Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 700 points and it was all over the place.
Today, the market shot up about 500 points and the silence is deafening, and no one is saying "What a great thing this is, an example of the strength of the market and economy"...as they used the template of a drop to pass their talking points of weakness.
Rusty Shackleford has a graphof the drop and rise.
I am reminded that the man who bets against America loses.
“The Jihad, the Islamic so-called Holy War, has been a fact of life in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Near and Middle East for more than 1300 years, but this is the first history of the Muslim wars in Europe ever to be published. Hundreds of books, however, have appeared on its Christian counterpart, the Crusades, to which the Jihad is often compared, although they lasted less than two hundred years and unlike the Jihad, which is universal, were largely but not completely confined to the Holy Land. Moreover, the Crusades have been over for more than 700 years, while a Jihad is still going on in the world. The Jihad has been the most unrecorded and disregarded major event of history. It has, in fact, been largely ignored. For instance, the Encyclopaedia Britannica gives the Crusades eighty times more space than the Jihad.”The above quote is from Paul Fregosi’s book Jihad in the West from 1998. Mr. Fregosi found that his book about the history of Islamic Holy War in Europe from the 7th to the 20th centuries was difficult to get published in the mid-1990s, when publishers had the Salman Rushdie case in fresh memory.
A few years later, perhaps the most comprehensive and scholarly book on the subject to date, The Legacy of Jihad, was published by Andrew G. Bostom. He has written about what he calls “America’s First War on Terror.” Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, then serving as American ambassadors to France and Britain, respectively, met in 1786 in London with the Tripolitan Ambassador to Britain, Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja. These future American presidents were attempting to negotiate a peace treaty which would spare the United States the ravages of Jihad piracy — murder and enslavement emanating from the so-called Barbary States of North Africa, corresponding to modern Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya.Bostom notes that “an aggressive jihad was already being waged against the United States almost 200 years prior to America becoming a dominant international power in the Middle East.” Israel has nothing to do with it. The Barbary Jihad piracy had been going on since the earliest Arab-Islamic expansion in the 7th and 8th centuries.
Source: Fjordman, writing at Gates of Vienna Please go read this. Especially if you think America is an evil empire. Western Civilization has been under attack from the Religion of the Pedophile for 14 Centuries.
What Beverly Perdue says and what she has done are too often very different...
THE LIE
Beverly Perdue's website says, "she was instrumental in developing Smart Start, a national model for school readiness and early childhood development."
Her television commercial, "Love and Faith," claims that in the General Assembly, she was "leading the fight for Smart Start."
THE TRUTH
In 1995, Beverly Perdue's hometown newspaper, the New Bern Sun Journal, reported that: "Jones County’s Smart Start program could be in jeopardy. Perdue said she has never been a strong supporter of the early childhood health and education program that Hunt championed in his first year in office. Smart Start cost $20 million to install 23 pilot programs in its first year, and is expected to grow to $500 million by 2000, she said. 'I don’t think North Carolina can support that bureaucracy,' she said."
...Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi's political opportunism was now going into overdrive. She was hoping to hang the crisis that lead to the bailout around the neck of Bush and the Republicans. Furthermore, she would do everything to minimize the number of Democrats that would vote for the bill hoping that Boehner would pull his weight. As such, we learned from Congressman Defazio that he wasn't whipped. In other words, the Democratic leadership never counted the votes and did little if nothing to twist arms. As it turns out, multiple committee persons and multiple folks from California voted against this measure. It appears that Nancy Pelosi couldn't get members of committees she assigned them and members of her own state to vote for this bill....
The financial markets were teetering on the edge of an abyss last week. The secretary of the Treasury was literally on his knees begging the speaker of the House not to sabotage the bailout bill. The crash of falling banks made the earth tremble. The Republican presidential candidate suspended his campaign to deal with the crisis. And amid all this, the Democrats in Congress managed to find time to slip language into the bailout legislation that would provide a dandy little slush fund for ACORN.
ACORN stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a busy hive of left-wing agitation and “direct action” that claims chapters in 50 cities and 100,000 dues-paying members. ACORN is where Sixties leftovers who couldn’t get tenure at universities wound up. That the bill-writing Democrats remembered their pet clients during such an emergency speaks volumes. This attempted gift to ACORN (stripped out of the bill after outraged howls from Republicans) demonstrates how little Democrats understand about what caused the mess we’re in.
“During the ceremony of hoisting or lowering the flag, or when the flag is passing in a parade or in review, all persons present in uniform should render the military salute. Members of the Armed Forces and Veterans who are present but not in uniform, may render the military salute. All other persons present should face the flag and stand at attention with their right hand over the heart, or if applicable, remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Citizens of other countries present, should stand at attention. All such conduct toward the flag in a moving column should be rendered at the same moment as the flag passes.”[pdf file]
The space agency announced today that an onboard communication problem has temporarily shut down the World's Greatest Telescope — and postponed the planned house call in orbit, scheduled to begin October 14th, until no earlier than next February or perhaps April.
The failure occurred in the Command Unit Science Data Formatter, an electronics package that moves digitized streams of data from the science instruments to spacecraft's digital tape recorder for later playback to Earth. The CU/SDF has worked great for 18 years, so faulty craftsmanship isn't the issue. Nor is the venerable space observatory in any real trouble.
The good news is the that Hubble's designers included a second unit for redundancy. As far as engineers know, it still works — but it hasn't been checked since before HST's launch more than 18 years ago. Changing from one to the other is entirely doable but a lot more involved than just throwing a switch from "A" to "B". So Hubble's handlers are dusting off the owner's manual to begin the process; that might be completed by early next week, at which point the observatory will come back online.
One of several gas stations I passed this morning that were out of gas when I passed through Sylva on my way to Cullowhee. I hope that doesn't mean idiots will be clogging up the roads this evening on my way home.
Don't believe it when lefties and their friends in the Legacy Media say the Dow dropped over 700 points after the socialist bailout bill failed to pass. They are lying, or repeating a lie they have been told, but didn't have a scintilla of intelligence to check it out for themselves.
Here is the Dow Jones Industrial Average chart for yesterday's price action.
You will note that the big drop occurred after Nancy Pelosi's speech and BEFORE the vote. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was already down about 500 points by the time the 110th Congress conducted it's Roll Call #674 after 2 pm.
Astute observers will note a brief rally after the roll call vote.
Remember that people in the Legacy Media are invested in portraying the actions of Republicans in a negative light and think nothing of lying to do it. Their lapdogs and political fellow travellers in the lefty and progressive blogosphere will gladly repeat the lie...if for no other reason than it fits their template.
Fact checking never enters into the equation for them.
Shame on you, Errington Thompson, and shame on you, Raleigh News & Observer...you are being singled out as the Lefty Liars of the Day.
For an intelligent analysis of the markets based on price action without emotion and political bias:
For my regular readers, I have posted enough on the hateful antics of Charles Johnson and his lizards for you to know how I feel about him. You should also know that he is a part of Pajamas Media, and I do not link to bloggers associated with Pajamas Media when I am aware of that association. The stink that is on Charles is on that whole organization.
What set off this latest tirade was an attack by Charles on Andrew Bostom...
Andrew Bostom breaks his silence on the the blogosphere's dirty not so little secret - the smear campaign of "fascist" fighters for freedom. The thing is, it is so tedious and essentially small but terribly damaging. And while we have all recovered (nicely, thank you) the real harm has been the setback to the transatlantic counter jihad movement. Perhaps Europe is lost but why throw it away with both hands? There are brave, wonderful warriors desperate for a global network to fight the relentless spread of sharia and Islam (please watch my interview this past Thursday with Geert Wilders).
So much evil, so little time and this is where we are expending our limited energies?
Johnson over at LGF has effectively destroyed the transatlantic counter jihad movement and smeared the few and the brave. He's lost it. The latest in his cross hairs is
I hate Charles Johnson for the damage that he has done to the Counterjihad. He continues to be dismayed that we fight on without him...in ways his tiny little lizard brain can only imagine.
Do you really want to elect a Democratic Congressman that would keep this woman in charge of the US House of Representatives?
Do you really want to elect a President of the same party as this woman that will work with her to make all kinds of mischief to harm our nation?
Vote Republican in 2008, and Vote to strip this woman of her role as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
At least she was stupid enough to tweak the noses of the Republicans in the US House, and snatch defeat from the jaws of defeat for the Democrats on this matter.
WASHINGTON — The $700 billion bailout of the financial industry failed to win congressional approval on Monday, with the House of Representatives rejecting the measure. The measure could still be reconsidered today — if House Republicans request it. It was unclear whether that would happen, however. The vote tally was 228 to 205, with 95 Democrats joining 133 Republicans voting against the package, which had been cobbled together during days of late-night negotiations. The leadership of each party consented to keep the vote open while they tried to twist arms in a failed effort to win a majority in the House. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by as much as 705 points during the wait. It recovered after the result was clear and was down less than 500 points shortly afterword. The result was both a surprise, and yet not unexpected. The White House was confident that enough Republicans would support the controversial bill, which had won public support from key leaders. But the bill also put representatives squarely at odds with their constituents, who'd flooded their offices in recent days with expressions of contempt for the proposed bailout.
**1.08 PM** Here is a short video of a supporter speaking for Pat McCory I recorded this morning:
And here is the forum on Education that aired on Public Television:
**10:53 AM** Due to Pat not showing up, most people left, and only a few students remained to speak with Joe Johnston in a very informal setting. I decided not to broadcast or record the meeting.
Here is a you tube play list I made of the Gubernatorial Debateat Blue Ridge Community College back in March.
I received word this morning that Pat McCrory was speaking at WCU in front of the WCU Political Science Club...so here is my live coverage without splashy graphics...I am flying by the seat of my pants today!
I will have the speech up later today if my batteries hold out.
I have already started the stream as I try to work through the bugs...in real time.
**10:05AM** I just received word via email "Due to the buyout of Wachovia Pat is now going back to home. Joe Johnston will be there today for him...."
**10:28 AM** Here is some info about Joe Johnston from the McCrory Website:
Joe Johnson currently serves as the Director of Resource Development for the Council on Aging for Henderson County. He previously served as the Director of Public Affairs and chief political advisor for the Sheriff of Henderson County. Johnson has worked actively in Republican Party politics on the local, regional and statewide levels and was a candidate for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2008. He is a graduate of North Carolina State University. "I am excited to join the McCrory Campaign in this capacity," said Jeff Hunt. "Pat understands Western North Carolina issues and will be able to bring true positive change to our state government as the next governor of North Carolina. As District Attorney, I know that Pat has what it takes to tackle the issues facing our criminal justice system and make North Carolina truly a safe place to live, work and play.""I am honored to have this opportunity to serve with a leader such as Pat McCrory," said Joe Johnson. "Pat will bring a needed breath of fresh air to the halls of our government in Raleigh. He cares about all people throughout our great state and I know he will be able to tackle the tough issues facing North Carolina of corruption, the economy, creating new jobs and strengthening our educational system."
A commenter left an excellently distilled statement that I just have to highlight on the frontpage...
1. Obama challenges the 2nd Amendment ... The Right To Bear Arms.
2. Obama challenges the 1st Amendment ... The right of Free Speech. Obama pressures all media who accepts NRA advertising.
3. Obama wants a Civil National Security Force ... with the same budget as the Pentagon. So, Obama does not want any opposition, so he stops Freedom of Speech.
Then, to make any opposition defenseless, he wants to take away our right to bear arms.
Next, he wants a Civil National Security force to put down any insurrection.
Sounds like the stepping stones to a leftist dictator taking over this country.
Related: Gateway Pundit has more information and links to blogs and video with more information...
St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce and St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch are threatening to bring libel charges against those who speak out falsely against Barack Obama.
KMOV aired a story last night, that stated that St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce, both Obama supporters, are threatening to bring criminal libel charges against anyone who levels what turns out to be false criticisms of their chosen candidate for President.
Barack Obama played the "me too" game during the Friday debates on September 26 after Senator John McCain mentioned that he was wearing a bracelet with the name ofCpl. Matthew Stanley, a resident of New Hampshire and a soldier that lost his life in Iraq in 2006. Obama said that he too had a bracelet. After fumbling and straining to remember the name, he revealed that his had the name of Sergeant Ryan David Jopek of Merrill, Wisconsin.
Shockingly, however, Madison resident Brian Jopek, the father of Ryan Jopek, the young soldier who tragically lost his life to a roadside bomb in 2006, recently said on a Wisconsin Public Radio show that his family had asked Barack Obama to stop wearing the bracelet with his son's name on it. Yet Obama continues to do so despite the wishes of the family...
Our weekly vlog/podcast on illegal immigration and border security. In this weeks edition...
Vigilance Dispatch: Everyone is talking about the massive bailouts. How has illegal immigration fed into the financial crisis that Washington plans to fix using our taxpayer dollars?
100% Preventable! Americans continue to pay the bloody price for open borders, when will the madness end?
This has been the Blogs For Borders Video Blogburst. The Blogs For Borders Blogroll is dedicated to American sovereignty, border security and a sane immigration policy. If you’d like to join find out how right here.
Most of this is old hat for me, because I have heard about it on Quinn & Rose (6-9am), Glenn Beck (9-noon), Rush Limbaugh (noon-3pm), Sean Hannity (3-6pm) and Mark Levin (6-8pm) for over a year. I have gathered a two-part video and an article by Stanley Kurtz that is a good starting place for you to find out about the radical organizers known as ACORN.
AN ANTI-CAPITALISM AGENDA
To understand the nature and extent of Acorn’s radicalism, an excellent place to begin is Sol Stern’s 2003 City Journal article, “ACORN’s Nutty Regime for Cities.” (For a shorter but helpful piece, try Steven Malanga’s “Acorn Squash.”)
Sol Stern explains that Acorn is the key modern successor of the radical 1960’s “New Left,” with a “1960’s-bred agenda of anti-capitalism” to match. Acorn, says Stern, grew out of “one of the New Left’s silliest and most destructive groups, the National Welfare Rights Organization.” In the 1960’s, NWRO launched a campaign of sit-ins and disruptions at welfare offices. The goal was to remove eligibility restrictions, and thus effectively flood welfare rolls with so many clients that the system would burst. The theory, explains Stern, was that an impossibly overburdened welfare system would force “a radical reconstruction of America’s unjust capitalist economy.” Instead of a socialist utopia, however, we got the culture of dependency and family breakdown that ate away at America’s inner cities — until welfare reform began to turn the tide.
While Acorn holds to NWRO’s radical economic framework and its confrontational 1960’s-style tactics, the targets and strategy have changed. Acorn prefers to fly under the national radar, organizing locally in liberal urban areas — where, Stern observes, local legislators and reporters are often “slow to grasp how radical Acorn’s positions really are.” Acorn’s new goals are municipal “living wage” laws targeting “big-box” stores like Wal-Mart, rolling back welfare reform, and regulating banks — efforts styled as combating “predatory lending.” Unfortunately, instead of helping workers, Acorn’s living-wage campaigns drive businesses out of the very neighborhoods where jobs are needed most. Acorn’s opposition to welfare reform only threatens to worsen the self-reinforcing cycle of urban poverty and family breakdown. Perhaps most mischievously, says Stern, Acorn uses banking regulations to pressure financial institutions into massive “donations” that it uses to finance supposedly non-partisan voter turn-out drives.
According to Stern, Acorn’s radical agenda sometimes shifts toward “undisguised authoritarian socialism.” Fully aware of its living-wage campaign’s tendency to drive businesses out of cities, Acorn hopes to force companies that want to move to obtain “exit visas.” “How much longer before Acorn calls for exit visas for wealthy or middle-class individuals before they can leave a city?” asks Stern, adding, “This is the road to serfdom indeed.”
**update** Warner Brothers and others have repeatedly sought to get this video banned. The maker has repeatedly uploaded it. Here is the latest incarnation of the video with new information added:
Hat Tip: Gofa (Backbone of the Conservative Email Network in North Carolina!)
**For thse of you looking for the Town Hall Debate of October 7th in Nashville, Tennessee, click here for the live feed.
**5.52 AM** Here is a You Tube Playlist of last night's debate:
The video playlist was created by the folks at You Decide 2008.
Here is a player that will play the debate between John McCain and Barack Obama in Oxford, Mississippi liven tonight, and the CBS analysis later. I will leave the player up until tomorrow morning.
And in case I misunderstood whether the debate itself was embeddable, here is the CBS Live Coverage.
I don't trust that I understood the CBS Player properly...so I am using a tried and true C-SPAN 2 Player below:
In another of my continuing memes about lefties employing Stalinist tactics when they don't agree with the message being put out by those on the right...here is another campaign ad Obama's "Chicago-style" Lawyers are suing to prevent you from watching it.
Hey, Obama...sue me...please. I'll own you if you do.
...the Obama campaign has sicced its lawyers on t.v. stations that might air a well-sourced NRA advertisement that correctly points out Obama's longstanding anti-gun record. The proper response to such attempts to infringe on the First Amendment is to make sure that the video in question receives the widest circulation possible, to deter the Obama campaign, and other campaigns for that matter, from engaging in such tactics in the future. So here it is. Share it with a friend, with a note that Obama is threatening legal action against stations that run it, in violation of the First Amendment.
Source: The Volokh Conspiracy Hat Tip: John in Carolina Here is a snippet from theGunBanObama website: Barack Obama would be the most anti-gun president in American history. Senator Obama says “words matter.” But when it comes to your Second Amendment rights, he refuses to speak honestly about where he stands. In fact, Obama hides behind carefully chosen words and vague statements of support for sportsmen and gun rights to sidestep and camouflage the truth.
But even he can’t hide from the truth forever … his voting record, political associations, and long standing positions make it clear that, if elected, Barack Obama would be the most anti-gun president in American history. GunBaNObama.com is designed to bring you the truth about Barack Obama’s words – words like these: “Do you support state legislation to … ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns? Yes.” (Independent Voters of Illinois/Independent Precinct Organization general candidate questionnaire, Sept. 9, 1996 “I’m consistently on record and will continue to be on record as opposing concealed carry.” (Chicago Tribune, April 27, 2004) “I believe in keeping guns out of our inner cities and that our leaders must say so in the face of the gun manufacturers lobby.” Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope (2006).
And GunBaNObama.com will also bring you Obama’s deeds: Obama voted to ban almost all rifle ammunition commonly used for hunting and sports shooting. (United States Senate, vote no. 217, S. 397, July 29, 2005) Obama voted to uphold local gun bans and the criminal prosecution of people who use firearms in self-defense. (Illinois Senate, SB 2165, vote 20, March 25, 2004) In his only two votes on confirming Supreme Court nominees, Obama voted against two of the five justices (Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito) who later affirmed an individual right to keep and bear arms in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller.
Tell your friends about GunBaNObama.com. Or maybe one of your friends just doesn’t understand what Obama’s saying, and need some help from the Obama Translator . After reading about the Obama record, you’ll want to take action to stop Obama from being elected president.
To read and hear the folks in Asheville, you'd think the state ended there. Well, it does not and here are a few news items from the real western North Carolina:
Some Cherokee County gas stations were out of gas and others had limited supplies Monday, but the price of gas was significantly lower than on Sept. 12, when prices surged toward $5 a gallon as hurricanes Ike and Gustav churned up the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Big D Convenience stores were selling gas for 94 cents less than on Sept. 12, when prices rose briefly to $4.99 a gallon. The Big D on Hill Street in Murphy was issued a subpoena on Sept. 15 by the N.C. Attorney General’s office for allegedly gas gouging and charging customers $5.49 a gallon or more.
The attorney general’s office has subpoened 23 gas stations for alleged gas gouging. However, manager Elizabeth Hughes agreed with owner Sam Duncan Sr. that the station never charged more than $4.99 a gallon. The station hasn’t run out of gas as many other stations did, she said. All Big D Convenience stores were selling regular for $4.05 Monday.
Customers were at every gas pump at Wal-Mart at 9:45 a.m. Monday as a couple of cars waited in line. Regular gasoline was selling for $3.93.
The Sylva Herald has a photo of vehicles lined up for gas at the Enmark.
If you have trator and $20, you can participate in the 2nd annual Tractor Parade at the Hayesville High School on Saturday. There are a slew of other events taking place also.
At least the government and citizens of Swain County are not acting like lemmings every time they see an open gas station:
Swain County Manager Kevin King said Tuesday that county gas supplies were being monitored, and department employees told to cut unnecessary travel.
Yesterday morning (Wednesday press day), Bryson City's BP was continuing to pump gas, with a posted $3.99 per gallon charge for regular unleaded. There were no vehicles waiting in line at 8:15 a.m.
At the same time, Mountain Energy's Shell was gasoline-dry for the second straight day. Convenience store manager Lynn Wade said all Mountain Energy's sites were out of gas, although diesel fuel was available.
She said at that time she didn't know when the next gas shipment would arrive.
Most of Western North Carolina counties from McDowell County west have been reporting gas supply problems in the past week following Hurricane Ike's landing on the Texas Coast the weekend of Sept. 13.
Gulf Coast refineries closed down to weather Ike, then had to restart, a process that the industry says takes a week to 10 days. It also takes additional time for the fuel in the pipelines to build up to a normal volume flow.
The board of Sylva-based Smoky Mountain Center for Mental Health accepted the resignation of agency director Tom McDevitt last week (Sept. 16) following a six-hour, closed-door interrogation into allegations that McDevitt had abused his power and taken advantage of his position for financial gain.
The Smoky Mountain Center provides mental health care to 15 western counties and is the state’s largest such agency geographically.
The 30-member Smoky Mountain board in July began questioning some of McDevitt’s actions, including the salary he earned as director of the agency’s non-profit Evergreen Foundation, the employment of his daughter, and profits his wife made from property transactions through the Foundation.
The Foundation is a non-profit 501c3 entity that exists solely to further the interests of the Smoky Mountain Center. It buys, sells and leases properties to mental health providers and distributes low-interest loans. Of the state’s 25 mental health agencies, Smoky is one of just a few to have a non-profit arm.
The Smoky Mountain News investigated the allegations against McDevitt and published the findings in an Aug. 20 article. At the following board meeting on Aug. 28, the board demanded McDevitt address some of the questions raised by the story.
The board compiled a list of questions that McDevitt responded to at the Sept. 16 meeting. Board members expressed varying levels of satisfaction with McDevitt’s answers, but agreed unanimously that it was best for McDevitt and the Smoky Mountain Center to part ways.
And there was a massacre in Franklin last Friday night:
Fan frenzy week for energized Panther supporters culminated Friday night with a solid 55-0 pounding of Franklin’s biggest rival. With Smoky Mountain’s season off to a slow start (1-3) and coming off a 36-0 thrashing by Murphy last week, the Panthers showed no mercy as they convincingly avenged last year’s close 27-24 loss to the Mustangs.
Scoring early and often, the Panthers held the Mustangs to only 127 total yards on offense while piling up 442 yards. Blaine Clark led the Panther scoring machine with 223 yards and two touchdowns despite being used sparingly in the third quarter and not touching the ball in the final period.
And in Fontana Village, the news is that Dolly Parton will be a feature part of the 75th Anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and is penning a song for the event:
FONTANA VILLAGE – About two dozen people gathered to join in final preparations for the 75th Anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from 1934 to 2009. There was polite discussion about plans at several entrances to the park, volunteers working to spruce up trials, fundraisers and other meaningful events. But the biggest news was from park superintendent Dale Ditmanson who announced that country music legend Dolly Parton is writing a song about the mountains and plans to donate the first year of proceeds to the national landmark. “We’re developing the ambassador program, of individuals capable of taking about the parks mission, communicate it to the public,” Ditmanson said. “I’m really excited to hear that Dolly Parton is involved.” The concept started when park officials were looking for someone who could capture the rural and nostalgic feel of the park, while honoring the natural beauty inherent in the mountains in a musical presentation. “Imagine that song being written and sung by Dolly Parton,” Ditmanson said. “She has agreed to be an ambassador for the Great Smoky Mountains Park 75th Anniversary.” They anticipate there could be a welcome written by Parton on the inside cover of brochures that visitors to the park could read. “We’re in conversation with her management team – a lot of things are very preliminary,” said Ditmanson, who added that he believed Parton felt so strongly about the Smoky Mountains that the park could receive proceeds from the first year recording sales. Tennessee Department of Tourist Development commissioner Susan Hinchcliff Whitaker said that many other parks and managers of natural resources are actually coming to the area to see how her state and North Carolina officials are working together for the good of the park.
And the annual flu scare is starting to heat up in Cashiers, hot on the heels of the current Gas Panic.
There are blogs in the far west, but they are all lefties (save for me), and it depresses me too much to pass along right now. Maybe next week. Right now, the rain is making a pleasing sound on the tin...and I think I will take a nap since I have been up about 4 hours already.
This is another show that I have been neglecting to embed...mostly because I have been asleep for a couple of hours by the time it comes on. However, tonight has been a busy night...so here it is:
*update** I have replaced the live feed with the recorded version of the show. It will remain available as long as Ustream hosts the video file.
The show is by a husband-wife team out of Minneaoplis, and starts at 10 PM Eastern Time.
After the sow, the player will revert to simulcasting the NASA Channel until I get up in the morning ad replace it with the recorded version of the show.
The presidential election might be a tight race now, but one of the country’s top pollsters thinks the race will end in an electoral landslide. John Zogby, president of Zogby International, told a group of businesspeople today that it’s up to Democratic Sen. Barack Obama to convince voters to go with him. If he’s not successful, the country will likely vote for “a comfortable old shoe”, that being Republican Sen. McCain.
I just wanted to preserve that article because I have been saying the same thing...even before McCain picked Palin and sealed the deal with a hug AND a kiss.
An article describing China's long-awaited space mission was launched Thursday hours before astronauts even left the launch pad.
The country's official news agency Xinhua posted an article on its Web site Thursday written as if the three astronauts had already been launched into space.
The Shenzhou 7 mission, which will feature China's first-ever spacewalk, is set to launch Thursday from Jiuquan in northwestern China between 9:07 p.m. and 10:27 p.m. (1307 GMT and 1427 GMT).
The Xinhua article is dated Sept. 27 — two days from now — and comes complete with an entire dialogue between the astronauts.
The piece titled "Sleepless Night on the Pacific, Sidelights on the Observation and Control of the 30th Lap of Shenzhou 7 Spaceship," which was available most of the day, has now been removed from the Xinhua Web site.
A staffer from the Xinhuanet.com Web site who answered the phone Thursday said the posting of the article was a "technical error" by a technician. The staffer refused to give his name as is common among Chinese officials.
The piece vividly described the rocket in flight, complete with a sharply detailed dialogue between the three astronauts.
After hearing the press conference in Asheville today it is apparent that we have not planned for or considered an interruption in our gas flow. We are victims of oil allocations and refineries located in a prime spot for hurricanes. We in Asheville depend upon tourist trade especially at this time of year. We do not need to be captive to one pipe line or a few distributors.
The following is offered with some thought to a location that would be ideal..
Please consider and pass along to those that make up the slow acting power structure in this county and state. We do not need a study we know what the problem is therefore we need solutions.
Don Yelton
Position Statement to Solve Our Gas Lines Long Term
Senators Burr and Dole join with Representative Shuler and ask both McCory and Purdue to step up to the plate and promote the following:
Ø Drilling for oil and gas just off the coast of North Carolina
Ø Create incentives to encourage construction of oil refineries in the Wilmington area
Ø Create a petroleum reserve in Western North Carolina
The steps can be done by the private/public partnership and provide a solution to our problem without regard to politics and glory. We need to get back to service for the people.
I will as a County Commissioner, or more importantly a private citizen, push for and promote this idea from this day forth. The press conference today shows us that we do not need another committee but we need to be about the above solutions.
Any committee formed should be to promote and bring this about.
ALERT: Instructions for actions Muslims are to take before, during & after an attack in the U.S. posted;
*Message suggests activation of worldwide jihad following U.S. attack;
*Message indicates large-scale attack within the U.S., perhaps early October;
*Text, posting under analysis by U.S. Intelligence officials
*Analysis by Douglas J. Hagmann, Director & By Randy Taylor, Independent Analyst
Intelligence provided by "Archangel"
24 September 2008: A posting uncovered in an Arabic language Internet forum is currently raising a few eyebrows in the intelligence community. The single posting, which is presently being scrutinized by intelligence officials, appears to provide detailed instructions for Muslims living within the United States, giving them specific actions to take before, during and after an upcoming attack in the U.S. The communication was discovered by "Archangel," a well-known independent intelligence analyst active within the intelligence community.
The post was initially published on August 2, 2008 under the title “Commandments [Directives] Before the Strike,” and appears to be a sort of a conflict management guide, or instructions on what Muslims should do prior to the attack, actions that should be undertaken concurrent with the attack, and well as additional instructions following the attack.
The text addressing the nature, location and timing of the planned attack, although specific to the U.S., appears otherwise ambiguous. For instance, the timing appears to focus on the Tuesday following the end of Ramadan, which would be October 7, 2008. The nature of the attack is less clear. Although the author appears to talk about a strike greater in magnitude than the 9/11 attacks and makes reference to the possibility of it being nuclear in nature, the text references to the nuclear aspect of the attack appear somewhat muddled.
In terms of the location of the attack, it is clear that the author identifies both New York, as the financial capital of the U.S., and Washington, DC, as the nation’s capital, as being both desirable and affected. It is interesting that under analysis, the details of “the attack” referenced by the author are nestled within the text of instructions, rather than being prominently placed to serve as an overt warning as seen in the past. The relative subtlety in which the targets and type of attack was referenced is most interesting from a historical and analytical perspective.
The author who wrote the posting appears to be well established and respected by the community of terrorists and their supporters who frequent such forums. Research of the various membership profiles within that community indicates the author could be a sheik or other Muslim with leadership status. To be clear, research indicates the author has a level of credibility within the forum community. Accordingly, it would be completely consistent for the author to be able to issue a set of instructions that could be expected to be followed by the readers of the forum.
Oh. Joy. Here. Comes. Big. Government. To. The. Rescue.
It starts at 3 PMish.
Listen Live. (May require Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer)
I will post the audio here after it is over.
**09-25 10.43 AM**
The audio feeds kept dropping, so unless I can find an archived recording of the Press Conference...the best place for a very brief over view is the Mountain Xpress. It (the press conference) was a colossal waste of time.
Aside from sniping at the panic-filled consumers and our criminally ignorant Governor Mike Easley and Attorney General Roy Cooper, I can relay to you the problems in the logistics of this temporary fuel supply crunch.
Most of our fuel in western North Carolina comes from a pipeline that runs from the Gulf of Mexico to Spartanburg, South Carolina. [see map in a previous post] The fuel is brought to WNC by means of tanker trucks on journeys that can take several hours, further reducing the rate at which fuel can be delivered to the gas station.
According to the latest DOE Sitrep [see pdf here], the Colonial Pipeline is operating at a reduced capacity and others are as well. Read the whole report to get a feel for the big picture, and the serious nature of this temporary crunch in supply. Daily Sitreps are available.
Shipping is reduced in the Intra-coastal Waterway (see pdf above):
As of 8:00 AM EDT September 23, vessels with drafts over 34 feet are limited to daylight transit only from Sims Bayou to the Houston ship channel turning basin. The Sabine and Neches Channel going into the Port Arthur area is now open to vessels to project depth for daylight transit and limited to drafts of 33 feet at night. Part of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) in TX has re-opened, but it is still closed from mile marker 350 to 319 and has some closures in LA as well. The Calcasieu Channel into Lake Charles, LA is open to vessels with a draft of 38' or less.
US Inventories are down:
U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 11.5 million barrels per day during the week ending September 19, down more than 1.7 million barrels per day from the previous week's average. Refineries operated at 66.7 percent of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production fell last week, averaging about 8.0 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased last week, averaging nearly 3.3 million barrels per day.
U.S. crude oil imports averaged 7.1 million barrels per day last week, down nearly 1.4 million barrels per day from the previous week. Over the last four weeks, crude oil imports have averaged 8.5 million barrels per day, about 1.8 million barrels per day below the same four-week period last year. Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 1.2 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel imports averaged 199 thousand barrels per day last week.
Market sources said about 32 gasoline cargoes were on their way to the New York Harbor from Europe, and nearly half of them were unsold. In normal circumstances, these unsold cargoes would be diverted to the U.S. Gulf Coast market since there's no storage space left in the Harbor. However, ports along the Gulf Coast, especially the Houston Channel, currently have a huge backlog of ships delayed by Hurricane Ike. And because recovery is still underway in the region, there are limitations on what types of ships can be accommodated by these Gulf ports and when they are allowed to come in.
So, no matter how much Asheville Mayor Bellamy or Carl Mumpower or Congressman Heath Shuler or Governor Mike Easly, or even local bloggers cry for whatever solution they see fit...they can do nothing about the continued crunch in supply that will continue for a period of two weeks or so.
All Mayor Bellamy or Governor Easley will accomplish by diverting supplies here is a continued masking of the problem, which will add to the problem, not take away...as it will lower inventories in other areas and encourage people here to delay lowering their consumption. It is robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Chill, people. Stay at home, read a book or watch TV. Don't run around like a chicken with your head cut off because you can't get gasoline so you can eat out or get drunk at a bar.
People in Texas and Louisiana have lost their family members, their homes, their jobs and you are freaking out because you can't go cruising? Get a grip, and quit being so selfish.
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