March 31, 2007
Shaquanda Cotton, a 15-year-old black teenager who spent more than a year in the state's distressed juvenile prison system for shoving a teacher's aide in a case that raised questions of racial bias, was ordered released Friday.She became the first juvenile inmate ordered freed by Jay Kimbrough, whom Gov. Rick Perry tapped Thursday to lead the troubled Texas Youth Commission out of an abuse and mismanagement scandal. Kimbrough told lawmakers Friday that the order had been given.
"He made a determination that she served her time and it was time to let that child out," said Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas.
Cotton could have been kept in a cell until her 21st birthday. But a public outcry about the case helped secure her release.
I'm sorry, but this is not about whether or not this perp has served her time -- it is about caving in to political pressure tinged with false accusations of racism. If that were not the case, Kimbrough's first decision would not have been about a situation receiving national attention for something other than the TYC scandal. And by determinging the appropriateness of the sentence rather than whether its terms had been fulfilled, Kimbrough has usurped the prerogatives of the judicial branch.
And at the same time, made it clear that here in Texas it is open season on school employees.
During the remaining time that the Texas legislature is in session, we need legislation imposing mandatory incarceration for students who assault school employees.
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The city issued its first foie gras fine to a hot dog seller of all people, accusing "Hot Doug's" of violating a Chicago ban by lacing its specialty dogs with the duck liver delicacy.Doug Sohn, who runs Hot Doug's "The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium," agreed to pay $250 Thursday for the first-time offense.
Sohn had been openly serving foie gras-laced hot dogs since the ordinance took effect in August. He says he knew about the rule — when he got a warning letter from the city, he had it framed and placed on his counter.
He could have faced up to a $500 dollar fine under the ordinance, Health Department spokesman Tim Hadac said.
Animal rights activists oppose serving foie gras, saying it is inhumane the way geese and ducks are force-fed through a pipe to plump up their livers. They have been pressing other cities, states and chefs for similar bans. Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck announced earlier this month that his restaurants would stop serving foie gras.
The Chicago City Council had approved the ordinance despite Mayor Richard M. Daley's objections. He called it the "silliest" ordinance they had ever passed.
I find it interesting that we keep being told by liberals that we cannot impose morality through statute -- but here we banning a safe product because of the moral objections of a handful of liberal alderman to the method of production of the product. After all, there is no public health or safety rationale for the ban on foie gras. I guess what they mean is that we cannot impose morality they object to by statute.
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March 29, 2007
Iran leveled new accusations against Britain on Thursday in the crisis over 15 captured British sailors and marines, and withdrew a promise to free the only woman in the group, insisting that Britain admit fault before any captives were released.Iran also released what it said was a second letter from a captured British sailor — the woman, Leading Seaman Faye Turney— urging Britain to withdraw its forces from Iraq.
For its part, Britain flatly refused any talk of negotiations and called the release of the letter “cruel and callous,” and said it would seek the United Nations Security Council’s support in pressing Iran to release the captives.
With the latest developments the confrontation, now in its seventh day, seemed to have reached a point where neither side had left the other much room for a face-saving compromise. Deepening the sense of crisis, a senior Iranian official hinted that the captured troops might be put on trial for unspecified offenses.
Iran has not said where the sailors and marines are being held.
The dispute turns on rival claims about the whereabouts of the Britons when they were seized last Friday in disputed waters. Iran says they were more than 500 yards inside its territorial waters, but on Wednesday Britain produced satellite navigation coordinates to support its contention that the sailors were 1.7 nautical miles, or 3,400 yards, inside Iraqi waters, on a patrol approved by the United Nations and the Iraqi government.
If these kidnap victims are not released by the end of the weekend, there needs to be a complete blockade of Iranian ports -- and the bombing of Iran's one oil refinery.
After all, if they wish to behave like savages, let's work to send them back to the Stone Age.
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Durex has launched its first UK recruitment drive for thousands of condom testers.The condom maker wants a panel of 5,000 people who are single, married, or in couples to report their experiences of using its condoms and lubricants.
Men and women of all ages, ethnic groups or sexual orientation have been asked to apply on its website.
Durex was inundated with 14,000 applicants on the first day it started a similar scheme in France.
UK panellists will be expected to report online on how enjoyable the condoms and lubricants were to use and whether their sex lives have improved.
"The idea is to create a massive panel of testers who can try Durex condoms, have sex and then give us feedback about their experiences - in strictest confidence, of course," a Durex spokeswoman said.
"It isn't some crazy kind of '60s love-in," she added.
Durex sales in the six months until September 2006 increased by 7% compared to the same period in the previous year, driven by a surge in sales of personal devices and lubricants.
Unfortunately, there are no directions for how to apply for this job.
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March 28, 2007
Jay Kimbrough, given new power Wednesday as conservator of the Texas Youth Commission, vowed to clean house at the embattled agency, beginning with the likely firings of perhaps dozens of convicted felons working there.He said he also will ask a number of high-level agency executives and state school superintendents to reapply for their jobs.
Strike me that a lot of those high-level employees need to be let go in the housecleaning that is needed -- they didn't dhow even basic concern for sexual abuse of kids, or the punishment of those who resisted advances by TXC employees.
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The investigator flew to Guatemala in April 2002 with a delicate mission: trail a Wal-Mart manager around the country to prove he was sleeping with a lower-level employee, a violation of company policy.The apparent smoking gun? “Moans and sighs” heard as the investigator, a Wal-Mart employee, pressed his ear against a hotel room door inside a Holiday Inn, according to legal documents. Soon after, the company fired the manager for what it said was improper fraternization with a subordinate.
Wal-Mart, renowned to outsiders for its elbows-out business tactics, is known internally for its bare-knuckled no-expense-spared investigations of employees who break its ironclad ethics rules.
Over the last five years, Wal-Mart has assembled a team of former officials from the C.I.A., F.B.I. and Justice Department whose elaborate, at times globetrotting, investigations have led to the ouster of a high-profile board member who used company funds to buy hunting equipment, two senior advertising executives who took expensive gifts from a potential supplier and a computer technician who taped a reporterÂ’s telephone calls.
The investigators — whose résumés evoke Langley, Va., more than Bentonville, Ark. — serve as a rapid-response team that aggressively polices the nation’s largest private employer, enforcing Wal-Mart’s modest by-the-books culture among its army of 1.8 million employees.
WalMart is already famous for its strong-arm tactics for dealing with customers and others who litigate against it -- one older lady of my acquaintance was injured when a damaged changing station fell open as she passed it, striking her on the head and sending her tot he hospital. WalMart offered her a settlement for less than the amount of her medical bills, despite the fact that the evidence pointed to their own shoddy maintenance -- telling the injured 75-year-old that if she didn't accept it the company would "keep this thing in court until after you die, and we know that you need money to pay your medical bills now."
Nobody plays the game harder than WalMart.
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), 
(, March 27, 2007
A day-care center owner hijacked a busload of his students and teachers and drove them to Manila's city hall Wednesday to demand better housing and education for the children.Jun Ducat and at least one other hostage-taker scribbled in large letters on a sheet of paper, taped to the bus' windshield, that they were holding 32 children and two teachers and were armed with two grenades, an assault rifle and a pistol, officer Mark Andal said.
One child with a fever was released after four hours, and then was driven away in an ambulance.
They said they were demanding improved housing and education for 145 children in a day-care center in Manila's poor Tondo district where the incident, televised live around the world, appeared to have begun. The driver was released soon afterward.
"I love these kids; that's why I am here," Ducat, identified by police and parents as the day-care center owner, told DZMM radio by cell phone. "We have a field trip. I invited the children for a field trip.
"You can be assured that I cannot hurt the children. In case I need to shed blood, I will not be the first to fire. I am telling the policemen, have pity on these children."
If he really loved these kids, would he be holding them with guns and grenades?
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White House press secretary Tony Snow, who has become the face of the Bush presidency over the last year, has cancer again.Snow's deputy, Dana M. Perino, broke into tears at an off-camera briefing this morning as she announced that the cancer has spread to his liver. Doctors discovered it when they operated on Snow on Monday to remove a small growth that had developed in his lower abdomen.
Snow, 51, who underwent surgery and months of chemotherapy for colon cancer two years ago, plans once again to "go after it as aggressively" as he can, Perino said, but it was unclear when or whether he would be able to return to work.
"Of course, we're pulling for Tony," Perino said. "We certainly gain strength from his optimism. We know he's going to beat it again."
I'm curious what the reaction will be over on DU, Kos, and HuffPo to this news. Do we even need to look to know?
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Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small, the banker who took over the world's largest museum complex seven years ago, has resigned under pressure following revelations regarding his housing allowance and office and travel expenditures.Museum officials announced Small's departure yesterday and named Cristián Samper, a biologist who heads the National Museum of Natural History, as acting secretary.
In recent weeks questions about Small's leadership and his personal expenditures had created a crisis at the Smithsonian. Small, 65, had been sharply criticized by members of Congress and his pay and expense accounts have been subjected to scrutiny by the Smithsonian inspector general. Last week, two separate committees were appointed by the regents to look into management operations at the Smithsonian, which includes 18 museums and research facilities as well as the National Zoo.
It is all rather sordid -- and seems based upon the attempt by a businessman to operate a museum/not-for-profit entity like the business he had left.
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March 24, 2007
W. L. Carter knew there was something fishy going on when he went to his lawyers’ office a few years ago to pick up his settlement check for the heart damage he had sustained from taking the diet drug combination fen-phen.The check was, for starters, much smaller than he had expected. And his own lawyers threatened to retaliate against him if he ever told anyone, including his family, how much he had been paid. “You will be fined $100,000, you will go to jail and you will be sued,” Mr. Carter recalled them saying.
Mr. Carter was right to have been suspicious. The lawyers defrauded their clients, a state judge has ruled in a civil case, when they settled fen-phen lawsuits on behalf of 440 of them for $200 million but kept the bulk of the money for themselves. Legal experts said the fraud might be one of the biggest and most brazen in legal history.
This week, several clients testified before a federal grand jury that has begun to investigate potential criminal wrongdoing arising from the settlement.
“It enrages me,” said Sonja Pickett, a retail manager, who testified Thursday before the grand jury. “They robbed us.”
I won't trash trial lawyers or class-action suits, because I recognize that lawyers are necessary and class action suits are sometimes the best way to deal with an injustice. However, too often they become a vehicle to enrich lawyers -- and the secrecy/confidentiality agreements that go with the settlements often close off justice. Indeed, ANY court order that closes the results of the justice system to the eyes of the public needs to be strongly questioned by the American people as a violation of the principle that the workings of the courts are to be public.
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March 23, 2007
The superintendent of the Texas Youth Commission's intake facility in Marlin was arrested today, charged with falsely telling a Texas Ranger there were no sex abuse accusations at the unit.Jerome Parsee is charged with making a false statement to a peace officer, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $2,000 fine and 180 days in jail.
Also today, officials announced a panel of community activists, prosecutors and juvenile prison officials will review the records of nearly all youth inmates to make sure their sentences haven't been extended unfairly.
Advocates for TYC inmates and their families have complained that sentences are often extended for capricious reasons or in retaliation for filing grievances.
TYC special master Jay Kimbrough said the panel will review the documentation on each inmate's sentencing extension and discuss whether the decision was just and appropriate.
The panel will make a suggestion to a retired judge, who will decide whether the inmate should be immediately released.
"I have no confidence in the integrity of that entire system,'' Kimbrough said.
TYC incarcerates about 4,700 offenders ages 10 to 21 who are considered the most dangerous, incorrigible or chronic. Kimbrough said about nine in 10 of those offenders have had their sentences extended.
We need lot's more charges, going both directions in the chain of command -- including the Governor's staff.
UPDATE: Looks like this is only the tip of the iceberg.
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March 22, 2007
You know, the one the animal rights folks want to kill.
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You know, the one the animal rights folks want to kill.
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Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. It seems scientists have noticed recently that quite a few planets in our solar system seem to be heating up a bit, including Pluto.NASA says the Martian South Pole’s “ice cap†has been shrinking for three summers in a row. Maybe Mars got its fever from earth. If so, I guess Jupiter’s caught the same cold, because it’s warming up too, like Pluto.
This has led some people, not necessarily scientists, to wonder if Mars and Jupiter, non signatories to the Kyoto Treaty, are actually inhabited by alien SUV-driving industrialists who run their air-conditioning at 60 degrees and refuse to recycle.
Silly, I know, but I wonder what all those planets, dwarf planets and moons in our SOLAR system have in common. Hmmmm. SOLAR system. Hmmmm. Solar? I wonder. Nah, I guess we shouldn’t even be talking about this. The science is absolutely decided. There’s a consensus.
Ask Galileo.
Now such increases are inexplicable if one presumes that terrestrial global warming is caused by the actions of homo sapiens sapiens. On the other hand, if a natural, Solar System-wide phenomenon is at play here then there is more than sufficient reason to accept that the climactic changes on our planet are governed by the same effect at work on the other planets.
Now does this mean that we should not conserve energy, cut harmful emissions, and generally pollute less? Hardly – because each and every one of those goals is laudable in and of itself, absent any reference to the man-made global warming fraud perpetrated by advocates of Big Global Government Nanny-Staters like Al Gore. But the fact is that the adoption of such eco-friendly practices then becomes a matter of personal free choice rather than government diktat -- much to the chagrin of those who promote a convenient falsehood to stifle individual liberty while calling it an inconvenient truth.
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Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. It seems scientists have noticed recently that quite a few planets in our solar system seem to be heating up a bit, including Pluto.NASA says the Martian South Pole’s “ice cap” has been shrinking for three summers in a row. Maybe Mars got its fever from earth. If so, I guess Jupiter’s caught the same cold, because it’s warming up too, like Pluto.
This has led some people, not necessarily scientists, to wonder if Mars and Jupiter, non signatories to the Kyoto Treaty, are actually inhabited by alien SUV-driving industrialists who run their air-conditioning at 60 degrees and refuse to recycle.
Silly, I know, but I wonder what all those planets, dwarf planets and moons in our SOLAR system have in common. Hmmmm. SOLAR system. Hmmmm. Solar? I wonder. Nah, I guess we shouldnÂ’t even be talking about this. The science is absolutely decided. ThereÂ’s a consensus.
Ask Galileo.
Now such increases are inexplicable if one presumes that terrestrial global warming is caused by the actions of homo sapiens sapiens. On the other hand, if a natural, Solar System-wide phenomenon is at play here then there is more than sufficient reason to accept that the climactic changes on our planet are governed by the same effect at work on the other planets.
Now does this mean that we should not conserve energy, cut harmful emissions, and generally pollute less? Hardly – because each and every one of those goals is laudable in and of itself, absent any reference to the man-made global warming fraud perpetrated by advocates of Big Global Government Nanny-Staters like Al Gore. But the fact is that the adoption of such eco-friendly practices then becomes a matter of personal free choice rather than government diktat -- much to the chagrin of those who promote a convenient falsehood to stifle individual liberty while calling it an inconvenient truth.
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March 21, 2007
Especially when the perp has a position of trust in the community.
The Fairfax County prosecutor who agreed last week to reduce charges against a minister accused of raping and beating a woman, paving the way for a 16-month sentence and no requirement to register as a sex offender, did not tell her bosses or the victim that she had done so.The sentence handed to the Rev. Eugene A. Marriott Jr., a pastor at Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington, was surprisingly light compared with those of other sexual assault cases heard in Fairfax, many veteran lawyers said. But the deal offered to Marriott by Assistant Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Toni S. Fay is what has the courthouse buzzing.
Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan Jr. said he "had no idea" that the charges had been reduced four months after Marriott's conviction and that the victim "absolutely" should have been consulted: "That's Rule One. You just don't go and change a plea that the victim had agreed to." He said he had spoken to Fay but declined to say why she reduced the charges or failed to tell either the victim or the detective. Fay did not respond to phone messages seeking comment.
At the sentencing, Fay said: "I wish Mr. Marriott well. I hope that his wife takes him back. I am very glad to see his church and his community are still supporting him."
Horan said he was stunned. "The function of a criminal prosecutor is to point out how bad the crime is," Horan said. "It's not a social partnership with the defense."
I'm stunned.
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Gov. Rick Perry's staff knew as early as June 2005 that two administrators at a Texas Youth Commission facility were not being prosecuted on allegations of sexually abusing youths in their custody, according to records obtained Tuesday by the Houston Chronicle.Perry's aides have said that TYC notified them of the initial investigation in February 2005, and that they thought the case was being pursued by prosecutors until they were told otherwise in October 2006 by an aide to state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston.
Also, other records show Perry's office routinely sent written complaints from parents about their children's treatment in TYC facilities to the agency for self-investigation. A complaint of sexual abuse involving students was forwarded to Perry in 2001 by then-U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Denton.
I'm particularly shocked at this "business as usual" response from Rick Perry's official spokesperson.
Royer said the governor's office had to rely on TYC to respond to the complaints."When constituents write to tell us their insurance company is overcharging them, we refer them to the Texas Department of Insurance," Royer said. "We do not have the staff to investigate complaints about other agencies."
Royer said as far as the governor's office knew, the complaints were handled appropriately.
Excuse me, but if you put complaints of sexual abuse of kids in the same category as complaints of insurance over-charging, I think there is a serious question regarding your judgment. And even if their isn't, your analogy fails -- what the aides did in this question is more the equivalent of turning the complaint of overcharging over to the insurance company to investigate, not the Insurance Commission.
And I guess that as a teacher, I'm particularly troubled by one little point here -- if I find out about alleged sexual abuse and do not report it to CPS or law enforcement for investigation, I can lose my teaching credentials for life and possibly face criminal charges. It looks like the governor's staff and employees of TYC are held to a much lower standard than I am.
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March 20, 2007
Labor problems at The Toledo Blade in Ohio hit a new level with a replacement worker relating that his car was intentionally torched last night while he was on the job about 10:30 behind the Toledo Newsprint Trucking Company. "It's going a little further than they need to go," Pete Thayer told a local TV station.
You see, what has happened here is that the paper has decided that it doesn't want to pay what the union demands, and so it has offered a wage it sees as reasonable and allowed workers the free choice to accept it or not -- something that Pete Thayer did. In response, a union thug vandalized and torched his car.
And if you want some evidence that acts of violence and intimidation are acceptable to union thugs, you simply need to take a look at the response of the spokesthug for one of the unions.
Larry Vellequette, a spokesman for the Toledo Council of Newspaper Unions, denied that any of his members played a role in the incident. "I'm pretty sure it wasn't us," he told E&P. "I know that we have been seven months without a single incident and why they would start now makes no sense." He added that, "the real crime here is the Blade lockout."
"Pretty sure" that the act of violence and intimidation against a worker making a free choice wasn't the union's work -- that speaks volumes. he can't deny that such acts are part of the unionist's bag of dirty tricks -- or that such acts are not from time to time sanctioned by the union. Indeed, he doesn't even see this as particularly being a criminal act -- he views the unwillingness of the Toledo Blade to knuckle under to union demands and Thayer's willingness to take a job at the wage offered by an employer as being the "real crime". Talk about your inverted value system!
Its time for us to implement an amendment to the Employee Free Choice Act to go along with the recent removal of the right to a secret ballot on union recognition. Employers should have every circulate "non-union"cards among their employees, and when a majority of workers have signed them, derecognition of the union should be automatic -- just like recognition is when a majority signs union cards. After all, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, isn't it?
H/T GM's Corner
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Tiny, fluffy and adorable, Knut the baby polar bear became an animal superstar after he was abandoned by his mother.He rapidly became the symbol of Berlin Zoo, whose staff bottle-fed him and handed out cuddles in between.
At three months old, however, the playful 19lb bundle of fur is at the centre of an impassioned debate over whether he should live or die.
Animal rights activists argue that he should be given a lethal injection rather than brought up suffering the humiliation of being treated as a domestic pet.
"The zoo must kill the bear," said spokesman Frank Albrecht. "Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws."
When Knut was born in December, his mother ignored him and his brother, who died. Zoo officials intervened, choosing to raise the cub themselves.
But Albrecht and other activists fret that it is inappropriate for a predator, known for its fierceness and ability to fend for itself in the wild, to be snuggled, bottle-fed and made into a commodity by zookeepers.
After all, we wouldn't want one more breeding member of an endangered species to be allowed to live, would we?
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March 15, 2007
China's surging space program could launch explorers on the moon before Americans make a lunar return, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told a congressional oversight panel Thursday.Griffin offered the assessment at a budget hearing before the House Science and Technology Committee. The panel offered bipartisan support for an increase in spending on NASA's Orion moonship, which is falling behind schedule, as well as on unmanned science projects and aeronautical research.
Earlier this month, funding woes pushed the first flight of NASA's Orion back to March 2015, a six-month slide. That prompted a round of questions from Rep Ken Calvert, R-Calif., on whether the United States might lose its lead in space to China.
"How good is their space program? ... Do you think they have an opportunity to get to the moon before we do?" Calvert asked.
Griffin, who toured some of China's space installations last year and met with leading scientists and engineers, told the panel that China, with its strong economy, is capable of a come-from-behind lunar landing.
"I cannot speculate and won't speculate on what China's intensions are. I just don't know that," said Griffin. "As a matter of technical capability and political will, if the Chinese choose to do so, they can mount a lunar mission within a reasonable number of years, say a decade."
It's sad, really, that we will allow almost a half-century to pass between visits to the moon. I was six when the Eagle landed, and was and nine when Apollo 17 left the Moon. I will be 57 -- at least -- when the United States lands men on the Moon again. Frankly, I'll welcome Chinese success -- even while I lament the loss of focus of NASA during my lifetime.
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March 14, 2007
It turns out there are no such things as unicorns — and even if there were, they wouldn't drive trucks.On Tuesday, a Billings prosecutor had told a district judge that Phillip C. Holliday Jr., 42, claimed a unicorn was driving when his truck crashed into a light pole earlier this month.
But on Wednesday, the chief prosecutor said it was all a misunderstanding. Apparently, Holliday told police an unnamed woman was driving when his truck hit the pole — not a unicorn.
"Mr. Holliday has other serious problems, but this is not one of them," County Attorney Dennis Paxinos said of the unicorn alibi.
The mixup occurred when a deputy prosecutor misunderstood an e-mail from a colleague who used the phrase "unicorn defense," thinking it was an actual statement from Holliday, Paxinos said. "Unicorn defense" is a slang term used by prosecutors when a defendant blames some mythical person for a crime, he said.
"It's kind of a code (between prosecutors) and the code was misinterpreted," Paxinos said.
Paxinos apologized "to the public, the court and to Mr. Holliday" for the confusion and said he has chastised the prosecutors involved.
Holliday has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of criminal endangerment and drunken driving. He is being represented by a public defender. Kristina Copenhaver-Landon, director of the public defender's office in Billings, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Still, if this guy was drunk, I'm sure that his story had no more basis in reality than the one about the unicorn.
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March 13, 2007
The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate ‘green car’ is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer.Before we delve into the seedy underworld of hybrids, you must first understand how a hybrid works. For this, we will use the most popular hybrid on the market, the Toyota Prius.
The Prius is powered by not one, but two engines: a standard 76 horsepower, 1.5-liter gas engine found in most cars today and a battery- powered engine that deals out 67 horsepower and a whooping 295ft/lbs of torque, below 2000 revolutions per minute. Essentially, the Toyota Synergy Drive system, as it is so called, propels the car from a dead stop to up to 30mph. This is where the largest percent of gas is consumed. As any physics major can tell you, it takes more energy to get an object moving than to keep it moving. The battery is recharged through the braking system, as well as when the gasoline engine takes over anywhere north of 30mph. It seems like a great energy efficient and environmentally sound car, right?
You would be right if you went by the old government EPA estimates, which netted the Prius an incredible 60 miles per gallon in the city and 51 miles per gallon on the highway. Unfortunately for Toyota, the government realized how unrealistic their EPA tests were, which consisted of highway speeds limited to 55mph and acceleration of only 3.3 mph per second. The new tests which affect all 2008 models give a much more realistic rating with highway speeds of 80mph and acceleration of 8mph per second. This has dropped the PriusÂ’s EPA down by 25 percent to an average of 45mpg. This now puts the Toyota within spitting distance of cars like the Chevy Aveo, which costs less then half what the Prius costs.
Fine, but where does the comparison with the Hummer come in?
Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.
“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.
All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?
Oops! It turns out that the Prius consumes 50% more energy to make and operate than the Hummer.
Will those states (like California) that give special benefits to Prius owners now repeal them?
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They needn't worry. The move will not significantly impact the American workforce, nor will it change the company's incorporation in America.
Ever since Erle P. Halliburton established the New Method Oil Well Cementing Co. in Oklahoma in 1919, his name has been associated with American corporate know-how in the oilfield services business.But over the weekend, the company now known as Halliburton announced that its chief executive, Dave Lesar, would move to a new corporate headquarters in Dubai to focus on business in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia.
The announcement sparked warnings from members of Congress, who suspected that the company once run by Vice President Cheney was trying to trim its tax bill and remove itself from the limelight here, where it has come under fire about the way it obtained and executed government contracts, especially those connected to troubled reconstruction projects in Iraq.
"The CEO of Halliburton has decided to leave this country to move his offices to Dubai because he says it is 'a great business center.' That is a bizarre announcement," said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), who is a member of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Dorgan, who said he would seek hearings on the move, added: "I want to know, is Halliburton trying to run away from bad publicity on their contracts? Are they trying to run away from the obligation to pay U.S. taxes? Or are they trying to set up a corporate presence in Dubai so that they can avoid the restrictions that currently exist on doing business with prohibited countries like Iran?"
Interesting, isn't it, that Dorgan wants hearings on a legal business decision by a company? If Halliburton did choose to leave the US, incorporate abroad, and thereby exempt itself from all taxes, that would be legal. So would doing so for purposes of being permitted into markets closed to American companies. For that matter, so would moving to another country where the business is welcome, not reviled by one party for political gain. But Dorgan doesn't seem to care about the legalities of the situation -- he simply wants to conduct an Inquisition, a witch-hunt in an effort to embarrass the administration due to Vice President Cheney's former ties to the company.
Indeed, the best case to be made for a decision by Halliburton to move all operations and legal incorporation abroad would be the very hearings proposed by Senator Dorgan -- because such a move would enable the company to thumb its nose at political light-weights like Dorgan, seeking to make a reputation through a Fitzerald-style inquiriy.
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Posted by: Greg at
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March 12, 2007
Halliburton, the big energy services company, said on Sunday that it would open a corporate headquarters in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai and move its chairman and chief executive, David J. Lesar, there.The company will maintain its existing corporate office here as well as its legal incorporation in the United States, meaning that it will still be subject to domestic laws and regulations.
Although the announcement of the new Dubai arrangement took many by surprise, Halliburton said that the move was part of a strategy announced in mid-2006 to concentrate its efforts in the Middle East and surrounding areas, where state-owned oil companies represent a growing source of business.
Still, most of its major operations will remain in Houston, so it is unlikely that this will make a long-term difference in how the company operates or on the local job market here in Houston.
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March 09, 2007
The US trade deficit narrowed 3.8 percent in January to 59.1 billion dollars thanks to record-breaking export growth, the Commerce Department said Friday.It was a bigger drop than expected on Wall Street, where analysts saw a deficit of 60.0 billion dollars, and marked the steepest change in the trade figure since October.
The unemployment rate dipped to 4.5 percent and workers got fatter paychecks in February, even as bad winter weather sent a bit of a chill through U.S. job growth.The latest employment picture, released by the Labor Department on Friday, suggested employers are holding up well and opportunities continue for jobseekers as the economy deals with a sluggish spell, a housing slump and troubles in the automotive industry.
Economic growth. Lower trade deficits. Increased employment and robust job creation. Give me more of this “bad economy.”
Posted by: Greg at
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March 07, 2007
Houston police are investigating a fatal shooting in a southeast Houston apartment complex late Wednesday.One man died in a car parked in a complex on the 5600 block of Selinsky, while a second man was found wounded nearby, said Capt. M.W. Martin of the Houston Police Department. A third man might have fled the scene carrying a gun, police said.
The story would be unremarkable were it not for this.
Police found marijuana at the scene and believe the shooting might have been drug-related. However, authorities are unsure exactly how much marijuana there was because bystanders had taken most of it by the time investigators arrived at the scene, leaving traces of the drug scattered across the parking lot, police said.
Well, its not like the dead guy was going to smoke it, so why let it go to waste -- right guys?
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March 06, 2007
Police say a man repeatedly stabbed his teenage wife, then gave the knife to his toddler son and told him: "Now you stab Mommy."Fermin Rodriguez, 21, attacked his 17-year-old wife Sunday night, after accusing her of cheating on him, police said. He slashed and stabbed her multiple times, then handed the knife to his 2-year-old son and told him to stab her, police said.
Police would not say whether the boy did as his father said.Rodriguez was charged with first-degree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, first-degree unlawful restraint and threatening. He was being held on $350,000 bond.
His wife, Keyschla Rodriguez, was taken to a hospital for treatment of stab wounds to her chest, face, arms and legs. Her condition was unavailable Tuesday morning.
Now let’s see here. This mutt was having sex with an underage girl. He go her knocked-up at 14 or 15. Then he tried o murder her – and tried to get their toddler to help with the deed. He just needs killing.
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Police say a man repeatedly stabbed his teenage wife, then gave the knife to his toddler son and told him: "Now you stab Mommy."Fermin Rodriguez, 21, attacked his 17-year-old wife Sunday night, after accusing her of cheating on him, police said. He slashed and stabbed her multiple times, then handed the knife to his 2-year-old son and told him to stab her, police said.
Police would not say whether the boy did as his father said.Rodriguez was charged with first-degree assault, first-degree reckless endangerment, first-degree unlawful restraint and threatening. He was being held on $350,000 bond.
His wife, Keyschla Rodriguez, was taken to a hospital for treatment of stab wounds to her chest, face, arms and legs. Her condition was unavailable Tuesday morning.
Now let’s see here. This mutt was having sex with an underage girl. He go her knocked-up at 14 or 15. Then he tried o murder her – and tried to get their toddler to help with the deed. He just needs killing.
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Prince William and Kate Middleton will get married, MPs have been told.A House of Commons select committee has heard that William, 24, had spoken openly about his plans.
Respected royal photographer Arthur Edwards - who has been honoured with the MBE by the Queen - told the MPs: "She's in love with Prince William. I'm sure one day they'll get married.
"I have talked to him about that and he's made it clear... he wants to get married."
Clarence House today refused to comment on his plans to marry, saying: "Prince William has no plans to get engaged."
The couple met at St Andrews University in September 2001 when they both studied History of Art.
Marriage for love – when it happens, as it did in the case of Prince William’s grandparents, it is a beautiful thing that provides a solid place upon which one can stand. It is my prayer that these two young people have found just such a source of strength.
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March 05, 2007
The Texas Youth Commission referred more than 6,600 cases of abuse and neglect to local law enforcement authorities during the past six years, but only 18 cases have been prosecuted.Last year, TYC investigators confirmed 13 cases in which juveniles were sexually abused by staff members and none was prosecuted by local authorities.
Two of the three youth-on-youth sexual abuse cases confirmed by TYC in 2006 were passed over by local law enforcement.
The outcome of the cases that were prosecuted could not be determined Monday night.
These figures, gathered from TYC and included in a report from House Corrections Chairman Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, highlight what advocates for juvenile offenders have been saying since the TYC sex scandal erupted more than a week ago: The failure to protect juveniles from abuse extends far beyond the jailers.
"This speaks to the need for independent oversight," said Isela Gutierrez, coordinator for the Texas Coalition Advocating Justice for Juveniles.
TYC spokesman Tim Savoy said cases of abuse and neglect can range from a love note from a corrections officer to a student to injury of a child who has to be restrained to an actual sex act between an adult staff member and a TYC student.
The agency's sex scandal showed no signs of fading Monday.
Prosecutions need to happen much more often, if these reports are true -- an I truly believe there is a need to consider impeachment for the governor if it can be shown he knew about this situation and did nothing while allowing perps to be promoted.
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March 01, 2007
Former vice president Al Gore was involved in a security breach at the Nashville Airport when an American Airlines employee led him and his entourage around security, a clear violation of policy."There are no exceptions. Everyone must go through security," airport spokesperson Lynn Lowrance said.
Wednesday at the Nashville Airport, Gore arrived with two others and airport. Sgt. Gary Glover with airport police waited for his arrival and to go through security.
"He made his way to security, waiting for him to come through the check area, then he saw him pop up past security in a sterile area," Lowrance said.
Gore and his group bypassed the metal detectors, a blatant security breach. Lowrance said an American Airlines employee took Gore around security directly to the gate.
"Everyone who comes through this public airport terminal must be screened, so it's a breach of rules. It's serious," Lowrance said.
I despise Gore's politics, and I don't ever want this hypocrite to ever be in a position of power again. But he isn't going to hijack a plane or set off a bomb. Does he really need to be intensively screened? For that matter, do most Americans need to be intensively screened? The answer is obviously "No" -- but then again, we wouldn't want to risk offending those who fit the profile of those most likely to hijack the plane or set off a bomb, so everyone, including a former Vice president of the United State must be closely scrutinized.
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