Wednesday, July 03, 2013

There are no words to express how bad an idea the interception of President Morales' plane has been. Really bad idea.

A man burns the French flag outside France's embassy in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday. Bolivia's President Evo Morales is returning home late today, after his plane was not allowed to fly in the airspace of France and other countries.

Let's just say the entire idea was completely and absolutely unthinkable. So, whomever believed it was okay to even think they could carry out such a plot is at least that much a threat to the USA national security and that of it's allies.

July 3, 2013

...Morales was forced to land (click here) at an airport in Vienna, Austria, where his plane landed after France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy reportedly refused permission to fly over their territories, as last night.

"Austrian officials said Morales' plane was searched early Wednesday by Austrian border police after Morales gave permission," . "Bolivian and Austrian officials both say Snowden was not on board."

"We're talking about the president on an official trip after an official summit being kidnapped," Bolivia's U.N. Ambassador Sacha Llorenti Soliz told reporters in Geneva, according to Britain's .

Speaking to reporters at Vienna's airport last night, Morales used similar language, adding that the governments of France, Italy, Portugal and Spain had made a mistake of historic proportions....

In order to understand how grievous this issue is every nation's leader should be in this circumstance and understand what occurred. This could be Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin, David Cameron or Barak Obama.  The leaders of nations globally don't travel battle ready. They travel along secure flight paths to avoid danger. These flight paths are well planned. 

The airports these leaders land in and take off from are ready to handle any emergency, medical or otherwise. There are people on standby to assist when government leaders attend important global meetings. These are huge events where many leaders attend. If for some reason there was some kind of tragedy at such a meeting there would be many nations with their leadership reacting to trauma. These meetings are very well planned, both for the sponsoring country and those attending. I kind of think of these meetings like the Olympics only of higher order of concern.

To think President Morales was removed from his secure flight path is the first insult to the security of that man and his status. To realize then he was forced to circle in airspace without a resolve is the second insult to the man and his status. To realize this is occurring in European airspace implicates the entire European Union and their standards for operation of such safe airspace. Then the plane was forced to find a place to land for the sake of fuel, either friendly or hostile. Then the plane was boarded while President Morales was forced to sit someplace unknown to his nation in a waiting room in an airport. 

This is bizarre. This is more than bizarre. Bizarre is not allowed in the security of leaders of sovereign nations.

Now, what were the people that boarded looking for? Mr. Snowden. Based on what? Intelligence, information received from the Russia foreign service? Please some kind of reason other than a populous television show. Nope. The security of this man and his status was compromised because of a populous television show where he was living up to his image to the folks back hom.

This was not a reason to board a President's plane. Let's just take this one step further. What if Mr. Snowden actually had assistance by the stewardess he laid the night before and was smuggled on to the President's plane. Then he is found in a baggage compartment by those searching the plane. He is apprehended. What then happens to President Morales? Is he an accomplice? Does the government that searched his plane have plans to hold the plane without fuel and arrest President Morales.

To say this was a bad idea doesn't begin to explain how completely unthinkable these actions sincerely are.

You have to pay attention to the corruption to understand the level of disregard for citizens that exist.

Jeb Bush hosts fundraiser for Maine governor (click here)
 
July 02, 2013 22:28 EDT


KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) -- Last month, Maine Gov. Paul LePage surprised some observers by saying he might run for Congress. But he's confirmed at a fundraiser that he's committed to seeking re-election.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush headlined the event Tuesday evening for Republican Gov. Paul LePage's re-election campaign. The fundraiser was held at the Nonantum Resort in Kennebunkport, where Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush, has a seaside retreat.
State Sen. Andre Cushing told news reporters that LePage told supporters he intends to seek a second term.
A private session and photo opportunity cost $2,000 per person or $3,000 per couple. General admission was $150. LePage will report his fundraising totals to election officials later this month.

Fair enough. Jeb Bush comes out to support an unpopular Governor lucky to be in office at all. The article below points to the fact Le Page was only elected by 38% of the vote because of a three way race. It is reasonable to believe Le Page is going to need all the help he can get in the next election. It all seem fairly "legit." The two governors worked together on education, too.

July 3, 2012

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s plans for 2016 are still unclear, (click here) but he is certain who he wants to be in the governors office in Maine.
According to the Portland Press Herald, Bush was the big draw at a $150-per person fundraiser for controversial Maine Gov. Paul LePage.
LePage is a Tea Party backed Republican who has caused a stir last year in Maine by comparing the IRS to the Nazi Gestapo.
And last month he vetoed the Maine Legislature entire state budget because it included a temporary sales tax increase. But the Legislature last week overrode his veto in a bipartisan vote because they said it would lead to government shutdowns.
LePage won just 38 percent of the vote to become Maine’s governor in 2010 in a three-way race.
A Bush spokesperson told the Associated Press that Bush and LePage have worked together in the past on education issues....

This is where it gets interesting. "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours." How convenient. State treasuries just waiting for the wisdom of Jeb Bush.

E-mails link Bush foundation, corporations and education officials (click here)

By Valerie Strauss
January 30, 2013

A nonprofit group released thousands of e-mails today and said they show how a foundation begun by Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and national education reform leader, is working with public officials in states to write education laws that could benefit some of its corporate funders.
A call to the foundation has not been returned.

The e-mails are between the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE) and a group Bush set up called Chiefs for Change, whose members are current and former state education commissioners who support Bush’s agenda of school reform, which includes school choice, online education, retention of third-graders who can’t read and school accountability systems based on standardized tests. That includes evaluating teachers based on student test scores and grading schools A-F based on test scores. John White of Louisiana is a current member, as is Tony Bennett, the new commissioner of Florida who got the job after Indiana voters rejected his Bush-style reforms last November and tossed him out of office....

July 2, 2013
...Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush headlined the private event Tuesday at the Nonantum Resort.
Bush, thought to be weighing a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, is the son of former President George H.W. Bush and the brother of former President George W. Bush. Known for moderate political views, he has expressed hope that the GOP can evolve into the party of "inclusion and acceptance."
But the Democratic National Committee seized on Bush's support for LePage as an example of how Republican leaders "remain beholden to the tea party base that continues to call the shots in today's GOP."
"Jeb Bush's work in support of Paul LePage, one of the most controversial and unpopular governors in the country, proves that the Republican Party didn't learn from their mistakes in 2012 and have no intention of changing their ways," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Michael Czin.
Bush spokesman Jaryn Emhof said that Bush was inspired to help LePage by their history of working together....

I bet.


The Nonantum Resort (click here) is located in Kennebunkport, Maine, one of New England’s most famous seaside villages.  Best known for its pristine beaches and rocky shores -- edged by period waterfront cottages -- Kennebunkport has preserved the essence of a traditional three-season vacation destination.  The Resort is an easy walk to the shops, galleries and restaurants of Dock Square as well as some of the most pristine beaches on the East Coast....

One has to wonder how credible any statement by Governor LePage actually is when he is playing footsie with corruption on the Mainers' state treasury. He can't be trusted. The only reason Bush threw the fundraiser was for return funding from the state treasury. He probably should be impeached. Do doubt the good people of Maine have patience until the elections and that is unfortunate. LePage does a lot of damage to the futures and current economy of Maine.

Ah, the poor American is threatened yet again with oil price increases, but, why?

July 3, 2013
As oil supplies fell (click here) in the last week by about 10 million barrels and unrest in Egypt roils oil and financial markets, drivers can expect a bump in gas prices this Independence Day weekend, say petroleum watchers.
The political turmoil in Egypt intensified as the Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi said on Wednesday that he will stay in office despite an ultimatum that he meet the demands of protesters or else the military will suspend the constitution and disband parliament... 

The Egyptian democracy? That has nothing to do with the price of oil in the USA. It is fascinating to watch Wall Street exploit the meager understandings of the American people.

One of Egypt's challenges (click here) is to satisfy increasing domestic demand for oil in the midst of falling domestic production. Although in recent years, oil output has experienced moderate increases from new production at smaller fields.

Egypt produces more LNG than oil and it is primarily shipped through the Suez Canal and pipelines to the Persian Gulf. So, what has the Egyptian democracy got to do with gas hikes?

The propaganda in the USA is absolutely ludicrous. As soon as there is any kind of 'trauma' anywhere in the world it is an excuse for oil commodities to skyrocket and "Oh the poor American is expecting every bit of it."

You can tell Americans don't think on a regular basis, because, if they did they would know the reason people are upset in Egypt is because the economy AND availability of gas for Egyptian cars has dwindled. The people of Egypt are upset.  For very real reasons. They can't get around with their automobiles and they don't have electric cars.

I see this dilemma as interesting.

Under President Mubarak the oil obtained from Egyptian oil wells was refined and sold domestically in Egypt. Now, under President or should I say former President Morsi Egyptians have no gasoline in their tanks. So, where did the oil go? Not to domestic refineries otherwise there would be no interruption in the gas supply to the Egyptian citizens. 

That is a question I am sure every Egyptian is asking. I have to wonder what the next stop for the former President will be, a cell next to Mubarak?

Oh, that phenomena with Americans? "Push button." The American consumer is push button. Makes all the politics easy. I mean, why not get mad enough to declare war on Egypt after all?

The plane was actually searched. That is a measure too far. This is pure foolishness.

The West actually believes a Wall Street hacker would be on the same plane as a sovereign nation's President? 

The President's security alone would dictate otherwise. Snowden is nobody compared to President Morales safety and security. Evidently, this speaks more to the real security issues the USA continues to have. It would seem Bolivia appreciates the importance of the security and safety of their President.

This occurred with no real intelligence. None. A television appearance to a populous audience is not intelligence. There were no validating facts to even attempt this foolishness. 

This level of idiocy is more reflective of the Bush grandstanding presidency rather than Obama. Is there no dignity within the USA government anymore? Anything goes, huh? Stop planes with sovereign leaders and even search them for wayward employees of Wall Street. Well, isn't this something.

When is Congress going to actually hold hearings regarding Carlyle and their subsidiaries? The Congress might even want to have some FACTS from their intelligence agencies before they start the questioning rather than waving their financial portfolios as they did iPhones at the Apple executives.

I apologize to President Morales of Bolivia. Evidently, the USA has a chronic struggle separating issues of sovereign business from that of Wall Street ineptness. Mr. Snowden was not qualified for the position he held. He might have been excellent at punching the keyboard to find his way into secure websites elsewhere, but he hardly had the correct focus to trust. The job, once begun, scared the living daylights out of the guy.

Currently in the USA Wall Street Executives have more rights than the citizens do and this is a reflection. In the USA money can buy this sort of flamboyant global chase to distract from the real problem and the real culprits. It doesn't matter the differences that exist between Bolivia and the USA, kidnapping a President and hijacking his plane for an illegal search based in complete populism is simply "W"rong.

This was not only humiliating it assailed the sovereign security of Bolivia. This is muscle flexing imagined out of fabricated ideas and not the truth. In all honesty this is more a humiliation of the USA and it's current political state than that of Bolivia.

July 3, 2013

A senior Bolivian diplomat (click here) said the Austrians had acted at the bidding of the United States, which has been trying to get its hands on Snowden since he revealed details of its secret surveillance programs last month.
"We're talking about the president on an official trip after an official summit being kidnapped," Bolivia's ambassador to the United Nations, Sacha Llorenti Soliz, told reporters in Geneva.
The Bolivian plane, which was taking Morales home from an energy conference in Moscow, was stranded at Vienna airport for several hours after Portugal and France refused to allow it to fly through their airspace.
The search found that Snowden was not onboard and the plane eventually left Vienna about noon on Wednesday....

The proposed abortion laws in Texas expose cowardess in primary elections.

This the Chairman of the Texas Republican Party. The Party is having problems with funding.

Steve Munisteri (click here) was elected Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas on June 13, 2010 at the Republican State Convention in Fort Worth, Texas. Munisteri defeated the incumbent State Chairman, Ms. Cathie Adams....

...Upon his election, Munisteri initially focused on the Party’s financial difficulties. He inherited liabilities in excess of $700,000 and the Party’s liabilities exceeded the Party’s assets by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Munisteri then initiated a series of structural and financial reforms, including the elimination of some positions, renegotiating contracts, restructuring the Party's debt, and budget cuts which resulted in reducing its monthly obligations from approximately $139,000 per month to a little over $90,000....

Texas is notorious for having wealthy Christian extremists. It is those extremists the abortion law is targeting.

We already know abortions are about women. But, these abortion laws in Texas are a covert measure to raise funds for the GOP primary elections. If Governor Perry and his colleagues in the State Senate and State House can convince the Texas religious periphery of their worthiness as devoted and godly legislators, these monies will pour into the Texas GOP coffers and perhaps even carry Perry into the Oval Office. 

These laws in Texas as in other states across the USA where GOP extremists need monies to win elections completely disregard the public trust and the health of women. These proposed laws have absolutely no basis in medical practice and tie the hands of physicians when protecting a woman's life. These are a gross affront to the ethical standards of all these state legislative bodies. 

Those bringing these laws to the floor of any State legislative chamber, even into committee, need to be pursued for ethical violations. The ethical complaints need to go forward and the wayward legislators made to prove their laws are based in sound medical and surgical practice in the USA. I am quite sure the American Medical Association has clear insight to these matters.

Populous legislation can happen, but, not when it comes to saving the lives of women. 

There is no reason why expert testimony should not be entered into the testimony regarding these laws. They are seriously imperiling the lives of women. They simply are wayward and populous laws toying with lives. 

July 2, 2013
By Chris Tomlinson 

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — More than 2,300 people (click here) signed up to testify about proposed abortion restrictions before a Texas House committee on Tuesday, but rules imposed by the panel’s top Republican mean no more than 100 members of the public would get a chance to speak.


State Rep. Byron Cook imposed an eight-hour limit on the hearing, with each person getting just three minutes before the committee, and he chose a room with only 67 seats. The restrictions come after a similar hearing two weeks ago turned into a 12-hour marathon when 700 protesters slowed the passage of the bill in the first special session. A Democratic filibuster and an angry crowd stopped the bill from becoming law a few days later leading GOP Gov. Rick Perry to call the Legislature back for a second special session....

The Hurricane

July 2, 2013
0100 GMT (0800 EST)
The Weather Channel Actual Highs Temperature Map

The east Pacific tropical storm has dropped it's central pressure to 987 millibars and increased it's velocity to 65 knots per hour. 

Hurricane Dalila is pushing heat from the troposphere into an already hot Pacific Ocean. It is cooling the land/terra firma as I write this.

July 3, 2013
1230:20z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES East Satellite (click here for 12 hour loop)

The hurricane is at the left margin of the image south of the Baja Peninsula.

The vapor trail is still intact, however, the unrealistic hope there would be three storms has proven unfruitful. The tropospheric heat was absorbed by the hurricane. Better that than nothing. There is a near shore accumulation of water vapor over Belize. But, nothing else.

July 3, 2013
1230:20z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES West Satellite (click here for 12 hour loop)

Hurricane Dalila is south of the Baja Peninsula, however, there is another interesting circulation center in the east Pacific northeast of Hawaii. It is more upper troposphere with sparse water vapor at this point, but, it bears watching. 

The reason it is a concern to me is the FACT it is beginning to pick up equatorial water vapor. When these systems increase their water vapor content they accelerate their velocities.

GET RID OF HER

She can't do math. She has done nothing but hold every companies and associations hand since the Affordable Care Act was passed.

She is completely ineffective as Cabinet Secretary during a time when we need competency most.

She needs to be replaced, now. No more waivers, mo more waiting. NOW!