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Dave
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Posted: Wed Aug 6th, 2008 03:53 pm |
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McCain visiting motorcycle rally, nuke power plant
GLEN JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
STURGIS, S.D. — Thousands of motorcyclists greeted Republican presidential candidate John McCain with an approving roar Monday as he sought blue-collar and heartland support by visiting a giant motorcycle rally.
"As you may know, not long ago a couple hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent. I'll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day," McCain said, referring to Democrat Barack Obama's recent visit to the German capital.
Billed as the largest event of its kind in the world, the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally has become something of an annual bikers' Woodstock during the past 70 years. It features nine nights of entertainment, with bands including Def Leppard, Lynyrd Skynyrd and REO Speedwagon.
McCain played to a crowd that paused for a veterans salute. He criticized Obama for supporting a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq while opposing efforts to reduce record-high energy prices.
"My opponent wants to set a date to come home. I want us to come home with victory and honor so we will never go back again," the Arizona senator said.
McCain also criticized Congress for adjourning for a five-week recess without approving a new energy plan.
"Tell em' to come back and get to work," McCain said, yelling into the microphone. "When I'm president of the United States, I'm not going to let them go on vacation. They're gonna become energy independent."
McCain was accompanied by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who has been mentioned as a potential running mate. He had warned the McCain campaign that a politician might receive an unfriendly welcome, but McCain relished the warm embrace.
His wife, Cindy, also paid tribute to the crowd, saying: "I'd like to thank all of you for your support of our troops, and here's why: I'm many things in my life, and one thing I'd like to be is your first lady. But more importantly, I'm Jack McCain's mother and Jimmy McCain's mother, one in the U.S. Navy and another one in the Marine Corps, an Iraqi vet."
Taking back the microphone, McCain joked that he wanted her to enter the beauty contest held at the site, the Buffalo Chip campground on the edge of town.
"I told her with a little luck, she could be the only woman ever to serve as both the first lady and Miss Buffalo Chip," McCain quipped.
Before landing in South Dakota, McCain visited the National Label Co. in Lafayette Hill, Pa. The 97-year-old, family owned business makes labels for products from medicines such as Tylenol to shampoos in the Suave family.
There, McCain focused on energy policy, telling reporters he has outlined an "all-of-the-above" strategy and mocking Obama's suggestion last week for improving automobile mileage, saying: "We're not going to achieve energy independence by inflating our tires."
On Tuesday, McCain aims to underscore his call for expanded nuclear power in the U.S. by touring a nuclear power plant in the battleground state of Michigan. That trip comes a day after Obama laid out his energy vision in a speech, also in Michigan.
http://ap.lubbockonline.com/pstories/politics/20080804/313463761.shtml
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Dave
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Posted: Wed Aug 6th, 2008 03:06 pm |
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This is the part of it that I like. The Supreme Court basiclly telling the Federal Government to pound sand. You are supposed to answer to the states and the people. Not the other way around.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for a 6-3 majority that the international court's judgments cannot be forced upon individual states. The president also cannot "establish binding rules of decision that pre-empt contrary state law," he said, and the treaty itself does not specifically require states to remedy any treaty violations.
The chief justice added that the international court "is not domestic law," thereby restricting the president's power over states. "The executive's narrow and strictly limited authority to settle international claims disputes pursuant to an executive agreement cannot stretch so far as to support the current presidential memorandum" that would force Texas to conduct a new state trial, he wrote.
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empty
Supporter
| Joined: | Tue Jun 28th, 2005 |
| Location: | Plano, Texas USA |
| Posts: | 1834 |
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Posted: Wed Aug 6th, 2008 02:58 pm |
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Dave wrote: Mexican executed after appeal denied in Texas
Medellin's capital appeal was an unusual one that pitted President Bush against his home state in a dispute over federal authority, local sovereignty and foreign treaties.
At issue is an international court's ruling that Medellin and about 50 other Mexicans have been illegally denied access to their home country's consul. Allowing travelers such access when they are arrested abroad is common practice.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/05/scotus.execution/index.html Therein lies the rub. Should we consider illegal aliens as 'travelers'?
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Mikey
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Posted: Wed Aug 6th, 2008 02:16 pm |
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Abo wrote: Hey Y'all.. Paris Hilton for President?.. Sure why not. JMHO. Abo
That was Funny as hell....
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6dLast edited on Wed Aug 6th, 2008 02:18 pm by Mikey |
marc
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Posted: Wed Aug 6th, 2008 01:23 pm |
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Illegal immigrants invited to turn themselves in
By AMY TAXIN, Associated Press WriterWed Aug 6, 1:01 AM ET
Wanted: Illegal immigrants with clean records who have ignored court orders to leave the country. Immigration officials are standing by to help you leave the country. No jail. No joke.
That invitation drew hardly any takers Tuesday on the first day of a new federal "self-deportation" program that offered 457,000 eligible illegal immigrants the chance to turn themselves in, get their affairs in order and leave the country without being detained.
The tepid response only reinforced doubts about an idea that has drawn criticism and even ridicule from both sides of the immigration debate.
"You would have to be crazy — who would want to turn themselves in?" said Angel Martinez, a construction worker who waited Tuesday outside ICE's Charlotte, N.C., office while his son visited a friend detained on immigration violations.
"Nobody wants to go back," said Martinez, who came to the U.S. illegally 15 years ago from Mexico City. "We risked everything to get here for a reason."
The offer from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement runs through Aug. 22 in Santa Ana, San Diego, Chicago, Phoenix and Charlotte, N.C., as part of the agency's new Scheduled Departure Program. It could be expanded nationwide if successful.
Agents were waiting to speed people through the process — which grants participants up to three months to get their affairs in order and provides the comfort of knowing their homes won't be raided.
But by Tuesday afternoon, only one person — in Phoenix — took the offer, according to an ICE official who spoke on condition of anonymity because not all the numbers are in. Officials in the other cities said they had no takers by mid-afternoon.
"Are people actually doing it? I really find it hard to believe," said Wendy Chavez, 22, of Anaheim, who took her mother for a citizenship test.
An ICE advertising campaign being launched Wednesday targets so-called immigration "fugitives," illegal immigrants who got caught and ignored a judge's order to leave but avoided other trouble with the law.
Of the nation's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, about 572,000 are fugitives, although about 20 percent of them are ineligible to participate because they have criminal histories, officials said.
By turning themselves in, immigrants can also avoid spending weeks, months or possibly years in detention centers as their cases are processed.
The program "gives you time to make arrangements and take care of your personal matters," the ad reads. "It is a way for you to plan your return home."
When ICE agents arrive at a home to arrest a fugitive, they often find relatives and friends who are in the U.S. illegally but haven't been ordered home. Those people may get deported too.
Robin Baker, who heads ICE's detention and removal operations in San Diego, said participants in the program get up to 90 days to put their affairs in order, possibly longer, after turning themselves in. They are asked to check in with U.S. officials after leaving the country to let authorities know they kept their promise.
"We understand the impact it has on them when we knock on their doors early in the morning and take them out of their homes," he said. "This allows them to leave on their own terms."
And fugitives who aren't from Mexico are likely to get another benefit: A one-way plane ticket home if they can't afford the trip, just like immigrants arrested in raids. For Mexicans who are deported, ICE will consider paying bus fare to the border.
The program could also ease pressure on immigration courts and detention centers, which have been crowded by the Bush administration's immigration crackdown at homes, factories and offices.
Juan Laguna, a Santa Ana immigration attorney, said some of his clients might be interested.
"They don't want their children to go through the trauma of being arrested in the morning," he said outside ICE offices Tuesday.
Some may sign up for the program to improve their standing with the government in case they ever seek to return legally, Laguna said. The ad says surrendering to authorities will be "noted by ICE as a factor in your immigration records."
One anti-illegal immigration group welcomed the effort. Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said taxpayers would save money if even only a few surrender because ICE won't have to look for them.
The ad campaign targets ethnic media in the five cities, starting with the Prensa Hispana newspaper in Phoenix. In Chicago, ICE planned ads in La Raza, the city's largest Spanish-language weekly, and on Spanish- and Polish-language radio.
ICE officials hesitated to predict turnout but Robert Alfieri, supervisory deportations officer in Charlotte, had a message for critics: "For anyone to say no one will do it, that's absolutely wrong."
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Abo
Supporter
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Posted: Wed Aug 6th, 2008 12:56 pm |
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| Hey Y'all.. Paris Hilton for President?.. Sure why not. JMHO. Abo
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Dave
Supporter
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Posted: Wed Aug 6th, 2008 11:41 am |
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Mexican executed after appeal denied in Texas
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Mexican national Jose Ernesto Medellin, whose death penalty conviction in the rape and murder of two teen girls sparked international controversy, was put to death in Texas on Tuesday night, prison officials said.
Jose Ernesto Medellin was put to death for his part in the gang rape and murder of two Texas girls.
Corrections spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said Medellin died at 9:57 CT.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied the last-ditch appeal of a Mexican national on Texas' death row late Tuesday, paving the way for him to be executed for a pair of brutal slayings, state corrections officials said.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said about 9:15 p.m. that the court had turned down the appeal of Jose Ernesto Medellin.
Medellin's capital appeal was an unusual one that pitted President Bush against his home state in a dispute over federal authority, local sovereignty and foreign treaties.
At issue is an international court's ruling that Medellin and about 50 other Mexicans have been illegally denied access to their home country's consul. Allowing travelers such access when they are arrested abroad is common practice.
At about 7 p.m., an hour after the execution could have taken place, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Corrections said the execution was in a "holding pattern."
The high court in March ruled for Texas, allowing the execution to proceed, but Medellin's lawyers filed a flurry of emergency appeals in state and federal courts, requesting a stay. They argued that Congress and the Texas Legislature should be given a chance to pass legislation that would give their client a new hearing before punishment is carried out.
Such a bill is pending in Congress, but no recent action has been taken in either chamber. In an August 1 letter, three Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee urged Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, to postpone executions "in order to provide Congress with the time needed to consider this situation."
Texas lawmakers will not gather in session until January.
The case centers on whether the state has to give in to a demand by the president that the prisoner be allowed new hearings and sentencing. Bush made that demand reluctantly after an international court concluded Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on American death rows were improperly denied access to their consulate upon arrest, a violation of a treaty signed by the United States decades ago.
Medellin's execution will be the first of what promises to be a busy month at the state's death chamber in Huntsville. Five other men are scheduled to die by lethal injection in the next four weeks, including one on Thursday.
Medellin was 18 when he participated in the June 1993 gang rape and murder of two Harris County girls, Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Pena, 16. He was convicted of the crimes and sentenced to death.
The prisoner's lawyers argued Mexican consular officials were not able to meet with the man until after his conviction.
Thirteen Texas death row inmates from Mexico will be affected by the high court ruling. Only Oklahoma has commuted a capital inmate's sentence to life in prison in response to the international judgment.
The International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that the United States had violated the rights of the prisoners, in part because officials and prosecutors failed to notify their home country, from which the men could have received legal and other assistance. Those judges ordered the United States to provide "review and reconsideration" of the convictions and sentences of the Mexican prisoners.
The world court again last month ordered the United States to do everything within its authority to stop Medellin's execution until his case could be further reviewed.
Based in The Hague, Netherlands, the International Court of Justice resolves disputes between nations over treaty obligations. The United States is a signatory to the 1963 Vienna Convention, which lays out rights of people detained in other nations. The appeal the Supreme Court ruled on in March turned on what role each branch of government plays to give force to international treaty obligations.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for a 6-3 majority that the international court's judgments cannot be forced upon individual states. The president also cannot "establish binding rules of decision that pre-empt contrary state law," he said, and the treaty itself does not specifically require states to remedy any treaty violations.
The chief justice added that the international court "is not domestic law," thereby restricting the president's power over states. "The executive's narrow and strictly limited authority to settle international claims disputes pursuant to an executive agreement cannot stretch so far as to support the current presidential memorandum" that would force Texas to conduct a new state trial, he wrote.
The Mexican government filed an appeal with the international court against the United States in January 2003, alleging violations of international law. Medellin filed his own federal and state appeals based on similar complaints, as well as a claim of ineffective counsel. Medellin has the support of the European Union and several international human rights groups.
Bush said he disagreed with the international court's conclusions, but agreed to comply with them. In a February 28, 2005, executive order, he said, "The United States will discharge its international obligations ... by having state courts give effect to the decision in accordance with general principles of comity in cases filed by the 51 Mexican nationals addressed in that decision."
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The Bush White House typically backs states in their power to carry out executions, but Justice Department officials said that in these instances, the president's power to conduct foreign policy outweighed states' interests.
The Supreme Court originally heard the Medellin case in 2005 but did not rule on the merits. It waited instead for lower courts to resolve the federalism angle before rehearing the appeal in October.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/08/05/scotus.execution/index.html
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zippo
Supporter
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Posted: Tue Aug 5th, 2008 04:22 pm |
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| Ben can join the fat man for the long sleep
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marc
Supporter
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Posted: Tue Aug 5th, 2008 02:36 pm |
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Another POS...
19 indictments for accused underwear-survey conman
Mon Aug 4, 10:35 PM ET
A man accused of conning parents into allowing him to be alone with their children to conduct a "marketing survey" of underwear was indicted Monday on 19 criminal counts involving 11 minors.
Ben Hawkins, 44, of suburban Cincinnati was indicted on charges including kidnapping, gross sexual imposition and attempted gross sexual imposition.
He contacted parents by taking out ads in an alternative newspaper and online and by responding to ads for in-home child care, investigators said.
He would meet the families at public places such as schools and hospitals or at the children's homes, then he would tell parents he needed to be alone with the children for research, prosecutors said.
Police said Hawkins told the children he wanted to measure their underwear and then touched them sexually.
The scam was perpetrated on boys and girls between the ages of 9 and 16 over a five-month period starting in March, prosecutors said.
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Dave
Supporter
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Posted: Tue Aug 5th, 2008 01:52 pm |
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marc wrote: Who cares...Kill the fat bastard...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26014962
Never too fat for a firing squad...
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zippo
Supporter
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Posted: Tue Aug 5th, 2008 01:48 pm |
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| Hes so full a shit how about shoving a fire hose up his arse and turning it on
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zippo
Supporter
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Posted: Tue Aug 5th, 2008 01:44 pm |
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the preacher wrote: ya know, I have been wondering about something....how come NO ONE ever mentions hydro-electric? We have lots of rivers, once a plant is put in, it has no effect on the environment, they require little maintenance so I am told, and make a LOT of power. Kerr Damn in Virginia, (just a little north of where I am) has 4 or 5 units, and someone told me once if the grid would let them run all of them at the same time, they could supply VA, NC and SC with all the juice they needed...maybe they aren't doing hydro cause Gore didn't invent it yet?
lol
RSDF Probably because the environmentalist would have a shit fit, blocking up the river screws up the the down river environment.
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Randy in Pensacola
Supporter
| Joined: | Wed Nov 3rd, 2004 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 935 |
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Posted: Tue Aug 5th, 2008 01:41 pm |
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| They could always just lock him in his cage and put him on a diet of only fresh air for a few months and then kill him if he survives the diet....or just shoot the fucker in the leg and let gangrene take its course.
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Vero Steve
Supporter
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Posted: Tue Aug 5th, 2008 01:07 pm |
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| I hope the pain is so bad that it kills him....Show no mercy...he didn't
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marc
Supporter
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Posted: Tue Aug 5th, 2008 12:57 pm |
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Who cares...Kill the fat bastard...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26014962
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empty
Supporter
| Joined: | Tue Jun 28th, 2005 |
| Location: | Plano, Texas USA |
| Posts: | 1834 |
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Posted: Tue Aug 5th, 2008 12:27 pm |
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Dave wrote:
I don't think that there is a single answer to what we need. I do like a few parts of the "Picken's Plan". One main thing I don't like about it, is that Gore is attached to it. (Anyone can agree with me or disagree, that is just the way I feel about Gore) But, I have to admit, I never knew that each wind-mill required 2 acres...
There are some other rarely known things about wind generators, for instance, did you know that once they get a certain size, they are supposed to put out a noise that scares off larger birds... There are some people that can't stand the sounds of those things.
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Dave
Supporter
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Posted: Tue Aug 5th, 2008 12:17 pm |
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the preacher wrote:
ya know, I have been wondering about something....how come NO ONE ever mentions hydro-electric? We have lots of rivers, once a plant is put in, it has no effect on the environment, they require little maintenance so I am told, and make a LOT of power. Kerr Damn in Virginia, (just a little north of where I am) has 4 or 5 units, and someone told me once if the grid would let them run all of them at the same time, they could supply VA, NC and SC with all the juice they needed...maybe they aren't doing hydro cause Gore didn't invent it yet?
lol
RSDF
I don't think that there is a single answer to what we need. I do like a few parts of the "Picken's Plan". One main thing I don't like about it, is that Gore is attached to it. (Anyone can agree with me or disagree, that is just the way I feel about Gore) But, I have to admit, I never knew that each wind-mill required 2 acres...
"Compressed Natural Gas" or CNG is a clean(er) burning fuel and all reports say we have a lot of it available.
There are already a lot cars available that can be bought with either gas or CNG being used for fuel. Its cheap too. I think that the average price around here, is less than $2.00 a gallon. You can also buy home refueling stations that give the user a cost of less than $1.00 a gallon. When I had my Bronco with the 460 in it, I was getting about 7.5 MPG, I looked into a propane conversion, which is very similar to CNG. That was about 6 or 7 years ago and the conversion was about $2,000.00. Out of reach for me then. Now? With $5.00 per gallon for gas in sight? I think if necessary, I could pull the money together...LOL
Anyway, Hydro-electric makes sense. But, I gotta disagree with you on the impact to the environment. Looks at the "Three-Rivers" project in China. They had to flood thousands of miles of land to make that work. How much land was flooded for the "Hoover Damn"? I'm not familiar with the "Kerr Damn" but, I have to think that they had to flood some land to make that work too.
But, I really don't think that there is anything we're gonna be able to do that doesn't have an impact on the environment. Its just a matter of how much impact are we willing to accept? You and me? Probably a whole lot more than the typical tree-huggin' Sierra Club member. So, that starts a battle...
But, we have how many thousands of miles of coastline? I would think that there would be a way to set something up, off-shore, under-water, that would harness the power of the current or wave action. But again, how much impact to the environment are we willing to accept. Because, you know that Green-Peace is gonna be out there raisin' hell about that one too.
Nuke? I tend to believe that is the safest and cleanest way to create power. But, what to do with the waste. That's a huge issue. Navy has been powering ships and submarines for decades with nuke and has a extremely low accident rate. Not saying they don't happen. But, I can't (in recent memory) remember an accident on a U.S. nuke boat. But, try and get that one past the "Anti-Nuke" crowd.
There are a lot of different methods that we, personally, can get off the grid, power-wise. None are cheap to start out with. Solar power is a big way to go. You can buy shingles that are solar panels and generate part of your power that way. Add a small wind-mill and you might get completely off the power grid with the set up. You might get completely off with just the solar panels too. Guess it would depend on how many you have.
And then there's the issue of storage. Battery technology has come a long ways in recent times. But, there always seems to be one issue or another with the environmental crowd. Disposal of the batteries when they go bad is something that quickly comes to mind.
What's the old saying? You can fool some of the people some of the time. But, you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Well, replace "Fool" with "Satisfy". JMHO...
Sorry about the long post, we now return you to the news...
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the preacher
Supporter
| Joined: | Wed Oct 17th, 2007 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 313 |
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Posted: Tue Aug 5th, 2008 10:25 am |
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ya know, I have been wondering about something....how come NO ONE ever mentions hydro-electric? We have lots of rivers, once a plant is put in, it has no effect on the environment, they require little maintenance so I am told, and make a LOT of power. Kerr Damn in Virginia, (just a little north of where I am) has 4 or 5 units, and someone told me once if the grid would let them run all of them at the same time, they could supply VA, NC and SC with all the juice they needed...maybe they aren't doing hydro cause Gore didn't invent it yet?
lol
RSDF
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zippo
Supporter
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Posted: Tue Aug 5th, 2008 02:51 am |
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One of the scientest at los alamos wrote this in respon class=storydate style="FONT: 11pt Garamond, Georgia, Times, serif; COLOR: black"Monday, August 04, 2008
Monday, August 04, 2008
Without Nuclear, Alternative Energy Is Tilting at Windmills
By William R. Stratton And Donald F. Peterson
Los Alamos Education Group
AL GORE AND T. Boone Pickens recently have offered proposals to solve the energy shortfall and climate change. Gore recommends abandoning use of fossil fuels in 10 years. Pickens proposes a combination of wind power for electrical generation and reassignment of natural gas from electric power generation to the mobile economy. ...
Both proposals aim to substitute other energy production methods for existing fossil-produced energy. Both proposals fail to consider future energy requirements and thus add little to the largely unanticipated doubling to quadrupling of energy demand accompanying population growth in the rest of this century.
Planners must make decisions now to influence future energy generation methods. ... The time to experiment was squandered by the abdication of nuclear energy leadership in the late '70s. We are 30 years late and many dollars short.
In 2006, the Energy Information Agency published the total national electrical demand at 580,000 megawatts; about 50 percent comes from coal, 20 percent from natural gas and 20 percent from nuclear power. Natural gas provides a little over 100,000 megawatts.
Windmills are proposed to provide the power now obtained from natural gas. If each windmill generates three megawatts, over 33,000 windmills would be required to replace natural gas or nuclear power, when the wind is blowing at the correct velocity. The cost per kilowatt is more than what it replaces but not unduly so.
However, because the operating record for getting electricity from windmills is only a third of the time, three times as many would be needed, still with no assurance of constant, adequate supply.
Additionally, modification of the electric grid system would be necessary to collect and distribute windmill energy. At two acres per windmill, the footprint would be enormous and the electrical energy would replace only the natural gas-generated power.
We suspect that utilities are using windmills primarily to satisfy government edicts that place legislative requirements on power generators to use renewable power — wind, solar, biomass, etc. It is much like requiring oil companies to drill for oil where there is none.
Nuclear energy, not mentioned by Pickens and Gore, is reliable day or night, rain or shine, winter or summer, calm or windy days and has a comparatively tiny footprint. Allowing a few percent for peaking requirements, all coal and natural gas plants could be replaced by about 240 nuclear power stations of 1,500 megawatts each.
Considering that we constructed over 100 in less that 20 years, making our electrical system nuclear using an approved "cookie cutter" reactor design is a feasible proposition with room to expand. The French have done it successfully.
We urge Pickens and Gore to pursue this objective instead of more ephemeral solutions.
The only way we see any short term hope for the Gore/Pickens proposals is if we use Gore's speeches to power Pickens' windmills.
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Abo
Supporter
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Posted: Mon Aug 4th, 2008 05:40 pm |
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the preacher wrote: Abo:
I am going to guess he would use all his initials...BHO...
ROFL
how was yer birthday bash?
RSDF I'm sure you are right. I did Survive yet another birthday, of course I was not at Randys might not have than.. LOL.. Thanks for asking. Abo
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