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February 28 Which Rumor Is It Today?Okay folks, I think I've had enough presidential campaign. I watched the Clinton/Obama debate the other night and all I hear out of Hillary is Whining. Then the mud slinging. You said this and and you did that, god it's getting old.
Then I read CNN online and Obama is going to turn the US over to the Muslims because his middle name is Hussein. Give me a break!!!
And the latest crap is about John McCain. "Does it matter that McCain was born outside the U.S.?" Apparently, John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 because his father was stationed there with the Navy. As a military wife I can set this rumor straight--children born to military members or dependents of military members, on a military installation, or in a military hospital, in the U.S. or outside the U.S. are automatically American citizens. Children of military members or dependents of military members born in a civilian hospital in the U.S. and overseas are automatically American citizens; and, if born in a civilian hospital in a foreign country, they are dual citizens (U.S. and the country they were born in.
The U.S. constitution states that the president of the United States must be a natural citizen--in other words they must be a U.S. citizen by birth, they can not be a citizen of a foreign country that has become a naturalized citizen nor a citizen of only the foreign country where they were born. Thus, Arnold Schwartzenhager can not be president.
Now lets have a rest for awhile. February 27 Ukraine vs Russia: Pipelines and DependenceUkraine was known as "Kievan Rus" up until the 16th century. Ukraine, bordered by Belarus on the north, by Russia on the north and east, by the Black Sea on the south, by Moldova and Romania on the southwest, and by Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland on the west, reached its height of power in the 10th century. Then the Mongol conquest in 1240 ended Kievan power.
In the 13th to 16th century, Kiev was under the influence of Poland and western Europe. So, in 1654, Ukraine asked the czar of Moscovy (Moscow) for protection against Poland, and the Treaty of Pereyasav that was signed that year was interpreted by Moscow as an invitation to take over Kiev, thus the Ukrainian state was eventually absorbed into the Russian Empire. After the Russian Revolution on January 28, 1918, several years of warfare ensued. The Red Army finally was victorious over Kiev, and in 1920 Ukraine became a Soviet Republic. And, in 1922, Ukraine became one of the founders of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In the 1930s the Soviet government's enforcement of collectivization met with peasant resistance, Soviet authorities confiscated the grain from Ukrainian farmers; resulting in a famine which took an estimated 5 million lives.
Ukraine was one of the most devastated Soviet repulbics after World War II. On April 26, 1986, the nation's nuclear power plant at Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident. In 1991, the Ukrainian parliament shut down the reactor; asking for international assistance in dismantling it.
Ukraine declared its independence on August 24, 1991. The new country's government was slow to reform, it was plagued by declining production, rising inflation, and widespread unemployment. Like all the Soviet satellite countries, the USSR had robbed it of anything of any value. In October 1994, Ukraine began a program of economic liberalization. In June 1996, the last strategic nuclear warhead was returned to Russia and the parliament approved a new constitution that allowed for private ownership of land. It was in May 1997 that an agreement was signed on the future of the Black Sea fleet; Ukrainian and Russian ships will share the port of Sevastopol for 20 years.
The Soviet gas industry was born in Western Ukraine in the 1920s, and the country built the infrastructure of the industry. Most of the technical universities and research centers for the gas industry were based in Ukraine, and a good chunk of the engineers and workers that developed the giant Siberian fields in the 60s were Ukrainian. The leadership of Gazprom (the Russian company) in the 90s was largely of Ukrainian origin. Ukraine sits on most of the export pipelines going from Russia to Western Europe. Ukraine, with its heavy, energy-intensive structure, was also a big consumer of gas, and that gas, now that Ukrainian production is declining, mostly comes from Russia.
The independence of Ukraine was always the one that was least accepted by the Russians, who see Ukraine, at least the Eastern half, as an integral part of their own country. Kiev was "their" capital a thousand years ago, and Ukraine has historically been the breadbasket of Russia, and the place where a lot of its industry was born. The permanent geopolitical background to any discussion between Russians and Ukrainians is this feeling that they "cannot" be independent.
In January 2006, Russia suddenly quadrupled the price of gas sold to Ukraine, triggering an energy crisis in the country. Russia briefly stemmed the flow of gas to Ukraine to force the country to accept the higher prices, sending alarms throughout Europe--a quarter of Europe's gas supplies come from Russia via Ukraine's pipelines. Ukraine agreed to pay about double its current price to get the gas to flow. Now the government in Ukraine is changing again and they do not have about 2 billion US dollars to pay for the Russian gas, so Russia is threatening again to cut off the flow of gas. And, this is not just a matter of money, it is a matter of politics--Russia is trying to break Ukraine down to the point that they will once again become part of Russia.
What is my take on this affair?
1. Russia is once again trying to rebuild its previous empire.
2. Since the pipelines run through Ukraine, it doesn't cost Russia much to fuel Ukraine.
3. Russia really needs Ukraine pipelines to gets its gas to Europe for sale
My solution?
Ukraine has the advantage in this situation. If Russia doesn't want to sell gas to Ukraine at a reasonable, agreed upon price--1. Ukraine can shut down the pipelines; 2. Charge Russia the price of the gas to keep the pipelines open, OR--Shut down the shared port of Sevastopol, keeping Russia landlocked from the Black Sea, ensuring Russian submarines and ships without a seaport.
I think that Ukraine has leverage, if it wants to stay independent of Russia and keep its gas supply. Ukrainians, don't give up and give in to the Russian gas company, hold your ground and let them know that they need you more than you need them. February 26 Name One AccomplishmentI'm tired of everyone asking me to name one accomplishment of Senator Obama. It's like a disease spreading through political channels.
First of all let me ask for one accomplishment of Senator Clinton. Since I'm not from New York, I have no idea what she's done for New York. As president's wife, I can't remember any big accomplishments, but I know a few messes she made. Ms. Clinton came from an affluent family, attended expensive schools,a prominent university, and joined a prestigious law firm. I do not associate myself with her.
Now, Mr. Obama accomplished a great deal in his life. He had problems with drugs and gangs as a kid; but, he overcame his problems, went through college, ran for the US Senate, made an outstanding, memorable speech at the Democratic convention, and now he's running for president of the United States. For me that's a big enough accomplishment to put him in the running. And, at the moment he is leading Ms. Clinton in the presidential race. Is that a big enough accomplishment for the media. Mr. Obama, I can relate to. If this country is going to truely change, we need a common person to lead the way.
Don't point fingers unless you have walked a mile in their shoes--or in other words--let he among you who has never sinned throw the first stone. February 24 I finally did it!Well, I finally did it. I broke down and bought a hybrid car. I really, really didn't want to get rid of my Jeep, which I love; but since I drive about 100 miles a day, back and forth to work, etc., I felt it was time.
I did a lot of research on hybrids and test drove the ones on the market, but the best one was the Toyota, Camry hybrid. So, now I'm the proud owner of an electric car.
It's great! So quiet that you don't even know it's running. No key to open, lock or start the car. Satellite radio and navigation system. But, I still miss my Jeep.
My husband traded his Subaru, Baja for a Ford, Explorer, Sporttrac because the Subaru was killing his back. The seat was too small and not adjustable.
I just want to say, President Bush, I've done my bit to boost the economy.
February 20 Maybe The Day Has Come!The state of New Mexico is investigating it's election process that took place on Super Tuesday. Guess "Good Old Bill" actually read his e-mail. But, seriously since Clinton won by about 1,200 votes things are being looked into. The state ran out of ballots quite early in the election process and folks were reduced to writing their votes on scap paper, then of course these votes were invalidated. Doesn't say much for New Mexico, whose governor was running for president, and he can't even get an election conducted correctly. So, it ain't over yet, folks.
Ladies and gentlemen; fellow bloggers, friends, family, and enemies--I'm very proud of the voters in this country, getting out there and voting for your choice of candidates. The voter turn out in these primaries and caucuses is the best in many, many years. I ask voters to continue to vote en mass, in your states, for the candidate that epitomizes your ideology, not just for the most popular candidate. Let the best candidate win!
So, the US Navy is going to shoot down a worn out satellite because they are afraid it might fall on a populated area. Why don't you folks tell the truth for a change--the US can't afford to have this satellite fall into the wrong hands--the information contained in its memory is too sensitive. I'm not saying that it's incorrect for the Navy to use $16M to shoot down this thing, I'd just like someone to tell the truth about it.
To Conndie Rice, how much of a democracy do you think Pakistan is now. It's people have voted their leader out of office and he refuses to leave. Now that sounds like a dictatorship to me, folks.
And, Russia says it's not going to stand for it's former satellite countries setting up the US Global Shield within their borders. Putin--they are former satellite countries--which means you do not run their governments anymore. They are only doing it to protect themselves from you. Get a clue and let them decide without your threats. And, no one really cares anymore what you will and will not stand for.
Hopefully the two pilots of the F-15s that collided in mid air today over the Gulf of Mexico will recover and fly the skies again.
CONGRATULATIONS TO MY GRANDSON, AARON. He was accepted at Clemson University for next year. Aaron's going to be a doctor. We're very proud of him.
Unfortunately, my mother's cancer has come back and doctors are not sure how to treat her now. Hang in there mom, we're tough old broads. February 15 The final sayNew Mexico finally says that Clinton won over Obama by about 1200 votes. Personally, I con't believe a state that can't count their votes for over a week late.
The Democratic Party's reason for Michigan and Florida is this--there's a concern among part strategists that neither Clinton nor Obama could win the magic number of 2,025 delegates to clinch the nomination so now they are reconsidering the Michigan and Florida delegates. With Michigan's 156 and Florida's 210, Clinton could go over the top.
However, Obama was not even on the Michigan ballot--Obama could file a suit because of this. First the state parties have to appeal to the Convention Credentials Committee and the committee is expected to meet sometime in July or August to take up the matter. So the matter remains up in the air.
Interests can be compromised, principles cannot. Personally, my opinion is that the Democrats didn't expect Americans to vote for an African-American and now they need to find a way to make Clinton the winner. Good luck folks! This is going to be one heck of a race. February 13 What's going to happen to Florida and Michigan?The Democratic party is trying to make peace with voters in Florida and Michigan. Since these states had moved their primaries up without the blessing of the Democratic party, their votes didn't count. Now the party is trying to come up with an agreement with Florida and Michigan so that they can be seated at the convention without their votes being the important swing states. Several solutions are being considered including just splitting their delegates evenly between Obama and Hillary. The party doesn't want to hold the voting again, which wouldn't be fair to all the other states considering that voters in these two states now know the candidates that are still in the race and they could swing the delegates to be the deciding votes. As of this eveing, they hadn't reached an agreement. It will be interesting to see what the party and states come up with for a solution. This certainly has been a crazy group of primaries and New Mexico still DOES NOT KNOW WHO WON. I'll keep you posted on this situation. February 11 This has become an a real farceHere it is February 11th, almost 1 week since Super Tuesday, and New Mexicans still do not know who won our caucus. There are TV ads here asking for volunteers to count the votes. My God people, this is so embarassing. If I didn't work all day, I'd go over and help the helpless count votes.
Good for you, Obama, racking up the states, even with Hillary. I'm voting for change in this country and like Caroline and Teddy Kennedy, I have to agree that Obama's speeches are inspiring the young Americans as JFK's speeches gave us hope years ago. He doesn't have much experience, but maybe that's what we need in our government for a change.
So, Mitt Romney suspended his campaign instead of ending it so that he could keep collecting matching federal funds, I think that if a candidate is going to quit, the federal matching funds should quit too.
I also must say that I don't like liars. And, I have to associate with a lot of them. Sometimes it takes 17 years to get around to getting the truth out, I was looking forward to 2009 and not having to put up with the lies anymore. February 07 Who Won New Mexico?It's now Thursday, 7 Feb 08, and we still do not know who won the New Mexico caucus. That's right folks, they haven't figured out which Democrat won the New Mexico vote. They have about 17,000 votes that are uncounted. I never seen one state make such a mess, even Florida with their hanging chads.
I sent my e-mail to Governor Bill and let him know what a bunch of nuts the Democratic party has here, stuffing 3,000 people into a school for 2-3 hours waiting to vote with people running in and out with bags and boxes that weren't security checked. It's a good thing that these folks were honest and peaceful in the wake of such a mess. They'd better have things worked out before the November elections.
I'm sorry and surprised to hear that Mitt Romney dropped out of the race. I expected him to just keep spending his money and giving McCain at least some competition. One day Romney is on TV saying he's going to hang in there and the next day he's throwing in the hat. Strange. February 05 Rio Rancho VotingI left work today at 5PM so that I could get to the voting place in Rio Rancho which opened at noon and closed at 7PM. The Democratic party was expecting about 1,500 voters to show up and when we got there at 6:16PM they were already at 6,000. All of the voters in Rio Rancho were sent to one single place to vote and it was packed. The line was snaking around the high school, in and out of rooms. Folks had been waiting for 2 and 3 hours when we arrived. I talked with our Fire Marshall, Ernest Pohl, who told me that the Democratic party hadn't even called them. He showed up with his three assistants, Greg Toya, Jeff Hill, and X. Anderson and helped to organize the mess. He couldn't get this fire trucks up to the building because there were so many people there to vote. I discussed the fact that if there was a fire, there would be about 3,000 people in the building trying to get out, and he said he wouldn't have let everyone in except that there were sprinklers. But, had the sprinklers been tested, did he know for a fact that the sprinklers would have worked in an emergency? Well, no not really.
I must say that the sheriff's deputies and the fire marshall's men did try very hard to make things safe and organized, but when you have that many people in one place with children too, it just wasn't organized nor was it safe.
But, I would like to say thanks very much to the citizens of America, who got out there and voted for the person that they supported. In spite of the news media telling us that Hillary had already won New Mexico, everyone I spoke to at the poll said that they had voted for Obama. I'm just really happy that over 30% more people in New Mexico voted this year than 4 years ago. Good on ya!!! February 04 ThanksThanks everyone for the birthday wishes. I had a great time in Toas and even brought the snow back with us. It's snowing outside!!! I'm rested and ready for tomorrow's Super Tuesday. Dedicated to Judge BobIf Al Gore was the man the American people wanted to represent them as president, yes I think he should have been president. As to if I think his rhetoric would have been good for America, I can say: I do not agree with Gore on global warming as far as it's source (there is global warming on Mars without human life) but doing things to combat global warming is okay in proportion and I think Gore's ideas are safer than those of George Bush (starting a Middle East war). No, I wouldn't and didn't vote for Al Gore.
If you would read some of my archived blogs, you would see the many papers I have written on the two Desert Storm wars. I do not agree with the reasons that our goverment (presidents) started these wars. Both were predicated on oil, in Saudi and Iraq. Neither do I advocate pulling troops out after we started either war. Nor do I support encouraging Iraqis to rise up and fight for their freedom, and then abandoning them to chemical posioning. Although most of the candidates running for president support withdrawal during their campaigns, once in office the facts will deter them from this position. Campaigns are full of unkept promises.
I have preached on this blog about radical Muslims and Muslims in general. To the point of being threatened by both "peaceful" and radical Muslims. I guess you missed my blogs defaming the Prophet Mohammad. Anyone, familiar with history knows Mohammed lived and died by the sword. Jews and Christians who refused to join him and call him the chosen prophet died by his hand and now by the hands of his followers. I personally have written an analysis of Iran and they are either in possession of nuclear weapons or very close to it. Their anti-aircraft gun defenses of their nuclear plants, the Chinese and Russian scientists working in Iran to help them with nuclear technology, and their outright taking of hostages and harrassing of ships attest to this fact. This past week's meeting in Egypt of Iran and the other Middle East countries in favor of nuking Israel only reinforces my beliefs. See some of my archived blogs concerning Iran, Turkey, and Ahmadinijad.
As to the economy, the U.S. economy has been running amuck for years and a recession is overdue. Recessions serve to adjust prices and incomes. I'm certainly not advocating a recession leading to an all out depression, but some adjusting is in order. The U.S. mortgage situation has been brought on by Americans buying homes they can't afford; lying about their incomes, assets, and expenses. I do not feel that the U.S. government should bail them out. America needs to adjust to the modern world, take a big dose of reality.
Most countries on this planet hate America and want it destroyed. Even our so called allies hate us because of our arrogance. Our leaders/bosses order countries around to suit our whims; our leaders do not negotiate. Americans traveling abroad are unfortunately this same way. America needs to wake up to the fact that it is no longer the sole superpower, master on this Earth. Our currency isn't worth a crap, our trade agreements suck, and even though our military is the most modern as far as technology, it is way out-numbered by the Chinese. If we do not wake up and form new and/or better alliances and trade agreements, our economy is sunk. Joining with Canada and South America would be a great move; or joining in a trade pact with the European Union including joining our currency with the Euro would really boost our economy. We need to reduce our imports from countries who refuse to import U.S. goods--these one-sided trade agreements do America damage by raising our debt and lower American jobs. Letting China bail out American mortgage companies and banks puts the U.S. at their mercy. Selling U.S. property to foreigners only sells us down the river. How many foreign countries do these things? Not very many.
Don't even get me started on socialized medicine. I've written blogs on European socialized medicine and none of them were in favor of it. In Italy socialized medicine that Italians paid out the butt for wasn't even free, they still pay for care and drugs. However, military medical coverage (Tri-Care and Delta Dental) are in my opinion just as bad. You need to read my blogs on military medical care.
You need to research the candidates' stands on the issues. Hillary Clinton and her husband are now and probably have always been socialists. Her college thesis papers document her socialist ideals. Ms. Clinton wants socialized medicine to be required for all Americans, to the point that she wants to garnish everyones' wages; whereas Obama wants to make it available to all Americans who need it because they can't afford anything else, but not require it of everyone. Clinton and Obama are close on most issues but on the ones they differ on, Obama has the best fix. As I said early on in the race, there were Republicans I would have voted for; however, they've withdrawn from the race except for Romney. The constant harping that religion wouldn't be an issue has made it an issue. I do not want a president whose going to preach to me. It really turns me off.
Voters who buy the sales slogan, "I'm for change," without doing their research would buy this slogan from anyone. I take the time to research the issues and the candidates. I just feel it's time for a change and I don't see much change in voting for the Bushes and Clintons again and again.
I really take offense to folks who stop by my blog and tell me what I believe or stand for without reading my blogs and finding out the truth. I respect everyone's right to their opinion, but I do not respect their right to tell me what mine is. Do some research and find out the truth, that is why the U.S. government can pull the wool over your eyes, you are so easily fooled. |
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