent of the voting rights. Seven of
its nine directors are from the government. The board's chairwoman is
Dilma Rousseff, a Lula confidant who is expected to be the ruling
party's candidate in next year's presidential elections.

The Lula government is now seeking passage of a law to give Petrobras
control over future projects in the newly discovered fields. Foreign
companies have explored for oil in Brazil since 1997, but the proposed
regulations would limit their ability to make major decisions
involving the new oil pools.

Gabrielli said it is logical to make Petrobras the operator, with a
mandatory 30 percent stake in each project, because Brazil took the
risks to drill for oil in the pre-salt. But he noted that companies
such as Exxon Mobil, Britain's BG Group, Royal Dutch Shell and Spain's
Repsol are investing billions to develop their share of the new
projects.

Luca, the president of the association representing foreign companies,
said Petrobras may overextend itself. "We could be limiting the
development," he said.
Far out and deep down

The entire pre-salt region is laced with "elephant fields," pools
holding at least a billion barrels of oil each. Tupi, which in 2006
was the first field found, holds up to 8 billion barrels.

Despite the optimism that Petrobras officials display for visitors,
they reel off the challenges: shifting salt, 6,500 feet of it, and
working fields so far from the coast that they cannot be reached by
helicopter.

Much of the new infrastructure needed to develop the pre-salt is being
built here at Angra, and at other shipyards dotting the coast. On a
recent day, decked out in a bright-orange jumpsuit and helmet, Roberto
Moro, a mechanical engineer, strolled amid giant pontoons weighing
6,000 tons each. He explained how they would be latched together, then
topped with a 14,000-ton deck the size of a football field.

The final product, a platform called P-56, will cost $1 billion, he
said. And Petrobras will need a fleet of them.

"Each platform we are building here, like P-56, represents 10 percent
of national oil production," Moro, 46, explained. That is the
equivalent of 180,000 barrels.


From ekroposki at charter.net  Tue Dec  8 09:12:21 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 09:12:21 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Tiger woods house
Message-ID: <2BAA6593C06A4088B40DE68B9E0503D6@YOURB88038198E>

http://www.breitbart.tv/emts-rush-woman-to-hospital-from-tiger-woods-home/
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec  8 09:30:51 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 08:30:51 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Tiger woods house
In-Reply-To: <2BAA6593C06A4088B40DE68B9E0503D6@YOURB88038198E>
References: <2BAA6593C06A4088B40DE68B9E0503D6@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <400985d70912080630p28f81f40xc944bb8a87797f78@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

Poor Tiger.  I'm betting he's wishing about now he'd left his putter in the bag.

Always good to see Dr. Snyderman on TV.  I remember when she worked at
the University of Arkansas Med Center.  She was HOT!  Still not too
shabby.

Whoops!  Better stop there before we end up in Tiger on tail territory.

Brad

On 12/8/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
> http://www.breitbart.tv/emts-rush-woman-to-hospital-from-tiger-woods-home/

From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec  8 09:41:11 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 08:41:11 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] New Poll
Message-ID: <400985d70912080641u2b55ac2aq892ce4d9691def80@mail.gmail.com>

Run Sarah, Run!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/sarah-palin-barack-obama-poll-gap-narrows.html

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec  8 10:53:02 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 09:53:02 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Big Oil - Follow The Money
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912080604mb12bea9o900f0db66fdd147@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912080604mb12bea9o900f0db66fdd147@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912080753y620896dchdc9c9aa403d90d2b@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Hmmm .... George Soros, seems like he's big into AGW too ... Copenhagen
treaty ....

Hint: Copenhagen treaty = one world gov't

Time to start connecting the dots here folks

Rik

On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 8:04 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Before we get lost in Big Oil, don't forget to read about the health
> care Prison Plan (this from the same kid who challenged Barney Frank)
> -
>
>
> http://biggovernment.com/2009/12/07/was-democrats-health-care-strategy-written-in-federal-prison/
>
> Now for Big Oil.  Quick, what is the single biggest investment that
> George Soros owns?  Here's your answer - Petrobras. (read article
> below from the WaPo)
>
> Who loaned Petrobras money?  That's right, your government.
> Obviously, Soros doesn't have a problem with oil, just oil from US
> sources.
>
> Follow the money.
>
>
> ----------------------
>
> Brazil girds for massive offshore oil extraction
> State-run Petrobras is poised to become a major global player
>
> By Juan Forero
> Washington Post Foreign Service
> Monday, December 7, 2009
>
> Everything about the shipyard here is colossal -- the 4,000-man
> workforce, the billions sunk into it in capital costs, the
> half-finished 10-story-high production platforms.
>
> But then, so is the challenge facing Brazil's state-controlled energy
> company, Petrobras: developing a group of newly discovered deep-sea
> oil fields that energy analysts say will catapult this country into
> the ranks of the world's petro-powers. The oil pools are 200 miles out
> in the Atlantic and more than four miles down, under freezing seas,
> rock and a heavy cap of salt.
>
> Petrobras, which until recently was little known outside oil circles,
> has launched a five-year, $174 billion project to provide platforms,
> rigs, support vessels and drilling systems to develop tens of billions
> of barrels of oil. Energy officials here project that Brazil -- still
> an oil importer five years ago -- will in the next decade have one of
> the world's biggest oil reserves.
>
> "It's going to change the role of Brazil in the geopolitics of oil,"
> Petrobras's president, Jos? Sergio Gabrielli, said in an interview at
> the company's headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. "We are going to become
> a much bigger producer."
>
> Petrobras estimates that production in Brazil could reach 3.9 million
> barrels by 2020, up from more than 2 million a day now. Proven oil
> reserves would rise from 14.4 billion barrels to more than 30 billion
> barrels, according to government estimates, putting Brazil in the same
> league as such major oil exporters as Qatar, Canada, Kazakhstan and
> Nigeria.
>
> The new discoveries in Brazil's offshore "pre-salt" region do not mean
> that the country will become a major exporter of crude, according to
> Gabrielli. He noted that Brazil's economy, which is the world's
> eighth-largest and is steadily growing, is expected to consume much of
> Petrobras's projected production. But, he added, as the country meets
> its own needs, it will also develop for export refined products such
> as gasoline, diesel and biofuels.
>
> In an era of drum-tight supply, the discoveries off Brazil's coast and
> Petrobras's growing stature are changing the world's oil balance,
> because few regions outside the OPEC countries are expected to
> generate significant growth in crude production, said Michelle Billig
> Patron, senior director of political risk for the New York-based Pira
> Energy Group.
>
> "There is really only Canada and Brazil when you're talking about a
> million barrels a day more in growth over the next 10 years," Patron
> said.
> A firm hits it big
>
> The engine of that growth is a multinational that, for much of its
> 56-year history, was little more than a trading company. It pumped a
> few thousand barrels a day almost as a side note to its real function,
> overseeing oil imports. Then in 1974 -- a time when oil shocks had
> alarmed Brazilian officials -- came a major discovery: the offshore
> Campos Basin, east of Rio.
>
> "Petrobras, before Campos, produced 180,000 barrels a day," said Jo?o
> Carlos de Luca, a former Petrobras executive who is president of the
> Brazilian Petroleum Institute, which represents foreign oil companies
> here. "After Campos, it was a company that searched for
> self-sufficiency in production."
>
> In its drive to produce, Petrobras became a leader in offshore
> production. The Rio-based company is now responsible for more than a
> fifth of the world's deep-sea operations, more than any other company,
> Gabrielli said. It operates in 26 countries and drills off the African
> coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.
>
> With a market capitalization of more than $220 billion, Petrobras is
> one of the world's 10 biggest companies. Over the past two years, it
> has been the most frequently traded foreign company on the New York
> Stock Exchange, trade data show. Among investors bullish on Petrobras
> is George Soros, who last year made the oil company the largest single
> holding in his investment fund, according to Bloomberg.
>
> Still, the company remains firmly under the control of the state, with
> President Luiz In?cio Lula da Silva calling it a national icon whose
> fortunes are intertwined with Brazil's.
>
> Though private investors control nearly 60 percent of Petrobras stock,
> the Brazilian government has 56 percent of the voting rights. Seven of
> its nine directors are from the government. The board's chairwoman is
> Dilma Rousseff, a Lula confidant who is expected to be the ruling
> party's candidate in next year's presidential elections.
>
> The Lula government is now seeking passage of a law to give Petrobras
> control over future projects in the newly discovered fields. Foreign
> companies have explored for oil in Brazil since 1997, but the proposed
> regulations would limit their ability to make major decisions
> involving the new oil pools.
>
> Gabrielli said it is logical to make Petrobras the operator, with a
> mandatory 30 percent stake in each project, because Brazil took the
> risks to drill for oil in the pre-salt. But he noted that companies
> such as Exxon Mobil, Britain's BG Group, Royal Dutch Shell and Spain's
> Repsol are investing billions to develop their share of the new
> projects.
>
> Luca, the president of the association representing foreign companies,
> said Petrobras may overextend itself. "We could be limiting the
> development," he said.
> Far out and deep down
>
> The entire pre-salt region is laced with "elephant fields," pools
> holding at least a billion barrels of oil each. Tupi, which in 2006
> was the first field found, holds up to 8 billion barrels.
>
> Despite the optimism that Petrobras officials display for visitors,
> they reel off the challenges: shifting salt, 6,500 feet of it, and
> working fields so far from the coast that they cannot be reached by
> helicopter.
>
> Much of the new infrastructure needed to develop the pre-salt is being
> built here at Angra, and at other shipyards dotting the coast. On a
> recent day, decked out in a bright-orange jumpsuit and helmet, Roberto
> Moro, a mechanical engineer, strolled amid giant pontoons weighing
> 6,000 tons each. He explained how they would be latched together, then
> topped with a 14,000-ton deck the size of a football field.
>
> The final product, a platform called P-56, will cost $1 billion, he
> said. And Petrobras will need a fleet of them.
>
> "Each platform we are building here, like P-56, represents 10 percent
> of national oil production," Moro, 46, explained. That is the
> equivalent of 180,000 barrels.
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec  8 11:12:08 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 10:12:08 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] New Poll
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912080641u2b55ac2aq892ce4d9691def80@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912080641u2b55ac2aq892ce4d9691def80@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912080812y2909eb4epd3545175ef6b16c0@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

I'll say this half tongue in cheek: But one has to wonder if O Won won't
have figured out a way to abolish elections by 2012.

There's so much other scary socialist shit going on ... why not that??

Go Sarah, if nothing else, wake the American people out of their stupor.

Rik

On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 8:41 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Run Sarah, Run!
>
>
> http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/sarah-palin-barack-obama-poll-gap-narrows.html
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From bill at effros.com  Tue Dec  8 11:36:01 2009
From: bill at effros.com (Bill Effros)
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:36:01 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Sound Ex
Message-ID: <4B1E8071.2050403@effros.com>

Sound Ex looks like the same kind of stuff Sound Down makes.

Sound Down used to go to boat shows with a motor that sounded like a car 
shredder inside a doghouse-sized box lined with the top of the line 
soundproofing material.

Are you old enough to remember Senor Wences on the Ed Sullivan Show?  
The head in the box?  "alright?" "alright!" Slam the box shut--no sound.

Well their demo was like that.  When you shut the box you were sure they 
had automatically turned off the motor.  So they would let you crack it 
open just a little bit to hear the motor was still making that same 
horrible loud noise.  One of the great all-time carnival demos.

The lead lined stuff works so well it's probably illegal.  It's in a 
different category than the lighter stuff your plane can lift.  It's so 
heavy it's amazing.  No problem for boats, homes, portable generator 
enclosures--except to the extent it will probably double the weight of 
that generator.

Keep me posted -- have you tried the spray on paint that converts sound 
to heat?  It works, but nothing like the lead -- which, as you already 
know, is the only thing that can protect Superman from Kryptonite!

B.
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec  8 12:10:46 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 11:10:46 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Sound Ex
In-Reply-To: <4B1E8071.2050403@effros.com>
References: <4B1E8071.2050403@effros.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912080910k4d23686bqa8f971de86c03319@mail.gmail.com>

Bill,

There's two 1 quart cans of sound deadening paint on the shelf at the
hangar you can have. I decided not to use it because it subtracts
another 3 pounds from the useful load of 51V.  That may sound trivial
but my 'ole gal' has gained quite a bit of weight over the years and
every little bit counts. She's sporting a new set of Goodyear
FlightCustom III tires that I'd like to exchange for the cheapest
thing on the market.  They're heavy as hell.  Beechcraft used "tar"
for the lack of a better description for insulation in the 50's and
60's.  They coated the belly skins to stop "oil canning" - that's the
aluminum skin flexing from temperature changes and making loud popping
noises.  The "tar" stuff collects fluids over time and gets "gooey"
(as well as creating a fire hazard). It took me a gazillion man hours
to clean it out and a $300 Dave Clark headset and a DVD player (which
51V came with installed) cures the problem for the future. The 727 was
bad about "oil canning" with loud pops in the sheet metal that you
could hear over the whistling from the cockpit (I'm convinced Billy
Boeing was deaf).   The DC-10, for all its faults (most of which were
cured in the first 500 fatalities, including the guy cooking a goat
with a Bunsen Burner on the way to the Haj), was damned quiet in the
cockpit. Every Boeing jet leaves the factory "industrial strength"
with the noise you usually associate with industry.

If you and I want to get serious about noise, we need to travel to
Westphalia and find out how they made the VW diesels so quiet.  Even
with the hood raised, she's quiet and smooth.  Forget Germany, let's
go to Korea.  Our Hyundai trackhoe is so quiet while operating it is
almost a hazard. I've walked-up on Gary before, thinking he was at
idle and smoking, only to be almost smacked-down because he was just
contemplating his next move.

Brad


On 12/8/09, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
> Sound Ex looks like the same kind of stuff Sound Down makes.
>
> Sound Down used to go to boat shows with a motor that sounded like a car
> shredder inside a doghouse-sized box lined with the top of the line
> soundproofing material.
>
> Are you old enough to remember Senor Wences on the Ed Sullivan Show?
> The head in the box?  "alright?" "alright!" Slam the box shut--no sound.
>
> Well their demo was like that.  When you shut the box you were sure they
> had automatically turned off the motor.  So they would let you crack it
> open just a little bit to hear the motor was still making that same
> horrible loud noise.  One of the great all-time carnival demos.
>
> The lead lined stuff works so well it's probably illegal.  It's in a
> different category than the lighter stuff your plane can lift.  It's so
> heavy it's amazing.  No problem for boats, homes, portable generator
> enclosures--except to the extent it will probably double the weight of
> that generator.
>
> Keep me posted -- have you tried the spray on paint that converts sound
> to heat?  It works, but nothing like the lead -- which, as you already
> know, is the only thing that can protect Superman from Kryptonite!
>
> B.
>

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec  8 13:28:41 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 12:28:41 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] 28th Amendment
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912081028h182b8f69xfc6b20764a41718a@mail.gmail.com>

Good afternoon All,

Got this today. Might not be a bad idea.

Rik

___________________

*28th Ammendment*

Regardless of how you feel about the direction of the country, I suspect
everyone of us shares in the desire to see this amendment passed. Share with
all you know and let's begin the process.

This is a great idea. Only need 3/4 of the State Legislatures to pass this
to become law...AND IT IS VETO PROOF including no appeal to the Supreme
Court.

Proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution:
 "Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United
States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives,
and Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or
Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United
States ".
 Let's get this passed around - Congress has brought this upon themselves!!!



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec  8 13:41:53 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 12:41:53 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] New Poll
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912080812y2909eb4epd3545175ef6b16c0@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912080641u2b55ac2aq892ce4d9691def80@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912080812y2909eb4epd3545175ef6b16c0@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912081041t21ea5f5dja94b61ac9413da52@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

The root word of capitalism is CAPITAL.  Where is capital flowing
these days? Well, Hyundai didn't build their new car plant in Detroit
or Seoul - they built it in Montgomery, Alabama. Drive around the area
and you will find every two-bit, sleeze-bag, Indian owned motel filled
with Koreans.  The Koreans meet with local "rednecks" in the "free"
breakfast area in the "foreign" owned Indian hotel and plan the next
day's activities.  Don't take my word for this, just get in the your
car and drive to Alabama!

Having traveled all over the world, I can tell the difference between
the North Pacific Rim slant-eyes as opposed the Southern version. Here
in the States, I know when to throttle my wife down at a Christmas
party when her Beijing-v-Shanghai bias becomes a bit to obvious.

Now back to Sweet Home Alabama.

We are our own wost enemy. The new Hyundai Sonata looks horrible in my
opinion.  That said, it is a well built car.  What has been produced
in Flint, Michigan lately that will last 10 years?

Brad

On 12/8/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> I'll say this half tongue in cheek: But one has to wonder if O Won won't
> have figured out a way to abolish elections by 2012.
>
> There's so much other scary socialist shit going on ... why not that??
>
> Go Sarah, if nothing else, wake the American people out of their stupor.
>
> Rik
>
> On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 8:41 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Run Sarah, Run!
>>
>>
>> http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/sarah-palin-barack-obama-poll-gap-narrows.html
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec  8 15:01:41 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 14:01:41 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] New Poll
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912081041t21ea5f5dja94b61ac9413da52@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912080641u2b55ac2aq892ce4d9691def80@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912080812y2909eb4epd3545175ef6b16c0@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912081041t21ea5f5dja94b61ac9413da52@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912081201q5a7200c3q92b9ce6ac64b0d5@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Detroit and the auto unions (especially the unions) have stepped on their
diks and refuse to get off no matter how much it hurts. They can't make an
honest (or even a dishonest) living anymore so they now turn to the gov't.
Good luck with that! It ain't rocket science to understand why all the
foreign car companies are building almost anywhere BUT Detroit.

I think the one thing the Jap, Chinese and Korean car companies have going
for them is; when they give you a job, they actually expect you to produce
some value .... unlike their brethren to the north  ....

Rik

On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 12:41 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Rik,
>
> The root word of capitalism is CAPITAL.  Where is capital flowing
> these days? Well, Hyundai didn't build their new car plant in Detroit
> or Seoul - they built it in Montgomery, Alabama. Drive around the area
> and you will find every two-bit, sleeze-bag, Indian owned motel filled
> with Koreans.  The Koreans meet with local "rednecks" in the "free"
> breakfast area in the "foreign" owned Indian hotel and plan the next
> day's activities.  Don't take my word for this, just get in the your
> car and drive to Alabama!
>
> Having traveled all over the world, I can tell the difference between
> the North Pacific Rim slant-eyes as opposed the Southern version. Here
> in the States, I know when to throttle my wife down at a Christmas
> party when her Beijing-v-Shanghai bias becomes a bit to obvious.
>
> Now back to Sweet Home Alabama.
>
> We are our own wost enemy. The new Hyundai Sonata looks horrible in my
> opinion.  That said, it is a well built car.  What has been produced
> in Flint, Michigan lately that will last 10 years?
>
> Brad
>
> On 12/8/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Brad,
> >
> > I'll say this half tongue in cheek: But one has to wonder if O Won won't
> > have figured out a way to abolish elections by 2012.
> >
> > There's so much other scary socialist shit going on ... why not that??
> >
> > Go Sarah, if nothing else, wake the American people out of their stupor.
> >
> > Rik
> >
> > On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 8:41 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Run Sarah, Run!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/sarah-palin-barack-obama-poll-gap-narrows.html
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> means
> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec  8 15:59:44 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 14:59:44 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] New Poll
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912080641u2b55ac2aq892ce4d9691def80@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912080641u2b55ac2aq892ce4d9691def80@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912081259s7278bb74nb93e53c8122d9872@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

This on M/M today. Looks like the libs are getting more and more desperate.

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/12/08/tomato-man-another-addition-to-the-unhinged-mugshot-collection/

Another fine Minnesotan making me proud .... wretch, choke... A classy bunch
these.

Rik


On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 8:41 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Run Sarah, Run!
>
>
> http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/sarah-palin-barack-obama-poll-gap-narrows.html
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec  8 21:50:33 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 20:50:33 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Going Rogue - Or, The End Is Near!
Message-ID: <400985d70912081850w5efc5c41x19bd1fb8d2b992bf@mail.gmail.com>

The following review is from the NYTs.  Yup, the New York freakin'
Times, and they are somewhat receptive to Sarah Palin.  The review
starts out in the Strand bookstore.  I know it well.  The Strand can't
hold a candle to Powells in Portland, Oregon, but it is a good book
venue. The short version of a long story is this; about 15 years ago
when I was based in NYC and farming poorly outside of Nashville, I
went to the Strand looking for "Making Hay" by Verlyn Klinkenborg .  I
got the same response that the author of this article received.  Well,
they had the book in stock and NO, the clerk didn't honor the bet I
placed at the time the search started (it would be free if I found
it).  Anyway, enjoy the review of "Going Rogue" from the national
"fishwrapper".

Brad

-------------

December 7, 2009, 9:30 pm
Sarah Palin Is Coming to Town
By STANLEY FISH

Stanley Fish on education, law and society.

When I walked into the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan last week, I
headed straight for the bright young thing who wore an ?Ask Me?
button, and asked her to point me to the section of the store where I
might find Sarah Palin?s memoir, ?Going Rogue: An American Life.? She
looked at me as if I had requested a copy of ?Mein Kampf? signed in
blood by the author, and directed me to the nearest Barnes and Noble,
where, presumably, readers of dubious taste and sensibility could find
what they wanted.


A few days later, I attended a seminar on political and legal theory
where a distinguished scholar observed that every group has its
official list of angels and devils. As an example, he offered the fact
(of which he was supremely confident) that few, if any, in the room
were likely to be Sarah Palin fans. By that time I had begun reading
Palin?s book, and while I wouldn?t count myself a fan in the sense of
being a supporter, I found it compelling and very well done.

My assessment of the book has nothing to do with the accuracy of its
accounts. Some news agencies have fact-checkers poring over every
sentence, which would be to the point if the book were a biography, a
genre that is judged by the degree to which the factual claims being
made can be verified down to the last assertion. ?Going Rogue,?
however, is an autobiography, and while autobiographers certainly
insist that they are telling the truth, the truth the genre promises
is the truth about themselves ? the kind of persons they are ? and
even when they are being mendacious or self-serving (and I don?t mean
to imply that Palin is either), they are, necessarily, fleshing out
that truth. As I remarked in a previous column, autobiographers cannot
lie because anything they say will truthfully serve their project,
which, again, is not to portray the facts, but to portray themselves.

The questions to ask then are (1) Does Palin succeed in conveying to
her readers the kind of person she is? and (2) Does she do it in a
satisfying and artful way? In short, is the book a good
autobiographical read? I would answer ?yes? to both.

First, the art. The book has an architectonic structure that is built
around a single moment, the moment when Palin receives a call from
John McCain inviting her to be the vice-presidential candidate of the
Republican party. When we first hear about the call it is as much a
surprise to us as it was (at least as reported) to her, because for
six pages she has been recounting a wonderful family outing at the
Alaska State Fair. When her phone rings, she hopes it might be a call
from her son Track, a soldier soon to deploy to Iraq, but ?it was
Senator John McCain asking if I wanted to help him change history.?

And that?s the last we hear of it for 200 pages. In between we hear a
lot about Wasilla, high school, basketball, college, marriage,
children, Down syndrome, Alaska politics, the environment, a
daughter?s pregnancy. The re-entry of John McCain into the narrative
on page 208 introduces Palin?s account of the presidential campaign
and its aftermath, especially her decision to resign the governorship
before the end of her term. In the epilogue, another 200 pages on, the
famous call serves as a bookend: ?It is one year ago this week that I
got the call from John McCain.?

Paradoxically, the effect of the neatly spaced references to the call
is to de-emphasize it as a dramatic moment. It is presented not as a
climax, but as an interruption of matters more central to Palin?s
abiding concerns ? her family, Alaska?s prosperity, energy policy.
(She loves to rehearse the kind of wonkish details we associate with
Hillary Clinton, whom she admires.)

Indeed, it is a feature of this narrative that events we might have
expected to be foregrounded are elided or passed over. Palin
introduced herself to the nation with a powerful, electrifying speech
accepting McCain?s invitation to join the ticket. It gets half a
sentence (?I gave my speech?). Chapter Two ends with Palin, no longer
a mayor, wondering what she is going to do next. Four paragraphs into
Chapter Three we learn, almost parenthetically, that she had decided
to run for governor. (When and how did that happen?) The only event
that receives an extended discussion is her resignation. It is
important to her because as an act it reflects on her integrity, and
she has to be sure (as she eventually was) that she was doing it for
the right reasons.

Resigning was a moral act for which she was responsible. The
vice-presidential candidacy just happened to her; her account of it
reads like an extended ?what-I-did-on-my summer-and fall-vacation?
essay. For many politicians, family life is sandwiched in between long
hours in public service. Palin wants us to know that for her it is the
reverse. Political success is an accident that says nothing about you.
Success as a wife, mother and citizen says everything.

Do I believe any of this? It doesn?t matter. What matters is that she
does, and that her readers feel they are hearing an authentic voice. I
find the voice undeniably authentic (yes, I know the book was written
?with the help? of Lynn Vincent, but many books, including my most
recent one, are put together by an editor). It is the voice of
small-town America, with its folk wisdom, regional pride, common
sense, distrust of rhetoric (itself a rhetorical trope), love of
country and instinctive (not doctrinal) piety. It says, here are some
of the great things that have happened to me, but they are not what
makes my life great and American. (?An American life is an
extraordinary life.?) It says, don?t you agree with me that family,
freedom and the beauties of nature are what sustain us? And it also
says, vote for me next time. For it is the voice of a politician, of
the little girl who thought she could fly, tried it, scraped her
knees, dusted herself off and ?kept walking.?

In the end, perseverance, the ability to absorb defeat without falling
into defeatism, is the key to Palin?s character. It?s what makes her
run in both senses of the word and it is no accident that the physical
act of running is throughout the book the metaphor for joy and real
life. Her handlers in the McCain campaign wouldn?t let her run (a
mistake, I think, even at the level of photo-op), no doubt because
they feared another opportunity to go ?off script,? to ?go rogue.?

But run she does (and falls, but so what?), and when it is all over
and she has lost the vice presidency and resigned the governorship,
she goes on a long run and rehearses in her mind the eventful year she
has chronicled. And as she runs, she achieves equilibrium and hope:
?We?ve been through amazing days, and really, there wasn?t one thing
to complain about. I feel such freedom, such hope, such thankfulness
for our country, a place where nothing is hopeless.?

The message is clear. America can?t be stopped. I can?t be stopped.
I?ve stumbled and fallen, but I always get up and run again. Her
political opponents, especially those who dismissed Ronald Reagan
before he was elected, should take note. Wherever you are, you better
watch out. Sarah Palin is coming to town.


From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Wed Dec  9 01:31:27 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 00:31:27 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] More from Monckton on G/W
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912082231i2a082047m7d0d9d9c427fa0b5@mail.gmail.com>

Good evening All,

You may remember I posted a video a while back of a speech by climate
scientist Lord Monckton, speaking at one of the universities here in
Minnesota. Here is another he just gave in Berlin, leading up to the
Copenhagen climate conference that has new and even more interesting
information. I hope you'll give it a look and when you're done you'll
hopefully sign his petition against the cap and trade bill currently in
congress as well as his Instrument of repudiation opposing the treaty of
Copenhagen.

We have to get this madness stopped.

Rik
__________________________

Here are links to the videos

Lord Monckton on Climategate at the 2nd International Climate Conference,
Dec. 4, 2009 - 1of4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1UAFRlZtVE

Lord Monckton on Climategate at the 2nd International Climate Conference,
Dec. 4, 2009 - 2of4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk1wi9_P7C0&NR=1

Lord Monckton on Climategate at The 2nd International Climate Conference,
Dec. 4, 2009 - 3of4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y5zxdV0Nw8&feature=related

Lord Monckton on Climategate at the 2nd International Climate Conference,
Dec. 4, 2009 - 4of4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMIbDT7Se-s&feature=related


and here is a link to the CFACT web site where you can sign his petitions.


http://allpainnogain.cfact.org/

-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Wed Dec  9 06:22:57 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 06:22:57 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] The End Is Near
Message-ID: <8F458858AB61461AB8F3A38737E196E3@YOURB88038198E>

Brad said, "The End Is Near".

Did you say the fish wrapper's warning?

I still say that one Bradley Haslett is still young enough to run for public office.  But that takes, um, uption.

How is your public speaking.  When I get up before a group, they are usually asleep in 30 seconds.  You know, when you open your mouth to say something, you hear ooze an ahs saying "dust" eminates therefrom...

Bye the way, since your boss, that is president of FedX was at the White House, what report do we have about that?  Is he now a big Obama acolyte?

Have you ever sat down and talked to him about politics? 

Ed K
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec  9 08:03:27 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 07:03:27 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] The End Is Near
In-Reply-To: <8F458858AB61461AB8F3A38737E196E3@YOURB88038198E>
References: <8F458858AB61461AB8F3A38737E196E3@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <400985d70912090503p64e38724g9bec8e4d9a82108b@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

Haven't read anything about what Mr. Smith might have shared in DC.
He spends most of his time there anyway - owns a horse farm there and
part of the Redskins.  Our quarterly profits just came out and we beat
the estimates, mostly on revenues from the Pacific Rim. That will only
get better as more 777s come on line (and it also means an end to my
extended vacation). Smith is on record before the election of being
against almost every Obama economic position.

As for running for office, I live in a solid red enclave in a sea of
blue. It would require me to move, something I'm unwilling to do.
Frankly, being in Congress doesn't pay enough unless you're on the
take.  It might not be a popular idea, but I'm all for substantially
raising their pay and attracting better candidates.

Brad

On 12/9/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
> Brad said, "The End Is Near".
>
> Did you say the fish wrapper's warning?
>
> I still say that one Bradley Haslett is still young enough to run for public
> office.  But that takes, um, uption.
>
> How is your public speaking.  When I get up before a group, they are usually
> asleep in 30 seconds.  You know, when you open your mouth to say something,
> you hear ooze an ahs saying "dust" eminates therefrom...
>
> Bye the way, since your boss, that is president of FedX was at the White
> House, what report do we have about that?  Is he now a big Obama acolyte?
>
> Have you ever sat down and talked to him about politics?
>
> Ed K
>

From ekroposki at charter.net  Wed Dec  9 08:14:23 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 08:14:23 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Rik said, "
Message-ID: <6994233EFAFB4B30934CE67274C2BD0E@YOURB88038198E>

Rik quoted Tom Sowell, "Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ..." Thomas Sowell

Great quote.  Sounds like Washington, D.C.

Try this Sowell quote in response to a political economic question, "Your question would require a better answer than I can condense into an e-mail.  Jonah Goldberg's book "Liberal Fascism" is excellent."

Just a thought.

Ed K
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec  9 11:31:47 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 10:31:47 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Another Canary
Message-ID: <400985d70912090831j564b85bfxcf26349d07534374@mail.gmail.com>

Here's the short version of the story - Greece can't pay its bills.
Think it can't happen here?  Look at California.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,665679,00.html

Brad

From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec  9 12:18:10 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 11:18:10 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] More from Monckton on G/W
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912082231i2a082047m7d0d9d9c427fa0b5@mail.gmail.com>
References: <6634e19e0912082231i2a082047m7d0d9d9c427fa0b5@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912090918p55bb7e08pef15da6613e6b95c@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

Monckton is correct.  That won't stop the thugs from Chicago (see
below).  They don't give a shit about your health from either global
warming or your access to health care. The POTUS is as corrupt as his
Marxist brother (a Muslim btw), a thug in Kenya.  These people don't
care.  The sheeple are catching on and that is why the polls are
accelerating in their decline for support for "I-One".  We have an
election in 11 months.  That's a start.  The "nuclear" option is to
stop funding the madness.  Just quit. If we collectively stop paying
taxes, the whole thing grinds to a halt. Will it go that far?  Who
knows, I never would have predicted it would go this far.

Stop the madness indeed!

Brad

-------------------

December 9, 2009
Our Way or ... Well, Our Way
By David Harsanyi

We don't need a cap-and-trade deal. What we need is a RICO trial.

Every now and then, apparently, history challenges us with a crisis
far too important to be left to the democratic process or the vagaries
of public opinion. In these instances, the enlightened, the powerful,
the moral must act swiftly.

So sayeth the Obama administration this week, empowering the
Environmental Protection Agency to police greenhouse gases as a danger
to public health and welfare, thus giving the agency discretion to
regulate ... well, anything it pleases -- or, I should say, whatever
is left.

"These long-overdue findings cement 2009's place in history as the
year when the United States government began addressing the challenge
of greenhouse-gas pollution and seizing the opportunity of
clean-energy reform," explained EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. "This
continues our work towards clean energy reform that will cut GHGs and
reduce the dependence on foreign oil that threatens our national
security and our economy."

Jackson, of course, is an administrator, not a policymaker. She is
charged neither with meditating on our energy cravings nor with
solving our national security dilemmas. She isn't charged with
tackling the nation's economic problems, either. In fact, any more
assistance from D.C. on that front and we all will be peddling frozen
apples in the bruising cold.

What Jackson has done, though, is inadvertently offer the strongest
case against the EPA's dubious decision on carbon dioxide. If the
EPA's actions really converge on as many spheres of public life as
Jackson asserts, then a single crusading regulatory agency is in no
position -- and should have no authority -- to regulate all of them.

No worries, we're told. The EPA wouldn't do it. It's a bluff. It has
other things in mind. In this case, it is all about hastening
much-needed "action" on climate change by employing a technique
universally known as blackmail.

The timing of the EPA announcement gives President Barack Obama the
ammunition he needs to make a climate deal in Copenhagen, where
leaders from around the world have gathered for one last chance to
save mankind -- until they all fly to by-then temperate Mexico next
year for the last last chance to save mankind.

Obama, as we know, has no authority to enter into a binding
international treaty (isn't the Constitution irritating?), as any
treaty must be ratified by the Senate -- a Senate that won't pass a
cap-and-trade scheme any time soon if we're lucky.

Now that the EPA can duplicate any suicidal emissions pact world
leaders can cook up (exempt: emerging nations, poor nations and
nations that value prosperity), the president would not need to ratify
a thing. And who needs treaties when the Obama administration already
has threatened the Senate with unilateral regulations on greenhouse
gases unless a cap-and-trade bill is passed? The administration need
only mirror the agreement it can't make.

In effect, the EPA is warning most of the nation's businesses that
burdensome regulations are coming unless the president is suitably
mollified with a law that severely caps carbon emissions. In other
words, figure out your own punishment, kids, or we'll have to come up
with one for you. You know, choice.

The administration also acts as if this were the last chance to save
mankind, when, in fact -- on the heels of the ClimateGate scandal,
sagging poll numbers on warming hysteria and genuine economic worries
(worries that would be exacerbated by more growth-inhibiting
regulations) -- it might only be its last chance to cram through a
framework for harsh emissions standards.

Granted, there are a few obstacles standing in the way. Votes. People.
Process. And so on ...
Reach columnist David Harsanyi at dharsanyi at denverpost.com.

On 12/9/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Good evening All,
>
> You may remember I posted a video a while back of a speech by climate
> scientist Lord Monckton, speaking at one of the universities here in
> Minnesota. Here is another he just gave in Berlin, leading up to the
> Copenhagen climate conference that has new and even more interesting
> information. I hope you'll give it a look and when you're done you'll
> hopefully sign his petition against the cap and trade bill currently in
> congress as well as his Instrument of repudiation opposing the treaty of
> Copenhagen.
>
> We have to get this madness stopped.
>
> Rik
> __________________________
>
> Here are links to the videos
>
> Lord Monckton on Climategate at the 2nd International Climate Conference,
> Dec. 4, 2009 - 1of4
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1UAFRlZtVE
>
> Lord Monckton on Climategate at the 2nd International Climate Conference,
> Dec. 4, 2009 - 2of4
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk1wi9_P7C0&NR=1
>
> Lord Monckton on Climategate at The 2nd International Climate Conference,
> Dec. 4, 2009 - 3of4
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y5zxdV0Nw8&feature=related
>
> Lord Monckton on Climategate at the 2nd International Climate Conference,
> Dec. 4, 2009 - 4of4
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMIbDT7Se-s&feature=related
>
>
> and here is a link to the CFACT web site where you can sign his petitions.
>
>
> http://allpainnogain.cfact.org/
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec  9 13:16:20 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 12:16:20 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] And So It Begins
Message-ID: <400985d70912091016m4e5dacb0tb5640a9b006d974f@mail.gmail.com>

They did this to Palin as Governor, now they aim for Bachmann. As most
of you know, I was at that rally.  We don't need a freakin' permit as
individual citizens and we don't need permission to stand on the lawn
of the damned Capitol that we pay for, azzholes. We've seen your
tactics before (like Obama having all his opponents thrown off the
ballot).  We have your SEIU thugs beating Kenneth Gladney in St. Louis
and calling him a nigger on videotape. In other words, we understand
your game plan.  It will not stand!

Brad

---------------------


Watchdog group requests probe of Bachmann health care rally
By Associated Press  |   Wednesday, November 18, 2009  |
http://www.bostonherald.com

ST. PAUL, Minn. - An ethics watchdog group said Tuesday that U.S. Rep.
Michele Bachmann misused her official Web site to promote a Washington
rally against the Democrats? proposed health care overhaul.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, asked
the Office of Congressional Ethics to determine whether the Minnesota
Republican violated House rules barring members of Congress from using
their official Web sites to solicit support for their positions.

The group also said Bachmann mislabeled the Nov. 5 event as a press
conference and failed to get a permit for the gathering of thousands
at the U.S. Capitol. CREW?s complaint said reporters weren?t allowed
to ask questions at the event.

The staff director in the Office of Congressional Ethics didn?t
immediately return a phone message.

A spokesman in Bachmann?s office referred questions to the Committee
on House Administration, which oversees spending and rules for House
members. Committee spokesman Kyle Anderson said an initial review
found that Bachmann?s event "meets the necessary criteria to qualify
as a press event."

He didn?t respond to a question about the use of her Web site to
promote the gathering.

The rally drew thousands of conservatives, who chanted "Kill the bill"
and "We want Michele." Bachmann had a starring role after inviting the
public during television appearances posted on her official Web site.
She also posted a press conference notice on Nov. 2 titled, "Bachmann
Calls on the American People to Bring the Town Hall To Washington."

CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said the complaint revolves
around the use of public money to promote a political position.

"When a member misuses their official Web site for this kind of
rallying troops for legislation, we the taxpayers are paying for it,"
Sloan said. "This was clearly political."

If the Office of Congressional Ethics finds the complaint valid, it
can refer the case to the House Ethics Committee for sanctions.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view.bg?articleid=1212885


From ekroposki at charter.net  Wed Dec  9 13:38:22 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 13:38:22 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Attachment speaks for itself
Message-ID: <2D7684CC053540388416E3C48F0D71C3@YOURB88038198E>


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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec  9 13:40:44 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 12:40:44 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] I Sued The Federal Government!
Message-ID: <400985d70912091040s5becb0a0x5f2319b1c0fc907e@mail.gmail.com>

Yeah, she did!  She also took on Big Oil (read "Sarah Takes On Big
Oil" - written by industry insiders) and kicked some ass.  They moved.

The last thing we need is one cult replaced by another cult.  Palin
isn't a miracle worker and doesn't pretend to be, on the contrary, she
believes you are primarily responsible for your own family.

This little woman obviously doesn't know her place.

Brad

-----------------

(from the WaPo)

Copenhagen's political science

By Sarah Palin
Wednesday, December 9, 2009

With the publication of damaging e-mails from a climate research
center in Britain, the radical environmental movement appears to face
a tipping point. The revelation of appalling actions by so-called
climate change experts allows the American public to finally
understand the concerns so many of us have articulated on this issue.

"Climate-gate," as the e-mails and other documents from the Climate
Research Unit at the University of East Anglia have become known,
exposes a highly politicized scientific circle -- the same circle
whose work underlies efforts at the Copenhagen climate change
conference. The agenda-driven policies being pushed in Copenhagen
won't change the weather, but they would change our economy for the
worse.

The e-mails reveal that leading climate "experts" deliberately
destroyed records, manipulated data to "hide the decline" in global
temperatures, and tried to silence their critics by preventing them
from publishing in peer-reviewed journals. What's more, the documents
show that there was no real consensus even within the CRU crowd. Some
scientists had strong doubts about the accuracy of estimates of
temperatures from centuries ago, estimates used to back claims that
more recent temperatures are rising at an alarming rate.

This scandal obviously calls into question the proposals being pushed
in Copenhagen. I've always believed that policy should be based on
sound science, not politics. As governor of Alaska, I took a stand
against politicized science when I sued the federal government over
its decision to list the polar bear as an endangered species despite
the fact that the polar bear population had more than doubled. I got
clobbered for my actions by radical environmentalists nationwide, but
I stood by my view that adding a healthy species to the endangered
list under the guise of "climate change impacts" was an abuse of the
Endangered Species Act. This would have irreversibly hurt both
Alaska's economy and the nation's, while also reducing opportunities
for responsible development.

Our representatives in Copenhagen should remember that good
environmental policymaking is about weighing real-world costs and
benefits -- not pursuing a political agenda. That's not to say I deny
the reality of some changes in climate -- far from it. I saw the
impact of changing weather patterns firsthand while serving as
governor of our only Arctic state. I was one of the first governors to
create a subcabinet to deal specifically with the issue and to
recommend common-sense policies to respond to the coastal erosion,
thawing permafrost and retreating sea ice that affect Alaska's
communities and infrastructure.

But while we recognize the occurrence of these natural, cyclical
environmental trends, we can't say with assurance that man's
activities cause weather changes. We can say, however, that any
potential benefits of proposed emissions reduction policies are far
outweighed by their economic costs. And those costs are real. Unlike
the proposals China and India offered prior to Copenhagen -- which
actually allow them to increase their emissions -- President Obama's
proposal calls for serious cuts in our own long-term carbon emissions.
Meeting such targets would require Congress to pass its cap-and-tax
plans, which will result in job losses and higher energy costs (as
Obama admitted during the campaign). That's not exactly what most
Americans are hoping for these days. And as public opposition
continues to stall Congress's cap-and-tax legislation, Environmental
Protection Agency bureaucrats plan to regulate carbon emissions
themselves, doing an end run around the American people.

In fact, we're not the only nation whose people are questioning
climate change schemes. In the European Union, energy prices
skyrocketed after it began a cap-and-tax program. Meanwhile,
Australia's Parliament recently defeated a cap-and-tax bill. Surely
other nations will follow suit, particularly as the climate e-mail
scandal continues to unfold.

In his inaugural address, President Obama declared his intention to
"restore science to its rightful place." But instead of staying home
from Copenhagen and sending a message that the United States will not
be a party to fraudulent scientific practices, the president has upped
the ante. He plans to fly in at the climax of the conference in hopes
of sealing a "deal." Whatever deal he gets, it will be no deal for the
American people. What Obama really hopes to bring home from Copenhagen
is more pressure to pass the Democrats' cap-and-tax proposal. This is
a political move. The last thing America needs is misguided
legislation that will raise taxes and cost jobs -- particularly when
the push for such legislation rests on agenda-driven science.

Without trustworthy science and with so much at stake, Americans
should be wary about what comes out of this politicized conference.
The president should boycott Copenhagen.

The writer was the 2008 Republican nominee for vice president and
governor of Alaska from 2006 to 2009.

From ekroposki at charter.net  Wed Dec  9 14:07:25 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 14:07:25 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Very High Winds
Message-ID: <202CEE67CE414C678500E340914F7E90@YOURB88038198E>

Outside in Greenville, SC, we are getting very high winds with very powerful gust.  Local weather says over 40 mph presently.  Heading northeast.  Gust probably 50+.

You guys in line might spread word about winds heading north.

Temperatures moderate right now, supposed to cool off later.

Ed K
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec  9 14:20:13 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 13:20:13 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Attachment speaks for itself
In-Reply-To: <2D7684CC053540388416E3C48F0D71C3@YOURB88038198E>
References: <2D7684CC053540388416E3C48F0D71C3@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <400985d70912091120m527d747apca669a4cf94c8782@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

Thanks for the vote of confidence, but in the interest of full
disclosure, I have an exit strategy planned. Frankly, I was ready to
pack-up and help open my employer's new Hong Kong pilot domicile last
year, but my very proud American wife has no interest in living in
China again full time. Like a lot of immigrants, she has a greater
will to "fight the good fight" than some of us "more mature"
immigrants do. Fan and I are hardly wealthy people, but to quote my
Dad on the occasion of his leaving a job (and Dad was never far from
being broke) over safety concerns, "Louis, do you have so much money
you don't need to work? "  "No, I have just enough money that I don't
need to work for you". We have just enough money (and in the right
places) to sit things out if they get too uncomfortable.

Frankly, that is not a winning attitude or successful formula for a
politician. You have to promise something to somebody to get elected
in the current environment. This all reminds me of a passage from "A
Company Of Heroes" by Dale Van Every. The early settlers who floated
down the Holston river past the natural boundary of the original 13
Colonies into East Tennessee bitched to the Continental Congress about
their lack of support with the struggle against the Indians.  The
short version of a long story - General Washington basically said,
"I've got bigger fish to fry".  That's exactly where we are right now.
Will government 'of the people, by the people, for the people' survive
or not?

I'm hedging my bets (with a place to go and some savings when I get
there). That is hardly a "profile in courage". In fact, it is
chickenshit!  Either way, this chicken will survive to fight another
day.

Now you wonder why I don't run for office?

Brad

PS - The root word of Capitalism is "capital".  It moves at the speed
of  a mouse click.  Capital has taken a serious look at the "Savior
from Chicago" and clicked somewhere else.




On 12/9/09, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
>

From ekroposki at charter.net  Wed Dec  9 15:09:31 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 15:09:31 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Speaking for himself
Message-ID: <68403F7A03404BF49E1CCF27518F5BA0@YOURB88038198E>

Brad,

Maybe I am asking the wrong person?  Maybe I should ask Fran if you should run?  What is her email address?

If you were ready to cut and run, then you would loose nothing by trying, that is running.  

Why not ask your boss?  See what he thinks?  Do you have access to his email address?

Jim Demint helps recruit candidates for Senate, maybe he will speak to you about running for congress.  I will ask him the next time I see him.  Probably not until after Christmas, so relax.

"Leadership rests not only upon ability, not only upon capacity; having the capacity to lead is not enough. The leader must be willing to use it. His leadership is then based on truth and character. There must be truth in the purpose and will power in the character."  Vince Lombardi



Ed K


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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Wed Dec  9 20:12:10 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 19:12:10 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Ever wonder about those unemployment numbers
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912091712x2c6055d1yf5a33281d5b5da35@mail.gmail.com>

Good evening All,

Are those gov't numbers the real deal, yes, no ......maybe??

Here's a cute video that explains it all for you.

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulu3SCAmeBA&feature=player_embedded

Rik

-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Wed Dec  9 20:50:09 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 19:50:09 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] We wonder why we're in trouble
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912091750k1fa3ef87h4de6548e366f890a@mail.gmail.com>

Good evening All,

Ever wonder why we're in financial trouble. Watch, you won't believe this
shit.

Rik

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJtS9CuyuaU&feature=player_embedded#

-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec  9 21:18:59 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 20:18:59 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] We wonder why we're in trouble
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912091750k1fa3ef87h4de6548e366f890a@mail.gmail.com>
References: <6634e19e0912091750k1fa3ef87h4de6548e366f890a@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912091818u7e91de8dx3c84415af9d52c12@mail.gmail.com>

One word - SHEEPLE!

On 12/9/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Good evening All,
>
> Ever wonder why we're in financial trouble. Watch, you won't believe this
> shit.
>
> Rik
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJtS9CuyuaU&feature=player_embedded#
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec  9 21:22:20 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 20:22:20 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Ever wonder about those unemployment
	numbers
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912091712x2c6055d1yf5a33281d5b5da35@mail.gmail.com>
References: <6634e19e0912091712x2c6055d1yf5a33281d5b5da35@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912091822v464bd0b1l3a82497e0511abd3@mail.gmail.com>

Even Jon Stewart understands it -

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-december-7-2009/american-idle

On 12/9/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Good evening All,
>
> Are those gov't numbers the real deal, yes, no ......maybe??
>
> Here's a cute video that explains it all for you.
>
> Enjoy
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulu3SCAmeBA&feature=player_embedded
>
> Rik
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Wed Dec  9 23:59:29 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 22:59:29 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Ever wonder about those unemployment
	numbers
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912091822v464bd0b1l3a82497e0511abd3@mail.gmail.com>
References: <6634e19e0912091712x2c6055d1yf5a33281d5b5da35@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912091822v464bd0b1l3a82497e0511abd3@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912092059m30426112h68a674c9ef49701e@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

A shitty hand indeed. I agree with Jon

Rik

On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 8:22 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Even Jon Stewart understands it -
>
> http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-december-7-2009/american-idle
>
> On 12/9/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Good evening All,
> >
> > Are those gov't numbers the real deal, yes, no ......maybe??
> >
> > Here's a cute video that explains it all for you.
> >
> > Enjoy
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulu3SCAmeBA&feature=player_embedded
> >
> > Rik
> >
> > --
> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> means
> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 10 07:46:28 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:46:28 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Safe School Czar
Message-ID: <400985d70912100446i7d60866ah72057bbb1604ce5b@mail.gmail.com>

Perhaps you recall, this issue was addressed briefly on these pages a
few months ago. There's so many strange units in the Obama
administration, radicals, felons, etc., that the public can't focus on
all of them, or even a few of them.  The MSM doesn't even bother.
Let's have another look at the "Safe Schools Czar" -

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/09/obamas-risky-sex-czar/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0NRI-Dla88&feature=player_embedded

Elections have consequences!

Brad

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Thu Dec 10 11:27:39 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:27:39 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Safe School Czar
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912100446i7d60866ah72057bbb1604ce5b@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912100446i7d60866ah72057bbb1604ce5b@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912100827t4d382fdfyc570351d8c19d96e@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

I wish somebody could show ONE czarship Owannabe has handed out where we
haven't found a freak, commie, or just a plain friggin' fruitcake nutcase.
There's something wrong with US if we allow this man to continue. This man
is quite simply  an embarrassment. I'll tell you, this man raised the hairs
on the back of my neck right from the start back in '07. But even though I
knew instinctively there was something wrong with Owannabe, I would have
never dreamed it could be THIS MUCH.

Rik

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 6:46 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Perhaps you recall, this issue was addressed briefly on these pages a
> few months ago. There's so many strange units in the Obama
> administration, radicals, felons, etc., that the public can't focus on
> all of them, or even a few of them.  The MSM doesn't even bother.
> Let's have another look at the "Safe Schools Czar" -
>
> http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/09/obamas-risky-sex-czar/
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0NRI-Dla88&feature=player_embedded
>
> Elections have consequences!
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Thu Dec 10 11:58:30 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:58:30 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] The gov't doesn't get it
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912100858s1f82dc3egab510d9639c2de14@mail.gmail.com>

Good morning All,

There are a few reasons why I am retired now. Some have nothing to do with
the gov't, but, one of the biggest ones is, I was just plain tired of being
a babysitter to my employees for the gov't. The added expense and
frustration with each new gov't regulation made me so glad to be away from
being an employer that .... well I just can't describe what a relief is was
to be away from all that when I quit. And yet, the gov't can't understand
why nobody wants to expand.

I doubt we'll see much real, robust economic growth until the gov't figures
out that they need to get the hell out of the way. Not much chance of that
any time soon with this bunch of statists running the show.

Rik

>From the Daily Reckoning

*The Credit Crunch Continues*
By Douglas French

The credit crunch continues, with businesses large and small finding that
their bankers remain exceedingly stingy in the wake of the 2008 financial
debacle.

"We need to see banks making more loans to their business customers,"
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairwoman, Sheila Bair, told
reporters recently after the FDIC released figures showing that the amount
of loans outstanding in the nation's banks fell $210.4 billion in the third
quarter of 2009. That is the largest quarterly decline since the FDIC began
tracking loans in 1984.

If we dig inside these data, we see that business lending has contracted at
a much faster pace than consumer lending. This trend is not merely a
function of contracting economic activity, it is also a function of the fact
that banks have been deemphasizing business lending for many, many years.

Numbers from the FDIC reflect this shift over the past decade. At the end of
the third quarter of 1999, the assets of the nation's banks totaled $5.5
trillion. As of September 30 of this year, bank assets had grown to $13.2
trillion. But commercial and industrial loans outstanding barely budged,
only growing from $947 billion a decade ago to $1.27 trillion by September
30 this year. Meanwhile, loans secured by real estate increased from $1.43
trillion in the fall of 1999 to $4.5 trillion this fall. And investment in
securities doubled, rising from $1.03 trillion to $2.4 trillion.

This secular shift away from "productive" lending to businesses toward
"nonproductive" lending to consumers creates a new kind of structural
weakness for the American economy.

Robert Prechter makes the
point<http://clicks.dailyreckoning.com//t/AQ/uM4/vpE/AAEOfA/AQ/Ab2aug/Pfo9>in
the November edition of the
*Elliott Wave Theorist* that banks have lent sparingly to businesses for the
past 35 years. Businesses report that since 1974, ease of borrowing was
either *worse* or *the same* as it was the prior quarter, meaning that - at
least according to business owners - loans have been increasingly hard to
get the entire time.

Unfortunately, from a macroeconomic perspective, lending to consumers rather
businesses is a suboptimal emphasis/counterproductive exercise.

Prechter writes in his book *Conquer the Crash* that the lending process for
businesses "adds value to the economy," while consumer loans are
counterproductive, adding costs but no value. The consumer may call his
borrowing "productive," but it surely does not create capital, i.e., build
shops or factories or manufacture tools and dies that enhance the
productivity of human labor. The banking system, with its focus on consumer
loans, has shifted capital from the productive part of the economy, people
who have demonstrated a superior ability to invest or produce (creditors) to
those who have demonstrated primarily a superior ability to consume
(debtors).

Total household debt peaked in 2008 at $13.8 trillion, with $10.5 trillion
of that being mortgage debt. And as Sean Corrigan
explained<http://clicks.dailyreckoning.com//t/AQ/uM4/vpE/AAEOfQ/AQ/Ab2aug/EPt1>,
"Houses are nonproductive assets, financed with a great deal of leverage."
And while homeowners reap the services provided by homes slowly over time,
houses "deliver a large dollop of uncompensated purchasing power up front to
their builders or to those cashing out of the market," making housing "the
ultimate engines of created credit on the upswing, and...among the more
dangerous deflators on the way down."

In the last decade, the US system of fractional-reserve banking has created
what Frank Shostak
calls<http://clicks.dailyreckoning.com//t/AQ/uM4/vpE/AAEOfg/AQ/Ab2aug/Dy6O>"empty
money," which masquerades as genuine money when in fact "nothing has
been saved." This explosion of money was created through the banking system,
as consumers gorged themselves on nonproductive assets like houses, autos,
and big-screen TVs. These purchases gave the illusion of economic growth and
good times, but in reality weakened the process of wealth formation; instead
of building capital, this system wasted it.

Meanwhile, businesses that create wealth-producing jobs have stagnated. The
workforce was induced into working for enterprises that represent
malinvestment: home and commercial construction, as well as other real-
estate-related jobs, and businesses dependent on consumer consumption.

Unfortunately, the federal and state governments constantly enact
legislation that makes the employment of workers more costly and in turn
makes business expansion riskier. So wealth-producing businesses, like metal
fabrication and the like, have every incentive not to borrow money from a
bank to expand their operations and not to wander into a wider thicket of
onerous employment rules by hiring more workers. Instead, the entrepreneur
puts energy into obtaining a low-interest mortgage and buying a big house,
or dabbling in real-estate development and speculation. Besides, up until
this current meltdown the entrepreneur could obtain a real-estate loan much
more easily than a business loan.

Those in Washington are doing all they can to promote the continued
destruction of capital and wealth. Policies like "cash for clunkers"; tax
credits for home buyers; the bailing out of the big banks, Fannie, Freddie,
and the auto companies; and keeping interest rates near zero only serve to
promote speculation and consumer consumption. Instead, Washington should be
lowering taxes and the costs of hiring employees, especially in industries
that produce capital and wealth.

Regards,

Douglas French,
for *The Daily Reckoning*

-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Thu Dec 10 12:41:27 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:41:27 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Al Sharpton blast Tiger
Message-ID: <02E4D1D6D8114A858B3FE3D0630C4130@YOURB88038198E>

The Rev. Al Sharpton held a press conference today to blast Tiger Woods for the lack of diversity among his mistresses. Sharpton claims that the lack of African-American women among Woods' harem will have a negative affect on the black community, specifically young black girls.

"Why is it that a man who calls himself black can't bring himself to cheat on his wife with a black woman?" said Sharpton, speaking to a group of supporters in Harlem . "What does it say to young black girls everywhere when you pass them over? Shame on you, Tiger Woods. What would your daddy say?"

Sharpton, who has long championed taking black women as mistresses, said that today's black athletes need to stop neglecting black women when it comes to extramarital affairs, and should follow the examples of positive black role models such as Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King, Jr., both of whom cheated on their wives with black women. Sharpton also stressed that cheating with African-American women would help the black community financially by giving black girls the chance to sell their stories to tabloids and gossip magazines.

Added Sharpton, "I'm not asking you to stop cheating on your wives, I'm just asking you to give back to your own community."

 
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Thu Dec 10 13:08:18 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:08:18 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Broke??? Wonder why???
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912101008v5f34f4e6q478725c0fe8107f7@mail.gmail.com>

Good afternoon All,

Ah, the stimulus .... it's so .... well, stimulating. I get a tingle up my
leg every time I think about it.

If you're wondering what new foolishness your money is being spent on today,
here's a few examples.

Rik

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/12/stimulus-checkup-100-ridiculous.html

Wednesday, December 09, 2009
 Stimulus Checkup - 100 Ridiculous Projects Funded by the American Recovery
Act<http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/12/stimulus-checkup-100-ridiculous.html>

 Inquiring minds are interested in projects that Put America To Work. Please
consider this Stimulus
Checkup<http://mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=41c9dff7-2318-4777-ab6a-73a0841cefe0>courtesy
of Senator John McCain and Senator Tom Coburn.

Good jobs for millions of Americans.
Investments in priorities that create sustainable economic growth for the
future.
Those were the promises made to uneasy Americans when Congress approved the
$787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or economic stimulus
bill, in February.

Nine months later, with over $200 billion of stimulus funding already
spent,1 the rolls of the unemployed have grown by millions and, by any
measure, more jobs have been lost than created.

Since the stimulus bill was enacted in February, nearly three million
Americans have lost their jobs and the percentage of people who are without
work has risen to 10 percent. Many who had been looking to the government
for help have already lost hope.

As this and the last report, 100 Stimulus Projects: A Second Opinion,
suggests billions of dollars of stimulus funding have been wasted,
mismanaged, or directed towards silly and shortsighted projects. Many
projects may not produce the types of jobs that most Americans had hoped for
or expected.

Some of the close to seven billion dollars in projects in Stimulus
Checkupcreate few jobs; benefit private interests over the public
good; or make
improvements where they are not necessary. Some send money to companies
facing fraud charges. Others take millions of dollars to do work local
officials and experts admit are not needed or will not help.

Stimulus money has been, or will be, spent on dinner cruises, golf courses,
puppet shows and stimulus road signs. Many Americans will question whether
investing $787 billion in these projects are the highest national
priorities.

....

In the previous report, one hundred questionable projects were identified
that did not appear to hold out promise for helping the economy grow. The
Administration was quick to review these projects and to its credit
addressed a number of them. In the months that followed, many more
questionable stimulus projects costing millions and even billions of dollars
were identified. This follow-up, Stimulus Checkup, takes a closer look at
100 more projects that raise questions about how stimulus money has been
used so far.

Sincerely,
Tom Coburn, M.D.
U.S. Senator

John McCain
U.S. Senator

100 Ridiculous Projects Sample

1. "Almost Empty" Mall Awarded Energy Grant ($5 million)
The Department of Energy has announced an award for up to $5 million6 to
install a geothermal energy system capable of heating an --almost empty|| mall
in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

2. Renovations for Federal Building as Expensive as New Building ($133
million)
Taxpayers in Oregon may be surprised to learn that the largest stimulus
project in their state is not a new road or bridge, but a $133 million
makeover for the federal building in downtown Portland. The money will go
toward --greening the Edith Green/Wendell Wyatt Federal Building in the hope
of making it a model for energy efficient government offices in the
Northwest. That said, for $133 million some may wonder why they did not
simply tear it down and start over.

Agency officials expect to construct a type of vegetative skin--made of
plants--on the exterior of the building, to help with heating and cooling
costs.

In 2007, a new federal building was constructed in downtown San Francisco
with similar state-of-the-art energy efficiency features for $144
million--nearly the same cost to merely renovate the Portland Federal
Building. Both buildings are eighteen stories tall, built with energy
efficient technologies, and house federal agency offices. The major
difference is that the San Francisco building is much larger, with an
additional 100,000 usable square feet in comparison with its counterpart in
Portland.

3. DTV Advertising Agency Generates Three Jobs ($5.9 million)
An advertising agency that ultimately reported little job creation received
a multi-million dollar contract to help the government overcome a poorly
managed transition to digital television, only to report three jobs created.

4. Research to Develop Supersonic Corporate Jets ($4.7 Million)
Lockheed Martin will receive a total of more than $21 million in federal
money--with $4.7 million funded through the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act--from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) to advance research for supersonic jet travel. High ticket costs,
fuel-guzzling and the infamous sonic --boom helped doom commercial supersonic
travel in the past; the last Concorde jet flew in 2003.

5. Water Pipeline to a Money-Losing Golf Course ($2.2 million)
A $2.2 million stimulus grant will help pay for new pipes to pump recycled
water to the Sharp Park Golf Course in San Francisco, California.
Unfortunately, the golf course may not exist for much longer. The City
Council is considering closing the public course over concerns for the
California red-legged frog and the San Francisco garter snake that live in
the area.

7. Program to Control Home Appliances From a Remote Location ($787,250)
Fifty homes on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts will participate in a test
program to allow an outside party to control their energy use, --Big Brother
style. The initiative will allow participating households to purchase
discounted appliances from General Electric (GE) that are capable of
communicating with - and being controlled by - an off-site computer system.

20. Repaved Georgia Road . . . Getting Repaved Again ($88,000)
Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) contractors are using stimulus
funds to repave a busy street in Atlanta--part of which was repaved just two
years ago. Rebecca Serna, a local bicyclist, noted that the existing road is
--pretty much the smoothest ride in town right now, adding about the new
project, --I don't know if it's necessary, but it's nice.

23. Studying the Icelandic Arctic Environment in the Viking Age ($94,902)
The University of Massachusetts-Boston received an almost $95,000 stimulus
grant to --count pollen grains collected from farms in Iceland and allowed
researchers to continue studying the role the arctic environment played in
the evolution of civic life during the Viking Age.

33. Study on "Hookup" Behavior of Female College Coeds ($219,000)
The National Institute of Health (NIH) is using stimulus funds to pay for a
year-long $219,000 study to follow female college students for a year to
determine whether young women are more likely to --hookup -- the college
equivalent of casual sex -- after drinking

35. Study of Wildflowers in a Ghost Town ($448,995)
A few dilapidated buildings are largely what remains in Gothic, Colorado, a
ghost town that is also home to the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory.
Over the next five years, however, Gothic will host a $448,995 National
Science Foundation study by Dr. David Inouye on the impact of climate change
on the town's wildflowers.

38. Recovering Crab Pots Lost At Sea ($700,000)
A $700,000 grant will pay for 48 people to help Oregon crabbers recover crab
pots they have lost at sea. The two-year project expects to yield 2,000 lost
pots a year. Oregon crabbers reportedly lose an estimated 15,000 crab pots a
year. The effort will use 10 boats, planes, and a telephone hotline for
people to phone in crab pot sightings. If all 4,000 pots are recovered as
expected, the grantees will spend an average of $175 per crab pot, though
John's Sporting Goods in nearby Everett, Washington sells new crab pots
online for as little as $19.95.

50. Arizona Ants Work While Some Arizonans Remain Unemployed ($950,000)
Two major universities in the state are receiving a combined $950,000 to
examine the division of labor in ant colonies. Arizona State University was
awarded $500,000 in stimulus funding by the National Science Foundation,
while the University of Arizona will receive $450,000.

51. Study On Why Young Men Do Not Like Condoms ($221,355)
Indiana University professors received $221,355 in economic stimulus funds
to study why young men do not like to wear condoms.

56. Homeland Security Funds Assist Boat Tours of Alcatraz ($50,783)
A ferry service that once contracted for the federal government will receive
over $50,000 in stimulus homeland security grants, despite no longer doing
any work for the government.

60. Town of 838 to Renovate Old Hotel into a Welcome Center ($300,000)
Tourism may not be booming in Crofton, Kentucky (population 838),267 but the
town has received $300,000 in stimulus funds to convert an abandoned
downtown hotel into a visitors' center.

79. Money for Lighthouse Repairs on Uninhabited Island (Nearly $1.5 million)
Located on a barrier island accessible only by water, Monomoy National
Wildlife Refuge on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is an area that has been empty
for decades. However, the Department of the Interior will spend nearly $1.5
million in federal stimulus funds to fix the lighthouse and other facilities
on the Refuge. The project will restore the lighthouse, living quarters and
an oil shed.

This is totally outrageous but not unexpected. Every bit of this is pure
waste. It is exactly what happens when government gives out free money.

Supposedly this waste adds to GDP. Government spending, no matter how absurd
or destructive adds to GDP by definition. And with all this money sloshing
around, the only bump we got out of this was a 2.8% rise in GDP, no doubt
most of it wasted.

And if that's not bad enough, Geithner is extending TARP and will use up to
$550 billion as a petty cash slush fund for purposes other than intended by
Congress. See TARP Extended, Now a "Petty Cash Drawer for Politically
Favored Interests"<http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/12/tarp-extended-now-petty-cash-drawer-for.html>for
details.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
<http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Thu Dec 10 13:12:52 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:12:52 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Al Sharpton blast Tiger
In-Reply-To: <02E4D1D6D8114A858B3FE3D0630C4130@YOURB88038198E>
References: <02E4D1D6D8114A858B3FE3D0630C4130@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912101012v15548ae0lba73b8c8267832b4@mail.gmail.com>

Yeah Tiger, let's be showin' them little nappy-headed hos some respect!

Rik

On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 11:41 AM, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:

>   The Rev. Al Sharpton held a press conference today to blast Tiger Woods
> for the lack of diversity among his mistresses. Sharpton claims that the
> lack of African-American women among Woods' harem will have a negative
> affect on the black community, specifically young black girls.
>
> "Why is it that a man who calls himself black can't bring himself to cheat
> on his wife with a black woman?" said Sharpton, speaking to a group of
> supporters in Harlem . "What does it say to young black girls everywhere
> when you pass them over? Shame on you, Tiger Woods. What would your daddy
> say?"
>
> Sharpton, who has long championed taking black women as mistresses, said
> that today's black athletes need to stop neglecting black women when it
> comes to extramarital affairs, and should follow the examples of positive
> black role models such as Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King, Jr., both of
> whom cheated on their wives with black women. Sharpton also stressed that
> cheating with African-American women would help the black community
> financially by giving black girls the chance to sell their stories to
> tabloids and gossip magazines.
>
> Added Sharpton, "I'm not asking you to stop cheating on your wives, I'm
> just asking you to give back to your own community."
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>


-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
-------------- next part --------------
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 10 13:58:32 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:58:32 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Al Sharpton blast Tiger
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912101012v15548ae0lba73b8c8267832b4@mail.gmail.com>
References: <02E4D1D6D8114A858B3FE3D0630C4130@YOURB88038198E>
	<6634e19e0912101012v15548ae0lba73b8c8267832b4@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912101058s8b5a457i9e44a5f00abc4b21@mail.gmail.com>

You guys are joking, but the idiots in DC are trying to be serious
(see below from the WaPo). Golf is the one sport that I'm probably a
natural at (sucked at all the others) and play one or two rounds a
year (depending on how often one of my slant-eyed golf fanatic friends
invite me). One of the things I admire about Tiger Woods is that he
doesn't play the 'race card'.  That said, I do have a bone to pick
with him (perhaps a bad choice of words).  Tiger, show for the St.
Jude's Classic in Memphis just one time. Your presence would raise
additional millions for a good cause.

Frankly, I get no thrills seeing Mr. Woods go through this ordeal.  My
read on things is that he's a good guy and a good Dad.  He had a good
father, and that is probably his ultimate goal in life.  Everything
else is trivial.

So, the usual suspects have come out from the woodwork looking to
capitalize on someone's misfortune - same or self-described hyphenated
race or not.

Keep your dignity, Tiger.

Brad

----------------



Tiger's validation complex

By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Leave Tiger alone. Enough with the puns -- we get that he's really
just a "cheetah" in disguise. Enough with the Barbie-of-the-Day
revelations -- we get that he's attracted to a certain type. Enough
with the whole thing -- we have far more important things to worry
about.

Yeah, right. Sit down with a friend over lunch and try to have a
conversation about health care, climate change, financial regulation
or Afghanistan without straying at least once onto the
oh-so-unimportant subject of Tiger Woods's philandering. I've given up
trying to deny that the unfolding saga is compelling, even if paying
attention leaves me feeling a bit disappointed in myself. Prurient
interest is rarely something to be proud of.

I'm beginning to fear, actually, that the unfolding may never end. If
you're the richest, most famous athlete on the planet, and you have an
eye for cocktail waitresses and nightclub hostesses, the opportunities
to cheat are probably limited only by the number of hours in the day.
It's becoming clear why Woods's initial mea culpa was worded vaguely
to cover any and all "transgressions." Wouldn't want to leave anybody
out.

I'm not going to pronounce judgment on Woods's moral fiber, except to
state that adultery is bad. I'm also not going to judge the women who
have reportedly had affairs with him, except to point out how quick
they've been, as soon as their names have surfaced, to retain
high-priced legal counsel. I will suggest that Woods consider this
possibility: Random women he meets in restaurants or bars may not be
reduced to putty by his good looks or sparkling wit, but may in fact
be aware of how wealthy he is.

I was going to critique Woods's technique of adultery, or at least his
apparent selection of playmates, as measured against a theory about
philandering developed by my colleague Roxanne Roberts, who has spent
years covering the capital's libidinous social scene for The Post.
Roberts postulates that famous, powerful men who stray would be smart
to choose women who have just as much to lose if the liaison were
exposed. Some ultra-rich tycoon's young trophy wife, say, would fit
that criterion. Cocktail waitresses and nightclub hostesses, not so
much.

In fact, Woods seems to have hooked up with the kind of women who save
old voice mails and text messages -- giving their high-priced legal
counsel something to work with.

But as more women surface with claims to have bedded Woods, one does
begin to marvel at his capacity for multitasking. He is known on the
golf course for almost superhuman powers of concentration. Who knew
that between shots he was also juggling such complicated logistical
arrangements? Or did he have an off-the-course caddie to help with
that sort of thing, the way Steve Williams helps him choose between
the seven-iron and the eight?

Here's my real question, though: What's with the whole Barbie thing?

No offense to anyone who actually looks like Barbie, but it really is
striking how much the women who've been linked to Woods resemble one
another. I'm talking about the long hair, the specific body type, even
the facial features. Mattel could sue for trademark infringement.

This may be the most interesting aspect of the whole Tiger Woods story
-- and one of the most disappointing. He seems to have been bent on
proving to himself that he could have any woman he wanted. But from
the evidence, his aim wasn't variety but some kind of validation.

I'm making a big assumption here that the attraction for Woods was
mostly physical, but there's no evidence thus far that he had a lot of
time for deep conversation. If adultery is really about the power and
satisfaction of conquest, Woods's self-esteem was apparently only
boosted by bedding the kind of woman he thought other men lusted after
-- the "Playmate of the Month" type that Hugh Hefner turned into the
American gold standard.

But the world is full of beautiful women of all colors, shapes and
sizes -- some with short hair or almond eyes, some with broad noses,
some with yellow or brown skin. Woods appears to have bought into an
"official" standard of beauty that is so conventional as to be almost
oppressive.

His taste in mistresses leaves the impression of a man who is, deep
down, both insecure and image-conscious -- a control freak even when
he's committing "transgressions."

eugenerobinson at washpost.com
On 12/10/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Yeah Tiger, let's be showin' them little nappy-headed hos some respect!
>
> Rik
>
> On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 11:41 AM, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:
>
>>   The Rev. Al Sharpton held a press conference today to blast Tiger Woods
>> for the lack of diversity among his mistresses. Sharpton claims that the
>> lack of African-American women among Woods' harem will have a negative
>> affect on the black community, specifically young black girls.
>>
>> "Why is it that a man who calls himself black can't bring himself to cheat
>> on his wife with a black woman?" said Sharpton, speaking to a group of
>> supporters in Harlem . "What does it say to young black girls everywhere
>> when you pass them over? Shame on you, Tiger Woods. What would your daddy
>> say?"
>>
>> Sharpton, who has long championed taking black women as mistresses, said
>> that today's black athletes need to stop neglecting black women when it
>> comes to extramarital affairs, and should follow the examples of positive
>> black role models such as Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King, Jr., both
>> of
>> whom cheated on their wives with black women. Sharpton also stressed that
>> cheating with African-American women would help the black community
>> financially by giving black girls the chance to sell their stories to
>> tabloids and gossip magazines.
>>
>> Added Sharpton, "I'm not asking you to stop cheating on your wives, I'm
>> just asking you to give back to your own community."
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>

From mweisner at ebsmed.com  Thu Dec 10 14:21:59 2009
From: mweisner at ebsmed.com (Michael D. Weisner)
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:21:59 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Al Sharpton blast Tiger
References: <02E4D1D6D8114A858B3FE3D0630C4130@YOURB88038198E><6634e19e0912101012v15548ae0lba73b8c8267832b4@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912101058s8b5a457i9e44a5f00abc4b21@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <010846D3433D425EB09CE03D7605907D@ebsoffice>

Brad,

My first response to your last line was "What dignity?"  On second thought, 
I agree with you.  You must realize that this is an attitude that will never 
be shared by a female.  Go Tiger!

Mike

From: "Brad Haslett"  Thursday, December 10, 2009 1:58 PM
> You guys are joking, but the idiots in DC are trying to be serious
> (see below from the WaPo). Golf is the one sport that I'm probably a
> natural at (sucked at all the others) and play one or two rounds a
> year (depending on how often one of my slant-eyed golf fanatic friends
> invite me). One of the things I admire about Tiger Woods is that he
> doesn't play the 'race card'.  That said, I do have a bone to pick
> with him (perhaps a bad choice of words).  Tiger, show for the St.
> Jude's Classic in Memphis just one time. Your presence would raise
> additional millions for a good cause.
>
> Frankly, I get no thrills seeing Mr. Woods go through this ordeal.  My
> read on things is that he's a good guy and a good Dad.  He had a good
> father, and that is probably his ultimate goal in life.  Everything
> else is trivial.
>
> So, the usual suspects have come out from the woodwork looking to
> capitalize on someone's misfortune - same or self-described hyphenated
> race or not.
>
> Keep your dignity, Tiger.
>
> Brad
>
> ----------------
>
>
>
> Tiger's validation complex
>
> By Eugene Robinson
> Tuesday, December 8, 2009
>
> Leave Tiger alone. Enough with the puns -- we get that he's really
> just a "cheetah" in disguise. Enough with the Barbie-of-the-Day
> revelations -- we get that he's attracted to a certain type. Enough
> with the whole thing -- we have far more important things to worry
> about.
>
> Yeah, right. Sit down with a friend over lunch and try to have a
> conversation about health care, climate change, financial regulation
> or Afghanistan without straying at least once onto the
> oh-so-unimportant subject of Tiger Woods's philandering. I've given up
> trying to deny that the unfolding saga is compelling, even if paying
> attention leaves me feeling a bit disappointed in myself. Prurient
> interest is rarely something to be proud of.
>
> I'm beginning to fear, actually, that the unfolding may never end. If
> you're the richest, most famous athlete on the planet, and you have an
> eye for cocktail waitresses and nightclub hostesses, the opportunities
> to cheat are probably limited only by the number of hours in the day.
> It's becoming clear why Woods's initial mea culpa was worded vaguely
> to cover any and all "transgressions." Wouldn't want to leave anybody
> out.
>
> I'm not going to pronounce judgment on Woods's moral fiber, except to
> state that adultery is bad. I'm also not going to judge the women who
> have reportedly had affairs with him, except to point out how quick
> they've been, as soon as their names have surfaced, to retain
> high-priced legal counsel. I will suggest that Woods consider this
> possibility: Random women he meets in restaurants or bars may not be
> reduced to putty by his good looks or sparkling wit, but may in fact
> be aware of how wealthy he is.
>
> I was going to critique Woods's technique of adultery, or at least his
> apparent selection of playmates, as measured against a theory about
> philandering developed by my colleague Roxanne Roberts, who has spent
> years covering the capital's libidinous social scene for The Post.
> Roberts postulates that famous, powerful men who stray would be smart
> to choose women who have just as much to lose if the liaison were
> exposed. Some ultra-rich tycoon's young trophy wife, say, would fit
> that criterion. Cocktail waitresses and nightclub hostesses, not so
> much.
>
> In fact, Woods seems to have hooked up with the kind of women who save
> old voice mails and text messages -- giving their high-priced legal
> counsel something to work with.
>
> But as more women surface with claims to have bedded Woods, one does
> begin to marvel at his capacity for multitasking. He is known on the
> golf course for almost superhuman powers of concentration. Who knew
> that between shots he was also juggling such complicated logistical
> arrangements? Or did he have an off-the-course caddie to help with
> that sort of thing, the way Steve Williams helps him choose between
> the seven-iron and the eight?
>
> Here's my real question, though: What's with the whole Barbie thing?
>
> No offense to anyone who actually looks like Barbie, but it really is
> striking how much the women who've been linked to Woods resemble one
> another. I'm talking about the long hair, the specific body type, even
> the facial features. Mattel could sue for trademark infringement.
>
> This may be the most interesting aspect of the whole Tiger Woods story
> -- and one of the most disappointing. He seems to have been bent on
> proving to himself that he could have any woman he wanted. But from
> the evidence, his aim wasn't variety but some kind of validation.
>
> I'm making a big assumption here that the attraction for Woods was
> mostly physical, but there's no evidence thus far that he had a lot of
> time for deep conversation. If adultery is really about the power and
> satisfaction of conquest, Woods's self-esteem was apparently only
> boosted by bedding the kind of woman he thought other men lusted after
> -- the "Playmate of the Month" type that Hugh Hefner turned into the
> American gold standard.
>
> But the world is full of beautiful women of all colors, shapes and
> sizes -- some with short hair or almond eyes, some with broad noses,
> some with yellow or brown skin. Woods appears to have bought into an
> "official" standard of beauty that is so conventional as to be almost
> oppressive.
>
> His taste in mistresses leaves the impression of a man who is, deep
> down, both insecure and image-conscious -- a control freak even when
> he's committing "transgressions."
>
> eugenerobinson at washpost.com
> On 12/10/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Yeah Tiger, let's be showin' them little nappy-headed hos some respect!
>>
>> Rik
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 11:41 AM, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> 
>> wrote:
>>
>>>   The Rev. Al Sharpton held a press conference today to blast Tiger 
>>> Woods
>>> for the lack of diversity among his mistresses. Sharpton claims that the
>>> lack of African-American women among Woods' harem will have a negative
>>> affect on the black community, specifically young black girls.
>>>
>>> "Why is it that a man who calls himself black can't bring himself to 
>>> cheat
>>> on his wife with a black woman?" said Sharpton, speaking to a group of
>>> supporters in Harlem . "What does it say to young black girls everywhere
>>> when you pass them over? Shame on you, Tiger Woods. What would your 
>>> daddy
>>> say?"
>>>
>>> Sharpton, who has long championed taking black women as mistresses, said
>>> that today's black athletes need to stop neglecting black women when it
>>> comes to extramarital affairs, and should follow the examples of 
>>> positive
>>> black role models such as Jesse Jackson and Martin Luther King, Jr., 
>>> both
>>> of
>>> whom cheated on their wives with black women. Sharpton also stressed 
>>> that
>>> cheating with African-American women would help the black community
>>> financially by giving black girls the chance to sell their stories to
>>> tabloids and gossip magazines.
>>>
>>> Added Sharpton, "I'm not asking you to stop cheating on your wives, I'm
>>> just asking you to give back to your own community."
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>>
>>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that 
>> means
>> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
>> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
>> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>>
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> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
> 


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From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 10 17:00:43 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:00:43 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] The gov't doesn't get it
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912100858s1f82dc3egab510d9639c2de14@mail.gmail.com>
References: <6634e19e0912100858s1f82dc3egab510d9639c2de14@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912101400o4987864er1048661da9c0c281@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

Only a person who has had at least one employee, even if it was only
one's self, can truly understand the burden of meeting the 'gubmint'
regulations. Why we keep finding these so-called leaders who spent
their entire lives in government or academia and think they somehow
have a clue how the real world works if beyond me. It reminds me of
George McGovern being shocked to discover how overwhelming it was to
comply with government regulations after buying a hotel upon retiring
from politics.

In other news, nothing is safe (see below).

Brad

---------------------

    * DECEMBER 9, 2009, 12:49 P.M. ET

Are Your U.S. Treasury Bonds Safe?

    *
      By BRETT ARENDS



President Barack Obama has recently unveiled bold new plans for
government programs and tax breaks to try to boost the economy. These
initiatives have no price tag yet, but they will require significant
spending.

You can debate whether new highway and bridge projects and sundry tax
breaks will help the economy. That's a political question. But as the
U.S. government piles borrowing atop more borrowing, it begs a
financial question that is not utterly ridiculous: Are your U.S.
Treasury bonds safe?

On its face, the probability of the U.S. defaulting on its spiraling
debts seems highly unlikely. But that's not what the markets think.
The price of insurance against such a default?using derivatives known
as credit default swaps?has jumped by more than 50% in the private
market in recent months. According to CMA DataVision in London, a
specialist in these contracts, it will now cost you 0.34% of the
principal per year to buy default insurance on U.S. government bonds.
If you held $1 million in Treasurys, insuring against default would
cost you $3,400 for the year. A few months back, insuring those bonds
would've cost less than $2,000.
[roi129] Reuters

A protester dressed as a panhandling Uncle Sam stands in Times Square
in October. More than a dozen similarly dressed protesters have
appeared throughout New York to remind passers-by of the scale of the
United States' national debt.

That's not a lot, all things considered. U.S. paper remains among the
safest on the market. (Norway's is considered even safer.)

The cost of insuring government bonds has risen world-wide in the last
couple of months, partly over worries about deteriorating government
finances, and partly in response to the Dubai debt crisis. Insuring
British government bonds will cost you 0.77% for the year, while Dubai
bondholders will pay more than 5%.

Yet CMA DataVision calculates that professional investors with real
money in the game still think there is a 3% or so chance that the U.S.
might default within five years. And that 0.34% annual insurance cost
is pretty hefty compared to the gross yield on five-year Treasury
bonds, right now just 2.1% a year.

For decades, U.S. Treasury bonds have been considered risk-free.
Standard financial theory defines "the risk-free rate of return" on
money as the rate of return you can earn on Treasurys, typically over
10 years. Many money managers still preach the old gospel. The public
holds about $1.6 trillion in government bond funds, according to the
Investment Company Institute, an industry association. Widows, orphans
and retires are constantly reassured that such bonds are without risk.

They're not. The U.S. government has been living beyond its means by
borrowing ever more. Gross federal debt has more than doubled in ten
years to $12.9 trillion. The White House expects it to pass $18
trillion by 2014.

For investors, the greatest danger is not that America could formally
default on its debts, it's that the government may informally default
by unleashing inflation. It's hard to see another outcome. Anyone
holding long-term Treasury bonds should demand pretty high annual
interest rates to compensate them for the risk. The current yield on
30-year Treasurys is about 4.4%, and on 10-year bonds it's about 3.4%.
Anyone lending their money for that length of time on those kinds of
terms is taking a big risk.

Write to Brett Arends at brett.arends at wsj.com

On 12/10/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Good morning All,
>
> There are a few reasons why I am retired now. Some have nothing to do with
> the gov't, but, one of the biggest ones is, I was just plain tired of being
> a babysitter to my employees for the gov't. The added expense and
> frustration with each new gov't regulation made me so glad to be away from
> being an employer that .... well I just can't describe what a relief is was
> to be away from all that when I quit. And yet, the gov't can't understand
> why nobody wants to expand.
>
> I doubt we'll see much real, robust economic growth until the gov't figures
> out that they need to get the hell out of the way. Not much chance of that
> any time soon with this bunch of statists running the show.
>
> Rik
>
> >From the Daily Reckoning
>
> *The Credit Crunch Continues*
> By Douglas French
>
> The credit crunch continues, with businesses large and small finding that
> their bankers remain exceedingly stingy in the wake of the 2008 financial
> debacle.
>
> "We need to see banks making more loans to their business customers,"
> Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairwoman, Sheila Bair, told
> reporters recently after the FDIC released figures showing that the amount
> of loans outstanding in the nation's banks fell $210.4 billion in the third
> quarter of 2009. That is the largest quarterly decline since the FDIC began
> tracking loans in 1984.
>
> If we dig inside these data, we see that business lending has contracted at
> a much faster pace than consumer lending. This trend is not merely a
> function of contracting economic activity, it is also a function of the fact
> that banks have been deemphasizing business lending for many, many years.
>
> Numbers from the FDIC reflect this shift over the past decade. At the end of
> the third quarter of 1999, the assets of the nation's banks totaled $5.5
> trillion. As of September 30 of this year, bank assets had grown to $13.2
> trillion. But commercial and industrial loans outstanding barely budged,
> only growing from $947 billion a decade ago to $1.27 trillion by September
> 30 this year. Meanwhile, loans secured by real estate increased from $1.43
> trillion in the fall of 1999 to $4.5 trillion this fall. And investment in
> securities doubled, rising from $1.03 trillion to $2.4 trillion.
>
> This secular shift away from "productive" lending to businesses toward
> "nonproductive" lending to consumers creates a new kind of structural
> weakness for the American economy.
>
> Robert Prechter makes the
> point<http://clicks.dailyreckoning.com//t/AQ/uM4/vpE/AAEOfA/AQ/Ab2aug/Pfo9>in
> the November edition of the
> *Elliott Wave Theorist* that banks have lent sparingly to businesses for the
> past 35 years. Businesses report that since 1974, ease of borrowing was
> either *worse* or *the same* as it was the prior quarter, meaning that - at
> least according to business owners - loans have been increasingly hard to
> get the entire time.
>
> Unfortunately, from a macroeconomic perspective, lending to consumers rather
> businesses is a suboptimal emphasis/counterproductive exercise.
>
> Prechter writes in his book *Conquer the Crash* that the lending process for
> businesses "adds value to the economy," while consumer loans are
> counterproductive, adding costs but no value. The consumer may call his
> borrowing "productive," but it surely does not create capital, i.e., build
> shops or factories or manufacture tools and dies that enhance the
> productivity of human labor. The banking system, with its focus on consumer
> loans, has shifted capital from the productive part of the economy, people
> who have demonstrated a superior ability to invest or produce (creditors) to
> those who have demonstrated primarily a superior ability to consume
> (debtors).
>
> Total household debt peaked in 2008 at $13.8 trillion, with $10.5 trillion
> of that being mortgage debt. And as Sean Corrigan
> explained<http://clicks.dailyreckoning.com//t/AQ/uM4/vpE/AAEOfQ/AQ/Ab2aug/EPt1>,
> "Houses are nonproductive assets, financed with a great deal of leverage."
> And while homeowners reap the services provided by homes slowly over time,
> houses "deliver a large dollop of uncompensated purchasing power up front to
> their builders or to those cashing out of the market," making housing "the
> ultimate engines of created credit on the upswing, and...among the more
> dangerous deflators on the way down."
>
> In the last decade, the US system of fractional-reserve banking has created
> what Frank Shostak
> calls<http://clicks.dailyreckoning.com//t/AQ/uM4/vpE/AAEOfg/AQ/Ab2aug/Dy6O>"empty
> money," which masquerades as genuine money when in fact "nothing has
> been saved." This explosion of money was created through the banking system,
> as consumers gorged themselves on nonproductive assets like houses, autos,
> and big-screen TVs. These purchases gave the illusion of economic growth and
> good times, but in reality weakened the process of wealth formation; instead
> of building capital, this system wasted it.
>
> Meanwhile, businesses that create wealth-producing jobs have stagnated. The
> workforce was induced into working for enterprises that represent
> malinvestment: home and commercial construction, as well as other real-
> estate-related jobs, and businesses dependent on consumer consumption.
>
> Unfortunately, the federal and state governments constantly enact
> legislation that makes the employment of workers more costly and in turn
> makes business expansion riskier. So wealth-producing businesses, like metal
> fabrication and the like, have every incentive not to borrow money from a
> bank to expand their operations and not to wander into a wider thicket of
> onerous employment rules by hiring more workers. Instead, the entrepreneur
> puts energy into obtaining a low-interest mortgage and buying a big house,
> or dabbling in real-estate development and speculation. Besides, up until
> this current meltdown the entrepreneur could obtain a real-estate loan much
> more easily than a business loan.
>
> Those in Washington are doing all they can to promote the continued
> destruction of capital and wealth. Policies like "cash for clunkers"; tax
> credits for home buyers; the bailing out of the big banks, Fannie, Freddie,
> and the auto companies; and keeping interest rates near zero only serve to
> promote speculation and consumer consumption. Instead, Washington should be
> lowering taxes and the costs of hiring employees, especially in industries
> that produce capital and wealth.
>
> Regards,
>
> Douglas French,
> for *The Daily Reckoning*
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>


From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 10 18:29:46 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:29:46 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Hey Ed! Your Guy on Texas
Message-ID: <400985d70912101529n58ccb4b1lce874523f9401d6f@mail.gmail.com>

Ed,

Your Senator just endorsed Williams in Texas today.  Demint has been
pretty vocal lately.

http://www.williamsfortexas.com/

http://blogs.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2009/12/10/senator-jim-demint-i-need-some-new-republicans.aspx

Brad

From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 10 21:46:33 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:46:33 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Horndog High
Message-ID: <400985d70912101846s6386de34k61a99f972a3850a8@mail.gmail.com>

Can you go back to high school and earn a second degree?  Just askin'?

http://tinyurl.com/ykv7hh5

Maybe that'll take some heat off Tiger.

Brad

From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 10 22:17:35 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:17:35 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Cap and Scam
Message-ID: <400985d70912101917g271e3ffetf7788c48f3c2717@mail.gmail.com>

This shouldn't come as any surprise -

http://tinyurl.com/yen42bb

Are you really serious about cutting emissions?  Easy, tax carbon.  It
is easily measured, transparent, and you can end all subsidies for
everything else - let the market pick the winners.

That isn't the point of the cap-n-trade scam, they want control. Hey,
it ain't cheap to feed a Gulfstream 5, ask Mr. Gore.

Brad

From flybrad at gmail.com  Fri Dec 11 07:35:59 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:35:59 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Black Like Me
Message-ID: <400985d70912110435y4f68b554ha99c6bc0940c45c3@mail.gmail.com>

Recall Juliette Ocheing? She's the blogger who goes by the name
Baldilocks.  Her father came to America on the same plane as Barack
Obama, Sr. and is from the same tribe.  I've shared correspondence
with her after donating to a fund she established for the Senator
Barack Obama school in Kenya (a school that then Sen. Obama promised
to support and then stiffed). She's a very nice lady who I respect.
Her latest post is attached below.  I'm sending you a separate e-mail
concerning the takeover of the financial industry which will be voted
on TODAY!  We are being bombarded with Saul Alinsky tactics -
legislation is being thrown at us faster than we can respond.  Did you
know that funding for ACORN was slipped back in by the House this
week? Frankly, our country as we know it is under siege and I can't
honestly tell you whether we're winning or not.

Brad

----------

December 10, 2009
Why Black Americans Think That the Federal Government is Our Friend

While hanging out yesterday at Ace's yesterday as he was flogging
racists, I happened to mention that many if not most black Americans
view the federal government as beneficial and friendly.  Some other
commenters were surprised and I was surprised at their surprise,
because it isn't difficult to figure out why this is.  Whether it's
the Emancipation or the desegregation of the Armed Forces or Brown v.
Board or the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, the federal
government for the most part had seemed to be on the side of the black
American as his constitutional rights were being oppressed by state or
local governments.

What needs to be spelled, however is what the federal government did
in the above-mentioned areas: it legally removed obstacles to the
life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of Americans who are black.
And that it what it was supposed to do.

The present problem in my unlearned opinion is this: the federal
government began overstepping its bounds during the Great Depression
and did so most infamously in the late sixties via the Great Society
programs.  Doing more than getting local racists out of the way, the
federal government sought to and succeeded in making itself the
suppliers of life, liberty and, putatively, the happiness of many
black Americans.  (Try telling a senior of any race that Social
Security is sending the country to financial ruin. You'll get an
earful about her "rights".)

And even many black Americans who do not rely on the federal
government still view the fed as our friend because of that history.

What's needed in order to change this perception is obvious:
education--not a new education but the old one, one which contains an
objective explanation of the role of government.

Simply put, the role of the American government is to remove obstacles
to liberty of the People--even when that obstacle is American
government itself.  Supplying all of one's needs is not government's
role.  That's God's purview.

We all remember President Obama's statement containing the assertion
that one of the flaws of the US Constitution was that is only
contained a  list of "negative rights," meaning negative government
"rights."  The idea that a Harvard-trained lawyer thinks that the
government has rights or that there was no list of positive
responsibilities assigned to government was mockable.  (Hey, you voted
for him.)

But what the statement betrayed was a widespread misconception present
in those of us who aren't lawyers of any variety of a friendly fed
whose role is to insert itself between God and man's liberty and to
redistribute wealth (aka stealing).  The notion that the founders
"forgot" to address this is hilarious.

So when the Democrats came to full power this year, they began to
build on the foundation that Democrat Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt
and Lyndon B. Johnson laid.  The good news?  Between Socialized
Medicine, Cap and Trade, TARP, etc., the federal government's active
role in overstepping its bounds--in crippling America--is opening the
eyes of Americans of all races.  The bad news: there may not be an
America left when the federal locusts finish.



Posted by baldilocks on December 10, 2009 at 09:27 AM in A Little
History, Socialism in America |

From flybrad at gmail.com  Fri Dec 11 07:44:19 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:44:19 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] CFPA Alert
Message-ID: <400985d70912110444v274f5a97o92ea726655484c96@mail.gmail.com>

Many of us knew the CFPA, Consumer Financial Protection Act, was in
the pipeline, but no one knew what was really in the bill.  Barney
Franks threw  it out this week and it will be voted on with no debate
and no time to read the bill. Who knows what last minute changes have
been implemented favoring who or what? It is probably too late for the
House, we'll have to examine this thing in the Senate.  You'll have to
decide for yourself if it is hyperbole for me or anyone else to say
we're under attack.  The recording below is from Congressman Bachmann.
 Decide for yourself.

Brad

------------------

http://www.breitbart.tv/bachmann-on-the-b-cast-a-conservative-call-to-action/

From ekroposki at charter.net  Fri Dec 11 07:56:46 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:56:46 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Black Like Me - Juliette Ocheing
Message-ID: <7F2860760C484095846EF2F7F320D184@YOURB88038198E>

Brad,

Thank you again, the 'watch lion of freedom'.

Ed K
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Fri Dec 11 08:07:38 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:07:38 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] CFPA Alert
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912110444v274f5a97o92ea726655484c96@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912110444v274f5a97o92ea726655484c96@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912110507x132d5e31w9ff770f524df546d@mail.gmail.com>

Here's more on the "Barney Bill" from another Congressman.  These
things have innocent sounding names - who doesn't support protecting
consumers?  This is nothing of the sort.  This bill is a raw power
grab.  Can the federal government really run the economy? It hasn't
worked anywhere else but that won't stop these people. You would think
that getting back 200 BILLION early from TARP funds would be good
news.  No, they want to spend it on the recipients of their choice.
For a fraction of that you could provide catastrophic health care
insurance for the unemployed.  You could extend unemployment benefits
until the economy turns around.  These folks don't give a damn about a
social safety net.  THEY WANT POWER!

Brad

-------------------



Posted by Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) (Profile)

Thursday, December 10th at 5:28PM EST


The $700 billion Wall Street bailout last year proved exceedingly
unpopular with regular Americans. Nevertheless, House Democrats, with
their tin ears to the ground, are looking to make bailouts the status
quo by creating a permanent bailout fund.

The financial regulation bill cooked up by Rep. Barney Frank
(D-Mass.), the ?Barney Bill,? offers a smorgasbord of bad policies
that will affect every American. The Barney is yet another leg of the
Giant Government Takeover of major industries pushed through the House
this year. If your appetite for bigger government wasn?t satiated by
the Car Takeover (GM and Chrysler), the Energy Takeover (cap and
trade) or the Health Care Takeover, Barney has something designed just
for you: The Financial System Takeover.

There are many reasons to oppose the financial regulatory overhaul
bill on the floor this week, but the major reasons are that it will
further tighten credit, allow bureaucrats to chop up U.S. businesses
they deem ?too big,? cost consumers more and kill jobs.


When I operated my own business as a builder, I had to face tough and
sometimes scary risks. I might leverage all I could to buy $3 million
to $5 million worth of land and then face borrowing millions more for
building costs. If there was a demand for my product, I could profit
handsomely. If I failed miserably, I might lose not only my business
but also everything I needed to provide for my family. I couldn?t risk
my business or my family?s prospects on the mere hope of profit. I had
to study. I had to hedge my bets.

That common-sense business model appears to be the ?old way.? A
permanent bailout fund sends the bigwigs on Wall Street a dangerous
message: Take risks without consequences. It?s the truism of bailouts:
Heads Wall Street wins, tails taxpayers lose.

The permanent bailout fund will hold $150 billion, raised from
financial institutions with assets of more of $50 billion. This tax
will affect approximately 30 banks, hitting each for about $4.5
billion, even though the majority of them played no role in the
financial crisis and pose no threat to the system. Barney and his
buddies will say this is merely a tax on Big Business meant to protect
the American consumer.

That line of thinking should provoke laughter. These banks won?t just
absorb a $150 billion loss. They?ll pass this cost along to everybody
who uses a bank through higher fees and other costs. It?ll also mean
removing those billions out of the marketplace; in other words, banks
won?t have that money to lend to small businesses looking to expand or
to cover their payroll. GOP members of the House Financial Services
Committee say a tax this size could reduce overall lending by $55
billion and cause the loss of as many as 450,000 jobs.

The Barney Bill would further restrict credit by implementing a
?credit czar.? The credit czar would determine what lending practices
are acceptable and which aren?t. This effort to help the ?little guy?
will end up preventing the ?little guy? from ever getting a loan. If
banks can?t charge higher risk borrowers more, they just simply won?t
make the loan (or they?ll charge the low-risk borrower more.)

The irony of these big government policies put forth by the Democrats
is that they end up hurting most the people they are originally
intended to aid.

When the government picks winners and losers, everybody loses. We have
to restore the power of capital in capitalism. Businesses must succeed
on their own ? or be allowed to fail. Instead of a permanent bailout
fund, we need a plan that permanently ends the Bailout Era and
restores personal responsibility in our free markets


On 12/11/09, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> Many of us knew the CFPA, Consumer Financial Protection Act, was in
> the pipeline, but no one knew what was really in the bill.  Barney
> Franks threw  it out this week and it will be voted on with no debate
> and no time to read the bill. Who knows what last minute changes have
> been implemented favoring who or what? It is probably too late for the
> House, we'll have to examine this thing in the Senate.  You'll have to
> decide for yourself if it is hyperbole for me or anyone else to say
> we're under attack.  The recording below is from Congressman Bachmann.
>  Decide for yourself.
>
> Brad
>
> ------------------
>
> http://www.breitbart.tv/bachmann-on-the-b-cast-a-conservative-call-to-action/
>


From hparsons at parsonsys.com  Fri Dec 11 10:28:19 2009
From: hparsons at parsonsys.com (Herb Parsons)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 09:28:19 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] And So It Begins
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912091016m4e5dacb0tb5640a9b006d974f@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912091016m4e5dacb0tb5640a9b006d974f@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5f889a890912110728v113b1b52v189ea68c9285cee8@mail.gmail.com>

"Sanctions" Is that sort of what they did to Joe Wilson when he correctly
labeled the President's claim about healthcare for those here illegally as a
Lie?

I think it says something about the US House of Representatives when they
publicly sanction a member, and his popularity rating goes up.

And these are "the people's politicians"??

On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> They did this to Palin as Governor, now they aim for Bachmann. As most
> of you know, I was at that rally.  We don't need a freakin' permit as
> individual citizens and we don't need permission to stand on the lawn
> of the damned Capitol that we pay for, azzholes. We've seen your
> tactics before (like Obama having all his opponents thrown off the
> ballot).  We have your SEIU thugs beating Kenneth Gladney in St. Louis
> and calling him a nigger on videotape. In other words, we understand
> your game plan.  It will not stand!
>
> Brad
>
> ---------------------
>
>
> Watchdog group requests probe of Bachmann health care rally
> By Associated Press  |   Wednesday, November 18, 2009  |
> http://www.bostonherald.com
>
> ST. PAUL, Minn. - An ethics watchdog group said Tuesday that U.S. Rep.
> Michele Bachmann misused her official Web site to promote a Washington
> rally against the Democrats? proposed health care overhaul.
>
> Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, asked
> the Office of Congressional Ethics to determine whether the Minnesota
> Republican violated House rules barring members of Congress from using
> their official Web sites to solicit support for their positions.
>
> The group also said Bachmann mislabeled the Nov. 5 event as a press
> conference and failed to get a permit for the gathering of thousands
> at the U.S. Capitol. CREW?s complaint said reporters weren?t allowed
> to ask questions at the event.
>
> The staff director in the Office of Congressional Ethics didn?t
> immediately return a phone message.
>
> A spokesman in Bachmann?s office referred questions to the Committee
> on House Administration, which oversees spending and rules for House
> members. Committee spokesman Kyle Anderson said an initial review
> found that Bachmann?s event "meets the necessary criteria to qualify
> as a press event."
>
> He didn?t respond to a question about the use of her Web site to
> promote the gathering.
>
> The rally drew thousands of conservatives, who chanted "Kill the bill"
> and "We want Michele." Bachmann had a starring role after inviting the
> public during television appearances posted on her official Web site.
> She also posted a press conference notice on Nov. 2 titled, "Bachmann
> Calls on the American People to Bring the Town Hall To Washington."
>
> CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said the complaint revolves
> around the use of public money to promote a political position.
>
> "When a member misuses their official Web site for this kind of
> rallying troops for legislation, we the taxpayers are paying for it,"
> Sloan said. "This was clearly political."
>
> If the Office of Congressional Ethics finds the complaint valid, it
> can refer the case to the House Ethics Committee for sanctions.
> Article URL:
> http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view.bg?articleid=1212885
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Fri Dec 11 12:36:28 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 11:36:28 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] I See Your Bet And Raise You 1.8 Trillion
Message-ID: <400985d70912110936g38d7bcc7h6ab61735e8f9d78e@mail.gmail.com>

1.8 Trillion. Millions I understand. A buddy of mine suggested that we
write at the top of every release we sign as 777 Captains, "This jet
costs 235 Million US Dollars" as a reminder of how important the
decisions we make really are. Billions?  That's a big number, but not
so big it can't be understood.  My employer has X Billions of revenue.
 We own Y Billions of "stuff".  Big, but comprehensible.  Trillions?
Big, really big, but still within grasp.  So what does raising your
debt by a couple of Trillion really mean?  Nothing, if you're playing
with Monopoly money. And trust me, if your 'wealth' (ie, retirement)
is in US dollars, you're holding Monopoly money.

Where will this end?  Don't answer.

Brad

------------------


Dems propose $1.8 TRILLION debt ceiling increase
By: Mark Hemingway
Commentary Staff Writer
12/10/09 5:58 PM EST

How's this for transparency and accountability?:
In a bold but risky year-end strategy, Democrats are preparing to
raise the federal debt ceiling by as much as $1.8 trillion before New
Year?s rather than have to face the issue again prior to the 2010
elections.

Yup, wouldn't want voters to be thinking about how much the Democratic
congress is spending too close to election time. Meanwhile, the
Republican Policy Committee puts the current debt into perspective:

The Treasury has released the Monthly Treasury Statement for November,
showing a deficit over the last two months of $296.7 billion, a
deficit greater than the full-year deficits in FY02 ($157.8), FY06
($247.2), or FY07 ($160.7).  The Democrats have boasted that their
health care bill lowers the deficit by $130 billion over ten years
according to CBO, an amount that is dwarfed by just one month of
borrowing at our current pace.


From bill at effros.com  Fri Dec 11 13:04:44 2009
From: bill at effros.com (Bill Effros)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:04:44 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] I See Your Bet And Raise You 1.8 Trillion
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912110936g38d7bcc7h6ab61735e8f9d78e@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912110936g38d7bcc7h6ab61735e8f9d78e@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4B2289BC.70408@effros.com>

Brad,

You will have to read faster than this.

I gather the administration is now planning  to raise the debt ceiling 
by 2 trillion dollars.

B.



Brad Haslett wrote:
> 1.8 Trillion. Millions I understand. A buddy of mine suggested that we
> write at the top of every release we sign as 777 Captains, "This jet
> costs 235 Million US Dollars" as a reminder of how important the
> decisions we make really are. Billions?  That's a big number, but not
> so big it can't be understood.  My employer has X Billions of revenue.
>  We own Y Billions of "stuff".  Big, but comprehensible.  Trillions?
> Big, really big, but still within grasp.  So what does raising your
> debt by a couple of Trillion really mean?  Nothing, if you're playing
> with Monopoly money. And trust me, if your 'wealth' (ie, retirement)
> is in US dollars, you're holding Monopoly money.
>
> Where will this end?  Don't answer.
>
> Brad
>
> ------------------
>
>
> Dems propose $1.8 TRILLION debt ceiling increase
> By: Mark Hemingway
> Commentary Staff Writer
> 12/10/09 5:58 PM EST
>
> How's this for transparency and accountability?:
> In a bold but risky year-end strategy, Democrats are preparing to
> raise the federal debt ceiling by as much as $1.8 trillion before New
> Year?s rather than have to face the issue again prior to the 2010
> elections.
>
> Yup, wouldn't want voters to be thinking about how much the Democratic
> congress is spending too close to election time. Meanwhile, the
> Republican Policy Committee puts the current debt into perspective:
>
> The Treasury has released the Monthly Treasury Statement for November,
> showing a deficit over the last two months of $296.7 billion, a
> deficit greater than the full-year deficits in FY02 ($157.8), FY06
> ($247.2), or FY07 ($160.7).  The Democrats have boasted that their
> health care bill lowers the deficit by $130 billion over ten years
> according to CBO, an amount that is dwarfed by just one month of
> borrowing at our current pace.
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>   
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Fri Dec 11 14:10:42 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:10:42 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Jewish Computer
Message-ID: <47EB21A170474EC093C383CE7A6E5514@YOURB88038198E>

This is for Michael, he has been one uped in Isreal:

http://manneli.com/movies/Laptop.html 



Ed K
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Fri Dec 11 18:17:28 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:17:28 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] I See Your Bet And Raise You 1.8 Trillion
In-Reply-To: <4B2289BC.70408@effros.com>
References: <400985d70912110936g38d7bcc7h6ab61735e8f9d78e@mail.gmail.com>
	<4B2289BC.70408@effros.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912111517g657b3c4se3c8c02d31e7a74d@mail.gmail.com>

Bill,

Nothing would make me happier than for someone to explain in simple
terms why this is nothing to worry about. Our entire federal revenues
for 2008 were 2.5 trillion dollars, roughly 45% from personal income
tax and 36% from payroll taxes -

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/numbers/revenue.cfm

The payroll taxes are grossly regressive.  I'm not even paying for my
parents current Social Security  and Medicare benefits and I currently
pay the maximum amounts - they paid in damn near the minimums.
There's no way in hell my or your kids are going to fund our published
"benefit".  They can't. They'll never make that much or can ever
afford to pay that much.

The nation is borrowing maximum amounts at minimum rates and rolling
the debt short term. What happens when the rates go up?  What happens
when no one shows at the Treasury auction?

What are the hierarchy of needs according to Maslow?  Food and shelter
are first.  Sex was close behind but Maslow was referring to
re-population, not fun.  I could argue the ranking of  his priorities
but let's stay focused. Two TRILLION dollars would buy a lot of
calories and housing, with heat.  Hell, it would buy a lot of hookers
(let Spitzer do the math on that point).  It is a lot of dough!

We are talking about ADDING this to a budget that has exploded while
enjoying low borrowing costs and low inflation.  What happens when
those two variables find their "normal" level?

Where the hell is this going?

Brad




On 12/11/09, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> You will have to read faster than this.
>
> I gather the administration is now planning  to raise the debt ceiling
> by 2 trillion dollars.
>
> B.
>
>
>
> Brad Haslett wrote:
>> 1.8 Trillion. Millions I understand. A buddy of mine suggested that we
>> write at the top of every release we sign as 777 Captains, "This jet
>> costs 235 Million US Dollars" as a reminder of how important the
>> decisions we make really are. Billions?  That's a big number, but not
>> so big it can't be understood.  My employer has X Billions of revenue.
>>  We own Y Billions of "stuff".  Big, but comprehensible.  Trillions?
>> Big, really big, but still within grasp.  So what does raising your
>> debt by a couple of Trillion really mean?  Nothing, if you're playing
>> with Monopoly money. And trust me, if your 'wealth' (ie, retirement)
>> is in US dollars, you're holding Monopoly money.
>>
>> Where will this end?  Don't answer.
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> ------------------
>>
>>
>> Dems propose $1.8 TRILLION debt ceiling increase
>> By: Mark Hemingway
>> Commentary Staff Writer
>> 12/10/09 5:58 PM EST
>>
>> How's this for transparency and accountability?:
>> In a bold but risky year-end strategy, Democrats are preparing to
>> raise the federal debt ceiling by as much as $1.8 trillion before New
>> Year?s rather than have to face the issue again prior to the 2010
>> elections.
>>
>> Yup, wouldn't want voters to be thinking about how much the Democratic
>> congress is spending too close to election time. Meanwhile, the
>> Republican Policy Committee puts the current debt into perspective:
>>
>> The Treasury has released the Monthly Treasury Statement for November,
>> showing a deficit over the last two months of $296.7 billion, a
>> deficit greater than the full-year deficits in FY02 ($157.8), FY06
>> ($247.2), or FY07 ($160.7).  The Democrats have boasted that their
>> health care bill lowers the deficit by $130 billion over ten years
>> according to CBO, an amount that is dwarfed by just one month of
>> borrowing at our current pace.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>>
>


From bill at effros.com  Fri Dec 11 18:40:08 2009
From: bill at effros.com (Bill Effros)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:40:08 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] I See Your Bet And Raise You 1.8 Trillion
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912111517g657b3c4se3c8c02d31e7a74d@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912110936g38d7bcc7h6ab61735e8f9d78e@mail.gmail.com>	<4B2289BC.70408@effros.com>
	<400985d70912111517g657b3c4se3c8c02d31e7a74d@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4B22D858.7040405@effros.com>

Brad,

This is going toward a lot of inflation and a a VAT.  Repayment in kind 
as far as I'm concerned.

Last November, when Gold got down to 720, I started buying.  When it 
went over 1200, a year later, I sold.  Not bad for 1 year.  I started 
buying Euros in the beginning of this year at $1.25.  Sold a bunch over 
$1.50.  Doesn't sound as good as gold except that I'm hedged at 500:1 
margin.

The VAT is truly regressive, and enormously efficient.  Nobody rides for 
free.  There is no such thing as a free lunch.

B.



Brad Haslett wrote:
> Bill,
>
> Nothing would make me happier than for someone to explain in simple
> terms why this is nothing to worry about. Our entire federal revenues
> for 2008 were 2.5 trillion dollars, roughly 45% from personal income
> tax and 36% from payroll taxes -
>
> http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/numbers/revenue.cfm
>
> The payroll taxes are grossly regressive.  I'm not even paying for my
> parents current Social Security  and Medicare benefits and I currently
> pay the maximum amounts - they paid in damn near the minimums.
> There's no way in hell my or your kids are going to fund our published
> "benefit".  They can't. They'll never make that much or can ever
> afford to pay that much.
>
> The nation is borrowing maximum amounts at minimum rates and rolling
> the debt short term. What happens when the rates go up?  What happens
> when no one shows at the Treasury auction?
>
> What are the hierarchy of needs according to Maslow?  Food and shelter
> are first.  Sex was close behind but Maslow was referring to
> re-population, not fun.  I could argue the ranking of  his priorities
> but let's stay focused. Two TRILLION dollars would buy a lot of
> calories and housing, with heat.  Hell, it would buy a lot of hookers
> (let Spitzer do the math on that point).  It is a lot of dough!
>
> We are talking about ADDING this to a budget that has exploded while
> enjoying low borrowing costs and low inflation.  What happens when
> those two variables find their "normal" level?
>
> Where the hell is this going?
>
> Brad
>
>
>
>
> On 12/11/09, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
>   
>> Brad,
>>
>> You will have to read faster than this.
>>
>> I gather the administration is now planning  to raise the debt ceiling
>> by 2 trillion dollars.
>>
>> B.
>>
>>
>>
>> Brad Haslett wrote:
>>     
>>> 1.8 Trillion. Millions I understand. A buddy of mine suggested that we
>>> write at the top of every release we sign as 777 Captains, "This jet
>>> costs 235 Million US Dollars" as a reminder of how important the
>>> decisions we make really are. Billions?  That's a big number, but not
>>> so big it can't be understood.  My employer has X Billions of revenue.
>>>  We own Y Billions of "stuff".  Big, but comprehensible.  Trillions?
>>> Big, really big, but still within grasp.  So what does raising your
>>> debt by a couple of Trillion really mean?  Nothing, if you're playing
>>> with Monopoly money. And trust me, if your 'wealth' (ie, retirement)
>>> is in US dollars, you're holding Monopoly money.
>>>
>>> Where will this end?  Don't answer.
>>>
>>> Brad
>>>
>>> ------------------
>>>
>>>
>>> Dems propose $1.8 TRILLION debt ceiling increase
>>> By: Mark Hemingway
>>> Commentary Staff Writer
>>> 12/10/09 5:58 PM EST
>>>
>>> How's this for transparency and accountability?:
>>> In a bold but risky year-end strategy, Democrats are preparing to
>>> raise the federal debt ceiling by as much as $1.8 trillion before New
>>> Year?s rather than have to face the issue again prior to the 2010
>>> elections.
>>>
>>> Yup, wouldn't want voters to be thinking about how much the Democratic
>>> congress is spending too close to election time. Meanwhile, the
>>> Republican Policy Committee puts the current debt into perspective:
>>>
>>> The Treasury has released the Monthly Treasury Statement for November,
>>> showing a deficit over the last two months of $296.7 billion, a
>>> deficit greater than the full-year deficits in FY02 ($157.8), FY06
>>> ($247.2), or FY07 ($160.7).  The Democrats have boasted that their
>>> health care bill lowers the deficit by $130 billion over ten years
>>> according to CBO, an amount that is dwarfed by just one month of
>>> borrowing at our current pace.
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>   
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Fri Dec 11 19:06:19 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:06:19 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] humor is the punch line
Message-ID: <7CB31BDD4CF949339C37414950D14439@YOURB88038198E>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnFBcwWYXfo
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Sat Dec 12 07:08:53 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:08:53 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] And So It Begins
In-Reply-To: <5f889a890912110728v113b1b52v189ea68c9285cee8@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912091016m4e5dacb0tb5640a9b006d974f@mail.gmail.com>
	<5f889a890912110728v113b1b52v189ea68c9285cee8@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912120408p24c7016ct4ebffce6efdc4ea3@mail.gmail.com>

Herb,

In an earlier discussion about Fox News I suggested that Greta "played
it down the middle". Perhaps I need to walk that statement back -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPg5WHfIHlk&feature=player_embedded

Yup, she clearly called him a liar.

Brad

On 12/11/09, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com> wrote:
> "Sanctions" Is that sort of what they did to Joe Wilson when he correctly
> labeled the President's claim about healthcare for those here illegally as a
> Lie?
>
> I think it says something about the US House of Representatives when they
> publicly sanction a member, and his popularity rating goes up.
>
> And these are "the people's politicians"??
>
> On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> They did this to Palin as Governor, now they aim for Bachmann. As most
>> of you know, I was at that rally.  We don't need a freakin' permit as
>> individual citizens and we don't need permission to stand on the lawn
>> of the damned Capitol that we pay for, azzholes. We've seen your
>> tactics before (like Obama having all his opponents thrown off the
>> ballot).  We have your SEIU thugs beating Kenneth Gladney in St. Louis
>> and calling him a nigger on videotape. In other words, we understand
>> your game plan.  It will not stand!
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> ---------------------
>>
>>
>> Watchdog group requests probe of Bachmann health care rally
>> By Associated Press  |   Wednesday, November 18, 2009  |
>> http://www.bostonherald.com
>>
>> ST. PAUL, Minn. - An ethics watchdog group said Tuesday that U.S. Rep.
>> Michele Bachmann misused her official Web site to promote a Washington
>> rally against the Democrats? proposed health care overhaul.
>>
>> Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, asked
>> the Office of Congressional Ethics to determine whether the Minnesota
>> Republican violated House rules barring members of Congress from using
>> their official Web sites to solicit support for their positions.
>>
>> The group also said Bachmann mislabeled the Nov. 5 event as a press
>> conference and failed to get a permit for the gathering of thousands
>> at the U.S. Capitol. CREW?s complaint said reporters weren?t allowed
>> to ask questions at the event.
>>
>> The staff director in the Office of Congressional Ethics didn?t
>> immediately return a phone message.
>>
>> A spokesman in Bachmann?s office referred questions to the Committee
>> on House Administration, which oversees spending and rules for House
>> members. Committee spokesman Kyle Anderson said an initial review
>> found that Bachmann?s event "meets the necessary criteria to qualify
>> as a press event."
>>
>> He didn?t respond to a question about the use of her Web site to
>> promote the gathering.
>>
>> The rally drew thousands of conservatives, who chanted "Kill the bill"
>> and "We want Michele." Bachmann had a starring role after inviting the
>> public during television appearances posted on her official Web site.
>> She also posted a press conference notice on Nov. 2 titled, "Bachmann
>> Calls on the American People to Bring the Town Hall To Washington."
>>
>> CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said the complaint revolves
>> around the use of public money to promote a political position.
>>
>> "When a member misuses their official Web site for this kind of
>> rallying troops for legislation, we the taxpayers are paying for it,"
>> Sloan said. "This was clearly political."
>>
>> If the Office of Congressional Ethics finds the complaint valid, it
>> can refer the case to the House Ethics Committee for sanctions.
>> Article URL:
>> http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view.bg?articleid=1212885
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>


From flybrad at gmail.com  Sat Dec 12 09:47:15 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:47:15 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Fascist Science
Message-ID: <400985d70912120647m7b0636aaqbb08af65edcdfe02@mail.gmail.com>

Question a bit too troubling?  Just call in the UN security guards.
Some "press conference", huh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUtzMBfDrpI&feature=player_embedded

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Sat Dec 12 10:33:58 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:33:58 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Fascist Science
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912120647m7b0636aaqbb08af65edcdfe02@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912120647m7b0636aaqbb08af65edcdfe02@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912120733g860a69cp812a37db4c54c788@mail.gmail.com>

Trouble these folks have is coming to grips with the fact that, rather than
a hacker spreading those emails around, it was more than likely one of their
own compadres. A whistle-blower. There's laws that protect whistle-blowers
these days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb_7X_5acic

Rik


On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 8:47 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Question a bit too troubling?  Just call in the UN security guards.
> Some "press conference", huh?
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUtzMBfDrpI&feature=player_embedded
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Sat Dec 12 20:19:55 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:19:55 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Is This Any Way To Make Sausage?
Message-ID: <400985d70912121719y64b662e6v7d0b36cb264df63d@mail.gmail.com>

Well, at least we know as much as the number two man in the Senate
what is coming.  Nothing. Who knows what was in the "Barney Bill" that
just passed the house?  I've been looking all day and can't find
squat. No one in the House can explain it, none read it. There may be
some great reforms, who knows?  I'd probably feel better if Barney
"there's nothing wrong with Frannie and Freddie (circa 2004-05)"
hadn't written the bill.  But back to medical care - what year did
Harry Reid graduate from medical school?

Brad

------------

Number-two Senate Democrat 'in the dark' about health care bill
By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
12/12/09 8:15 AM EST

Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin admitted Friday that he is "in the
dark" about the national health care bill currently under construction
by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. In an exchange on the Senate
floor, Republican Sen. John McCain asked Durbin, "Should we not at
least be informed as to what the proposal is that the Senate Majority
Leader is going to propose to the entire Senate?" Durbin's answer: "I
would say to the senator from Arizona that I am in the dark almost as
much as he is, and I am in the leadership." Durbin explained that
during a Democratic caucus, Reid and the small group of senators
involved in crafting the bill turned to their fellow Democrats and
"basically stood and said, 'We are sorry, we can't tell you in detail
what was involved.'"

"Isn't that a very unusual process?" asked McCain, noting that "we are
discussing one-sixth of the gross national product; the bill before us
has been a product of almost a year of sausage-making. Yet here we are
at a position on December 12, with a proposal that none of us, except,
I understand, one person, the Majority Leader, knows what the final
parameters are, much less informing the American people. I don't get
it."

"I think the senator is correct," Durbin answered, "saying most of us
know the fundamentals, but we do not know the important details behind
this." Durbin went on to claim that Reid is not to blame for the
situation; rather, the blame lies with the Congressional Budget
Office, which Reid has asked to do a cost estimate on the bill. "We
may find that something that was sent over there doesn't work at all,
doesn't fly," Durbin said. "They may say this is not going to work,
start over." Therefore, Durbin said, Democrats are keeping it all a
secret. "It is frustrating on your side," Durbin told McCain. "It is
frustrating here." But, Durbin added, he hoped to have the
Congressional Budget Office report soon.

Here is the entire exchange between the two senators:

Mr. McCAIN. Could I ask my friend about the situation as it exists
right now? Right now, no Member on this side has any idea as to the
specifics of the proposal the majority leader, I understand, has sent
to OMB for some kind of scoring. Is that the way we want to do
business, that a proposal that will be presented to the Senate
sometime next week and voted on immediately--that is what we are
told--is that the way to do business in a bipartisan fashion? Should
we not at least be informed as to what the proposal is the Senate
majority leader is going to propose to the entire Senate within a
couple days? Shouldn't we even know what it is?

Mr. DURBIN. I would say to the Senator from Arizona, I am in the dark
almost as much as he is, and I am in the leadership. The reason is,
because the Congressional Budget Office, which scores the managers'
amendment, the so-called compromise, has told us, once you publicly
start debating it, we will publicly release it. We want to basically
see whether it works, whether it works to continue to reduce the
deficit, whether it works to continue to reduce the growth in health
care costs.

We had a caucus after this was submitted to the Congressional Budget
Office, where Senator Reid and other Senators who were involved in it
basically stood and said: We are sorry, we can't tell you in detail
what was involved. But you will learn, everyone will learn, it will be
as public information as this bill currently is on the Internet. But
the Congressional Budget Office has tied our hands at this point
putting it forward. Basically, what I know is what you know, having
read press accounts of what may be included.

Mr. McCAIN. Could I ask my friend from Illinois--and by the way, I
would like to do this again. Perhaps when he can get more substance
into many of the issues.

Mr. DURBIN. Same time, same place tomorrow?

Mr. McCAIN. I admit these are unusual times. But isn't that a very
unusual process, that here we are discussing one-sixth of the gross
national product; the bill before us has been a product of almost a
year of sausage-making. Yet here we are at a position on December 12,
with a proposal that none of us, except, I understand, one person, the
majority leader, knows what the final parameters are, much less
informing the American people. I don't get it.

Mr. DURBIN. I think the Senator is correct, saying most of us know the
fundamentals, but we do not know the important details behind this.
What I am saying is, this is not the choice of the majority leader. It
is the choice of the Congressional Budget Office. We may find that
something that was sent over there doesn't work at all, doesn't fly.
They may say this is not going to work, start over. So we have to
reserve the right to do that, and I think that is why we are waiting
for the Congressional Budget Office scoring, as they call it, to make
sure it hits the levels we want, in terms of deficit reduction and
reducing the cost of health care.

It is frustrating on your side. It is frustrating here. But I am
hoping, in a matter of hours, maybe days, we will receive the CBO
report.

From hparsons at parsonsys.com  Sat Dec 12 22:49:34 2009
From: hparsons at parsonsys.com (Herb Parsons)
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:49:34 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] And So It Begins
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912120408p24c7016ct4ebffce6efdc4ea3@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912091016m4e5dacb0tb5640a9b006d974f@mail.gmail.com>
	<5f889a890912110728v113b1b52v189ea68c9285cee8@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912120408p24c7016ct4ebffce6efdc4ea3@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5f889a890912121949o77ad23f1w8cc828e414013c1c@mail.gmail.com>

I kinda like this headline:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=118711


On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 6:08 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Herb,
>
> In an earlier discussion about Fox News I suggested that Greta "played
> it down the middle". Perhaps I need to walk that statement back -
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPg5WHfIHlk&feature=player_embedded
>
> Yup, she clearly called him a liar.
>
> Brad
>
> On 12/11/09, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com> wrote:
> > "Sanctions" Is that sort of what they did to Joe Wilson when he correctly
> > labeled the President's claim about healthcare for those here illegally
> as a
> > Lie?
> >
> > I think it says something about the US House of Representatives when they
> > publicly sanction a member, and his popularity rating goes up.
> >
> > And these are "the people's politicians"??
> >
> > On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> They did this to Palin as Governor, now they aim for Bachmann. As most
> >> of you know, I was at that rally.  We don't need a freakin' permit as
> >> individual citizens and we don't need permission to stand on the lawn
> >> of the damned Capitol that we pay for, azzholes. We've seen your
> >> tactics before (like Obama having all his opponents thrown off the
> >> ballot).  We have your SEIU thugs beating Kenneth Gladney in St. Louis
> >> and calling him a nigger on videotape. In other words, we understand
> >> your game plan.  It will not stand!
> >>
> >> Brad
> >>
> >> ---------------------
> >>
> >>
> >> Watchdog group requests probe of Bachmann health care rally
> >> By Associated Press  |   Wednesday, November 18, 2009  |
> >> http://www.bostonherald.com
> >>
> >> ST. PAUL, Minn. - An ethics watchdog group said Tuesday that U.S. Rep.
> >> Michele Bachmann misused her official Web site to promote a Washington
> >> rally against the Democrats? proposed health care overhaul.
> >>
> >> Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, asked
> >> the Office of Congressional Ethics to determine whether the Minnesota
> >> Republican violated House rules barring members of Congress from using
> >> their official Web sites to solicit support for their positions.
> >>
> >> The group also said Bachmann mislabeled the Nov. 5 event as a press
> >> conference and failed to get a permit for the gathering of thousands
> >> at the U.S. Capitol. CREW?s complaint said reporters weren?t allowed
> >> to ask questions at the event.
> >>
> >> The staff director in the Office of Congressional Ethics didn?t
> >> immediately return a phone message.
> >>
> >> A spokesman in Bachmann?s office referred questions to the Committee
> >> on House Administration, which oversees spending and rules for House
> >> members. Committee spokesman Kyle Anderson said an initial review
> >> found that Bachmann?s event "meets the necessary criteria to qualify
> >> as a press event."
> >>
> >> He didn?t respond to a question about the use of her Web site to
> >> promote the gathering.
> >>
> >> The rally drew thousands of conservatives, who chanted "Kill the bill"
> >> and "We want Michele." Bachmann had a starring role after inviting the
> >> public during television appearances posted on her official Web site.
> >> She also posted a press conference notice on Nov. 2 titled, "Bachmann
> >> Calls on the American People to Bring the Town Hall To Washington."
> >>
> >> CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said the complaint revolves
> >> around the use of public money to promote a political position.
> >>
> >> "When a member misuses their official Web site for this kind of
> >> rallying troops for legislation, we the taxpayers are paying for it,"
> >> Sloan said. "This was clearly political."
> >>
> >> If the Office of Congressional Ethics finds the complaint valid, it
> >> can refer the case to the House Ethics Committee for sanctions.
> >> Article URL:
> >> http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view.bg?articleid=1212885
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Sat Dec 12 23:05:39 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 22:05:39 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] And So It Begins
In-Reply-To: <5f889a890912121949o77ad23f1w8cc828e414013c1c@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912091016m4e5dacb0tb5640a9b006d974f@mail.gmail.com>
	<5f889a890912110728v113b1b52v189ea68c9285cee8@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912120408p24c7016ct4ebffce6efdc4ea3@mail.gmail.com>
	<5f889a890912121949o77ad23f1w8cc828e414013c1c@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912122005k313ccfddr778ffdbf55f3bf95@mail.gmail.com>

Herb,

Had to laugh when I saw the Milton Friedman quote.  It reminded me of
a story about Dr. Friedman on a visit to Scandinavia.  A government
official there stated that unlike in the US, Scandinavia didn't have
any citizens living in poverty.  Dr. Friedman replied, "that's very
interesting, we don't have any Scandinavians living in poverty in our
country either".

Brad

On 12/12/09, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com> wrote:
> I kinda like this headline:
>
> http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=118711
>
>
> On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 6:08 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Herb,
>>
>> In an earlier discussion about Fox News I suggested that Greta "played
>> it down the middle". Perhaps I need to walk that statement back -
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPg5WHfIHlk&feature=player_embedded
>>
>> Yup, she clearly called him a liar.
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> On 12/11/09, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com> wrote:
>> > "Sanctions" Is that sort of what they did to Joe Wilson when he
>> > correctly
>> > labeled the President's claim about healthcare for those here illegally
>> as a
>> > Lie?
>> >
>> > I think it says something about the US House of Representatives when
>> > they
>> > publicly sanction a member, and his popularity rating goes up.
>> >
>> > And these are "the people's politicians"??
>> >
>> > On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 12:16 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> They did this to Palin as Governor, now they aim for Bachmann. As most
>> >> of you know, I was at that rally.  We don't need a freakin' permit as
>> >> individual citizens and we don't need permission to stand on the lawn
>> >> of the damned Capitol that we pay for, azzholes. We've seen your
>> >> tactics before (like Obama having all his opponents thrown off the
>> >> ballot).  We have your SEIU thugs beating Kenneth Gladney in St. Louis
>> >> and calling him a nigger on videotape. In other words, we understand
>> >> your game plan.  It will not stand!
>> >>
>> >> Brad
>> >>
>> >> ---------------------
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Watchdog group requests probe of Bachmann health care rally
>> >> By Associated Press  |   Wednesday, November 18, 2009  |
>> >> http://www.bostonherald.com
>> >>
>> >> ST. PAUL, Minn. - An ethics watchdog group said Tuesday that U.S. Rep.
>> >> Michele Bachmann misused her official Web site to promote a Washington
>> >> rally against the Democrats? proposed health care overhaul.
>> >>
>> >> Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, asked
>> >> the Office of Congressional Ethics to determine whether the Minnesota
>> >> Republican violated House rules barring members of Congress from using
>> >> their official Web sites to solicit support for their positions.
>> >>
>> >> The group also said Bachmann mislabeled the Nov. 5 event as a press
>> >> conference and failed to get a permit for the gathering of thousands
>> >> at the U.S. Capitol. CREW?s complaint said reporters weren?t allowed
>> >> to ask questions at the event.
>> >>
>> >> The staff director in the Office of Congressional Ethics didn?t
>> >> immediately return a phone message.
>> >>
>> >> A spokesman in Bachmann?s office referred questions to the Committee
>> >> on House Administration, which oversees spending and rules for House
>> >> members. Committee spokesman Kyle Anderson said an initial review
>> >> found that Bachmann?s event "meets the necessary criteria to qualify
>> >> as a press event."
>> >>
>> >> He didn?t respond to a question about the use of her Web site to
>> >> promote the gathering.
>> >>
>> >> The rally drew thousands of conservatives, who chanted "Kill the bill"
>> >> and "We want Michele." Bachmann had a starring role after inviting the
>> >> public during television appearances posted on her official Web site.
>> >> She also posted a press conference notice on Nov. 2 titled, "Bachmann
>> >> Calls on the American People to Bring the Town Hall To Washington."
>> >>
>> >> CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said the complaint revolves
>> >> around the use of public money to promote a political position.
>> >>
>> >> "When a member misuses their official Web site for this kind of
>> >> rallying troops for legislation, we the taxpayers are paying for it,"
>> >> Sloan said. "This was clearly political."
>> >>
>> >> If the Office of Congressional Ethics finds the complaint valid, it
>> >> can refer the case to the House Ethics Committee for sanctions.
>> >> Article URL:
>> >> http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view.bg?articleid=1212885
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> >>
>> >>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>> >>
>> >
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>


From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec 13 08:24:12 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:24:12 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Fascist Science
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912120733g860a69cp812a37db4c54c788@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912120647m7b0636aaqbb08af65edcdfe02@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912120733g860a69cp812a37db4c54c788@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912130524x148fbb9ek17ca5bda2f721378@mail.gmail.com>

Another Kook-Aid drinker makes a fool of herself -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzkB5DuveDE&feature=player_embedded

Ironically, the founder of Greenpeace quit the organization because it
morphed into an anti-capitalistic crusade and he now favors nuclear
energy.

Brad

On 12/12/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Trouble these folks have is coming to grips with the fact that, rather than
> a hacker spreading those emails around, it was more than likely one of their
> own compadres. A whistle-blower. There's laws that protect whistle-blowers
> these days.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb_7X_5acic
>
> Rik
>
>
> On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 8:47 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Question a bit too troubling?  Just call in the UN security guards.
>> Some "press conference", huh?
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUtzMBfDrpI&feature=player_embedded
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Sun Dec 13 10:24:01 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:24:01 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Fascist Science
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912130524x148fbb9ek17ca5bda2f721378@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912120647m7b0636aaqbb08af65edcdfe02@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912120733g860a69cp812a37db4c54c788@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912130524x148fbb9ek17ca5bda2f721378@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912130724i27c7663bvbc3519d57bf73101@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

You almost have to feel sorry for that poor woman. However, it is a shame
when, like her, people come to believe their cause is so noble that it
cannot possibly be wrong.

I wonder who the world thinks it will mooch off of once they have done away
with capitalism.

Rik

On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 7:24 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Another Kook-Aid drinker makes a fool of herself -
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzkB5DuveDE&feature=player_embedded
>
> Ironically, the founder of Greenpeace quit the organization because it
> morphed into an anti-capitalistic crusade and he now favors nuclear
> energy.
>
> Brad
>
> On 12/12/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Trouble these folks have is coming to grips with the fact that, rather
> than
> > a hacker spreading those emails around, it was more than likely one of
> their
> > own compadres. A whistle-blower. There's laws that protect
> whistle-blowers
> > these days.
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb_7X_5acic
> >
> > Rik
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 8:47 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Question a bit too troubling?  Just call in the UN security guards.
> >> Some "press conference", huh?
> >>
> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUtzMBfDrpI&feature=player_embedded
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> means
> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec 13 10:49:52 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:49:52 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Freedom of Information
Message-ID: <400985d70912130749h78c0192eye73fc0f1123b6065@mail.gmail.com>

This is in response to FOIA requests about why the FDIC shut down WaMu -

http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/2009/12/the_fight_for_wamu_documents.html

The "Barney Bill" that just passed the house will create a permanent
$150 BILLION slush fund to "bail out" or close whatever bank or
business the Congress chooses.  The Congressional Black Caucus got a
$6 BILLION bone thrown their way to pass out to  "minority" businesses
that they see fit to fund in exchange for their vote (on that and
other issues).  What other surprises does Barney have for us?
Remember, no one read the bill.

Before you get too angry about the FDIC not releasing information,
just remember, the TSA released their entire security manual on the
internet.

We're in the best of hands.

Brad

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Sun Dec 13 12:37:35 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:37:35 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Fascist Science
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912130524x148fbb9ek17ca5bda2f721378@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912120647m7b0636aaqbb08af65edcdfe02@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912120733g860a69cp812a37db4c54c788@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912130524x148fbb9ek17ca5bda2f721378@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912130937pa699b6ev858c77655eab2575@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

I don't think I need to comment on this other than to say, it is so good.

Rik
____________________________
http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/12/12/a-memo-to-the-global-warming-cult/

A Memo To The Global Warming Cult posted at 1:28 am on December 12, 2009 by
Doctor Zero
 printer-friendly<http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/12/12/a-memo-to-the-global-warming-cult/?print=1>

Dear global warming fanatics,

Please. Stop. You?re embarrassing yourselves. Take a deep breath, and try to
understand what has happened to you during the past month. You need to
accept that your dreams of global domination are over. Increasingly shrill
attempts to terrify the masses into ignoring Climagate are only making you
look foolish. The con job you?ve been running for the last thirty years is
busted forever.

I know this is difficult for you to accept. Things seemed to be going well.
You?ve got the cap-and-trade bill lurking over the United States, ready to
shatter an already weakened economy plagued with unemployment problems, and
effectively end America?s role as a dominant industrial power. Your beliefs
have been instituted in public schools as the official state religion, whose
rituals and incantations are forced upon millions of school children. The
wealthy royalty of popular culture is pleased to produce an endless string
of movies, music, and television programming to market your beliefs. Your
critics were marginalized to the point where the presidential candidate from
the 2000 Democrat ticket felt comfortable referring to them as
Nazis<http://michellemalkin.com/2009/07/07/al-gore-if-you-question-global-warming-cult-youre-a-nazi/>
.

I can see how losing all of this cultural and political power in a few short
weeks would be stunning. I hope the shock has dissipated enough for you to
understand where we are now, and where we are going from here.

You aren?t going to frighten the world into
reducing<http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=2314438>the human
population. You?re not going to succeed in terrorizing free people
into embracing totalitarianism, to fend off a phantasmal catastrophe that no
democratic nation has the discipline to combat. We?re not going to politely
ignore
<http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/Swingin_-Copenhagen-8648550-79001427.html>swarms
of private jets and limos ferrying you to carbon-belching ?climate summits,?
where you draw up plans for the Western proletariat to live as primitive
hunter-gatherers. We?re not going to let a pampered
elitist<http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/let_the_peasants_walk/>,
who once flew around the world to attend cricket practice, tell us that we
need to make do without air travel and ice water.

We?ll never be foolish enough to allow a band of fanatics to use ?peer
review<http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=YjAxYzA3NmI0N2Y1MDVhYzdmM2JkZGIyMjE5ZWU2OTI=>?
to rule all dissenting opinion out-of-bounds, then declare themselves the
proud owners of a mighty consensus. You global-warming fanatics
underestimate how much you *needed *those tactics to gain power. You?ll
never have that kind of unchallenged authority again, because we will never
stop demanding the raw data, and we?ll drown you in laughter when you mutter
something about deleting it by
accident<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6936328.ece>.
We will never forget that you began with a conclusion and sought to harvest
data that supported it ? the exact *opposite *of the scientific method.

Your arrogant condescension to your critics is horribly misplaced. You have
completely lost the ability to call anyone
?stupid<http://hotair.com/archives/2009/12/10/chris-matthews-palins-not-so-stupid-that-she-actually-doubts-man-made-global-warming-does-she/>.?
*Your *capacity for reason is the matter in question. Your status as
?scientists? is on probation. It will take years of faithful adherence to
the scientific method, and rigorous efforts to test and disprove your
hypotheses, before you can regain the trust of thoughtful men and women.
Until you have accomplished this, the attitude we expect from you is
humility and contrition. You have much to answer for. The time for you to
issue pompous lectures is over. The time for you to give sworn testimony may
soon begin. We?re a year away from the American voter?s first opportunity to
respond to the politicians who terrorized them by waving a loaded
cap-and-trade bill in their faces.

We ask you to stop propagandizing our children, because it won?t work any
more. We will prepare them to deal with you. Informed parents across the
industrialized world will explain what Climagate means to their children,
and prepare them with questions your public-education minions cannot answer.
The vindicated critics you?ve been working to silence will fill the
post-Climagate void with publications, and some of them will become
best-sellers. You?ll always have your political allies and fellow travelers,
but you?ll never have a population ignorant of climate science to push
around again.

You can stop trying to make Climagate go away by ignoring it, or
lying<http://michellemalkin.com/2009/12/09/hey-al-gore-you-lie/>about
it. That won?t work, either. Huge stories can no longer be suppressed
by a handful of like-minded network executives and editors. Those glittering
eyes you see in the darkness, beyond the comforting glow of the *New York
Times *editorial board, are the massed ranks of the Internet?s Army of
Davids<http://www.amazon.com/Army-Davids-Technology-Ordinary-Government/dp/1595550542>.
They are a feral mixture of blogging curiosity and search-engine memory. If
you think they?re closing in around you? well, it?s not just your
imagination.

One of the worst sins you must answer for is the damage you have done to
real science. We have much to learn about the Earth, its ecology, and its
climate. We will not enhance our ability to learn those secrets by
impoverishing ourselves in fit of primitive superstition and political
opportunism. Desperate people don?t do a good job of protecting the
environment? it is a job suitable only to vibrant nations of industry and
technology. Those of us who still cherish independent thought, and the
spirit of scientific inquiry, would like to resume our studies of the
universe. It?s difficult to hear the truth whispered in the tides, the
breeze, and the solar wind over the hysterical jabbering of fanatics, and
the angry demands of greedy politicians.

*Update:* Thanks to osogrande for pointing out a typo where I referred to Al
Gore as the 2000 vice-presidential candidate.  I?ve corrected the mistake.
I wanted to acknowledge the error, instead of claiming my original raw data
was accidentally deleted.


On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 7:24 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Another Kook-Aid drinker makes a fool of herself -
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzkB5DuveDE&feature=player_embedded
>
> Ironically, the founder of Greenpeace quit the organization because it
> morphed into an anti-capitalistic crusade and he now favors nuclear
> energy.
>
> Brad
>
> On 12/12/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Trouble these folks have is coming to grips with the fact that, rather
> than
> > a hacker spreading those emails around, it was more than likely one of
> their
> > own compadres. A whistle-blower. There's laws that protect
> whistle-blowers
> > these days.
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb_7X_5acic
> >
> > Rik
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 8:47 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Question a bit too troubling?  Just call in the UN security guards.
> >> Some "press conference", huh?
> >>
> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUtzMBfDrpI&feature=player_embedded
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> means
> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Sun Dec 13 13:05:03 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 13:05:03 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Is this anything but
Message-ID: <F58806F046D74ACEB3A42193DAF3B81F@YOURB88038198E>

Is this (see pdf) anything but a snow job?

Ed K
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec 13 19:29:56 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:29:56 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Fascist Science
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912130937pa699b6ev858c77655eab2575@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912120647m7b0636aaqbb08af65edcdfe02@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912120733g860a69cp812a37db4c54c788@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912130524x148fbb9ek17ca5bda2f721378@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912130937pa699b6ev858c77655eab2575@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912131629t90145ecpa3cbcda9164e1639@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

Good assessment.  This is interesting -

http://tinyurl.com/yb55jgp

We don't know who the leaker was but it came from a server in Siberia.
 Kind of appropriate, don't you think?

Brad


On 12/13/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> I don't think I need to comment on this other than to say, it is so good.
>
> Rik
> ____________________________
> http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/12/12/a-memo-to-the-global-warming-cult/
>
> A Memo To The Global Warming Cult posted at 1:28 am on December 12, 2009 by
> Doctor Zero
> printer-friendly<http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2009/12/12/a-memo-to-the-global-warming-cult/?print=1>
>
> Dear global warming fanatics,
>
> Please. Stop. You?re embarrassing yourselves. Take a deep breath, and try to
> understand what has happened to you during the past month. You need to
> accept that your dreams of global domination are over. Increasingly shrill
> attempts to terrify the masses into ignoring Climagate are only making you
> look foolish. The con job you?ve been running for the last thirty years is
> busted forever.
>
> I know this is difficult for you to accept. Things seemed to be going well.
> You?ve got the cap-and-trade bill lurking over the United States, ready to
> shatter an already weakened economy plagued with unemployment problems, and
> effectively end America?s role as a dominant industrial power. Your beliefs
> have been instituted in public schools as the official state religion, whose
> rituals and incantations are forced upon millions of school children. The
> wealthy royalty of popular culture is pleased to produce an endless string
> of movies, music, and television programming to market your beliefs. Your
> critics were marginalized to the point where the presidential candidate from
> the 2000 Democrat ticket felt comfortable referring to them as
> Nazis<http://michellemalkin.com/2009/07/07/al-gore-if-you-question-global-warming-cult-youre-a-nazi/>
> .
>
> I can see how losing all of this cultural and political power in a few short
> weeks would be stunning. I hope the shock has dissipated enough for you to
> understand where we are now, and where we are going from here.
>
> You aren?t going to frighten the world into
> reducing<http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=2314438>the human
> population. You?re not going to succeed in terrorizing free people
> into embracing totalitarianism, to fend off a phantasmal catastrophe that no
> democratic nation has the discipline to combat. We?re not going to politely
> ignore
> <http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/Swingin_-Copenhagen-8648550-79001427.html>swarms
> of private jets and limos ferrying you to carbon-belching ?climate summits,?
> where you draw up plans for the Western proletariat to live as primitive
> hunter-gatherers. We?re not going to let a pampered
> elitist<http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/let_the_peasants_walk/>,
> who once flew around the world to attend cricket practice, tell us that we
> need to make do without air travel and ice water.
>
> We?ll never be foolish enough to allow a band of fanatics to use ?peer
> review<http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=YjAxYzA3NmI0N2Y1MDVhYzdmM2JkZGIyMjE5ZWU2OTI=>?
> to rule all dissenting opinion out-of-bounds, then declare themselves the
> proud owners of a mighty consensus. You global-warming fanatics
> underestimate how much you *needed *those tactics to gain power. You?ll
> never have that kind of unchallenged authority again, because we will never
> stop demanding the raw data, and we?ll drown you in laughter when you mutter
> something about deleting it by
> accident<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6936328.ece>.
> We will never forget that you began with a conclusion and sought to harvest
> data that supported it ? the exact *opposite *of the scientific method.
>
> Your arrogant condescension to your critics is horribly misplaced. You have
> completely lost the ability to call anyone
> ?stupid<http://hotair.com/archives/2009/12/10/chris-matthews-palins-not-so-stupid-that-she-actually-doubts-man-made-global-warming-does-she/>.?
> *Your *capacity for reason is the matter in question. Your status as
> ?scientists? is on probation. It will take years of faithful adherence to
> the scientific method, and rigorous efforts to test and disprove your
> hypotheses, before you can regain the trust of thoughtful men and women.
> Until you have accomplished this, the attitude we expect from you is
> humility and contrition. You have much to answer for. The time for you to
> issue pompous lectures is over. The time for you to give sworn testimony may
> soon begin. We?re a year away from the American voter?s first opportunity to
> respond to the politicians who terrorized them by waving a loaded
> cap-and-trade bill in their faces.
>
> We ask you to stop propagandizing our children, because it won?t work any
> more. We will prepare them to deal with you. Informed parents across the
> industrialized world will explain what Climagate means to their children,
> and prepare them with questions your public-education minions cannot answer.
> The vindicated critics you?ve been working to silence will fill the
> post-Climagate void with publications, and some of them will become
> best-sellers. You?ll always have your political allies and fellow travelers,
> but you?ll never have a population ignorant of climate science to push
> around again.
>
> You can stop trying to make Climagate go away by ignoring it, or
> lying<http://michellemalkin.com/2009/12/09/hey-al-gore-you-lie/>about
> it. That won?t work, either. Huge stories can no longer be suppressed
> by a handful of like-minded network executives and editors. Those glittering
> eyes you see in the darkness, beyond the comforting glow of the *New York
> Times *editorial board, are the massed ranks of the Internet?s Army of
> Davids<http://www.amazon.com/Army-Davids-Technology-Ordinary-Government/dp/1595550542>.
> They are a feral mixture of blogging curiosity and search-engine memory. If
> you think they?re closing in around you? well, it?s not just your
> imagination.
>
> One of the worst sins you must answer for is the damage you have done to
> real science. We have much to learn about the Earth, its ecology, and its
> climate. We will not enhance our ability to learn those secrets by
> impoverishing ourselves in fit of primitive superstition and political
> opportunism. Desperate people don?t do a good job of protecting the
> environment? it is a job suitable only to vibrant nations of industry and
> technology. Those of us who still cherish independent thought, and the
> spirit of scientific inquiry, would like to resume our studies of the
> universe. It?s difficult to hear the truth whispered in the tides, the
> breeze, and the solar wind over the hysterical jabbering of fanatics, and
> the angry demands of greedy politicians.
>
> *Update:* Thanks to osogrande for pointing out a typo where I referred to Al
> Gore as the 2000 vice-presidential candidate.  I?ve corrected the mistake.
> I wanted to acknowledge the error, instead of claiming my original raw data
> was accidentally deleted.
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 7:24 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Another Kook-Aid drinker makes a fool of herself -
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzkB5DuveDE&feature=player_embedded
>>
>> Ironically, the founder of Greenpeace quit the organization because it
>> morphed into an anti-capitalistic crusade and he now favors nuclear
>> energy.
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> On 12/12/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Trouble these folks have is coming to grips with the fact that, rather
>> than
>> > a hacker spreading those emails around, it was more than likely one of
>> their
>> > own compadres. A whistle-blower. There's laws that protect
>> whistle-blowers
>> > these days.
>> >
>> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb_7X_5acic
>> >
>> > Rik
>> >
>> >
>> > On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 8:47 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Question a bit too troubling?  Just call in the UN security guards.
>> >> Some "press conference", huh?
>> >>
>> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUtzMBfDrpI&feature=player_embedded
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> >>
>> >>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
>> means
>> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
>> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that,
>> > and
>> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>> >
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>


From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec 13 20:45:45 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:45:45 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Dr. Sowell Speaks
Message-ID: <400985d70912131745r1f5a76efv15a4fd8f4711b330@mail.gmail.com>

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/sowell-223772-intellectuals-media.html

Read the article as well.  I hope he's wrong about Iran.

Brad

From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec 13 20:46:50 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:46:50 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Dr. Sowell Speaks
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912131745r1f5a76efv15a4fd8f4711b330@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912131745r1f5a76efv15a4fd8f4711b330@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912131746q6c38628ew4bfdcd78cc122ec9@mail.gmail.com>

Well, I guess that link is the article.  In that case, watch the video.

On 12/13/09, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/sowell-223772-intellectuals-media.html
>
> Read the article as well.  I hope he's wrong about Iran.
>
> Brad
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec 13 21:03:11 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:03:11 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Life Is Good!
Message-ID: <400985d70912131803y15c30814q273380f6f3d83712@mail.gmail.com>

>From Investors Business Daily -

 $71,206: Not Bad For Gov't Work

Posted 12/11/2009 07:00 PM ET

Hypocrisy: Sen. Max Baucus' office defends his girlfriend's big pay
raise by pointing to the raises others living off the taxpayer spigot
got. What sympathy for the 10% of Americans suffering unemployment.

If you didn't think the Democrats in power in Washington are doing
enough to spark a people's rebellion, just look at their latest
shenanigans.

Congress is raising the federal debt ceiling by as much as $1.8
trillion in hopes that next October, when Republicans will be pounding
them on this, voters won't remember what they were up to way back in
December of 2009.

But that astronomical amount is twice what was baked into their budget
resolution earlier this year. When asked about so much red ink, House
Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., just shrugged
and told the Politico: "The credit card has already been used. When
you get the bill in the mail you need to pay it."

Except that it isn't Obey or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid or President Barack Obama paying for the
trillions they have racked up on their American Excess card. It's you,
the long-suffering American taxpayer.

The current debt ceiling of $12.1 trillion is now not enough for
Congress to live under ? though only a fraction of the $787 billion
stimulus passed earlier this year has been spent. And a $447 billion
bill for Cabinet and other agencies is set for enactment, increasing
spending by as much as 10%.

How about a little belt-tightening for the federal government at a
time of double-digit joblessness, you ask? None of the 7-million-plus
who have lost private-sector jobs should bet their unemployment check
on it.

For governmental workers, this historic recession and economic crisis
has been party time. Last week, a USA Today analysis of federal
government pay data found that six-figure salaries jumped from 14% of
all civil servants to 19% during the first year and a half of the
downturn ? and that's not counting bonuses and overtime.

Delving into the details is even more galling. At the outset of the
recession, for example, the Transportation Department had one employee
salaried at $170,000 or more. Now, only 18 months later, it has 1,690.
With fewer Americans driving or taking mass transit to work, what are
those thousands of supertalented transportation bureaucrats doing that
warrant so much extra cash? Counting the empty seats on the commuter
trains?

Somehow the Obama administration's national "pay czar," lawyer Kenneth
Feinberg, who goes around dictating the compensation decisions of
private-sector firms for their mid-level executives, hasn't noticed
the wads of questionable extra cash Uncle Sam is handing out during
these tough times.

Among the countless absurdities built into the federal salary system
is the mandate that when the head of an agency gets a raise, lots of
his underlings automatically do too. That's what happens when it's
play money you're handling, which is what Washington thinks the
revenues provided by the people who give politicians their jobs is.

The average pay for all these thumb-twiddling geniuses is $30,000 more
than that of workers in the real world of the private sector ? $71,206
vs. $40,331.

So with all these leeches of the state whooping it up, why wouldn't a
powerful Senate committee chairman not give a hefty raise to his best
gal? Baucus, the Montana Democrat who chairs the tax-writing Senate
Finance panel, authorized a pay raise of close to $14,000 to staffer
Melodee Hanes last year, as he was becoming sexually involved with
her. Baucus was separated from his now ex-wife at the time.

As the Politico reports, a few months later Baucus took Hanes "on a
taxpayer-funded trip to Vietnam and the Middle East, though foreign
policy was not her specialty." In Washington, they call that
on-the-job training ? except that Baucus then nominated her for U.S.
attorney in Montana, where Asian and Arab expertise is rarely useful
in court.

A Baucus spokesman's excuse: "Ms. Hanes' salary increased by the exact
same amount as our legislative director and less than our chief of
staff." Does the senator really think that makes the 7 million
ordinary Joes without work feel better?


From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Mon Dec 14 02:13:53 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:13:53 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Dr. Sowell Speaks
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912131745r1f5a76efv15a4fd8f4711b330@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912131745r1f5a76efv15a4fd8f4711b330@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912132313y7800441bj8fc1abcc031d1a9@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Sowell is just like Monckton. He tells you their version of the facts and he
tells you his version of the facts. then he says, don't believe me, go check
for yourself.

You won't find any liberal media sources saying you should check for
yourself, let alone offering up both sides of an argument.

Iran?? I think we've been dragging our feet too long already.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6955351.ece

Rik

On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 7:45 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/sowell-223772-intellectuals-media.html
>
> Read the article as well.  I hope he's wrong about Iran.
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Mon Dec 14 06:53:27 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 06:53:27 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Brad's post on global warming emails
Message-ID: <6126C100060A400DAF0A0469191FE329@YOURB88038198E>

Way back on the Rhodes List, I referenced an article by Danish or Norwegian archeologist about studying farms that were appearing from under a retreating glacier in Greenland.

There was tepid response.  Gee, I was not the only one who read history, other scientific reports asked WHY?

So how did that stone house get under that Greenland glacier?  All I seem to get is guffaw over the naming of Greenland - Greenland.  Could it have been Green in 1000 A.D?

"David Rind from the US space agency NASA, it 'looks like there were years around 1000AD that could have been just as warm'."
 

"For example, some suggest that the 'medieval warm period', the 350-year era that started around 1000, when red wine grapes flourished in southern England and the Vikings tilled now-frozen farms in Greenland, was considerably warmer than even 1998." 

 

"Of course, this is inconvenient to climate change believers because there were no cars or factories pumping out greenhouse gases in 1000AD - yet the Earth still warmed."

 


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1235395/SPECIAL-INVESTIGATION-Climate-change-emails-row-deepens--Russians-admit-DID-send-them.html?printingPage=true


Ed K
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Mon Dec 14 06:57:57 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 06:57:57 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] While Obama wants discussion,
	Iran is on mission
Message-ID: <7DAB9137CC2B437D87626FEDA39E026B@YOURB88038198E>

For those who have learned from recent Iranian methods, look at this report.  First note that it is not from American Media:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1235636/Iran-testing-nuclear-bomb-confidential-papers-reveal.html

 

Iran 'testing nuclear bomb part', confidential papers reveal By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 10:40 AM on 14th December 2009

 

Four-year nuclear plan: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Iran is working on testing a key part for a nuclear bomb, it is claimed.

Confidential documents have revealed details of a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component which triggers an explosion.

Experts believe the papers are the strongest indicator yet of a continuing nuclear weapons program Iran.

The technical document, which has been obtained by The Times, describes the use of a neutron source, uranium deuteride, which is feared to have no possible civilian or military use other than in a nuclear weapon. 

It is reportedly the material used in Pakistan's bomb, from where Iran obtained its blueprint.

Foreign intelligence agencies have apparently dated the document to early 2007, four years after Iran was thought to have suspended its weapons program, and it is understood to have been passed on to the UN's nuclear watchdog.

David Albright, a physicist and president of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington, which has analyzed hundreds of pages of documents related to the Iranian program, told the Times: 'Although Iran might claim that this work is for civil purposes, there is no civil application.

'This is a very strong indicator of weapons work.'

The documents reportedly detail plans to test the device without detonating an explosion. If traces of uranium were detected by other countries, it would be evidence of Iran's intention to become a nuclear-armed power.

It is claimed that the documents have been seen by intelligences agencies worldwide, including Britain.

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1235636/Iran-testing-nuclear-bomb-confidential-papers-reveal.html#ixzz0ZfC2xPNj
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Mon Dec 14 07:18:34 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:18:34 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] From the Ukrainians about the voracity of
	Sowell's Comment
Message-ID: <03D33C4890314F6D86A898605200D80D@YOURB88038198E>



Thomas Sowell said, "Like the famine in Russia in the '30s," Sowell said, "It never happened as far as the New York Times is concerned." During the 1930s, New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty was awarded a Pulitzer Prize after reporting: "There is no famine or actual starvation, nor is there likely to be."

"But a Soviet state-imposed starvation was killing millions. Indeed, at the time Duranty was telling others privately that he believed it "quite possible that as many as 10 million people may have died directly or indirectly from lack of food," 

Ask Ukrainians about "Holodomor" and why they have a national holiday and memorial services. Reference:http://www.infoukes.com/history/famine/

Yes, sheeple, believe Obama.  

Ed K




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From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec 14 07:59:41 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 06:59:41 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Bankers
Message-ID: <400985d70912140459t6815c0a4va690dd6a901ef989@mail.gmail.com>

Everyone loves to hate bankers until you need one. Fan and I supposed
to close on a condo we're buying in Destin, Fl next Friday. I stopped
by the bank where we have our business account on Saturday to repay
myself for some money I'd loaned the company. My account manager is a
sharp young kid who stays on top of current events.  When I asked how
the bank would adjust to the "Barney Bill" if it passes, he replied,
"we'll adjust our fee structure".  Why is this such a difficult
concept for people to understand?  There truly is no such thing as a
"free lunch".

So now we have the POTUS lecturing bankers (read article below).
Let's do a quick review of his history, shall we?  He was a "community
organizer" that sued banks to make risky loans.  As Dr. Sowell pointed
out, community organizers don't help people, they pit one group
against another. In case you've forgotten, Obama's campaign finance
chairman was one Penny Pritzker.  Penny's claim to fame was that she
was a pioneer in sub-prime lending.  She took her family's bank,
Superior in Chicago, into bankruptcy years before the rest of the
industry melted in bad loans.  Obama used to stage demonstrations in
bank lobbys and on the lawns of bank CEO's (and then sued with the
assistance of ACORN). Here's a quick review of the howls of protest
about Freddie and Fannie when they were questioned about their lending
portfolio -

http://tinyurl.com/d4tu3z

If you have good credit, it's easy to get a loan, even today.  You may
need more income, or I should say an income, period.  You may have to
take a greater equity position in your purchase or have more equity in
your business, but you can borrow money.  Banks don't earn money
storing paper in vaults.

So now comes this idiot for a President demanding banks do the very
things that got them in trouble to begin with.  I take that back, he's
not an idiot, he knows exactly what he's doing. He IS a community
organizer after all.

Had enough yet?

Brad

---------------------



>From the AP - Today

Axelrod: Obama to lecture banks on accountability
11 mins ago

WASHINGTON ? A top adviser to President Barack Obama says the White
House is telling the banking industry it helped create last year's
near economic meltdown and it has to be "part of the solution."

Previewing a meeting Obama will have later Monday with industry
leaders, David Axelrod said there simply has to be easier credit for
businesses to reinvest and do the hiring needed to bring down
double-digit unemployment.

Interviewed on ABC's "Good Morning America," Axelrod said the message
to bankers is: "You have to accelerate lending to credible small
businesses." He spoke a day after Obama, in an interview CBS's "60
Minutes," said he didn't run for president to "be helping out a bunch
of fat cat bankers."

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further
information. AP's earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is asking bank executives to
support his efforts to tighten the financial industry, while bankers
are prepared to tell the president he should stop oversimplifying
their concerns if he wants good-faith collaboration.

An hourlong meeting between the president and the nation's top
financial firms was shaping up to be a tense White House encounter on
Monday, not least because of Obama's description of bankers on the eve
of the talks as "fat cats."

Administration officials described the meeting as a continuation of
discussions the president initiated early in his tenure and the latest
push for lenders to take greater responsibility as the nation combats
an economic crisis that began on Wall Street.

Specifically: Wall Street should fall in line with Obama and back a
proposal for a consumer protection agency that cleared the House last
week.

"I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers
on Wall Street," Obama told CBS's "60 Minutes" in an interview that
broadcast Sunday.

Financial industry officials braced for Obama's tough tone. They
planned to press a conciliatory message and highlight areas where they
agree with the administration while smoothing over their differences.

But the executives also planned to stand up to the president on issues
where they feel his statements oversimplify their positions ?
particularly the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency
? according to people familiar with their thinking who spoke
anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the plans.

"He can say what he wants, but we're not going to go back to the kind
of lending that put us in this mess," said a person who is helping
prepare executives for the meeting. A dozen executives were on the
list of those coming, from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of New York
Mellon Corp., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., U.S. Bancorp ,
JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and more.

Bankers expected the regulatory overhaul to provide the meeting's most
contentious moments. They believe the president has mischaracterized
them as being against the new rules, when in fact they support the
vast majority of the administration's proposals.

"These same banks who benefited from taxpayer assistance ... are
fighting tooth and nail with their lobbyists up on Capitol Hill,
fighting against financial regulatory control," Obama said in the "60
Minutes" interview.

One industry official said Obama is viewed as trying to paint the
debate as either "You're with us or you're against us." The industry
official said bankers did not view it that simply.

"We want him to know we have the same goals, but disagree about how to
get there," the official said.

Bankers were planning to outline alternatives to the new consumer
agency. Most lenders support strengthened consumer protections but
believe the administration proposal would increase costs and create
more gaps between regulators.

Administration officials said Obama would use a populist appeal when
discussing pay for top executives at bailed-out institutions. Distaste
for Wall Street remains high and Obama took a public shot at the banks
in his interview.

"They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks," he
said. "Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down 10, 20 million
dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year ...
in decades and you guys caused the problem."

Many firms have taken steps toward the administration's goals of tying
pay to long-term performance and making sure companies do not
encourage risky bets. Bowing to public outrage, Goldman Sachs Group
Inc. announced Thursday that 30 top executives will receive long-term
stock instead of cash for bonuses this year.

Other banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., are
overhauling pay structures to focus on long-term success.

Bank officials contend they would be hurt competitively by strict pay
limits, such as the 50 percent tax on bonuses that British officials
approved last week.

Obama economic adviser Lawrence Summers said Sunday the president
would have "a serious talk with the bankers.

"The country did incredible things for the banking industry," he said.
"The bankers need to recognize that. They need to recognize that
they've got obligations to the country after all that's been done for
them, and there is a lot more they can do."

Summers spoke on ABC's "This Week."


From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec 14 08:35:35 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:35:35 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Paybacks Are Hell!
Message-ID: <400985d70912140535r52f9a5e1j9f1e38855537920d@mail.gmail.com>

So who the hell is Charles Jaco?  He's a talk show host in St. Louis
that declared war on the St. Louis Tea Party and Tea Party "members"
(I'd join but damned if I can find any organization). Anyway, he's
been a vocal critic on his media soapbox about the Tea Party movement
and has said some pretty nasty things.  So, some STL Tea Party types
decided to fight back with this video from his past (when he worked
for CNN) -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z0VxWZszyg&feature=player_embedded

Now Jaco is threatening to sue STL bloggers.  Bring it on big boy!
We'll have a mock trial in a fake courthouse with big Greek columns
and the whole bit!

Too funny!

Brad

From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec 14 09:00:44 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:00:44 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Buy Mo' Popcorn
Message-ID: <400985d70912140600n3aaad281rfcc7a9a3d9328fab@mail.gmail.com>

This could get exciting -

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1935445,CST-NWS-BLAGO13.article

Blago's been smug for quite a while now, maybe it is time for him to
start throwing down his trump cards.

Stay tuned!

Brad

From mweisner at ebsmed.com  Mon Dec 14 09:12:31 2009
From: mweisner at ebsmed.com (Michael D. Weisner)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:12:31 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Brad's post on global warming emails
References: <6126C100060A400DAF0A0469191FE329@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <6452C15FB8524CA2839C6C24B9F4AF51@acer7e8cb8aec8>

Ed,

Other than the fact that there were no industrialists to blame it should be noted that it did not cause a major change in life as we know it - no ice age, no major destructive storms, etc.  No wonder they could live in stone castles without central heating and triple glazed windows.  Next, you will tell me that they didn't employ hybrid technologies to reduce emiissions (those poor horses and mules!)

BTW, what kind of response other than "tepid" would you want to a discussion on GW?

Mike
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ed Kroposki 
  To: Swift Water 
  Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 6:53 AM
  Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Brad's post on global warming emails


  Way back on the Rhodes List, I referenced an article by Danish or Norwegian archeologist about studying farms that were appearing from under a retreating glacier in Greenland.

  There was tepid response.  Gee, I was not the only one who read history, other scientific reports asked WHY?

  So how did that stone house get under that Greenland glacier?  All I seem to get is guffaw over the naming of Greenland - Greenland.  Could it have been Green in 1000 A.D?

  "David Rind from the US space agency NASA, it 'looks like there were years around 1000AD that could have been just as warm'." 
   

  "For example, some suggest that the 'medieval warm period', the 350-year era that started around 1000, when red wine grapes flourished in southern England and the Vikings tilled now-frozen farms in Greenland, was considerably warmer than even 1998." 

   

  "Of course, this is inconvenient to climate change believers because there were no cars or factories pumping out greenhouse gases in 1000AD - yet the Earth still warmed."

   


  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1235395/SPECIAL-INVESTIGATION-Climate-change-emails-row-deepens--Russians-admit-DID-send-them.html?printingPage=true


  Ed K


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From ekroposki at charter.net  Mon Dec 14 09:31:24 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:31:24 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] what kind of response other than "tepid" would
	you want to a discussion on GW?
Message-ID: <27E0D63FB2AD462E962B1A167505FC27@YOURB88038198E>

Mike:

I would want a more comprehensive questioning of the accuracy of the main stream media.

That is and was, good questions as to accuracy of news we get on main stream media.

Specifically questioning its truthfulness and competency.

Most of the response was as Brad keeps pointing out as 'Sheeple'.

The youtube about the St. Louis reporter just posted by Brad demonstrates how the media interprets the situation, facts and just make up bullshit.

The 'free press' envisioned by the Constitution does mean what they are purveying as free press.  What they are putting out is gross dishonesty with little truthful analysis and determing of facts.

So, I would expect a 'hot' and vigorous questioning of the underlying facts.  A real application of the scientific method of testing the facts.  And not adjusting the supposed facts to meet the desired conclusion.  

And I suspect that you and many others are fully capable of doing what I ask.  

Ed K

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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Mon Dec 14 09:53:05 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:53:05 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Bankers
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912140459t6815c0a4va690dd6a901ef989@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912140459t6815c0a4va690dd6a901ef989@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912140653x5de9f5b0i76d733fdf6aae8b7@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Sigh.... When you don't know how you got into a problem, I guess it's just
darn tough to see how to get out of it.

Trouble is, once we FINALLY get rid of this fool and his minions, how long
will it take to undo the damage.

Ready for the second dip of the double dip?? It'll be along here shortly.

Rik

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 6:59 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Everyone loves to hate bankers until you need one. Fan and I supposed
> to close on a condo we're buying in Destin, Fl next Friday. I stopped
> by the bank where we have our business account on Saturday to repay
> myself for some money I'd loaned the company. My account manager is a
> sharp young kid who stays on top of current events.  When I asked how
> the bank would adjust to the "Barney Bill" if it passes, he replied,
> "we'll adjust our fee structure".  Why is this such a difficult
> concept for people to understand?  There truly is no such thing as a
> "free lunch".
>
> So now we have the POTUS lecturing bankers (read article below).
> Let's do a quick review of his history, shall we?  He was a "community
> organizer" that sued banks to make risky loans.  As Dr. Sowell pointed
> out, community organizers don't help people, they pit one group
> against another. In case you've forgotten, Obama's campaign finance
> chairman was one Penny Pritzker.  Penny's claim to fame was that she
> was a pioneer in sub-prime lending.  She took her family's bank,
> Superior in Chicago, into bankruptcy years before the rest of the
> industry melted in bad loans.  Obama used to stage demonstrations in
> bank lobbys and on the lawns of bank CEO's (and then sued with the
> assistance of ACORN). Here's a quick review of the howls of protest
> about Freddie and Fannie when they were questioned about their lending
> portfolio -
>
> http://tinyurl.com/d4tu3z
>
> If you have good credit, it's easy to get a loan, even today.  You may
> need more income, or I should say an income, period.  You may have to
> take a greater equity position in your purchase or have more equity in
> your business, but you can borrow money.  Banks don't earn money
> storing paper in vaults.
>
> So now comes this idiot for a President demanding banks do the very
> things that got them in trouble to begin with.  I take that back, he's
> not an idiot, he knows exactly what he's doing. He IS a community
> organizer after all.
>
> Had enough yet?
>
> Brad
>
> ---------------------
>
>
>
> >From the AP - Today
>
> Axelrod: Obama to lecture banks on accountability
> 11 mins ago
>
> WASHINGTON ? A top adviser to President Barack Obama says the White
> House is telling the banking industry it helped create last year's
> near economic meltdown and it has to be "part of the solution."
>
> Previewing a meeting Obama will have later Monday with industry
> leaders, David Axelrod said there simply has to be easier credit for
> businesses to reinvest and do the hiring needed to bring down
> double-digit unemployment.
>
> Interviewed on ABC's "Good Morning America," Axelrod said the message
> to bankers is: "You have to accelerate lending to credible small
> businesses." He spoke a day after Obama, in an interview CBS's "60
> Minutes," said he didn't run for president to "be helping out a bunch
> of fat cat bankers."
>
> THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further
> information. AP's earlier story is below.
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is asking bank executives to
> support his efforts to tighten the financial industry, while bankers
> are prepared to tell the president he should stop oversimplifying
> their concerns if he wants good-faith collaboration.
>
> An hourlong meeting between the president and the nation's top
> financial firms was shaping up to be a tense White House encounter on
> Monday, not least because of Obama's description of bankers on the eve
> of the talks as "fat cats."
>
> Administration officials described the meeting as a continuation of
> discussions the president initiated early in his tenure and the latest
> push for lenders to take greater responsibility as the nation combats
> an economic crisis that began on Wall Street.
>
> Specifically: Wall Street should fall in line with Obama and back a
> proposal for a consumer protection agency that cleared the House last
> week.
>
> "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers
> on Wall Street," Obama told CBS's "60 Minutes" in an interview that
> broadcast Sunday.
>
> Financial industry officials braced for Obama's tough tone. They
> planned to press a conciliatory message and highlight areas where they
> agree with the administration while smoothing over their differences.
>
> But the executives also planned to stand up to the president on issues
> where they feel his statements oversimplify their positions ?
> particularly the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency
> ? according to people familiar with their thinking who spoke
> anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the plans.
>
> "He can say what he wants, but we're not going to go back to the kind
> of lending that put us in this mess," said a person who is helping
> prepare executives for the meeting. A dozen executives were on the
> list of those coming, from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of New York
> Mellon Corp., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., U.S. Bancorp ,
> JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and more.
>
> Bankers expected the regulatory overhaul to provide the meeting's most
> contentious moments. They believe the president has mischaracterized
> them as being against the new rules, when in fact they support the
> vast majority of the administration's proposals.
>
> "These same banks who benefited from taxpayer assistance ... are
> fighting tooth and nail with their lobbyists up on Capitol Hill,
> fighting against financial regulatory control," Obama said in the "60
> Minutes" interview.
>
> One industry official said Obama is viewed as trying to paint the
> debate as either "You're with us or you're against us." The industry
> official said bankers did not view it that simply.
>
> "We want him to know we have the same goals, but disagree about how to
> get there," the official said.
>
> Bankers were planning to outline alternatives to the new consumer
> agency. Most lenders support strengthened consumer protections but
> believe the administration proposal would increase costs and create
> more gaps between regulators.
>
> Administration officials said Obama would use a populist appeal when
> discussing pay for top executives at bailed-out institutions. Distaste
> for Wall Street remains high and Obama took a public shot at the banks
> in his interview.
>
> "They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks," he
> said. "Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down 10, 20 million
> dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year ...
> in decades and you guys caused the problem."
>
> Many firms have taken steps toward the administration's goals of tying
> pay to long-term performance and making sure companies do not
> encourage risky bets. Bowing to public outrage, Goldman Sachs Group
> Inc. announced Thursday that 30 top executives will receive long-term
> stock instead of cash for bonuses this year.
>
> Other banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., are
> overhauling pay structures to focus on long-term success.
>
> Bank officials contend they would be hurt competitively by strict pay
> limits, such as the 50 percent tax on bonuses that British officials
> approved last week.
>
> Obama economic adviser Lawrence Summers said Sunday the president
> would have "a serious talk with the bankers.
>
> "The country did incredible things for the banking industry," he said.
> "The bankers need to recognize that. They need to recognize that
> they've got obligations to the country after all that's been done for
> them, and there is a lot more they can do."
>
> Summers spoke on ABC's "This Week."
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Mon Dec 14 10:12:19 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:12:19 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Buy Mo' Popcorn
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912140600n3aaad281rfcc7a9a3d9328fab@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912140600n3aaad281rfcc7a9a3d9328fab@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912140712l14e7864bt29c7c41cfa81c00e@mail.gmail.com>

Getting his ducks lined up so he can turn whistleblower?? Sure looks like
it.

Sure couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.

Rik

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 8:00 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> This could get exciting -
>
>
> http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/blagojevich/1935445,CST-NWS-BLAGO13.article
>
> Blago's been smug for quite a while now, maybe it is time for him to
> start throwing down his trump cards.
>
> Stay tuned!
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
-------------- next part --------------
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Mon Dec 14 10:51:54 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:51:54 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Brad's post on global warming emails
In-Reply-To: <6452C15FB8524CA2839C6C24B9F4AF51@acer7e8cb8aec8>
References: <6126C100060A400DAF0A0469191FE329@YOURB88038198E>
	<6452C15FB8524CA2839C6C24B9F4AF51@acer7e8cb8aec8>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912140751i2b74489eja1c9df8a47df5cb@mail.gmail.com>

Ed, Mike,

"BTW, what kind of response other than "tepid" would you want to a
discussion on GW?"

Ha ha, yeah really. This is all being brought to us by the same folks who
were telling us we were all gonna' freeze to death 35 years ago (mid '70s).

It isn't the warming people should be worrying about. It's the solutions
these people are proposing. What this basically amounts to is the U.N's.
attempt to institute a world government. Don't take my word for it, take a
listen to Lord Christopher Monckton on the Copenhagen treaty and give some
thought to what will become of our national sovereignty should we ratify it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMe5dOgbu40

http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/thale/lord-monckton-on-the-copenhagen-treaty

Keep the majority of people scared enough and they'll fall for anything.

Rik

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 8:12 AM, Michael D. Weisner <mweisner at ebsmed.com>wrote:

>  Ed,
>
> Other than the fact that there were no industrialists to blame it should be
> noted that it did not cause a major change in life as we know it - no ice
> age, no major destructive storms, etc.  No wonder they could live in stone
> castles without central heating and triple glazed windows.  Next, you will
> tell me that they didn't employ hybrid technologies to reduce emiissions
> (those poor horses and mules!)
>
> BTW, what kind of response other than "tepid" would you want to a
> discussion on GW?
>
> Mike
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net>
> *To:* Swift Water <SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com>
> *Sent:* Monday, December 14, 2009 6:53 AM
> *Subject:* [Swiftwater Gazette] Brad's post on global warming emails
>
> Way back on the Rhodes List, I referenced an article by Danish or Norwegian
> archeologist about studying farms that were appearing from under a
> retreating glacier in Greenland.
>
> There was tepid response.  Gee, I was not the only one who read history,
> other scientific reports asked WHY?
>
> So how did that stone house get under that Greenland glacier?  All I seem
> to get is guffaw over the naming of Greenland - Greenland.  Could it have
> been Green in 1000 A.D?
>
> "David Rind from the US space agency NASA, it ?looks like there were years
> around 1000AD that could have been just as warm?."
>
>
>
> "For example, some suggest that the ?medieval warm period?, the 350-year
> era that started around 1000, when red wine grapes flourished in southern
> England and the Vikings tilled now-frozen farms in Greenland, was
> considerably warmer than even 1998."
>
>
>
> "Of course, this is inconvenient to climate change believers because there
> were no cars or factories pumping out greenhouse gases in 1000AD - yet the
> Earth still warmed."
>
>
>
>
> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1235395/SPECIAL-INVESTIGATION-Climate-change-emails-row-deepens--Russians-admit-DID-send-them.html?printingPage=true
>
> Ed K
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>
> ------------------------------
> I am using the Free version of SPAMfighter<http://www.spamfighter.com/len>
> .
> We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam.
> SPAMfighter has removed 4691 of my spam emails to date.
> The Professional version does not have this message.
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>


-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec 14 11:15:36 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:15:36 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Bankers
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912140653x5de9f5b0i76d733fdf6aae8b7@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912140459t6815c0a4va690dd6a901ef989@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912140653x5de9f5b0i76d733fdf6aae8b7@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912140815i7d5744d4g9b492b7bcb53c268@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

You are correct.  There will be a double dip, the question is one of
timing. First the good news - recessions can only last so long because
businesses run out of inventory sooner or later and they have to buy
new goods and replace equipment. Well run companies tend to react
early and cut deeper than necessary.  The companies that are making a
profit now are those that scaled back their payrolls and cut capital
spending. They'll buy assets (deeply discounted) before they add
employees in the recovery.  Now for the downside - we're still in a
deflationary period and will be for some time.  Commercial real estate
hasn't even begun its free fall yet. I'd love to believe that the
house and condo market is near bottom, but chances are it isn't (and
I'm not buying  a FL condo thinking otherwise).

The single greatest threat to any sustained economic recovery in the
US is the the US debt!

This ain't a moon launch.  You can cut spending or increase revenues.
Smart companies in the private sector cut spending early going into
the recession.  They could just raise prices on their remaining
customers. Intuitively, we understand that doesn't work.  So what does
the Gang of 535 in DC do?  They increase spending and raise taxes.

Has anyone noticed the new Chrysler ads lately?  They mention nothing
about the cars they are building but something about Nobel prize
winners.  What's up with that?  The new Toyota plant in Tupelo, MS and
the soon-to-open Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, TN is waiting for
the government to quit picking winners and losers in the car business
so they can start hiring. How many electoral votes in Mississippi and
Tennessee versus Michigan?

Oh yeah!  We're in the best of hands.

Brad

On 12/14/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> Sigh.... When you don't know how you got into a problem, I guess it's just
> darn tough to see how to get out of it.
>
> Trouble is, once we FINALLY get rid of this fool and his minions, how long
> will it take to undo the damage.
>
> Ready for the second dip of the double dip?? It'll be along here shortly.
>
> Rik
>
> On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 6:59 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Everyone loves to hate bankers until you need one. Fan and I supposed
>> to close on a condo we're buying in Destin, Fl next Friday. I stopped
>> by the bank where we have our business account on Saturday to repay
>> myself for some money I'd loaned the company. My account manager is a
>> sharp young kid who stays on top of current events.  When I asked how
>> the bank would adjust to the "Barney Bill" if it passes, he replied,
>> "we'll adjust our fee structure".  Why is this such a difficult
>> concept for people to understand?  There truly is no such thing as a
>> "free lunch".
>>
>> So now we have the POTUS lecturing bankers (read article below).
>> Let's do a quick review of his history, shall we?  He was a "community
>> organizer" that sued banks to make risky loans.  As Dr. Sowell pointed
>> out, community organizers don't help people, they pit one group
>> against another. In case you've forgotten, Obama's campaign finance
>> chairman was one Penny Pritzker.  Penny's claim to fame was that she
>> was a pioneer in sub-prime lending.  She took her family's bank,
>> Superior in Chicago, into bankruptcy years before the rest of the
>> industry melted in bad loans.  Obama used to stage demonstrations in
>> bank lobbys and on the lawns of bank CEO's (and then sued with the
>> assistance of ACORN). Here's a quick review of the howls of protest
>> about Freddie and Fannie when they were questioned about their lending
>> portfolio -
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/d4tu3z
>>
>> If you have good credit, it's easy to get a loan, even today.  You may
>> need more income, or I should say an income, period.  You may have to
>> take a greater equity position in your purchase or have more equity in
>> your business, but you can borrow money.  Banks don't earn money
>> storing paper in vaults.
>>
>> So now comes this idiot for a President demanding banks do the very
>> things that got them in trouble to begin with.  I take that back, he's
>> not an idiot, he knows exactly what he's doing. He IS a community
>> organizer after all.
>>
>> Had enough yet?
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> ---------------------
>>
>>
>>
>> >From the AP - Today
>>
>> Axelrod: Obama to lecture banks on accountability
>> 11 mins ago
>>
>> WASHINGTON ? A top adviser to President Barack Obama says the White
>> House is telling the banking industry it helped create last year's
>> near economic meltdown and it has to be "part of the solution."
>>
>> Previewing a meeting Obama will have later Monday with industry
>> leaders, David Axelrod said there simply has to be easier credit for
>> businesses to reinvest and do the hiring needed to bring down
>> double-digit unemployment.
>>
>> Interviewed on ABC's "Good Morning America," Axelrod said the message
>> to bankers is: "You have to accelerate lending to credible small
>> businesses." He spoke a day after Obama, in an interview CBS's "60
>> Minutes," said he didn't run for president to "be helping out a bunch
>> of fat cat bankers."
>>
>> THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further
>> information. AP's earlier story is below.
>>
>> WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is asking bank executives to
>> support his efforts to tighten the financial industry, while bankers
>> are prepared to tell the president he should stop oversimplifying
>> their concerns if he wants good-faith collaboration.
>>
>> An hourlong meeting between the president and the nation's top
>> financial firms was shaping up to be a tense White House encounter on
>> Monday, not least because of Obama's description of bankers on the eve
>> of the talks as "fat cats."
>>
>> Administration officials described the meeting as a continuation of
>> discussions the president initiated early in his tenure and the latest
>> push for lenders to take greater responsibility as the nation combats
>> an economic crisis that began on Wall Street.
>>
>> Specifically: Wall Street should fall in line with Obama and back a
>> proposal for a consumer protection agency that cleared the House last
>> week.
>>
>> "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers
>> on Wall Street," Obama told CBS's "60 Minutes" in an interview that
>> broadcast Sunday.
>>
>> Financial industry officials braced for Obama's tough tone. They
>> planned to press a conciliatory message and highlight areas where they
>> agree with the administration while smoothing over their differences.
>>
>> But the executives also planned to stand up to the president on issues
>> where they feel his statements oversimplify their positions ?
>> particularly the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency
>> ? according to people familiar with their thinking who spoke
>> anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the plans.
>>
>> "He can say what he wants, but we're not going to go back to the kind
>> of lending that put us in this mess," said a person who is helping
>> prepare executives for the meeting. A dozen executives were on the
>> list of those coming, from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of New York
>> Mellon Corp., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., U.S. Bancorp ,
>> JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and more.
>>
>> Bankers expected the regulatory overhaul to provide the meeting's most
>> contentious moments. They believe the president has mischaracterized
>> them as being against the new rules, when in fact they support the
>> vast majority of the administration's proposals.
>>
>> "These same banks who benefited from taxpayer assistance ... are
>> fighting tooth and nail with their lobbyists up on Capitol Hill,
>> fighting against financial regulatory control," Obama said in the "60
>> Minutes" interview.
>>
>> One industry official said Obama is viewed as trying to paint the
>> debate as either "You're with us or you're against us." The industry
>> official said bankers did not view it that simply.
>>
>> "We want him to know we have the same goals, but disagree about how to
>> get there," the official said.
>>
>> Bankers were planning to outline alternatives to the new consumer
>> agency. Most lenders support strengthened consumer protections but
>> believe the administration proposal would increase costs and create
>> more gaps between regulators.
>>
>> Administration officials said Obama would use a populist appeal when
>> discussing pay for top executives at bailed-out institutions. Distaste
>> for Wall Street remains high and Obama took a public shot at the banks
>> in his interview.
>>
>> "They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks," he
>> said. "Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down 10, 20 million
>> dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year ...
>> in decades and you guys caused the problem."
>>
>> Many firms have taken steps toward the administration's goals of tying
>> pay to long-term performance and making sure companies do not
>> encourage risky bets. Bowing to public outrage, Goldman Sachs Group
>> Inc. announced Thursday that 30 top executives will receive long-term
>> stock instead of cash for bonuses this year.
>>
>> Other banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., are
>> overhauling pay structures to focus on long-term success.
>>
>> Bank officials contend they would be hurt competitively by strict pay
>> limits, such as the 50 percent tax on bonuses that British officials
>> approved last week.
>>
>> Obama economic adviser Lawrence Summers said Sunday the president
>> would have "a serious talk with the bankers.
>>
>> "The country did incredible things for the banking industry," he said.
>> "The bankers need to recognize that. They need to recognize that
>> they've got obligations to the country after all that's been done for
>> them, and there is a lot more they can do."
>>
>> Summers spoke on ABC's "This Week."
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>


From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec 14 11:48:35 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:48:35 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Red Meat
Message-ID: <400985d70912140848h2a970c9qae6c49e69e305816@mail.gmail.com>

OK, OK, of course I'm a Palinista. That started long before she was
picked as a VP candidate and will probably continue well after 2012,
whatever her choices or outcomes. At any rate, congrats to her and a
successful book tour.  Here's a few shots -

http://www.shealahcraighead.com/Going_Rogue_Book_Tour.html

Everyone has probably seen this by now, but just in case -

http://videos.mediaite.com/video/Sarah-Palin-vs-William-Shatner

Palin has earned her place in history for making more leftist heads
explode than even 'climategate' hacked e-mails.

Brad

From ekroposki at charter.net  Mon Dec 14 12:12:48 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:12:48 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Question
Message-ID: <9CF896536271422EAD9053E97EC7E784@YOURB88038198E>

Can anybody id what is shown in PDF?  Nautical?  
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec 14 13:01:16 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:01:16 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] This Is Huge!
Message-ID: <400985d70912141001k5108644do62095185d4885265@mail.gmail.com>

Bart Gordon is the Congressman from the district just West of mine.
He's a good guy and has served his district well as far as constituent
concerns (bringin' home the bacon). He's got Marsha Blackburn to the
East (my Congress Critter) and Steve Cohen in Memphis farther West.
Cohen was probably one of the hardest working TN State Senators in the
TN Legislature until he filled the old Congressional slot vacated by
Harold Ford, Jr., when JR ran for statewide office for the TN US
Senator slot.  Cohen's problem is that he's a Jew, and he's gay, and
his district is mostly black. He was running against, and I quote, "we
can't have a Jew representing blacks", attitude as expressed from a
local opponent.  Must have been a Jeremiah Wright clone church
"pastor" - forgive me, I don't read the local paper. Anyway, Cohen has
fought hard for his constituents.  I hope he keeps his seat and he
probably will given that the East Memphis "blue eyed devils", as they
were called by Harold Ford, Sr., will choose him over whatever racist
chooses to run against him in 2010 ($100 bet right now it will be
someone from the Ford family).

Here's Gordon's statement -

http://gordon.house.gov/apps/list/press/tn06_gordon/GordonRetires.shtml

Wally use to brag about his Congressman's independent streak.  He's
next.  I'd love to brag about how this is a great victory for the GOP
but for the fact I cuss the GOP every time they call. We're not going
to celebrate a victory for a party, we going to throw all the bastards
out.

Start counting!

Brad

From mweisner at ebsmed.com  Mon Dec 14 13:01:34 2009
From: mweisner at ebsmed.com (Michael D. Weisner)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:01:34 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Question
References: <9CF896536271422EAD9053E97EC7E784@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <AD94EF7175FE407B89713834A6055798@ebsoffice>

Ed,

Viking Sail Gifts was a business that was sold in Monterey County, CA
(http://www.carmelbusinesssales.com/02-businessessold.html)

Still thinking and searching when I have a moment.

Mike
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ed Kroposki 
  To: Swift Water 
  Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 12:12 PM
  Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Question


  Can anybody id what is shown in PDF?  Nautical?  


------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Mon Dec 14 13:33:52 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:33:52 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] This Is Huge!
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912141001k5108644do62095185d4885265@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912141001k5108644do62095185d4885265@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912141033na0c169bgd69eabaa06977cc5@mail.gmail.com>

Looks like he's gonna' get out of the way before the shit hits the fan.

Can't say I blame him :-)

Rik

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 12:01 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Bart Gordon is the Congressman from the district just West of mine.
> He's a good guy and has served his district well as far as constituent
> concerns (bringin' home the bacon). He's got Marsha Blackburn to the
> East (my Congress Critter) and Steve Cohen in Memphis farther West.
> Cohen was probably one of the hardest working TN State Senators in the
> TN Legislature until he filled the old Congressional slot vacated by
> Harold Ford, Jr., when JR ran for statewide office for the TN US
> Senator slot.  Cohen's problem is that he's a Jew, and he's gay, and
> his district is mostly black. He was running against, and I quote, "we
> can't have a Jew representing blacks", attitude as expressed from a
> local opponent.  Must have been a Jeremiah Wright clone church
> "pastor" - forgive me, I don't read the local paper. Anyway, Cohen has
> fought hard for his constituents.  I hope he keeps his seat and he
> probably will given that the East Memphis "blue eyed devils", as they
> were called by Harold Ford, Sr., will choose him over whatever racist
> chooses to run against him in 2010 ($100 bet right now it will be
> someone from the Ford family).
>
> Here's Gordon's statement -
>
> http://gordon.house.gov/apps/list/press/tn06_gordon/GordonRetires.shtml
>
> Wally use to brag about his Congressman's independent streak.  He's
> next.  I'd love to brag about how this is a great victory for the GOP
> but for the fact I cuss the GOP every time they call. We're not going
> to celebrate a victory for a party, we going to throw all the bastards
> out.
>
> Start counting!
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Mon Dec 14 14:01:16 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:01:16 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Mike, question
Message-ID: <772EAC20C9E94C17BB79C7839E5EB475@YOURB88038198E>

Mike,

When I was asked via email because I sail, I said "no idea'.  Except that it might be a gimmick just to sell.  Maybe should be labeled 'Obamacare'.

Ed K
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Mon Dec 14 21:25:41 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:25:41 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Health Care Rationing For Dummies
Message-ID: <400985d70912141825g4954ba24r7663fab751220758@mail.gmail.com>

Health insurance companies ration care - that's all they do.  They
don't provide it, doctors, clinics, and hospitals do. If you have a
Yugo plan they ration a lot, with a Cadillac plan perhaps not so much.
 But, they ration either way.  That's all any health insurance company
does.

You might be wondering what a government health care plan would do.
Here's your clue -

http://www.valleynewslive.tv/artman2/publish/facebook/15341.shtml

Notice that actual health providers didn't say this was a good idea.
Someone ($20 to the first person who can find the individual that made
this decision) moved the marker.  Boom!  That's how it works when
you're King.

Brad

"Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force, like
fire: a dangerous servant and a terrible master."  George Washington

From hparsons at parsonsys.com  Mon Dec 14 23:03:05 2009
From: hparsons at parsonsys.com (Herb Parsons)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 22:03:05 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Red Meat
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912140848h2a970c9qae6c49e69e305816@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912140848h2a970c9qae6c49e69e305816@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5f889a890912142003m70075026oa031e20fe51b731b@mail.gmail.com>

Well, the photos from Plano aren't up yet, but Shealah Craighead is the one
that got passes for Gini and me at Plano. Shealah was GWB's "traveling
photographer" (and is now Palin's) and a lady I work with was the sr photo
editor. They still keep in touch, and that's how my mistake turned golden.

I finally saw Palin's appearance with Shatner (I read the emails about it on
my Palm Pre, and the links were to Flash sites that wouldn't work for me).

I thought she was stunning. As she walked on stage, the confidence was
almost oozing from her, and that "I'm about to have some fun" grin made her
even more attractive than usual (though I have to admit, there were no
tingles up my leg...)

I saw an interesting blog about the appearance. http://bit.ly/7xMkjM I agree
with the blogger on many aspects, but I'd have to say I believe this was
more of a turning point for the media than for Palin. I think HER big
turning point happened with her (and McCain's) loss November a year ago. I
think that was when she finally realized that the political "handlers"
(whose real job is to handle the media's view of a candidate) did not have a
lock on this game. That their advice and instructions can be bad, and can
lead to failure. I think the loss was when she finally realized "I got here
MY way, and don't need to try THEIR way".

I read her book, and did so pretty quickly. For the most part, I liked it.
Parts were inspiring, parts were emotionally touching, and it filled in a
LOT of the "gaps" for me. But I also had a small underlying current of
disappointment as I read it. Too many times I thought it sounded as if she
was trying to justify herself, and to explain "why"... I learned back in
grade school that when a pack of bullies are in front of a mass of dolts
cheering them on, there IS no explanation of "why". Explaining won't work -
fighting back may be a losing proposition, but there's always the chance you
can make it clear to them they were in a fight.

After I saw the clip of her on the Tonight show, I thought back on her the
last few months. She comitted what many called political suicide by
resigning as governer of AK, and she's turned it into a positive. She came
out with her book that even her critcs have to admit is a blockbuster hit
(though they blame it on the "idiots" that buy it; wild notion, huh?) I'd
hazard to guess that she's probably the most potent policical
"non-candidate" around right now, and the road pretty clearly leads upwards.

Watching her since then, I've seen her grow in confidence in front of
people. I doubt you'll ever again see a nervous "wanna be" in pushed around
by a lightweight like Couric. I doubt you'll ever again see her stand by and
get hit with potshots that go unanswered. I think we're going to start
seeing more and more of SaraCuda who smiles while she rips her opponents
apart, emotionally, intellectually, and politically.

I think the book was her way of closing a chapter in her life. I think it
was her way of saying "I goofed, I fell prey to the 'their way' and forgot
myself. This is my explanation of it all. It's also my farewell to that.
>From now on, I'm ME, and I will fail or succeed based on being me."

Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing what becomes of this.


On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 10:48 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> OK, OK, of course I'm a Palinista. That started long before she was
> picked as a VP candidate and will probably continue well after 2012,
> whatever her choices or outcomes. At any rate, congrats to her and a
> successful book tour.  Here's a few shots -
>
> http://www.shealahcraighead.com/Going_Rogue_Book_Tour.html
>
> Everyone has probably seen this by now, but just in case -
>
> http://videos.mediaite.com/video/Sarah-Palin-vs-William-Shatner
>
> Palin has earned her place in history for making more leftist heads
> explode than even 'climategate' hacked e-mails.
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 00:10:13 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:10:13 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Red Meat
In-Reply-To: <5f889a890912142003m70075026oa031e20fe51b731b@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912140848h2a970c9qae6c49e69e305816@mail.gmail.com>
	<5f889a890912142003m70075026oa031e20fe51b731b@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912142110s2d4fb59fjaf47cdead8e10dae@mail.gmail.com>

Herb,

Your observations are "spot on". One of the biggest reasons I claim no
objectivity about Palin is that she reminds me so much of my older
sister.  Sis looked like Sarah does now 20 years ago, and they even
speak the same way. Both can melt you with a smile or cut your legs
out from underneath you when they need to (and never raise their
voices or be the least mean spirited about it). Both are very devout
in their religious beliefs and yet very tolerant of others who choose
not to share their faith. These types of people lead by example and
not by force, and I respect that.

Palin will not fade from the national political stage.  Whether she
wants to be POTUS or would even be good at the job isn't the main
question right now.  She is a major voice shaping the direction of
where our country goes and she will not be silenced. I understand why
some feel threatened by her. Just because you don't understand another
persons values doesn't mean they don't appreciate yours.

Read "Sarah Takes On Big Oil" by Cashman & Nelson if you get a chance.
 One of the stories someone told at the rally I attended in DC was
David and Goliath, and paraphrasing David, "how could I lose, he's too
big to miss".  Sarah has had several "David" moments in her life.  She
always seems to hit her target.

Brad





On 12/14/09, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com> wrote:
> Well, the photos from Plano aren't up yet, but Shealah Craighead is the one
> that got passes for Gini and me at Plano. Shealah was GWB's "traveling
> photographer" (and is now Palin's) and a lady I work with was the sr photo
> editor. They still keep in touch, and that's how my mistake turned golden.
>
> I finally saw Palin's appearance with Shatner (I read the emails about it on
> my Palm Pre, and the links were to Flash sites that wouldn't work for me).
>
> I thought she was stunning. As she walked on stage, the confidence was
> almost oozing from her, and that "I'm about to have some fun" grin made her
> even more attractive than usual (though I have to admit, there were no
> tingles up my leg...)
>
> I saw an interesting blog about the appearance. http://bit.ly/7xMkjM I agree
> with the blogger on many aspects, but I'd have to say I believe this was
> more of a turning point for the media than for Palin. I think HER big
> turning point happened with her (and McCain's) loss November a year ago. I
> think that was when she finally realized that the political "handlers"
> (whose real job is to handle the media's view of a candidate) did not have a
> lock on this game. That their advice and instructions can be bad, and can
> lead to failure. I think the loss was when she finally realized "I got here
> MY way, and don't need to try THEIR way".
>
> I read her book, and did so pretty quickly. For the most part, I liked it.
> Parts were inspiring, parts were emotionally touching, and it filled in a
> LOT of the "gaps" for me. But I also had a small underlying current of
> disappointment as I read it. Too many times I thought it sounded as if she
> was trying to justify herself, and to explain "why"... I learned back in
> grade school that when a pack of bullies are in front of a mass of dolts
> cheering them on, there IS no explanation of "why". Explaining won't work -
> fighting back may be a losing proposition, but there's always the chance you
> can make it clear to them they were in a fight.
>
> After I saw the clip of her on the Tonight show, I thought back on her the
> last few months. She comitted what many called political suicide by
> resigning as governer of AK, and she's turned it into a positive. She came
> out with her book that even her critcs have to admit is a blockbuster hit
> (though they blame it on the "idiots" that buy it; wild notion, huh?) I'd
> hazard to guess that she's probably the most potent policical
> "non-candidate" around right now, and the road pretty clearly leads upwards.
>
> Watching her since then, I've seen her grow in confidence in front of
> people. I doubt you'll ever again see a nervous "wanna be" in pushed around
> by a lightweight like Couric. I doubt you'll ever again see her stand by and
> get hit with potshots that go unanswered. I think we're going to start
> seeing more and more of SaraCuda who smiles while she rips her opponents
> apart, emotionally, intellectually, and politically.
>
> I think the book was her way of closing a chapter in her life. I think it
> was her way of saying "I goofed, I fell prey to the 'their way' and forgot
> myself. This is my explanation of it all. It's also my farewell to that.
> >From now on, I'm ME, and I will fail or succeed based on being me."
>
> Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing what becomes of this.
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 10:48 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> OK, OK, of course I'm a Palinista. That started long before she was
>> picked as a VP candidate and will probably continue well after 2012,
>> whatever her choices or outcomes. At any rate, congrats to her and a
>> successful book tour.  Here's a few shots -
>>
>> http://www.shealahcraighead.com/Going_Rogue_Book_Tour.html
>>
>> Everyone has probably seen this by now, but just in case -
>>
>> http://videos.mediaite.com/video/Sarah-Palin-vs-William-Shatner
>>
>> Palin has earned her place in history for making more leftist heads
>> explode than even 'climategate' hacked e-mails.
>>
>> Brad
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 00:58:09 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:58:09 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Bankers
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912140653x5de9f5b0i76d733fdf6aae8b7@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912140459t6815c0a4va690dd6a901ef989@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912140653x5de9f5b0i76d733fdf6aae8b7@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912142158l7b48ccaanb0efb41a6ee3fe08@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

Perhaps we're not the only rubes in the crowd -

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/barack-obama-bankers-text.html

Ouch!  That's gotta hurt - the LA Times?

Brad


On 12/14/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> Sigh.... When you don't know how you got into a problem, I guess it's just
> darn tough to see how to get out of it.
>
> Trouble is, once we FINALLY get rid of this fool and his minions, how long
> will it take to undo the damage.
>
> Ready for the second dip of the double dip?? It'll be along here shortly.
>
> Rik
>
> On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 6:59 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Everyone loves to hate bankers until you need one. Fan and I supposed
>> to close on a condo we're buying in Destin, Fl next Friday. I stopped
>> by the bank where we have our business account on Saturday to repay
>> myself for some money I'd loaned the company. My account manager is a
>> sharp young kid who stays on top of current events.  When I asked how
>> the bank would adjust to the "Barney Bill" if it passes, he replied,
>> "we'll adjust our fee structure".  Why is this such a difficult
>> concept for people to understand?  There truly is no such thing as a
>> "free lunch".
>>
>> So now we have the POTUS lecturing bankers (read article below).
>> Let's do a quick review of his history, shall we?  He was a "community
>> organizer" that sued banks to make risky loans.  As Dr. Sowell pointed
>> out, community organizers don't help people, they pit one group
>> against another. In case you've forgotten, Obama's campaign finance
>> chairman was one Penny Pritzker.  Penny's claim to fame was that she
>> was a pioneer in sub-prime lending.  She took her family's bank,
>> Superior in Chicago, into bankruptcy years before the rest of the
>> industry melted in bad loans.  Obama used to stage demonstrations in
>> bank lobbys and on the lawns of bank CEO's (and then sued with the
>> assistance of ACORN). Here's a quick review of the howls of protest
>> about Freddie and Fannie when they were questioned about their lending
>> portfolio -
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/d4tu3z
>>
>> If you have good credit, it's easy to get a loan, even today.  You may
>> need more income, or I should say an income, period.  You may have to
>> take a greater equity position in your purchase or have more equity in
>> your business, but you can borrow money.  Banks don't earn money
>> storing paper in vaults.
>>
>> So now comes this idiot for a President demanding banks do the very
>> things that got them in trouble to begin with.  I take that back, he's
>> not an idiot, he knows exactly what he's doing. He IS a community
>> organizer after all.
>>
>> Had enough yet?
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> ---------------------
>>
>>
>>
>> >From the AP - Today
>>
>> Axelrod: Obama to lecture banks on accountability
>> 11 mins ago
>>
>> WASHINGTON ? A top adviser to President Barack Obama says the White
>> House is telling the banking industry it helped create last year's
>> near economic meltdown and it has to be "part of the solution."
>>
>> Previewing a meeting Obama will have later Monday with industry
>> leaders, David Axelrod said there simply has to be easier credit for
>> businesses to reinvest and do the hiring needed to bring down
>> double-digit unemployment.
>>
>> Interviewed on ABC's "Good Morning America," Axelrod said the message
>> to bankers is: "You have to accelerate lending to credible small
>> businesses." He spoke a day after Obama, in an interview CBS's "60
>> Minutes," said he didn't run for president to "be helping out a bunch
>> of fat cat bankers."
>>
>> THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further
>> information. AP's earlier story is below.
>>
>> WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is asking bank executives to
>> support his efforts to tighten the financial industry, while bankers
>> are prepared to tell the president he should stop oversimplifying
>> their concerns if he wants good-faith collaboration.
>>
>> An hourlong meeting between the president and the nation's top
>> financial firms was shaping up to be a tense White House encounter on
>> Monday, not least because of Obama's description of bankers on the eve
>> of the talks as "fat cats."
>>
>> Administration officials described the meeting as a continuation of
>> discussions the president initiated early in his tenure and the latest
>> push for lenders to take greater responsibility as the nation combats
>> an economic crisis that began on Wall Street.
>>
>> Specifically: Wall Street should fall in line with Obama and back a
>> proposal for a consumer protection agency that cleared the House last
>> week.
>>
>> "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers
>> on Wall Street," Obama told CBS's "60 Minutes" in an interview that
>> broadcast Sunday.
>>
>> Financial industry officials braced for Obama's tough tone. They
>> planned to press a conciliatory message and highlight areas where they
>> agree with the administration while smoothing over their differences.
>>
>> But the executives also planned to stand up to the president on issues
>> where they feel his statements oversimplify their positions ?
>> particularly the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency
>> ? according to people familiar with their thinking who spoke
>> anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the plans.
>>
>> "He can say what he wants, but we're not going to go back to the kind
>> of lending that put us in this mess," said a person who is helping
>> prepare executives for the meeting. A dozen executives were on the
>> list of those coming, from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of New York
>> Mellon Corp., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., U.S. Bancorp ,
>> JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and more.
>>
>> Bankers expected the regulatory overhaul to provide the meeting's most
>> contentious moments. They believe the president has mischaracterized
>> them as being against the new rules, when in fact they support the
>> vast majority of the administration's proposals.
>>
>> "These same banks who benefited from taxpayer assistance ... are
>> fighting tooth and nail with their lobbyists up on Capitol Hill,
>> fighting against financial regulatory control," Obama said in the "60
>> Minutes" interview.
>>
>> One industry official said Obama is viewed as trying to paint the
>> debate as either "You're with us or you're against us." The industry
>> official said bankers did not view it that simply.
>>
>> "We want him to know we have the same goals, but disagree about how to
>> get there," the official said.
>>
>> Bankers were planning to outline alternatives to the new consumer
>> agency. Most lenders support strengthened consumer protections but
>> believe the administration proposal would increase costs and create
>> more gaps between regulators.
>>
>> Administration officials said Obama would use a populist appeal when
>> discussing pay for top executives at bailed-out institutions. Distaste
>> for Wall Street remains high and Obama took a public shot at the banks
>> in his interview.
>>
>> "They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks," he
>> said. "Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down 10, 20 million
>> dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year ...
>> in decades and you guys caused the problem."
>>
>> Many firms have taken steps toward the administration's goals of tying
>> pay to long-term performance and making sure companies do not
>> encourage risky bets. Bowing to public outrage, Goldman Sachs Group
>> Inc. announced Thursday that 30 top executives will receive long-term
>> stock instead of cash for bonuses this year.
>>
>> Other banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., are
>> overhauling pay structures to focus on long-term success.
>>
>> Bank officials contend they would be hurt competitively by strict pay
>> limits, such as the 50 percent tax on bonuses that British officials
>> approved last week.
>>
>> Obama economic adviser Lawrence Summers said Sunday the president
>> would have "a serious talk with the bankers.
>>
>> "The country did incredible things for the banking industry," he said.
>> "The bankers need to recognize that. They need to recognize that
>> they've got obligations to the country after all that's been done for
>> them, and there is a lot more they can do."
>>
>> Summers spoke on ABC's "This Week."
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>


From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 02:28:36 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:28:36 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Health Care Rationing For Dummies
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912141825g4954ba24r7663fab751220758@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912141825g4954ba24r7663fab751220758@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912142328y76dbf15albf6ac4c40ede9b54@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Lets face it, this has to happen the way things are now. There is just not
enough money to keep doing things the way we have been. This is why I have
been so disappointed in the efforts of our congress. What they are doing
doesn't address the problem of high costs, it merely attempts to spread the
pain out.  With the proposed plan(s) there is no financial benefit to being
healthy. Under the current proposals the prices will continue to escalate
until people get to the point of making a choice between paying for medical
care or eating. When it comes to that, we know what their choice will be.
Now, we have another problem,.... we have promised to send people that don't
participate in the system to jail.

What we need is to address the causes of the increasing cost of care, not
just make every one buy prepaid health care. Not everyone needs OR WANTS
prepaid health care, which is what I call these comprehensive plans it
appears will be foisted on us. Frankly, I am going to be damned pissed off
when my high deductible health care plan is no longer legal.

Here are some things we should be working on.

1. Remove the legal obstacles which slow the creation of high deductible
health insurance plans and Health Savings Accounts.

2. Change the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance and
individually owned health insurance have exactly the same tax benefits.

3. Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing
across state lines.

4. Repeal all government mandates regarding what insurance companies must
cover.

5. Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors into
paying insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

6. Make health care costs transparent so that consumers will understand what
health care treatments cost.

7.    Enact Medicare reform: we need to face up to the actuarial fact that
Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and move towards greater patient
empowerment and responsibility.

These things would actually address the cost of health care. Going to the
doctor is not likely to ever be cheap. It could however be much more
affordable than it is if we'd just use a little good sense.

Rik

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 8:25 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Health insurance companies ration care - that's all they do.  They
> don't provide it, doctors, clinics, and hospitals do. If you have a
> Yugo plan they ration a lot, with a Cadillac plan perhaps not so much.
>  But, they ration either way.  That's all any health insurance company
> does.
>
> You might be wondering what a government health care plan would do.
> Here's your clue -
>
> http://www.valleynewslive.tv/artman2/publish/facebook/15341.shtml
>
> Notice that actual health providers didn't say this was a good idea.
> Someone ($20 to the first person who can find the individual that made
> this decision) moved the marker.  Boom!  That's how it works when
> you're King.
>
> Brad
>
> "Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force, like
> fire: a dangerous servant and a terrible master."  George Washington
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
-------------- next part --------------
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 02:50:36 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:50:36 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Bankers
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912142158l7b48ccaanb0efb41a6ee3fe08@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912140459t6815c0a4va690dd6a901ef989@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912140653x5de9f5b0i76d733fdf6aae8b7@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912142158l7b48ccaanb0efb41a6ee3fe08@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912142350o3f7d0b74o939ea5eac7754061@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Let's see, we've got possible gov't run medical care = taxes. We got the EPA
hanging over our heads, just in case congress doesn't pass cap and trade =
taxes. God only knows what the hell was in that financial services bill that
Frank snuck through the house this week, but you can bet it = taxes. We've
got the threat of yet more bailouts and even higher deficits = taxes. We're
looking at the possibility of a VAT = a ton of taxes.

By god, I sure can't understand why people might not want to be sticking
their necks out too far right now, can you???

If he had only just once run his own hotdog stand .....

Just one rube to another :-)

Rik

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 11:58 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Rik,
>
> Perhaps we're not the only rubes in the crowd -
>
>
> http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/barack-obama-bankers-text.html
>
> Ouch!  That's gotta hurt - the LA Times?
>
> Brad
>
>
> On 12/14/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Brad,
> >
> > Sigh.... When you don't know how you got into a problem, I guess it's
> just
> > darn tough to see how to get out of it.
> >
> > Trouble is, once we FINALLY get rid of this fool and his minions, how
> long
> > will it take to undo the damage.
> >
> > Ready for the second dip of the double dip?? It'll be along here shortly.
> >
> > Rik
> >
> > On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 6:59 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Everyone loves to hate bankers until you need one. Fan and I supposed
> >> to close on a condo we're buying in Destin, Fl next Friday. I stopped
> >> by the bank where we have our business account on Saturday to repay
> >> myself for some money I'd loaned the company. My account manager is a
> >> sharp young kid who stays on top of current events.  When I asked how
> >> the bank would adjust to the "Barney Bill" if it passes, he replied,
> >> "we'll adjust our fee structure".  Why is this such a difficult
> >> concept for people to understand?  There truly is no such thing as a
> >> "free lunch".
> >>
> >> So now we have the POTUS lecturing bankers (read article below).
> >> Let's do a quick review of his history, shall we?  He was a "community
> >> organizer" that sued banks to make risky loans.  As Dr. Sowell pointed
> >> out, community organizers don't help people, they pit one group
> >> against another. In case you've forgotten, Obama's campaign finance
> >> chairman was one Penny Pritzker.  Penny's claim to fame was that she
> >> was a pioneer in sub-prime lending.  She took her family's bank,
> >> Superior in Chicago, into bankruptcy years before the rest of the
> >> industry melted in bad loans.  Obama used to stage demonstrations in
> >> bank lobbys and on the lawns of bank CEO's (and then sued with the
> >> assistance of ACORN). Here's a quick review of the howls of protest
> >> about Freddie and Fannie when they were questioned about their lending
> >> portfolio -
> >>
> >> http://tinyurl.com/d4tu3z
> >>
> >> If you have good credit, it's easy to get a loan, even today.  You may
> >> need more income, or I should say an income, period.  You may have to
> >> take a greater equity position in your purchase or have more equity in
> >> your business, but you can borrow money.  Banks don't earn money
> >> storing paper in vaults.
> >>
> >> So now comes this idiot for a President demanding banks do the very
> >> things that got them in trouble to begin with.  I take that back, he's
> >> not an idiot, he knows exactly what he's doing. He IS a community
> >> organizer after all.
> >>
> >> Had enough yet?
> >>
> >> Brad
> >>
> >> ---------------------
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> >From the AP - Today
> >>
> >> Axelrod: Obama to lecture banks on accountability
> >> 11 mins ago
> >>
> >> WASHINGTON ? A top adviser to President Barack Obama says the White
> >> House is telling the banking industry it helped create last year's
> >> near economic meltdown and it has to be "part of the solution."
> >>
> >> Previewing a meeting Obama will have later Monday with industry
> >> leaders, David Axelrod said there simply has to be easier credit for
> >> businesses to reinvest and do the hiring needed to bring down
> >> double-digit unemployment.
> >>
> >> Interviewed on ABC's "Good Morning America," Axelrod said the message
> >> to bankers is: "You have to accelerate lending to credible small
> >> businesses." He spoke a day after Obama, in an interview CBS's "60
> >> Minutes," said he didn't run for president to "be helping out a bunch
> >> of fat cat bankers."
> >>
> >> THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further
> >> information. AP's earlier story is below.
> >>
> >> WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is asking bank executives to
> >> support his efforts to tighten the financial industry, while bankers
> >> are prepared to tell the president he should stop oversimplifying
> >> their concerns if he wants good-faith collaboration.
> >>
> >> An hourlong meeting between the president and the nation's top
> >> financial firms was shaping up to be a tense White House encounter on
> >> Monday, not least because of Obama's description of bankers on the eve
> >> of the talks as "fat cats."
> >>
> >> Administration officials described the meeting as a continuation of
> >> discussions the president initiated early in his tenure and the latest
> >> push for lenders to take greater responsibility as the nation combats
> >> an economic crisis that began on Wall Street.
> >>
> >> Specifically: Wall Street should fall in line with Obama and back a
> >> proposal for a consumer protection agency that cleared the House last
> >> week.
> >>
> >> "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers
> >> on Wall Street," Obama told CBS's "60 Minutes" in an interview that
> >> broadcast Sunday.
> >>
> >> Financial industry officials braced for Obama's tough tone. They
> >> planned to press a conciliatory message and highlight areas where they
> >> agree with the administration while smoothing over their differences.
> >>
> >> But the executives also planned to stand up to the president on issues
> >> where they feel his statements oversimplify their positions ?
> >> particularly the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency
> >> ? according to people familiar with their thinking who spoke
> >> anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the plans.
> >>
> >> "He can say what he wants, but we're not going to go back to the kind
> >> of lending that put us in this mess," said a person who is helping
> >> prepare executives for the meeting. A dozen executives were on the
> >> list of those coming, from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of New York
> >> Mellon Corp., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., U.S. Bancorp ,
> >> JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and more.
> >>
> >> Bankers expected the regulatory overhaul to provide the meeting's most
> >> contentious moments. They believe the president has mischaracterized
> >> them as being against the new rules, when in fact they support the
> >> vast majority of the administration's proposals.
> >>
> >> "These same banks who benefited from taxpayer assistance ... are
> >> fighting tooth and nail with their lobbyists up on Capitol Hill,
> >> fighting against financial regulatory control," Obama said in the "60
> >> Minutes" interview.
> >>
> >> One industry official said Obama is viewed as trying to paint the
> >> debate as either "You're with us or you're against us." The industry
> >> official said bankers did not view it that simply.
> >>
> >> "We want him to know we have the same goals, but disagree about how to
> >> get there," the official said.
> >>
> >> Bankers were planning to outline alternatives to the new consumer
> >> agency. Most lenders support strengthened consumer protections but
> >> believe the administration proposal would increase costs and create
> >> more gaps between regulators.
> >>
> >> Administration officials said Obama would use a populist appeal when
> >> discussing pay for top executives at bailed-out institutions. Distaste
> >> for Wall Street remains high and Obama took a public shot at the banks
> >> in his interview.
> >>
> >> "They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks," he
> >> said. "Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down 10, 20 million
> >> dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year ...
> >> in decades and you guys caused the problem."
> >>
> >> Many firms have taken steps toward the administration's goals of tying
> >> pay to long-term performance and making sure companies do not
> >> encourage risky bets. Bowing to public outrage, Goldman Sachs Group
> >> Inc. announced Thursday that 30 top executives will receive long-term
> >> stock instead of cash for bonuses this year.
> >>
> >> Other banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., are
> >> overhauling pay structures to focus on long-term success.
> >>
> >> Bank officials contend they would be hurt competitively by strict pay
> >> limits, such as the 50 percent tax on bonuses that British officials
> >> approved last week.
> >>
> >> Obama economic adviser Lawrence Summers said Sunday the president
> >> would have "a serious talk with the bankers.
> >>
> >> "The country did incredible things for the banking industry," he said.
> >> "The bankers need to recognize that. They need to recognize that
> >> they've got obligations to the country after all that's been done for
> >> them, and there is a lot more they can do."
> >>
> >> Summers spoke on ABC's "This Week."
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> means
> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
-------------- next part --------------
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 02:52:27 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:52:27 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Bankers
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912142350o3f7d0b74o939ea5eac7754061@mail.gmail.com>
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	<6634e19e0912140653x5de9f5b0i76d733fdf6aae8b7@mail.gmail.com>
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PS: it's gotta be gettin' pretty obvious when the MSM starts to look like
they get it. :-)

Rik

On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 1:50 AM, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Brad,
>
> Let's see, we've got possible gov't run medical care = taxes. We got the
> EPA hanging over our heads, just in case congress doesn't pass cap and trade
> = taxes. God only knows what the hell was in that financial services bill
> that Frank snuck through the house this week, but you can bet it = taxes.
> We've got the threat of yet more bailouts and even higher deficits = taxes.
> We're looking at the possibility of a VAT = a ton of taxes.
>
> By god, I sure can't understand why people might not want to be sticking
> their necks out too far right now, can you???
>
> If he had only just once run his own hotdog stand .....
>
> Just one rube to another :-)
>
> Rik
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 11:58 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Rik,
>>
>> Perhaps we're not the only rubes in the crowd -
>>
>>
>> http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/barack-obama-bankers-text.html
>>
>> Ouch!  That's gotta hurt - the LA Times?
>>
>> Brad
>>
>>
>> On 12/14/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Brad,
>> >
>> > Sigh.... When you don't know how you got into a problem, I guess it's
>> just
>> > darn tough to see how to get out of it.
>> >
>> > Trouble is, once we FINALLY get rid of this fool and his minions, how
>> long
>> > will it take to undo the damage.
>> >
>> > Ready for the second dip of the double dip?? It'll be along here
>> shortly.
>> >
>> > Rik
>> >
>> > On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 6:59 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Everyone loves to hate bankers until you need one. Fan and I supposed
>> >> to close on a condo we're buying in Destin, Fl next Friday. I stopped
>> >> by the bank where we have our business account on Saturday to repay
>> >> myself for some money I'd loaned the company. My account manager is a
>> >> sharp young kid who stays on top of current events.  When I asked how
>> >> the bank would adjust to the "Barney Bill" if it passes, he replied,
>> >> "we'll adjust our fee structure".  Why is this such a difficult
>> >> concept for people to understand?  There truly is no such thing as a
>> >> "free lunch".
>> >>
>> >> So now we have the POTUS lecturing bankers (read article below).
>> >> Let's do a quick review of his history, shall we?  He was a "community
>> >> organizer" that sued banks to make risky loans.  As Dr. Sowell pointed
>> >> out, community organizers don't help people, they pit one group
>> >> against another. In case you've forgotten, Obama's campaign finance
>> >> chairman was one Penny Pritzker.  Penny's claim to fame was that she
>> >> was a pioneer in sub-prime lending.  She took her family's bank,
>> >> Superior in Chicago, into bankruptcy years before the rest of the
>> >> industry melted in bad loans.  Obama used to stage demonstrations in
>> >> bank lobbys and on the lawns of bank CEO's (and then sued with the
>> >> assistance of ACORN). Here's a quick review of the howls of protest
>> >> about Freddie and Fannie when they were questioned about their lending
>> >> portfolio -
>> >>
>> >> http://tinyurl.com/d4tu3z
>> >>
>> >> If you have good credit, it's easy to get a loan, even today.  You may
>> >> need more income, or I should say an income, period.  You may have to
>> >> take a greater equity position in your purchase or have more equity in
>> >> your business, but you can borrow money.  Banks don't earn money
>> >> storing paper in vaults.
>> >>
>> >> So now comes this idiot for a President demanding banks do the very
>> >> things that got them in trouble to begin with.  I take that back, he's
>> >> not an idiot, he knows exactly what he's doing. He IS a community
>> >> organizer after all.
>> >>
>> >> Had enough yet?
>> >>
>> >> Brad
>> >>
>> >> ---------------------
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> >From the AP - Today
>> >>
>> >> Axelrod: Obama to lecture banks on accountability
>> >> 11 mins ago
>> >>
>> >> WASHINGTON ? A top adviser to President Barack Obama says the White
>> >> House is telling the banking industry it helped create last year's
>> >> near economic meltdown and it has to be "part of the solution."
>> >>
>> >> Previewing a meeting Obama will have later Monday with industry
>> >> leaders, David Axelrod said there simply has to be easier credit for
>> >> businesses to reinvest and do the hiring needed to bring down
>> >> double-digit unemployment.
>> >>
>> >> Interviewed on ABC's "Good Morning America," Axelrod said the message
>> >> to bankers is: "You have to accelerate lending to credible small
>> >> businesses." He spoke a day after Obama, in an interview CBS's "60
>> >> Minutes," said he didn't run for president to "be helping out a bunch
>> >> of fat cat bankers."
>> >>
>> >> THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further
>> >> information. AP's earlier story is below.
>> >>
>> >> WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is asking bank executives to
>> >> support his efforts to tighten the financial industry, while bankers
>> >> are prepared to tell the president he should stop oversimplifying
>> >> their concerns if he wants good-faith collaboration.
>> >>
>> >> An hourlong meeting between the president and the nation's top
>> >> financial firms was shaping up to be a tense White House encounter on
>> >> Monday, not least because of Obama's description of bankers on the eve
>> >> of the talks as "fat cats."
>> >>
>> >> Administration officials described the meeting as a continuation of
>> >> discussions the president initiated early in his tenure and the latest
>> >> push for lenders to take greater responsibility as the nation combats
>> >> an economic crisis that began on Wall Street.
>> >>
>> >> Specifically: Wall Street should fall in line with Obama and back a
>> >> proposal for a consumer protection agency that cleared the House last
>> >> week.
>> >>
>> >> "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers
>> >> on Wall Street," Obama told CBS's "60 Minutes" in an interview that
>> >> broadcast Sunday.
>> >>
>> >> Financial industry officials braced for Obama's tough tone. They
>> >> planned to press a conciliatory message and highlight areas where they
>> >> agree with the administration while smoothing over their differences.
>> >>
>> >> But the executives also planned to stand up to the president on issues
>> >> where they feel his statements oversimplify their positions ?
>> >> particularly the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency
>> >> ? according to people familiar with their thinking who spoke
>> >> anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the plans.
>> >>
>> >> "He can say what he wants, but we're not going to go back to the kind
>> >> of lending that put us in this mess," said a person who is helping
>> >> prepare executives for the meeting. A dozen executives were on the
>> >> list of those coming, from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of New York
>> >> Mellon Corp., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., U.S. Bancorp ,
>> >> JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and more.
>> >>
>> >> Bankers expected the regulatory overhaul to provide the meeting's most
>> >> contentious moments. They believe the president has mischaracterized
>> >> them as being against the new rules, when in fact they support the
>> >> vast majority of the administration's proposals.
>> >>
>> >> "These same banks who benefited from taxpayer assistance ... are
>> >> fighting tooth and nail with their lobbyists up on Capitol Hill,
>> >> fighting against financial regulatory control," Obama said in the "60
>> >> Minutes" interview.
>> >>
>> >> One industry official said Obama is viewed as trying to paint the
>> >> debate as either "You're with us or you're against us." The industry
>> >> official said bankers did not view it that simply.
>> >>
>> >> "We want him to know we have the same goals, but disagree about how to
>> >> get there," the official said.
>> >>
>> >> Bankers were planning to outline alternatives to the new consumer
>> >> agency. Most lenders support strengthened consumer protections but
>> >> believe the administration proposal would increase costs and create
>> >> more gaps between regulators.
>> >>
>> >> Administration officials said Obama would use a populist appeal when
>> >> discussing pay for top executives at bailed-out institutions. Distaste
>> >> for Wall Street remains high and Obama took a public shot at the banks
>> >> in his interview.
>> >>
>> >> "They're still puzzled why it is that people are mad at the banks," he
>> >> said. "Well, let's see. You guys are drawing down 10, 20 million
>> >> dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year ...
>> >> in decades and you guys caused the problem."
>> >>
>> >> Many firms have taken steps toward the administration's goals of tying
>> >> pay to long-term performance and making sure companies do not
>> >> encourage risky bets. Bowing to public outrage, Goldman Sachs Group
>> >> Inc. announced Thursday that 30 top executives will receive long-term
>> >> stock instead of cash for bonuses this year.
>> >>
>> >> Other banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp., are
>> >> overhauling pay structures to focus on long-term success.
>> >>
>> >> Bank officials contend they would be hurt competitively by strict pay
>> >> limits, such as the 50 percent tax on bonuses that British officials
>> >> approved last week.
>> >>
>> >> Obama economic adviser Lawrence Summers said Sunday the president
>> >> would have "a serious talk with the bankers.
>> >>
>> >> "The country did incredible things for the banking industry," he said.
>> >> "The bankers need to recognize that. They need to recognize that
>> >> they've got obligations to the country after all that's been done for
>> >> them, and there is a lot more they can do."
>> >>
>> >> Summers spoke on ABC's "This Week."
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> >>
>> >>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
>> means
>> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
>> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that,
>> and
>> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>> >
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Tue Dec 15 07:08:12 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:08:12 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Rik, it is dangerous to assume
Message-ID: <3B284D715683429AAE2B21C4834B5178@YOURB88038198E>

Rik said, "it's gotta be gettin' pretty obvious when the MSM starts to look like they get it."

It is dangerous to assume that the main stream media gets it.  Rather look to why they are moving in that direction and suspect sinister motives.  While sinister motives may not behind their enlightenment, it is important to assume the worst scenario.  

Keep in mind that it could be intended to make opposition think things are going their way.  While the likes of Harry Reid and his cronies maneuver an end run.  Watch for the fake and pass.  

Ed K
paraphase from notes:  It is important to understand those who have looked evil in the eye, those who have experienced those driven by malevolence.  While they have accepted socialism as their religion, those who believe in freedom understand socialism is malevolence.
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 08:33:05 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:33:05 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Health Care Rationing For Dummies
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912142328y76dbf15albf6ac4c40ede9b54@mail.gmail.com>
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	<6634e19e0912142328y76dbf15albf6ac4c40ede9b54@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912150533y133bc1aale7460111ff770704@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

I agree with every single one of your proposals.  What's that phrase
I'm looking for?  Oh yeah - common sense.

The article below is the best explanation I've heard on why the Dems
are pushing forward with this.  The most recent poll I saw had the
opposition at 61%. This is a raw power grab.  Again, history has shown
that all socialist experiments eventually fail and are only sustained
over time by brute force.  Of course, some will point out modern
European countries as exceptions, neglecting to mention that most are
moving to the right, are attempting to dismantle programs they can no
longer afford, and in the case of Greece are going bankrupt.  It just
doesn't work.  But, people remain ignorant of history. I made the
mistake of discussing this with my wife in the car last night (way too
small an area).  Her head explodes every time. "Send the dumb asses to
Cuba" is a  frequent response from her. If she had a time machine
she'd transport them back for a taste of the Cultural Revolution.

What is really ironic is that the demographic group that supports
government run healthcare the most (the young), are the ones who will
primarily pay for a program they use the least.  They would be so far
ahead financially with a health savings plan if started early it is
pathetic.

Anyone in Congress who votes for this fiasco needs to be punished.
November 2010 can't come fast enough.

Brad

---------------

Why Democrats push health care, even if it kills them
By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
December 15, 2009
(AP photo/Jose Luis Magana)

To some observers, the Democrats' race to pass national health care
seems irrational -- even suicidal. Don't party leaders understand how
much the public opposes the bills currently on the table? Don't they
know that voters are likely to take their revenge at the polls next
year? Given that, why do they keep rushing ahead?

Just look at the RealClearPolitics average of polls, which shows that
Americans oppose the national health care bills currently on the table
by a margin of 53 percent to 38 percent. That's not just one poll that
might tilt right or left, it's an average of several polls by several
pollsters. And the margin of opposition seems to be growing, not
diminishing. And yet Democrats seem determined to defy public opinion.
Why?

I put the question to a Democratic strategist who asked to remain
anonymous. Yes, Democrats certainly understand that voters don't like
the current bills, he told me, and they are fully aware they will
probably pay a price next year. But they have found a way to view
going ahead anyway as the logical thing to do, at least in their eyes.

You have to look at the issue from three different Democratic
perspectives: the House of Representatives, the White House and the
Senate.

"In the House, the view of [California Rep. Henry] Waxman and [House
Speaker Nancy] Pelosi is that we've waited two generations to get
health care passed, and the 20 or 40 members of Congress who are going
to lose their seats as a result are transitional players at best," he
said. "This is something the party has wanted since Franklin
Roosevelt." In this view, losses are just the price of doing something
great and historic. (The strategist also noted that it's easy for
Waxman and Pelosi to say that, since they come from safely liberal
districts.)

"At the White House, the picture is slightly different," he continued.
"Their view is, 'We're all in on this, totally committed, and we don't
have to run for re-election next year. There will never be a better
time to do it than now.'"

"And in the Senate, they look at the most vulnerable Democrats -- like
[Christopher] Dodd and [Majority Leader Harry] Reid -- and say those
vulnerabilities will probably not change whether health care reform
passes or fails. So in that view, if they pass reform, Democrats will
lose the same number of seats they were going to lose before."

All those scenarios have a certain logic (even if the Senate
calculation undercounts the number of potentially vulnerable
Democrats). But each scenario is premised on passing an unpopular bill
that hurts the party. Even if there's a strategic rationale for doing
it, why are Democrats dead-set on hurting themselves?

"Because they think they know what's best for the public," the
strategist said. "They think the facts are being distorted and the
public's being told a story that is not entirely true, and that they
are in Congress to be leaders. And they are going to make the decision
because Goddammit, it's good for the public."

Of course, going forward has turned out to be harder than many
Democrats thought. And now, with various proposals lying wrecked along
the road, the true believers are practicing what the strategist calls
"principled damage control."

But still, does it make sense? In the end, perhaps the most compelling
explanation for Democratic behavior is that they are simply in too
deep to do anything else. "Once you've gone this far, what is the cost
of failure?" asks the strategist.

At that point -- Republicans will love this -- he compared
congressional Democrats with robbers who have passed the point of no
return in deciding to hold up a bank. Whatever they do, they're guilty
of something. "They're in the bank, they've got their guns out. They
can run outside with no money, or they can stick it out, go through
the gunfight, and get away with the money."

That's it. Democrats are all in. They're going through with it. Even
if it kills them.

Byron York, The Examiner's chief political correspondent, can be
contacted at byork at washingtonexaminer.com. His column appears on
Tuesday and Friday, and his stories and blog posts appears on
ExaminerPolitics.com.



Find this article at:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Why-Dems-push-health-care_-even-if-it-kills-them-8658408-79264542.html




On 12/15/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> Lets face it, this has to happen the way things are now. There is just not
> enough money to keep doing things the way we have been. This is why I have
> been so disappointed in the efforts of our congress. What they are doing
> doesn't address the problem of high costs, it merely attempts to spread the
> pain out.  With the proposed plan(s) there is no financial benefit to being
> healthy. Under the current proposals the prices will continue to escalate
> until people get to the point of making a choice between paying for medical
> care or eating. When it comes to that, we know what their choice will be.
> Now, we have another problem,.... we have promised to send people that don't
> participate in the system to jail.
>
> What we need is to address the causes of the increasing cost of care, not
> just make every one buy prepaid health care. Not everyone needs OR WANTS
> prepaid health care, which is what I call these comprehensive plans it
> appears will be foisted on us. Frankly, I am going to be damned pissed off
> when my high deductible health care plan is no longer legal.
>
> Here are some things we should be working on.
>
> 1. Remove the legal obstacles which slow the creation of high deductible
> health insurance plans and Health Savings Accounts.
>
> 2. Change the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance and
> individually owned health insurance have exactly the same tax benefits.
>
> 3. Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing
> across state lines.
>
> 4. Repeal all government mandates regarding what insurance companies must
> cover.
>
> 5. Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors into
> paying insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
>
> 6. Make health care costs transparent so that consumers will understand what
> health care treatments cost.
>
> 7.    Enact Medicare reform: we need to face up to the actuarial fact that
> Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and move towards greater patient
> empowerment and responsibility.
>
> These things would actually address the cost of health care. Going to the
> doctor is not likely to ever be cheap. It could however be much more
> affordable than it is if we'd just use a little good sense.
>
> Rik
>
> On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 8:25 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Health insurance companies ration care - that's all they do.  They
>> don't provide it, doctors, clinics, and hospitals do. If you have a
>> Yugo plan they ration a lot, with a Cadillac plan perhaps not so much.
>>  But, they ration either way.  That's all any health insurance company
>> does.
>>
>> You might be wondering what a government health care plan would do.
>> Here's your clue -
>>
>> http://www.valleynewslive.tv/artman2/publish/facebook/15341.shtml
>>
>> Notice that actual health providers didn't say this was a good idea.
>> Someone ($20 to the first person who can find the individual that made
>> this decision) moved the marker.  Boom!  That's how it works when
>> you're King.
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> "Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force, like
>> fire: a dangerous servant and a terrible master."  George Washington
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 08:51:06 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:51:06 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Where YOUR Money Went
Message-ID: <400985d70912150551m51004973j34194ea0afeba232@mail.gmail.com>

Sock puppets.  Your money went to sock puppets -

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1302475.shtml?cat=206

This is part of what you got in return, a May Day celebration -

http://www.hobt.org/mayday/index.html

At least we know what Congressional district this group is in - we're
still trying to find the others at recovery.gov.

May Day is not a big celebration at my house. If I show this to my
wife she'll probably suggest we move to China to distance ourselves
from the communists.

Brad

From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 09:09:25 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:09:25 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Ben Stein on Climate
Message-ID: <400985d70912150609w57b37179s8a0d1ca9a61d8bfc@mail.gmail.com>

He could just as easily be talking about health care.

------------

What a Piece of Work

By Ben Stein on 12.15.09 @ 6:08AM

"What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in
faculty!?In apprehension how like a god?" so said the Bard, and of
course, he was right. Man's capacities, for good and evil, are
stupefying. In science, in language, in war, in healing, how
miraculous are man's achievements.

And yet, so much eludes us and how tiny we are compared with our
challenges. Disease strikes us down in our prime. We age and grow weak
and then pass away, often cruelly. We make war upon our own kind and
kill largely for sport. We cannot control the tides or the sun or
man's theft from man.

But we try to rise above our puniness compared with our problems and
pretend that we have solutions and explanations that will take away
much of the mystery of life and history and make everything clear. We
create models that we think make us appear to be gods.

Karl Marx invented such a model that purported to explain all of
history. It was a cruel sham and an excuse for the most breathtaking
cruelty in the history of the human race. Now largely abandoned,
except on the campuses of universities, it promised salvation and
delivered death and suffering.

Adolf Hitler, borrowing largely from the vicious racist doctrines of
the superiority of the Nordic races, promised a beautiful super race
and a super future. He delivered mass murder and war.

Yet man still tries to come up with a theory to explain everything and
then to use that theory to control his fellow man, always in the
presumed wish to save the white race or the working class or someone
or something.

The model we have now in this long and sordid catalogue is about
climate. Based upon a great deal of data, many scientists have come up
with a theory that human activity is wrecking the climate of the
planet and that if the wise, good people are not allowed to compel the
stupid, evil people to change their ways drastically, terrible things
will happen. Unless some men can make the other men burn less oil,
burn less coal, drive smaller cars, not heat or cool their abodes as
much, stop growing so much beef and pork and chicken, stop exhaling so
much carbon dioxide, the world will end badly.

I do not pretend to be a climatologist. I do claim to follow the
subject and it has been clear for years that there is major
controversy about whether global warming is really happening in a
long-term way. Data suggest (not prove, suggest) that the earth was
warmer hundreds and even thousands of years ago than it is now. There
is some evidence that the earth reached a high point in temperature in
1998, and then fell, with a rebound just in the last year.

There has also been controversy about whether whatever climate change
is occurring is anthropogenic (or of a scale to make much difference
about most facets of life). There are terribly smart scientists in the
field who say the effects are caused by solar activity or oceanic
actions or something else they cannot explain.

In other words, the results of burning carbon are in doubt and the
causes are in dispute. The recent publication of hacked e-mails among
global warming advocates showing a clear effort to obscure the truth
was a stunner to some, but not to those who knew there was a major
controversy about this all along.

In this case, what on earth are we doing seeking to drastically change
man's activities on the planet in this quixotic campaign? Why are we
seeking to turn industry upside down in the cause of something that
may not even be real?

Maybe because the real goal of the climate change elites is not to
save anyone from anything but to have as much social control as
possible. Just as the real goal of Marxism was to elevate the power of
the Marxists, possibly the real goal of climate change champions is to
elevate their status in the world.

Karl Marx was a demon sent from hell, but he said a mouthful when he
said that "all history is the history of class struggle." Maybe what
we are seeing now is class struggle between the academics and
bureaucrats and the businesspeople and oil people and utility people.
Maybe that's what this recent tomfool notion of declaring CO2, a
life-giving gas, a dangerous pollutant is. If the government can have
a right to control CO2 emissions, it can control every aspect of life
everywhere. This is a recipe for blowing up the Constitution. In the
name of a goal which may be unrelated to carbon dioxide emissions,
which may not even be a real target, which may be a wholly specious
goal, we are considering giving government control over our lives
beyond what would have been considered conceivable just a few months
ago.

Surely this breathtaking assault on freedom merits absolutely total
certainty by everyone with a microscope that we will all die very soon
from carbon dioxide emissions if we do NOT take away freedom. To allow
the government this kind of control over our lives, climate change
should be an imminent, life and death issue understood as such by
everyone. It should not have to be protected from inquiry and truth
seekers as it obviously has been judging from the hacked East Anglia
e-mails. The Constitution is far more important, human freedom is far
more important, than bowing down to the climate change gods with their
smoke and mirrors.

We are living in frightening times, and the ones who are the most
frightening among us are, as usual, the ones pretending to save us.



Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly
Hills and Malibu. He writes "Ben Stein's Diary" for every issue of The
American Spectator.


From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 10:10:18 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:10:18 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Health Care Rationing For Dummies
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912150533y133bc1aale7460111ff770704@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912141825g4954ba24r7663fab751220758@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912142328y76dbf15albf6ac4c40ede9b54@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912150533y133bc1aale7460111ff770704@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912150710q143742e6pf15c9eabc4e14e20@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

"Send the dumb asses to Cuba" is a  frequent response from her.

Your wife is a hoot! Couldn't have said it better myself.

I was listening to Levin last night and a fellow from Cuba, who still has
family there, called in. He explained how, when his family goes to the
hospital, they have to bring their own bed sheets. He thought what we have
might just be better. I agree.

I can't think of a worse reason than, we're in too far already, for passing
a bad law. I don't know why they're even debating the thing. Nothing they
could do to this bill would make it into something worth having.

It should be SO obvious .... They can't run what they have now.

And then there's that niggling little matter of ...... the Constitution.

Rik

On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 7:33 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Rik,
>
> I agree with every single one of your proposals.  What's that phrase
> I'm looking for?  Oh yeah - common sense.
>
> The article below is the best explanation I've heard on why the Dems
> are pushing forward with this.  The most recent poll I saw had the
> opposition at 61%. This is a raw power grab.  Again, history has shown
> that all socialist experiments eventually fail and are only sustained
> over time by brute force.  Of course, some will point out modern
> European countries as exceptions, neglecting to mention that most are
> moving to the right, are attempting to dismantle programs they can no
> longer afford, and in the case of Greece are going bankrupt.  It just
> doesn't work.  But, people remain ignorant of history. I made the
> mistake of discussing this with my wife in the car last night (way too
> small an area).  Her head explodes every time. "Send the dumb asses to
> Cuba" is a  frequent response from her. If she had a time machine
> she'd transport them back for a taste of the Cultural Revolution.
>
> What is really ironic is that the demographic group that supports
> government run healthcare the most (the young), are the ones who will
> primarily pay for a program they use the least.  They would be so far
> ahead financially with a health savings plan if started early it is
> pathetic.
>
> Anyone in Congress who votes for this fiasco needs to be punished.
> November 2010 can't come fast enough.
>
> Brad
>
> ---------------
>
> Why Democrats push health care, even if it kills them
> By: Byron York
> Chief Political Correspondent
> December 15, 2009
> (AP photo/Jose Luis Magana)
>
> To some observers, the Democrats' race to pass national health care
> seems irrational -- even suicidal. Don't party leaders understand how
> much the public opposes the bills currently on the table? Don't they
> know that voters are likely to take their revenge at the polls next
> year? Given that, why do they keep rushing ahead?
>
> Just look at the RealClearPolitics average of polls, which shows that
> Americans oppose the national health care bills currently on the table
> by a margin of 53 percent to 38 percent. That's not just one poll that
> might tilt right or left, it's an average of several polls by several
> pollsters. And the margin of opposition seems to be growing, not
> diminishing. And yet Democrats seem determined to defy public opinion.
> Why?
>
> I put the question to a Democratic strategist who asked to remain
> anonymous. Yes, Democrats certainly understand that voters don't like
> the current bills, he told me, and they are fully aware they will
> probably pay a price next year. But they have found a way to view
> going ahead anyway as the logical thing to do, at least in their eyes.
>
> You have to look at the issue from three different Democratic
> perspectives: the House of Representatives, the White House and the
> Senate.
>
> "In the House, the view of [California Rep. Henry] Waxman and [House
> Speaker Nancy] Pelosi is that we've waited two generations to get
> health care passed, and the 20 or 40 members of Congress who are going
> to lose their seats as a result are transitional players at best," he
> said. "This is something the party has wanted since Franklin
> Roosevelt." In this view, losses are just the price of doing something
> great and historic. (The strategist also noted that it's easy for
> Waxman and Pelosi to say that, since they come from safely liberal
> districts.)
>
> "At the White House, the picture is slightly different," he continued.
> "Their view is, 'We're all in on this, totally committed, and we don't
> have to run for re-election next year. There will never be a better
> time to do it than now.'"
>
> "And in the Senate, they look at the most vulnerable Democrats -- like
> [Christopher] Dodd and [Majority Leader Harry] Reid -- and say those
> vulnerabilities will probably not change whether health care reform
> passes or fails. So in that view, if they pass reform, Democrats will
> lose the same number of seats they were going to lose before."
>
> All those scenarios have a certain logic (even if the Senate
> calculation undercounts the number of potentially vulnerable
> Democrats). But each scenario is premised on passing an unpopular bill
> that hurts the party. Even if there's a strategic rationale for doing
> it, why are Democrats dead-set on hurting themselves?
>
> "Because they think they know what's best for the public," the
> strategist said. "They think the facts are being distorted and the
> public's being told a story that is not entirely true, and that they
> are in Congress to be leaders. And they are going to make the decision
> because Goddammit, it's good for the public."
>
> Of course, going forward has turned out to be harder than many
> Democrats thought. And now, with various proposals lying wrecked along
> the road, the true believers are practicing what the strategist calls
> "principled damage control."
>
> But still, does it make sense? In the end, perhaps the most compelling
> explanation for Democratic behavior is that they are simply in too
> deep to do anything else. "Once you've gone this far, what is the cost
> of failure?" asks the strategist.
>
> At that point -- Republicans will love this -- he compared
> congressional Democrats with robbers who have passed the point of no
> return in deciding to hold up a bank. Whatever they do, they're guilty
> of something. "They're in the bank, they've got their guns out. They
> can run outside with no money, or they can stick it out, go through
> the gunfight, and get away with the money."
>
> That's it. Democrats are all in. They're going through with it. Even
> if it kills them.
>
> Byron York, The Examiner's chief political correspondent, can be
> contacted at byork at washingtonexaminer.com. His column appears on
> Tuesday and Friday, and his stories and blog posts appears on
> ExaminerPolitics.com.
>
>
>
> Find this article at:
>
> http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Why-Dems-push-health-care_-even-if-it-kills-them-8658408-79264542.html
>
>
>
>
> On 12/15/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Brad,
> >
> > Lets face it, this has to happen the way things are now. There is just
> not
> > enough money to keep doing things the way we have been. This is why I
> have
> > been so disappointed in the efforts of our congress. What they are doing
> > doesn't address the problem of high costs, it merely attempts to spread
> the
> > pain out.  With the proposed plan(s) there is no financial benefit to
> being
> > healthy. Under the current proposals the prices will continue to escalate
> > until people get to the point of making a choice between paying for
> medical
> > care or eating. When it comes to that, we know what their choice will be.
> > Now, we have another problem,.... we have promised to send people that
> don't
> > participate in the system to jail.
> >
> > What we need is to address the causes of the increasing cost of care, not
> > just make every one buy prepaid health care. Not everyone needs OR WANTS
> > prepaid health care, which is what I call these comprehensive plans it
> > appears will be foisted on us. Frankly, I am going to be damned pissed
> off
> > when my high deductible health care plan is no longer legal.
> >
> > Here are some things we should be working on.
> >
> > 1. Remove the legal obstacles which slow the creation of high deductible
> > health insurance plans and Health Savings Accounts.
> >
> > 2. Change the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance
> and
> > individually owned health insurance have exactly the same tax benefits.
> >
> > 3. Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing
> > across state lines.
> >
> > 4. Repeal all government mandates regarding what insurance companies must
> > cover.
> >
> > 5. Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors into
> > paying insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
> >
> > 6. Make health care costs transparent so that consumers will understand
> what
> > health care treatments cost.
> >
> > 7.    Enact Medicare reform: we need to face up to the actuarial fact
> that
> > Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and move towards greater patient
> > empowerment and responsibility.
> >
> > These things would actually address the cost of health care. Going to the
> > doctor is not likely to ever be cheap. It could however be much more
> > affordable than it is if we'd just use a little good sense.
> >
> > Rik
> >
> > On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 8:25 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Health insurance companies ration care - that's all they do.  They
> >> don't provide it, doctors, clinics, and hospitals do. If you have a
> >> Yugo plan they ration a lot, with a Cadillac plan perhaps not so much.
> >>  But, they ration either way.  That's all any health insurance company
> >> does.
> >>
> >> You might be wondering what a government health care plan would do.
> >> Here's your clue -
> >>
> >> http://www.valleynewslive.tv/artman2/publish/facebook/15341.shtml
> >>
> >> Notice that actual health providers didn't say this was a good idea.
> >> Someone ($20 to the first person who can find the individual that made
> >> this decision) moved the marker.  Boom!  That's how it works when
> >> you're King.
> >>
> >> Brad
> >>
> >> "Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force, like
> >> fire: a dangerous servant and a terrible master."  George Washington
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> means
> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From hparsons at parsonsys.com  Tue Dec 15 10:13:49 2009
From: hparsons at parsonsys.com (Herb Parsons)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:13:49 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Health Care Rationing For Dummies
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912142328y76dbf15albf6ac4c40ede9b54@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912141825g4954ba24r7663fab751220758@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912142328y76dbf15albf6ac4c40ede9b54@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5f889a890912150713m5accc8a7yc52ddd36a64a0948@mail.gmail.com>

I agree with every single one of your recommendations also, but would add
one (more on that in a minute). Ironically, the very first one was one that
for me was an eye-opener, "spending changing" event for me. I was in my late
30's with 4 teenage daughters living at home before the financial guy for
the small IT company I was working for forced me to face financial facts.

I had always bought the most expensive coverage at work, so I wouldn't have
to pay high deductibles or get hit with large co-pays when my kids' bills
came up. I did my "usual" when I got ready to sign up at my IT consulting
job.

The financial guy pulled me aside and said "no no no. This is what you do:".
Then proceeded to explain to me that if I opted for the cheaper, high
deductible, moderate co-pay policy, I could take the money I saved every two
weeks, and put it in a tax-free health savings plan. The money in the health
savings would be enough to cover the deductible AND the higher copays, if I
needed them to. In addition, if I hadn't used the savings by the end of the
year, I could most likely get the remainder back by simply keeping track of
the things that weren't covered by normal insurance, but was covered under
the health care savings (glasses, contact lens solutions, OTC drugs, and
those co-pays). We've never left money on the table at the the end of the
year, and we've always done it this way since (even now that the girls are
grown).

The one thing I would add to the list is that they do away with the forcing
us to start over at $0 every year on the health savings plan. This should be
allowed to build (possibly with some reasonable ceiling) to help with
catastrophic expenses. I think they should even be allowed to be passed on
to heirs for THEIR medical expenses, with the restriction remaining for
medical expenses only (or they become subject to taxation).


On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 1:28 AM, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Brad,
>
> Lets face it, this has to happen the way things are now. There is just not
> enough money to keep doing things the way we have been. This is why I have
> been so disappointed in the efforts of our congress. What they are doing
> doesn't address the problem of high costs, it merely attempts to spread the
> pain out.  With the proposed plan(s) there is no financial benefit to being
> healthy. Under the current proposals the prices will continue to escalate
> until people get to the point of making a choice between paying for medical
> care or eating. When it comes to that, we know what their choice will be.
> Now, we have another problem,.... we have promised to send people that don't
> participate in the system to jail.
>
> What we need is to address the causes of the increasing cost of care, not
> just make every one buy prepaid health care. Not everyone needs OR WANTS
> prepaid health care, which is what I call these comprehensive plans it
> appears will be foisted on us. Frankly, I am going to be damned pissed off
> when my high deductible health care plan is no longer legal.
>
> Here are some things we should be working on.
>
> 1. Remove the legal obstacles which slow the creation of high deductible
> health insurance plans and Health Savings Accounts.
>
> 2. Change the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance and
> individually owned health insurance have exactly the same tax benefits.
>
> 3. Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing
> across state lines.
>
> 4. Repeal all government mandates regarding what insurance companies must
> cover.
>
> 5. Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors into
> paying insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
>
> 6. Make health care costs transparent so that consumers will understand
> what health care treatments cost.
>
> 7.    Enact Medicare reform: we need to face up to the actuarial fact that
> Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and move towards greater patient
> empowerment and responsibility.
>
> These things would actually address the cost of health care. Going to the
> doctor is not likely to ever be cheap. It could however be much more
> affordable than it is if we'd just use a little good sense.
>
> Rik
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 8:25 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Health insurance companies ration care - that's all they do.  They
>> don't provide it, doctors, clinics, and hospitals do. If you have a
>> Yugo plan they ration a lot, with a Cadillac plan perhaps not so much.
>>  But, they ration either way.  That's all any health insurance company
>> does.
>>
>> You might be wondering what a government health care plan would do.
>> Here's your clue -
>>
>> http://www.valleynewslive.tv/artman2/publish/facebook/15341.shtml
>>
>> Notice that actual health providers didn't say this was a good idea.
>> Someone ($20 to the first person who can find the individual that made
>> this decision) moved the marker.  Boom!  That's how it works when
>> you're King.
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> "Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force, like
>> fire: a dangerous servant and a terrible master."  George Washington
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 10:30:59 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:30:59 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Where YOUR Money Went
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912150551m51004973j34194ea0afeba232@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912150551m51004973j34194ea0afeba232@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912150730i39acf9a0i98fbfd8b0059d722@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Gov't subsidy of "the arts", any of them, has always been a sore spot for
me.

If you can't generate enough interest from your patrons to keep your
enterprise afloat, then apparently, your's is not a viable business. Just
like I don't care to pay for a ball park I'll never see the inside of, I
don't feel the need to pay for a sock puppet show.

Here's a hint folks: When you can sell enough tickets to cover your business
expenses .... that's a viable business. If you can't, then you might think
about finding something that people will actually pay to see.

NPR is another .... same problem.

Rik

On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 7:51 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Sock puppets.  Your money went to sock puppets -
>
> http://kstp.com/news/stories/S1302475.shtml?cat=206
>
> This is part of what you got in return, a May Day celebration -
>
> http://www.hobt.org/mayday/index.html
>
> At least we know what Congressional district this group is in - we're
> still trying to find the others at recovery.gov.
>
> May Day is not a big celebration at my house. If I show this to my
> wife she'll probably suggest we move to China to distance ourselves
> from the communists.
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
-------------- next part --------------
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URL: http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/pipermail/swiftwatergazette/attachments/20091215/2a6a1925/attachment.html 

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 11:02:19 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:02:19 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Health Care Rationing For Dummies
In-Reply-To: <5f889a890912150713m5accc8a7yc52ddd36a64a0948@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912141825g4954ba24r7663fab751220758@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912142328y76dbf15albf6ac4c40ede9b54@mail.gmail.com>
	<5f889a890912150713m5accc8a7yc52ddd36a64a0948@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912150802t1a49a641mf0700a079cabfe10@mail.gmail.com>

Herb,

Couldn't agree more. Starting from zero every year is stupid. A real savings
account doesn't empty out every year because nothing happens, it gets bigger
because it draws interest. At least it would if the Fed would quit screwing
with the interest rates, but that's a whole 'nother argument.

I don't have an actual HSA. However, I saved enough on my high deductible
plan in a couple of years (and believe me, mine is a HIGH deductible) to
more than cover any cost I am likely to incur. It only gets better from
here.

Rik

On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 9:13 AM, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com>wrote:

> I agree with every single one of your recommendations also, but would add
> one (more on that in a minute). Ironically, the very first one was one that
> for me was an eye-opener, "spending changing" event for me. I was in my late
> 30's with 4 teenage daughters living at home before the financial guy for
> the small IT company I was working for forced me to face financial facts.
>
> I had always bought the most expensive coverage at work, so I wouldn't have
> to pay high deductibles or get hit with large co-pays when my kids' bills
> came up. I did my "usual" when I got ready to sign up at my IT consulting
> job.
>
> The financial guy pulled me aside and said "no no no. This is what you
> do:". Then proceeded to explain to me that if I opted for the cheaper, high
> deductible, moderate co-pay policy, I could take the money I saved every two
> weeks, and put it in a tax-free health savings plan. The money in the health
> savings would be enough to cover the deductible AND the higher copays, if I
> needed them to. In addition, if I hadn't used the savings by the end of the
> year, I could most likely get the remainder back by simply keeping track of
> the things that weren't covered by normal insurance, but was covered under
> the health care savings (glasses, contact lens solutions, OTC drugs, and
> those co-pays). We've never left money on the table at the the end of the
> year, and we've always done it this way since (even now that the girls are
> grown).
>
> The one thing I would add to the list is that they do away with the forcing
> us to start over at $0 every year on the health savings plan. This should be
> allowed to build (possibly with some reasonable ceiling) to help with
> catastrophic expenses. I think they should even be allowed to be passed on
> to heirs for THEIR medical expenses, with the restriction remaining for
> medical expenses only (or they become subject to taxation).
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 1:28 AM, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Brad,
>>
>> Lets face it, this has to happen the way things are now. There is just not
>> enough money to keep doing things the way we have been. This is why I have
>> been so disappointed in the efforts of our congress. What they are doing
>> doesn't address the problem of high costs, it merely attempts to spread the
>> pain out.  With the proposed plan(s) there is no financial benefit to being
>> healthy. Under the current proposals the prices will continue to escalate
>> until people get to the point of making a choice between paying for medical
>> care or eating. When it comes to that, we know what their choice will be.
>> Now, we have another problem,.... we have promised to send people that don't
>> participate in the system to jail.
>>
>> What we need is to address the causes of the increasing cost of care, not
>> just make every one buy prepaid health care. Not everyone needs OR WANTS
>> prepaid health care, which is what I call these comprehensive plans it
>> appears will be foisted on us. Frankly, I am going to be damned pissed off
>> when my high deductible health care plan is no longer legal.
>>
>> Here are some things we should be working on.
>>
>> 1. Remove the legal obstacles which slow the creation of high deductible
>> health insurance plans and Health Savings Accounts.
>>
>> 2. Change the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance and
>> individually owned health insurance have exactly the same tax benefits.
>>
>> 3. Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing
>> across state lines.
>>
>> 4. Repeal all government mandates regarding what insurance companies must
>> cover.
>>
>> 5. Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors into
>> paying insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
>>
>> 6. Make health care costs transparent so that consumers will understand
>> what health care treatments cost.
>>
>> 7.    Enact Medicare reform: we need to face up to the actuarial fact that
>> Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and move towards greater patient
>> empowerment and responsibility.
>>
>> These things would actually address the cost of health care. Going to the
>> doctor is not likely to ever be cheap. It could however be much more
>> affordable than it is if we'd just use a little good sense.
>>
>> Rik
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 8:25 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Health insurance companies ration care - that's all they do.  They
>>> don't provide it, doctors, clinics, and hospitals do. If you have a
>>> Yugo plan they ration a lot, with a Cadillac plan perhaps not so much.
>>>  But, they ration either way.  That's all any health insurance company
>>> does.
>>>
>>> You might be wondering what a government health care plan would do.
>>> Here's your clue -
>>>
>>> http://www.valleynewslive.tv/artman2/publish/facebook/15341.shtml
>>>
>>> Notice that actual health providers didn't say this was a good idea.
>>> Someone ($20 to the first person who can find the individual that made
>>> this decision) moved the marker.  Boom!  That's how it works when
>>> you're King.
>>>
>>> Brad
>>>
>>> "Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force, like
>>> fire: a dangerous servant and a terrible master."  George Washington
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>>
>>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
>> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
>> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
>> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>


-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
-------------- next part --------------
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 11:13:52 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:13:52 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Ben Stein on Climate
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912150609w57b37179s8a0d1ca9a61d8bfc@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912150609w57b37179s8a0d1ca9a61d8bfc@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912150813i6ec99715g88968211b7e4106e@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

"We are living in frightening times, and the ones who are the most
frightening among us are, as usual, the ones pretending to save us."

We need to send this to our president. If he won't read it, then we need to
read it to him .... until he gets it. Might take a while.

Rik

On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 8:09 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> He could just as easily be talking about health care.
>
> ------------
>
> What a Piece of Work
>
> By Ben Stein on 12.15.09 @ 6:08AM
>
> "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in
> faculty!?In apprehension how like a god?" so said the Bard, and of
> course, he was right. Man's capacities, for good and evil, are
> stupefying. In science, in language, in war, in healing, how
> miraculous are man's achievements.
>
> And yet, so much eludes us and how tiny we are compared with our
> challenges. Disease strikes us down in our prime. We age and grow weak
> and then pass away, often cruelly. We make war upon our own kind and
> kill largely for sport. We cannot control the tides or the sun or
> man's theft from man.
>
> But we try to rise above our puniness compared with our problems and
> pretend that we have solutions and explanations that will take away
> much of the mystery of life and history and make everything clear. We
> create models that we think make us appear to be gods.
>
> Karl Marx invented such a model that purported to explain all of
> history. It was a cruel sham and an excuse for the most breathtaking
> cruelty in the history of the human race. Now largely abandoned,
> except on the campuses of universities, it promised salvation and
> delivered death and suffering.
>
> Adolf Hitler, borrowing largely from the vicious racist doctrines of
> the superiority of the Nordic races, promised a beautiful super race
> and a super future. He delivered mass murder and war.
>
> Yet man still tries to come up with a theory to explain everything and
> then to use that theory to control his fellow man, always in the
> presumed wish to save the white race or the working class or someone
> or something.
>
> The model we have now in this long and sordid catalogue is about
> climate. Based upon a great deal of data, many scientists have come up
> with a theory that human activity is wrecking the climate of the
> planet and that if the wise, good people are not allowed to compel the
> stupid, evil people to change their ways drastically, terrible things
> will happen. Unless some men can make the other men burn less oil,
> burn less coal, drive smaller cars, not heat or cool their abodes as
> much, stop growing so much beef and pork and chicken, stop exhaling so
> much carbon dioxide, the world will end badly.
>
> I do not pretend to be a climatologist. I do claim to follow the
> subject and it has been clear for years that there is major
> controversy about whether global warming is really happening in a
> long-term way. Data suggest (not prove, suggest) that the earth was
> warmer hundreds and even thousands of years ago than it is now. There
> is some evidence that the earth reached a high point in temperature in
> 1998, and then fell, with a rebound just in the last year.
>
> There has also been controversy about whether whatever climate change
> is occurring is anthropogenic (or of a scale to make much difference
> about most facets of life). There are terribly smart scientists in the
> field who say the effects are caused by solar activity or oceanic
> actions or something else they cannot explain.
>
> In other words, the results of burning carbon are in doubt and the
> causes are in dispute. The recent publication of hacked e-mails among
> global warming advocates showing a clear effort to obscure the truth
> was a stunner to some, but not to those who knew there was a major
> controversy about this all along.
>
> In this case, what on earth are we doing seeking to drastically change
> man's activities on the planet in this quixotic campaign? Why are we
> seeking to turn industry upside down in the cause of something that
> may not even be real?
>
> Maybe because the real goal of the climate change elites is not to
> save anyone from anything but to have as much social control as
> possible. Just as the real goal of Marxism was to elevate the power of
> the Marxists, possibly the real goal of climate change champions is to
> elevate their status in the world.
>
> Karl Marx was a demon sent from hell, but he said a mouthful when he
> said that "all history is the history of class struggle." Maybe what
> we are seeing now is class struggle between the academics and
> bureaucrats and the businesspeople and oil people and utility people.
> Maybe that's what this recent tomfool notion of declaring CO2, a
> life-giving gas, a dangerous pollutant is. If the government can have
> a right to control CO2 emissions, it can control every aspect of life
> everywhere. This is a recipe for blowing up the Constitution. In the
> name of a goal which may be unrelated to carbon dioxide emissions,
> which may not even be a real target, which may be a wholly specious
> goal, we are considering giving government control over our lives
> beyond what would have been considered conceivable just a few months
> ago.
>
> Surely this breathtaking assault on freedom merits absolutely total
> certainty by everyone with a microscope that we will all die very soon
> from carbon dioxide emissions if we do NOT take away freedom. To allow
> the government this kind of control over our lives, climate change
> should be an imminent, life and death issue understood as such by
> everyone. It should not have to be protected from inquiry and truth
> seekers as it obviously has been judging from the hacked East Anglia
> e-mails. The Constitution is far more important, human freedom is far
> more important, than bowing down to the climate change gods with their
> smoke and mirrors.
>
> We are living in frightening times, and the ones who are the most
> frightening among us are, as usual, the ones pretending to save us.
>
>
>
> Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly
> Hills and Malibu. He writes "Ben Stein's Diary" for every issue of The
> American Spectator.
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
-------------- next part --------------
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 11:20:25 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:20:25 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Health Care Rationing For Dummies
In-Reply-To: <5f889a890912150713m5accc8a7yc52ddd36a64a0948@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912141825g4954ba24r7663fab751220758@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912142328y76dbf15albf6ac4c40ede9b54@mail.gmail.com>
	<5f889a890912150713m5accc8a7yc52ddd36a64a0948@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912150820xe4ac1f8hb385b303e2d25c8d@mail.gmail.com>

Herb,

Right after the House passed their version of the bill I posted the
first thing that came to mind.  It was the Volkswagen.  Hitler decided
everyone needed a car.  It was good for them and good for German
industry and image.  Never mind that not everyone wanted or needed a
car.  The VW wasn't built yet when the payroll deductions started.
Sound familiar?  Anyway, the war effort sidetracked the building of
"the Bug" and the factory built Kubelwagens instead.  After the war,
Germany built Bugs, Mercedes (my old diesel Benz was powered by a
submarine engine), and BMW's, now some of the finest cars in the
world.  East Germany wasn't so lucky after the war.  They got stuck
with Trabants until 1989.

We have the finest health care available anywhere in the world.  Is it
expensive?  Hell yes, because when your loved one is sick you want
Mercedes-Benz care, and it is available for a price. But, there is a
limit (rationing).  My current policy has a $2 million limit.  It
sounds like a lot but really isn't.  Therefore, I don't waste small
amounts on trivial issues.  In the absence of limits you get the
TennCare result.  Tennessee experimented with universal health care
and it failed.  People abuse what is free.  I know I sound like a
broken record, but, WHY THE HELL ISN'T ANYONE TALKING ABOUT TENNESSEE?
We're not plowing new ground.  This has been tried before.  It doesn't
work.

The people pushing for universal health care don't give a shit about
your family's health any more than Stalin cared about feeding the
masses when he killed millions in the Ukraine, the "bread basket" of
the Soviet Union.  I know, I know, people get tired of hearing all
this Hitler and Stalin shit, but it is the truth.

You want health care for everyone?  Easy. Simple.  Figure out how many
don't have it and those of us who do will buy them an insurance plan.
All we ask is one thing.  They can't vote until they pay for their
plan themselves.

Brad

On 12/15/09, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com> wrote:
> I agree with every single one of your recommendations also, but would add
> one (more on that in a minute). Ironically, the very first one was one that
> for me was an eye-opener, "spending changing" event for me. I was in my late
> 30's with 4 teenage daughters living at home before the financial guy for
> the small IT company I was working for forced me to face financial facts.
>
> I had always bought the most expensive coverage at work, so I wouldn't have
> to pay high deductibles or get hit with large co-pays when my kids' bills
> came up. I did my "usual" when I got ready to sign up at my IT consulting
> job.
>
> The financial guy pulled me aside and said "no no no. This is what you do:".
> Then proceeded to explain to me that if I opted for the cheaper, high
> deductible, moderate co-pay policy, I could take the money I saved every two
> weeks, and put it in a tax-free health savings plan. The money in the health
> savings would be enough to cover the deductible AND the higher copays, if I
> needed them to. In addition, if I hadn't used the savings by the end of the
> year, I could most likely get the remainder back by simply keeping track of
> the things that weren't covered by normal insurance, but was covered under
> the health care savings (glasses, contact lens solutions, OTC drugs, and
> those co-pays). We've never left money on the table at the the end of the
> year, and we've always done it this way since (even now that the girls are
> grown).
>
> The one thing I would add to the list is that they do away with the forcing
> us to start over at $0 every year on the health savings plan. This should be
> allowed to build (possibly with some reasonable ceiling) to help with
> catastrophic expenses. I think they should even be allowed to be passed on
> to heirs for THEIR medical expenses, with the restriction remaining for
> medical expenses only (or they become subject to taxation).
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 1:28 AM, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Brad,
>>
>> Lets face it, this has to happen the way things are now. There is just not
>> enough money to keep doing things the way we have been. This is why I have
>> been so disappointed in the efforts of our congress. What they are doing
>> doesn't address the problem of high costs, it merely attempts to spread
>> the
>> pain out.  With the proposed plan(s) there is no financial benefit to
>> being
>> healthy. Under the current proposals the prices will continue to escalate
>> until people get to the point of making a choice between paying for
>> medical
>> care or eating. When it comes to that, we know what their choice will be.
>> Now, we have another problem,.... we have promised to send people that
>> don't
>> participate in the system to jail.
>>
>> What we need is to address the causes of the increasing cost of care, not
>> just make every one buy prepaid health care. Not everyone needs OR WANTS
>> prepaid health care, which is what I call these comprehensive plans it
>> appears will be foisted on us. Frankly, I am going to be damned pissed off
>> when my high deductible health care plan is no longer legal.
>>
>> Here are some things we should be working on.
>>
>> 1. Remove the legal obstacles which slow the creation of high deductible
>> health insurance plans and Health Savings Accounts.
>>
>> 2. Change the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance and
>> individually owned health insurance have exactly the same tax benefits.
>>
>> 3. Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing
>> across state lines.
>>
>> 4. Repeal all government mandates regarding what insurance companies must
>> cover.
>>
>> 5. Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors into
>> paying insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
>>
>> 6. Make health care costs transparent so that consumers will understand
>> what health care treatments cost.
>>
>> 7.    Enact Medicare reform: we need to face up to the actuarial fact that
>> Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and move towards greater patient
>> empowerment and responsibility.
>>
>> These things would actually address the cost of health care. Going to the
>> doctor is not likely to ever be cheap. It could however be much more
>> affordable than it is if we'd just use a little good sense.
>>
>> Rik
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 8:25 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Health insurance companies ration care - that's all they do.  They
>>> don't provide it, doctors, clinics, and hospitals do. If you have a
>>> Yugo plan they ration a lot, with a Cadillac plan perhaps not so much.
>>>  But, they ration either way.  That's all any health insurance company
>>> does.
>>>
>>> You might be wondering what a government health care plan would do.
>>> Here's your clue -
>>>
>>> http://www.valleynewslive.tv/artman2/publish/facebook/15341.shtml
>>>
>>> Notice that actual health providers didn't say this was a good idea.
>>> Someone ($20 to the first person who can find the individual that made
>>> this decision) moved the marker.  Boom!  That's how it works when
>>> you're King.
>>>
>>> Brad
>>>
>>> "Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force, like
>>> fire: a dangerous servant and a terrible master."  George Washington
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>>
>>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
>> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
>> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
>> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>>
>

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 11:26:19 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:26:19 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Health Care Rationing For Dummies
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912150820xe4ac1f8hb385b303e2d25c8d@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912141825g4954ba24r7663fab751220758@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912142328y76dbf15albf6ac4c40ede9b54@mail.gmail.com>
	<5f889a890912150713m5accc8a7yc52ddd36a64a0948@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912150820xe4ac1f8hb385b303e2d25c8d@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912150826u7bf6f6dbkb8d5e7feefdc60e6@mail.gmail.com>

But Brad, it'll be different this time.

No?

Those that refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Rik

On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 10:20 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Herb,
>
> Right after the House passed their version of the bill I posted the
> first thing that came to mind.  It was the Volkswagen.  Hitler decided
> everyone needed a car.  It was good for them and good for German
> industry and image.  Never mind that not everyone wanted or needed a
> car.  The VW wasn't built yet when the payroll deductions started.
> Sound familiar?  Anyway, the war effort sidetracked the building of
> "the Bug" and the factory built Kubelwagens instead.  After the war,
> Germany built Bugs, Mercedes (my old diesel Benz was powered by a
> submarine engine), and BMW's, now some of the finest cars in the
> world.  East Germany wasn't so lucky after the war.  They got stuck
> with Trabants until 1989.
>
> We have the finest health care available anywhere in the world.  Is it
> expensive?  Hell yes, because when your loved one is sick you want
> Mercedes-Benz care, and it is available for a price. But, there is a
> limit (rationing).  My current policy has a $2 million limit.  It
> sounds like a lot but really isn't.  Therefore, I don't waste small
> amounts on trivial issues.  In the absence of limits you get the
> TennCare result.  Tennessee experimented with universal health care
> and it failed.  People abuse what is free.  I know I sound like a
> broken record, but, WHY THE HELL ISN'T ANYONE TALKING ABOUT TENNESSEE?
> We're not plowing new ground.  This has been tried before.  It doesn't
> work.
>
> The people pushing for universal health care don't give a shit about
> your family's health any more than Stalin cared about feeding the
> masses when he killed millions in the Ukraine, the "bread basket" of
> the Soviet Union.  I know, I know, people get tired of hearing all
> this Hitler and Stalin shit, but it is the truth.
>
> You want health care for everyone?  Easy. Simple.  Figure out how many
> don't have it and those of us who do will buy them an insurance plan.
> All we ask is one thing.  They can't vote until they pay for their
> plan themselves.
>
> Brad
>
> On 12/15/09, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com> wrote:
> > I agree with every single one of your recommendations also, but would add
> > one (more on that in a minute). Ironically, the very first one was one
> that
> > for me was an eye-opener, "spending changing" event for me. I was in my
> late
> > 30's with 4 teenage daughters living at home before the financial guy for
> > the small IT company I was working for forced me to face financial facts.
> >
> > I had always bought the most expensive coverage at work, so I wouldn't
> have
> > to pay high deductibles or get hit with large co-pays when my kids' bills
> > came up. I did my "usual" when I got ready to sign up at my IT consulting
> > job.
> >
> > The financial guy pulled me aside and said "no no no. This is what you
> do:".
> > Then proceeded to explain to me that if I opted for the cheaper, high
> > deductible, moderate co-pay policy, I could take the money I saved every
> two
> > weeks, and put it in a tax-free health savings plan. The money in the
> health
> > savings would be enough to cover the deductible AND the higher copays, if
> I
> > needed them to. In addition, if I hadn't used the savings by the end of
> the
> > year, I could most likely get the remainder back by simply keeping track
> of
> > the things that weren't covered by normal insurance, but was covered
> under
> > the health care savings (glasses, contact lens solutions, OTC drugs, and
> > those co-pays). We've never left money on the table at the the end of the
> > year, and we've always done it this way since (even now that the girls
> are
> > grown).
> >
> > The one thing I would add to the list is that they do away with the
> forcing
> > us to start over at $0 every year on the health savings plan. This should
> be
> > allowed to build (possibly with some reasonable ceiling) to help with
> > catastrophic expenses. I think they should even be allowed to be passed
> on
> > to heirs for THEIR medical expenses, with the restriction remaining for
> > medical expenses only (or they become subject to taxation).
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 1:28 AM, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Brad,
> >>
> >> Lets face it, this has to happen the way things are now. There is just
> not
> >> enough money to keep doing things the way we have been. This is why I
> have
> >> been so disappointed in the efforts of our congress. What they are doing
> >> doesn't address the problem of high costs, it merely attempts to spread
> >> the
> >> pain out.  With the proposed plan(s) there is no financial benefit to
> >> being
> >> healthy. Under the current proposals the prices will continue to
> escalate
> >> until people get to the point of making a choice between paying for
> >> medical
> >> care or eating. When it comes to that, we know what their choice will
> be.
> >> Now, we have another problem,.... we have promised to send people that
> >> don't
> >> participate in the system to jail.
> >>
> >> What we need is to address the causes of the increasing cost of care,
> not
> >> just make every one buy prepaid health care. Not everyone needs OR WANTS
> >> prepaid health care, which is what I call these comprehensive plans it
> >> appears will be foisted on us. Frankly, I am going to be damned pissed
> off
> >> when my high deductible health care plan is no longer legal.
> >>
> >> Here are some things we should be working on.
> >>
> >> 1. Remove the legal obstacles which slow the creation of high deductible
> >> health insurance plans and Health Savings Accounts.
> >>
> >> 2. Change the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance
> and
> >> individually owned health insurance have exactly the same tax benefits.
> >>
> >> 3. Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from
> competing
> >> across state lines.
> >>
> >> 4. Repeal all government mandates regarding what insurance companies
> must
> >> cover.
> >>
> >> 5. Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors into
> >> paying insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
> >>
> >> 6. Make health care costs transparent so that consumers will understand
> >> what health care treatments cost.
> >>
> >> 7.    Enact Medicare reform: we need to face up to the actuarial fact
> that
> >> Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and move towards greater patient
> >> empowerment and responsibility.
> >>
> >> These things would actually address the cost of health care. Going to
> the
> >> doctor is not likely to ever be cheap. It could however be much more
> >> affordable than it is if we'd just use a little good sense.
> >>
> >> Rik
> >>
> >>
> >> On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 8:25 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Health insurance companies ration care - that's all they do.  They
> >>> don't provide it, doctors, clinics, and hospitals do. If you have a
> >>> Yugo plan they ration a lot, with a Cadillac plan perhaps not so much.
> >>>  But, they ration either way.  That's all any health insurance company
> >>> does.
> >>>
> >>> You might be wondering what a government health care plan would do.
> >>> Here's your clue -
> >>>
> >>> http://www.valleynewslive.tv/artman2/publish/facebook/15341.shtml
> >>>
> >>> Notice that actual health providers didn't say this was a good idea.
> >>> Someone ($20 to the first person who can find the individual that made
> >>> this decision) moved the marker.  Boom!  That's how it works when
> >>> you're King.
> >>>
> >>> Brad
> >>>
> >>> "Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force, like
> >>> fire: a dangerous servant and a terrible master."  George Washington
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>>
> >>>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> means
> >> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> >> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that,
> and
> >> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >>
> >
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 12:15:37 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:15:37 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Tiger In The Tank
Message-ID: <400985d70912150915s54efac2elc06814c90aeb47cc@mail.gmail.com>

Boys and Girls, this is where the old expression, "If it flies,
floats, or f*#ks, lease it!" came from.

WARNING - This is a waste of NINE minutes of your life you can never get back -

http://www.breitbart.tv/tearful-mistress-says-tiger-woods-is-not-an-honest-man/

Tiger, Tiger, Tiger!  Boy (I'm addressing the Asian side of Mr. Woods
so don't call me a racist), "ya done screwed up".  Now here's a piece
of advice from someone who's "been there, done that".  No matter how
well you swing a club, you ain't worth a damn at stopping one that is
being swung at you!  You have a violent wife.  Get the hell out!  It
will only get worse.  Once they take the first swing, they WILL take a
second. Maybe you'll get lucky and get a Judge that raised 19 children
and had an alcoholic husband, and she will actually listen to your
side of the story because she's heard everything before (3 times) and
wants to hear just one more version of "The Truth", but don't bet your
life or your career on it.  Learn from my experience.  Run, don't walk
like you're on the golf course.

Tiger my friend, the next time you need a ride from the clubhouse to
the airport, consider hiring a cab.  Hitchhiking is beneath your
dignity, and as you've discovered, has hidden costs.

No matter what anyone says, remember the immortal words of my good
friend Stan 'The Hardwood Floor Man', "Bradley, don't let them steal
your craft".

Mr. Woods, you're supposed to be the 'swingor', not the 'swingee'.

Brad

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 12:31:59 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:31:59 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Wonder why we don't want cap and tax
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912150931n1c7b6800se299db7d04f51cac@mail.gmail.com>

Good morning All,

All the Health care activitiy is stupid lately, but cap and trade makes it
look downright sensible.

Oh sure, let's follow the European example .....

Rik

_________________________________
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/12/cap-and-trade-carbon-credit-extortion.html
 Cap-and-Trade Carbon Credit Extortion Scam In Full
Swing<http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/12/cap-and-trade-carbon-credit-extortion.html>

 The cap-and-trade extortion racket promoted by the EU and UN has now blown
sky high. Please consider Businesses hold world hostage over carbon
credits<http://www.wnd.com/index.php/index.php?pageId=118953>
.

WND research reveals the European Union's cap-and-trade exchange is
vulnerable to a sophisticated form of corporate extortion in which EU
bureaucrats in Brussels are manipulated into paying hundreds of millions of
dollars in carbon permit bribes to keep companies from moving jobs to Third
World nations.

In fact, it appears the scam is already under way.

The crux of the scheme is this: European steelmakers have threatened to
leave the EU for India, eliminating the jobs of thousands of workers in the
process, unless the EU grants the steelmakers free carbon credits worth
hundreds of millions of dollars.

Eurofer, a European trade group, is at the center of the scheme. The web of
the plot, however, weaves in not only several companies, but also the United
Nations' climate change chief:


   - Among its members, Eurofer represents two EU steelmakers, Corus Redcar
   and ArcelorMittal, each of which has ties to India as well as to Rajendra K.
   Pachauri, the Indian industrial engineer who has been chairman of the U.N.
   Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, since 2002.
   - Eurofer appears to have coordinated a threat to the European Union
   Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading System that its steelmakers would move their
   operations from the EU to India unless the EU cap-and-trade exchange issued
   them ? at no cost ? carbon emissions permits worth hundreds of millions of
   dollars.
   - Once the bureaucrats in Brussels acquiesced, Corus Redcar and
   ArcelorMittal maneuvered to cash in windfall profits from the EU carbon
   permits given them at no cost.
   - Additionally, Corus Redcar has now announced a decision to close
   operations in Great Britain nonetheless and relocate its steelmaking
   activities to India in order to gain additional U.N. carbon credits.


Ironically, EU and U.N. officials who might have thought requiring
cap-and-trade permits would operate as "protection racket" in which EU
companies need to buy carbon credits to continue operations, have now found
themselves on the losing end of the reverse scheme.

In the final analysis, the winners are the European Union corporations
willing to play hardball with the European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission
Trading System, and the losers are the EU middle class workers that are held
hostage in the scheme.

Cashing In On The Scam

Inquiring minds are reading how Carbon credits bring Lakshmi Mittal ?1bn
bonanza<http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/industrials/article6945991.ece>
.

LAKSHMI MITTAL, Britain?s richest man, stands to benefit from a ?1 billion
windfall from a European scheme to curb global warming. His company
ArcelorMittal, the steel business where he is chairman and chief executive,
will make the gain on ?carbon credits? given to it under the European
emissions trading scheme (ETS).

The scheme grants companies permits to emit CO2 up to a specified ?cap?.
Beyond this they must buy extra permits. An investigation has revealed that
ArcelorMittal has been given far more carbon permits than it needs. It has
the largest allocation of any organisation in Europe.

The investigation has also shown that ArcelorMittal and Eurofer, which
represents European steel makers at European level, have lobbied intensively
in Brussels. This has included threatening to move plants out of Europe at a
cost of 90,000 jobs, and asking European commissioners to meet Mittal.

ArcelorMittal is now free to sell its surplus permits on the market or to
hoard them for future use. The latter would allow it to avoid cutting
greenhouse gas emissions for years, effectively undermining the point of the
scheme.

ArcelorMittal, which is based in Luxembourg and has more than 80 steel
plants around Europe, has confirmed Pearson?s figures. The ETS covers 10,000
industrial installations, responsible for 40% of the EU?s greenhouse gas
emissions.

The world's biggest polluters wanted the carbon cap so they could trade
their permits (acquired for free), to other businesses who will have to buy
them to expand.

Now some of those polluters are going to move to India anyway after
extorting extra permits out of the EU.

Not only is the global warming data bogus and manipulated, the whole
cap-and-trade program is now easily seen as nothing more than an extortion
scam, a scam that has fittingly blown up in the face of the EU and UN clowns
who created it (unless of course that was their intention all along).

Unfortunately, EU workers and taxpayers are the ones who are going to suffer
over this, not the clowns who created this ridiculous scheme.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
<http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/>

-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 13:00:48 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:00:48 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Wonder why we don't want cap and tax
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912150931n1c7b6800se299db7d04f51cac@mail.gmail.com>
References: <6634e19e0912150931n1c7b6800se299db7d04f51cac@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912151000h54872ceds860670ea0ba7ca1e@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

First,  a short film clip from das Fuhrer -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrPCUWWjh0c&feature=player_embedded

Now, a quick reality check -

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/copenhagen/article6956783.ece

I miss Jim and Tammy Faye Baker.  Now those people knew how to milk a
religion.  Al Gore dropped out of divinity school at Vanderbilt.  No
wonder his faith as fallen on to hard times.

Brad

On 12/15/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Good morning All,
>
> All the Health care activitiy is stupid lately, but cap and trade makes it
> look downright sensible.
>
> Oh sure, let's follow the European example .....
>
> Rik
>
> _________________________________
> http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/12/cap-and-trade-carbon-credit-extortion.html
>  Cap-and-Trade Carbon Credit Extortion Scam In Full
> Swing<http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/12/cap-and-trade-carbon-credit-extortion.html>
>
>  The cap-and-trade extortion racket promoted by the EU and UN has now blown
> sky high. Please consider Businesses hold world hostage over carbon
> credits<http://www.wnd.com/index.php/index.php?pageId=118953>
> .
>
> WND research reveals the European Union's cap-and-trade exchange is
> vulnerable to a sophisticated form of corporate extortion in which EU
> bureaucrats in Brussels are manipulated into paying hundreds of millions of
> dollars in carbon permit bribes to keep companies from moving jobs to Third
> World nations.
>
> In fact, it appears the scam is already under way.
>
> The crux of the scheme is this: European steelmakers have threatened to
> leave the EU for India, eliminating the jobs of thousands of workers in the
> process, unless the EU grants the steelmakers free carbon credits worth
> hundreds of millions of dollars.
>
> Eurofer, a European trade group, is at the center of the scheme. The web of
> the plot, however, weaves in not only several companies, but also the United
> Nations' climate change chief:
>
>
>    - Among its members, Eurofer represents two EU steelmakers, Corus Redcar
>    and ArcelorMittal, each of which has ties to India as well as to Rajendra
> K.
>    Pachauri, the Indian industrial engineer who has been chairman of the
> U.N.
>    Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, since 2002.
>    - Eurofer appears to have coordinated a threat to the European Union
>    Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading System that its steelmakers would move
> their
>    operations from the EU to India unless the EU cap-and-trade exchange
> issued
>    them ? at no cost ? carbon emissions permits worth hundreds of millions
> of
>    dollars.
>    - Once the bureaucrats in Brussels acquiesced, Corus Redcar and
>    ArcelorMittal maneuvered to cash in windfall profits from the EU carbon
>    permits given them at no cost.
>    - Additionally, Corus Redcar has now announced a decision to close
>    operations in Great Britain nonetheless and relocate its steelmaking
>    activities to India in order to gain additional U.N. carbon credits.
>
>
> Ironically, EU and U.N. officials who might have thought requiring
> cap-and-trade permits would operate as "protection racket" in which EU
> companies need to buy carbon credits to continue operations, have now found
> themselves on the losing end of the reverse scheme.
>
> In the final analysis, the winners are the European Union corporations
> willing to play hardball with the European Union Greenhouse Gas Emission
> Trading System, and the losers are the EU middle class workers that are held
> hostage in the scheme.
>
> Cashing In On The Scam
>
> Inquiring minds are reading how Carbon credits bring Lakshmi Mittal ?1bn
> bonanza<http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/industrials/article6945991.ece>
> .
>
> LAKSHMI MITTAL, Britain?s richest man, stands to benefit from a ?1 billion
> windfall from a European scheme to curb global warming. His company
> ArcelorMittal, the steel business where he is chairman and chief executive,
> will make the gain on ?carbon credits? given to it under the European
> emissions trading scheme (ETS).
>
> The scheme grants companies permits to emit CO2 up to a specified ?cap?.
> Beyond this they must buy extra permits. An investigation has revealed that
> ArcelorMittal has been given far more carbon permits than it needs. It has
> the largest allocation of any organisation in Europe.
>
> The investigation has also shown that ArcelorMittal and Eurofer, which
> represents European steel makers at European level, have lobbied intensively
> in Brussels. This has included threatening to move plants out of Europe at a
> cost of 90,000 jobs, and asking European commissioners to meet Mittal.
>
> ArcelorMittal is now free to sell its surplus permits on the market or to
> hoard them for future use. The latter would allow it to avoid cutting
> greenhouse gas emissions for years, effectively undermining the point of the
> scheme.
>
> ArcelorMittal, which is based in Luxembourg and has more than 80 steel
> plants around Europe, has confirmed Pearson?s figures. The ETS covers 10,000
> industrial installations, responsible for 40% of the EU?s greenhouse gas
> emissions.
>
> The world's biggest polluters wanted the carbon cap so they could trade
> their permits (acquired for free), to other businesses who will have to buy
> them to expand.
>
> Now some of those polluters are going to move to India anyway after
> extorting extra permits out of the EU.
>
> Not only is the global warming data bogus and manipulated, the whole
> cap-and-trade program is now easily seen as nothing more than an extortion
> scam, a scam that has fittingly blown up in the face of the EU and UN clowns
> who created it (unless of course that was their intention all along).
>
> Unfortunately, EU workers and taxpayers are the ones who are going to suffer
> over this, not the clowns who created this ridiculous scheme.
>
> Mike "Mish" Shedlock
> http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
> <http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>


From mweisner at ebsmed.com  Tue Dec 15 16:45:59 2009
From: mweisner at ebsmed.com (Michael D. Weisner)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:45:59 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Boeing 787 Delayliner is a dream come true
Message-ID: <0835A47B535041B4AD4061238832472D@ebsoffice>

Brad,

The heck with politics for a moment.  Boeing's '87 finally flew!

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Takes Off on First Flight
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2009/12/15/boeing-dreamliner-ready-flight/?test=latestnews

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fucq5BoEfEI

Now, all they need are customers.  So far, I think most of the initial production is scheduled for Nippon Air.  How many is your company looking at?

Now that you're 777 certified, will you go on to 787 school?

Mike

--
I am using the free version of SPAMfighter.
We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam.
SPAMfighter has removed 9417 of my spam emails to date.
Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len

The Professional version does not have this message
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 17:02:18 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:02:18 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Boeing 787 Delayliner is a dream come true
In-Reply-To: <0835A47B535041B4AD4061238832472D@ebsoffice>
References: <0835A47B535041B4AD4061238832472D@ebsoffice>
Message-ID: <400985d70912151402u61b1fb11s20217104f5e541ce@mail.gmail.com>

Mike,

We don't have any 787s on order. We're exercising all our options on
the 777 production line and shopping the used market for earlier model
777s.  The big difference between the two airplanes is the "plastic"
content (carbon fiber).  The 787 is about 50% plastic versus around
10% for the 777.  System wise they are very similar and from a flight
guidance perspective, the 787 uses 4 MFDs (multi-function displays)
versus 5 on the 777.  The transition school is only 5 days long.

I'll probably never see one unless I take early retirement (eligible
in JUL10, 25 year anniversary) and sign a 5 year contract with an
Asian carrier. That isn't totally out of the question.

Brad

On 12/15/09, Michael D. Weisner <mweisner at ebsmed.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> The heck with politics for a moment.  Boeing's '87 finally flew!
>
> Boeing 787 Dreamliner Takes Off on First Flight
> http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2009/12/15/boeing-dreamliner-ready-flight/?test=latestnews
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fucq5BoEfEI
>
> Now, all they need are customers.  So far, I think most of the initial
> production is scheduled for Nippon Air.  How many is your company looking
> at?
>
> Now that you're 777 certified, will you go on to 787 school?
>
> Mike
>
> --
> I am using the free version of SPAMfighter.
> We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam.
> SPAMfighter has removed 9417 of my spam emails to date.
> Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len
>
> The Professional version does not have this message
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 19:37:02 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:37:02 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Boeing 787 Delayliner is a dream come true
In-Reply-To: <0835A47B535041B4AD4061238832472D@ebsoffice>
References: <0835A47B535041B4AD4061238832472D@ebsoffice>
Message-ID: <400985d70912151637n50b6d321x291a787a583ccb72@mail.gmail.com>

Mike,

Here's a photo of the 787 cockpit -

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Boeing/Boeing-787-8-Dreamliner/1320408/L/

It's almost identical to the 777 except they split what would be
displayed on the center 777 MFD and put on the larger inboard MFDs on
the 787.  Other than that, it is straight Honeywell Flight Guidance.
Those humps you see on either side of the throttle quadrant are "mouse
pads".  I forget the acronym (I'll look it up when one quits and I
have to make a maintenance squawk) but "trust me", they're mouse pads.
Unlike other airplanes where some switches are shiny and some are dull
(only touch the shiny ones) everything on the overhead is push-button
and seldom used.  The systems run themselves.  It is designed to be a
"monkey-see, monkey-do" machine.  Unlike Airbus logic however, you
don't cast a vote along with the machine (with the machine casting the
tie-breaker).  Boeing will let you do something stupid like roll it
upside down  (but you have to overpower the machine - it fights you
the whole way) but as soon as you let go it rolls right-side up. As
long as you follow the manufacturer labels (what the mouse pads are
for) it will walk you through any emergency.  Like all modern
two-engine airplanes, it will be certified for ETOPS - "Engines Turn
Or Passengers Swim". Most everyone is certified for ETOPS-180 which
means you have to have an alternate airport within 180 minutes at all
times - not a problem now that we have access to former Soviet Union
airspace and airports.  Getting off the airplane without frostbite in
Siberia is another issue.

Brad

On 12/15/09, Michael D. Weisner <mweisner at ebsmed.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> The heck with politics for a moment.  Boeing's '87 finally flew!
>
> Boeing 787 Dreamliner Takes Off on First Flight
> http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2009/12/15/boeing-dreamliner-ready-flight/?test=latestnews
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fucq5BoEfEI
>
> Now, all they need are customers.  So far, I think most of the initial
> production is scheduled for Nippon Air.  How many is your company looking
> at?
>
> Now that you're 777 certified, will you go on to 787 school?
>
> Mike
>
> --
> I am using the free version of SPAMfighter.
> We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam.
> SPAMfighter has removed 9417 of my spam emails to date.
> Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len
>
> The Professional version does not have this message
>

From hparsons at parsonsys.com  Tue Dec 15 19:44:00 2009
From: hparsons at parsonsys.com (Herb Parsons)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:44:00 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Boeing 787 Delayliner is a dream come true
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912151637n50b6d321x291a787a583ccb72@mail.gmail.com>
References: <0835A47B535041B4AD4061238832472D@ebsoffice>
	<400985d70912151637n50b6d321x291a787a583ccb72@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5f889a890912151644g19f6e67drfeb255e2c9328275@mail.gmail.com>

I gotta say, this reminds me of an SF short story I read once (I think it
was from Asimov). A "black bag" got transported from the future. In that
future, Dr's had become low-level techs, the equipment in the black bag had
all the "expertise", the "Dr" just held on.

Here comes a spoiler, so don't read further if you want to be surprised.

Those monitoring the tools in the black bag (from the future) noted that it
was used in a homicide (by a guy that was using it be a phony "Dr" charging
large sums for his services) so they turned it off. Unfortunately for him,
they turned it off right as he was demonstrating how the scalpel could
bypass vital tissue and arteries by slicing his own throat...

Brad, please don't try turning your jumbo jet upside down...


On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 6:37 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Mike,
>
> Here's a photo of the 787 cockpit -
>
> http://www.airliners.net/photo/Boeing/Boeing-787-8-Dreamliner/1320408/L/
>
> It's almost identical to the 777 except they split what would be
> displayed on the center 777 MFD and put on the larger inboard MFDs on
> the 787.  Other than that, it is straight Honeywell Flight Guidance.
> Those humps you see on either side of the throttle quadrant are "mouse
> pads".  I forget the acronym (I'll look it up when one quits and I
> have to make a maintenance squawk) but "trust me", they're mouse pads.
> Unlike other airplanes where some switches are shiny and some are dull
> (only touch the shiny ones) everything on the overhead is push-button
> and seldom used.  The systems run themselves.  It is designed to be a
> "monkey-see, monkey-do" machine.  Unlike Airbus logic however, you
> don't cast a vote along with the machine (with the machine casting the
> tie-breaker).  Boeing will let you do something stupid like roll it
> upside down  (but you have to overpower the machine - it fights you
> the whole way) but as soon as you let go it rolls right-side up. As
> long as you follow the manufacturer labels (what the mouse pads are
> for) it will walk you through any emergency.  Like all modern
> two-engine airplanes, it will be certified for ETOPS - "Engines Turn
> Or Passengers Swim". Most everyone is certified for ETOPS-180 which
> means you have to have an alternate airport within 180 minutes at all
> times - not a problem now that we have access to former Soviet Union
> airspace and airports.  Getting off the airplane without frostbite in
> Siberia is another issue.
>
> Brad
>
> On 12/15/09, Michael D. Weisner <mweisner at ebsmed.com> wrote:
> > Brad,
> >
> > The heck with politics for a moment.  Boeing's '87 finally flew!
> >
> > Boeing 787 Dreamliner Takes Off on First Flight
> >
> http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2009/12/15/boeing-dreamliner-ready-flight/?test=latestnews
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fucq5BoEfEI
> >
> > Now, all they need are customers.  So far, I think most of the initial
> > production is scheduled for Nippon Air.  How many is your company looking
> > at?
> >
> > Now that you're 777 certified, will you go on to 787 school?
> >
> > Mike
> >
> > --
> > I am using the free version of SPAMfighter.
> > We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam.
> > SPAMfighter has removed 9417 of my spam emails to date.
> > Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len
> >
> > The Professional version does not have this message
> >
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
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From elginalexander at verizon.net  Tue Dec 15 19:11:05 2009
From: elginalexander at verizon.net (elginalexander at verizon.net)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:11:05 -0600 (CST)
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] One Year and Counting
Message-ID: <5302070.59231.1260922265204.JavaMail.root@vms062.mailsrvcs.net>

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From flybrad at gmail.com  Tue Dec 15 21:16:53 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:16:53 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] One Year and Counting
In-Reply-To: <5302070.59231.1260922265204.JavaMail.root@vms062.mailsrvcs.net>
References: <5302070.59231.1260922265204.JavaMail.root@vms062.mailsrvcs.net>
Message-ID: <400985d70912151816g2115aa2evc22ef02577028d0@mail.gmail.com>

Elgin,

Bravo! Very well said.

Brad



On 12/15/09, elginalexander at verizon.net <elginalexander at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> One Year and Counting
>
>
>
> As I listened to Obama's Nobel Prize acceptance speech, I couldn?t help but
> think that he has a lot to show for his first year in office ?
> unfortunately, most, if not all, of it embarrassing.  Although I had to give
> him quite a bit of credit in his speech on a number of issues, they did not
> offset, his overwhelming inadequate and inept performance as President.
>  Yes, he acknowledged in his speech that from the very beginning he really
> hasn't done anything to warrant receiving the Nobel Peace Prize.
>
>
>
> Yes, the speech was very well structured and delivered.  Yes, he
> acknowledged, referencing history, that you can't negotiate with tyrants
> and/or radical terrorists.  Yes, he recognized that the goal of the military
> is peace, not war (an observation noted and emphasized by former President
> Eisenhower and other generals).  However (and it is a big "however" since
> all of the above could have been proffered by anyone with a solid high
> school education), when he then went on in his typical rhetorical  ?double
> speak? to tender that the United States will be a standard bearer in
> fighting a war in that that war should be fought by the Marquis of
> Queensbury rules (my words).
>
>
>
> If nothing else demonstrates just how ignorant he is and just how much of a
> farce it is that he is the Commander-in-Chief, such a position establishes
> it beyond any reasonable doubt.  ?War is hell? and is the abrogation of all
> morality with but one rule: Everyone on our side lives and everyone on the
> other side dies.  You can't fight a war as though it were a boxing
> match.  To do so is just to make cannon fodder of soldiers - as we are now,
> and will continue to be, experiencing.
>
>
>
> At the core of any military strategy is: Set a goal and do not spare
> anything to achieve it - or else don't bother.  I wish he were as dedicated
> to the nation's safety and that of our troops as he is to jamming "social"
> programs down the throat of the nation which will generate a greater debt
> than the nation has ever seen and will make government bureaucracy the major
> employer in the United States (both of which will prove devastating to the
> future and stability of the United States).  If he really knew his history,
> he would realize that the strength of a nation is built on the foundation of
> production - production of a tangible product, not curbing individual
> freedoms and stifling incentive under the banner of social reform in order
> to make everyone equal by spreading the wealth.
>
>
>
> There isn't any question that all should be equal under the law, but no
> amount of money or training will ever be able to make my athletic abilities
> equal to that of any highly trained professional athlete. Animal Farm should
> be a mandatory read for those who think Obama's idealogy is the direction
> our nation should follow.
>
>
>
> That said, let us continue to examine the fiasco of Obama?s presidency
> starting with a recent bit of embarrassment, the ?little? matter of a couple
> crashing a state dinner ? courtesy of the incompetence of Desiree Rogers,
> another of his Chicago mafia, who, incidentally cannot be questioned about
> her entertaining her own guests and swilling drinks at the party rather than
> attending to what she is paid to do ? greet guests ? because of ?executive
> privilege.?
>
>
>
> Oh, and in case you might think she is an exception, just take the time to
> examine the ?real? qualifications of his legion of his Czars who do not
> require any confirmation other than they are political cronies of
> Obama.  Also, it is worth noting that one of his major financial supporters
> is the trial lawyers.  I guess that is the reason that there isn?t any tort
> reform in his proposed health ?reform.?
>
>
>
> Well, after considering these issues, let us look at his financial bailout
> that was dictated by Goldman Sachs, which, coincidentally, has five former
> employees in high level positions in Obama?s administration.  Then, less we
> forget, let us note that that charade was orchestrated by Tim Geithner, the
> ?brilliant? economist, accountant tax dodger who didn?t realize or forgot
> (take your pick) to include in his Federal tax filing certain
> incomes.  Also, rather than stabilize the economy, the massive outlay of
> cash allowed the investment firms and banks to recoup their greed fueled
> losses and permitted them to continue to do what they do best ? screw the
> consumer.
>
>
>
> Along these lines, I guess Obama is proud of the effect of his handling of
> the TARP bailout, the GM bailout, and the Cash for Clunkers program on the
> value of the dollar, which is reeling and has put this country on a perilous
> slide as it slips further and further into a smothering national debt, which
> he has, in just one year, managed to increase beyond anything imaged in the
> past.
>
>
>
> Then again, the rhetoric associated with these bailouts and his ?stimulus?
> package are on an equal par with his vow to get Bin Laden ? rhetoric ? and
> nothing more than just rhetoric.  The unmistakable mark of who he is is
> confidence built on delusion and betrayal to everything he supposedly stood
> for like the transparency ?promised? in his campaign to have all
> Congressional debate on the proposed health care reform aired on
> C-Span.  (Did I somehow miss the airing?)
>
>
>
> Now that we have had a taste of one year of Obama, what should we then
> expect from someone whose claim to fame was that he was a community
> organizer just like the campaign chair of his presidential campaign, Penny
> Pritzker, who is the 135th richest person in America and who, as former
> chair of Superior Bank in Illinois (which incidentally was created thanks to
> a giant S & L bailout by the government), helped invent the securitization
> of subprime mortgages for her ?community? and who was still at the ?helm?
> when the bank collapsed thanks to massive financial chicanery?   Yes, what
> should we then expect from someone who was elected without any practical
> experience other than Chicago politics and without any genuine sense of
> history, American values, and patriotism?  More of the same Obamination.
>
>
>
> It appears that we have become a nation of ?what have you done for me
> lately? and ?where is my free lunch? rather than ?what is in the best
> interest of the nation? and a recognition that there isn?t anything such as
> a ?free lunch.?
>
> Elgin Alexander
>
>


From ekroposki at charter.net  Wed Dec 16 06:40:43 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:40:43 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Elgin Alexander
Message-ID: <99631362AA414BD3A9F2C0BC284A262D@YOURB88038198E>

The initial post came thru as scrubbed by server.

Is Elgin Alexander a new member?  

Bill sign him up?

Ed K

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From mweisner at ebsmed.com  Wed Dec 16 07:06:57 2009
From: mweisner at ebsmed.com (Michael D. Weisner)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:06:57 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Elgin Alexander
References: <99631362AA414BD3A9F2C0BC284A262D@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <22E65136152E4DC4AE8671E4DB76293F@acer7e8cb8aec8>

I have been forwarding some of our traffic to him due to his interests and extended an invitation to join us.  

Elgin, you are certainly capable of making your own introductions, so the soapbox is yours.

Mike
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ed Kroposki 
  To: Swift Water 
  Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 6:40 AM
  Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Elgin Alexander


  The initial post came thru as scrubbed by server.

  Is Elgin Alexander a new member?  

  Bill sign him up?

  Ed K




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From ekroposki at charter.net  Wed Dec 16 07:30:41 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:30:41 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Swiftwater post - Mike's reply
Message-ID: <91810A9060904B519F0E4FB646A17030@YOURB88038198E>

Mike,

On the several email lists that I am on, I do not receive emails directly, but rather read off archive or postings lists from web.

His email was scrubbed by Bill's server.  He has to join the list and Bill has to approve him to get his post shown.

But it is nice to have another member.  I have tried getting a few to join, but some apparently cannot defend their liberal positions, at least publically.

I suspect that we also have one or two prominent readers who I alerted to this forum but because of who they are will not openly join least the media get wind of them.   Albeit a couple are part of the media.

Who knows but maybe even that progressive who distains politics, aka Rummy, reads post here.

Ed K

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From mweisner at ebsmed.com  Wed Dec 16 07:49:40 2009
From: mweisner at ebsmed.com (Michael D. Weisner)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:49:40 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Swiftwater post - Mike's reply
References: <91810A9060904B519F0E4FB646A17030@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <0303443FAC1347F2AC5D3CFBB58025E5@acer7e8cb8aec8>

Ed,

I gave him the following link to join:
http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette

I wonder if Bill simply hasn't seen the request or just didn't know who he was.

I really hadn't noticed any political leaning on this list ... oh well ... 

Mike 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ed Kroposki 
  To: Swift Water 
  Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 7:30 AM
  Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Swiftwater post - Mike's reply


  Mike,

  On the several email lists that I am on, I do not receive emails directly, but rather read off archive or postings lists from web.

  His email was scrubbed by Bill's server.  He has to join the list and Bill has to approve him to get his post shown.

  But it is nice to have another member.  I have tried getting a few to join, but some apparently cannot defend their liberal positions, at least publically.

  I suspect that we also have one or two prominent readers who I alerted to this forum but because of who they are will not openly join least the media get wind of them.   Albeit a couple are part of the media.

  Who knows but maybe even that progressive who distains politics, aka Rummy, reads post here.

  Ed K




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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec 16 07:56:07 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:56:07 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] More From Lt. Col. West
Message-ID: <400985d70912160456h41129b3bt4fab4a2643ba372@mail.gmail.com>

First, let's get this guy in the House, then the White House!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAYr0qot3y0&feature=player_embedded

From ekroposki at charter.net  Wed Dec 16 08:23:12 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:23:12 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Mike W said,
	"I really hadn't noticed any political leaning on this list
Message-ID: <91791EA206684A86A9420021ED6D63DB@YOURB88038198E>

Mike,

Actually if you believe in freedom and informed electorate then your statement, "I really hadn't noticed any political leaning on this list ... oh well ..." is correct.

However, such informed electorate is given bitter hostility or open enmity from Washington, D.C. and the national media.

And Rik thinks things will dramatically change in this year's congressional elections.  I just do not see it.  The sheeple are not moving other than to acquiesce and do as told.  

After the holidays, I will get involved more politically.  However, as I told one of South Carolina's U. S. Senators, my support is usually the kiss of death.  Since I have moved to the conservative side of the isle my numbers have been dismal.

Since we are on the subject, have you considered running for Congress?

Ed K

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From bill at effros.com  Wed Dec 16 09:03:53 2009
From: bill at effros.com (Bill Effros)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:03:53 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Elgin Alexander
In-Reply-To: <99631362AA414BD3A9F2C0BC284A262D@YOURB88038198E>
References: <99631362AA414BD3A9F2C0BC284A262D@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <4B28E8C9.5090306@effros.com>

Ed,

I don't sign anybody up.  Everybody has to sign themselves up if they 
want to be members, then they can go into various modes to control how 
much email they get.

The first time they post as a member, I try to remember to check a box 
so they won't have to go through me on any subsequent post.

Unlike the Rhodes list (which uses the same software) I allow 
non-members to post, however I must approve every email until they 
become members and have posted the first time as a member.

Elgin Alexander posted as a non-member.  If he wants to join the list, 
it is his decision, and after the first post as a member he will be able 
to freely post thereafter.

B.



Ed Kroposki wrote:
> The initial post came thru as scrubbed by server.
>  
> Is /Elgin Alexander a new member?  /
> // 
> Bill sign him up?
>  
> Ed K
> /
> /
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>   
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec 16 09:06:19 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:06:19 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Carrot and Stick
Message-ID: <400985d70912160606k15e1bb75jbc3c235a56a69f1e@mail.gmail.com>

Difficult call here, which is worse?  One Louisiana Senator gets a 300
million dollar bribe, a Nebraska Senator gets a threat.  BTW, Offutt
isn't one of those bases you can just "pack-up and move".

from the Weekly Standard -

Source: Dems Threaten Nelson In Pursuit of 60

While the Democrats appease Senator Lieberman, they still have to
worry about other recalcitrant Democrats including Nebraska Senator
Ben Nelson. Though Lieberman has been out front in the fight against
the public option and the Medicare buy-in, Nelson was critical of
both. Now that those provisions appear to have been stripped from the
bill, Lieberman may get on board, but Nelson's demand that taxpayer
money not be used to fund abortion has still not been met. According
to a Senate aide, the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska's
Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn't fall into
line.

Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal
employees in Southeastern Nebraska. As our source put it, this is a
"naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson's
vote." They are "threatening to close a base vital to national
security for what?" asked the Senate staffer.

Indeed, Offutt is the headquarters for US Strategic Command, the
successor to Strategic Air Command, and not by accident. STRATCOM was
located in the middle of the country for strategic reasons. Its
closure would be a massive blow to the economy of the state of
Nebraska, but it would also be another example of this administration
playing politics with our national security.

From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec 16 09:14:43 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:14:43 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Best Pool Shot Ever By Naked White Chick
Message-ID: <400985d70912160614h9764cb4oeca613157d4bd26f@mail.gmail.com>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQAFCbsgQeo

What were you thinking?

From bill at effros.com  Wed Dec 16 09:25:04 2009
From: bill at effros.com (Bill Effros)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:25:04 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Swiftwater post - Mike's reply
In-Reply-To: <0303443FAC1347F2AC5D3CFBB58025E5@acer7e8cb8aec8>
References: <91810A9060904B519F0E4FB646A17030@YOURB88038198E>
	<0303443FAC1347F2AC5D3CFBB58025E5@acer7e8cb8aec8>
Message-ID: <4B28EDC0.2050202@effros.com>

I set up this list as a place where people could speak their mind 
without fear of being "thrown off the list".  To the extent that the 
list "leans" in any direction, I think it leans toward honesty and 
integrity.

I believe the people on this list are honestly expressing their personal 
views, and I think they are considering the views of others.

The "scholarship" (for lack of a better word) on this list is 
astounding, and the information posted is widely distributed off-list.

With regard to my personal "leanings", I am probably the most left-wing 
person my right-wing friends know, and the most right-wing person my 
left-wing friends know.  So which way do I lean?

This list has been a joy, and my thanks to the small group that has kept 
it that way.  I always read everything, and click on most links.  
Putting aside attacks on MSM, this list is consistently ahead of the 
learning curve, and cites sources none of us could find without the help 
of others.

B.

PS -- My New Year's Resolution is to increase the size of email 
accepted.  Every time I tamper with the program I screw it up, and it 
takes a while to get everything working properly again, so I must find 
enough time to do the job (which takes less than a minute from start to 
finish) and then fix what I broke (which usually takes days.)





Michael D. Weisner wrote:
> Ed,
>  
> I gave him the following link to join:
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>  
> I wonder if Bill simply hasn't seen the request or just didn't know 
> who he was.
>  
> I really hadn't noticed any political leaning on this list ... oh well 
> ... 
>  
> Mike 
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     *From:* Ed Kroposki <mailto:ekroposki at charter.net>
>     *To:* Swift Water
>     <mailto:SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com>
>     *Sent:* Wednesday, December 16, 2009 7:30 AM
>     *Subject:* [Swiftwater Gazette] Swiftwater post - Mike's reply
>
>     Mike,
>      
>     On the several email lists that I am on, I do not receive emails
>     directly, but rather read off archive or postings lists from web.
>      
>     His email was scrubbed by Bill's server.  He has to join the list
>     and Bill has to approve him to get his post shown.
>      
>     But it is nice to have another member.  I have tried getting a few
>     to join, but some apparently cannot defend their liberal
>     positions, at least publically.
>      
>     I suspect that we also have one or two prominent readers who I
>     alerted to this forum but because of who they are will not openly
>     join least the media get wind of them.   Albeit a couple are part
>     of the media.
>      
>     Who knows but maybe even that progressive who distains politics,
>     aka Rummy, reads post here.
>      
>     Ed K
>      
>      
>
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     _______________________________________________
>     SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>     SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>     http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> I am using the Free version of SPAMfighter 
> <http://www.spamfighter.com/len>.
> We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam.
> SPAMfighter has removed 4899 of my spam emails to date.
> The Professional version does not have this message.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
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From bill at effros.com  Wed Dec 16 09:33:11 2009
From: bill at effros.com (Bill Effros)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:33:11 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Best Pool Shot Ever By Naked White Chick
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912160614h9764cb4oeca613157d4bd26f@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912160614h9764cb4oeca613157d4bd26f@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4B28EFA7.8070700@effros.com>

Great!

OK, so this is the real reason I set up the list.

B.



Brad Haslett wrote:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQAFCbsgQeo
>
> What were you thinking?
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>   
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From hparsons at parsonsys.com  Wed Dec 16 09:57:10 2009
From: hparsons at parsonsys.com (Herb Parsons)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:57:10 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Carrot and Stick
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912160606k15e1bb75jbc3c235a56a69f1e@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912160606k15e1bb75jbc3c235a56a69f1e@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5f889a890912160657x369a5a16ufc89c3eb81c14dae@mail.gmail.com>

To me, the added "insult to injury" in all of this is the fact that Pres
Obama campaigned on all of these negotiations being broadcast live on
C-Span. No behind the doors deals this time around, no siree (unless, of
course, you count meeting behind closed doors with 60 senators). I only wish
he'd said "read my lips".


On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 8:06 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Difficult call here, which is worse?  One Louisiana Senator gets a 300
> million dollar bribe, a Nebraska Senator gets a threat.  BTW, Offutt
> isn't one of those bases you can just "pack-up and move".
>
> from the Weekly Standard -
>
> Source: Dems Threaten Nelson In Pursuit of 60
>
> While the Democrats appease Senator Lieberman, they still have to
> worry about other recalcitrant Democrats including Nebraska Senator
> Ben Nelson. Though Lieberman has been out front in the fight against
> the public option and the Medicare buy-in, Nelson was critical of
> both. Now that those provisions appear to have been stripped from the
> bill, Lieberman may get on board, but Nelson's demand that taxpayer
> money not be used to fund abortion has still not been met. According
> to a Senate aide, the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska's
> Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn't fall into
> line.
>
> Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal
> employees in Southeastern Nebraska. As our source put it, this is a
> "naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson's
> vote." They are "threatening to close a base vital to national
> security for what?" asked the Senate staffer.
>
> Indeed, Offutt is the headquarters for US Strategic Command, the
> successor to Strategic Air Command, and not by accident. STRATCOM was
> located in the middle of the country for strategic reasons. Its
> closure would be a massive blow to the economy of the state of
> Nebraska, but it would also be another example of this administration
> playing politics with our national security.
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
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From mweisner at ebsmed.com  Wed Dec 16 10:02:06 2009
From: mweisner at ebsmed.com (Michael D. Weisner)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:02:06 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Best Pool Shot Ever By Naked White Chick
References: <400985d70912160614h9764cb4oeca613157d4bd26f@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <3BD16CC58266491296937EB1AB853D8F@ebsoffice>

Brad,

Got me, too.  Ok, now you owe me 9 minutes plus 20 seconds of life that I 
will never recover.

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brad Haslett"  Wednesday, December 16, 2009 9:14 AM
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQAFCbsgQeo
>
> What were you thinking?
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> 


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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec 16 10:52:09 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:52:09 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Cloward-Piven
Message-ID: <400985d70912160752t3f3ce644o8b377939e05ac5da@mail.gmail.com>

For anyone needing a refresher on Cloward-Piven, you can read the
original article published by Professors Cloward and Piven here -

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/A%20Strategy%20to%20End%20Poverty2.html

It would do us well at this point in time to remember "Stein's Law",
(Ben Stein's father, economist Herbert Stein), "That which can not go
on forever won?t".

Our current discussion and observations on economics have moved beyond
the traditional "guns v butter", and is now more along the lines of
"what am I missing?"  Either we are being led by a team of brilliant
thinkers who have discovered a new paradigm of economics, or, they are
clueless. I don't think they have discovered a new paradigm anymore
valid than the new "paradigm of business model" that fueled the late
90's internet bubble that popped. I also don't think they are
clueless.  Something else must be at work.

The economies of Germany between the wars and Argentina at the turn of
the century never shut down, but the middle class lost nearly all
their wealth.  In Germany's case, it made for a convenient excuse to
identify an ethnic group to be destroyed, and in the case of
Argentina, the peasants were satisfied for a period.  Mao's
confiscation of farmland and the destruction of the merchant class
followed a similar path.  So I keep asking myself this question, "is
my study of economics and understanding of history so flawed that I'm
missing something?"

Adam Smith's "invisible hand" was based on people acting on
self-interests, and I'm more selfish than most.  That said, I fail to
see how the current federal government spending pattern is in the long
term best interest of anyone, especially MY family.

Someone, anyone, please explain what I'm unable to see and understand.
 In the absence of a reasonable explanation, I have to think we are
seeing the first-stage implementation of Cloward-Piven.

(Below - someone else who is asking questions)

Brad

-----------------



Debt crisis portends liberalism's end
Examiner Editorial
December 16, 2009

With its most vigorous advocate in memory presiding in the White House
and commanding Democratic majorities in Congress, it's difficult to
believe that the end of liberalism may be within sight. We base this
suggestion not on a hunch or on wishful thinking, but on mathematics.
The Petersen-Pew Commission on Budget Reform has produced a new report
warning that "[o]ver the past year alone, the public debt of the
United States rose sharply from 41 to 53 percent of gross domestic
product (GDP). Under reasonable assumptions, the debt is projected to
grow steadily, reaching 85 percent of GDP by 2018, 100 percent by
2022, and 200 percent in 2038."

Long before the debt reaches such stratospheric levels, the commission
warns, "Fears of inflation and a prospective decline in the value of
the dollar would cause investors to demand higher interest rates and
shift out of U.S. Treasury securities. The excessive debt would also
affect citizens in their everyday lives by harming the American
standard of living through slower economic growth and dampening wages,
and shrinking the government's ability to reduce taxes, invest, or
provide a safety net."

In other words, within the lifetimes of the vast majority of living
Americans, government as we have known it since the New Deal will
become paralyzed, unable to deliver even basic services, let alone the
myriad of entitlements that politicians had promised would last
forever. Liberalism will owe its undoing to its blind faith that
government could forever be the inexhaustible provider of ever more
spending, more benefits and more prosperity, with nary a day of
reckoning.

This report does not come from some gold bug or fevered disciple of
trickle-down economics. On the contrary, it is the product of a
bipartisan commission led by three former congressmen, two Democrats
and one Republican. The commission also includes two former
comptrollers of the United States, seven former Congressional Budget
Office directors, seven former Office of Management and Budget
directors, three former chairmen of the House Budget Committee and one
former chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Honest observers might quibble about the commission's recommended
course of action, which includes general tax increases. But there
should be fundamental agreement on freezing federal spending now.
Officials must choose as soon as possible which government programs
should continue and which should end. This is no longer a
conservative-versus-liberal or Democrat-versus-Republican issue. It is
a matter of national economic necessity and national survival.



Find this article at:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Debt-crisis-portends-liberalism_s-end-8660155-79353372.html


From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Wed Dec 16 11:02:46 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:02:46 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Carrot and Stick
In-Reply-To: <5f889a890912160657x369a5a16ufc89c3eb81c14dae@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912160606k15e1bb75jbc3c235a56a69f1e@mail.gmail.com>
	<5f889a890912160657x369a5a16ufc89c3eb81c14dae@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912160802y29e0a951yd1cbf4a2f80c79ae@mail.gmail.com>

What will we have to do to shame the MSM into putting that into a front page
headline.

Wonder what they promised to give/take from Leiberman.

Wake up people your president is an unprincipled sonofabitch.

Rik

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 8:57 AM, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com>wrote:

> To me, the added "insult to injury" in all of this is the fact that Pres
> Obama campaigned on all of these negotiations being broadcast live on
> C-Span. No behind the doors deals this time around, no siree (unless, of
> course, you count meeting behind closed doors with 60 senators). I only wish
> he'd said "read my lips".
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 8:06 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Difficult call here, which is worse?  One Louisiana Senator gets a 300
>> million dollar bribe, a Nebraska Senator gets a threat.  BTW, Offutt
>> isn't one of those bases you can just "pack-up and move".
>>
>> from the Weekly Standard -
>>
>> Source: Dems Threaten Nelson In Pursuit of 60
>>
>> While the Democrats appease Senator Lieberman, they still have to
>> worry about other recalcitrant Democrats including Nebraska Senator
>> Ben Nelson. Though Lieberman has been out front in the fight against
>> the public option and the Medicare buy-in, Nelson was critical of
>> both. Now that those provisions appear to have been stripped from the
>> bill, Lieberman may get on board, but Nelson's demand that taxpayer
>> money not be used to fund abortion has still not been met. According
>> to a Senate aide, the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska's
>> Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn't fall into
>> line.
>>
>> Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal
>> employees in Southeastern Nebraska. As our source put it, this is a
>> "naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson's
>> vote." They are "threatening to close a base vital to national
>> security for what?" asked the Senate staffer.
>>
>> Indeed, Offutt is the headquarters for US Strategic Command, the
>> successor to Strategic Air Command, and not by accident. STRATCOM was
>> located in the middle of the country for strategic reasons. Its
>> closure would be a massive blow to the economy of the state of
>> Nebraska, but it would also be another example of this administration
>> playing politics with our national security.
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>


-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From hparsons at parsonsys.com  Wed Dec 16 11:22:11 2009
From: hparsons at parsonsys.com (Herb Parsons)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:22:11 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Carrot and Stick
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912160802y29e0a951yd1cbf4a2f80c79ae@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912160606k15e1bb75jbc3c235a56a69f1e@mail.gmail.com>
	<5f889a890912160657x369a5a16ufc89c3eb81c14dae@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912160802y29e0a951yd1cbf4a2f80c79ae@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5f889a890912160822i430eca1aqd8f0e0ac2a46f7d8@mail.gmail.com>

And what really pisses ME off about it is that I skipped the '92
Presidential election over GHB's "read my lips" promise (no way was I going
to vote for Clinton or Perot). When a candidate breaks a fundamental promise
like that, he is no longer a viable candidate, and I LIKED GHB! A President
that cannot be trusted cannot be President, not of the USA.

I hope that the media (whatever form it is in by 2012, and it IS changing
form) draws the appropriate comparison to GHB's "Read my lips", and BHO's
"We'll broadcast it live on C-Span" promises. They are VERY comparable, but
(in my opinion) BHO's transgression is worse, because it's just more
back-door political bribery and extortion.




On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 10:02 AM, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> What will we have to do to shame the MSM into putting that into a front
> page headline.
>
> Wonder what they promised to give/take from Leiberman.
>
> Wake up people your president is an unprincipled sonofabitch.
>
> Rik
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 8:57 AM, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com>wrote:
>
>> To me, the added "insult to injury" in all of this is the fact that Pres
>> Obama campaigned on all of these negotiations being broadcast live on
>> C-Span. No behind the doors deals this time around, no siree (unless, of
>> course, you count meeting behind closed doors with 60 senators). I only wish
>> he'd said "read my lips".
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 8:06 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Difficult call here, which is worse?  One Louisiana Senator gets a 300
>>> million dollar bribe, a Nebraska Senator gets a threat.  BTW, Offutt
>>> isn't one of those bases you can just "pack-up and move".
>>>
>>> from the Weekly Standard -
>>>
>>> Source: Dems Threaten Nelson In Pursuit of 60
>>>
>>> While the Democrats appease Senator Lieberman, they still have to
>>> worry about other recalcitrant Democrats including Nebraska Senator
>>> Ben Nelson. Though Lieberman has been out front in the fight against
>>> the public option and the Medicare buy-in, Nelson was critical of
>>> both. Now that those provisions appear to have been stripped from the
>>> bill, Lieberman may get on board, but Nelson's demand that taxpayer
>>> money not be used to fund abortion has still not been met. According
>>> to a Senate aide, the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska's
>>> Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn't fall into
>>> line.
>>>
>>> Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal
>>> employees in Southeastern Nebraska. As our source put it, this is a
>>> "naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson's
>>> vote." They are "threatening to close a base vital to national
>>> security for what?" asked the Senate staffer.
>>>
>>> Indeed, Offutt is the headquarters for US Strategic Command, the
>>> successor to Strategic Air Command, and not by accident. STRATCOM was
>>> located in the middle of the country for strategic reasons. Its
>>> closure would be a massive blow to the economy of the state of
>>> Nebraska, but it would also be another example of this administration
>>> playing politics with our national security.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>>
>>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>
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From bill at effros.com  Wed Dec 16 11:27:09 2009
From: bill at effros.com (Bill Effros)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:27:09 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Tiger In The Tank
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912150915s54efac2elc06814c90aeb47cc@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912150915s54efac2elc06814c90aeb47cc@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4B290A5D.2080203@effros.com>

Brad,

In response to Rik's "What do you think it will take to get the 
MSM...headline..."

Speaking as someone who's "been there, done that..." what do you think 
the odds are that there are no women in Mr. Obama's background? -- 
especially given that Mrs. Obama is ... let's face it, not one of the 
more physically attractive people in the world.  Better than Eleanor 
Roosevelt.  Worse than Sarah Palin.

Of course, the sub-text of the Tiger Woods headlines is that all the 
women are white, and black guys with white wives had best do everything 
they can to keep that point out of the MSM--like Clarence Thomas.

So, will the MSM carry the Obama "other women" stories if the "other 
women" are black?  Thank God for supermarket tabloids -- we can count on 
them, black and white.

B.



Brad Haslett wrote:
> Boys and Girls, this is where the old expression, "If it flies,
> floats, or f*#ks, lease it!" came from.
>
> WARNING - This is a waste of NINE minutes of your life you can never get back -
>
> http://www.breitbart.tv/tearful-mistress-says-tiger-woods-is-not-an-honest-man/
>
> Tiger, Tiger, Tiger!  Boy (I'm addressing the Asian side of Mr. Woods
> so don't call me a racist), "ya done screwed up".  Now here's a piece
> of advice from someone who's "been there, done that".  No matter how
> well you swing a club, you ain't worth a damn at stopping one that is
> being swung at you!  You have a violent wife.  Get the hell out!  It
> will only get worse.  Once they take the first swing, they WILL take a
> second. Maybe you'll get lucky and get a Judge that raised 19 children
> and had an alcoholic husband, and she will actually listen to your
> side of the story because she's heard everything before (3 times) and
> wants to hear just one more version of "The Truth", but don't bet your
> life or your career on it.  Learn from my experience.  Run, don't walk
> like you're on the golf course.
>
> Tiger my friend, the next time you need a ride from the clubhouse to
> the airport, consider hiring a cab.  Hitchhiking is beneath your
> dignity, and as you've discovered, has hidden costs.
>
> No matter what anyone says, remember the immortal words of my good
> friend Stan 'The Hardwood Floor Man', "Bradley, don't let them steal
> your craft".
>
> Mr. Woods, you're supposed to be the 'swingor', not the 'swingee'.
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>   
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From hparsons at parsonsys.com  Wed Dec 16 11:33:29 2009
From: hparsons at parsonsys.com (Herb Parsons)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:33:29 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Tiger In The Tank
In-Reply-To: <4B290A5D.2080203@effros.com>
References: <400985d70912150915s54efac2elc06814c90aeb47cc@mail.gmail.com>
	<4B290A5D.2080203@effros.com>
Message-ID: <5f889a890912160833i5aebfdd3h5ae865dfb4cfe3ff@mail.gmail.com>

And, much like the TW escapades, eventually someone will break. A high-level
government official has other things besides material incentives to keep
women quiet, but it WILL eventually break.


On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 10:27 AM, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:

>  Brad,
>
> In response to Rik's "What do you think it will take to get the
> MSM...headline..."
>
> Speaking as someone who's "been there, done that..." what do you think the
> odds are that there are no women in Mr. Obama's background? -- especially
> given that Mrs. Obama is ... let's face it, not one of the more physically
> attractive people in the world.  Better than Eleanor Roosevelt.  Worse than
> Sarah Palin.
>
> Of course, the sub-text of the Tiger Woods headlines is that all the women
> are white, and black guys with white wives had best do everything they can
> to keep that point out of the MSM--like Clarence Thomas.
>
> So, will the MSM carry the Obama "other women" stories if the "other women"
> are black?  Thank God for supermarket tabloids -- we can count on them,
> black and white.
>
> B.
>
>
>
> Brad Haslett wrote:
>
> Boys and Girls, this is where the old expression, "If it flies,
> floats, or f*#ks, lease it!" came from.
>
> WARNING - This is a waste of NINE minutes of your life you can never get back -
> http://www.breitbart.tv/tearful-mistress-says-tiger-woods-is-not-an-honest-man/
>
> Tiger, Tiger, Tiger!  Boy (I'm addressing the Asian side of Mr. Woods
> so don't call me a racist), "ya done screwed up".  Now here's a piece
> of advice from someone who's "been there, done that".  No matter how
> well you swing a club, you ain't worth a damn at stopping one that is
> being swung at you!  You have a violent wife.  Get the hell out!  It
> will only get worse.  Once they take the first swing, they WILL take a
> second. Maybe you'll get lucky and get a Judge that raised 19 children
> and had an alcoholic husband, and she will actually listen to your
> side of the story because she's heard everything before (3 times) and
> wants to hear just one more version of "The Truth", but don't bet your
> life or your career on it.  Learn from my experience.  Run, don't walk
> like you're on the golf course.
>
> Tiger my friend, the next time you need a ride from the clubhouse to
> the airport, consider hiring a cab.  Hitchhiking is beneath your
> dignity, and as you've discovered, has hidden costs.
>
> No matter what anyone says, remember the immortal words of my good
> friend Stan 'The Hardwood Floor Man', "Bradley, don't let them steal
> your craft".
>
> Mr. Woods, you're supposed to be the 'swingor', not the 'swingee'.
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing listSwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.comhttp://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec 16 11:53:31 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:53:31 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Carrot and Stick
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912160802y29e0a951yd1cbf4a2f80c79ae@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912160606k15e1bb75jbc3c235a56a69f1e@mail.gmail.com>
	<5f889a890912160657x369a5a16ufc89c3eb81c14dae@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912160802y29e0a951yd1cbf4a2f80c79ae@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912160853y56a58e5fv8fefeb0fbdbb5446@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

If you read about it at all, you will probably see it on page 13 of
the NYT's after the deal has been struck. Shortly after I posted that,
a co-worker called and asked if I could meet him for lunch (I can't).
He's on his way to Hawaii (via Memphis and a jumpseat) to join his
wife to witness her brother take over an Air Force base in a  'Change
of Command' ceremony.  His real reason for calling was to ask about
our "feet wet" training over the Pacific Ocean scheduled for January.
Since one of our instructors is "Two Star J#@K", a high-ranking 'Dude'
at Offutt, I suggested that Eddie pick 2**'s brain during the short
visit he has planned at the "schoolhouse" during his visit. (Note to
non-military peoples - half of our defense program is run by civilians
with real jobs).

Twenty years ago, (like during Gulf War 1), I'd fly with a "kid" who
was shipping off to war and get a snippet of information (everyone
assumed I had a security clearance).  During Gulf War 2, the "kids"
were tighter with the info and less likely to talk.  They didn't have
bigger secrets, they just learned that "old bastards" like me have a
keyboard and a soap box (and they ask me up-front if I have a security
clearance).

I'm guessing the threat to Nelson and Offutt is real.  What we know
about Offutt it is this - it is pretty damn important.  That is where
Bush 43 first flew to from Florida after the initial attack on 9/11.
Offutt was chosen as headquarters for SAC because Offutt = secure.

Just for "shits-n-grins", lets dream about shutting down the whole
military and becoming the next Costa Rica. Even that won't pay off our
debt.

Debt!  Anyone who's ever owned a business understands the BIG issue
we're facing.

The internet has changed everything, or perhaps nothing if you are an
idealistic dreamer.

Brad







On 12/16/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> What will we have to do to shame the MSM into putting that into a front page
> headline.
>
> Wonder what they promised to give/take from Leiberman.
>
> Wake up people your president is an unprincipled sonofabitch.
>
> Rik
>
> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 8:57 AM, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com>wrote:
>
>> To me, the added "insult to injury" in all of this is the fact that Pres
>> Obama campaigned on all of these negotiations being broadcast live on
>> C-Span. No behind the doors deals this time around, no siree (unless, of
>> course, you count meeting behind closed doors with 60 senators). I only
>> wish
>> he'd said "read my lips".
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 8:06 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Difficult call here, which is worse?  One Louisiana Senator gets a 300
>>> million dollar bribe, a Nebraska Senator gets a threat.  BTW, Offutt
>>> isn't one of those bases you can just "pack-up and move".
>>>
>>> from the Weekly Standard -
>>>
>>> Source: Dems Threaten Nelson In Pursuit of 60
>>>
>>> While the Democrats appease Senator Lieberman, they still have to
>>> worry about other recalcitrant Democrats including Nebraska Senator
>>> Ben Nelson. Though Lieberman has been out front in the fight against
>>> the public option and the Medicare buy-in, Nelson was critical of
>>> both. Now that those provisions appear to have been stripped from the
>>> bill, Lieberman may get on board, but Nelson's demand that taxpayer
>>> money not be used to fund abortion has still not been met. According
>>> to a Senate aide, the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska's
>>> Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn't fall into
>>> line.
>>>
>>> Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal
>>> employees in Southeastern Nebraska. As our source put it, this is a
>>> "naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson's
>>> vote." They are "threatening to close a base vital to national
>>> security for what?" asked the Senate staffer.
>>>
>>> Indeed, Offutt is the headquarters for US Strategic Command, the
>>> successor to Strategic Air Command, and not by accident. STRATCOM was
>>> located in the middle of the country for strategic reasons. Its
>>> closure would be a massive blow to the economy of the state of
>>> Nebraska, but it would also be another example of this administration
>>> playing politics with our national security.
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>>
>>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Wed Dec 16 11:53:52 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:53:52 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Cloward-Piven
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912160752t3f3ce644o8b377939e05ac5da@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912160752t3f3ce644o8b377939e05ac5da@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912160853p3416d6ffo3d1e9a1984d01d85@mail.gmail.com>

Let's see, Owannabe's hero is Lincoln (he says)
Lincoln led us through the civil war, freed the slaves and whether good or
bad, gained great notoriety.
Our president has a great hunger for notoriety.
The way he's going, a civil war is a distinct possibility.

I don't know, you tell me. He seems to have plenty of other weird ideas in
his head.

As failed presidents go, one thinks back to the Carter years. Jimmy Carter
was a fool, but I honestly believe he had a good heart and meant well. I
don't see that in this president.

Rik

This is too long to copy, read the rest here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/12/15/president-spock

President Spock <http://spectator.org/archives/2009/12/15/president-spock>

By Jeffrey Lord <http://spectator.org/people/jeffrey-lord> on 12.15.09 @
6:08AM

*It is with the heart that one sees rightly; what is essential is invisible
to the eye.*
*-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Little Prince*

Why would a president do the following?

* Scare Americans to death by pushing a health care reform plan that looks
to be constructed by Rube Goldberg with all the bureaucratic sympathies of a
Kafkaesque novel.

* Back a Cap and Trade energy proposal that is so drastic in its results it
would deal yet another wound to a staggering American economy.

* Take the notorious Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the master-mind of the murderous
9/11 and the first captured 21st-century war criminal to rank with Hitler on
a scale of evil -- and skip the usual and traditional military tribunal in
favor of a civilian trial in the middle of New York City.

* Pledge to close Guantanamo Bay, home to the most virulent strain of
jihadists on the planet -- and transfer them all to a mainland federal
prison. Then admitting an inability to do so by the stated deadline and
firing the White House Counsel who said it was a good idea.

* Gift the visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with a pack of 25
DVD's of American movies -- that cannot play on British DVD players. After
which the eighty-something Queen of England is given an iPod containing,
among other things, videos of Obama speeches.

* Go abroad repeatedly and deliver speeches apologizing for American conduct
in the world.

What would ever in a thousand years make an American president do these
kinds of things?

Ideology, you say? Well, sure. Doubtless some of these things -- health
care, Cap and Trade, what to do with captured enemies like KSM and America's
role in the world, draw forth the left-wing tendencies of today's American
liberals. But the gifts to the British Prime Minister and the Queen? The
Goldbergian nature of the health care proposals? The haplessness of the
Guantanamo Bay fiasco?

There's something else at work here in the Obama mind well beside a leftist
ideology. A something else that has been displayed before in the American
presidency. For that matter, chances are fair-to-good you have seen this
somewhere along the traveled road of your own personal life.

Barack Obama, you see, is really Mr. Spock -- the legendary first officer of
*Star* *Trek*'s *USS Enterprise*.

Spock? Why Spock?

If one is a *Star Trek* fan, one knows that the Vulcan Spock was quite
famously a creature of logic -- and that was about it. Very bright, Mr.
Spock. Respected to the max for his intelligence -- but as was repeatedly
demonstrated, it was precisely his dependence on logic, on what was presumed
initially as a superior intellectual capacity, that repeatedly caused
problems for Spock.


On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 9:52 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> For anyone needing a refresher on Cloward-Piven, you can read the
> original article published by Professors Cloward and Piven here -
>
>
> http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/A%20Strategy%20to%20End%20Poverty2.html
>
> It would do us well at this point in time to remember "Stein's Law",
> (Ben Stein's father, economist Herbert Stein), "That which can not go
> on forever won?t".
>
> Our current discussion and observations on economics have moved beyond
> the traditional "guns v butter", and is now more along the lines of
> "what am I missing?"  Either we are being led by a team of brilliant
> thinkers who have discovered a new paradigm of economics, or, they are
> clueless. I don't think they have discovered a new paradigm anymore
> valid than the new "paradigm of business model" that fueled the late
> 90's internet bubble that popped. I also don't think they are
> clueless.  Something else must be at work.
>
> The economies of Germany between the wars and Argentina at the turn of
> the century never shut down, but the middle class lost nearly all
> their wealth.  In Germany's case, it made for a convenient excuse to
> identify an ethnic group to be destroyed, and in the case of
> Argentina, the peasants were satisfied for a period.  Mao's
> confiscation of farmland and the destruction of the merchant class
> followed a similar path.  So I keep asking myself this question, "is
> my study of economics and understanding of history so flawed that I'm
> missing something?"
>
> Adam Smith's "invisible hand" was based on people acting on
> self-interests, and I'm more selfish than most.  That said, I fail to
> see how the current federal government spending pattern is in the long
> term best interest of anyone, especially MY family.
>
> Someone, anyone, please explain what I'm unable to see and understand.
>  In the absence of a reasonable explanation, I have to think we are
> seeing the first-stage implementation of Cloward-Piven.
>
> (Below - someone else who is asking questions)
>
> Brad
>
> -----------------
>
>
>
> Debt crisis portends liberalism's end
> Examiner Editorial
> December 16, 2009
>
> With its most vigorous advocate in memory presiding in the White House
> and commanding Democratic majorities in Congress, it's difficult to
> believe that the end of liberalism may be within sight. We base this
> suggestion not on a hunch or on wishful thinking, but on mathematics.
> The Petersen-Pew Commission on Budget Reform has produced a new report
> warning that "[o]ver the past year alone, the public debt of the
> United States rose sharply from 41 to 53 percent of gross domestic
> product (GDP). Under reasonable assumptions, the debt is projected to
> grow steadily, reaching 85 percent of GDP by 2018, 100 percent by
> 2022, and 200 percent in 2038."
>
> Long before the debt reaches such stratospheric levels, the commission
> warns, "Fears of inflation and a prospective decline in the value of
> the dollar would cause investors to demand higher interest rates and
> shift out of U.S. Treasury securities. The excessive debt would also
> affect citizens in their everyday lives by harming the American
> standard of living through slower economic growth and dampening wages,
> and shrinking the government's ability to reduce taxes, invest, or
> provide a safety net."
>
> In other words, within the lifetimes of the vast majority of living
> Americans, government as we have known it since the New Deal will
> become paralyzed, unable to deliver even basic services, let alone the
> myriad of entitlements that politicians had promised would last
> forever. Liberalism will owe its undoing to its blind faith that
> government could forever be the inexhaustible provider of ever more
> spending, more benefits and more prosperity, with nary a day of
> reckoning.
>
> This report does not come from some gold bug or fevered disciple of
> trickle-down economics. On the contrary, it is the product of a
> bipartisan commission led by three former congressmen, two Democrats
> and one Republican. The commission also includes two former
> comptrollers of the United States, seven former Congressional Budget
> Office directors, seven former Office of Management and Budget
> directors, three former chairmen of the House Budget Committee and one
> former chairman of the Federal Reserve.
>
> Honest observers might quibble about the commission's recommended
> course of action, which includes general tax increases. But there
> should be fundamental agreement on freezing federal spending now.
> Officials must choose as soon as possible which government programs
> should continue and which should end. This is no longer a
> conservative-versus-liberal or Democrat-versus-Republican issue. It is
> a matter of national economic necessity and national survival.
>
>
>
> Find this article at:
>
> http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Debt-crisis-portends-liberalism_s-end-8660155-79353372.html
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From mweisner at ebsmed.com  Wed Dec 16 12:04:22 2009
From: mweisner at ebsmed.com (Michael D. Weisner)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:04:22 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Cloward-Piven
References: <400985d70912160752t3f3ce644o8b377939e05ac5da@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912160853p3416d6ffo3d1e9a1984d01d85@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <C40DC657D95047509DDA8BF4A983766C@ebsoffice>

Rik,

If he's into freeing the slaves, too, I'm all for it!  I don't know if I will be able to work for the bossman forever.

Mike
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rik Sandberg  Wednesday, December 16, 2009 11:53 AM
  Let's see, Owannabe's hero is Lincoln (he says)
  Lincoln led us through the civil war, freed the slaves and whether good or bad, gained great notoriety.
  Our president has a great hunger for notoriety.
  The way he's going, a civil war is a distinct possibility.

  I don't know, you tell me. He seems to have plenty of other weird ideas in his head.

  As failed presidents go, one thinks back to the Carter years. Jimmy Carter was a fool, but I honestly believe he had a good heart and meant well. I don't see that in this president.

  Rik

  This is too long to copy, read the rest here:
  http://spectator.org/archives/2009/12/15/president-spock


  President Spock
  By Jeffrey Lord on 12.15.09 @ 6:08AM

  It is with the heart that one sees rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
  -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
  The Little Prince 

  Why would a president do the following? 

  * Scare Americans to death by pushing a health care reform plan that looks to be constructed by Rube Goldberg with all the bureaucratic sympathies of a Kafkaesque novel. 

  * Back a Cap and Trade energy proposal that is so drastic in its results it would deal yet another wound to a staggering American economy. 

  * Take the notorious Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the master-mind of the murderous 9/11 and the first captured 21st-century war criminal to rank with Hitler on a scale of evil -- and skip the usual and traditional military tribunal in favor of a civilian trial in the middle of New York City. 

  * Pledge to close Guantanamo Bay, home to the most virulent strain of jihadists on the planet -- and transfer them all to a mainland federal prison. Then admitting an inability to do so by the stated deadline and firing the White House Counsel who said it was a good idea. 

  * Gift the visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with a pack of 25 DVD's of American movies -- that cannot play on British DVD players. After which the eighty-something Queen of England is given an iPod containing, among other things, videos of Obama speeches. 

  * Go abroad repeatedly and deliver speeches apologizing for American conduct in the world. 

  What would ever in a thousand years make an American president do these kinds of things?  

  Ideology, you say? Well, sure. Doubtless some of these things -- health care, Cap and Trade, what to do with captured enemies like KSM and America's role in the world, draw forth the left-wing tendencies of today's American liberals. But the gifts to the British Prime Minister and the Queen? The Goldbergian nature of the health care proposals? The haplessness of the Guantanamo Bay fiasco? 

  There's something else at work here in the Obama mind well beside a leftist ideology. A something else that has been displayed before in the American presidency. For that matter, chances are fair-to-good you have seen this somewhere along the traveled road of your own personal life. 

  Barack Obama, you see, is really Mr. Spock -- the legendary first officer of Star Trek's USS Enterprise. 

  Spock? Why Spock? 

  If one is a Star Trek fan, one knows that the Vulcan Spock was quite famously a creature of logic -- and that was about it. Very bright, Mr. Spock. Respected to the max for his intelligence -- but as was repeatedly demonstrated, it was precisely his dependence on logic, on what was presumed initially as a superior intellectual capacity, that repeatedly caused problems for Spock. 




  On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 9:52 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

    For anyone needing a refresher on Cloward-Piven, you can read the
    original article published by Professors Cloward and Piven here -

    http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/A%20Strategy%20to%20End%20Poverty2.html

    It would do us well at this point in time to remember "Stein's Law",
    (Ben Stein's father, economist Herbert Stein), "That which can not go
    on forever won?t".

    Our current discussion and observations on economics have moved beyond
    the traditional "guns v butter", and is now more along the lines of
    "what am I missing?"  Either we are being led by a team of brilliant
    thinkers who have discovered a new paradigm of economics, or, they are
    clueless. I don't think they have discovered a new paradigm anymore
    valid than the new "paradigm of business model" that fueled the late
    90's internet bubble that popped. I also don't think they are
    clueless.  Something else must be at work.

    The economies of Germany between the wars and Argentina at the turn of
    the century never shut down, but the middle class lost nearly all
    their wealth.  In Germany's case, it made for a convenient excuse to
    identify an ethnic group to be destroyed, and in the case of
    Argentina, the peasants were satisfied for a period.  Mao's
    confiscation of farmland and the destruction of the merchant class
    followed a similar path.  So I keep asking myself this question, "is
    my study of economics and understanding of history so flawed that I'm
    missing something?"

    Adam Smith's "invisible hand" was based on people acting on
    self-interests, and I'm more selfish than most.  That said, I fail to
    see how the current federal government spending pattern is in the long
    term best interest of anyone, especially MY family.

    Someone, anyone, please explain what I'm unable to see and understand.
     In the absence of a reasonable explanation, I have to think we are
    seeing the first-stage implementation of Cloward-Piven.

    (Below - someone else who is asking questions)

    Brad

    -----------------



    Debt crisis portends liberalism's end
    Examiner Editorial
    December 16, 2009

    With its most vigorous advocate in memory presiding in the White House
    and commanding Democratic majorities in Congress, it's difficult to
    believe that the end of liberalism may be within sight. We base this
    suggestion not on a hunch or on wishful thinking, but on mathematics.
    The Petersen-Pew Commission on Budget Reform has produced a new report
    warning that "[o]ver the past year alone, the public debt of the
    United States rose sharply from 41 to 53 percent of gross domestic
    product (GDP). Under reasonable assumptions, the debt is projected to
    grow steadily, reaching 85 percent of GDP by 2018, 100 percent by
    2022, and 200 percent in 2038."

    Long before the debt reaches such stratospheric levels, the commission
    warns, "Fears of inflation and a prospective decline in the value of
    the dollar would cause investors to demand higher interest rates and
    shift out of U.S. Treasury securities. The excessive debt would also
    affect citizens in their everyday lives by harming the American
    standard of living through slower economic growth and dampening wages,
    and shrinking the government's ability to reduce taxes, invest, or
    provide a safety net."

    In other words, within the lifetimes of the vast majority of living
    Americans, government as we have known it since the New Deal will
    become paralyzed, unable to deliver even basic services, let alone the
    myriad of entitlements that politicians had promised would last
    forever. Liberalism will owe its undoing to its blind faith that
    government could forever be the inexhaustible provider of ever more
    spending, more benefits and more prosperity, with nary a day of
    reckoning.

    This report does not come from some gold bug or fevered disciple of
    trickle-down economics. On the contrary, it is the product of a
    bipartisan commission led by three former congressmen, two Democrats
    and one Republican. The commission also includes two former
    comptrollers of the United States, seven former Congressional Budget
    Office directors, seven former Office of Management and Budget
    directors, three former chairmen of the House Budget Committee and one
    former chairman of the Federal Reserve.

    Honest observers might quibble about the commission's recommended
    course of action, which includes general tax increases. But there
    should be fundamental agreement on freezing federal spending now.
    Officials must choose as soon as possible which government programs
    should continue and which should end. This is no longer a
    conservative-versus-liberal or Democrat-versus-Republican issue. It is
    a matter of national economic necessity and national survival.



    Find this article at:
    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Debt-crisis-portends-liberalism_s-end-8660155-79353372.html

    _______________________________________________
    SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
    SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
    http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette




  -- 
  Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell



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From hparsons at parsonsys.com  Wed Dec 16 12:07:36 2009
From: hparsons at parsonsys.com (Herb Parsons)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:07:36 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Carrot and Stick
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912160853y56a58e5fv8fefeb0fbdbb5446@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912160606k15e1bb75jbc3c235a56a69f1e@mail.gmail.com>
	<5f889a890912160657x369a5a16ufc89c3eb81c14dae@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912160802y29e0a951yd1cbf4a2f80c79ae@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912160853y56a58e5fv8fefeb0fbdbb5446@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5f889a890912160907x7620f642h79130172dfb5abe8@mail.gmail.com>

Your last line was spot on!! The internet has changed everything!

I started to do a write up about that, the fall of the current "mainstream
media", and the emergence of the likes of Sarah Palin. I think those three
things will come together for a perfect storm that is going to change
politics in this country.

Unfortunately, I think the change is going to hurt (probably a LOT) before
it feels better, but I believe we'll get there.


On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 10:53 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Rik,
>
> If you read about it at all, you will probably see it on page 13 of
> the NYT's after the deal has been struck. Shortly after I posted that,
> a co-worker called and asked if I could meet him for lunch (I can't).
> He's on his way to Hawaii (via Memphis and a jumpseat) to join his
> wife to witness her brother take over an Air Force base in a  'Change
> of Command' ceremony.  His real reason for calling was to ask about
> our "feet wet" training over the Pacific Ocean scheduled for January.
> Since one of our instructors is "Two Star J#@K", a high-ranking 'Dude'
> at Offutt, I suggested that Eddie pick 2**'s brain during the short
> visit he has planned at the "schoolhouse" during his visit. (Note to
> non-military peoples - half of our defense program is run by civilians
> with real jobs).
>
> Twenty years ago, (like during Gulf War 1), I'd fly with a "kid" who
> was shipping off to war and get a snippet of information (everyone
> assumed I had a security clearance).  During Gulf War 2, the "kids"
> were tighter with the info and less likely to talk.  They didn't have
> bigger secrets, they just learned that "old bastards" like me have a
> keyboard and a soap box (and they ask me up-front if I have a security
> clearance).
>
> I'm guessing the threat to Nelson and Offutt is real.  What we know
> about Offutt it is this - it is pretty damn important.  That is where
> Bush 43 first flew to from Florida after the initial attack on 9/11.
> Offutt was chosen as headquarters for SAC because Offutt = secure.
>
> Just for "shits-n-grins", lets dream about shutting down the whole
> military and becoming the next Costa Rica. Even that won't pay off our
> debt.
>
> Debt!  Anyone who's ever owned a business understands the BIG issue
> we're facing.
>
> The internet has changed everything, or perhaps nothing if you are an
> idealistic dreamer.
>
> Brad
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 12/16/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > What will we have to do to shame the MSM into putting that into a front
> page
> > headline.
> >
> > Wonder what they promised to give/take from Leiberman.
> >
> > Wake up people your president is an unprincipled sonofabitch.
> >
> > Rik
> >
> > On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 8:57 AM, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com
> >wrote:
> >
> >> To me, the added "insult to injury" in all of this is the fact that Pres
> >> Obama campaigned on all of these negotiations being broadcast live on
> >> C-Span. No behind the doors deals this time around, no siree (unless, of
> >> course, you count meeting behind closed doors with 60 senators). I only
> >> wish
> >> he'd said "read my lips".
> >>
> >>
> >> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 8:06 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Difficult call here, which is worse?  One Louisiana Senator gets a 300
> >>> million dollar bribe, a Nebraska Senator gets a threat.  BTW, Offutt
> >>> isn't one of those bases you can just "pack-up and move".
> >>>
> >>> from the Weekly Standard -
> >>>
> >>> Source: Dems Threaten Nelson In Pursuit of 60
> >>>
> >>> While the Democrats appease Senator Lieberman, they still have to
> >>> worry about other recalcitrant Democrats including Nebraska Senator
> >>> Ben Nelson. Though Lieberman has been out front in the fight against
> >>> the public option and the Medicare buy-in, Nelson was critical of
> >>> both. Now that those provisions appear to have been stripped from the
> >>> bill, Lieberman may get on board, but Nelson's demand that taxpayer
> >>> money not be used to fund abortion has still not been met. According
> >>> to a Senate aide, the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska's
> >>> Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn't fall into
> >>> line.
> >>>
> >>> Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal
> >>> employees in Southeastern Nebraska. As our source put it, this is a
> >>> "naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson's
> >>> vote." They are "threatening to close a base vital to national
> >>> security for what?" asked the Senate staffer.
> >>>
> >>> Indeed, Offutt is the headquarters for US Strategic Command, the
> >>> successor to Strategic Air Command, and not by accident. STRATCOM was
> >>> located in the middle of the country for strategic reasons. Its
> >>> closure would be a massive blow to the economy of the state of
> >>> Nebraska, but it would also be another example of this administration
> >>> playing politics with our national security.
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>>
> >>>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> >> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> >>
> >>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
> means
> > turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> > other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> > they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
> >
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
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From ekroposki at charter.net  Wed Dec 16 12:49:35 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:49:35 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Automotive Educational Video
Message-ID: <A5A69CF825D343B5A26FE08D5189AD1A@YOURB88038198E>



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jHFT1X1JDI&feature=player_embedded

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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec 16 12:53:13 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:53:13 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Tiger In The Tank
In-Reply-To: <4B290A5D.2080203@effros.com>
References: <400985d70912150915s54efac2elc06814c90aeb47cc@mail.gmail.com>
	<4B290A5D.2080203@effros.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912160953t359f94fbm6151f627b634678@mail.gmail.com>

Bill,

Women are the least of Obama's problems, other than his wife. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, there's all the stories about his gay affairs, but they
have as much substance as John Edwards making a baby with a supposed
staffer as reported by the National Enquirer.  It is all a right-wing
conspiracy!

Screw all that!  Let's go back to the "horn dog" period of politics. I
flew Billy all over Arkansas and nothing happened on the airplane.
"Trust me", I would have sang like a bird had I witnessed anything. He
was met everywhere by pretty women, but so was everyone else.  You
forced me to dig out my pilot logbook and look up Joe Giroir. Giroir
was the top partner at the Rose Law Firm when Vince and Hillary were
there.  So sad about Vince, Hillary did OK.  I flew the top-dog
(Giroir) around a lot.  I could hold a candle with flying skills
against the competition, but mostly I dressed well.  Sandy (first wife
and still close friend, insisted that I dress well).  Giroir went to
prison. Clinton became POTUS. I married a communist.

Nothing to see here folks - keep moving!

Brad



On 12/16/09, Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> In response to Rik's "What do you think it will take to get the
> MSM...headline..."
>
> Speaking as someone who's "been there, done that..." what do you think
> the odds are that there are no women in Mr. Obama's background? --
> especially given that Mrs. Obama is ... let's face it, not one of the
> more physically attractive people in the world.  Better than Eleanor
> Roosevelt.  Worse than Sarah Palin.
>
> Of course, the sub-text of the Tiger Woods headlines is that all the
> women are white, and black guys with white wives had best do everything
> they can to keep that point out of the MSM--like Clarence Thomas.
>
> So, will the MSM carry the Obama "other women" stories if the "other
> women" are black?  Thank God for supermarket tabloids -- we can count on
> them, black and white.
>
> B.
>
>
>
> Brad Haslett wrote:
>> Boys and Girls, this is where the old expression, "If it flies,
>> floats, or f*#ks, lease it!" came from.
>>
>> WARNING - This is a waste of NINE minutes of your life you can never get
>> back -
>>
>> http://www.breitbart.tv/tearful-mistress-says-tiger-woods-is-not-an-honest-man/
>>
>> Tiger, Tiger, Tiger!  Boy (I'm addressing the Asian side of Mr. Woods
>> so don't call me a racist), "ya done screwed up".  Now here's a piece
>> of advice from someone who's "been there, done that".  No matter how
>> well you swing a club, you ain't worth a damn at stopping one that is
>> being swung at you!  You have a violent wife.  Get the hell out!  It
>> will only get worse.  Once they take the first swing, they WILL take a
>> second. Maybe you'll get lucky and get a Judge that raised 19 children
>> and had an alcoholic husband, and she will actually listen to your
>> side of the story because she's heard everything before (3 times) and
>> wants to hear just one more version of "The Truth", but don't bet your
>> life or your career on it.  Learn from my experience.  Run, don't walk
>> like you're on the golf course.
>>
>> Tiger my friend, the next time you need a ride from the clubhouse to
>> the airport, consider hiring a cab.  Hitchhiking is beneath your
>> dignity, and as you've discovered, has hidden costs.
>>
>> No matter what anyone says, remember the immortal words of my good
>> friend Stan 'The Hardwood Floor Man', "Bradley, don't let them steal
>> your craft".
>>
>> Mr. Woods, you're supposed to be the 'swingor', not the 'swingee'.
>>
>> Brad
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>>
>

From ekroposki at charter.net  Wed Dec 16 14:24:55 2009
From: ekroposki at charter.net (Ed Kroposki)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:24:55 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] offutt and carrot and stick
Message-ID: <A9A36BC40E56495899CA528F19AAB490@YOURB88038198E>

Brad,

My military time was in SAC as a nuclear missile launch officer.  I was at Offutt at least twice.  

I was there once when they scrambled the B-52 Bomber wing.  Keep in mind how big they were back then.  Coming off the runway not more that 100 foot between them.  If one screwed up? Or had a malfunction? 

I was also in the Command Post.  I was in the War Room.  It is way down deep.  I understood it could withstand direct missile hits.

I was on duty on one winter night at my forlorn missile site when an airborne command post went down over Canada(?).  In fact I was listening to the short wave distress calls, since I was in a SAC command post.  When the broadcast went silent and Thule keep asking for a reply, I knew what was coming. We had to change all the war codes in the middle of the night.

Think of crashing in the winter at night in the artic.

It was accomplished by 4 a.m.  Security police driving majors and colonels all over the country in the middle of the night.  And we were all armed to the hilt.

Courage is something necessary to be a leader.  And leaders lead, they do not need to coerce. These kinds of threats over a health care bill are wrong.

May God grant us mercy.

Bye the way, I will be on the road for the next two weeks.  I expect to be able to occassionally read but doubt I will be able to reply.

Ed K

  

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From hparsons at parsonsys.com  Wed Dec 16 14:31:45 2009
From: hparsons at parsonsys.com (Herb Parsons)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:31:45 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] offutt and carrot and stick
In-Reply-To: <A9A36BC40E56495899CA528F19AAB490@YOURB88038198E>
References: <A9A36BC40E56495899CA528F19AAB490@YOURB88038198E>
Message-ID: <5f889a890912161131s648efdd5xa1c52fbbba615c23@mail.gmail.com>

This -->Courage is something necessary to be a leader.  And leaders lead,
they do not need to coerce. These kinds of threats over a health care bill
are wrong


On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 1:24 PM, Ed Kroposki <ekroposki at charter.net> wrote:

>  Brad,
>
> My military time was in SAC as a nuclear missile launch officer.  I was at
> Offutt at least twice.
>
> I was there once when they scrambled the B-52 Bomber wing.  Keep in mind
> how big they were back then.  Coming off the runway not more that 100 foot
> between them.  If one screwed up? Or had a malfunction?
>
> I was also in the Command Post.  I was in the War Room.  It is way down
> deep.  I understood it could withstand direct missile hits.
>
> I was on duty on one winter night at my forlorn missile site when an
> airborne command post went down over Canada(?).  In fact I was listening to
> the short wave distress calls, since I was in a SAC command post.  When the
> broadcast went silent and Thule keep asking for a reply, I knew what was
> coming. We had to change all the war codes in the middle of the night.
>
> Think of crashing in the winter at night in the artic.
>
> It was accomplished by 4 a.m.  Security police driving majors and
> colonels all over the country in the middle of the night.  And we were all
> armed to the hilt.
>
> Courage is something necessary to be a leader.  And leaders lead, they do
> not need to coerce. These kinds of threats over a health care bill are
> wrong.
>
> May God grant us mercy.
>
> Bye the way, I will be on the road for the next two weeks.  I expect to be
> able to occassionally read but doubt I will be able to reply.
>
> Ed K
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec 16 16:14:08 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:14:08 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Start Spreadin' The News
Message-ID: <400985d70912161314p633f222es7a7f9e99d4c9403f@mail.gmail.com>

Man, I'd hate to cast aspersions on anyone's religion during the
"holiday" season, but some questions must be asked.  Who are these
people?

http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/12/mosque-at-the-world-trade-center-muslim-renewal-or-insult-near-ground-zero.php

BTW, my 7 year-old daughter has sung in the choir at several concerts
this season.  Some Christmas songs, some Hanukkah songs, some Klingon
(she goes off on her own sometimes) cultural tunes. Last weekend, it
was so cold whilst singing on the Collierville town square she wore
the hood on her heavy jacket.  I say she gets points for either
observing Kwanzaa or imitating a burka. Either way, she's being raised
a "child of peace", or if we keep her in Memphis, "a child carrying a
piece".

Brad

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Wed Dec 16 18:09:17 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:09:17 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Start Spreadin' The News
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912161314p633f222es7a7f9e99d4c9403f@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912161314p633f222es7a7f9e99d4c9403f@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912161509r358b60a0l51e2fe370cea6690@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Maybe best would be, a peaceful child who carries a piece.

One can be both.

As to mosques:

I can't see ANY good coming of a mosque next to the twin towers site. If
their motives are pure, why would they want to rub our noses in it??

Rik

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 3:14 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Man, I'd hate to cast aspersions on anyone's religion during the
> "holiday" season, but some questions must be asked.  Who are these
> people?
>
>
> http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/12/mosque-at-the-world-trade-center-muslim-renewal-or-insult-near-ground-zero.php
>
> BTW, my 7 year-old daughter has sung in the choir at several concerts
> this season.  Some Christmas songs, some Hanukkah songs, some Klingon
> (she goes off on her own sometimes) cultural tunes. Last weekend, it
> was so cold whilst singing on the Collierville town square she wore
> the hood on her heavy jacket.  I say she gets points for either
> observing Kwanzaa or imitating a burka. Either way, she's being raised
> a "child of peace", or if we keep her in Memphis, "a child carrying a
> piece".
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Wed Dec 16 19:16:00 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:16:00 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Accounting Tools
Message-ID: <400985d70912161616j3783e96dx4d3009678a455b69@mail.gmail.com>

No doubt, accounting has changed a great deal since 1982 when I
graduated with an accounting degree.  Back then there were the "Big 8"
accounting firms, now just four. We had to learn, oh, 30 or so FASB
statements, now well in excess of a hundred.  We didn't have SOX to
contend with (thank you Enron and WorldCom).  But, we did have
"accounting tools".  Some were legal and others were just plain
fraudulent.

Here's the story -

http://tinyurl.com/yf2j9oc

I'm thinking about doing some serious Christmas shopping and writing
some bad checks.  If the bank or the stores get pissed, I'm gonna whip
some "accounting tools" on them.  Hey, it works for da gubmint!

Brad

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Wed Dec 16 21:36:06 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:36:06 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Bottom line; why most don't like health care
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912161836x19a191f4ndba25d198e06d779@mail.gmail.com>

Good evening All,

Here's as good an explanation as I have seen concerning why most people
don't like the idea of socialized health care.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

As I like to say, you mind your business, I'll mind mine.

Rik

http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=1224

-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 17 05:57:44 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:57:44 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Oh, The Gore!
Message-ID: <400985d70912170257t7f4e7ba8tde115f03080f8ad7@mail.gmail.com>

It gets worse!

http://tinyurl.com/yf9vc2c

Ok, if you're Al Gore, you've got billions of dollars riding on this.
If you're the POTUS, what gain is there to milk this fraud any
further?

Brad

From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 17 06:33:02 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:33:02 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Oh, The Gore!
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912170257t7f4e7ba8tde115f03080f8ad7@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912170257t7f4e7ba8tde115f03080f8ad7@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912170333u599b2f1fja30e7cca67550801@mail.gmail.com>

If you get bored with the science, there's always the politics -

http://tinyurl.com/yew9scz

Brad

On 12/17/09, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> It gets worse!
>
> http://tinyurl.com/yf9vc2c
>
> Ok, if you're Al Gore, you've got billions of dollars riding on this.
> If you're the POTUS, what gain is there to milk this fraud any
> further?
>
> Brad
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 17 07:51:30 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:51:30 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Ouch! The Terminator Version
Message-ID: <400985d70912170451i7e09f8afu7539b6a189eb501b@mail.gmail.com>

This is why I love Palin!

>From her Facebook page -

Why is Governor Schwarzenegger pushing for the same sorts of policies
in Copenhagen that have helped drive his state into record deficits
and unemployment? Perhaps he will recall that I live in our nation?s
only Arctic state and that I was among the first governors to create a
sub-cabinet to deal specifically with climate change. While I and all
Alaskans witness the impacts of changes in weather patterns firsthand,
I have repeatedly said that we can?t primarily blame man?s activities
for those changes. And while I did look for practical responses to
those changes, what I didn?t do was hamstring Alaska?s job creators
with burdensome regulations so that I could act ?greener than thou?
when talking to reporters.

- Sarah Palin


From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 17 08:23:45 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:23:45 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Hacker Spies
Message-ID: <400985d70912170523n39ddb2beu84c2df3dcb3c6757@mail.gmail.com>

This is not good (see WSJ article below).  The University of North
Dakota Aviation Dept. (one of the best in the nation) just announced
this week that they are starting a new Unmanned Flight degree program.
A lot of would be military pilots are opting for careers in drone
flying so they can be home with their families every day.  That's all
well and good, but perhaps we're stumbling on to a limitation.  I made
a few phone calls yesterday to get some intel on the Offutt threat.
No real solid info to share but some folks "who should know" said they
can't shut down Offutt (unique mission and assets)  but they could
divert some future resources, ie, it would be a stupid political
bluff.  Anyway, what did come out from one source was that Obama wants
to whittle the manned AF fighter fleet down to 188 total (no idea on
the Navy). No wonder O was so sensitive about not being photographed
in front of an F-22 a few weeks ago in Alaska (besides canceling
future F-22 orders). I have no idea what the optimum number of manned
fighters is, but this article should indicate that we can't eliminate
them all.

Brad

----------------

    * DECEMBER 17, 2009

Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones
$26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected



By SIOBHAN GORMAN, YOCHI J. DREAZEN and AUGUST COLE

WASHINGTON -- Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software
to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially
providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S.
military operations.

Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed
insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an
unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes'
systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as
SkyGrabber -- available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet -- to
regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar
with reports on the matter.

U.S. officials say there is no evidence that militants were able to
take control of the drones or otherwise interfere with their flights.
Still, the intercepts could give America's enemies battlefield
advantages by removing the element of surprise from certain missions
and making it easier for insurgents to determine which roads and
buildings are under U.S. surveillance.


The drone intercepts mark the emergence of a shadow cyber war within
the U.S.-led conflicts overseas. They also point to a potentially
serious vulnerability in Washington's growing network of unmanned
drones, which have become the American weapon of choice in both
Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Obama administration has come to rely heavily on the unmanned
drones because they allow the U.S. to safely monitor and stalk
insurgent targets in areas where sending American troops would be
either politically untenable or too risky.

The stolen video feeds also indicate that U.S. adversaries continue to
find simple ways of counteracting sophisticated American military
technologies.

U.S. military personnel in Iraq discovered the problem late last year
when they apprehended a Shiite militant whose laptop contained files
of intercepted drone video feeds. In July, the U.S. military found
pirated drone video feeds on other militant laptops, leading some
officials to conclude that militant groups trained and funded by Iran
were regularly intercepting feeds.

In the summer 2009 incident, the military found "days and days and
hours and hours of proof" that the feeds were being intercepted and
shared with multiple extremist groups, the person said. "It is part of
their kit now."

A senior defense official said that James Clapper, the Pentagon's
intelligence chief, assessed the Iraq intercepts at the direction of
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and concluded they represented a
shortcoming to the security of the drone network.

"There did appear to be a vulnerability," the defense official said.
"There's been no harm done to troops or missions compromised as a
result of it, but there's an issue that we can take care of and we're
doing so."

Senior military and intelligence officials said the U.S. was working
to encrypt all of its drone video feeds from Iraq, Afghanistan and
Pakistan, but said it wasn't yet clear if the problem had been
completely resolved.

Some of the most detailed evidence of intercepted feeds has been
discovered in Iraq, but adversaries have also intercepted drone video
feeds in Afghanistan, according to people briefed on the matter. These
intercept techniques could be employed in other locations where the
U.S. is using pilotless planes, such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia,
they said.

The Pentagon is deploying record numbers of drones to Afghanistan as
part of the Obama administration's troop surge there. Lt. Gen. David
Deptula, who oversees the Air Force's unmanned aviation program, said
some of the drones would employ a sophisticated new camera system
called "Gorgon Stare," which allows a single aerial vehicle to
transmit back at least 10 separate video feeds simultaneously.

Gen. Deptula, speaking to reporters Wednesday, said there were
inherent risks to using drones since they are remotely controlled and
need to send and receive video and other data over great distances.
"Those kinds of things are subject to listening and exploitation," he
said, adding the military was trying to solve the problems by better
encrypting the drones' feeds.

The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink
between the unmanned craft and ground control. The U.S. government has
known about the flaw since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s,
current and former officials said. But the Pentagon assumed local
adversaries wouldn't know how to exploit it, the officials said.

Last December, U.S. military personnel in Iraq discovered copies of
Predator drone feeds on a laptop belonging to a Shiite militant,
according to a person familiar with reports on the matter. "There was
evidence this was not a one-time deal," this person said. The U.S.
accuses Iran of providing weapons, money and training to Shiite
fighters in Iraq, a charge that Tehran has long denied.

The militants use programs such as SkyGrabber, from Russian company
SkySoftware. Andrew Solonikov, one of the software's developers, said
he was unaware that his software could be used to intercept drone
feeds. "It was developed to intercept music, photos, video, programs
and other content that other users download from the Internet -- no
military data or other commercial data, only free legal content," he
said by email from Russia.

Officials stepped up efforts to prevent insurgents from intercepting
video feeds after the July incident. The difficulty, officials said,
is that adding encryption to a network that is more than a decade old
involves more than placing a new piece of equipment on individual
drones. Instead, many components of the network linking the drones to
their operators in the U.S., Afghanistan or Pakistan have to be
upgraded to handle the changes. Additional concerns remain about the
vulnerability of the communications signals to electronic jamming,
though there's no evidence that has occurred, said people familiar
with reports on the matter.

Predator drones are built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.
of San Diego. Some of its communications technology is proprietary, so
widely used encryption systems aren't readily compatible, said people
familiar with the matter.

In an email, a spokeswoman said that for security reasons, the company
couldn't comment on "specific data link capabilities and limitations."

Fixing the security gap would have caused delays, according to current
and former military officials. It would have added to the Predator's
price. Some officials worried that adding encryption would make it
harder to quickly share time-sensitive data within the U.S. military,
and with allies.

"There's a balance between pragmatics and sophistication," said Mike
Wynne, Air Force Secretary from 2005 to 2008.

The Air Force has staked its future on unmanned aerial vehicles.
Drones account for 36% of the planes in the service's proposed 2010
budget.

Today, the Air Force is buying hundreds of Reaper drones, a newer
model, whose video feeds could be intercepted in much the same way as
with the Predators, according to people familiar with the matter. A
Reaper costs between $10 million and $12 million each and is faster
and better armed than the Predator. General Atomics expects the Air
Force to buy as many as 375 Reapers.

Write to Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman at wsj.com, Yochi J. Dreazen at
yochi.dreazen at wsj.com and August Cole at august.cole at dowjones.com

From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 17 09:12:29 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:12:29 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Cloward-Piven
In-Reply-To: <C40DC657D95047509DDA8BF4A983766C@ebsoffice>
References: <400985d70912160752t3f3ce644o8b377939e05ac5da@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912160853p3416d6ffo3d1e9a1984d01d85@mail.gmail.com>
	<C40DC657D95047509DDA8BF4A983766C@ebsoffice>
Message-ID: <400985d70912170612s46ef89e9h71310c4a055be534@mail.gmail.com>

Speaking of slavery -

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2009/12/02/john-brown-dead-slavery-marches-on/




On 12/16/09, Michael D. Weisner <mweisner at ebsmed.com> wrote:
> Rik,
>
> If he's into freeing the slaves, too, I'm all for it!  I don't know if I
> will be able to work for the bossman forever.
>
> Mike
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Rik Sandberg  Wednesday, December 16, 2009 11:53 AM
>   Let's see, Owannabe's hero is Lincoln (he says)
>   Lincoln led us through the civil war, freed the slaves and whether good or
> bad, gained great notoriety.
>   Our president has a great hunger for notoriety.
>   The way he's going, a civil war is a distinct possibility.
>
>   I don't know, you tell me. He seems to have plenty of other weird ideas in
> his head.
>
>   As failed presidents go, one thinks back to the Carter years. Jimmy Carter
> was a fool, but I honestly believe he had a good heart and meant well. I
> don't see that in this president.
>
>   Rik
>
>   This is too long to copy, read the rest here:
>   http://spectator.org/archives/2009/12/15/president-spock
>
>
>   President Spock
>   By Jeffrey Lord on 12.15.09 @ 6:08AM
>
>   It is with the heart that one sees rightly; what is essential is invisible
> to the eye.
>   -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
>   The Little Prince
>
>   Why would a president do the following?
>
>   * Scare Americans to death by pushing a health care reform plan that looks
> to be constructed by Rube Goldberg with all the bureaucratic sympathies of a
> Kafkaesque novel.
>
>   * Back a Cap and Trade energy proposal that is so drastic in its results
> it would deal yet another wound to a staggering American economy.
>
>   * Take the notorious Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the master-mind of the
> murderous 9/11 and the first captured 21st-century war criminal to rank with
> Hitler on a scale of evil -- and skip the usual and traditional military
> tribunal in favor of a civilian trial in the middle of New York City.
>
>   * Pledge to close Guantanamo Bay, home to the most virulent strain of
> jihadists on the planet -- and transfer them all to a mainland federal
> prison. Then admitting an inability to do so by the stated deadline and
> firing the White House Counsel who said it was a good idea.
>
>   * Gift the visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with a pack of 25
> DVD's of American movies -- that cannot play on British DVD players. After
> which the eighty-something Queen of England is given an iPod containing,
> among other things, videos of Obama speeches.
>
>   * Go abroad repeatedly and deliver speeches apologizing for American
> conduct in the world.
>
>   What would ever in a thousand years make an American president do these
> kinds of things?
>
>   Ideology, you say? Well, sure. Doubtless some of these things -- health
> care, Cap and Trade, what to do with captured enemies like KSM and America's
> role in the world, draw forth the left-wing tendencies of today's American
> liberals. But the gifts to the British Prime Minister and the Queen? The
> Goldbergian nature of the health care proposals? The haplessness of the
> Guantanamo Bay fiasco?
>
>   There's something else at work here in the Obama mind well beside a
> leftist ideology. A something else that has been displayed before in the
> American presidency. For that matter, chances are fair-to-good you have seen
> this somewhere along the traveled road of your own personal life.
>
>   Barack Obama, you see, is really Mr. Spock -- the legendary first officer
> of Star Trek's USS Enterprise.
>
>   Spock? Why Spock?
>
>   If one is a Star Trek fan, one knows that the Vulcan Spock was quite
> famously a creature of logic -- and that was about it. Very bright, Mr.
> Spock. Respected to the max for his intelligence -- but as was repeatedly
> demonstrated, it was precisely his dependence on logic, on what was presumed
> initially as a superior intellectual capacity, that repeatedly caused
> problems for Spock.
>
>
>
>
>   On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 9:52 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>     For anyone needing a refresher on Cloward-Piven, you can read the
>     original article published by Professors Cloward and Piven here -
>
>
> http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/A%20Strategy%20to%20End%20Poverty2.html
>
>     It would do us well at this point in time to remember "Stein's Law",
>     (Ben Stein's father, economist Herbert Stein), "That which can not go
>     on forever won?t".
>
>     Our current discussion and observations on economics have moved beyond
>     the traditional "guns v butter", and is now more along the lines of
>     "what am I missing?"  Either we are being led by a team of brilliant
>     thinkers who have discovered a new paradigm of economics, or, they are
>     clueless. I don't think they have discovered a new paradigm anymore
>     valid than the new "paradigm of business model" that fueled the late
>     90's internet bubble that popped. I also don't think they are
>     clueless.  Something else must be at work.
>
>     The economies of Germany between the wars and Argentina at the turn of
>     the century never shut down, but the middle class lost nearly all
>     their wealth.  In Germany's case, it made for a convenient excuse to
>     identify an ethnic group to be destroyed, and in the case of
>     Argentina, the peasants were satisfied for a period.  Mao's
>     confiscation of farmland and the destruction of the merchant class
>     followed a similar path.  So I keep asking myself this question, "is
>     my study of economics and understanding of history so flawed that I'm
>     missing something?"
>
>     Adam Smith's "invisible hand" was based on people acting on
>     self-interests, and I'm more selfish than most.  That said, I fail to
>     see how the current federal government spending pattern is in the long
>     term best interest of anyone, especially MY family.
>
>     Someone, anyone, please explain what I'm unable to see and understand.
>      In the absence of a reasonable explanation, I have to think we are
>     seeing the first-stage implementation of Cloward-Piven.
>
>     (Below - someone else who is asking questions)
>
>     Brad
>
>     -----------------
>
>
>
>     Debt crisis portends liberalism's end
>     Examiner Editorial
>     December 16, 2009
>
>     With its most vigorous advocate in memory presiding in the White House
>     and commanding Democratic majorities in Congress, it's difficult to
>     believe that the end of liberalism may be within sight. We base this
>     suggestion not on a hunch or on wishful thinking, but on mathematics.
>     The Petersen-Pew Commission on Budget Reform has produced a new report
>     warning that "[o]ver the past year alone, the public debt of the
>     United States rose sharply from 41 to 53 percent of gross domestic
>     product (GDP). Under reasonable assumptions, the debt is projected to
>     grow steadily, reaching 85 percent of GDP by 2018, 100 percent by
>     2022, and 200 percent in 2038."
>
>     Long before the debt reaches such stratospheric levels, the commission
>     warns, "Fears of inflation and a prospective decline in the value of
>     the dollar would cause investors to demand higher interest rates and
>     shift out of U.S. Treasury securities. The excessive debt would also
>     affect citizens in their everyday lives by harming the American
>     standard of living through slower economic growth and dampening wages,
>     and shrinking the government's ability to reduce taxes, invest, or
>     provide a safety net."
>
>     In other words, within the lifetimes of the vast majority of living
>     Americans, government as we have known it since the New Deal will
>     become paralyzed, unable to deliver even basic services, let alone the
>     myriad of entitlements that politicians had promised would last
>     forever. Liberalism will owe its undoing to its blind faith that
>     government could forever be the inexhaustible provider of ever more
>     spending, more benefits and more prosperity, with nary a day of
>     reckoning.
>
>     This report does not come from some gold bug or fevered disciple of
>     trickle-down economics. On the contrary, it is the product of a
>     bipartisan commission led by three former congressmen, two Democrats
>     and one Republican. The commission also includes two former
>     comptrollers of the United States, seven former Congressional Budget
>     Office directors, seven former Office of Management and Budget
>     directors, three former chairmen of the House Budget Committee and one
>     former chairman of the Federal Reserve.
>
>     Honest observers might quibble about the commission's recommended
>     course of action, which includes general tax increases. But there
>     should be fundamental agreement on freezing federal spending now.
>     Officials must choose as soon as possible which government programs
>     should continue and which should end. This is no longer a
>     conservative-versus-liberal or Democrat-versus-Republican issue. It is
>     a matter of national economic necessity and national survival.
>
>
>
>     Find this article at:
>
> http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Debt-crisis-portends-liberalism_s-end-8660155-79353372.html
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>     SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>
>
>
>   --
>   Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>   _______________________________________________
>   SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>   SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
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From mweisner at ebsmed.com  Thu Dec 17 09:49:20 2009
From: mweisner at ebsmed.com (Michael D. Weisner)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:49:20 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Hacker Spies
References: <400985d70912170523n39ddb2beu84c2df3dcb3c6757@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <1D783159FA1F49E6ABC8DEE5F9CB6B39@ebsoffice>

Brad,

This is an interesting article that shows just how dumb some companies can 
be when supplying the military with "technology":

    "The stolen video feeds also indicate that U.S. adversaries continue to
    find simple ways of counteracting sophisticated American military
    technologies."

We are not talking about sophisticated technologies if encryption wasn't 
employed.  Proprietary systems hold out just so long before someone reverse 
engineers them.  Of course, now that the bad guys have learned how to 
intercept the video, why not feed them the wrong stuff?  Yeah, we probably 
already thought of it and do it.  The press info might just be a smoke 
screen.

The canceling of F-22 plane and pilot production, though, is not quite so 
simple.  You will no doubt remember the poor skills of the hastily trained 
Iraqi AF.  Crank up the PSP and Wii production.

Mike

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brad Haslett" Thursday, December 17, 2009 8:23 AM
> This is not good (see WSJ article below).  The University of North
> Dakota Aviation Dept. (one of the best in the nation) just announced
> this week that they are starting a new Unmanned Flight degree program.
> A lot of would be military pilots are opting for careers in drone
> flying so they can be home with their families every day.  That's all
> well and good, but perhaps we're stumbling on to a limitation.  I made
> a few phone calls yesterday to get some intel on the Offutt threat.
> No real solid info to share but some folks "who should know" said they
> can't shut down Offutt (unique mission and assets)  but they could
> divert some future resources, ie, it would be a stupid political
> bluff.  Anyway, what did come out from one source was that Obama wants
> to whittle the manned AF fighter fleet down to 188 total (no idea on
> the Navy). No wonder O was so sensitive about not being photographed
> in front of an F-22 a few weeks ago in Alaska (besides canceling
> future F-22 orders). I have no idea what the optimum number of manned
> fighters is, but this article should indicate that we can't eliminate
> them all.
>
> Brad
>
> ----------------
>
>    * DECEMBER 17, 2009
>
> Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones
> $26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing 
> Suspected
>
>
>
> By SIOBHAN GORMAN, YOCHI J. DREAZEN and AUGUST COLE
>
> WASHINGTON -- Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software
> to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially
> providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S.
> military operations.
>
> Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed
> insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an
> unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes'
> systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as
> SkyGrabber -- available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet -- to
> regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar
> with reports on the matter.
>
> U.S. officials say there is no evidence that militants were able to
> take control of the drones or otherwise interfere with their flights.
> Still, the intercepts could give America's enemies battlefield
> advantages by removing the element of surprise from certain missions
> and making it easier for insurgents to determine which roads and
> buildings are under U.S. surveillance.
>
>
> The drone intercepts mark the emergence of a shadow cyber war within
> the U.S.-led conflicts overseas. They also point to a potentially
> serious vulnerability in Washington's growing network of unmanned
> drones, which have become the American weapon of choice in both
> Afghanistan and Pakistan.
>
> The Obama administration has come to rely heavily on the unmanned
> drones because they allow the U.S. to safely monitor and stalk
> insurgent targets in areas where sending American troops would be
> either politically untenable or too risky.
>
> The stolen video feeds also indicate that U.S. adversaries continue to
> find simple ways of counteracting sophisticated American military
> technologies.
>
> U.S. military personnel in Iraq discovered the problem late last year
> when they apprehended a Shiite militant whose laptop contained files
> of intercepted drone video feeds. In July, the U.S. military found
> pirated drone video feeds on other militant laptops, leading some
> officials to conclude that militant groups trained and funded by Iran
> were regularly intercepting feeds.
>
> In the summer 2009 incident, the military found "days and days and
> hours and hours of proof" that the feeds were being intercepted and
> shared with multiple extremist groups, the person said. "It is part of
> their kit now."
>
> A senior defense official said that James Clapper, the Pentagon's
> intelligence chief, assessed the Iraq intercepts at the direction of
> Defense Secretary Robert Gates and concluded they represented a
> shortcoming to the security of the drone network.
>
> "There did appear to be a vulnerability," the defense official said.
> "There's been no harm done to troops or missions compromised as a
> result of it, but there's an issue that we can take care of and we're
> doing so."
>
> Senior military and intelligence officials said the U.S. was working
> to encrypt all of its drone video feeds from Iraq, Afghanistan and
> Pakistan, but said it wasn't yet clear if the problem had been
> completely resolved.
>
> Some of the most detailed evidence of intercepted feeds has been
> discovered in Iraq, but adversaries have also intercepted drone video
> feeds in Afghanistan, according to people briefed on the matter. These
> intercept techniques could be employed in other locations where the
> U.S. is using pilotless planes, such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia,
> they said.
>
> The Pentagon is deploying record numbers of drones to Afghanistan as
> part of the Obama administration's troop surge there. Lt. Gen. David
> Deptula, who oversees the Air Force's unmanned aviation program, said
> some of the drones would employ a sophisticated new camera system
> called "Gorgon Stare," which allows a single aerial vehicle to
> transmit back at least 10 separate video feeds simultaneously.
>
> Gen. Deptula, speaking to reporters Wednesday, said there were
> inherent risks to using drones since they are remotely controlled and
> need to send and receive video and other data over great distances.
> "Those kinds of things are subject to listening and exploitation," he
> said, adding the military was trying to solve the problems by better
> encrypting the drones' feeds.
>
> The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink
> between the unmanned craft and ground control. The U.S. government has
> known about the flaw since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s,
> current and former officials said. But the Pentagon assumed local
> adversaries wouldn't know how to exploit it, the officials said.
>
> Last December, U.S. military personnel in Iraq discovered copies of
> Predator drone feeds on a laptop belonging to a Shiite militant,
> according to a person familiar with reports on the matter. "There was
> evidence this was not a one-time deal," this person said. The U.S.
> accuses Iran of providing weapons, money and training to Shiite
> fighters in Iraq, a charge that Tehran has long denied.
>
> The militants use programs such as SkyGrabber, from Russian company
> SkySoftware. Andrew Solonikov, one of the software's developers, said
> he was unaware that his software could be used to intercept drone
> feeds. "It was developed to intercept music, photos, video, programs
> and other content that other users download from the Internet -- no
> military data or other commercial data, only free legal content," he
> said by email from Russia.
>
> Officials stepped up efforts to prevent insurgents from intercepting
> video feeds after the July incident. The difficulty, officials said,
> is that adding encryption to a network that is more than a decade old
> involves more than placing a new piece of equipment on individual
> drones. Instead, many components of the network linking the drones to
> their operators in the U.S., Afghanistan or Pakistan have to be
> upgraded to handle the changes. Additional concerns remain about the
> vulnerability of the communications signals to electronic jamming,
> though there's no evidence that has occurred, said people familiar
> with reports on the matter.
>
> Predator drones are built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.
> of San Diego. Some of its communications technology is proprietary, so
> widely used encryption systems aren't readily compatible, said people
> familiar with the matter.
>
> In an email, a spokeswoman said that for security reasons, the company
> couldn't comment on "specific data link capabilities and limitations."
>
> Fixing the security gap would have caused delays, according to current
> and former military officials. It would have added to the Predator's
> price. Some officials worried that adding encryption would make it
> harder to quickly share time-sensitive data within the U.S. military,
> and with allies.
>
> "There's a balance between pragmatics and sophistication," said Mike
> Wynne, Air Force Secretary from 2005 to 2008.
>
> The Air Force has staked its future on unmanned aerial vehicles.
> Drones account for 36% of the planes in the service's proposed 2010
> budget.
>
> Today, the Air Force is buying hundreds of Reaper drones, a newer
> model, whose video feeds could be intercepted in much the same way as
> with the Predators, according to people familiar with the matter. A
> Reaper costs between $10 million and $12 million each and is faster
> and better armed than the Predator. General Atomics expects the Air
> Force to buy as many as 375 Reapers.
>
> Write to Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman at wsj.com, Yochi J. Dreazen at
> yochi.dreazen at wsj.com and August Cole at august.cole at dowjones.com
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> 


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From mweisner at ebsmed.com  Thu Dec 17 10:06:58 2009
From: mweisner at ebsmed.com (Michael D. Weisner)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:06:58 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Slavery
References: <400985d70912160752t3f3ce644o8b377939e05ac5da@mail.gmail.com><6634e19e0912160853p3416d6ffo3d1e9a1984d01d85@mail.gmail.com><C40DC657D95047509DDA8BF4A983766C@ebsoffice>
	<400985d70912170612s46ef89e9h71310c4a055be534@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <13CDBC6A77C8413BA6BAE93EB04C2CFC@ebsoffice>

Brad,

Ah, the oldest profession is alive and well ...

The comment following the article is precious. It sums up a thought
process that is rampant in the young of America (mostly O supporters)
that has little or no basis in history:

    "Where have you been living? Of course this doesn?t matter: It doesn?t
    fit the narrative. Slavery is a uniquely American/white evil for which 
we
    can never atone. Africa did not, does not, and never shall have anything
    to do with it ? beyond being victimized by it, of course. Get with the
    program."

The comment is way off base.

The slavery that is referenced was originally created by European slave 
traders and strong African tribes who conquered lesser tribes, centuries 
before America existed.  The book, A Crime So Monstrous, refers to a modern, 
mostly non-American slave trade.  Just ask the Saudis.

Slavery became a way of life here in the Colonies and continued to support 
the economy of America for over a century.  I think that much has been done 
to "atone" for past injustices, short of handing over the keys to the 
country.

Just who are the victims now?

Mike

From: "Brad Haslett"  Thursday, December 17, 2009 9:12 AM
Speaking of slavery -

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2009/12/02/john-brown-dead-slavery-marches-on/




On 12/16/09, Michael D. Weisner <mweisner at ebsmed.com> wrote:
> Rik,
>
> If he's into freeing the slaves, too, I'm all for it!  I don't know if I
> will be able to work for the bossman forever.
>
> Mike
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Rik Sandberg  Wednesday, December 16, 2009 11:53 AM
>   Let's see, Owannabe's hero is Lincoln (he says)
>   Lincoln led us through the civil war, freed the slaves and whether good 
> or
> bad, gained great notoriety.
>   Our president has a great hunger for notoriety.
>   The way he's going, a civil war is a distinct possibility.
>
>   I don't know, you tell me. He seems to have plenty of other weird ideas 
> in
> his head.
>
>   As failed presidents go, one thinks back to the Carter years. Jimmy 
> Carter
> was a fool, but I honestly believe he had a good heart and meant well. I
> don't see that in this president.
>
>   Rik
>
>   This is too long to copy, read the rest here:
>   http://spectator.org/archives/2009/12/15/president-spock
>
>
>   President Spock
>   By Jeffrey Lord on 12.15.09 @ 6:08AM
>
>   It is with the heart that one sees rightly; what is essential is 
> invisible
> to the eye.
>   -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
>   The Little Prince
>
>   Why would a president do the following?
>
>   * Scare Americans to death by pushing a health care reform plan that 
> looks
> to be constructed by Rube Goldberg with all the bureaucratic sympathies of 
> a
> Kafkaesque novel.
>
>   * Back a Cap and Trade energy proposal that is so drastic in its results
> it would deal yet another wound to a staggering American economy.
>
>   * Take the notorious Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the master-mind of the
> murderous 9/11 and the first captured 21st-century war criminal to rank 
> with
> Hitler on a scale of evil -- and skip the usual and traditional military
> tribunal in favor of a civilian trial in the middle of New York City.
>
>   * Pledge to close Guantanamo Bay, home to the most virulent strain of
> jihadists on the planet -- and transfer them all to a mainland federal
> prison. Then admitting an inability to do so by the stated deadline and
> firing the White House Counsel who said it was a good idea.
>
>   * Gift the visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with a pack of 
> 25
> DVD's of American movies -- that cannot play on British DVD players. After
> which the eighty-something Queen of England is given an iPod containing,
> among other things, videos of Obama speeches.
>
>   * Go abroad repeatedly and deliver speeches apologizing for American
> conduct in the world.
>
>   What would ever in a thousand years make an American president do these
> kinds of things?
>
>   Ideology, you say? Well, sure. Doubtless some of these things -- health
> care, Cap and Trade, what to do with captured enemies like KSM and 
> America's
> role in the world, draw forth the left-wing tendencies of today's American
> liberals. But the gifts to the British Prime Minister and the Queen? The
> Goldbergian nature of the health care proposals? The haplessness of the
> Guantanamo Bay fiasco?
>
>   There's something else at work here in the Obama mind well beside a
> leftist ideology. A something else that has been displayed before in the
> American presidency. For that matter, chances are fair-to-good you have 
> seen
> this somewhere along the traveled road of your own personal life.
>
>   Barack Obama, you see, is really Mr. Spock -- the legendary first 
> officer
> of Star Trek's USS Enterprise.
>
>   Spock? Why Spock?
>
>   If one is a Star Trek fan, one knows that the Vulcan Spock was quite
> famously a creature of logic -- and that was about it. Very bright, Mr.
> Spock. Respected to the max for his intelligence -- but as was repeatedly
> demonstrated, it was precisely his dependence on logic, on what was 
> presumed
> initially as a superior intellectual capacity, that repeatedly caused
> problems for Spock.
>
>
>
>
>   On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 9:52 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>     For anyone needing a refresher on Cloward-Piven, you can read the
>     original article published by Professors Cloward and Piven here -
>
>
> http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/A%20Strategy%20to%20End%20Poverty2.html
>
>     It would do us well at this point in time to remember "Stein's Law",
>     (Ben Stein's father, economist Herbert Stein), "That which can not go
>     on forever won?t".
>
>     Our current discussion and observations on economics have moved beyond
>     the traditional "guns v butter", and is now more along the lines of
>     "what am I missing?"  Either we are being led by a team of brilliant
>     thinkers who have discovered a new paradigm of economics, or, they are
>     clueless. I don't think they have discovered a new paradigm anymore
>     valid than the new "paradigm of business model" that fueled the late
>     90's internet bubble that popped. I also don't think they are
>     clueless.  Something else must be at work.
>
>     The economies of Germany between the wars and Argentina at the turn of
>     the century never shut down, but the middle class lost nearly all
>     their wealth.  In Germany's case, it made for a convenient excuse to
>     identify an ethnic group to be destroyed, and in the case of
>     Argentina, the peasants were satisfied for a period.  Mao's
>     confiscation of farmland and the destruction of the merchant class
>     followed a similar path.  So I keep asking myself this question, "is
>     my study of economics and understanding of history so flawed that I'm
>     missing something?"
>
>     Adam Smith's "invisible hand" was based on people acting on
>     self-interests, and I'm more selfish than most.  That said, I fail to
>     see how the current federal government spending pattern is in the long
>     term best interest of anyone, especially MY family.
>
>     Someone, anyone, please explain what I'm unable to see and understand.
>      In the absence of a reasonable explanation, I have to think we are
>     seeing the first-stage implementation of Cloward-Piven.
>
>     (Below - someone else who is asking questions)
>
>     Brad
>
>     -----------------
>
>
>
>     Debt crisis portends liberalism's end
>     Examiner Editorial
>     December 16, 2009
>
>     With its most vigorous advocate in memory presiding in the White House
>     and commanding Democratic majorities in Congress, it's difficult to
>     believe that the end of liberalism may be within sight. We base this
>     suggestion not on a hunch or on wishful thinking, but on mathematics.
>     The Petersen-Pew Commission on Budget Reform has produced a new report
>     warning that "[o]ver the past year alone, the public debt of the
>     United States rose sharply from 41 to 53 percent of gross domestic
>     product (GDP). Under reasonable assumptions, the debt is projected to
>     grow steadily, reaching 85 percent of GDP by 2018, 100 percent by
>     2022, and 200 percent in 2038."
>
>     Long before the debt reaches such stratospheric levels, the commission
>     warns, "Fears of inflation and a prospective decline in the value of
>     the dollar would cause investors to demand higher interest rates and
>     shift out of U.S. Treasury securities. The excessive debt would also
>     affect citizens in their everyday lives by harming the American
>     standard of living through slower economic growth and dampening wages,
>     and shrinking the government's ability to reduce taxes, invest, or
>     provide a safety net."
>
>     In other words, within the lifetimes of the vast majority of living
>     Americans, government as we have known it since the New Deal will
>     become paralyzed, unable to deliver even basic services, let alone the
>     myriad of entitlements that politicians had promised would last
>     forever. Liberalism will owe its undoing to its blind faith that
>     government could forever be the inexhaustible provider of ever more
>     spending, more benefits and more prosperity, with nary a day of
>     reckoning.
>
>     This report does not come from some gold bug or fevered disciple of
>     trickle-down economics. On the contrary, it is the product of a
>     bipartisan commission led by three former congressmen, two Democrats
>     and one Republican. The commission also includes two former
>     comptrollers of the United States, seven former Congressional Budget
>     Office directors, seven former Office of Management and Budget
>     directors, three former chairmen of the House Budget Committee and one
>     former chairman of the Federal Reserve.
>
>     Honest observers might quibble about the commission's recommended
>     course of action, which includes general tax increases. But there
>     should be fundamental agreement on freezing federal spending now.
>     Officials must choose as soon as possible which government programs
>     should continue and which should end. This is no longer a
>     conservative-versus-liberal or Democrat-versus-Republican issue. It is
>     a matter of national economic necessity and national survival.
>
>
>
>     Find this article at:
>
> http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Debt-crisis-portends-liberalism_s-end-8660155-79353372.html
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>     SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>
>
>
>   --
>   Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that 
> means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>   _______________________________________________
>   SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>   SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 17 10:17:18 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:17:18 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Hacker Spies
In-Reply-To: <1D783159FA1F49E6ABC8DEE5F9CB6B39@ebsoffice>
References: <400985d70912170523n39ddb2beu84c2df3dcb3c6757@mail.gmail.com>
	<1D783159FA1F49E6ABC8DEE5F9CB6B39@ebsoffice>
Message-ID: <400985d70912170717l25864052wc89bffed294eb978@mail.gmail.com>

Mike,

Determining the optimum mix of fighter pilots is way above my pay
grade, but you're right, you can't just re-start that pipeline on a
whim and turn out seasoned pilots.  That reminds me of a story from
Gulf War 1.  I had a lot of tearful goodbyes with co-workers in the
employee parking lot, including one with a friend of mine from a New
Orleans WartHog (A-10) unit. When he got back several months later we
flew a trip together and he gave me a debrief.  Guys his age who had
jobs and families concentrated on hitting their targets and making it
back to base.  The 24 year-old "kids" were all gung-ho and excited.
The "old guys" just wanted to do their job and go home. Fortunately,
our losses were minimal (compared to the Brits who got some really
nasty assignments in the opening days) but the part-time "gray hairs"
could definitely pull their own weight if not more.  If we lose those
guys, it takes years to get back to that level of proficiency.

Our guys and gals take a big financial hit every time they get
activated (which was every other month under Clinton - a lot of people
don't realize how many deployments took place during those years) but
the guys who really "take it in the shorts" are the doctors and
dentists.  Most folks don't realize what a good value the taxpayer
gets for the Guard and Reserves - that is, those that support having a
military at all.

Brad

On 12/17/09, Michael D. Weisner <mweisner at ebsmed.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> This is an interesting article that shows just how dumb some companies can
> be when supplying the military with "technology":
>
>     "The stolen video feeds also indicate that U.S. adversaries continue to
>     find simple ways of counteracting sophisticated American military
>     technologies."
>
> We are not talking about sophisticated technologies if encryption wasn't
> employed.  Proprietary systems hold out just so long before someone reverse
> engineers them.  Of course, now that the bad guys have learned how to
> intercept the video, why not feed them the wrong stuff?  Yeah, we probably
> already thought of it and do it.  The press info might just be a smoke
> screen.
>
> The canceling of F-22 plane and pilot production, though, is not quite so
> simple.  You will no doubt remember the poor skills of the hastily trained
> Iraqi AF.  Crank up the PSP and Wii production.
>
> Mike
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brad Haslett" Thursday, December 17, 2009 8:23 AM
>> This is not good (see WSJ article below).  The University of North
>> Dakota Aviation Dept. (one of the best in the nation) just announced
>> this week that they are starting a new Unmanned Flight degree program.
>> A lot of would be military pilots are opting for careers in drone
>> flying so they can be home with their families every day.  That's all
>> well and good, but perhaps we're stumbling on to a limitation.  I made
>> a few phone calls yesterday to get some intel on the Offutt threat.
>> No real solid info to share but some folks "who should know" said they
>> can't shut down Offutt (unique mission and assets)  but they could
>> divert some future resources, ie, it would be a stupid political
>> bluff.  Anyway, what did come out from one source was that Obama wants
>> to whittle the manned AF fighter fleet down to 188 total (no idea on
>> the Navy). No wonder O was so sensitive about not being photographed
>> in front of an F-22 a few weeks ago in Alaska (besides canceling
>> future F-22 orders). I have no idea what the optimum number of manned
>> fighters is, but this article should indicate that we can't eliminate
>> them all.
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> ----------------
>>
>>    * DECEMBER 17, 2009
>>
>> Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones
>> $26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing
>> Suspected
>>
>>
>>
>> By SIOBHAN GORMAN, YOCHI J. DREAZEN and AUGUST COLE
>>
>> WASHINGTON -- Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software
>> to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially
>> providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S.
>> military operations.
>>
>> Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed
>> insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an
>> unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes'
>> systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as
>> SkyGrabber -- available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet -- to
>> regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar
>> with reports on the matter.
>>
>> U.S. officials say there is no evidence that militants were able to
>> take control of the drones or otherwise interfere with their flights.
>> Still, the intercepts could give America's enemies battlefield
>> advantages by removing the element of surprise from certain missions
>> and making it easier for insurgents to determine which roads and
>> buildings are under U.S. surveillance.
>>
>>
>> The drone intercepts mark the emergence of a shadow cyber war within
>> the U.S.-led conflicts overseas. They also point to a potentially
>> serious vulnerability in Washington's growing network of unmanned
>> drones, which have become the American weapon of choice in both
>> Afghanistan and Pakistan.
>>
>> The Obama administration has come to rely heavily on the unmanned
>> drones because they allow the U.S. to safely monitor and stalk
>> insurgent targets in areas where sending American troops would be
>> either politically untenable or too risky.
>>
>> The stolen video feeds also indicate that U.S. adversaries continue to
>> find simple ways of counteracting sophisticated American military
>> technologies.
>>
>> U.S. military personnel in Iraq discovered the problem late last year
>> when they apprehended a Shiite militant whose laptop contained files
>> of intercepted drone video feeds. In July, the U.S. military found
>> pirated drone video feeds on other militant laptops, leading some
>> officials to conclude that militant groups trained and funded by Iran
>> were regularly intercepting feeds.
>>
>> In the summer 2009 incident, the military found "days and days and
>> hours and hours of proof" that the feeds were being intercepted and
>> shared with multiple extremist groups, the person said. "It is part of
>> their kit now."
>>
>> A senior defense official said that James Clapper, the Pentagon's
>> intelligence chief, assessed the Iraq intercepts at the direction of
>> Defense Secretary Robert Gates and concluded they represented a
>> shortcoming to the security of the drone network.
>>
>> "There did appear to be a vulnerability," the defense official said.
>> "There's been no harm done to troops or missions compromised as a
>> result of it, but there's an issue that we can take care of and we're
>> doing so."
>>
>> Senior military and intelligence officials said the U.S. was working
>> to encrypt all of its drone video feeds from Iraq, Afghanistan and
>> Pakistan, but said it wasn't yet clear if the problem had been
>> completely resolved.
>>
>> Some of the most detailed evidence of intercepted feeds has been
>> discovered in Iraq, but adversaries have also intercepted drone video
>> feeds in Afghanistan, according to people briefed on the matter. These
>> intercept techniques could be employed in other locations where the
>> U.S. is using pilotless planes, such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia,
>> they said.
>>
>> The Pentagon is deploying record numbers of drones to Afghanistan as
>> part of the Obama administration's troop surge there. Lt. Gen. David
>> Deptula, who oversees the Air Force's unmanned aviation program, said
>> some of the drones would employ a sophisticated new camera system
>> called "Gorgon Stare," which allows a single aerial vehicle to
>> transmit back at least 10 separate video feeds simultaneously.
>>
>> Gen. Deptula, speaking to reporters Wednesday, said there were
>> inherent risks to using drones since they are remotely controlled and
>> need to send and receive video and other data over great distances.
>> "Those kinds of things are subject to listening and exploitation," he
>> said, adding the military was trying to solve the problems by better
>> encrypting the drones' feeds.
>>
>> The potential drone vulnerability lies in an unencrypted downlink
>> between the unmanned craft and ground control. The U.S. government has
>> known about the flaw since the U.S. campaign in Bosnia in the 1990s,
>> current and former officials said. But the Pentagon assumed local
>> adversaries wouldn't know how to exploit it, the officials said.
>>
>> Last December, U.S. military personnel in Iraq discovered copies of
>> Predator drone feeds on a laptop belonging to a Shiite militant,
>> according to a person familiar with reports on the matter. "There was
>> evidence this was not a one-time deal," this person said. The U.S.
>> accuses Iran of providing weapons, money and training to Shiite
>> fighters in Iraq, a charge that Tehran has long denied.
>>
>> The militants use programs such as SkyGrabber, from Russian company
>> SkySoftware. Andrew Solonikov, one of the software's developers, said
>> he was unaware that his software could be used to intercept drone
>> feeds. "It was developed to intercept music, photos, video, programs
>> and other content that other users download from the Internet -- no
>> military data or other commercial data, only free legal content," he
>> said by email from Russia.
>>
>> Officials stepped up efforts to prevent insurgents from intercepting
>> video feeds after the July incident. The difficulty, officials said,
>> is that adding encryption to a network that is more than a decade old
>> involves more than placing a new piece of equipment on individual
>> drones. Instead, many components of the network linking the drones to
>> their operators in the U.S., Afghanistan or Pakistan have to be
>> upgraded to handle the changes. Additional concerns remain about the
>> vulnerability of the communications signals to electronic jamming,
>> though there's no evidence that has occurred, said people familiar
>> with reports on the matter.
>>
>> Predator drones are built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.
>> of San Diego. Some of its communications technology is proprietary, so
>> widely used encryption systems aren't readily compatible, said people
>> familiar with the matter.
>>
>> In an email, a spokeswoman said that for security reasons, the company
>> couldn't comment on "specific data link capabilities and limitations."
>>
>> Fixing the security gap would have caused delays, according to current
>> and former military officials. It would have added to the Predator's
>> price. Some officials worried that adding encryption would make it
>> harder to quickly share time-sensitive data within the U.S. military,
>> and with allies.
>>
>> "There's a balance between pragmatics and sophistication," said Mike
>> Wynne, Air Force Secretary from 2005 to 2008.
>>
>> The Air Force has staked its future on unmanned aerial vehicles.
>> Drones account for 36% of the planes in the service's proposed 2010
>> budget.
>>
>> Today, the Air Force is buying hundreds of Reaper drones, a newer
>> model, whose video feeds could be intercepted in much the same way as
>> with the Predators, according to people familiar with the matter. A
>> Reaper costs between $10 million and $12 million each and is faster
>> and better armed than the Predator. General Atomics expects the Air
>> Force to buy as many as 375 Reapers.
>>
>> Write to Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman at wsj.com, Yochi J. Dreazen at
>> yochi.dreazen at wsj.com and August Cole at august.cole at dowjones.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Thu Dec 17 10:37:06 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:37:06 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Oh, The Gore!
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912170333u599b2f1fja30e7cca67550801@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912170257t7f4e7ba8tde115f03080f8ad7@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912170333u599b2f1fja30e7cca67550801@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912170737m718fe802ube78d810b5c270a2@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Hugo Chavez??? If not for oil, Hugo Chavez would still be picking shit with
the chickens. You'd have to have had a double dose of the kool-aid to fall
for anything he says. I suppose the O one will find some excuse to bow to
him too, when he gets there.

They're actually having riots in the street over there .... those peace
loving liberals. I wonder, have they looked at a thermometer lately??

Rik

On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 5:33 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> If you get bored with the science, there's always the politics -
>
> http://tinyurl.com/yew9scz
>
> Brad
>
> On 12/17/09, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> > It gets worse!
> >
> > http://tinyurl.com/yf9vc2c
> >
> > Ok, if you're Al Gore, you've got billions of dollars riding on this.
> > If you're the POTUS, what gain is there to milk this fraud any
> > further?
> >
> > Brad
> >
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 17 10:40:27 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:40:27 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Slavery
In-Reply-To: <13CDBC6A77C8413BA6BAE93EB04C2CFC@ebsoffice>
References: <400985d70912160752t3f3ce644o8b377939e05ac5da@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912160853p3416d6ffo3d1e9a1984d01d85@mail.gmail.com>
	<C40DC657D95047509DDA8BF4A983766C@ebsoffice>
	<400985d70912170612s46ef89e9h71310c4a055be534@mail.gmail.com>
	<13CDBC6A77C8413BA6BAE93EB04C2CFC@ebsoffice>
Message-ID: <400985d70912170740g256fe854xd000b3df51876c9d@mail.gmail.com>

Mike,

Naaaaah! You're saying slavery wasn't started here?  The next thing
you know, you'll be suggesting that the Pyramids were built by slaves
and not by well paid Chinese, which we all know to be the truth.

What's ironic is that our Dear Leader was spawned by a Luo tribesman,
more likely to be from a line of Muslim slave traders than a
cotton-picker (read Baldilock's history of his and her family).  But
hey, hang around a Black Liberation Theology church and a bitter wife
(who grew up middle-class with a well paid political hack father) for
a couple of decades and you too can "talk the talk".  Mix in a little
White Guilt (the title of a great book by Shelby Steele) and you can
get elected POTUS.  A free ride through Columbia and Harvard U (where
are those grades anyway and who paid the tuition?) and Princeton and
Harvard for your wife doesn't hurt either.

All this reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw on a truck here in
Memphis one time:  IF WE'D KNOWN IT WAS GONNA BE THIS MUCH TROUBLE
WE'D PICKED OUR OWN DAMN COTTON.

Brad



On 12/17/09, Michael D. Weisner <mweisner at ebsmed.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> Ah, the oldest profession is alive and well ...
>
> The comment following the article is precious. It sums up a thought
> process that is rampant in the young of America (mostly O supporters)
> that has little or no basis in history:
>
>     "Where have you been living? Of course this doesn?t matter: It doesn?t
>     fit the narrative. Slavery is a uniquely American/white evil for which
> we
>     can never atone. Africa did not, does not, and never shall have anything
>     to do with it ? beyond being victimized by it, of course. Get with the
>     program."
>
> The comment is way off base.
>
> The slavery that is referenced was originally created by European slave
> traders and strong African tribes who conquered lesser tribes, centuries
> before America existed.  The book, A Crime So Monstrous, refers to a modern,
> mostly non-American slave trade.  Just ask the Saudis.
>
> Slavery became a way of life here in the Colonies and continued to support
> the economy of America for over a century.  I think that much has been done
> to "atone" for past injustices, short of handing over the keys to the
> country.
>
> Just who are the victims now?
>
> Mike
>
> From: "Brad Haslett"  Thursday, December 17, 2009 9:12 AM
> Speaking of slavery -
>
> http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2009/12/02/john-brown-dead-slavery-marches-on/
>
>
>
>
> On 12/16/09, Michael D. Weisner <mweisner at ebsmed.com> wrote:
>> Rik,
>>
>> If he's into freeing the slaves, too, I'm all for it!  I don't know if I
>> will be able to work for the bossman forever.
>>
>> Mike
>>   ----- Original Message -----
>>   From: Rik Sandberg  Wednesday, December 16, 2009 11:53 AM
>>   Let's see, Owannabe's hero is Lincoln (he says)
>>   Lincoln led us through the civil war, freed the slaves and whether good
>> or
>> bad, gained great notoriety.
>>   Our president has a great hunger for notoriety.
>>   The way he's going, a civil war is a distinct possibility.
>>
>>   I don't know, you tell me. He seems to have plenty of other weird ideas
>> in
>> his head.
>>
>>   As failed presidents go, one thinks back to the Carter years. Jimmy
>> Carter
>> was a fool, but I honestly believe he had a good heart and meant well. I
>> don't see that in this president.
>>
>>   Rik
>>
>>   This is too long to copy, read the rest here:
>>   http://spectator.org/archives/2009/12/15/president-spock
>>
>>
>>   President Spock
>>   By Jeffrey Lord on 12.15.09 @ 6:08AM
>>
>>   It is with the heart that one sees rightly; what is essential is
>> invisible
>> to the eye.
>>   -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
>>   The Little Prince
>>
>>   Why would a president do the following?
>>
>>   * Scare Americans to death by pushing a health care reform plan that
>> looks
>> to be constructed by Rube Goldberg with all the bureaucratic sympathies of
>>
>> a
>> Kafkaesque novel.
>>
>>   * Back a Cap and Trade energy proposal that is so drastic in its results
>> it would deal yet another wound to a staggering American economy.
>>
>>   * Take the notorious Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the master-mind of the
>> murderous 9/11 and the first captured 21st-century war criminal to rank
>> with
>> Hitler on a scale of evil -- and skip the usual and traditional military
>> tribunal in favor of a civilian trial in the middle of New York City.
>>
>>   * Pledge to close Guantanamo Bay, home to the most virulent strain of
>> jihadists on the planet -- and transfer them all to a mainland federal
>> prison. Then admitting an inability to do so by the stated deadline and
>> firing the White House Counsel who said it was a good idea.
>>
>>   * Gift the visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown with a pack of
>> 25
>> DVD's of American movies -- that cannot play on British DVD players. After
>> which the eighty-something Queen of England is given an iPod containing,
>> among other things, videos of Obama speeches.
>>
>>   * Go abroad repeatedly and deliver speeches apologizing for American
>> conduct in the world.
>>
>>   What would ever in a thousand years make an American president do these
>> kinds of things?
>>
>>   Ideology, you say? Well, sure. Doubtless some of these things -- health
>> care, Cap and Trade, what to do with captured enemies like KSM and
>> America's
>> role in the world, draw forth the left-wing tendencies of today's American
>> liberals. But the gifts to the British Prime Minister and the Queen? The
>> Goldbergian nature of the health care proposals? The haplessness of the
>> Guantanamo Bay fiasco?
>>
>>   There's something else at work here in the Obama mind well beside a
>> leftist ideology. A something else that has been displayed before in the
>> American presidency. For that matter, chances are fair-to-good you have
>> seen
>> this somewhere along the traveled road of your own personal life.
>>
>>   Barack Obama, you see, is really Mr. Spock -- the legendary first
>> officer
>> of Star Trek's USS Enterprise.
>>
>>   Spock? Why Spock?
>>
>>   If one is a Star Trek fan, one knows that the Vulcan Spock was quite
>> famously a creature of logic -- and that was about it. Very bright, Mr.
>> Spock. Respected to the max for his intelligence -- but as was repeatedly
>> demonstrated, it was precisely his dependence on logic, on what was
>> presumed
>> initially as a superior intellectual capacity, that repeatedly caused
>> problems for Spock.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 9:52 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>     For anyone needing a refresher on Cloward-Piven, you can read the
>>     original article published by Professors Cloward and Piven here -
>>
>>
>> http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/A%20Strategy%20to%20End%20Poverty2.html
>>
>>     It would do us well at this point in time to remember "Stein's Law",
>>     (Ben Stein's father, economist Herbert Stein), "That which can not go
>>     on forever won?t".
>>
>>     Our current discussion and observations on economics have moved beyond
>>     the traditional "guns v butter", and is now more along the lines of
>>     "what am I missing?"  Either we are being led by a team of brilliant
>>     thinkers who have discovered a new paradigm of economics, or, they are
>>     clueless. I don't think they have discovered a new paradigm anymore
>>     valid than the new "paradigm of business model" that fueled the late
>>     90's internet bubble that popped. I also don't think they are
>>     clueless.  Something else must be at work.
>>
>>     The economies of Germany between the wars and Argentina at the turn of
>>     the century never shut down, but the middle class lost nearly all
>>     their wealth.  In Germany's case, it made for a convenient excuse to
>>     identify an ethnic group to be destroyed, and in the case of
>>     Argentina, the peasants were satisfied for a period.  Mao's
>>     confiscation of farmland and the destruction of the merchant class
>>     followed a similar path.  So I keep asking myself this question, "is
>>     my study of economics and understanding of history so flawed that I'm
>>     missing something?"
>>
>>     Adam Smith's "invisible hand" was based on people acting on
>>     self-interests, and I'm more selfish than most.  That said, I fail to
>>     see how the current federal government spending pattern is in the long
>>     term best interest of anyone, especially MY family.
>>
>>     Someone, anyone, please explain what I'm unable to see and understand.
>>      In the absence of a reasonable explanation, I have to think we are
>>     seeing the first-stage implementation of Cloward-Piven.
>>
>>     (Below - someone else who is asking questions)
>>
>>     Brad
>>
>>     -----------------
>>
>>
>>
>>     Debt crisis portends liberalism's end
>>     Examiner Editorial
>>     December 16, 2009
>>
>>     With its most vigorous advocate in memory presiding in the White House
>>     and commanding Democratic majorities in Congress, it's difficult to
>>     believe that the end of liberalism may be within sight. We base this
>>     suggestion not on a hunch or on wishful thinking, but on mathematics.
>>     The Petersen-Pew Commission on Budget Reform has produced a new report
>>     warning that "[o]ver the past year alone, the public debt of the
>>     United States rose sharply from 41 to 53 percent of gross domestic
>>     product (GDP). Under reasonable assumptions, the debt is projected to
>>     grow steadily, reaching 85 percent of GDP by 2018, 100 percent by
>>     2022, and 200 percent in 2038."
>>
>>     Long before the debt reaches such stratospheric levels, the commission
>>     warns, "Fears of inflation and a prospective decline in the value of
>>     the dollar would cause investors to demand higher interest rates and
>>     shift out of U.S. Treasury securities. The excessive debt would also
>>     affect citizens in their everyday lives by harming the American
>>     standard of living through slower economic growth and dampening wages,
>>     and shrinking the government's ability to reduce taxes, invest, or
>>     provide a safety net."
>>
>>     In other words, within the lifetimes of the vast majority of living
>>     Americans, government as we have known it since the New Deal will
>>     become paralyzed, unable to deliver even basic services, let alone the
>>     myriad of entitlements that politicians had promised would last
>>     forever. Liberalism will owe its undoing to its blind faith that
>>     government could forever be the inexhaustible provider of ever more
>>     spending, more benefits and more prosperity, with nary a day of
>>     reckoning.
>>
>>     This report does not come from some gold bug or fevered disciple of
>>     trickle-down economics. On the contrary, it is the product of a
>>     bipartisan commission led by three former congressmen, two Democrats
>>     and one Republican. The commission also includes two former
>>     comptrollers of the United States, seven former Congressional Budget
>>     Office directors, seven former Office of Management and Budget
>>     directors, three former chairmen of the House Budget Committee and one
>>     former chairman of the Federal Reserve.
>>
>>     Honest observers might quibble about the commission's recommended
>>     course of action, which includes general tax increases. But there
>>     should be fundamental agreement on freezing federal spending now.
>>     Officials must choose as soon as possible which government programs
>>     should continue and which should end. This is no longer a
>>     conservative-versus-liberal or Democrat-versus-Republican issue. It is
>>     a matter of national economic necessity and national survival.
>>
>>
>>
>>     Find this article at:
>>
>> http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Debt-crisis-portends-liberalism_s-end-8660155-79353372.html
>>
>>     _______________________________________________
>>     SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>>     SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   --
>>   Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
>> means
>> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
>> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
>> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>
>>   _______________________________________________
>>   SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>>   SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>>
>> --
>> I am using the free version of SPAMfighter.
>> We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam.
>> SPAMfighter has removed 9436 of my spam emails to date.
>> Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len
>>
>> The Professional version does not have this message
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
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> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>
> --
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> We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam.
> SPAMfighter has removed 9505 of my spam emails to date.
> Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len
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> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>


From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 17 11:37:42 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:37:42 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Oh, The Gore!
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912170737m718fe802ube78d810b5c270a2@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912170257t7f4e7ba8tde115f03080f8ad7@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912170333u599b2f1fja30e7cca67550801@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912170737m718fe802ube78d810b5c270a2@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912170837x794a9772tc83b5668541439db@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

Ya gotta love all these "fantasy v reality" awakenings that are
happening.  It wasn't but two years ago that Sir Richard Branson was
having a love fest with Al Gore.  Now this -

http://tinyurl.com/yc2c2e7

I'll always be in debt to Branson.  All the Western airline pilots
stuck in Narita (Tokyo) drink at a place called "The Truck".  It
literally is a trailer from a tractor-trailer rig that has a bar that
caters to pilots and flight attendants, parked in front of the ANA
hotel (it redefines the word 'cozy').  This didn't happen there, it
happened at the "Lets" which is close by: I got a fight started one
night between the United and Virgin crews.  The Virgin cabin crews
only come in two flavors - gay male and drop-dead gorgeous female. I
was sponsoring the fees (about a buck per song) for this United F/A to
sing Patsy Cline, and some Virgin F/As (not the gorgeous ones) got on
stage and started to make fun of her. I went over to the United
front-end crews and said something like, "are you chicken-shit
bastards going to stand for that?" and the next thing you know, FIGHT!
 The Japanese bar owner threw ME out.  I came back a week later and
they let me back in - I guess we all look the same.

Brad

On 12/17/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> Hugo Chavez??? If not for oil, Hugo Chavez would still be picking shit with
> the chickens. You'd have to have had a double dose of the kool-aid to fall
> for anything he says. I suppose the O one will find some excuse to bow to
> him too, when he gets there.
>
> They're actually having riots in the street over there .... those peace
> loving liberals. I wonder, have they looked at a thermometer lately??
>
> Rik
>
> On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 5:33 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> If you get bored with the science, there's always the politics -
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/yew9scz
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> On 12/17/09, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > It gets worse!
>> >
>> > http://tinyurl.com/yf9vc2c
>> >
>> > Ok, if you're Al Gore, you've got billions of dollars riding on this.
>> > If you're the POTUS, what gain is there to milk this fraud any
>> > further?
>> >
>> > Brad
>> >
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Thu Dec 17 12:07:34 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:07:34 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Got Tea?
Message-ID: <400985d70912170907u3d0d7cfcte721b2b76bc0c15e@mail.gmail.com>

This was filmed in Westwood.  Got it?  L freakin' A.  Did you see the
polls this morning?  The Tea Party is polling higher than either the
Dems or the GOP.  How bout' those 'bagger' comments now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbYXAq4qy_0&feature=player_embedded

Ain't history fun to watch!

Brad

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Thu Dec 17 15:08:28 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:08:28 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Got Tea?
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912170907u3d0d7cfcte721b2b76bc0c15e@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912170907u3d0d7cfcte721b2b76bc0c15e@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912171208s3cf74902w350193fea91d5346@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Yeah .... can you hear us now???

So anyway, I went to your video. Then on the list below it was this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaE98w1KZ-c&NR=1&feature=fvwp

You know, back in the day, four of the richest guys in the world were
singing:

"Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world..."

I always knew there was something I must have been missing in all that
beautiful imagery. While watching this video it occurred to me what it was
...... The mailman must have lost the check for my share.

Hmmm..... imagine that.

Rik

On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 11:07 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> This was filmed in Westwood.  Got it?  L freakin' A.  Did you see the
> polls this morning?  The Tea Party is polling higher than either the
> Dems or the GOP.  How bout' those 'bagger' comments now?
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbYXAq4qy_0&feature=player_embedded
>
> Ain't history fun to watch!
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From hparsons at parsonsys.com  Thu Dec 17 23:23:48 2009
From: hparsons at parsonsys.com (Herb Parsons)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:23:48 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Hacker Spies
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912170523n39ddb2beu84c2df3dcb3c6757@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912170523n39ddb2beu84c2df3dcb3c6757@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5f889a890912172023ie1aab52v8b0adea9ab475f4e@mail.gmail.com>

I say we keep the Merchant Marine's method. There are tons of very capable
GPS' that will take you around the world without knowing a thing about
navigation. You can even have them steer your boat (and I have no doubt that
eventually they'll be able to trim the sails as well). In spite of all that,
you won't get a USCG Master's if you can't plot a course.

On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 7:23 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> This is not good (see WSJ article below).  The University of North
> Dakota Aviation Dept. (one of the best in the nation) just announced
> this week that they are starting a new Unmanned Flight degree program.
> A lot of would be military pilots are opting for careers in drone
> flying so they can be home with their families every day.  That's all
> well and good, but perhaps we're stumbling on to a limitation.  I made
> a few phone calls yesterday to get some intel on the Offutt threat.
> No real solid info to share but some folks "who should know" said they
> can't shut down Offutt (unique mission and assets)  but they could
> divert some future resources, ie, it would be a stupid political
> bluff.  Anyway, what did come out from one source was that Obama wants
> to whittle the manned AF fighter fleet down to 188 total (no idea on
> the Navy). No wonder O was so sensitive about not being photographed
> in front of an F-22 a few weeks ago in Alaska (besides canceling
> future F-22 orders). I have no idea what the optimum number of manned
> fighters is, but this article should indicate that we can't eliminate
> them all.
>
> Brad
>
>
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From hparsons at parsonsys.com  Thu Dec 17 23:26:00 2009
From: hparsons at parsonsys.com (Herb Parsons)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:26:00 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Oh, The Gore!
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912170257t7f4e7ba8tde115f03080f8ad7@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912170257t7f4e7ba8tde115f03080f8ad7@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <5f889a890912172026v40263227xfb757aec74cbf004@mail.gmail.com>

I suspect that the day President Obama decided to run, he was plotting his
retirement in 8 years. I can only hope he's found sufficient justification
to start planning it for 4 instead.

Follow the money, I bet you that some trickle of him will lead back to
either him, or his cronies.


On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 4:57 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> It gets worse!
>
> http://tinyurl.com/yf9vc2c
>
> Ok, if you're Al Gore, you've got billions of dollars riding on this.
> If you're the POTUS, what gain is there to milk this fraud any
> further?
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Fri Dec 18 20:05:56 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:05:56 +0800
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Greetings From Florida
Message-ID: <400985d70912181705y5fb8c876r46f6e9dc8815ec16@mail.gmail.com>

So much for sunshine, it has rained here all day.  However, we've been
working on buying a condo in Destin, FL for months and it finally
closed today without any final surprises. It was a "short-sale",
meaning two different banks own the property that they'll never
collect their money on but don't want to foreclose (they can't afford
it because they "own" too many just like it). It's been a long and
difficult process but worth it for the savings.

Cora is one happy child. Me too!

Brad

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Fri Dec 18 22:22:55 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:22:55 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Greetings From Florida
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912181705y5fb8c876r46f6e9dc8815ec16@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912181705y5fb8c876r46f6e9dc8815ec16@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912181922i61f00c51lcf8dc46d3260f929@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Where abouts is it?

Hope it turns out to be a good bargain for you.

Rik

On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 7:05 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> So much for sunshine, it has rained here all day.  However, we've been
> working on buying a condo in Destin, FL for months and it finally
> closed today without any final surprises. It was a "short-sale",
> meaning two different banks own the property that they'll never
> collect their money on but don't want to foreclose (they can't afford
> it because they "own" too many just like it). It's been a long and
> difficult process but worth it for the savings.
>
> Cora is one happy child. Me too!
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Fri Dec 18 22:24:13 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:24:13 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Greetings From Florida
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912181922i61f00c51lcf8dc46d3260f929@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912181705y5fb8c876r46f6e9dc8815ec16@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912181922i61f00c51lcf8dc46d3260f929@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912181924v619c7dafocde033b1162ba892@mail.gmail.com>

Duh ..... Destin

Guess I gotta look and see where that is.

Rik

On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 9:22 PM, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Brad,
>
> Where abouts is it?
>
> Hope it turns out to be a good bargain for you.
>
> Rik
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 7:05 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> So much for sunshine, it has rained here all day.  However, we've been
>> working on buying a condo in Destin, FL for months and it finally
>> closed today without any final surprises. It was a "short-sale",
>> meaning two different banks own the property that they'll never
>> collect their money on but don't want to foreclose (they can't afford
>> it because they "own" too many just like it). It's been a long and
>> difficult process but worth it for the savings.
>>
>> Cora is one happy child. Me too!
>>
>> Brad
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From bill at effros.com  Sat Dec 19 00:05:48 2009
From: bill at effros.com (Bill Effros)
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:05:48 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Greetings From Florida
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912181705y5fb8c876r46f6e9dc8815ec16@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912181705y5fb8c876r46f6e9dc8815ec16@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4B2C5F2C.3030803@effros.com>

Congratulations!

B.



Brad Haslett wrote:
> So much for sunshine, it has rained here all day.  However, we've been
> working on buying a condo in Destin, FL for months and it finally
> closed today without any final surprises. It was a "short-sale",
> meaning two different banks own the property that they'll never
> collect their money on but don't want to foreclose (they can't afford
> it because they "own" too many just like it). It's been a long and
> difficult process but worth it for the savings.
>
> Cora is one happy child. Me too!
>
> Brad
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>
>   
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Sat Dec 19 07:47:04 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:47:04 +0800
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Greetings From Florida
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912181924v619c7dafocde033b1162ba892@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912181705y5fb8c876r46f6e9dc8815ec16@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912181922i61f00c51lcf8dc46d3260f929@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912181924v619c7dafocde033b1162ba892@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912190447h59ba07eu7f3f903420a4b19c@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

Look at the center of this map, find Henderson Beach State Park, go
two blocks east - we're the two green-roofed buildings directly across
the street from the beach (after you go to satellite view and zoom).

http://www.destin-ation.com/maps_destin.htm

We're on a very quiet end of the "main drag" of the old beach highway
but only a five-block walk from all the restaurants and shopping. Fan
gave a firm NO to any high-rise buildings (said she got enough of that
in Beijing) so we're on floor two of two - just high enough for a good
view but probably not high enough to avoid a storm surge.  You just
pay out the arse for hurricane insurance and hope you get lucky.

It only adds an hour to the trip to go through Gulfport so it gives me
an excuse to stop and visit with brother Gary and check on business.
Hmmm, that would make the travel costs of the trip a write-off.  Gee,
hadn't thought of that.

Real Estate prices here are about what they were in 2001-02 before the
market went nuts (about half of peak). It will be several more
months/years before the excess inventory clears.  Those that bought at
the peak (2004-05) are, what's that word I'm looking for?, oh yeah,
screwed.

All of the boat slips are on the inland side and the sailing in the
bay is pretty good for a shallow draft.  Even the Gulf side is pretty
shallow until you get quite a ways from the shoreline.  I briefly
toyed with the idea of bringing my boat down here but decided not to
because I can't keep up with the maintenance with her 90 minutes away.
 Moving the CoraShen to Huntsville, AL and assigning my nephew the
maintenance duties should cure that issue.

Brad

On 12/19/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Duh ..... Destin
>
> Guess I gotta look and see where that is.
>
> Rik
>
> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 9:22 PM, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Brad,
>>
>> Where abouts is it?
>>
>> Hope it turns out to be a good bargain for you.
>>
>> Rik
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 7:05 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> So much for sunshine, it has rained here all day.  However, we've been
>>> working on buying a condo in Destin, FL for months and it finally
>>> closed today without any final surprises. It was a "short-sale",
>>> meaning two different banks own the property that they'll never
>>> collect their money on but don't want to foreclose (they can't afford
>>> it because they "own" too many just like it). It's been a long and
>>> difficult process but worth it for the savings.
>>>
>>> Cora is one happy child. Me too!
>>>
>>> Brad
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>>
>>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
>> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
>> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
>> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Sat Dec 19 08:28:44 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:28:44 +0800
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] The Joys of Youth
Message-ID: <400985d70912190528h3f9b9cdx537c4fa1078cb755@mail.gmail.com>

This is too funny!  How's that HopenChange feeling now Obama Youth?

Brad

-------------------

- Pajamas Media - http://pajamasmedia.com -

A Tax You Can (Almost) Like

Posted By Tom Blumer On December 18, 2009 @ 12:00 am In . Column2 06,
. Positioning, Education, Money, Politics, US News | 15 Comments

The Steel City may soon come to be known as the Steal City.

In the midst of serious fiscal difficulties, 29-year-old Pittsburgh
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who is well on his way to becoming the worst
?boy mayor? since Cleveland?s Dennis Kucinich in the 1970s, has
proposed a 1% tax on tuitions [1] charged at institutions of higher
learning within his city. He apparently has the support of a majority
of the City Council. By the time you read this, the tuition tax could
already be a reality.

Even though it?s an obvious example of intergenerational theft, and
even though I would never ultimately support it, in some ways I almost
like the idea.

Don?t get me wrong. I don?t think that any government entity can tax
its way to prosperity, least of all a city that has lost about 25,000
people [2] or over 7% of its population since 2000, and almost 50%
since 1960 [3]. Pittsburgh?s serious problems, which include
persistent crime [4], massive tracts of vacant or abandoned land [5],
and flirtations with municipal bankruptcy, aren?t going to be solved
by trying to extract more dollars from people who can have the final
say by moving with their feet, as so many others have before.

The mayor?s intended use for the money is, as the Associated Press
describes it [6], ?to help pay for pensions of retired city
employees.? This is a tax that if used as advertised (I know, that?s a
stretch) literally takes money from the mostly young and passes it
directly to the old with no kind of meaningful benefit provided in
return ? hence my ?Steal City? nickname.

Whether the money would even solve the problem appears far less than
certain. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports [7] that the pension fund
involved ?holds just 31 percent of what it needs to meet its
obligations.? The $16.2 million the tax might raise is well short of
?the $189 million [4] the pension fund will need in the next two years
to save it from a state takeover.?

The mayor?s discussions with the city?s public and private
universities have been more like a mob shakedown than an attempt to
fairly determine what may be legitimate and heretofore unrecognized
extra costs the schools may be imposing on the community. Of course,
those costs, if ever identified, have nothing to do with whether
retired police and firemen continue to get their monthly pension
checks. The mayor has demanded that the schools cough up $5 million a
year [1] voluntarily to avoid having the tax imposed. (In light of the
information in the previous paragraph, assuming that nothing is done
about costs, how is $5 million even in the neighborhood of being
enough?) One university president bluntly stated [8] that she ?does
not negotiate with an ax hanging over? her head.

The mayor?s tactics, as well as the tax?s targets, inadvertently
reveal the levy?s hidden beauty.

Many students have been led to believe by their state-loving profs, as
well as by many elementary and secondary school educators who preceded
them, that the government must always be granted whatever it needs to
accomplish its objectives, regardless of the costs involved. Now these
collegians have discovered that the government is not their
presumptive friend and will eventually turn on them if not reined in.
Many of them are currently having their entire cost of attendance [9],
including living expenses, financed by the federal government and
would be facing an immediate out-of-pocket cost that someone else
isn?t paying for ranging from [10] ?$27 at the Community College of
Allegheny County to $409 at Carnegie Mellon University.? They are not
taking it well.

Faculty and administrators who so loathe the American capitalist model
of free enterprise and competition have figured out that they would
have an externally imposed competitive disadvantage against their
peers outside of Pittsburgh. Perhaps they?ll take a belated interest
in the city?s fiscal situation. If they do, they?ll likely discover
that its annual municipal budget of roughly $450 million [7] contains
more than a little fat.

Moreover, radical faculty members would have a more difficult time
justifying their ardent love of statism in front of their tax-paying
students if the government begins in essence biting the hand that
feeds it philosophical support for its voracious desires. These poor
saps must be wondering how it can be that Democrat Ravenstahl, who
attended Pitt for a time, is employing the tactics normally associated
with romanticized thugs like Chavez, Castro, and Ahmadinejad on his
?friends.? Perhaps they?ll begin to understand how the term ?useful
idiots [11]? applies to them.

My goodness, students are even engaging in anti-tax and anti-spending
protests [12] like the tea partiers they?ve been taught to despise.
What?s more, they?re coming up with constructive, cost-saving ideas of
their own.

Perhaps during all of this the kids will meet up with patriotic
everyday Americans who will impart important lessons about how free
markets and limited government are supposed to work. These are lessons
that they more than likely won?t learn or even hear about at their
institutions of so-called higher learning. They might also come to
understand that what Pittsburgh is attempting is a mere microcosm of
what Social Security has been doing to the young people of America for
decades.

These would be very good things. Maybe the mayor should threaten such
a tax every year.

Article printed from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-tax-you-can-almost-like/

URLs in this post:

[1] a 1% tax on tuitions:
http://www.bizzyblog.com/2009/12/15/pittsburgh-mayors-ultimatum-to-universities-pay-city-millions-or-see-a-tax-on-tuition/

[2] has lost about 25,000 people:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com:8000/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_631739.html

[3] almost 50% since 1960: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh#Demographics

[4] persistent crime: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09253/996932-181.stm

[5] of vacant or abandoned land: http://www.newsweek.com/id/224646

[6] the Associated Press describes it:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PITTSBURGH_TUITION_TAX?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-12-16-09-09-31

[7] Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09350/1021221-298.stm

[8] bluntly stated: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09349/1021004-53.stm

[9] cost of attendance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_attendance

[10] ranging from:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_657689.html

[11] useful idiots: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot

[12] are even engaging in anti-tax and anti-spending protests:
http://www.wpxi.com/news/21960029/detail.html

Click here to print.

Copyright ? 2009 Pajamas Media. All rights reserved.


From mweisner at ebsmed.com  Sat Dec 19 08:36:59 2009
From: mweisner at ebsmed.com (Michael D. Weisner)
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:36:59 -0500
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Greetings From Florida
References: <400985d70912181705y5fb8c876r46f6e9dc8815ec16@mail.gmail.com><6634e19e0912181922i61f00c51lcf8dc46d3260f929@mail.gmail.com><6634e19e0912181924v619c7dafocde033b1162ba892@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912190447h59ba07eu7f3f903420a4b19c@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <32976E28D6574183839D4E2DA8687874@acer7e8cb8aec8>

Brad,

Zillow puts them at $200-250K! Not bad for about 1000 sq ft nearly on the 
beach.  How big is Destin-Ft Walton Beach Airport?  Who serves it?

Mike

From: "Brad Haslett" Saturday, December 19, 2009 7:47 AM
> Rik,
>
> Look at the center of this map, find Henderson Beach State Park, go
> two blocks east - we're the two green-roofed buildings directly across
> the street from the beach (after you go to satellite view and zoom).
>
> http://www.destin-ation.com/maps_destin.htm
>
> We're on a very quiet end of the "main drag" of the old beach highway
> but only a five-block walk from all the restaurants and shopping. Fan
> gave a firm NO to any high-rise buildings (said she got enough of that
> in Beijing) so we're on floor two of two - just high enough for a good
> view but probably not high enough to avoid a storm surge.  You just
> pay out the arse for hurricane insurance and hope you get lucky.
>
> It only adds an hour to the trip to go through Gulfport so it gives me
> an excuse to stop and visit with brother Gary and check on business.
> Hmmm, that would make the travel costs of the trip a write-off.  Gee,
> hadn't thought of that.
>
> Real Estate prices here are about what they were in 2001-02 before the
> market went nuts (about half of peak). It will be several more
> months/years before the excess inventory clears.  Those that bought at
> the peak (2004-05) are, what's that word I'm looking for?, oh yeah,
> screwed.
>
> All of the boat slips are on the inland side and the sailing in the
> bay is pretty good for a shallow draft.  Even the Gulf side is pretty
> shallow until you get quite a ways from the shoreline.  I briefly
> toyed with the idea of bringing my boat down here but decided not to
> because I can't keep up with the maintenance with her 90 minutes away.
> Moving the CoraShen to Huntsville, AL and assigning my nephew the
> maintenance duties should cure that issue.
>
> Brad
>
> On 12/19/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Duh ..... Destin
>>
>> Guess I gotta look and see where that is.
>>
>> Rik
>>
>> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 9:22 PM, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Brad,
>>>
>>> Where abouts is it?
>>>
>>> Hope it turns out to be a good bargain for you.
>>>
>>> Rik
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 7:05 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> So much for sunshine, it has rained here all day.  However, we've been
>>>> working on buying a condo in Destin, FL for months and it finally
>>>> closed today without any final surprises. It was a "short-sale",
>>>> meaning two different banks own the property that they'll never
>>>> collect their money on but don't want to foreclose (they can't afford
>>>> it because they "own" too many just like it). It's been a long and
>>>> difficult process but worth it for the savings.
>>>>
>>>> Cora is one happy child. Me too!
>>>>
>>>> Brad
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>>>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>>>
>>>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that 
>>> means
>>> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
>>> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, 
>>> and
>>> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that 
>> means
>> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
>> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
>> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
> 


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From flybrad at gmail.com  Sat Dec 19 09:46:09 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:46:09 +0800
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Greetings From Florida
In-Reply-To: <32976E28D6574183839D4E2DA8687874@acer7e8cb8aec8>
References: <400985d70912181705y5fb8c876r46f6e9dc8815ec16@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912181922i61f00c51lcf8dc46d3260f929@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912181924v619c7dafocde033b1162ba892@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912190447h59ba07eu7f3f903420a4b19c@mail.gmail.com>
	<32976E28D6574183839D4E2DA8687874@acer7e8cb8aec8>
Message-ID: <400985d70912190646q31891f06k590c0f191b923f97@mail.gmail.com>

Mike,

Who serves DTS?  I do.  Actually, the nearest airline service is
Panama City to the East and Mobile to the West (1 hour either way).
There's no easy way to get here by air, even in the Bonanza.  Eglin
AFB has the airspace tied-up to a narrow N-S corridor.  Fuel is
cheaper by at least a buck a gallon in Brewton, AL, right at the gate
to the airspace keyway, so I'll stop there for fuel on the way down
and in Tupelo, MS on the way home (my home base fuel prices are
sky-high as well). It's about an 8 hour drive for us and the way Fan &
Cora pack, even the 777 would struggle.  We'll probably drive it most
of the time.  I'll use the Bo with a buddy and carry some clubs to
make a quick trip to play some golf in the winter.

You're right in the ballpark on values. There's some high-rises that
came on line right after the peak that offer even better deals per
square foot.  The area won't see another boom like the last one but
hopefully things are near bottom.

The Destin-Ft. Walton beaches are probably the nicest in North
America.  The nickname of Destin is the "Worlds Luckiest Fishing
Village".  We haven't checked out the sailing yet.

Brad

On 12/19/09, Michael D. Weisner <mweisner at ebsmed.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> Zillow puts them at $200-250K! Not bad for about 1000 sq ft nearly on the
> beach.  How big is Destin-Ft Walton Beach Airport?  Who serves it?
>
> Mike
>
> From: "Brad Haslett" Saturday, December 19, 2009 7:47 AM
>> Rik,
>>
>> Look at the center of this map, find Henderson Beach State Park, go
>> two blocks east - we're the two green-roofed buildings directly across
>> the street from the beach (after you go to satellite view and zoom).
>>
>> http://www.destin-ation.com/maps_destin.htm
>>
>> We're on a very quiet end of the "main drag" of the old beach highway
>> but only a five-block walk from all the restaurants and shopping. Fan
>> gave a firm NO to any high-rise buildings (said she got enough of that
>> in Beijing) so we're on floor two of two - just high enough for a good
>> view but probably not high enough to avoid a storm surge.  You just
>> pay out the arse for hurricane insurance and hope you get lucky.
>>
>> It only adds an hour to the trip to go through Gulfport so it gives me
>> an excuse to stop and visit with brother Gary and check on business.
>> Hmmm, that would make the travel costs of the trip a write-off.  Gee,
>> hadn't thought of that.
>>
>> Real Estate prices here are about what they were in 2001-02 before the
>> market went nuts (about half of peak). It will be several more
>> months/years before the excess inventory clears.  Those that bought at
>> the peak (2004-05) are, what's that word I'm looking for?, oh yeah,
>> screwed.
>>
>> All of the boat slips are on the inland side and the sailing in the
>> bay is pretty good for a shallow draft.  Even the Gulf side is pretty
>> shallow until you get quite a ways from the shoreline.  I briefly
>> toyed with the idea of bringing my boat down here but decided not to
>> because I can't keep up with the maintenance with her 90 minutes away.
>> Moving the CoraShen to Huntsville, AL and assigning my nephew the
>> maintenance duties should cure that issue.
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> On 12/19/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Duh ..... Destin
>>>
>>> Guess I gotta look and see where that is.
>>>
>>> Rik
>>>
>>> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 9:22 PM, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Brad,
>>>>
>>>> Where abouts is it?
>>>>
>>>> Hope it turns out to be a good bargain for you.
>>>>
>>>> Rik
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 7:05 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> So much for sunshine, it has rained here all day.  However, we've been
>>>>> working on buying a condo in Destin, FL for months and it finally
>>>>> closed today without any final surprises. It was a "short-sale",
>>>>> meaning two different banks own the property that they'll never
>>>>> collect their money on but don't want to foreclose (they can't afford
>>>>> it because they "own" too many just like it). It's been a long and
>>>>> difficult process but worth it for the savings.
>>>>>
>>>>> Cora is one happy child. Me too!
>>>>>
>>>>> Brad
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>>>>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>>>>
>>>>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
>>>> means
>>>> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
>>>> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that,
>>>> and
>>>> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that
>>> means
>>> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
>>> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
>>> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
> --
> I am using the free version of SPAMfighter.
> We are a community of 6 million users fighting spam.
> SPAMfighter has removed 4899 of my spam emails to date.
> Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len
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>
> _______________________________________________
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> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Sat Dec 19 12:22:10 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:22:10 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] The Joys of Youth
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912190528h3f9b9cdx537c4fa1078cb755@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912190528h3f9b9cdx537c4fa1078cb755@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912190922r7e2553bet4583a978d9872c4e@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

Yep .... but wait, it gets worse.

Just wait until it's obvious it doesn't work and see how long it takes to
live down the reputation of being the city that screws everyone. Once people
get pissed off and leave, it'll be a LONG time before they come back.

Our young mayor needs to learn the difference between a spending problem and
a revenue problem

Gov't pensions (and it turns out, wages too) are way out of control. One
advantage a city has over the states is they can file for bankruptcy,
nullify their contracts and start over. Unfortunately, states don't have
that option. My guess is many of them are going to wish they could.

But hey, we asked for it when we allowed gov't workers to unionize. It's one
thing to have a union in a private enterprise where profits (or lack of
them) naturally control the cost. In gov't there is no such control and now
we're seeing exactly why it can't work.

Rik

On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 7:28 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> This is too funny!  How's that HopenChange feeling now Obama Youth?
>
> Brad
>
> -------------------
>
> - Pajamas Media - http://pajamasmedia.com -
>
> A Tax You Can (Almost) Like
>
> Posted By Tom Blumer On December 18, 2009 @ 12:00 am In . Column2 06,
> . Positioning, Education, Money, Politics, US News | 15 Comments
>
> The Steel City may soon come to be known as the Steal City.
>
> In the midst of serious fiscal difficulties, 29-year-old Pittsburgh
> Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who is well on his way to becoming the worst
> ?boy mayor? since Cleveland?s Dennis Kucinich in the 1970s, has
> proposed a 1% tax on tuitions [1] charged at institutions of higher
> learning within his city. He apparently has the support of a majority
> of the City Council. By the time you read this, the tuition tax could
> already be a reality.
>
> Even though it?s an obvious example of intergenerational theft, and
> even though I would never ultimately support it, in some ways I almost
> like the idea.
>
> Don?t get me wrong. I don?t think that any government entity can tax
> its way to prosperity, least of all a city that has lost about 25,000
> people [2] or over 7% of its population since 2000, and almost 50%
> since 1960 [3]. Pittsburgh?s serious problems, which include
> persistent crime [4], massive tracts of vacant or abandoned land [5],
> and flirtations with municipal bankruptcy, aren?t going to be solved
> by trying to extract more dollars from people who can have the final
> say by moving with their feet, as so many others have before.
>
> The mayor?s intended use for the money is, as the Associated Press
> describes it [6], ?to help pay for pensions of retired city
> employees.? This is a tax that if used as advertised (I know, that?s a
> stretch) literally takes money from the mostly young and passes it
> directly to the old with no kind of meaningful benefit provided in
> return ? hence my ?Steal City? nickname.
>
> Whether the money would even solve the problem appears far less than
> certain. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports [7] that the pension fund
> involved ?holds just 31 percent of what it needs to meet its
> obligations.? The $16.2 million the tax might raise is well short of
> ?the $189 million [4] the pension fund will need in the next two years
> to save it from a state takeover.?
>
> The mayor?s discussions with the city?s public and private
> universities have been more like a mob shakedown than an attempt to
> fairly determine what may be legitimate and heretofore unrecognized
> extra costs the schools may be imposing on the community. Of course,
> those costs, if ever identified, have nothing to do with whether
> retired police and firemen continue to get their monthly pension
> checks. The mayor has demanded that the schools cough up $5 million a
> year [1] voluntarily to avoid having the tax imposed. (In light of the
> information in the previous paragraph, assuming that nothing is done
> about costs, how is $5 million even in the neighborhood of being
> enough?) One university president bluntly stated [8] that she ?does
> not negotiate with an ax hanging over? her head.
>
> The mayor?s tactics, as well as the tax?s targets, inadvertently
> reveal the levy?s hidden beauty.
>
> Many students have been led to believe by their state-loving profs, as
> well as by many elementary and secondary school educators who preceded
> them, that the government must always be granted whatever it needs to
> accomplish its objectives, regardless of the costs involved. Now these
> collegians have discovered that the government is not their
> presumptive friend and will eventually turn on them if not reined in.
> Many of them are currently having their entire cost of attendance [9],
> including living expenses, financed by the federal government and
> would be facing an immediate out-of-pocket cost that someone else
> isn?t paying for ranging from [10] ?$27 at the Community College of
> Allegheny County to $409 at Carnegie Mellon University.? They are not
> taking it well.
>
> Faculty and administrators who so loathe the American capitalist model
> of free enterprise and competition have figured out that they would
> have an externally imposed competitive disadvantage against their
> peers outside of Pittsburgh. Perhaps they?ll take a belated interest
> in the city?s fiscal situation. If they do, they?ll likely discover
> that its annual municipal budget of roughly $450 million [7] contains
> more than a little fat.
>
> Moreover, radical faculty members would have a more difficult time
> justifying their ardent love of statism in front of their tax-paying
> students if the government begins in essence biting the hand that
> feeds it philosophical support for its voracious desires. These poor
> saps must be wondering how it can be that Democrat Ravenstahl, who
> attended Pitt for a time, is employing the tactics normally associated
> with romanticized thugs like Chavez, Castro, and Ahmadinejad on his
> ?friends.? Perhaps they?ll begin to understand how the term ?useful
> idiots [11]? applies to them.
>
> My goodness, students are even engaging in anti-tax and anti-spending
> protests [12] like the tea partiers they?ve been taught to despise.
> What?s more, they?re coming up with constructive, cost-saving ideas of
> their own.
>
> Perhaps during all of this the kids will meet up with patriotic
> everyday Americans who will impart important lessons about how free
> markets and limited government are supposed to work. These are lessons
> that they more than likely won?t learn or even hear about at their
> institutions of so-called higher learning. They might also come to
> understand that what Pittsburgh is attempting is a mere microcosm of
> what Social Security has been doing to the young people of America for
> decades.
>
> These would be very good things. Maybe the mayor should threaten such
> a tax every year.
>
> Article printed from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com
>
> URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-tax-you-can-almost-like/
>
> URLs in this post:
>
> [1] a 1% tax on tuitions:
>
> http://www.bizzyblog.com/2009/12/15/pittsburgh-mayors-ultimatum-to-universities-pay-city-millions-or-see-a-tax-on-tuition/
>
> [2] has lost about 25,000 people:
>
> http://www.pittsburghlive.com:8000/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_631739.html
>
> [3] almost 50% since 1960:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh#Demographics
>
> [4] persistent crime: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09253/996932-181.stm
>
> [5] of vacant or abandoned land: http://www.newsweek.com/id/224646
>
> [6] the Associated Press describes it:
>
> http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PITTSBURGH_TUITION_TAX?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-12-16-09-09-31
>
> [7] Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:
> http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09350/1021221-298.stm
>
> [8] bluntly stated: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09349/1021004-53.stm
>
> [9] cost of attendance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_attendance
>
> [10] ranging from:
>
> http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_657689.html
>
> [11] useful idiots: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot
>
> [12] are even engaging in anti-tax and anti-spending protests:
> http://www.wpxi.com/news/21960029/detail.html
>
> Click here to print.
>
> Copyright ? 2009 Pajamas Media. All rights reserved.
>
> _______________________________________________
> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>
> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>



-- 
Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
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From hparsons at parsonsys.com  Sun Dec 20 01:16:34 2009
From: hparsons at parsonsys.com (Herb Parsons)
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:16:34 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Bovine Politics
Message-ID: <5f889a890912192216r67f0f729pcdcc235cdc5b81ab@mail.gmail.com>

Nancy Pelosi was touring the countryside in a chauffeur-driven car when
suddenly, a cow ran out into the road, and they hit it full on. The car came
to a stop and Nancy, in her usual charming manner, said to the chauffeur,
"Get out and check - you were driving."

The chauffeur got out, and reported that the animal was dead and appeared to
be quite old.

"You were driving; hurry up and go and tell the farmer," says Nancy.

Two hours later, the chauffeur returned totally plastered, hair ruffled and
with a big grin on his face.

"My God, what happened to you?" asks Nancy.

The chauffeur replied: "When I got there, the farmer opened his best bottle
of malt whisky, the wife gave me a meal fit for a king and the daughter made
love to me 3 times."

"What on earth did you say to them?" asks Nancy.

"I just knocked on the door and said; 'I'm Nancy Pelosi's chauffeur, and
I've just killed the old cow.'"
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From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec 20 08:05:11 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:05:11 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Bovine Politics
In-Reply-To: <5f889a890912192216r67f0f729pcdcc235cdc5b81ab@mail.gmail.com>
References: <5f889a890912192216r67f0f729pcdcc235cdc5b81ab@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912200505v2d1246c4q2904680d12799c5@mail.gmail.com>

 Shipwreck Fantasy

A Man was washed up on a beach after a shipwreck. Only a sheep and a
sheepdog were washed up with him. After looking around, he realized that they
were stranded on a deserted island.

After being there awhile, he got into the habit of taking his two animal
companions to the beach every evening to watch the sunset.

One particular evening, the sky was a fiery red with beautiful cirrus
clouds, the breeze was warm and gentle - a perfect night for romance. As they
sat there, the sheep started looking better and better to the lonely
man. Soon, he
leaned over to the sheep and put his arm around it.

But the sheepdog, ever protective of the sheep, growled fiercely until
the man took his arm from around the sheep.

After that, the three of them continued to enjoy the sunsets together,
but there was no more cuddling..

A few weeks passed by and, lo and behold, there was another shipwreck.
The only survivor was Nancy Pelosi.

That evening, the man brought Nancy to the evening beach ritual. It was
another beautiful evening - red sky, cirrus clouds, a warm and gentle breeze -
perfect for a night of romance. Pretty soon, the man started to get 'those
feelings' again..

He fought the urges as long as he could but he finally gave in and
leaned over to Nancy and told her he hadn't had sex for months.

Nancy batted her eyelashes and asked if there was anything she could do
for him..

He said, 'Yes. Take the dog for a walk.'




On 12/20/09, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com> wrote:
> Nancy Pelosi was touring the countryside in a chauffeur-driven car when
> suddenly, a cow ran out into the road, and they hit it full on. The car came
> to a stop and Nancy, in her usual charming manner, said to the chauffeur,
> "Get out and check - you were driving."
>
> The chauffeur got out, and reported that the animal was dead and appeared to
> be quite old.
>
> "You were driving; hurry up and go and tell the farmer," says Nancy.
>
> Two hours later, the chauffeur returned totally plastered, hair ruffled and
> with a big grin on his face.
>
> "My God, what happened to you?" asks Nancy.
>
> The chauffeur replied: "When I got there, the farmer opened his best bottle
> of malt whisky, the wife gave me a meal fit for a king and the daughter made
> love to me 3 times."
>
> "What on earth did you say to them?" asks Nancy.
>
> "I just knocked on the door and said; 'I'm Nancy Pelosi's chauffeur, and
> I've just killed the old cow.'"
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec 20 08:24:44 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:24:44 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Life Imitates Art
Message-ID: <400985d70912200524m3fa12d41m5d6f967e04960067@mail.gmail.com>

http://moneyrunner.blogspot.com/2009/12/obama-imitates-saturday-night-live-skit.html

Read article below.

Brad



------------------------

Published on ShanghaiDaily.com (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/)
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200912/20091218/article_423054.htm


Harder to buy US Treasuries
Created: 2009-12-18 0:13:35
Author:Zhou Xin and Jason Subler


IT is getting harder for governments to buy United States Treasuries
because the US's shrinking current-account gap is reducing supply of
dollars overseas, a Chinese central bank official said yesterday.

The comments by Zhu Min, deputy governor of the People's Bank of
China, referred to the overall situation globally, not specifically to
China, the biggest foreign holder of US government bonds.

Chinese officials generally are very careful about commenting on the
dollar and Treasuries, given that so much of its US$2.3 trillion
reserves are tied to their value, and markets always watch any such
comments closely for signs of any shift in how it manages its assets.

China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange reaffirmed this month
that the dollar stands secure as the anchor of the currency reserves
it manages, even as the country seeks to diversify its investments.

In a discussion on the global role of the dollar, Zhu told an academic
audience that it was inevitable that the dollar would continue to fall
in value because Washington continued to issue more Treasuries to
finance its deficit spending.

He then addressed where demand for that debt would come from.

"The United States cannot force foreign governments to increase their
holdings of Treasuries," Zhu said, according to an audio recording of
his remarks. "Double the holdings? It is definitely impossible."

"The US current account deficit is falling as residents' savings
increase, so its trade turnover is falling, which means the US is
supplying fewer dollars to the rest of the world," he added. "The
world does not have so much money to buy more US Treasuries."

China continues to see its foreign exchange reserves grow, albeit at a
slower pace than in past years, due to a large trade surplus and
inflows of foreign investment. They stood at US$2.3 trillion at the
end of September.

From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec 20 08:51:51 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:51:51 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Just Say No!
Message-ID: <400985d70912200551x4024b628sd35b01a772932142@mail.gmail.com>

Buyiao!

So China and India told Obama to "go pound sand".  Boy, that was hard
to predict! Guess they didn't get the HopenChange memo. The sad part
of all this is that Rev. Gore and his worshipers have done a great
disservice to the planet.  Pollution is a real problem and China and
India are two of the worst violators, but they are not going to
cripple their economies over "Kool Aid". What's really interesting is
China's attitude about their national sovereignty, ie, they're not so
interested in any UN brokered "agreement".  Gee, wonder why?  Ya think
it may have something to do with their nation being raped, literally
and figuratively by the Japanese while the League of Nations looked
the other way?

Brad

-------------------------


China blamed as anger mounts over climate deal

? Beijing accused over emissions cuts
? Campaigners say accord 'a disaster'


An outbreak of bitter recrimination has erupted among politicians and
delegates following the drawing up of the Copenhagen accord for
tackling climate change.

The deal, finally hammered out early yesterday, had been expected to
commit countries to deep cuts in carbon emissions. In the end, it fell
short of this goal after China fought hard against strong US pressure
to submit to a regime of international monitoring.

The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, walked out of the conference
at one point, and sent a lowly protocol officer to negotiate with
Barack Obama. In the end, a draft agreement put forward by China ? and
backed by Brazil, India and African nations ? commits the world to the
broad ambition of preventing global temperatures from rising above 2C.
Crucially, however, it does not force any nation to make specific
cuts.

"For the Chinese, this was our sovereignty and our national interest,"
said Xie Zhenhua, head of China's delegation.

Last night, some delegates were openly critical of China for its
intransigence. Asked by the Observer who was to blame for blocking the
introduction of controlled emissions, the director general of the
Swedish environment protection agency, Lars-Erik Liljelund, replied:
"China. China doesn't like numbers." At the same time, others have
criticised the Americans for pushing China too hard.

"President Obama's speech blaming China didn't help," says John
Prescott, writing in today's Observer.

The accord was formally recognised after a dramatic all-night plenary
session, during which the Danish chairman was forced to step aside, a
Venezuelan delegate cut her hand, and Britain's climate and energy
secretary, Ed Miliband, salvaged the deal just as it appeared on the
verge of being rejected.

The tumultuous events concluded a fortnight of fraught and sometimes
machiavellian negotiations that saw a resurgent China link forces with
India, Brazil and African states to thwart efforts by rich nations to
steamroller through a binding treaty that would suit their interests.

Although hailed by Obama, the deal has been condemned by activists and
NGOs, while the European commission's president, Jos? Manuel Barroso,
admitted he was disappointed after EU attempts to introduce long-term
targets for reducing global emissions by 50% by 2050 were blocked.

Last night Miliband was being credited with helping to rescue the
summit from disaster. He had been preparing to go to bed at 4am, after
the main accord had been agreed, only to be called by officials and
warned that several countries were threatening to veto its signature.

Miliband returned to the conference centre in time to hear Sudanese
delegate Lumumba Di-Aping comparing the proposed agreement to the
Holocaust. He said the deal "asked Africa to sign a suicide pact, an
incineration pact, in order to maintain the economic dominance of a
few countries". A furious Miliband intervened and dismissed Di-Aping's
claims as "disgusting".

This was "a moment of profound crisis", Miliband told delegates. The
proposed deal was by no means perfect, and would have many problems,
he admitted. "But it is a document that in substantive ways will make
the lives of people around this planet better because it puts into
effect fast-start finance of $30bn; it puts into effect a plan for
$100bn of long-term public and private finance." The deal was then
agreed by delegates.

The accord makes reference to the need to keep temperature rises to no
more than 2C, and says rich countries will commit to cutting
greenhouse gases, and developing nations will take steps to limit the
growth of their emissions. Countries will be able to set out their
pledges for action in an appendix. In addition, there are provisions
for short-term finance of up to $10bn a year over three years to help
poorer countries fight climate change, and a long-term funding package
worth $100bn a year by 2020.

However, the original plan was for the Copenhagen talks to deliver a
comprehensive, legally binding international deal to tackle climate
change. This has not materialised and last night leaders of NGOs
united in condemning the limited nature of the deal.

"This accord is not legally binding, it's a political statement," said
Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International. "This is a
disaster for the poor nations ? the urgency of climate change was not
really considered."

Dame Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's chief executive, agreed. "World leaders
in Copenhagen seem to have forgotten that they were not negotiating
numbers, they were negotiating lives," she said.


From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec 20 09:14:34 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 08:14:34 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Bovine Politics
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912200505v2d1246c4q2904680d12799c5@mail.gmail.com>
References: <5f889a890912192216r67f0f729pcdcc235cdc5b81ab@mail.gmail.com>
	<400985d70912200505v2d1246c4q2904680d12799c5@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912200614t5d0cb353jae3f7fa61a89aa4@mail.gmail.com>

A quick follow-up.  This has been labeled as the "Tiger Would" photo -

http://tinyurl.com/yjvf7sd

Brad

On 12/20/09, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>  Shipwreck Fantasy
>
> A Man was washed up on a beach after a shipwreck. Only a sheep and a
> sheepdog were washed up with him. After looking around, he realized that
> they
> were stranded on a deserted island.
>
> After being there awhile, he got into the habit of taking his two animal
> companions to the beach every evening to watch the sunset.
>
> One particular evening, the sky was a fiery red with beautiful cirrus
> clouds, the breeze was warm and gentle - a perfect night for romance. As
> they
> sat there, the sheep started looking better and better to the lonely
> man. Soon, he
> leaned over to the sheep and put his arm around it.
>
> But the sheepdog, ever protective of the sheep, growled fiercely until
> the man took his arm from around the sheep.
>
> After that, the three of them continued to enjoy the sunsets together,
> but there was no more cuddling..
>
> A few weeks passed by and, lo and behold, there was another shipwreck.
> The only survivor was Nancy Pelosi.
>
> That evening, the man brought Nancy to the evening beach ritual. It was
> another beautiful evening - red sky, cirrus clouds, a warm and gentle breeze
> -
> perfect for a night of romance. Pretty soon, the man started to get 'those
> feelings' again..
>
> He fought the urges as long as he could but he finally gave in and
> leaned over to Nancy and told her he hadn't had sex for months.
>
> Nancy batted her eyelashes and asked if there was anything she could do
> for him..
>
> He said, 'Yes. Take the dog for a walk.'
>
>
>
>
> On 12/20/09, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com> wrote:
>> Nancy Pelosi was touring the countryside in a chauffeur-driven car when
>> suddenly, a cow ran out into the road, and they hit it full on. The car
>> came
>> to a stop and Nancy, in her usual charming manner, said to the chauffeur,
>> "Get out and check - you were driving."
>>
>> The chauffeur got out, and reported that the animal was dead and appeared
>> to
>> be quite old.
>>
>> "You were driving; hurry up and go and tell the farmer," says Nancy.
>>
>> Two hours later, the chauffeur returned totally plastered, hair ruffled
>> and
>> with a big grin on his face.
>>
>> "My God, what happened to you?" asks Nancy.
>>
>> The chauffeur replied: "When I got there, the farmer opened his best
>> bottle
>> of malt whisky, the wife gave me a meal fit for a king and the daughter
>> made
>> love to me 3 times."
>>
>> "What on earth did you say to them?" asks Nancy.
>>
>> "I just knocked on the door and said; 'I'm Nancy Pelosi's chauffeur, and
>> I've just killed the old cow.'"
>>
>

From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec 20 10:33:08 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:33:08 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] The Joys of Youth
In-Reply-To: <6634e19e0912190922r7e2553bet4583a978d9872c4e@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912190528h3f9b9cdx537c4fa1078cb755@mail.gmail.com>
	<6634e19e0912190922r7e2553bet4583a978d9872c4e@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <400985d70912200733q2f4ea2f6r945af5b4c30fda1a@mail.gmail.com>

Rik,

During the early stages of the current economic downturn, my wife's
employer (also mine) cut contributions to the defined contribution
retirement plan (they eliminated the defined benefit for all but
pilot's years ago), froze salaries, stopped bonuses, and cut spending
to the bone. There was a lot of grumbling if not outright bitching,
but as other companies cut jobs altogether the "peasants" accepted the
changes.  On my side (collective bargaining), hours were cut
substantially and the contract was amended by side letters of
agreement to reflect the new economic realities.

As the excerpt from a New York Daily Post outlines, the public sector
is slow to react to reality, if at all. With the current average
earnings for federal employees topping $71K versus $40K in the private
sector, and with very little threat of a layoff working for "big
gubmint", you have to wonder how long it will take for the natives to
get restless.  The answer may be the fact that the Tea Party is
polling higher than either the Donkeys or the Elephants. I've said for
months that under funded pension plans in the public sector was the
800 pound gorilla in the room everyone wants to ignore.  The 'day of
reckoning' is upon us.

Brad

--------------

Unions feed as city bleeds

The disastrous decision by the City Council to kill a jobs-generating,
$300 million development project in The Bronx was a scary sign of the
rise of union power. But it's not the only one.

Virtually every day brings fresh evidence of how unions and their
captive politicians are taking New York down a destructive path.

Consider the slash-and-burn MTA service cuts, which include a plan to
end free rides for hundreds of thousands of students. It's no accident
the decision, aimed at saving $400 million, comes as the agency is
forced by the courts to pay raises of $300 million over two years.

At nearly 4 percent a year for each worker, the raises, first granted
by a suspect arbitration process, mean the MTA's first obligation is
to a union-protection racket instead of to paying customers. To cut
services while giving raises in a recession is insane.

Something similar is happening with schools. Gov. Paterson's attempt
to keep the state from running out of cash by delaying a fairly minor
state-aid payment of $146 million was met with a lawsuit. The teachers
union and some school boards claim he has no right to make the
decision without legislative approval.

That would be the same Legislature that, when the union says jump,
asks "how high."

Paterson showed courage by also calling the lawsuit the selfish act it is.

"We're supposed to get all the money and everybody else can just
divide up the crumbs," he said of the attitude behind the suit. "It's
clear to me they don't care about anybody but themselves."

The long-term impact of excessive union pandering is reflected by a
Citizens Budget Commission study. Working with the Partnership for New
York, it surveyed 52 large firms and found the city could save about
$1.4 billion annually simply by providing the same health-insurance
benefits as private firms.

Pension savings would be astronomical if the city could follow the
private-market system of defined contributions instead of defined
benefits.

Instead, it's locked into exorbitant and outdated plans. Taxpayers
this year alone are paying $10.4 billion for the health insurance of
employees and retirees and pensions for current workers.

In short, the problem is bad and getting worse. Each and every day.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/dreading_our_future_EmFMYk61Kja4iC3EMYePVP/1#ixzz0a9EiRaNv


On 12/19/09, Rik Sandberg <sanderico1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Brad,
>
> Yep .... but wait, it gets worse.
>
> Just wait until it's obvious it doesn't work and see how long it takes to
> live down the reputation of being the city that screws everyone. Once people
> get pissed off and leave, it'll be a LONG time before they come back.
>
> Our young mayor needs to learn the difference between a spending problem and
> a revenue problem
>
> Gov't pensions (and it turns out, wages too) are way out of control. One
> advantage a city has over the states is they can file for bankruptcy,
> nullify their contracts and start over. Unfortunately, states don't have
> that option. My guess is many of them are going to wish they could.
>
> But hey, we asked for it when we allowed gov't workers to unionize. It's one
> thing to have a union in a private enterprise where profits (or lack of
> them) naturally control the cost. In gov't there is no such control and now
> we're seeing exactly why it can't work.
>
> Rik
>
> On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 7:28 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> This is too funny!  How's that HopenChange feeling now Obama Youth?
>>
>> Brad
>>
>> -------------------
>>
>> - Pajamas Media - http://pajamasmedia.com -
>>
>> A Tax You Can (Almost) Like
>>
>> Posted By Tom Blumer On December 18, 2009 @ 12:00 am In . Column2 06,
>> . Positioning, Education, Money, Politics, US News | 15 Comments
>>
>> The Steel City may soon come to be known as the Steal City.
>>
>> In the midst of serious fiscal difficulties, 29-year-old Pittsburgh
>> Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who is well on his way to becoming the worst
>> ?boy mayor? since Cleveland?s Dennis Kucinich in the 1970s, has
>> proposed a 1% tax on tuitions [1] charged at institutions of higher
>> learning within his city. He apparently has the support of a majority
>> of the City Council. By the time you read this, the tuition tax could
>> already be a reality.
>>
>> Even though it?s an obvious example of intergenerational theft, and
>> even though I would never ultimately support it, in some ways I almost
>> like the idea.
>>
>> Don?t get me wrong. I don?t think that any government entity can tax
>> its way to prosperity, least of all a city that has lost about 25,000
>> people [2] or over 7% of its population since 2000, and almost 50%
>> since 1960 [3]. Pittsburgh?s serious problems, which include
>> persistent crime [4], massive tracts of vacant or abandoned land [5],
>> and flirtations with municipal bankruptcy, aren?t going to be solved
>> by trying to extract more dollars from people who can have the final
>> say by moving with their feet, as so many others have before.
>>
>> The mayor?s intended use for the money is, as the Associated Press
>> describes it [6], ?to help pay for pensions of retired city
>> employees.? This is a tax that if used as advertised (I know, that?s a
>> stretch) literally takes money from the mostly young and passes it
>> directly to the old with no kind of meaningful benefit provided in
>> return ? hence my ?Steal City? nickname.
>>
>> Whether the money would even solve the problem appears far less than
>> certain. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports [7] that the pension fund
>> involved ?holds just 31 percent of what it needs to meet its
>> obligations.? The $16.2 million the tax might raise is well short of
>> ?the $189 million [4] the pension fund will need in the next two years
>> to save it from a state takeover.?
>>
>> The mayor?s discussions with the city?s public and private
>> universities have been more like a mob shakedown than an attempt to
>> fairly determine what may be legitimate and heretofore unrecognized
>> extra costs the schools may be imposing on the community. Of course,
>> those costs, if ever identified, have nothing to do with whether
>> retired police and firemen continue to get their monthly pension
>> checks. The mayor has demanded that the schools cough up $5 million a
>> year [1] voluntarily to avoid having the tax imposed. (In light of the
>> information in the previous paragraph, assuming that nothing is done
>> about costs, how is $5 million even in the neighborhood of being
>> enough?) One university president bluntly stated [8] that she ?does
>> not negotiate with an ax hanging over? her head.
>>
>> The mayor?s tactics, as well as the tax?s targets, inadvertently
>> reveal the levy?s hidden beauty.
>>
>> Many students have been led to believe by their state-loving profs, as
>> well as by many elementary and secondary school educators who preceded
>> them, that the government must always be granted whatever it needs to
>> accomplish its objectives, regardless of the costs involved. Now these
>> collegians have discovered that the government is not their
>> presumptive friend and will eventually turn on them if not reined in.
>> Many of them are currently having their entire cost of attendance [9],
>> including living expenses, financed by the federal government and
>> would be facing an immediate out-of-pocket cost that someone else
>> isn?t paying for ranging from [10] ?$27 at the Community College of
>> Allegheny County to $409 at Carnegie Mellon University.? They are not
>> taking it well.
>>
>> Faculty and administrators who so loathe the American capitalist model
>> of free enterprise and competition have figured out that they would
>> have an externally imposed competitive disadvantage against their
>> peers outside of Pittsburgh. Perhaps they?ll take a belated interest
>> in the city?s fiscal situation. If they do, they?ll likely discover
>> that its annual municipal budget of roughly $450 million [7] contains
>> more than a little fat.
>>
>> Moreover, radical faculty members would have a more difficult time
>> justifying their ardent love of statism in front of their tax-paying
>> students if the government begins in essence biting the hand that
>> feeds it philosophical support for its voracious desires. These poor
>> saps must be wondering how it can be that Democrat Ravenstahl, who
>> attended Pitt for a time, is employing the tactics normally associated
>> with romanticized thugs like Chavez, Castro, and Ahmadinejad on his
>> ?friends.? Perhaps they?ll begin to understand how the term ?useful
>> idiots [11]? applies to them.
>>
>> My goodness, students are even engaging in anti-tax and anti-spending
>> protests [12] like the tea partiers they?ve been taught to despise.
>> What?s more, they?re coming up with constructive, cost-saving ideas of
>> their own.
>>
>> Perhaps during all of this the kids will meet up with patriotic
>> everyday Americans who will impart important lessons about how free
>> markets and limited government are supposed to work. These are lessons
>> that they more than likely won?t learn or even hear about at their
>> institutions of so-called higher learning. They might also come to
>> understand that what Pittsburgh is attempting is a mere microcosm of
>> what Social Security has been doing to the young people of America for
>> decades.
>>
>> These would be very good things. Maybe the mayor should threaten such
>> a tax every year.
>>
>> Article printed from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com
>>
>> URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-tax-you-can-almost-like/
>>
>> URLs in this post:
>>
>> [1] a 1% tax on tuitions:
>>
>> http://www.bizzyblog.com/2009/12/15/pittsburgh-mayors-ultimatum-to-universities-pay-city-millions-or-see-a-tax-on-tuition/
>>
>> [2] has lost about 25,000 people:
>>
>> http://www.pittsburghlive.com:8000/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_631739.html
>>
>> [3] almost 50% since 1960:
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh#Demographics
>>
>> [4] persistent crime: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09253/996932-181.stm
>>
>> [5] of vacant or abandoned land: http://www.newsweek.com/id/224646
>>
>> [6] the Associated Press describes it:
>>
>> http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PITTSBURGH_TUITION_TAX?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2009-12-16-09-09-31
>>
>> [7] Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:
>> http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09350/1021221-298.stm
>>
>> [8] bluntly stated: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09349/1021004-53.stm
>>
>> [9] cost of attendance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_attendance
>>
>> [10] ranging from:
>>
>> http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_657689.html
>>
>> [11] useful idiots: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot
>>
>> [12] are even engaging in anti-tax and anti-spending protests:
>> http://www.wpxi.com/news/21960029/detail.html
>>
>> Click here to print.
>>
>> Copyright ? 2009 Pajamas Media. All rights reserved.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> SwiftwaterGazette mailing list
>> SwiftwaterGazette at mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com
>>
>> http://mailman.theswiftwatergazette.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/swiftwatergazette
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means
> turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling
> other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and
> they are a menace to everyone else's freedom. ...Thomas Sowell
>


From flybrad at gmail.com  Sun Dec 20 10:40:46 2009
From: flybrad at gmail.com (Brad Haslett)
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:40:46 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Global Warming Solved!
Message-ID: <400985d70912200740r2894cda2k68902e8821d2f268@mail.gmail.com>

Scott Ott's Examiner Scrappleface: Obama Copenhagen speech solves climate crisis
By: Scott Ott
Examiner Columnist
December 18, 2009

News fairly unbalanced. We report. You decipher.

Delegates to the global climate conference in Copenhagen sat in
stunned silence today as President Obama solved the global warming
crisis with a single 25-minute speech.

"While the challenges we face may seem insoluble," the Nobel laureate
said, "the solution is actually quite simple. It's historically
reliable. It works every time it's sincerely tried."

"Basically, the problem is that poor nations are broke," Obama
explained, "and rich nations don't want to throw their money down a
totalitarian rathole, into the hands of tyrants who see this treaty as
a gold mine and who have no intention of reducing carbon emissions.
Since we need trillions of dollars to fund development of speculative
green technologies, the only answer is for the poor nations to get
rich fast."

Obama said the broad outlines of his plan included having poor nations
"adopt the time-tested Protestant work ethic, free-market capitalism
and equal justice under law."

"Once you see your vocation as a calling from God," he said, "you work
diligently toward excellence, to bring glory to your creator. If your
property rights are guaranteed under law, you work to improve yours,
and to acquire more, by serving others. Under my plan, within half a
century, the less-developed nations will go from being pathetic
dependents to equal trading partners."

While skeptics said the president's plan would put off a solution
until the world's coastlands were under water, Obama said, "Free men
and women solve problems for profit, for accolades and for inscrutable
personal purposes ... but they do solve problems. If, in five decades,
there's still a climate crisis, we can all get together, kick in an
equal share per capita, and hire someone to fix it."

Examiner columnist Scott Ott is editor in chief of ScrappleFace.com,
the world's leading family-friendly news satire source.



Find this article at:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Obama-Copenhagen-speech-solves-climate-crisis-8666528-79570882.html

From sanderico1 at gmail.com  Sun Dec 20 11:07:35 2009
From: sanderico1 at gmail.com (Rik Sandberg)
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2009 10:07:35 -0600
Subject: [Swiftwater Gazette] Just Say No!
In-Reply-To: <400985d70912200551x4024b628sd35b01a772932142@mail.gmail.com>
References: <400985d70912200551x4024b628sd35b01a772932142@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <6634e19e0912200807y14cf29a3w2eb47dbd2eb03f03@mail.gmail.com>

Brad,

You just have to laugh. When they decided to call it climate change instead
of global warming, I wondered if we still use the same recipe to prevent all
the possible variations of change, ie less CO2. Seems to me cooling would
require a whole different plan, no?? Anybody seen the plan for cooling
yet??? Yeah, I didn't think so.

And, if one has been paying attention, which obviously, most in Copenhagen
have not, he would know that there hasn't been any warming for 15 years and
in fact there has been cooling for the last 9 of those 15.

It's a shame when so much faith is put in models that when the model doesn't
fit the actual trend, it must be the data that is wrong ..... not the model.
In nature, as in the stock or commodities markets, past performance is no
guarantee of future results.

Maybe if these climate scientist would get out a little more, they'd get a
chance to read some of the physicists work that says CO2 is not physically
capable of doing what they say it is. You never hear the real greenhouse
gas, water vapor, mentioned at all in these discussions.

Frankly, it is getting to be quite tiresome listening to all the poor
countries talk about how the industrial nations are keeping them in poverty.
REALLY! Am I supposed to take this seriously from someone like Robert
Mugabe?? Or how about Hugo Chavez?? Hell, if it weren't for oil, he wouldn't
have a pot to pee in, but listen to the socialists cheer when he speaks.
It's just so mind bogglingly stupid .... well, words fail me.

All that treaty intended was to set up a world tax plan which would
basically say: If you get up and go to work everyday, you owe a large sum of
money to those who don't...... Kinda like Obama-care.

Rik

On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 7:51 AM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:

> Buyiao!
>
> So China and India told Obama to "go pound sand".  Boy, that was hard
> to predict! Guess they didn't get the HopenChange memo. The sad part
> of all this is that Rev. Gore and his worshipers have done a great
> disservice to the planet.  Pollution is a real problem and China and
> India are two of the worst violators, but they are not going to
> cripple their economies over "Kool Aid". What's really interesting is
> China's attitude about their national sovereignty, ie, they're not so
> interested in any UN brokered "agreement".  Gee, wonder why?  Ya think
> it may have something to do with their nation being raped, literally
> and figuratively by the Japanese while the League of Nations looked
> the other way?
>
> Brad
>
> -------------------------
>
>
> China blamed as anger mounts over climate deal
>
> ? Beijing accused over emissions cuts
> ? Campaigners say accord 'a disaster'
>
>
> An outbreak of bitter recrimination has erupted among politicians and
> delegates following the drawing up of the Copenhagen accord for
> tackling climate change.
>
> The deal, finally hammered out early yesterday, had been expected to
> commit countries to deep cuts in carbon emissions. In the end, it fell
> short of this goal after China fought hard against strong US pressure
> to submit to a regime of international monitoring.
>
> The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, walked out of the conference
> at one point, and sent a lowly protocol officer to negotiate with
> Barack Obama. In the end, a draft agreement put forward by China ? and
> backed by Brazil, India and African nations ? commits the world to the
> broad ambition of preventing global temperatures from rising above 2C.
> Crucially, however, it does not force any nation to make specific
> cuts.
>
> "For the Chinese, this was our sovereignty and our national interest,"
> said Xie Zhenhua, head of China's delegation.
>
> Last night, some delegates were openly critical of China for its
> intransigence. Asked by the Observer who was to blame for blocking the
> introduction of controlled emissions, the director general of the
> Swedish environment protection agency, Lars-Erik Liljelund, replied:
> "China. China doesn't like numbers." At the same time, others have
> criticised the Americans for pushing China too hard.
>
> "President Obama's speech blaming China didn't help," says John
> Prescott, writing in today's Observer.
>
> The accord was formally recognised after a dramatic all-night plenary
> session, during which the Danish chairman was forced to step aside, a
> Venezuelan delegate cut her hand, and Britain's climate and energy
> secretary, Ed Miliband, salvaged the deal just as it appeared on the
> verge of being rejected.
>
> The tumultuous events concluded a fortnight of fraught and sometimes
> machiavellian negotiations that saw a resurgent China link forces with
> India, Brazil and African states to thwart efforts by rich nations to
> steamroller through a binding treaty that would suit their interests.
>
> Although hailed by Obama, the deal has been condemned by activists and
> NGOs, while the European commission's president, Jos? Manuel Barroso,
> admitted he was disappointed after EU attempts to introduce long-term
> targets for reducing global emissions by 50% by 2050 were blocked.
>
> Last night Miliband was being credited with helping to rescue the
> summit from disaster. He had been preparing to go to bed at 4am, after
> the main accord had been agreed, only to be called by officials and
> warned that several countries were threatening to veto its signature.
>
> Miliband returned t