Bias? from the mind of Unknown.

So... Mr. Brown has gone back to D.C. Seems like a logical step to me... there could be many other events that FEMA might need to assist with managing. It seems reasonable to me that the director would pay attention to the new event, and once the response is established, the command of the extended response would be taken over by an 'event specific leader'...

It makes perfect sense to me, but our Bush Bashing Media sees this as an opportunity. MSNBC, CNN, CBS (not surprisingly), ABC and many others have pitched this as the next best thing to a firing. The whole concept is absurd.

Brown is like the CEO of FEMA. Sure, the CEO of a corporation might get a new idea for a project... and might even dabble with the new project here and then. Say the project really takes off, like an IPOD. Now... will this CEO need to be busy in every IPOD product meeting? Should he be devoting every waking hour, and even some dream time to the IPOD? Perhaps he needs to relocate his house to where the IPOD factory sets. Heck... He should live IN the IPOD factory!

Normal people can see that it is very important, when an organization has one major task to tackle, that the leadership set up and delegate leadership duties so the rest of the organization doesn't shrivle up and die while (or whilst, for you across the pond readers) one product survives.

Regardless of Brown's job performance, it is completely logical that he head back to D.C. and delegate the duties of the Katrina Relief to someone else. This is so logical that it is a non-news story. If anything, it should be a minor, one or two sentences, clarification in a story introducing the new Katrina Disaster Director.

The Big Media's ability to make any story bad... as long as it is connected to the Bush Administration, is very dissappointing. The putrid bias, though, has been stinking for so long that it is just a given to plug one's nose while watching the news. The problem is that so many people don't even smell the stink anymore... they've been around it so long. I think we need to push to get them to officially register as a political party... They act like one.

That's one trait of a true LXCG'er... we can smell rotten news a mile away.

Dangerous Environmentalism from the mind of Unknown.

This article at NRO (if you don't check there often... you should, especially on Fridays... it has something to do with VDH...) looks at the hidden dangers of the emotionally motivated environmental policies pushed by groups like the Sierra Club. Now... don't get me wrong, we need a viewpoint that will look at protecting resources and balancing the protection of the environment and the ability of us humans to go about our daily lives. The opposition to flood control projects is pretty damming to these groups, one might be able to say that the Sierra Club hates... well... the same people our President was accused of hating.

These groups have a history of picking a cause and stonewalling it to death. Look at the Northwest forests for example. We obviously need woodproducts in the US... we build houses and businesses... very little commerce is done under tye-dye tarps out in dirt lots. Environmental groups have put up so many barriers to the industry that the industry has found different markets by importing raw lumber from other places... places where we can impose none of our standards. In the Northwest, clearcuts must be limited to a certain size and must leave a certain number of trees still standing. Studies must be done to make sure a certain rodent doesn't live there in high numbers because a certain non-native species of winged creature eats that rodent. This drastically decreases the efficiency of opperating a logging site. So, instead of the lumber companies just 'dealing' with the regulations, other markets that do not have the same restrictions (South and Central America... and even Canada) are able to be much more competitive and basically have brought or logging to a halt. So... the forests in Oregon are now protected... but what about those in Central America... what about those in Canada. Do those forests not matter? Is the USA in a little bubble where our environment doesn't overlap with others? It seems to me we would have much more control over the impacts of harvesting timber if we would keep regulations at a level that we are still competitive here in the Northwest... and keep higher volumes from transferring to less regulated markets.

Another example would be our power generation. Nuclear power is, hands down, the most containable pollution producing power source we have. A nuclear plant can be built in many places... and all of the dangerous pollution can be contained in neat little boxes. Burning coal, oil, gas, and wood by-product all release pollutants into the air that will eventually end up in our lungs, in our water, in our oceans... everywhere. But, the anti-nuclear lobby has placed a stigma on nuclear power being dangerous beyond usefulness. They say nothing about it only being dangerously polluting if someone really screws up... Other viable sources of energy all have uncontainable pollutants as byproducts regardless of someone screwing up or not.

So... my question is... are they (they = environmental lobby groups) really looking out for the common people, or the common good of the earth? I just dont' see it that way. I think they are looking out for their inner circle and looking out for their organization's existence. If they really cared, they would look for a way to keep timber harvest in the US and research ways to meet our markets needs in the most environmentally friendly ways. They would be pushing for as much nuclear power generation as we can get... and... they would be pushing for proper flood control for our population centers. Just think about all of the resources that would not be needed if we didn't have to rebuild a city for a million people... and just think of the toxins that would not have made it into lakes and rivers and the Gulf of Mexico had NO not flooded.

I get the feeling that some of these groups believe that human existence on earth is not compatible with their ultimate goals. I feel as though they blame my breathing for robbing good old oxygen from the snowy pluver or spotted owl which only makes things worse for the endangered species.

So, I say they can start with a solution to the problems they tell us are severe. They can voluntarily stop breathing. wouldn't that be a good way to help bring an end to 'global warming'??? isn't CO2 a 'leading cause'???

well, be sure to read the NRO article that prompted all of this. It's a little more collected than this rant.

Eye on the Fleet from the mind of Unknown.

Here is a very cool photo gallery by our US Navy. It appears to be continuously updated... and one can download large images to print! How cool is this!

Initally, some sort of insta-guy said they had images of the hurricane relief missions, but I now see that they have much more. Be sure to click through subsequent pages.. and take a look at at least 1% of the images.

Thanks Uncle Sam!

The Nuclear Long Term from the mind of Unknown.

This article opens the eyes about the true dangers of Nuclear Power. Sure... it might hold the potential of a core meltdown and a somewhat large scale contamination... but that is quite small in comparison to the dangers of allowing our energy production to put toxins into the air that we all breathe.

The Anti-Nuclear lobby has long used Chernobyl as an example of why not to use nuclear power... but that reason seems to be... well... decaying.

A True Ally from the mind of Unknown.

Check out this article, that shows a true ally in Japan. So, how much oil is France going to give out of it's strategic reserve? How much oil is Germany going to give out of it's reserve??? For all of the talk back in the campaign about 'abandoning our allies' and needing to 'enlist the help of our allies'... I'm not surprised to see this. It's nice to know that we do have friends out there... and having lived in Japan for some time, it's nice to know that a truly warm and loving population is willing to help.

Thanks, Japan. I really appreciate it.

Edited: It looks as though many countries around the globe, both developed and un-developed, have been helping us in many ways. I thank them all.