Jan 29 2012 - 7:01pm
On January 25, the host committee for the G8/NATO summit in Chicago in May unveiled a new slogan for the event, “The Global Crossroads.” The mood of the organizers is upbeat and positive. This is a grand opportunity to market Chicago with an eye for the tourist dollar and the city is ready, the committee assures us, to deal with any “potential problems.”
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Jan 29 2012 - 4:39am
Unbelievably the enormous cruise ship was toppled in a matter of hours
and thankfully rescue for hundreds was possible. A small commuter plane suddenly fell from the sky and toppled upside down into the waters... but miraculously the visiting family and pilot were pulled safely from the sea. Tornado like winds tore through many areas and totally destroyed homes and woods, but with amazing grace the inhabitants of the devastation were found alive. Read more
Jan 28 2012 - 6:33pm
In a presidential campaign year that defies description, we might have expected a little more elegance all around. It has not happened. Not from the Republican touring circus and not from the White House. Read more
Jan 28 2012 - 6:31pm
1. A war on Iran could kill us all. President Obama said in the State of the Union: "America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal. But a peaceful resolution of this issue is s till possible . . . if Iran changes course." So, unless Iran, which the Secretary of Defense says is not developing a nuclear weapon, ceases developing a nuclear weapon, we're going to war. Sound familiar? Ever seen this movie before? Actually, we've seen it in every single war ever fought by any nation. The best defense against the lies of the Department of Defense is good preparation. Read more
Jan 27 2012 - 6:02pm
On Thursday, Jan. 26, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta held a press conference announcing what he called "cuts" to military spending. The first question following his remarks pointed out that the "cuts" are to dream budgets, while the actual spending will be increased over Panetta's 10-year plan. Is there any year, the reporter asked, out of the 10 years in question, other than the first one, 2013, in which spending will actually decrease at all. Panetta replied that he was proposing really truly to cut the projected dream budgets that he had hoped for. In other words, he did not answer the question.
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Jan 27 2012 - 9:51am
John Raese re-established himself on the West Virginia political landscape with his spirited campaign against then Democratic Governor Joe Manchin in the 2010 U.S. Senate special election. But Raese's credentials as a true political conservative run deep, at least as far back as 1984, when the 34 year old Raese electrified the state by nearly picking off another two-term Democratic Governor, Jay Rockefeller. Read more
Jan 26 2012 - 6:18pm
The three main shareholder governments in LIAT – the airline that is vital to movement of tourists and local alike in the Caribbean – are scheduled to meet on January 31 to consider options for the airline which lost US$14.8 million last year. Read more
Jan 25 2012 - 12:46pm
Somewhere, John Raese must be smiling. Republican legislators in the West Virginia House of Delegates have declared one of their top legislative priorities to be the repeal of former Governor Joe Manchin's alternative and renewable energy portfolio standard. Raese made this initiative a key issue in his race against now U.S. Senator Manchin in their 2010 campaign. Read more
Jan 25 2012 - 10:30am
Joe Manchin's credibility on fiscal conservatism is now officially shot. The junior U.S. Senator from West Virginia tells constituents that he's just appalled at the spending in D.C., even as he voted for his third Obama Stimulus package in a year. Indeed, Obama has found in Manchin a very reliable party-line voter when it comes to voting for his Stimulus bills. Read more
Jan 24 2012 - 10:51pm
With the melancholies of 2011 finally behind us, and the full potential of a new year yet to come, it has become customary for millions across the country and here in the Mountain State to reconsider the state of their finances. In this annual period of recovery from overindulgence and often stressful family gatherings, getting a fresh perspective on personal finances should not add to anyone’s anxiety levels. To the contrary, it is possible to carefully structure one’s finances to minimize the ongoing pressure it places on individuals and families as well. Read more
Jan 24 2012 - 6:38pm
Stephen D. Lee, Commander-in-Chief, United Confederate Veterans, said of John B. Gordon: Read more
Jan 24 2012 - 6:34pm
A 24-member delegation from Japan is in Washington, D.C., this week opposing the presence and new construction of U.S. military bases in Okinawa. Participating are members of the Japanese House of Councilors, of the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly, and of city governments in Okinawa, as well as leading protest organizers and the heads of several important organizations opposed to the ongoing U.S. military occupation of Okinawa. Read more
Jan 23 2012 - 6:40pm
Presidential candidate Barack Obama won the Democratic primary last time around largely on the strength of his extremely limited and inconsistent opposition to the war on Iraq. Then he chose as his running mate Senator Joe Biden, a man who had led efforts in the U.S. Senate to support the invasion. Obama's staff told reporters that he would be inclined to keep Robert Gates on as Secretary of War (or "Defense") -- exactly the same plan proposed by Senator John McCain's campaign. Obama said he'd like Colin Powell to be a part of his administration, and repeatedly announced that his cabinet would include Republicans. Obama had approached leading warmonger Congressman Rahm Emanuel about becoming his chief of staff. Read more
Jan 22 2012 - 8:11pm
The idea of economic conversion, of retooling and retraining pieces of the military industrial complex to build what other wealthy nations have (infrastructure, energy, education, etc.) converged with the end of the Cold War two decades back. It was time for a peace dividend as well as a little sanity in public spending. Among the cosponsors of a bill to begin economic conversion in the late 1980s was a guy by the name of Leon Panetta.
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Jan 21 2012 - 5:37pm
The best book I've read in a very long time is a new one: "The End of War" by John Horgan. Its conclusions will be vigorously resisted by many and yet, in a certain light, considered perfectly obvious to some others. The central conclusion -- that ending the institution of war is entirely up to us to choose -- was, arguably, reached by (among many others before and since) John Paul Sartre sitting in a café utilizing exactly no research.
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Jan 21 2012 - 2:50pm
Like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Joe Manchin is quickly showing two sides, or rather, two entirely different selves.
There is West Virginia Joe, who comes back on shows like "Metronews Talkline" now and then to reasure us that he's still his own man up there in D.C. And then there's the strange creature we have come to call "Washington Joe," sightings of whom are becoming increasingly frequent. Read more
Jan 21 2012 - 2:51am
For those buried under several feet of snow... without power...
bringing the light is of the utmost necessity. Total darkness reminds us how welcome are those bringing the light. Most often we take for granted how consistently creation continues...bringing the light. Read more
Jan 20 2012 - 6:08pm
One would think that if condemned to lose sanity it would be preferable not to be aware of what was happening. On the contrary, as in lucid dreaming, there is something empowering and even comforting in lucid derangement, particularly national as opposed to personal derangement.
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Jan 19 2012 - 6:27pm
I recently recommened a
comprehensive Constitutional amendmentaddressing the corruption of our elections.
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Jan 19 2012 - 6:22pm
Seattle, WA (Special to Huntingtonnews.net) – No airline will ever get a Michelin star for its food. But many now are at least making an effort to accommodate the diverse ethnic, religious and nutritional diets of their passengers. Read more
Jan 19 2012 - 6:19pm
The world is about to see Europe linked to South America in a way that has never happened before. A bridge will link French Guiana, the last European outpost in the Americas, with Brazil the largest country in South America and now the sixth largest economy in the world.
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Jan 18 2012 - 6:23pm
French researchers have confirmed that childhood leukemia rates are shockingly elevated among children living near nuclear power reactors. Read more
Jan 18 2012 - 6:19pm
Each year, Congress authorizes the budget of the Department of Defense through a National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA of 2012, however, is unlike any previous ones. This year’s legislation contains highly controversial provisions thatempower the Armed Forces to engage in civilian law enforcement and to selectively suspend due process and habeas corpus, as well as other rights guaranteed by the 5th and 6th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, for terror suspects apprehended on U.S. soil.
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Jan 18 2012 - 6:16pm
The City Council of Charlottesville, Virginia, home of Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and the University of Virginia, passed on Tuesday evening, January 17, 2012, a resolution believed to be a first in the country, opposing the launching of a war on Iran, as well as calling for an end to current ground and drone wars engaged in by the United States and urging Congress and the President of the United States to significantly reduce military spending. Below is the text of the resolution, followed by an account of how it came to be. As other towns and cities have been inquiring about how they can do the same, this may prove helpful. Read more
Jan 17 2012 - 6:24pm
James E. Casto, a good friend and a retired newspaperman in Huntington, emailed appreciative comments about my Jan. 16 tribute to my hometown
Carnegie Library in Rochelle, IL and sent along a link to a story he did for
Wonderful West Virginia magazine on Carnegie libraries in the Mountain State: link:
http://www.wonderfulwv.com/archives/sub.cfm?month=nov09&fea=1.
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Jan 17 2012 - 5:58pm
Do you want to write a book or choreograph a ballet? Can you envision your name in lights on a marquee over a theater on Broadway? Can you hear violins floating up the scale of an etude that you want to compose? Maybe you would like to build an elegant bridge or design a mile-high skyscraper? Do you want to produce a play? Open a restaurant? Start an obedience school for recalcitrant pups? Read more
Jan 17 2012 - 5:55pm
Are American politicians out of sync with the public when it comes to foreign policy? There is considerable reason to believe so.
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Jan 16 2012 - 6:19pm
The West Virginia legislature drafted the “Public Safety and Offender Accountability” Act last week, which proposes reforms to the criminal justice system to ease the growing problem of prison overcrowding. The issue of state prison overcrowding has been a major concern for West Virginia correctional employees whose safety and wellbeing is compromised by working in the dangerously overcrowded conditions.
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Jan 16 2012 - 6:10pm
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” ― Jane Austen, "Pride and Prejudice"
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Jan 16 2012 - 6:07pm
There are many schemes now for undoing the doctrines under which corporations claim constitutional rights and bribery is deemed constitutionally protected "speech." Every single one of these schemes depends on a massive movement of public pressure all across the homeland formerly known as the United States of America. With such a movement, few of the schemes can fail. Without it, we're just building castles in the air. Nonetheless, the best scheme can best facilitate the organizing of the movement. Read more
Jan 14 2012 - 5:33pm
Today in the Charleston Gazette, Richard Andre has a picture titled “Piedmont Road, 1962.” The picture shows Piedmont Road running east and, on the left on a hillside, shows six houses. On the right of the road is the New York Central Railway and to the right of it is a field bordered by California Ave. I lived in a house on Piedmont Road nearer to town from 1938 to 1940 or thereabouts. And I played football in the field when we later lived in one of the California Apartments.
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Jan 14 2012 - 5:32pm
In early January the Obama Administration released the Pentagon’s new Guidance, Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense. It is clearly designed less to cut U.S. military spending than to reorder Pentagon priorities to ensure full spectrum dominance (dominating any nation, anywhere, at any time, at any level of force) for the first decades of the 21st century. As President Obama himself said, after the near-doubling of military spending during the Bush era, the Guidance will slow the growth of military spending, “but...it will still grow:, in fact by 4% in the coming year.”
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Jan 13 2012 - 6:07pm
The New York Times reported on Jan. 13 (Link)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/business/transcripts-show-an-unfazed-fed-in-2006.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25 that Federal Reserve officials in 2006 "maveled at the desperate antics of home builders" seeking buyers, but "meeting every six weeks to discuss the health of the nation’s economy, gave little credence to the possibility that the faltering housing market would weigh on the broader economy, according to transcripts that the Fed released Thursday, Jan. 12. Instead they continued to tell one another throughout 2006 that the greatest danger was inflation — the possibility that the economy would grow too fast."
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Jan 13 2012 - 6:03pm
A new book suggests that "It's the economy, stupid," may be more than political strategy; it may also be the key to environmental sustainability. The book is "Green Washed: Why We Can't Buy Our Way to a Green Planet," by Kendra Pierre-Louis. The argument developed is not just that the consumer choices of an individual won't save the planet without collective action, but also that the only collective action that will save us is abandoning the whole idea of consumer choices. Read more
Jan 12 2012 - 7:03pm
Without question, recent high school interventions–credit recovery, graduation coaches, the in-school GED option, ninth-grade academies, and others— help West Virginia students complete high school. However, these interventions—as good as they may be—are reactive, not proactive. It is like rescuing a struggling swimmer from a rapidly moving river; the most successful tactic is to keep the swimmer from falling into the river in the first place. Likewise, these high school interventions try to save students after they are already in trouble and caught in an education system they are ill prepared to handle. They are figuratively drowning. The education system needs to adapt and address the causes of the problem and not wait for the problems to develop. Read more
.jpg "For the Best Advice in 2012, Look to Yourself")
