Archives: 2008 March

Admiral William Fallon, Commander of United States Central Command, resigns. Once again a talented career officer who disagrees with the way the Bush mismanaged administration handles strategic matters, is forced out of office.

If you disagree with George W. Bush, and openly state conflicting positions, you had better brush up your resume or get ready for retirement. Admiral Fallon is considered by many, including Secretary of Defense Gates, as one of the US military’s greatest strategic thinkers and a valiant capable commander, one who has the skill and experience sets that can not be easily replaced.

With Fallon out of the way Bush and his neocons will very likely manufacture a reason or two as to why the US must strike Iran before Bush’s term of office is up.  Fallon advised patience in dealing with Iran. That was not what the White House wanted to hear.

The following article sheds a lot of light on this issue and how Bush likes only yes men in his chain of command.

====== From Esquire Magazine =======

How to write better English and really write English well is a question asked by people from all over the world.

Writing better English is a big plus no matter what type of job you may have, the type of studies that you may be involved with, or since English is the international language of business, what business you may be in and where you are living.

If you maintain a website you will often be judged by your English writing abilities. If you make a lot of spelling errors, mistakes in punctuation, use a limited boring vocabulary, use poor grammar, and write in a confusing manner, you will not be taken seriously by many people. In a major way you would be exposing your lack of writing skills to the entire Internet world.

Writing better English and truly writing English well is a sign of an educated person. You may be self educated rather than educated by attending a college or university. That doesn’t really matter. When you write better English you will immediately improve your image with those who read your writing.

If you are writing as an assignment in high school or college, writing a business report for your boss, writing a novel to present for publication, or writing professionally as a journalist or copywriter, the use of correct grammar, punctuation, along with colorful adverbs, adjectives, and nouns will set your writing apart from the average writer.

When you write well for others to read your writing skills will be noticed. Writing better English may well mean the difference between being an aspiring author or a successful published author who is receiving royalty payments on a recurring basis for his/her writing. Writing well may mean the difference between a quick promotion and laboring at the same old job for years without recognition. In trying economic times, as we are currently experiencing, writing well may mean the difference in retaining your job as a valuable employee, or in being laid off or fired.

With gasoline setting record highs in the US for most people a few tips on how to get the most for your money at the gas pump is something of interest.

The following tips come from a guy who has a home inspection service in Clarksville, Tennessee. One of the great things about blogging is that useful information can come from such local sources.

====== From the Clarksville Home Inspection blog =======

Below are some useful tips I received for getting the best value at the pumps and I wanted to share them with our readers.

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening your gallon is not exactly a gallon.

In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

To read more tips go to Clarksville Home Inspection

George W. Bush has locked up his legacy of being the only in favor of and supporter of torture president in the United States proud history. At least we could be proud of the US before George W. Bush lowered our nation’s moral standards to the point of acute embarrassment.

Bush has vetoed a bill that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding. According to Bush harsh interrogation methods are not torture as long as the prisoner survives the ordeal.

This is a very stubborn dangerous man we have as our president. How can any American take pride in a man who thinks that it is OK to waterboard anyone as he states that waterboarding is not torture? This president has placed the United States in the position of being one of the world’s greatest human rights abusers.

“The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror,” Bush said in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday. “So today I vetoed it,” Bush said. The bill he rejected provides guidelines for intelligence activities for the year and has the interrogation requirement as one provision. It cleared the House in December and the Senate last month.

“This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe,” the president said.

“We created alternative procedures to question the most dangerous al Qaeda operatives, particularly those who might have knowledge of attacks planned on our homeland,” Bush said. “If we were to shut down this program and restrict the CIA to methods in the field manual, we could lose vital information from senior al Qaeda terrorists, and that could cost American lives.”

I am amazed at all of the talking heads, financial analysts, government officials, investment newsletter gurus and all of the rest of the so called experts who are still asking if the US economy is in a recession.

Of course we are in a recession. One that has stagflation elements to it as well. Just ask an average American who shops for groceries, pays up for gasoline, is fearful of losing his job, is underwater with his house mortgage, and is using his credit cards to pay for household expenses, what he thinks.

His answer may not fit the official definition of a recession, which is two back to back quarters of negative economic growth, but it will likely be very accurate. Yes, indeed , we have moved into a recession that may turn out to be something even worst. Much worst. Stagflation is the worse of all worlds where economic activity plummets while prices continue to increase. The poor consumer has less money yet has to pay higher prices for everything from gasoline to milk and meat.

As the recession gets worse those experts and political spin artists who still deny it will fall in line. If you are smart you will avoid the rush that will surely come later this year. It is wise to act now to protect yourself.

The recession will get much, much worse than the forecasters are currently saying. The “experts” were wrong last year. They were very wrong last month. They are wrong now as they talk of avoiding a recession that we are already in.

And those who think that we are in a recession, but not to worry, as it will be short and not very deep, will be proved wrong as well. Those who believe that the government can easily solve the problems by cutting interest rates to one or two percent will be very wrong.