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POPSMore Delays With Iraq SOFA A majority of the Iraqi parliament wrote to the US congress last week rejecting a long-term security deal with Washington if it is not linked to a requirement that US forces leave. "The majority of Iraqi representatives strongly reject any military-security, economic, commercial, agricultural, investment or political agreement with the United States that is not linked to clear mechanisms that obligate the occupying American military forces to fully withdraw from Iraq," the letter to the leaders of Congress said. A majority of the Iraqi population does not want a long term military presence in Iraq, and Iraqi politicians are mindful of this as election time nears. At the same tine, the US is also approaching elections, and the war in Iraq is extremely unpopular among the majority of the American people.
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POPSFlooding Spurs Ethanol Backlash But others remain strongly in support of biofuels. "Abandoning our commitment to ethanol and biofuels, as some would suggest we do, would do nothing to provide meaningful relief from high grain prices today or in the future," said Bob Dineen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association. "It would absolutely force the price of gas through the roof and require the import of more record-high foreign oil."
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POPSEthanol: The Fuel To Nowhere Farm belt support for reducing or eliminating the corn ethanol mandate was higher once respondents were informed that two studies, one from Princeton University and another from the University of Minnesota, found that ethanol contributes more greenhouse gas to the atmosphere than does conventional gasoline. It does so, in part, because it encourages the clearing of so-called carbon sinks, such as rain forests, which absorb carbon dioxide, to produce crops for ethanol production. "We shouldn't sacrifice food for fuel, nor should we sacrifice carbon sinks for fuel," said Ridenour. "Ethanol is costing us as taxpayers, it is costing us as consumers, and it is costing us important environmental resources while providing little-to-no benefit for most of us in return. Ethanol is the fuel to nowhere. Like the infamous 'bridge to nowhere' earmark, ethanol mandates mean we all pay enormous costs so a few can benefit."
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POPSA Clear Majority Of Americans Want To Drill Here Al Gore, philanthropist, Climate activist, and winner of the Nobel Peace prize, is the single greatest advocate in the war against humanity. Millions of innocent lives, people whose only crime is being poor. We need to protect not only others wellbeing, but our own freedoms, our own rights. We need to defend ourselves from Eco-Terrorist ideas, perpetuated by cheap theatrics and scaremongering. We need to defend ourselves against Eco Evangelist Al Gore. Energy Independence: President Bush asks Congress to lift the 1981 drilling ban on offshore oil. The no-drill Democrats will call it flip-flopping. We call it change you can believe in. The Democratic response to Republican determination to end our dependence on foreign oil has been to call for more taxes on oil companies and to pressure, even sue, OPEC. A group of 10 Democratic senators on Tuesday called for Bush to file a complaint against OPEC. http://www.smartgreenusa.com/
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POPS Tremendous Range Of Unintended Consequences
On the losing side of the equation have been cattle, hog and chicken producers, as well as consumers. The government’s latest projection, released Friday, is that food prices this year will rise as much as 5.5 percent. Some products, including cereals and eggs, are expected to rise about 10 percent. The idea of easing ethanol mandates, while it would also lower the price of corn, is contentious. Keith Collins, the former Agriculture Department chief economist, will release a study on Monday saying that as much as half of the sharp increase in corn prices over the last few years is due to the demands of ethanol production. “We’ve seen a tremendous range of unintended consequences” from the requirement that increasing amounts of ethanol be blended into gasoline. The White House will be forced to confront the ethanol issue next month. States are allowed to asked for waivers of the mandate for corn ethanol on the ground that it is harming the economy or the environment.
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POPSArizona Joins the Revolt, Outlaws REAL ID Next! Liberty is a threatening thing to Homeland Security. If it was really about making drivers licenses secure then the Feds would not care. But it's really about federal power and their matrix of surveillance that they want to construct that is at stake.
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POPSIraq Might Force US to Leave; US Imperial Plans Revealed It's about sovereignty vs. imperialism. And this article reveals the neocon administration's real designs for Iraq--a forward base in the Middle East for "regime change": American negotiators presented a draft that would have given the U.S. access to 58 military bases, control of Iraqi airspace and immunity from prosecution for both U.S. soldiers and private contractors. In other words, a free military hand, both inside and outside Iraq, and making use of their bases. So "Reconstruction" is really about making Iraq like the Philippines with a permanent military presence for global strategic interests for spreading "democracy" through military coercion against "rogue states" (i.e. states that defend their sovereignty) against US and UN interventionism toward a global PAX AMERICANA.
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POPSA distant "ally" As I've said before, when the dust settles, Iran and Iraq will be closer allies than the US and Iraq...
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POPSSecret Bush-Iraq security agreement faltering "Iraqi lawmakers say the Bush administration is demanding concessions that are unacceptable, among them: dozens of semi-permanent bases from which U.S. forces can launch missions with no prior consent from Iraq's government; complete immunity for U.S. troops and security contractors; control of Iraq's air space; and no guarantees the United States will defend Iraq against a foreign attack."
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POPSMoyers Saves the Day Former FBI whistleblower, Coleen Rowley, was overhead after the speech. “Moyers is one of the great orators of our time. He writes what he reads and he nailed it.”
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POPSAlaska Becomes 9th State to Outlaw REAL ID Tyrannical federal legislation sparked another Civil War against federal despotism, and the states are seceding from REAL ID continually, essentially using the doctrine of Nullification based upon the 10th amendment of the Constitution. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Any state that respects the Constitution and freedom for its citizens will do the same.
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POPSHouse Takes a Stand Against Pentagon Propaganda "This scandal should sound the wake-up call for newsrooms and newsreaders. At times of war, the American public needs more critical journalism and diversity of opinion, not less. The media needs to ask tough questions of government, and not simply amplify its propaganda. The failures of consolidated, corporate media are clearly at crisis proportions. "If ever there was a time for our elected officials to draw a line in the sand, this is it. We need to shut down any government program whose sole purpose is to mislead the public into supporting disastrous wars, policies and politicians. "We urge the Senate to pass the propaganda ban and send a strong message to the Pentagon and other government agencies that Congress wil
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POPS Texas Timeout On Ethanol Fiasco: Gov Rick Perry's Petition Meanwhile, Congress merely throws more corn onto the ethanol bonfire. Under its 2005 mandates, Americans would be required to use 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol in 2012. But in December that was increased by 1.5 billion gallons and advanced to this year. Congress's target for 2022 is 36 billion gallons. They'll be growing corn on the Washington mall. A predictable backlash has set in against the Perry petition. Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and South Dakota Democrat Tim Johnson have written the EPA to defend ethanol as representing a small fraction of the rise in food prices. It looks as if Governor Perry has teed up a good one in the ethanol mandate. He might want to let voters know that EPA has the power to call a timeout on biofuels.
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POPSSmall Government and other Goofy Ideas! This paragraph is encouraging: (Even John McCain, who tells conservatives that he's a Reagan disciple, proposes far-reaching government action on issues such as climate change, high energy prices and the mortgage crisis -- problems that are supposedly better left to the CRUEL GENIUS OF THE FREE MARKET, according to ... Bush ...) I could never understand why people especially LIBERTARIANS believe small or no government is what this nation needs... The GOP sure jumped on that bandwagon. Here is a great site to compliment Mr. Robinson's stance... http://www.governmentisgood.com/articles.php?aid=24 Time and time again, I have repeated the old axiom WE'RE ONLY AS STRONG AS OUR WEAKEST LINK! And the weakest amongst us may need a helping hand now and then...(Katrina). Here's good quote: “The weakest link in the chain is also the strongest. It can break the chain.” - Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)
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POPSUri Avnery: 1948 At the time, the Jews constituted only a third of the population. The hundreds of Arab villages throughout the country dominated the main arteries that were crucial to our survival. We suffered heavy casualties in our efforts to open them, especially the road to Jerusalem. We honestly felt that we were "the few against the many". Our side was preparing for the massive attack of the Arab armies and we could not possibly leave a large hostile population at our rear. This military necessity was, of course, intertwined with the more or less conscious desire to create a homogeneous Jewish territory. ccording to the UN resolution, the "Jewish state" was to include more than half of Palestine (as it existed in 1947 under the British Mandate). In this territory, more than 40% of the population was Arab. In the second half of the war, after the advance of the Arab armies was halted, a deliberate policy of expelling the Arabs became a war aim on its own.
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POPSMcCain’s Assault On Reason: Dr. Roy W. Spencer So, here we are with bad science ready to support bad policy decisions that will lead to bad economic times ahead, and no presidential candidate who is willing to ask the hard questions. While we hate to be pandered to by politicians, in this case I can only hope that they really are pandering — that this is hot air and not prospective policy.
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POPSOppose Climate Alarmist Gore: Sign Free Petition Worried about high food prices, Congress tries to push the biofuel industry to use nonfood crops. Chicago - America's love affair with corn-based ethanol is cooling – at least in Washington. Some legislators blame the rising use of corn as a biofuel as a key factor behind high food prices. Others want to freeze the federal mandate on biofuels production at current levels, reversing legislation passed just a few months ago that increases it through 2022. Still others are pushing to shift tax incentives away from corn-based to cellulose-based ethanol in the nearly completed farm bill. These moves represent a dramatic backlash against corn ethanol, which until a few months ago was widely viewed as a boon for both farmers and consumers. Many experts worry that Washington's new skepticism will undo important progress the US has made in replacing foreign oil with domestic energy alternatives. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0501/p03s03-usec.html
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POPSStraight Talk About Universal Healthcare I'm all about personal freedom and the rights of individuals. Universal healthcare is not only impractical, but costly - and not just for your pocketbook. It's handing over yet another right to the government, and allowing the government to decide and rule your fate. I'm not compassionless-I'm just sensible. And universal healthcare as it's being proposed by both Clinton and Obama still doesn't make much sense to me. The disaster of the Massachusetts universal healthcare system should give you a preview of what life under a universal healthcare scheme could be like. Even more shocking is the manner in which Massachusetts state officials have decided to deal with the out-of-control costs of their broken system: they've ordered the insurance companies to cut payments to doctors and hospitals, reduce choices for payments, and possibly increase how much patients will have to pay.
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POPSThe Kentucky Derby Tragedy Third, we should ban the racing of 2- and 3-year-olds so popular on the U.S. track. In Europe, horses are typically raced later, when their "growth plates" (leg bones) are fully formed and they are less prone to injury. Greedy Americans don't want to spend the money to keep the horse "hanging around" (to wit, not earning money) until they are 4 or 5 years old, and so we race them before their legs are strong enough to handle injury. Many horses are forced to live 23-7 in their stalls, except for the hour or so per day when they are exercised. The human equivalent would be tying someone to his or her bed for 23 hours per day, only letting them out to run for an hour. Wouldn't you go crazy under those circumstances? I hope Eight Belles's death serves as something more than a one-day news story. I hope her sacrifice causes every fan of horse racing to stop patronizing the sport or betting on the mounts until major reforms take place.
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POPSEasing the Ethanol Mandate Smart move on McCain's part. He gets to look like he's doing something to resolve the food crisis. Will EPA waive the increased ethanol production? Not a chance.
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