Wind Farmer's Almanac

"Kennedy elaborates on this - he goes on to describe Nantucket Sound as 'among the most densely traveled boating corridors in the Atlantic.' As such, Cape Wind's turbines would come 'perilously close to the main navigation channels for cargo ships, ferries and fishing boats.'

The project would also come 'perilously close' to the Kennedy compound, although no mention of this is made in the column. "

The Road to Hell...

Someone on Slashdot claimed that the Democrats were the more financially responsible party. After I cleaned the coffee off my screen I had to set them straight.

(1) I don't consider just raising taxes to cover every spending spree you go on to be "financial responsibility". Republicans regularly vote for smaller spending increases than Dems. And I can't think of the last time a departments budget was actually cut. ("cut" means CUT, not just reduce the increase).

(2) The reduction in the size of government that Clinton likes to take credit for consists almost entirely of military base closings that were voted into place during the previous Bush administration. How about we do the same thing for domestic departments that have long since outlived their function? I don't hear any of these responsible Democrats calling for such things. If they did, I'd vote for them.

(3) Most Republican voters as well as Democrats are "good" people. What confuses you is that you have been told that all Republicans are evil when in reality most Republicans have a distrust, that is well founded in history of governments that get too big and try to live people's lives for them. There is no instance of government "giving" money to individuals that does not come with strings attached. As "kind hearted" as many of those programs sound, they will, and have largely already, produce a population unable to think for themselves and such a society cannot sustain itself. Never has, never will.

If there were a "Leave Me the Hell Alone" party that had electable candidates I would vote for them. Until then, I will continue to vote for the party that comes closest to that philosophy, even if there is only a hairs breadth of difference between the two existing parties.

Here is a quote from Jimmy Carter's new book "Our Endangered Values":

"Soon after arriving in Washington, I was surprised and disappointed when no Democratic member of Congress would sponsor my first series of legislative proposals -- to reorganize parts of the federal bureaucracy -- and I had to get Republicans to take the initiative. Thereafter, my shifting coalitions of support comprised the available members of both parties who agreed with me on specific issues, with my most intense and mounting opposition coming from the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. (One reason for this was the ambition of Senator Ted Kennedy to replace me as president.)"

(NPR Link)

When Carter took office, even though I hadn't voted for him, I thought he was a nice guy, and his statements on reforming government gave me hope that he would do the right thing. His presidency was one disaster after another, some probably beyond his control (the gas crisis), but his own party sabotaging him is not a reason for me to consider voting for another Democrat until the Democrat party does more to distance itself from people who for all practical purposes are extreme socialists. Again, the problem with the socialist philosophy isn't that the intentions are bad, it is that the system does not work.

As they say, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." Maybe that should be the motto for the Democrat party.

Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation: Honor the Victims of Communism and Those Who Love Liberty

"'The fall of the Communist empire,' said Czech President Vaclav Havel, 'was an event on the same scale of importance as the fall of the Roman Empire.'

And yet in Washington, D.C.--the city of memorials--there has been no monument marking this epic event or memorial to the many millions who died under communist tyranny. Until now."

Europe must face ugly truths of communist past

"What is needed to accomplish this is a Europe-wide Truth and Reconciliation Commission, composed of scholars and elder statesmen of undoubted democratic loyalty, who would hold hearings and report not just on the crimes of communism — remember, they included mass murder and widespread torture — in eastern and central Europe but also on those in the Soviet Union itself and even on the culpable failures of Western statesmen to halt or restrain those committing them."

BREITBART.COM - Hecklers Cause Coulter to Cut UConn Speech

"During the question-and-answer session, someone asked Coulter if she really was against a woman's right to vote.

'Not having women vote is a joke,' she said, reversing comments she has previously made.

Eric Knudsen, a 19-year-old sophomore journalism and social welfare major at UConn, didn't attend the speech.

'We encourage diverse opinion at UConn, but this is blatant hate speech,' said Knudsen, head of Students Against Hate."

Clueless in Connecticut.

It’s anybody’s guess | The Register

"However, unlike with my train journey, it is very unusual for software developers to be asked to estimate from a position of certainty. To gain a competitive advantage, organisations need to be delivering new and, hopefully, unique functionality. 'New and unique' is, by definition, something we have not done before and have no experience of. It is, therefore, unknown."

Good coverage of why things go wrong, but there is more.

Of course it doesn't cover government contracting. There are additional factors here. For example, your government "management" was supposed to tell you to start working on a new feature in January, but they either forgot, or failed to attend the internal meeting where this information was passed down. So, when you actually begin work on the "planning" phase of the project in July, you post date all the items on your project plan to make it look like you actually started work in January. While you're still trying to figure your ass from a hole in the ground the schedule says you are midway into the coding phase. You still have to go to status meetings with your government "manager's" peers and engage in fantasy-land talk so as not to embarrass the bozo/bimbo, and it is you, not the bozo/bimbo who must take that lashes for things being "not quite finished yet". Of course, reporting the facts of the matter is out of the question, as your "manager" and the people you would report him/her to are all in this lifetime employment scam together and are probably at least as incompetent as yours is.

Every now and then the cumulative disparity between your fantasy-land project and reality actually has an impact on something that the public might become aware of. But the good news, is that by then, there is so much blame to go around that it is indistinguishable from nobody being to blame. Steady as she goes, slower, slower slower: The game goes on.

New Scientist Breaking News - Liars’ brains make fibbing come naturally

Clinton(s) Explained: “Some people have an edge up on others in their ability to tell lies,” says Adrian Raine, a psychologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “They are better wired for the complex computations involved in sophisticated lies.”

The History Lesson of Joseph Ellis

"But by the time you read this it may even be official that Ellis' career as a writer and professor is over. After all, his classwork is part of his scholarship, and thus his scholarship — the basis of both his teaching and writing — will now forever be doubted. How can you trust a historian who makes up history?"

But today CBS gave him air. Surely they weren't running short of Bush bashers?

Social Security Online - The Technocrats

"The Technocrats believed that the solution to all problems of economic security were the same, the rigorous application of engineering principles in a system freed from the Price System. They conceived of retirement as being made possible at age 45 for everyone due to the vast prosperity the new age of Technocracy would usher in. Rejecting all forms of traditional political science, the Technocrats refused to even use standard geographical maps because their boundaries were political, so they would refer to states only by their geographical coordinates. Names, too, were suspect for some reason so members of the movement in California were designated only by numbers. A speaker at one California rally was introduced only as 1x1809x56!"

Sweetness & Light: Tim Russert, Democrat Shill

"In fact in his original answer Powell insisted the administration honestly believed the information the CIA had made available to them and had acted in good faith. But Russert edited Powell’s response to make it sound exactly the opposite.

Doing so, Tim Russert has once again exposed himself to the world as the Democrat hack that he is. Of course this is not news to anyone who has ever watched him."

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - Only U.N. Official Fired in Oil-for-Food Scandal Cleared, Reinstated

"The decision was made Monday and Joseph Stephanides, fired May 31, received the letter Tuesday maintaining that he violated staff rules by showing preference to one bidder for an Oil-for-Food contract but essentially acknowledging the punishment was too harsh.

Stephanides, a 60-year-old Cypriot national, had been scheduled to retire in September and the move gives him his pay up to that point. Deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe confirmed that Stephanides' firing had been overturned and said Undersecretary-General for Management Christopher Burnham signed the letter on behalf of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is at a conference in Tunisia.

The letter, dated Monday, said 'the sanction that was imposed on you has been reconsidered in light of all the circumstances in the case and the principle of proportionality.'"

mediabistro/FishBowlDC: A Leaky Post Newsroom

How fun to watch the media talk about themselves "off the record".

"Not discussed directly in this forum, but effectively used by others to bludgeon us this morning, was the question of a reporter "exempting" himself from the Plame story and then appearing on TV as a pundit -- and washington post representative -- trashing the fitzgerald probe as much ado about gossip."

They should all be forced to watch (until it sunk in) the "Yes Minister" episode on anonymous leaks to the press.

They start with the premise that there are situations where relying on anonymous sources is the right thing to do, and then argue with each other 'till the cows come home about exactly what those circumstances are.

I have a suggestion to them: Just don't do it!

For journalists willing to do the work there are plenty of sensational stories with sources in the public domain (although hidden by more red tape than the average individual can wade through).

Take a look at the Wall Street Journal's legal efforts to get the facts on this case made public for a good example of the right way to go about this.

A press that engages in rumor mongering makes itself as much a tool for tyranny as against it.

More Evidence in Favor of Term Limits

Plame's husband wants Post to probe Woodward

"Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and the Associated Press have asked Judge Reggie Walton to deny Fitzgerald's blanket protective order, which would bar public access to grand jury transcripts, witness statements and a wide range of other evidence in the case. Any leaks could result in civil and criminal fines, the order warns."

Wilson continue to prove that he can't keep his own mouth shut.

Believe It or Not - Are you sure you want to keep saying we were fooled by Ahmad Chalabi and the INC? By Christopher Hitchens

"Let us suppose, then, that we can find a senator who voted for the 1998 act to remove Saddam Hussein yet did not anticipate that it might entail the use of force, and who later voted for the 2002 resolution and did not appreciate that the authorization of force would entail the removal of Saddam Hussein! Would this senator kindly stand up and take a bow? He or she embodies all the moral and intellectual force of the anti-war movement. And don't be bashful, ladies and gentlemen of the 'shocked, shocked' faction, we already know who you are."

Brown's Alito letter lifted from blogger

"Brown's letter merely changed the last clause so the sentence read, 'What is striking about Alito is that he is so hostile even to the basic rights of workers to have a day in court, not to mention interpreting the law against them.'"

Joe Biden, where are you?

HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE :: Paris Burning: How Empires End by Patrick J. Buchanan

"This is the larger meaning of the ritual murder of Theo Van Gogh in Holland, the subway bombings in London, the train bombings in Madrid, the Paris riots spreading across France. The perpetrators of these crimes in the capitals of Europe are the children of immigrants who were once the colonial subjects of the European empires.

At this writing, the riots are entering their 12th night and have spread to Rouen, Lille, Marseille, Toulouse, Dijon, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Cannes, Nice. Thousands of cars and buses have been torched and several nursery schools fire-bombed. One fleeing and terrified woman was doused with gasoline and set ablaze. "

GAO confirms some e-voting problems

"Although the issues are not universal, GAO found that some e-voting systems do not encrypt ballots cast or audit logs, and either one could be altered without detection. In addition, some machines are insecure enough that someone could alter a ballot's appearance so that votes cast for one candidate would be recorded for an opponent."

Democrats defeat election-law aid for bloggers | CNET News.com

"Democrats on Wednesday managed to defeat a bill aimed at amending U.S. election laws to immunize bloggers from hundreds of pages of federal regulations."

Nice going, commies!

Just The News

"Cooper, 38, has been gathering momentum all year that peaked with his on-the-scene coverage of Hurricane Katrina, Klein said.

'He's got a refreshing way of being the anti-anchor,' he said. 'He's not quote-unquote reporting at you. He's just being himself. He's asking the questions you would like answered. He's getting involved the way you might. You feel that he's a regular person that you can trust talking to you. He brings such a passion to the storytelling that's infectious.'"

What total idiots. But then, I haven't watched network TV for a long time. I'd probably have trouble going back to it. Die mainstream media, die!