rdanafox

West Coast Unions avoid Federal fines by not officially planning port shut down with Occupy

2011-12-12T19:22:00.000-08:00

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union didn't endorse the Occupy shutdown of the port on November 2nd, and it didn't endorse the shutdown on Monday, December 12th. Why? Basically because if they did endorse the action, it would be like a strike and they wouldn't get paid. That action would open up the Union to the possibility of fines, a Federal judge fined the Union $315,000 for disruptions earlier this year.

What happens is an arbitrator is called to the scene, if the arbitrator declares the terminal unsafe for the Longshoreman to work, they go home for the day, with pay. My stepfather worked as a longshoreman for over 30 years and operated under similar rules.

If a federal judge determines that occupiers are acting on the union’s behalf, President Scott Mason of Local 23 in Tacoma, Washington, said:

“we can be charged $5,000 for every incident.”

From Port and Technology:

“To be clear, the ILWU, the Coast Longshore Division and Local 21 are not coordinating independently or in conjunction with any self-proclaimed organization or group to shut down any port or terminal, particularly as it related to our dispute with EGT in Longview (Wash),” read a statement by the ILWU Coast Committee in November.

Kari Koch of Occupy Portland said that the Local could be held legally liable if they coordinated the protest with the Union.

We would not be doing this action if we didn’t have any support from the rank and file.

The Portland Occupier put it like this:

While the mainstream media tried to pin Occupy protesters against the Unions, all along, protesters knew that rank-and-file unions members stood in solidarity. Anyone with a basic understanding of how Unions currently operate knows that to maintain their contracts, statements like these are issued in order to avoid conflict. Years of US policies crafted behind doors by ALEC and others have drained much vitality from Unions across the country.

Jared Lorio and organizer from Portland adds the punctuation:

The lack of support from the ILWU] sheds light on the fact that our unions have been hamstrung and made ineffective by laws designed to curtail workers organising for their rights to better pay and conditions in this country.

And that brings us full circle back to the ILWU fight with Grain Terminal Operator EGT in Longview, Washington. EGT has refused to hire Union Labor for its terminal operations and is in a long term fight with the Longshoreman's Union over hiring for all of the grain elevators in the Pacific Northwest.

The 2 Portland terminals on North Marine Ave were shutdown.

Occupy LA.

Protestors with Longshore Union signs.

14th St Oakland. ILWU signs.

Entrance to Seattle terminal blockaded.

Terminal 18 in Seattle.

Trucker blasting air horn in support near berth 55 @ OccupyOakland.

Scott Olsen, center, Marching in Oakland.

Oakland.

Trucks outside Oakland terminal.

From twitter, @laststarwriter, who took this picture and told me Code Pink was collecting money for non Union truck drivers in Oakland who would loose a days pay.

Jesse LaGreca makes his 4th appearance on the Ed Show

2011-12-09T12:45:00.000-08:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

So you want fair taxes for the 1% ?

2011-12-08T17:43:00.000-08:00

The US economic system used to be stable, banks didn't fail and jobs were created for those wishing to work.

A system that destroys 20 million jobs for over 3 years is broken.

A system that cant keep its banks afloat is broken.

A political system on auction to the highest bidder is broken.

A system that steals our future is broken.

A system that destroys families is broken.

A system that increases income and wealth disparity is broken.

A system that economically oppresses people is broken.

Whats fair is an economic system thats stable.

Whats fair is to take the big money out of politics.

Whats fair is tax policy that creates a stable economy.

Whats fair is regulations like Glass Steagal that creates a stable banking community.

Whats fair is not stealing our future.

A Declaration of War on the Big Banks.

2011-12-04T08:31:00.000-08:00

Declaring that a state of war exists between the Bank of America, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and other similar institutions (hereby known as "The Banksters"), and the people of the United States and making provisions to prosecute the same.

Whereas the Banksters have committed unprovoked acts of economic terror against the Government and the people of the United States of America:

Therefore be it Resolved by the people of the United States of America in General Assembly gathered,

That the state of war between the people of the United States and the Banksters which has thus been thrust upon us by their total disregard for the welfare of their country is hereby formally declared;

That the people will hereby employ their economic, political and social resources, along with their constitutional rights, to carry on a struggle against the Banksters; utilizing boycotts, occupations, foreclosure and eviction prevention actions, civil disobedience and all other consitutional means to bring the fight to their doorsteps; and,

To bring the conflict to a successful termination, all the resources of the people are hereby pledged; we will not be satisfied until the trillions upon trillions of dollars taken, and the untold human suffering caused, because of the actions of these Banksters, is recompensed, redressed and justice has been served.

Signed

The Ninety-Nine Percent

This was originally a part of an article written by jpmassar and published at Daily Kos.

Real wage growth starts with widespread jobs creation.

2011-12-01T20:43:00.000-08:00

In a tight labor market employers have to compete to fill job vacancies, thats when wage growth happens. When workers can fairly vote to unionize a workplace, then more workers can bargain for better wages. When Union wages grow, non union wages grow.

movements in aggregate wages are driven primarily by changes in the earnings distributions of job-stayers and job-changers, rather than those of individuals who move in and out of part-time employment, unemployment, or the labor force. In fact, half of the variance of real median weekly earnings growth over our sample can be traced back to job-switchers. While individuals moving into full-time jobs from part-time employment, unemployment, or from out of the labor force pay a wage penalty, they are too small a share of the overall work force and the fluctuations in this penalty are not big enough to have a major impact on aggregate real wage growth volatility. aggregate real wage growth fluctuations is mostly due to periods of tight labor markets, like the second half the 1990’s in Figure 1, in which many persons change jobs in pursuit of higher pay.
http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/papers/2011/wp11-23bk.pdf

From 1994 thru 2002 unemployment was below 6%, from 1996 to 2001 unemployment was below 5.4% and as low as 4% in 2000. As the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank says, this is a "tight labor market", and the US saw wage growth of as much as 5%. From 1995 to 2000 US median household income grew from $46,408 to $53,164 according to the 2010 Census report. The bad news is that adjusted for inflation median household income in 1973 was $46,109 and in 2010 $49,445. And that increase was accomplished because of the wage growth seen thru women, today women make 77 cents on the dollar compared to men, and back the day- 66 cents.

A male working full time year round, had a median income of 47k in 2010, adjusted for inflation, 49k in 1973.

So in a nutshell widespread job creation will lead to real wage growth, passing the Employee Free Choice Act will lead to real wage growth thru greater worker participation in collective bargaining. Widespread job creation and wage growth mean more FICA, and are 2 of 3 reasons Social Security doesn't go broke according to the Social Security Trustees report low cost scenario.

So all we need to do is create 25 million jobs. Which really should not be that hard.

The importance of HVDC. Think Supergrid.

2011-10-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

Yeah, we gotta build some of that solar and wind stuff, but lets just look at the savings we realize just by building HVDC trunklines in the US, without renewable energy. An AC transmission line has a 7% transmission loss, DC has a 3% transmission loss.

Lets say we want to move 200 gigawatts of electricity 1000 miles. Using an AC transmission grid we lose 14 gigawatts. DC transmission lines see only a loss of 6 gigwatts. So on paper if we switch from AC to DC in this case we save 8 gigawatts. The Equivalent of 8, 1000Mw nuclear power plants or 8, 1000Mw coal burning plants.

8,000 Mw of coal fired plants equals the carbon footprint of 9.6 million cars.

8,000 Mw of coal fired plants will emit 59.2 million tons of Co2 in a typical year, including 2720 pounds of mercury and 3600 pounds of arsenic.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/...

In this scenario just switching to HVDC saves nearly 60 million tons of Co2, thousands of pounds of mercury and arsenic. Plus its cheaper, it saves money. In 3 years GE might have its new class of offshore wind turbines ready ... in the 10 to 15 MW class. Using MRI type magnets these turbines might make wind the cheapest form of electricity on the planet.

Does this seem absurd to you? There must be a hook to this, right ? HVDC must cost a lot or some part of a HVDC system makes it unpractical. Nope.

As long as the installation is longer than about 50 miles, HVDC transmission lines are cheaper. You've all seen paths cut thru a forest with the towers and wires strung from tower to tower ? AC power is 3 phase, and a ground or neutral, making a total of 4 wires. DC, 2 wires. Where AC needs two sets of towers and 2 sets of wires, DC can transmit the same amount of power thru one set of towers holding 2 wires.

HVDC is suitable for transmission of as much as 2 gigawatts of electricity, Ultra High Voltage DC as much as 7 gigawatts of electricity. As part of the Euro supergrid undersea HVDC cable will connect the UK, France, Germany and Norway, while providing a undersea backbone for wind power development.

Off the East coast of the US, there is a similar project that should be started in a about a year. A 350 mile long HVDC trunkline from about Sawyerville New Jersey to Virginia Beach Virginia called the Atlantic Wind Connection. The purpose is to allow wind developers to install offshore wind turbines 12 to 18 miles from the shore, out of sight. and not have to build individual transmission systems to move electricity to land.

In 3-4 years GE might have its new class of offshore wind turbines ready ... in the 10 to 15 MW class. Using MRI type magnets and composite materials these turbines might make wind the cheapest form of electricity on the planet.

More on HVDC, Solar, Wind, the Smartgrid
More on the Atlantic Wind Connection, 350 mile, 7kMw offshore wind project

Scott Olsen: Palo Alto PD throws SF Sheriffs Dept under bus, it wasnt us.

2011-10-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

Palo Alto sent 10 officers to Oakland to assist at the site of Occupy Oakland early Tuesday morning. Palo Alto PD Sgt. Kara Apple said that the PAPD uses hand thrown tear gas canisters and does not use rubber bullets.

The internet rumor is that

Scott Olsen was wounded by a less-lethal round fired by either San Francisco Sheriffs deputies or Palo Alto Police

And now the Palo Alto Police Dept. has thrown the San Francisco Sheriffs Dept under the bus. Ultimately pointing a finger at the SFFD and yelling "Don't look at us, it was them".

We now have a crack in the the thin blue line. Stay tuned for more breaking news in the thin blue line. You are now returned to your regularly scheduled programming.

Cookbook for creating 25 million jobs in the US

2011-10-27T19:47:00.000-07:00

Defining the scale of the problem

During the Great Depression US stimulus spending started to ramp up in 1933 with the formation of the Civilian Conservation Corp with the initial enrollment of 250,000 Americans. Stimulus continued thru 1941, with an interruption in 1938, for approximately a total of 7+ years.

From 2009 to 2011 unemployment in the US has reached heights unheard of since the Depression when unemployment reached 25%. Recently the U6 unemployment metric reached over 17%. But comparing 1930's unemployment to todays rates are problematic, in the 1930's 13 year old boys worked full time, many in factories, women were not seen in the workplace in the numbers we see today in America.

In the Depression GNP fell from 96 billion to about 75 billion (about 20%), while GDP in 2008 fell from 14.4 trillion to 13.8 trillion about 4.2%. It should be noted that US GDP has topped 15 trillion in 2011 and when taking high unemployment into account, we probably saw a wealth shift from 2008 to 2011, no surprise there.

Finally the US economy grew at a vigorous rate from 1934 to 1936, 11%, 9% and 13.9%. When stimulus spending was cut by 60% and the Fed tightened things up, the country fell back, in 1937-1938.

Summary:

1) 3 tears of stimulus ('34-'36) was not enough.
2) GNP loses in the Depression were more severe than recent loses (20% to 4%).
3) Current unemployment might be three quarters as bad as it was at the peak of the Depression.

Depression GNP
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_GDP_10-60.jpg
Recent GDP
http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=230

Defining the scale of the solution

Jobs are obviously the first priority, creating the next generation of energy infrastructure and reversing wage disparity complete the list for our purposes. China spends 9-10% of GDP on infrastructure, Europe and India 5% to 6%. If we spent 50 billion on the New Deal over 7 years, thats about 7 billion a year, or about 7% of GNP in 1936. While a dollar spent in the US in 1936 mostly stayed in the US that is no longer true.

Due to Energy, Resource depletion and EROEI issues the days of 6% Growth in the economy are gone, 3% to 3.5% might be the best we can expect short of practical fusion and space based resources,

Summary:
1) 7% of GNP wont do today, make it 10%.
2) 3 years wasn't remotely enough, make it 5 years.

New Deal cost 50 billion.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/11/new-deal-stimulus-opinions-contributors_0211_jim_powell.html

Conclusion
10% of GDP spent on jobs stimulus over 5 years. 1.5 trillion to start. That should get us on the right track, in years 4 and 5 consideration should be given as to whether a 6th year is needed.

Where do we find these new jobs?
The US manufacturing sector gets a big boost because of the nature of renewable energy development and infrastructure and surface transportation infrastructure jobs will play a major role. Healthcare related fields should add jobs over the next decades.

According to the US Dept of Energy there 2 main reasons why renewable energy technologies offer an economic advantage, 1) They are labor intensive, so they generally create more jobs per dollar invested than conventional electricity technologies and 2) they use primarily indigenous resources, so most of the energy dollars can be kept at home.

http://stalix.com/Solar%20Energy%20Job%20Creation.pdf

Wind power.
20% of US electricity in 20 years, 300 gigawatts of wind turbines with a capacity of 100 gigawatts. The US Dept of Energy estimates 500,000 jobs can be created in meeting the 20% from wind goal. Offshore installation of wind turbines pays very well: 80k to 120k.

Solar Power.
Although the SEIA does not endorse a 20% in 20 years program, Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said in November of 2010 "that installing 10 GW annually by 2015 would create as many as 220,000 jobs". Other studies estimate 480,000 jobs over 10 years, though they base the higher number of jobs on waiting for Solar panel factories to be built and count those jobs, as a predecessor to installation jobs. For our purposes 400,000 jobs over 20 years.
http://ussolarinstitute.com/2011-outlook-for-clean-energy-jobs-in-the-u-s-–-beating-the-trend/

Hydro
A recent study conducted by Navigant Consulting suggests between 480,000 and 1.4 million jobs can be created. Its not clear that these numbers include pumped hydro stage systems.

Smartgrid with HVDC
Job creation estimates range from 240,000 to 420,000 over 20 years, leading to more efficient clean power, replacing failure prone AC systems with DC results in more stable power, cleaner power. Smart meters with sensors on AC local systems give Utilities more warning of increasing demand. HVDC allows large amounts if electricity to be moved over 2000 miles, with 30 to 50% less loss than HVAC.

Jobs
http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2009/01/investing-in-smarter-infrastructure-will-create-more-than-949000-in-2009.html

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/smart-grid-could-create-280000-smart-jobs/

HVDC systems
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/09/1001465/-Solar,-Wind,-HVDC-and-the-Smartgrid

Manufacturing
Over the last decade this sector has lost over 6 million jobs. Manufacturing output dropped by 10% while GDP grew 15%. Capital investment and R&D tax breaks along with partnerships in energy can turn manufacturing around. Lets add 3-4 million jobs over 40 years. Many manufacturing jobs are good jobs, paying between 35k to 75k.

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/37958/page1/

Infrastructure investment
Not much to say here, I'm we all understand the importance, and how good these jobs are. 9 to 10 million jobs a year. Many of them 45k to 85k, good jobs.
http://change.gov/agenda/economy_agenda/

With the creation of 20 to 25 million jobs our economy will improve, which will support more jobs, after all if we put 20 million people to work with good paying jobs, they're going to have money to spend. Maybe enough to buy a house and put solar panels on the roof and by a new 50 mpg car.

In reality the crux of the entire issues comes down to this:
Unfortunately this is not the style of this White House, to make the Republicans block this proposal or vote against a 5 year 10 million job stimulus bill. In my mind, If Boehner blocked this proposal, we run on it, if the House GOP votes it down we run on it. If it passes, we are proclaimed heroes, we run on it.

Chris "Tweety" Matthews asked Robert Reich:

What`s stopping him, Robert? Mr. Secretary...

Robert Reich answered

I`m not -- Chris, I`m not sure. I mean, there are a lot of theories circulating around

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44111516/ns/msnbc_tv-hardball_with_chris_matthews/t/hardball-chris-matthews-wednesday-august/#.TkVJdraYlQQ

Finally, none of this can happen without an increase in Income tax rates, Corporate tax rates and Cap Gains rates. Tax breaks to incentivize smart investments in emerging tech and markets will put these smart long term job creating investments on par with market speculation without the higher risk associated with derivatives, options, futures and commodities. Reverse tax breaks for outsourcing of jobs, good behavior should be rewarded, if you create US jobs, have a little tax break. I have also left out High Seed Rail, Light rail, Broadband, Healthcare jobs, call it another 2-5 million jobs.

In total, as many as 21.5 million jobs.

For more information on the tax policy mentioned only breifly in this article go here:

Taxing the rich promotes smart investments, not class warfare.

And guess what, all these good jobs go a long way to making Social Security good thru 2065, not 2036.

This is not a recovery. It’s a continuing jobs emergency and it demands action.

2010-12-23T18:23:00.000-08:00

I borrowed the title from Robert Reich because it just seem to fit the mood I was in, as I started to write this, and I had just read Robert's blog.

http://robertreich.org/post/2082971308

We now have over 15 million unemployed. plus another 1.3 million who have given up looking for work. U6 has been 16.5% to 17.3% for the last year or so. And we no longer have the infrastructure to replace those jobs, that infrastructure must be rebuilt. Tax breaks for the wealthy to build the factories that manufacture solar panels and wind turbines, start up incentives for installers, and incentives for the consumer to buy. But thats only a few million jobs, but its a start.

Just in the NYC area alone; mass transit connections from NJ to NYC, thru to Queens and Brooklyn, a southerly and a northerly route, 4 tunnels. High speed rail from Bangor Maine thru DC, a southerly route and a northern route to the west coast, link up to Chicago. Thats another few million jobs.

The CCC and the WPA was not just about infrastructure building as in bridges and roads and National parks. There was an educational component, getting high school degrees, building the buildings that became teachers schools, building new college campuses to be filled by the new teachers, and once the actual infrastructure for a University system was in place, filling them with students. Over the last 30 years financial services as a percent of GDP has risen from 10% to 22%, and it took University faculty to crank out the MBA's and such that made this possible. Our university system needs to be rebuilt, refocusing on science and emerging technologies and not how to scam the SEC.

6 tax brackets are just not cutting it, there is too much of a difference between someone who makes 250k and 2.7 million annually. 20 tax brackets would far better describe the arc that is an effective progressive tax. Think of it this way, do 6 pixels describe a curve on your computer very well? And wouldn't 20 pixels do a much better job? In the 1980's Reagan gave the wealthiest a 60% tax cut, and doubled payroll taxes. He also defunded Federal programs in schools - putting the burden on municipal tax systems to make up the difference. Federally mandated school programs used to be funded by the Feds, now its something on the order of 26% Federal funding. A 70% percent top individual rate can be used to pay for all these investments .. investments in the future of our country.

GNP in 1934 was 11%, 1935-9%, 1936-13.9%, thats what recovery looks like.

From 1933 to 1936 unemployment dropped from 25% to 14%, not a bad start to recovery. (Full employment did not come until the run up to WW2, and then there was an acute labor shortage by 1942.)

GNP in 1936 exceeded that of 1929. (103 billion compared to 96 billion.) Thats what recovery looks like.

In 1936 Chevy set a record for selling sedans, Louis Armstrong seta record for selling records.

Right now half the individuals in this country make 27k or less.......
Whats in your wallet?

Why stake out a losing position to begin with? him

2010-11-13T10:38:00.000-08:00

Democrats could\should stop talking about the Bush tax cuts. When do we start talking about what a reasonable tax is? How about a 50, 60, 70 or 75% top rate with 20 tax brackets. Not 6 brackets....we used to have 67. This country worked its way out of the Depression, won WW2, won the cold war with 60% to 94% to rates. Defending the Bush tax cuts expiration is a stunning defeat in the battle of ideas.

Obama, Moveon.org and a number of dem organizations seem hung up on defending positions that are untenable and then compromising their fundamental values away, and now the republicans have a majority in the house.

January 2009 we sent an invitation to the Underwear Bomber

2010-01-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

This is a slightly edited version of an important dairy written by vets74 at Daily Kos. His point is we have to stop the group think that says "It was a failure of intelligence". We need to perform a threat based analysis, and do like IKE did when he saw something he didn't like, fire somebody right quick.

Yep, son, we have met the enemy
and he is us.
-- Walt Kelly, Pogo
There are always terrorists out there -- people crazy enough to bring down an airliner or toss a pipe bomb. Back in the 1970s in New York City and Birmingham in the 1960s, we had hundreds of bombs go off. Arab crazies, calling themselves "al-Qaeda," were more of the same.
Terrorists have motive. But to succeed at big attacks, terrorists need big opportunities.
Every one of the big attacks and blunders started with our own dysfunctional middle-managers and "Security Intellectuals."
Over the last twenty years, our enemy... he is us.

Admiral Mullen gave a nice talk today -- but he doesn't know that his beloved Navy got used like a rented mule to set up the Northwest Flight 253 attack.
Naval Postgraduate School -- Center for Homeland Defense and Security, January 2009:
Published the details: TSA had decided not to detect explosives at overseas airports.
al-Q took 11 months to respond.
SNAFU.
Scoping. Hardball management tools implemented originally at the behest of Dwight Eisenhower BTF :::

This morning Admiral Mullen -- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- gave a forward looking, get-down-serious presentation: Current State & Mission of the Military.
Protecting the country got attention. Here is what Admiral Mullen focused on:

The admiral... added that he encouraged the debate about moving America's effort away from Iraq and to Afghanistan, where "I put my best people in my number one priority."
He identified his priorities as the broader Middle East and "the missions I've got."

The admiral responded to one question acknowledging that there is far more sharing of information among the military branches and agencies than there was prior to 9/11. But he also bluntly admitted that the Dec. 25 failed terror attempt demonstrates that no system is perfect and even more needs to be done. That incident "was a wake up call," Adm. Mullen added, in responding to a different question.
To another student, the Admiral said that the information that is gathered and examined often needs to look at "anomalies." So-called "actionable intelligence and actionable information" must be acted upon quickly, but how to make that happen is under review, he said to still another student.

Admiral Mullen has no idea that his Navy provided the Internet site, through which the TSA explosives-detection hole was publicized.
The Terrorist Threat to Inbound U.S. Passenger Flights: Inadequate Government Response
-- that is the web site of:
Homeland Security Affairs
The Journal of the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security
The Admiral is playing the wrong game.
Admiral Mullen thinks that somebody out in Teheran or Kabul or points-east is going to be our military's next big problem.
No-no-no.
Along with doing 17-days in GroupThink Rehab, The Admiral would do well to focus on what has happened over the last twenty years that has damaged America.
His own Navy is part of the problem.
**************************************************
Similar to Walt Kelly, a guy name of Harold Geneen cast the problem to a management perspective:
In business the competition are rivals.
The enemy is middle-management.
Your own people are your nastiest problems.
This is what the dominant GroupThink does not understand.
*************************************************
All of the big blunders and big terrorist attacks have involved self-generated failures from the start.
Let's look at three examples:

Suicide-hijacking after Christmas holidays of 1994, when "Afghanistan" veterans seized Air France Flight 8969 and tried to crash it into the Eiffel Tower. FAA "security intellectuals" decided not to install basic procedures and cockpit upgrades, ignoring both Air France and ICAO recommendations.
Invading Iraq on the basis of bogus information counterfeited by "defense intellectuals" working with Rumsfeld and Cheney.
The PETN explosives attack on Northwest Flight 253. A TSA "security intellectual" published a detailed account of this vulnerability in foreign airports in the Navy's HSAJ in January 2009.

The Air France Flight 8969 suicide-hijacking was the top news story worldwide 1994 over the Christmas holidays.
Everyone in aviation knew about it.
The story of how France's GIGN stormed the plane and rescued the passengers has to be the # 1 piece of anti-terrorism heroism. (America got to hear George Bush carry on about how the French are wimps....)
Air France says that upgrading their cockpit doors was a $200 problem, per plane. (Compare/contrast with George Bush in 2001.)
**********
Then the dozen or so connected "defense intellectuals" covered themselves with infamy by helping get America to attack the wrong country. Attacking Iraq was "the worst foreign policy mistake of the last 50 years." We haven't heard a word about pulling the security clearances of that gang. Not a word about putting that crew on No Access/No Contact lists at DHS and DoD.
George Bush would not have been able to pull off attacking Iraq without complicity from that pack of rats.
**********
Now we get to January 2009. It is more of the same thing.

The Terrorist Threat to Inbound U.S. Passenger Flights: Inadequate Government Response

Anthony Fainberg is a physicist and analyst, specializing in national security affairs. He recently retired from the federal government, following service in several agencies and departments, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Defense Department, as well as in the former congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). ... Mr. Fainberg can be contacted at fainberg666@xxxx.xxx

al-Qaeda has had this document wide open, Google-able since January 2009:

-- ...explosive trace residue detection technology, currently deployed in the United States, could help mitigate this threat, this essay urges that the United States require the application of such technology overseas on flights inbound to the United States. In the past, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been reluctant to act in this direction...
-- newer models of detectors devised by the TSA to counter that particular threat are being pilot tested in the United States but are not (as of this writing) being tested abroad. It would appear that the United States is reluctant to deploy effective technologies outside the country, even on a test basis.
-- Why has the TSA decided not to provide passengers on U.S.-bound flights from foreign airports with the same explosives detection equipment required for securing domestic air travel? The answer is unclear.
-- There are several such technologies, not only in existence but also widely deployed in the United States. These include computerized tomography scanning systems for checked baggage (which is not required of inbound flights from overseas) and for some cargo; use of canine olfactory capabilities; and various explosive trace residue and vapor detectors for passengers, carry-on baggage, checked baggage, and cargo. Other nations do use some of these techniques, but the United States does not require their use on incoming flights to provide equivalent levels of security to those that exist domestically.

So helpful.
The Navy could have sent somebody over to Amsterdam to help Mr. Abdulmutallab with his bag....
************************************************************
Admiral Mullen is not going to fix these problems by himself. That's going to take Obama and the presidency.
Play a very tight form of security hard-ball.
Think like Eisenhower on one of his very best projects.
You start on Day # 1 with the assumption that every single one of the Dedicated Public Servants tagged as a "security intellectual" carries a probability of going bat-shit crazy.
What else ???
Then trust, but verify.
Seriously, verify everything. Every information feed. Every physical defense system. Every Committee Report that can tweak budget to one use or another. Check for holes -- the holes that our own people generate.
Make sure that the big threats, the meat-and-potatoes threats are taken care of.
Middle-management is what you have to worry about. This is the group where you find embezzlement in companies, where you get sabotage and Internet-outed secrets from this "defense intellectual" crowd.
********************************************************
Eisenhower had one helluva time of it when he arrived in town after the election in 1952.
Puerto Ricans had tried to gun Truman at Blair House. McCarthy was like having Glenn Beck in the Senate. Lynchings were getting rarer, but he was going to have to send in the Army to enforce basic law. Korea was still a shooting war. At least they hadn't marketed computers....
One thing that Ike did like was the team who had given Truman his daily situation briefings. At least somebody in town was non-ideological, could organize an argument (including history), and understood results.
During Eisenhower's two Administrations a solid professional operation was developed that continued to perform apolitically and without White House interference for thirty years and more. Successes far outnumbered major errors. For example: when Jack Kennedy came in, he was able to work with Deiter Schwebs, get everything validated through this research operation and the National Labs, then make enormous strides -- working with the Russians and then the Chinese to assure that nuclear weapons would be built so that the weapons would be virtually impossible for an unauthorized individual to set off.
Big whoop.
If the shop hadn't validated Schwebs, right off, that could have taken another 20 years... maybe a nuke war or two.
-- A first-rate Threat Based Analysis team that only works for its boss -- head of Clandestine Operations worked 1960s into the 1970s -- and the President and the country.
-- They didn't have computers to worry about, so a separate Independent Quality Control op was not quite on the horizon.
Process matters.
*************************************
Now we do not control our own people.
We lack professional Threat Based Analysis and Independent Quality Control.
We do not have the basic tools.
GroupThink has our top management people -- President Obama and Admiral Muller, for two -- focused on external bad actors. Internal blunders and breakage have not been tracked on the basis of nailing internal bad actors.
Its time "they" made you go to Rehab, guys.
The core reality is that Washington Budget Wars lead to the very strangest behaviors.
Like something out of George Orwell's 1984:
Failure gets bigger budgets.
These guys can generate failure over and over and over.
********************************************************
Basically, we knew that Threat Based Analysis was in big, big trouble, when it came out in 2003 that suicide-hijacking had received no effective attention at FAA from 1995 on -- and that there was nothing in the works anywhere in the Federal bureaucracy to force competent response.
-- No Threat Based Analysis shop.
-- No Independent Quality Control.
And on and on it goes.
GroupThink dominates reality-testing, the most obvious pattern for damage, any and all of the tools of Inductive Logic.
********************************************************

Why a progressive income tax system?

2009-12-31T11:33:00.000-08:00

Revenue, right? Nope... thats what a lot of peole think but they really miss the mark, there's more to it than revenue. And right now with U6 longterm unemployment (June) rising from 16.3% to (Oct) 17.5%, and looking to break 18% by late winter/early spring, I have a question:

The question I ask tonite is what sort of society do we want?

Do we allow the wealthy to oppress the rest of us? Do we call for a more Egalitarian society? (Less economic oppression) Low tax rates like we've had since Reagan are considered progressive, but they have a regressive effect, taxing the working poor and middle classes out of the economy, as a result families are less capable of taking care of their own, and more often than not rely on government hand outs.

When tax rates are high enough, the working poor and middle classes are engaged in the economy. The point is having a large and vigorous middle class that can participate as citizen legislators, send its kids to college, so those kids can invent lots of cool stuff for the corporations to make money off of. Consider kids as assets. How do you make best use of those assets? Educate those assets of course.

The above chart is from the Heritage Foundation, the infamous conservative think tank, where much of the Kool Aid is actually manufactured. The really funny thing is, when reading the title, the opposite is also true, lower tax rates don't raise more revenue.

The Progressive Policy Institute says basically the same thing, comparing real low tax rates to real high tax rates.

By itself, economic theory cannot choose between the two cases, and hard economic evidence does not fully support either side.

If low rates or high rates raised more revenue there would a correlation between the next 2 charts:

As you can see, Reagans 28% raised no more revenue as a percent of GDP, than when Ike jacked up the top rate to 94%. (IIRC there was a recession caused when Ike went too high) I fail to see any real relation to tax rates and revenue, but I do see a relation to low tax rates and economic oppression (Do you see those 2 yellow lines?).

Not too long ago Thom Hartmann wrote:

"Progressive taxation has a long history: As Jefferson said in a 1785 letter to James Madison, "Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise." Hartman concludes, "Progressive taxation has helped create every middle class in the First World, and without it the middle class will vanish."

As a percent of GDP, revenues are incredibly consistent, Something I think Bill Clinton clearly understood when he raised the top rate a little and concentrated on getting the economy really ramped up, as GDP increased so did revenue, and over time Clinton was able to balance the budget. And do note that the economic stimulus happens first, and balancing the budget occurs later. FDR wanted to balance the budget in 1937, after all GDP in 1936 was a touch higher than inn 1929, 1936 was a good year, nearly 14% GDP growth, hours worked were down, wages were up But FDR made the mistake of cutting back the WPA and the rest of the stim programs in 1937, causing a recession. FDR learned his lesson and brought back the stim packages he had cut, plus he added a 200 ship navy building program.

If all you want to do is balance the budget, then just get the economy cranked up. If you want the idea called democracy to work, where folks get involved in participatory government, then you must stop economic oppression in the form of a tax system that taxes the majority of us out of the economy, and leaves running for office an entitlement for inherited money.

So at this point I am renewing my call for an increase of the Individual top tax rate to at least 60%, and using a minimum of 10 tax brackets to get the proper progressivity amongst the top quintile of income earners. In simple terms if you have individual income, not family income, of 90k, you'll see a tax break. I'm not just talking about letting the Bush tax cuts sunset, I'm talking about sunsetting Reagans 60% tax cut for the richest amongst us.

And don't even get me started on the 12 millin jobs we need and the stimulus to craete them, Arrggg.....

Yes this is a form of Single Payer

2009-12-23T11:41:00.000-08:00

The Public Option or Single Payer, you choose.

The Senate Healthcare bill does indeed give us a foundation of National Single Payer Primary Healthcare. I know that saying because the government pays 80% thats not exactly single payer, and that its really charity care, or when the House and Senate are in conference we should keep the House's Public Option.

But the Senate bill is the closest thing to single payer I have seen yet. Starting a national healthcare program with single payer at its core gives us a foundation from which to expand on. Primary care for 30 million poor is significant, and takes millions out of the Emergency room and puts them in a Doctors office where they belong and where George Washington University says we will save 23 billion over 5 years.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon wants to allow states to take Senator Sanders Primary Care plan and make it comprehensive. Clearing the way for Universal Single Payer Comprehensive Healthcare at the state level. I don't know about you but that makes the public option a dead issue for me.

Community Healthcare Centers.

These centers are born of legislation originally authored by the Late Senator Ted Kennedy about 40 years ago, they provide primary care for 20 million Americans with 4000 locations, 98 of these centers already exist in New Jersey, and the state is slated to get over 250 additional Clinics.

Click on this link and do a search by state or zip code..

With 14 Billion dollars to build new Clinics, and to fund repayment of college loans thru the National Health Service Corps to create an additional 20,000 primary care doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and mental health professionals, we should see 10,000 new clinics built and staffed over 5 years.

Heres a few bullet points to drive home to your friends:

- The Senate bill will eliminate co-pays and deductibles for recommended preventive care, including preventive care for women.

- The Senate bill protects you legally from being charged any more than 10% of your income in out-of-pocket expense. Out-of-pocket expense is all of your medically necessary expenses except for your premium. That includes co-pays, whatever your share is at the hospital, etc. And the bill puts an absolute cap of $11,900 on out-of-pocket for family plans, and $5,950 for individuals (that is, if 10% of your income is greater than those amounts).

- The Senate bill will provide Premium Assistance if your income is up to 400% of Poverty level, under 100% you pay nothing, 100 to 400% you pay on a sliding scale. Check this table for particulars.

- In the Senate bill you are mandated to buy insurance but one is exempt from it if their premium costs more than 8% of their income.

Further resources:

Senator Sanders Monday December 21st Presser on C-span.

Senator Bernie Sanders press release.

Bernie Sanders channeling FDR ?

2009-12-22T16:48:00.000-08:00

FDR knew to build infrastructure, like schools and hospitals.

Thats what FDR did back in the day. You've all heard about the WPA and the CCC, building this and that. Well what good is a hospital without doctors and nurses? And FDR understood that too, so he had folks go to college to become doctors and nurses, so they could staff those hospitals. FDR knew it wasn't good enough just to build infrastructure, if you built a school, you had to supply the teachers, if you built a hospital you had to supply the doctors and nurses.

Now please take a look at the Healthcare bill in the US Senate and lets take a look at Senator Bernie Sanders channeling FDR:

Senator Sanders Press Release:

The provision would also provide loan repayments and scholarships through the National Health Service Corps to create an additional 20,000 primary care doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and mental health professionals..

20,000 jobs. Not too shabby, especially with that level of financial assistance. It just might be a good time to start medical school.

The Community Healthcare Centers were spearheaded in the 1960s through legislation authored by the late Senator Edward Kennedy.

-- Sanders is also working with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to improve language already in the bill to provide waivers for states that want to provide comprehensive, affordable health care and curb rapidly-rising costs for money-making private health insurance companies. The waivers could clear the way for a state-run, single-payer system.

10,000 Community Healthcare Centers means lots of folks won't be using Hospital Emergency Rooms, to the tune of saving 23 billion over 5 years according to a study done at George Washington University.

Sanders also says the insurance reforms--banning denials based on preexisting conditions, lifetime benefit caps, and dumping people because they ran up a high healthcare bill--are significant.

This could be the Shiznit, Brothers and Sisters.

The Senate HCR Act of 2009, starting to look good?

2009-12-22T15:23:00.000-08:00

10,000 new Community Health Centers:

A $10 billion investment in Community Health Centers, expected to go to $14 billion when Congress completes work on health care reform legislation, was included in a final series of changes to the Senate bill unveiled today. Can you say "When do we break ground on 10,000 new Community Health Centers?".

For all the Doom and Gloom in the liberal blogosphere self avowed Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders is pretty darn happy, after all it seems Bernie just got Vermont style health care for the rest of the nation.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel wrote for The Nation on one important aspect of the Senate bill.

"These non-profit, community-based facilities provide primary health care, dental care, mental health services, and low-cost prescription drugs on a sliding scale," the blog added. "Sanders made sure that a $10 billion increase in funding for the health centers was included."

45 million Customers Served:

The House bill provides $14 billion in funding for the federal health centers and service corps. Sanders says that indications from the White House and Democratic leadership are that there is a "good chance" the final bill will do the same. That would translate to health centers in 10,000 more communities throughout America within 5 years, and increase the number of people served by over 100 percent, to 45 million.

Read Katrina Vanden Heuvel's whole blog here.

The Healthcare Step One Act of 2009

2009-12-21T11:31:00.000-08:00

Howard Dean was apparently on MSNBC, saying pass the bill

With Krugman, Nate Silver and Dean all on board its a done deal. Its The Healthcare Step One Act of 2009, its not what I envisioned, not remotely what I hoped for. And an excellent reason to hope Ned Lamont runs again. (Think of the need for more progressives in office, not about Joe Lieberman).

This was the first major legislative battle in the Obama era, and really was our first opportunity to see the opponents Order of Battle as employed in the Field, and we learned from that. WE need serious financial reform, and tax fairness (@ least a 60% top rate), Employee Free Choice Act, etc..

Now lets take what we've learned and do better.

Polyell fusion gets Obama funding

2009-05-08T13:59:00.000-07:00

A whole 2 million bucks. But thats to scale, EMC2 Fusion Corp built and tested WB-7 during 2008 under a 1.8 million dollar contract. During the winter of 2008-2009 some DOD funding paid for the building of a new Ion gun, and remounting the magnets in a way that increases efficiency. To be known as WB-7.1 And now in Obamas budget we see:

pdf page 166 see Domestic Energy Supply/Distribution.

Plasma Fusion (Polywell) Demonstrate fusion plasma confinement system for shore and shipboard applications; Joint OSD/USN project. 2.0 [million]

The Navy wants Polywell as a replacement for shipboard fission nukes, 100,000 to a million times less radioactive, and at as little as 30 ft across for an entire plant (1200MW) using the PB-11 reaction. And in some circles, folks relish the idea of a compact 1200MW to power some laser or something, but thats a whole nother diary or 2 or 3.

Dr Bussards developement of the Polywell started in the 1980's with DARPA funding, and has continued after Dr Bussards passing, most recently, Navy funding, the Office of Naval Research under Dr Nebel, .

Thermonuclear fusion, maybe even Polywell fusion, will give us the solar system. Mars is 38 days, Titan in 76, using Dr Bussards QED fusion rocket theory.

Dr Nebel:
Dr. Robert Bussard was very interested in using this fusion technique to power spaceships.

While here on Earth electrical generating capacity will be switched from Coal & Fission nukes to Bussard Fusion Reactors at 2-5 cents per kilowatt hour. Liquid fuels will again be cheap and abundant in 2050, because they wont be needed. Blast furnaces in orbit or on the Moon turning out sections/modules/hallways/bedrooms/offices/skeletons for orbital cities and Mooncities. Other nasty polluting industrial development can be done off planet, man can colonize the solar system and clean up our Mother Earth, and truly be a space faring race.

Back to the here and now, Dr Nebel says he is hoping to have a net energy production product within six years.

And heres a plug for my IEC Fusion for DUmmies video:

My candidate "gets it". Bob Bremmington '08.

2007-12-28T07:41:00.000-08:00

I'm going to use a fictitious presidential candidate to make a point. Bob Bremmington. Bremmington is for single payer no insurance company health insurance, hes for a fast but responsible withdrawal from Iraq. Bremmington will set a goal to get 25% of our electricty from Solar, and 25% from Wind by 2020. BRemmington supports media ownership break-up, Labor rights, education rights and a return to progressive taxation. Bremmington has never held elective office, let alone run for office before. I support Bob Bremmington for President in '08.

In a recent speach in Iowa Bremmington said this:

My Parents got thru the Depression with a progressive income tax, we won WW2 with a progressive income tax. The 12 million men & woman that served in the military in WW2 came home, the GI Bill sent vets to college, and they started families. This created the largest, most vigorous and the best educated middle class, in the history of the planet. Labor unions were at the zenith of their power, our eductaional institutions were the envy of the world, corporations made money, the wealthiest made money. The American Dream was born.

The top personal tax rate used to be 91%. Enter Ronald Reagan and the start of full spectrum warfare on the middle class. The opening salvo, the PATCO strike. Busting the Air Traffic Controllers union was the start of a multi front military style operation to drive wages down for all americans. Then we were told that Social Security was going broke, this represents the opening of a second front of the War on the Middle Class that resulted in the doubling of payroll taxes. And Reagan dropped the top tax rate to 28%.

A War on the Middle Class generally attacks the 3 pillars holding up the middle class. Progressive taxes, labor rights & education rights. Thomas Jefferson said, in an 1824 letter: "This degree of education would ... give us a body of yeomanry, too, of substantial information, well prepared to become a firm and steady support to the government." Jefferson started the University of Virginia with the intent to provide the yeomanry with a free education so as to be prepared to take part in the Government, the citizen legislators if you will.

This is warfare my friends, the Aristocracy has attacked us, and we must defend ourselves.

Bremmington goes on to win Iowa and New Hampshire, and looks to sew up the nomination in short order. Just before Super Tuesday CNN does a voter on the street bit. Voters are asked if they are bothered by Bremmingtons lack of experience.

Wolf Blitzer asks New Jersey resident Leslie Aspenwall about Bremmingtons lack of experience:

Bremmington gets it ! Hes the only one that gets it, he understands how much damage the Bush Administration has done to the world, and has a plan to fix things.

Why do I choose Bremmington for President ? He gets it. He sees things like I do. We both see our country as broken, and in need of being fixed. Now to be honest some of the other democratic candidates get it too, in some regards. Some have yrs in Congress or the diplomatic corp. But Bremmington to me, will be the ultimate citizen legislator. I think Thomas Jefferson may have some pertinent commentary, but I will leave it to you, to imagine what that might be.

Ive heard so much of this stuff, It makes me sick.

Clinton Takes Swipe At Obama's Experience, Says Nation Can't Afford "On-The-Job Training'

"There is one job we can't afford on-the-job training for -- our next president. That could be the costliest job training in history," Clinton said. "Every day spent learning the ropes is another day of rising costs, mounting deficits and growing anxiety for our families. And they cannot afford to keep waiting."

From Huffington

Obama jabs back at Bill on experience
.

"I remember what was said years ago by a candidate running for President." He said, “The same old experience is not relevant. You can have the right kind of experience and the wrong kind of experience."

"Well that candidate was Bill Clinton. And I think he was absolutely right."

From MSNBC

Today's Quote:Hillary's Lack Of Experience

"Honestly, in most respects, I don't know Hillary's experience. She's never run a city, she's never run a state. She's never run a business. She has never met a payroll. She has never been responsible for the safety and security of millions of people, much less even hundreds of people.
Rudy Giuliani on Hannity & Colmes

From On the Right

I think Obama and Hillary, Edwards & Kucinich and all the rest, all have pertinent experience. In general terms that not what I base my choice on.

I feel comfortable with Bremmington, I love his policy positions, hes a populist and a progressive. Bremmington gets it.

Kucinich gets it, he is right the first time. Edwards gets it, hes been fighting corporations, and Poverty. Dodd gets it, he stood up for We the People on that telecom immunity thing, Biden gets it, on foreign affairs, hes made some good calls recently. Hillary gets it, she knows Women's Rights Are Human Rights. The way I see it, all of the above are real good reasons to want to vote for somebody. They all have good resumes, but seriously, the way I see it, most of us will vote for someone who gets it.

2007-05-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

Last week the New York Times reported that the Kearny Board of Education voted to 6 to 1 to settle their dispute. The settlement requires that Kearny teachers undergo Separation of Church & State training, and the Board of Education will issue a statement praising student Matt LaClair for raising the issue, while Matt LaClair will issue a statement commending the School Board.

On the right:Matt LaClair at a recent Hudson County DFA meeting.

In September of 2006 Matt LaClair recorded his teacher David Paszkiewicz proselytizing during class. Later in October, a meeting was held with the Principal, the teacher David Paszkiewicz, Matt and his father Paul LaClair in attendance. During the meeting Matt cited dozens of quotes from the teacher, Paszkiewicz then denied everything. Matt then produced Audio CD's he had burned of the "Sermonizing".

Later David Paszkiewicz publicly falsely portrayed the meeting with the Principal. If you get into trouble because you were recorded one time, what are the odds you would be recorded again ? Right, Matt had recorded the meeting with the Principal and the teacher. This second recording was publicly released proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Paszkiewicz lied. Twice.

In February, Matthew?s parents, Paul and Debra LaClair, filed court papers on their son?s behalf saying that they intended to sue the district for violating his First Amendment and civil rights. They faulted the district for not protecting Matthew from harassment by other students and sought public corrections to some of the statements the teacher made in class.

New York Times

I encourage folks to attend the Monday May 21st Meeting of the Kearny School Board at 7pm. The Board will announce the settlement. At past BOE meetings the LaClairs have not seen much support, I know they would appreciate seeing some friendly faces. You can find the address and directions here.

IEC Fusion, simple & elegant

2007-05-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

Fusion is a simple and elegant idea. You smash 2 atoms together, they fuse into a smaller atom releasing energy. The difference in mass is released as energy according to Einstein's mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc². In simple terms the "fuel" needs to heated, put under great pressure and our 2 atoms need sufficient speed to fuse upon collision. For nearly 30 years the leading field of fusion research has been in Tokamak style devices. Tokamaks' provide pressure, heat and swirl the fuel in a donut shape.

One alternative to the Tokamak design that has gained attention during the last year, is Inertial Electrostatic Confinement or IEC Fusion. Recent research in IEC Fusion by Dr. Robert Bussard was described in the now famous google tech talk. IEC Fusion relies on speeding the fuel ions to collision, causing fusion. Test results in late 2005 with the WB6 device showed a very high output in relation to input, though a few magnitudes from break even.

Dr Bussard believes that if he scales up his one foot scale model to 9 foot that it will achieve net power, and be able to generate 100 mega watts of electricity. There are 2 scaling factors involved in this type of device: the power output scales as the 7th power of the size, and the power gain as the 5th power of the size. These scaling factors indicate a break even device would be about 6 foot square and that net power will be achieved with a 9 foot square device.

WB6 operating in November 2005.

Here's some eye candy for the geeks:

A 2 minute video showing a schematic flow of electrons & ions.

DR. Bussards website emc2fusion.org

IEC Fusion update..Tom Ligon: guest on "thespaceshow"

2007-05-08T21:51:00.000-07:00

Tom Ligon sets up his demonstration IEC fusion machine, November 1998.

"SETI League photo, used by permission."
http://www.setileague.org/press/photouse.htm

Listen tonight @ 10pm eastern.

Tom Ligon will be will be the featured guest tonight on The Space Show.com

1. The Tuesday, May 8, 2007 Space Show from 7-8:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time welcomes Thomas Ligon to the show. Tom Ligon is a science fiction author and a former employee of Dr. Robert W. Bussard's Energy/Matter Conversion Corporation. Tom will discuss Dr. Bussard's unique method for producing fusion, called Inertial Electrodynamic Fusion. A prototype device was run successfully in late 2005, and could lead both to terrestrial powerplants and high performance space propulsion systems. Listeners can talk to Mr. Ligon or the host using toll free 1 (866) 687-7223, by sending e-mail during the program using dmlivings@yahoo.com, drspace@thespaceshow.com, thespaceshow@gmail.com, or chatting on AOL/ICQ/CompuServe Chat using the screen name “spaceshowchat.”

The Space Show.com

Please watch this video and pass this around:
IEC Fusion for Dummies video.
......please rate the video too, thanks.

Dr Bussard is the former Assistant Director of the US Atomic Energy Commission, he was the father of the US Fusion effort from the 1970's into the 1980's. As the Assistant Dir. of the AEC, Dr. Bussard went to Congress and pushed the fusion research programs in the 70's that developed the Tokamak design.

Dr Bussard now advocates a different design. For the last 11 years he has been working under US Navy contracts, building small test devices.

WB4 in 2003. Yes, low levels of fusion can be created in a very small device.

WB6 in 2005. WB6 was run in steady state operation for a number of tests before a short stopped testing.

At the end of 2005, the Navy did not renew his contract. Since then Dr Bussard has given many lectures including the (famous in fusion circles) google tech talk of 2006.

Google Video here

DR Bussard was awarded the International Academy of Science Outstanding technology of the Year Award for 2006.

Why is this important? World oil production peaked in 2005

Dr Bussard says he can build a proof of concept reactor by about 2011. The ITER reactor in Europe will be finished by 2013, and the concept may be ready for power generation by 2025. The ITER is slated to cost 13.3 billion. More importantly $3 million keeps Dr. Bussard working. The next step is build variations on the 3 foot square WB6, to test tweaks in the design, before building a full size model. DR Bussard envisions the full size reactor core to be about 9 foot square. This means the cores can be mass produced and trucked or shipped by rail to generation sites.

When the father of modern fusion tells you the Tokamak wont work, he bears listening to. Funny thing about fusion, it occurs naturally in a sphere (the SUN), just like Dr Bussards design. The ITER reactor will try to create fusion in a donut or torus, which doesn't happen in nature. Its been pointed out to me that that is an oversimplification, yes it is, but I like it none the less.

Heres an overview of Bussards recent work with some really cool pictures.

This will give one a good sense of how the program has advanced over the years, and what to look forward to. Word had gotten around earlier this month that Dr. Bussard had received more funding thru the US Navy. This apparently is not true, Tom Ligon set that rumor straight.

Dr. Bussard's website.

Are you going to be in Dallas at the end of May?

The 2007 International Space Development Conference

(ISDA) will be held, May 25th thru the 28th, in Dallas Texas. Tom Ligon will be speaking on Sunday, about IEC/Polywell fusion and the potential for these devices to power space flight. This event is sponsored by NASA.

If the Navy could power its fleet with fusion, they wouldn't need very much oil, and if the need for oil went down dramatically, we wouldn't need that many Navy ships to help invade oil rich nations.

Right ?

Private funding is needed, its so obvious that the Exxon military industrial complex doesn't even want to look at this anymore.

The table below is from this paper by DR. Bussard, the right hand column shows exhaust speed of a particular fuel (left hand column).

QED Direct plasma thrusters

Fuel -->
Exhaust

(f) Mass
conversion
fraction

Exhaust speed m/s

p + 11B --> 3 4He

6.926 E13

11,800,000 m/s

p + 6Li --> 4He + 3He

5.472 E13

3He + 6Li --> 2 4He + p

1.277 E14

6Li + 6Li --> 3 4He

(Combined)

1.596 E14

17,800,000 m/s

3He + 3He --> 4He + 2 p

2.059 E14

20,300,000 M/s

De + 3He --> 4He + p

3.505 E14

26,500,000 m/s

The p~b11 fuel does not result in radioactive waste, so it doesn't irradiate the reactor or its surroundings. The generated alph aprticles can directly generate electricity.

Saturn in under 3 months, Mars in a month. Who needs friggin EXXON?

Is Saudi Arabia stealing Iraqi oil via the IPSA ?

2007-04-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

I recently became interested in the theory that the Iraqi Saudi pipeline (IPSA) was being used by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to pipe Iraqi crude to the KSA to be sold as Arabian light crude. I found a good summation here. I think its fair to say that somebody at a refinery would spot the chemical differences between Basrah light & Arabian light from the start, even though they are of similar gravity and sulfur content.

Chang-Tai Hsieh and Enrico Moretti, of the University of California, Berkeley,......
As they point out, Iraqi oil, such as Basra Light, is a close substitute for Arabian Light.

Sourced here.

Refiners in India, China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan see Basrah Light as a good alternative to Asia’s mainstay imports such as Saudi Arabia’s Arab Light

Sourced here

Additionally there is a wonderful graphic on page 5 of the pdf found here .

I then thought, what would prevent the KSA from piping Iraqi crude to its own refineries for domestic use, and can I find anything on the web concerning the IPSA. The IPSA appeared to be closed according to a number of sources, including the US State Dept, and the US Energy Information Administration. The State Dept presentation is dated January 25th, 2006 and it seems to contradict a number of other sources dated earlier that suggest the KSA portion of the IPSA was converted to Natural gas. What I do find strange is the exact same sentence is found at different websites. This of course infers a single source in the viral sense of the internet, though I was not able to track down what I thought might be the initial source.

In June 2003, Thamir Ghadban said that he hoped Iraq would be able to use the IPSA line again. However, the Saudis have stated that they are not willing to do this, having converted the line to carry natural gas to the Red Sea industrial city of Yanbu for domestic use.

Sources: the EIA, Senator Lugar's website, and World News Network.

Only Gerald Butt @ Alexander's, could be quoted differently

Saudi Arabia has said the section of the pipeline within the kingdom is now being used to transport natural gas and has ruled out its re-use as a crude conduit from Iraq.

Much of Saudi Arabia's natural gas production seems to come from the eastern part of the country, the offshore fields in the Persian Gulf and the NG associated with the Ghawar oil field.

The IPSA pipeline was intended to be a way for Iraq to export oil via the Red Sea port of Mu'ajiz, near Yanbu, during the Iraqi Iranian War. Yandu & is a major industrial city utilizing NG for energy. Considering the Saudi push to expand domestic NG production and use, it seems to make sense KSA would use the IPSA to move NG west to the Red Sea. Except that the IPSA doesn't appear to be the route of choice. If the IPSA is being used for NG, it could be fed from the Trans Arabian/Jordon pipeline, though a connection bewteen the 2 would have to have been built.

In Oct of 2002 Saudi Arabia did complete a $4billion natural gas processing plant at Hawiyah, near the middle of the 164 mile long Ghawar oil field. In 2004 a natural gas processing plant was opened near Haradh, the southern tip of the Ghawar oil field. Natural gas production from these plants can free up significant quantities of crude for export.

In conclusion its not at all clear in my mind if the IPSA is being used, or what its being used for. With Iraqi oil production still below pre war levels one could argue that Iraqi oil is being pumped by the Bush Cheney faction in Iraq, to Saudi Arabia, for domestic use. As a favor to the Saudi's. On the other hand the Saudi effort to use NG domestically to free up crude for export could be argued as a model that fits into the assumed management scheme in the KSA, in light of declining crude reserves.

But why let an asset such as a pipeline sit unused for so long? I would offer that the IPSA is being used. Whether for stealing Iraqi crude, or to move the increased Saudi natural gas production, the IPSA is most likely being used.

EDIT: to include graph of KSA oil production

Note the increased oil production in the summer of '05. The Spike in the summer of '06 is new production coming online from the Haradh oil field. More important is the current overall trend of KSA production being in at least 8% decline.

Analysis: 2007 SS report: "We're good past 2085"

2007-04-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've seen the headlines recently, that Social Security will be broke by 2041. I also remember similar headlines after the Social Security Trustees report came out in 2004, I found the report online and read it. I realized a number of things about the doomsday year of 2042.

1) The 2004 Social Security Trustees report was predicated on not counting interest on the roughly 12 trillion in the various trust funds, represented by bonds.
2) The 2004 Social Security Trustees report relied on 1.8% growth in the GDP. To my eye 1.8% growth in GDP represents a "Mad Max scenario", an economic collapse on the order of the "Great Republican Depression" of the 1930's.
3) Apparently the 2004 Social Security Trustees report factored in the Boomer generation retiring and drawing checks from the system, but did not factor in what happens when the Boomers died.

My gut level assessment (not based on any actual economic knowledge) of the 2004 Social Security Trustees report was that assuming 3.6% growth in GDP, Social Security would be fine until 2062. Since it's not likely that many Boomers would be around in 2062 to collect checks, the big drawdown of funds would be over. The 2004 Social Security Trustees report was easy to navigate, easy to find the fine print. About an hour of poking around got me to all the details I sought. The 2007 Social Security Trustees report is a wee bit more complicated and not so easy to navigate. Never the less, I think I found the dirt in the details.

The 2007 Social Security Trustees Summary makes a most compelling statement:

Social Security could be brought into actuarial balance over the next 75 years in various ways, including an immediate increase of 16 percent in payroll tax revenues or an immediate reduction in benefits of 13 percent or some combination of the two.

And what data was used to come to this assertation? I found it organized here. Many of the interesting titles linked to huge charts that quite frankly were overwhelming. But slowly a picture of the basic assumptions behind the doomsayers words became clear. Looking at the "Principal Economic Assumptions" I noted that the Trustees had developed 3 scenarios, Intermediate cost, low cost & high cost. But which scenario was the one the trustees relied upon for their date of 2041?

Additional Economic Factors and Selected Economic Variables lead to some interesting information which could lead one to think the Trustees used some faulted economic assumtions, but these tables did not present to me, a smoking gun. I found what I was looking for, titled Estimated Trust Fund Ratios.

On the Estimated Trust Fund Ratios table I found where Social Security went broke in 2041. This was listed under the "intermediate" scenario. Looking at the "High Cost" scenario made things look worse, Social Security would go broke in 2030. While looking at the "Low cost" scenario showed Social Security would still be solvent in 2085.

I wish I had that audio clip from the Rachel Maddow show, the one where the prospecter shouts "Eureka"!

It is interesting to note that under Additional Economic Factors the "intermediate" scenario assumes GDP growth of 2% or under after 2020. While the "Low Cost" scenario assumed GDP growth of 2.5% to 3% in the outgoing years. IIRC the US has averaged 3% or 3.5% GDP growth over the last 100 years. While during the Clinton years the US saw growth in GDP between 2.5% and 4.4%.

If we don't get hold of our government, our future, this could get seriously bad. World oil production peaked in May of 2005, the global fish catch has peaked, all the easy to mine iron ore in the US was gone by by 1971, global warming needs to be reversed. If we don't provide solutions to these problems in the coming decade, it may be too late.

Dr. Bussard: IEC Fusion, the future in a post peak oil world

2007-04-22T17:54:00.000-07:00

Dr Bussard is the former Assistant Director of the US Atomic Energy Commission, he was the father of the US Fusion effort from the 1970's into the 1980's. Dr. Bussard went to Congress and pushed the fusion research programs in the 70's that developed the Tokamak design.

Dr Bussard now advocates a different design. For the last 11 years he has been working under US Navy contracts, building small test devices.

WB4 in 2003.

WB6 in 2005.

At the end of 2005, the Navy did not renew his contract. Since then Dr Bussard has given many lectures including the (famous in fusion circles) google tech talk of 2006. Video here:

DR Bussard was awarded the International Academy of Science Outstanding technology of the Year, award for 2006.

Why is this important? World oil production peaked in May of 2005. Dr Bussard says for 200 million he can build a proof of concept reactor by about 2011. The ITER reactor in Europe will be finished by 2013, and the concept may be ready for power generation by 2025. The ITER is slated to cost 13.3 billion. More importantly $3 million keeps Dr. Bussard working.

When the father of modern fusion tells you the Tokamak wont work, he bears listening to. Funny thing about fusion, it occurs naturally in a sphere (the SUN), just like Dr Bussards design. The ITER reactor will try to create fusion in a donut or torus, which doesn't happen in nature.

Heres an overview of Bussards recent work with some really cool pictures.

Dr. Bussard will be utilizing a non profit organization to continue his research. Please pass this link around.

Pelosi, while in Syria, encourages Syrian President to negotiate release of 15 sailors

2007-04-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

While in Syria this Tuesday and Wednesday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, encouraging him to step into the diplomatic void and use his good standing to seek the release of 15 British sailors held by Iran. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem spoke to British PM Tony Blair on the phone Wedenesday, seeking to bring an end to the crisis.

Last Wednesday at the Arab summit conference in Saudi Arabia, Syrian president Bashar Al Assad spoke with the Iranian foreign minister Manuchehr Mottaki about the 15 British sailors.

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad:

"This solution needs quiet diplomacy and Syria is now undertaking such quiet diplomacy between the two countries.

"We hope for a satisfactory solution that will lead to resolving the crisis of the British service personnel held captive in Iran."

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney assailed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday:

``It's a very bad idea to be carrying out a separate and independent foreign policy from the president of the United States,'' Romney added. ``I just don't know what got into her head, to be completely honest with you. I think it was a huge, huge mistake.''

Families of the 15 sailors have not yet commented on Mr. Romney's statement.

House Speaker Nanacy Pelosi then flew to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah.

Beaking news:
Crude Oil Drops on Release of U.K. Sailors

At last check, the May crude oil futures contract was down 63 cents, or 0.97 percent at $64.01 per barrel after tagging an intraday low of $63.08. On Tuesday, the price of crude shed two percent as traders began to unwind the risk premium built into prices during the crisis.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Iranian Diplomat Seized In Iraq Returns Home

An Iranian diplomat detained in Iraq for the last two months has been released, returning Tuesday to Iran. Jalal Sharafi, who was the second secretary of Iran's Embassy in Iraq, was abducted in Baghdad on Feb. 4.

The HMS Cornwall never contested the capturing of the 15 sailors

2007-03-31T20:07:00.000-07:00

My previous D-KOS diary was based on the idea that we have not been told the whole story about how Iran captured 15 sailors from the the HMS Cornwall. This diary deals with the real reason why 6 Iranian gunboats got the drop on the British sailors. 6 Iranian gunboats/speedboats armed with machine guns and rocket launchers surrounded the Rubber Inflatable Boats, or RIBs, uncontested because the HMS Cornwall was nowhere near the area.

HMS Cornwall- Rubber Inflatable Boats, RIBs-Lynx mk8 w/missiles

If I was the CO of the Cornwall I would have been sitting an 1/8 mile off the merchant vessel with my 4.5 inch main gun pointed right at him.

And when I saw the Iranian gunboats coming up, I would've manuevered to put the Cornwall between the gunboats and my people in the Zodiacs. I would have gone to battle stations, just so folks could hear the claxons blaring. Both my Lynx mk 8 gunship helo's would have been air borne. I would have told Lt. Chekov to ready photon torpedoes.

I would have swiveled my both Quad Harpoon missile launchers, my 4.5 inch main gun just to make sure the Iranians noticed them, which delivers a message, "My boys got their finger on the trigger pal, you better watch it".

Just to be clear, I have never served. Those who have, might agree with my sense of what the protocals in that environment would be. I'm guessing I got it more right than wrong, in fact more right than the CO of the HMS Cornwall did. I think it goes without saying that if the Cornwall was there, Iran would not have 15 sailors at this juncture.

Why I know the Cornwall was nowhere to be found on that fateful day.

1) Tony Blair said so:

Text of Blair’s remarks on capture of British sailors by Iran:

"...another additional fact: by the time HMS Cornwall knew that our forces had been detained unlawfully by the Iranians, they were in Iranian waters,"

Ah, thats how they got the drop on them, those pesky Klingons had a cloaking device......

Canterbury and Whitstable MP Julian Brazier had a problem:

“If the rules of engagement allow a hostile power to sail into allied waters and kidnap British servicemen and women without a shot being fired, something is going badly wrong."

MP Julian Brazier, the reason the Iranians got off with your people without a shot being fired, is that the HMS Cornwall was not there. The area on the map outlines Iraqi Territorial waters. After the intial news reports, I guessed that the incident took place in the area marked with a solid red line. This area is roughly framed by 2 major outflows of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers enter into the Persian Gulf. Time to take a jaunt over to the Royal Naval briefing on the incident, where the Royal Navy adamantly proclaims the HMS Cornwall was within Iraqi waters.

2) The Royal Navy said so:

MOD briefing shows Royal Navy personnel were in Iraqi waters

"The briefing, at defence headquarters in London, was given by Vice Admiral Charles Style, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff.....who is responsible for providing strategic advice to operational commanders, explained in detail where the Royal Navy personnel were located when they were seized. "On 23 March a boarding team consisting of seven Royal Marines and eight sailors - who were embarked in two of HMS Cornwall's boats - conducted a routine boarding of an Indian flagged Merchant Vessel which was cooperative throughout.

They investigated this vessel after witnessing her unloading cars into two barges secured alongside. Since early March the force has conducted 66 routine boardings. So the one that I'm talking about was entirely routine business, and conducted in a particular area where four other boardings have been completed recently".

"As shown on the chart, the merchant vessel was 7.5 nautical miles south east of the Al Faw Peninsula and clearly in Iraqi territorial waters".

To be truthful, thats not the MOD chart, which is at the Royal Navy link above. I incorporated the nautical mile scale next to the ships location, becuase I didn't believe what the chart was telling me.

The HMS Cornwall was 10 nautical miles from its RIBs,

and in no position to support its 15 sailors.

To us landlubbers, thats nearly 12 miles. The Cornwall did not even have a visual on its sailors. At 32 knots the Cornwall was a good 20 to 25 minutes away, forget about blasting the Iranians to bits, the Cornwall wasn't even in the position to use her hull as a screen, between the Iranian gunboats and the RIBs.

I have been mulling this over in my head for nearly 48 hours. Maybe the rountine of 65 prior boardings lead to sloppy habits. The Cornwall's crew & her CO had gotten lax. Or maybe a Mossad commander (some guy with an eye patch, right?) was on board directing the operation to be sure the sailors were left behind, as bait. All right, joking... But somebody screwed up, Do you think the Captain of the Cornwall will ever make Admiral....

If Iran executes one sailor, I can think of one Royal Navy Captain whose career is toast.

Kearny teacher caught proselytizing in public School

2007-03-08T10:27:00.000-08:00

From the ABC website.

Matthew LaClair is the student at the center of attention over the issue of church and state in public schools.

LaClair accuses his history teacher, David Paszkiewicz, of going overboard when it comes to teaching religion in class at Kearny High School.

"He seemed to get nastier and nastier," LaClair said. "So on the third day, I just started recording."

LaClair used a tape recorder in class to listen to the instruction discuss matters like the Big Bang Theory.

Paszkiewicz: The Big Bang Theory is, there was nothing out there, there was no matter. But yet, nothing exploded and created something. Let me give you a clue, guys. If there's nothing there, it can't explode.

Students say that LaClair and others engaged the teacher on religious topics. At the time, Paszkiewicz asked everyone if they were comfortable with the subject matter.

But the instructor did express his views on Noah's Ark.

Paszkiewicz: Moses wrote in 1440 B.C., not that the Earth was created then. You know where I'm going with this?

Student: Were there dinosaurs on Noah's Ark?

Paszkiewicz: Short answer, yes, and it was a problem.

LaClair seemed to lead the debate over heaven and hell.

Paszkiewicz: He did everything in his power to make sure that you could go to heaven, so much so that he put your sin in his own body, suffered your pains for you, and he's saying "Please accept me, believe!" You reject that, you belong in hell.

"I knew there was a line that you don't cross in a public school," Matthew's mother, Debra LaClair said. "And one of them is giving your personal view on religion and politics."

Now 16-year-old Matthew LaClair has reportedly received death threats, and the police are dealing with that. The board of education says that teachers are not allowed to express their personal views on religion in the classroom.

Listen for yourself, Here is the 45 minute MP3 of teacher David Paszkiewicz misusing his position to proselytize biblical fundamentalism (he is a Baptist) in a public school. Thanks to David Kowalski for posting the MP3.

Here is an ABC video of the Febuary Kearny School Board meeting.

Here is video of Paul LaClair speaking on behalf of his son Matthew LaClaire, he's the second speaker:

Click To Play

The BLUE JERSEY folks have been blogging on this issue as far back as "njdem" on Feb 19th, Nick Lento did a follow up on Feb 21st, and the father of the 17 yr old student, Paul LaClair's diary of Feb 26th, Nick Lento then posted some video on Feb 27th.

.

KEARNY, N.J. — Before David Paszkiewicz got to teach his accelerated 11th-grade history class about the United States Constitution this fall, he was accused of violating it.

Shortly after school began in September, the teacher told his sixth-period students at Kearny High School that evolution and the Big Bang were not scientific, that dinosaurs were aboard Noah’s ark, and that only Christians had a place in heaven, according to audio recordings made by a student whose family is now considering a lawsuit claiming Mr. Paszkiewicz broke the church-state boundary.

Matt LaClair

I call upon the Kearny School Board to sever their relationship with the teacher, Mr. Paszkiewicz. As a Youth Pastor Mr. Paszkiewicz may have spent over a decade ingratiating himself with the communities youth, while indoctrinating the same youth with Creationism, and very likely Dominionism. Is the next step a class on how the Universe rotates around the Earth, or a class on how humans can bring on the Rapture?

Frankly I see Mr. Paszkiewicz as an unstable man who should have no contact with any youth in public school. But thats just my opinion. Mr. Paszkiewicz is apparently fine with all of this, because, as John Belushi said in the Blues Brothers movie, he is "on a mission from God".

What was funny at the movies is dead serious stuff in real life. Afterall didn't God tell George Bush to invade Iraq....

Please take the time to attend the Kearny BOE meeting on March 19th in support of the Constitution and the LaClair Family. Bring your friend and family, with poster board signs.
NO DOMINIONISM
NO INTELLIGENT DESIGN IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
SAVE THE CONSTITUTION
DAVID PASZKIEWICZ BROKE THE LAW

Where:
100 Davis Avenue (The Franklin School)
Kearny
07032
When: 07:00 PM - 10:15 PM

If you are from Essex County please RSVP here:.

If I can make the arrangements, Paul LaClaire will speaking at the Hudson DFA meeting that was rescheduled to wednesday March 14th due to the snow. More TBA.

I am running for NJ DFA Executive Board

2007-02-05T10:50:00.000-08:00

Name

Roger Dana Fox

Municipality and County

Montclair, Essex County; I have recently signed up with these locals: Mercer, Middlesex,Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Union DFA.

How long have you been associated with New Jersey for Democracy (or DFA)?

Essex DFA member since March 23, 2005

What roles have you held within New Jersey for Democracy (or DFA)?

2005 I founded a working group that lobbied the Essex Freeholders against the purchase of the Sequoia Advantage computerized voting machines.

2006: I worked in Essex DFA to establish an endorsement process for political candidates. Currently I help organize monthly agenda items for Essex DFA.

What should we know about your professional, educational and political background?

I spent 13 years in the Golf Course business, rising to the position of Assistant Golf Course Superintendent. I attended the Rutgers 2 year Turfgrass program "88-'89, served as acting class president in '89 & was elected to the Rutger Turfgrass Alumni Association Board of Directors 4 consecutive years '89, '90, '91 & '92.

At age 14, I volunteered for George McGovern in '72. I canvassed about 8,000 houses in Stratford Ct. I am guilty of falling asleep during the Clinton years, only to awake to find George Bush president. To atone, I have dedicated myself to becoming a campaign field operations professional. In '04 I was a paid staffer for John Kerry in Broward County FL. I attended Camp Wellstone, Monmouth NJ, march '05. I worked part time for Corzine ('05) & Menendez ('06) and volunteered for Tom Wyka for Congress ('06) as his Essex Field Manager, organizing canvass efforts in Livingston and phone banking of Roseland voters. I organized a catered fund raising dinner for Tom Wyka, which was attended by NJ DEM Chair Joe Cryan and Essex Freeholder Carol Clarke. I also created 3 issue oriented internet videos for Tom Wyka found @ http://www.tomwyka.com/video2.html

Those that know me from Essex & Morris counties know of my un-ending energy, & my dedication to Jeffersonian ideals.

http://rdanafox.blogspot.com/2006/11/tax-rates-middle-class.html

Where do you see New Jersey for Democracy going and how can you help move it there?

I see many opportunities for NJ4D.

A) The first, is as an organization that is similar to the NJ Democratic Committee, finding candidates for office, fund raising, endorsing, donating, to impact races in NJ. In some cases this means defeating incumbent republicans, in other cases this may mean supporting the more progressive democratic candidate over the less progressive candidate, in a primary.

I will champion the NJDFA fund raising potential.

Our "Tool Box" is the CPC.

Lets examine the tools in the tool box. A White Paper for NJDFA members is needed, that covers the tools that NJ4D has @ its disposal as a Continuing Political Committee. Essex County has put together an endorsement process for candidates that works quite well. Both Tom Wyka and Carol Gay participated. I feel that a easily understood NJ DFA endorsement process, such as the Essex process, must be a goal.
Reasons members may not donate money to NJ4D CPC. I would want to know how candidates get endorsed, and how they become eligible for receiving money from the NJ4D CPC. If members have a clear understanding of how their money will be used, would they be more likely to give? As a member of the NJ4D Executive Board, my goal will be to raise $25,000 for the '07 cycle.

The coming '07 Assembly, Senate & Freeholder races.

-Create awareness
This can be used to elevate members awareness & foster discussion on who to target.
-Knowledge fosters motivation
Knowing who is targeted should provide some motivation/make it easier for members to give.

B) Citizen lobbyists. Organize face time and town hall meetings with elected Representatives, using citizen action, educational forums & petitions to inform elected Representatives on progressive issues that impact our times. This also includes advocating legislation or action by our reps.

Start a Congressional Watch
Like the Essex Freeholder watch.

http://www.dfalink.com/group.php?id=690

Start a state wide petition, then go to DC, deliver it to our reps & senators, maybe tape a video with the rep, to be brought back as evidence, we were there. I think a state wide petition to support Senator Leahy's return to Habeaus Corpus is a great jumping off point. Lautenberg, Menendez, & our NJ DEM House caucus needs our prompting to embolden them.

Start a Trenton Watch
Much closer than DC, much easier. Nia GIlls S507 Voter Verfied Paper Ballot audit bill could be a starting point.

C) Liaise with like minded groups on issue oriented organizing. From Vets groups to NJ Peace Action, to NJPIRG.

D) Dean basics: Dean for America was about a decentralized campaign. localized autonomy at the meet up level, am I right so far? There was a race in NH 01, the Deaniacs did it, they won. They went back to what Deans primary run was about, NH 01 went back to DEAN basics. Lets not forget this. When I 1st joined Essex DFA I had no clue what the other locals were up to, or what was going on at the state level. I felt that there was a structual lack of 2 way communication. this needs redress, wether thru better use of the DFAlink web tools, or america blog, I find I put in too much time searching for things DFA in NJ, how about you? We have the tools for deliverying this information straight to our computers, and we need to make better use of these tools. Fostering 2 way communication can help build a larger sense of Community, & shared goals within NJ DFA.

Roger D. Fox

Montclair NJ

January 27th march @ the Mall in Washington DC

2007-01-28T10:01:00.000-08:00

I am in front of the Capitol building, standing an a concrete pylon as a I pan with the camera. Looking towards the Washington Monument... you first see 3rd St. then the back of the stage, looking past all those people, past 4th St. is the Washington Monument.

I have "heard" it takes a at least a million people to fill this space. My guess is @ most it was 3/4 filled... 600k-700k ?

Video blog on the bus trip and some of the great people I met:

As soon as I get more video edited and loaded to you tube, I will up date here.

State of the Terrorists Speech 2007

2007-01-25T19:12:00.000-08:00

Modern Iranian SAM Missiles, can they hit a stealth bomber?

2007-01-22T18:52:00.000-08:00

My first diary in this series dealt with the roots of the Saudi short range ICBM program & recent Saudi "Ghauri" missile purchases from Pakistan. The next diary in the series dealt with Iranian missiles starting with surface to air systems like the short range Russian SAM 6, whose mobile launchers can be upgraded with SAM 11 missiles. The more modern Tor-M1 and the medium range Pechora-2A. Offensively I included the mach 3 Sunburn, C-801 and C-802 cruise missiles.

In part 3 of the series I offer you the Irans S-300PMU-2. Twice the size, of the US Partiot missile & reportedly vastly superior (lacking the reputation of shooting down friendly aircarft), the S-300PMU-2 has been a good source of currency for Russia, who was the worlds leader in exported arms sales last year (31 billion).

Can Iran shoot down a stealth?

I'm sure many readers will think to themselves that we will use our stealth bombers to attack Iran, no problems, right? Not exactly, you see Serbia shot down an F117 stealth bomber in 1999. And I may know why.

Ghauri, recently purchased by Saudi Arabia.

@ globalsecurity.org According to a 7 December 2005 "Defense Update" commentary, "when deployed in an integrated network, an array of S-300 and Tor M-1 systems could pose a highly potent defensive network against any aggressor." Reports that Iran two years ago acquired two S-300 batteries that have been deployed near Tehran remain unconfirmed to this date.

@ janes the presence of these missiles will "create major problems for [air strike] planners for years to come."

Both Iran and Syria have recently been equipped with the very latest version of this missiles, the S-300PMU-2, which is larger, faster and even more efficient at hunting down its prey. The range of this upgraded missile is in excess of 125 miles, with the ability to acquire and kill targets flying as low as 30 feet. The Russians routinely shoot down random target drones travelling at 5,800 feet per second, and further claim the weapon is easily capable of destroying targets approaching at up to 15,500 feet per second, or Mach 14. Trust me, the S-300PMU-2 will swiftly take care of anything.

alert5.com
James O'Halloran, editor of Jane's Land-Based Air Defense, said the Serbs could succeed because the stealth fighter was not design to be invisible to old long pulse duration radars.

@ airpower
Experts at Lockheed Martin Corporation, the aircraft’s manufacturer, reported that- unlike earlier instances of F-117 combat operations- the missions flown over Yugoslavia required the aircraft to operate in ways that may have compromised its stealthy characteristics. By way of example, they noted that even a standard turning maneuver could increase the aircraft’s radar cross section by a factor of 100 or more. Such turns were unavoidable in the constricted airspace within which the F-117s had to fly.....Gen Richard Hawley, commander of Air Combat Command at the time, commented that “when you have a lot of unlocated threats, you are at risk even in a stealth airplane.” ....Three low-frequency Serb radars that could have detected the F-117’s presence, at least theoretically...

Simply put, stealth bomber coating are carbon balls in paint. In this layer, there are voids, which can collect moisture. The B-2 bomber is notorious for flying thru moisture laden clouds and then becoming very visible to radar. In Serbia in 1999 a F~117 was shot down. Infra red can see the jet engine exhaust from above. If the Stealth Bomber has to turn, it can be seen. But lets take a step back 50 years in time.

There is an old trick used in both Korea and in Vietnam. SAM units on the ground might not turn on thier radar until the last second, if the SAM units were networked, by turning on only one radar they could get a narrow picture of what air threats were approaching. SO there was a game going on between the pilots in the air and the SAM batteries on the ground. If the Pilot gets a fix on the radar, he will likely kill it. If the Radar turns on & off real quick, maybe the pilot doesn't get a fix.

The Soviets used a similar move when chasing the US SR~71 blackbird. Ground radar would see the Mach 3+ SR~71 approaching, Mach 3 Mig~25 jets would be vectored to get in front of the SR~71, where they would fire ALL of their air to air missiles, hoping the SR~71 would fly at them. When the SR~71 was in range the russian pilot hoped his missles would get lock, but the SR~71 climbed and accelerated from trouble.

If I was running Iran Military I would buy some 50 yr old SAM 3 radar units, these long wave radars are effective against stealth coatings. The SAM 3's would be combined into small networks, or fire teams if you will. This allows the SAM 3 radar to feed the more modern SAM 11 or Tor M~1 systems. and if the SAM 3 radar was observed, then attacked, they would not be attacking the more important launcher, which could fire the missile and then fire up its radar.

In regard to what Iran is observed to be buying and how Iran is organizing its air defense, I think a US attack could be botched by the Bush Administration. In the past the suits have been running the Iraq war, not the uniforms. If this trend continues during an attack on Iran, pray for our people in the region. Iran could bloody our nose, or worse. Remember, when we wargamed the Iraqi invasion in 2002, we lost 12 naval ships due to cruise missile hits. Read about the Mach 3 Iranian Sunburn. The Sunburn is a bad Mo Fo.

I would fearful if we see our air craft carriers attack from the Persian Gulf, they should be in the Arabian Sea.

Vigilance.

Iranian missile systems

2007-01-03T10:20:00.001-08:00

Until recently Iran had relied on the Russian SAM-6 surface to air missile. With a range of 25 km it might be considered a short range or point defense system. The Russian SAM-11 missile looks like it can be fired from older SAM-6 launchers with little work to accommodate the SAM-11 missile. The SAM-6 was first developed by Russia, starting in 1958. By the 1973 yon Kippur war it was a proven system. In August 1992 the NYT. reported "Iran is reportedly negotiating the purchase of SAM-5, SAM-11, and SAM-13 missiles from Russia and other Eastern European countries." Don't forget that the SAM-11 missile looks able to be fired from Iran's existing SAM-6 mobile launchers.

In the Summer of 2006 reports suggested that Iran was looking to buy the Tor-M1 Air defense system, This was confirmed in the first week of 2007 from Russian sources

The TOR-M1 surface-to-air missile system is a mobile, integrated air defense system, designed for operation at medium-, low- and very low Âaltitudes, against fixed/rotary wing aircraft, UAVs, guided missiles and precision weapon. The system is capable of operating in an intensive aerial jamming environment.

The Tor-M1 system has a range of 25 KM, making it a significant qualitative upgrade from the existing SAM-6 systems. The same source indicates the Iranians also are buying the longer range Pechora-2A.

Pechora-2A can hit the air targets at distances from 3.5 to 38 kilometers and at heights from 0.02 to 20 kilometers, flying at a speed of up to 700 meters per second. The complex was successfully tested at a Middle East firing range, hitting an F-16 fighter and an analogue of a Tomahawk cruise missile.

I get the feeling that Iran has not set up a comprehensive air defense grid as we think of it here in the US. They seem to favor using jet aircraft as a long range platform to shoot down air borne threats (F-14, SU-27 & Mig 29). Then they seem to rely on mobile SAM systems as point defense. @ globalsecurity.com they have indicated that Iran may have deployed some of these SAMs in underground bunkers, with multiple entrance tunnels. This allows the mobile SAM launcher a hardened supply/maintenence point, from which the launcher can make its appearance from a number of tunnel entrance points. The Tor-M1 system needs only 10 seconds from target aquisition to launch.

The combination of these 3 systems does add a layer of complexity to Iranian air defense that they have not had in possibly decades. The Pechora-2A with its 38km range would be the 1st layer in this arrangement, while the older but more numerous (and a bit slower to acquire targets) SAM-6 may be left out in the open to deal with targets that get past the Pechora-2A. If a target gets that far, the far more modern and accurate Tor-M1 can be trundled out from a tunnel to defend against the intruder.

At most Iran has maybe 60 front line modern aircraft & maybe 100 SAM style launchers. Whether or not these assets are tied to the 3 major nuclear sites, they will be overwhelmed. The question in my mind is will Bush & Cheney dictate to the US military how & when todoo the job. This administration has a track record for screwing up when it concerns military matters, and a screw up in dealing with Iran could lead to a bit of a bloody nose for the US military.

On the Offensive side of the plate:

Sunburn missile:.

"In July 1999, defense analyst Richard D. Fisher wrote an evaluation of the Russian-built Sunburn missile being sold to China. A senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington based think-tank, Fisher reported that the SS-N-22 may be capable of a dive speed of Mach 4.5 that would help it evade U.S. naval defenses. The Sunburn anti-ship missile is perhaps the most lethal anti-ship missile in the world," wrote Fisher in a review of the Chinese navy. The Sunburn combines a Mach 2.5 speed with a very low-level flight pattern that uses violent end maneuvers to throw off defenses. After detecting the Moskit, the U.S. Navy Phalanx point defense system may have only 2.5 seconds to calculate a fire solution -- not enough time before the devastating impact of a 750-lb. warhead."

From Will Pitt:

It is Iran's missile armaments that pose the greatest concern for American forces in the Gulf, especially for the US Navy. Iran's coast facing the Persian Gulf is a looming wall of mountains that look down upon any naval forces arrayed in those waters. The Gulf itself only has one exit, the Strait of Hormuz, which is also dominated by the mountainous Iranian coastline. In essence, Iran holds the high ground in the Gulf. Missile batteries arrayed in those mountains could raise bloody havoc with any fleet deployed below.

Of all the missiles in Iran's armament, the most dangerous is the Russian-made SS-N-22 Sunburn. These missiles are, simply, the fastest anti-ship weapons on the planet. The Sunburn can reach Mach 3 at high altitude. Its maximum low-altitude speed is Mach 2.2, some three times faster than the American-made Harpoon. The Sunburn takes two short minutes to cover its full range. The missile's manufacturers state that one or two missiles could cripple a destroyer, and five missiles could sink a 20,000 ton ship. The Sunburn is also superior to the Exocet missile. Recall that it was two Exocets that ripped the USS Stark to shreds in 1987, killing 37 sailors. The Stark could not see them to stop them.

I think its important to note how Will Pitt places the use of the Sunburn in a terrain specific scenario. I think that a sea based attack on Iran should not come from a task force in the Persian Gulf, but rather from the Arabian Sea. ThePersiann Gulf is a bad spot to be in if Iran gets a shot at US forces in the Gulf. Global security states that Iran not only has purchased the Sunburn, but also the Chinese-made C-801 and C-802 cruise missiles. The C-801 and C-802 appear to be flexible in that they can be fired from patrol boats, submarines, or even trucks.

I think that as long as the US Navy sails carrier groups into the Persian Gulf, what we are seeing is battleship diplomacy. Iran has made some purchases that may give Iran a chance to blow some stuff up, if it comes to an actual shooting war. That'ss not to say the the US Military wont get to its targets, it will. The more I think about it, the more I think the US will not attack Iran using the US Navy. What possibly may be the best US bunker buster is the GBU-28, dropped from a plane, it weighs 4400 pounds. 4400 pounds dropped from 60,000 ft may penetrate a few hundred feet. Never the less I think the best we can do is to blow up the doors to the tunnels, that lead to the bunkered nuclear facilities.

Hopefully the cabal understands this and will settle for a little saber rattling, battleship diplomacy, if you will.

Now, the Middle East gets interesting.

2006-12-21T14:04:00.000-08:00

CSS-2

Well we know that Saudi Arabia has missiles, rather, has had missiles for quite a while. Apparently the Saudi missile program goes back to 1988.

In his 2003 Naval Post graduate thesis titled "Is Saudi Arabia a Nuclear Threat?" Steven R. McDowell writes:

Now that the CSS-2 missiles are nearing the end of their lifecycle, the Saudi regime may choose to replace them. During a March 11, 1997 interview with Defense News, Saudi military chief of staff, Lt Gen. Saleh Mohaya stated [referring to the Saudi’s CSS-2 ballistic missile inventory], “The [Saudi Arabian] oil kingdom is now considering replacing or refurbishing the desert missile force.”

Early in 2006, the German periodical Cicero reported that satellite imagery obtained by Germany's secret service indicated that Saudi Arabia has set up in Al-Sulaiyil, south of Riyadh, a new secret underground city and dozens of underground silos for missiles. TPMcafe has also picked up on this item.

According to some Western security services, long-range Ghauri-type missiles of Pakistani-origin are housed inside the silos.

The Ghauri missile has a range of 1,500 kilometers, while the CSS-2.
missile has a longer 2500km range.

The East Wind's modified range/payload (5) of 2,500 km/2,000 kg (conventional load) brings many countries within striking range, including Israel, the former Soviet Union, and Iran, though the missiles are said to be targeted on Tehran and other Iranian population centers, rather than Israel.

It seems that Saudi Arabia has replaced its aging Chinese missiles with North Korean/Pakistani "Ghauri" missiles, albeit with 1000km less range, they have essentially modernized their missile fleet.

"Ghauri"

Would Saudi Arabia allow Iran to accuire nuclear weapons first? Certainly not in the current enviroment of a regional Middle East proxy war. Ah yes, the current environment, Where by invading Iraq and installing a Shite regime, the US has upset a long standing balance in the Middle East. In a recent International Tribune article, Hassan M. Fattah recounts how a a self-styled poet told a story.

"Saddam Hussein was a real leader who deserved our support," he began, making up the lines as he went. "He kept Iraq stable and peaceful," he added, "And most of all he fought back the Iranians."

With Iran & Syria on one side, that does leave Saudi Arabia & Isreal as unlikely allies. But while I am gumming up the works, let me really mess things up, and throw the recent Russian Mach 3 cruise missile in the works. Does the US have a Mach 3 jet interceptor in the inventory? No, we don't. Which also means short of a Russian Mig-29, no one else in the Persian Gulf does either. I am sure Iran would love to get a hold of these new cruise missiles and.... point them at the Straights of Hormuz? While Saudi Arabia supports the Sunnis in Iraq, essentially destabilizing the Iraqi Shite Regime we set up, which of course is supported by Iran.

What has been done in our name? God help us.

A Tag Team

2006-11-21T02:49:00.000-08:00

The 2008 presidential season is apparently upon us, aspirations will be run up the flagpole, paperwork for exploratory committee's will be formed, and without an incumbant in either major party, we could very well be looking at a free for all.

Will the democratic primary run be so bloody as to render the eventual democratic nominee impotent? Or will the republicans beat each other so bad, that no one really survives? And will the press even care, because a blonde college student has gone missing in eastern Kazahka? Well, I have no clue about any of this. The one thing I am planning on is to be in the thick of it in '07 working to elect a democratic candidate for State Assembly or State Senate, here in New Jersey (hopefully defeating an incumbant republican). All the while keeping in mind that my good friend TomWyka will be having a second go at challenging republican incumbant Rodney Frelinghuysen in New Jerseys 11th CD.

There is one other thing that I do know. That we, as human beings, as democrats, are capable of far better things than we have shown recently. I hold dear to me the idea, that as brothers and sisters, we will walk forward, holding the light of Social and economic justice, the light of civil rights, high for all to see. As Franklin D. Roosevelt said in the darkest days of the Great Republican Depression, “If we cannot do this one way, we will do it, another way. But do it, we will.

This very day there are 2 men, 2 names that bear national stature, who have stood for what is right, for what is better not worse, who export hope and not fear. I give you Al Gore, Wes Clark, and the germ of an idea.

There you are, having thanksgiving dinner with your family, when this racous noise interupts. Like Ghostbusters crashing your thanksgiving dinner..

CRASH . . Booom ... bang... the door bursts open... 2 men step thru..

Hi, I'm AL.......... & I'm Wes..

Al: "We're here today because we've been flipping out, over all the incompetent & evil things the Bush Crime Family has been doing."

Wes: "Thats right Al, you see folks , ever since I got out of the military I've been looking for something new to do."

Wes ducks into a broom closet... sticks his head out, & says to Al, " I found one", holding out a broom.

Al holds his hand out graciously and tells Wes: "Go ahead Wes, don't let me stop you....."

Wes starts sweeping the floor around the family dinning room table...
"Due to the evil & imcompetent plan for war in Iraq, we've ended up with such a horrible mess..".

Wes crouches down to look at the husband and addresses the husband eye to eye.

"Its not like we can just clean things up", Wes Stands erect, yanks off his tear away janitors overalls to reveal a military uniform. Martial music swells from the background, while a breeze gently tussles Wes's hair, Wes states to no one in particular, but to everyone...

"Its time to bring our kids back... from Iraq"...

An ackward silence ensues....

Al: "Ahh Wes..." Wes: "yes Al."

Al puts his hands on his hips, "Wes, how come you get a theme song & I don't ?"

Tax Rates & the Middle Class

2006-11-16T19:03:00.000-08:00

At a recent meeting of progressives in NJ, a fellow progressive professed astonishment when I told him the top tax rate used to be 92%, in fact he did not believe me. This incident motivated me to get my ducks in a row and the result is what you see below.

A Middle class is a rare thing, occurring only 3 times thru-out history. The first rising of a middle class occurred as a result of the Black Plague. The Black Plague killed about 30% of the worlds population, creating a labor shortage. This allowed that Trades & Craftsman to command a higher wage, which trickled down to the common yeoman, much as the unionization of US labor in the middle 1900's allowed non union labor to command wages akin to union labor. Some have written that the renaissance, without a middle class that had the leisure time to even consider art & music, let alone the time to paint, sculpt, write & perform music, would have never occurred.

The second rising of a middle class occurred in the US colonies in the middle 1700's. Once a few Indians were driven away from an area, there was free land available for farming. In an agrarian society this was a big deal in that you could own your own land, grow & sell your own crops & keep the profits, much as a family owned business does today.

The third rising of a middle class occurred during the Great Republican Depression of the early 1930's. FDR's New Deal brought forward tax progressivity, as well as labor rights earned thru the union movement, such as the Child Labor laws passed in 1937 & 1938, (Kids do belong in school after all). But I've gotten ahead of myself, let me backtrack a bit.

According to the US Treasury, "the entry of the United States into World War I greatly increased the need for revenue and Congress responded by passing the 1916 Revenue Act. The 1916 Act raised the lowest tax rate from 1 percent to 2 percent and raised the top rate to 15 percent. Another revenue act was passed in 1918, which hiked tax rates once again, this time raising the bottom rate to 6 percent and the top rate to 77 percent."

Graphic from msn.com

After WW1 tax rates dropped during the "Roaring Twenties" as income disparity increased until the Stock Market crash of 1929, the start of the Depression. Under the guidance of Franklin D. Roosevelt, tax progressivity returned, and the top tax rates went up, programs like Social Security and Unemployment relief got started, the CCC & the WPA put people back to work creating infrastructure thats still in use to this day.

My Parents got thru the Depression with a progressive income tax, we won WW2 with a progressive income tax. The 12 million men & woman that served in the military in WW2 came home, the GI Bill sent vets to college, and they started families. This created the largest, most vigorous and the best educated middle class, in the history of the planet. Labor unions were at the zenith of their power, our educational institutions were the envy of the world, corporations made money, the wealthiest made money. The American Dream was born.

Thom Hartman wrote , " but the real events of the 1930s and 1940s that set the stage for a second American Middle Class were primarily the Wagner Act, the G.I. Bill, and tax changes ranging from raising the top rate on the most rich to 90 percent to offering an emerging middle class home interest tax deductions."

Hartman known for, among other things, quoting Jefferson, continues, "Progressive taxation has a long history: As Jefferson said in a 1785 letter to James Madison, "Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise." Hartman concludes, "Progressive taxation has helped create every middle class in the First World, and without it the middle class will vanish."

Enter Ronald Reagan and the start of full spectrum warfare on the middle class. The opening salvo, the PATCO strike. Busting the Air Traffic Controllers union was the start of a multi front military style operation to drive wages down for all Americans. Then we were told that Social Security was going broke, this represents the opening of a second front of the War on the Middle Class that resulted in the doubling of payroll taxes.

The blue line on the bottom shows payroll taxes increasing two fold, while taxes for corporations have been cut by a third (green) and taxes for the wealthiest Americans have been cut by two thirds (purple).

Thom Hartman on Ronald Regan, "But as president, Reagan cut the top tax rate for billionaires from 70 percent to 28 percent, while effectively raising taxes on working people via the payroll tax and using inflation against a non-indexed tax system. It was another hit to the already-beginning-to-shrink middle class, to be followed by more "tax cut" bludgeons during the first three years of the W. Bush administration."

Acting as the propaganda mill of the Aristocracy, groups like the Heritage Foundation have been telling us there is nothing to see, move along. In this example, the chart tells us that high tax rates don't raise more revenue. If this was true why would the Government raise taxes in wartime? In fact the US Treasury states that the result of these taxe rate increases, in both World Wars, did result in increased revenue. Whats more telling is the fine print on this chart, the 2 bottom lines are labeled "federal taxes as a % of GDP" & "Income taxes as a % of GDP."

Well I would offer to the Heritage Foundation that since 1940 GDP per capita has increased 80 fold, it might be fair to assume that as a % of GDP, so have tax revenues. The real point is not producing more tax revenues, the point is having a large and vigorous middle class that can participate as a citizen legislators, send its kids to college, so those kids can invent lots of cool stuff for the corporations to make money off of. Consider kids as assets. How do you make best use of those assets? Educate those assets of course.

I thought it mildly interesting that the Great Republican Depression starting with the Crash of '29, and the 2 year recession in '89 to '90, were periods of low tax rates on the wealthy, and occurred durig Republican Administrations.

A War on the Middle Class generally attacks the 3 pillars holding up the middle class. Progressive taxes, labor & education. Again I look to Thom Hartman: Jefferson said, in an 1824 letter: "This degree of [free] education would ... give us a body of yeomanry, too, of substantial information, well prepared to become a firm and steady support to the government." Jefferson started the University of Virginia with the intent to provide the yeomanry with a free education so as to be prepared to take part in the Government, the citizen legislators if you will.

The current war on the middle class started with less progressivity in tax rates, then union busting. More recently, tax breaks for corporations to move our jobs overseas, increasing illegal immigration to enlarge the labor pool, which drives wages down. The Bush Jr. tax policy is regressive while Bill Clinton's tax policy was much less regressive and was moving to true progressivity. Additionally we've seen 20 billion in cuts from student aid during the last 2 years. This is warfare my friends, the Aristocracy has attacked us, and we must defend ourselves.

An essay, with pictures, from the NJ 2006 campaign trail

2006-11-10T16:51:00.000-08:00

This story really starts on election night 2005, here's Senator Lautenberg speaking about Governor elect Corzine.

NJ DFA meeting in March, the star, Anne Wolfe and myself.

Tom Wyka at the NJ Democratic Progressive Caucus meeting in the spring.
Tom had just announced he was running for Congress.

Jeff Gardner speaking at the NJ Democratic Progressive Caucus meeting in the spring.

Video, August Honk & Wave Rally for Tom Wyka and Len Luciano.

I organized a fundraiser for Tom Wyka @ Cryans pub in South Orange. Here is Tom with West Caldwell council candidate Len Luciano, and Democratic Chairman Joe Cryan.

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DFA'er Ellen, Tom Wyka, Freeholder Carol Clarke & the former mayor of Monclair at the Oct. 12th Wyka dinner.

Carol Gay challenged incumbant Chris Smith in NJ4.
Carol in Monclair for a house party.

Congressional candidate Tom Wyka posts my video
"The Raid on Student Aid" on his website. A 1st for me.

The "Had enough" video is posted on Tom's website.

October, Rep. John Murtha stops for a photo op
with some Montclair State sutdents.

.

Most of the debate between Tom Wyka and Congressman Frelinghuysen,
was videotaped, click on the picture to watch the video.

Tom Wyka and friends celebrating after Tom delivered a drubbing to Congressman Frelinghuysen during the debate, Oct. 27th.

In October, John Kerry stumped with
Bob Menendez in West Orange.

Tom Wyka on election night declaring "2008 starts now". Tom Wyka set a record, no DEM has ever gotten 37% in NJ11. NJ11 has the largest population of Republicans in New Jersey.

Will Wyka win?

2006-11-09T15:53:00.000-08:00

Back posted from bluejersey.net, Sat. Nov. 4th, 2006.

This is about the little campaign that could. A few months ago if you dropped into the Morristown HQ you might see 3 voluteers and Tom Wyka's wife Betty and their 2 kids stuffing envelopes. The Volunteer Canvass on the weekends looked like 30 people. There was a box of lawn signs up front, and a few stray pieces of lit in boxes.

And the Republican HQ down the block was empty.

Well Chip Robinsons canvass efforts have flowered, some days he sends out 60 people. All of the targeted districts are done and they are being canvassed a second time. The phone bank is overflowing every night. Senator Menendez has made multiple campaign appearances with Tom Wyka.

Chip hard at work.

Did Congressman Frelinghuysen get scared? Some have privately told me they think the Congressman commisioned a poll, and it showed a tight race. Well something happened because the Congressman has opened up a new office on RT 10. A much larger office, the size office you need if you are to actually make a serious defense of your incumbancy. What changed?

On Oct. 27th Tom Wyka debated Rodney Frelinghuysen. And Tom wiped the floor with Rodney, Tom belonged on the stage with the Congressman. Tom Owned Rodney. Tom got the standing ovation, Rodney didn't, even with his own people their to cheer him on. Tom Wyka gave the people of New Jerseys 11th district something to vote for. Hope, their future, our country's future.

I spent friday afternoon @ the Morris HQ, the office was packed with about 50 people, including a friend of mine I worked with in the Kerry Florida campaign, an LA from DC. It was a pleasant surprise to see so many folks from DC. At 4:50 I got a call from a Menendez staffer, Randy Grey, he was at the Summit train station and had no lit, Linda Stender was due as well Governor Corzine & Senator Menendez. I left immediately and pulled in front of the train station at 5:06. I got out, told the cops what I was doing, waded thru the Ferguson supporters ...asking them if they saw the Senator yet..... LOL. Found Randy, gave him the lit. Mission accomplished. On the way out I saw Linda StenderTime to get back to the Morris HQ.

About 9pm myself and another Volunteer from DC left the HQ with lawn signs, we drove by the Frelinghuysen HQ on Friday night at about 10pm, it was closed. When I finished the Lawn Sign Brigade, I returned to Morris HQ and assembled Canvass packs for Saturday. There were still 2 dozen people working, many from DC, many from the 11th CD. Stickers for the Local candidates were stuck on 25 thousand door knockers. ANd canvass packs for 75 people were assembled.

Congressman Frelinghuysen has never really had to defend his seat. SOooo how does one do that? Well it requires a corp group of people with local knowledge. It requires hundreds of people canvassing the hell out of your targeted districts, Phone calls. Direct mail, all that stuff. But what do you do when you have never done these things? You have to pay out thru the nose for staffers, experts etc, because Rodneys operation has never been really challenged, its been withering on the vine since he inherited his Congressional seat, just like his trust fund.

Can Rodneys GOTV effort gear up and perform as well as Chip Robinsons monster canvass machine that has been in operation for years, in Morris county? I think the Wyka GOTV effort wil flat out kick Rodneys ass. You can't wave a magic wand and have GOTV, it takes experience, local knowledge, and time to get everyone on board and to tune the machine. Wykas people have been hitting the streets since April.

Chip & Cliff

And then the Menendez campaign decides its going to send out what may be the largest wave of election day canvassers ever seen in NJ: 17,000 paid canvassers in one day. Election Day. And the Wyka campaign is getting hundreds. Thank you Senator Menendez.

SO if you live in NJ11, expect to get a knock on the door, if you have not voted yet, you will be told to get your rear out and vote. This is how you win elections. I love it when a plan comes together.

If you haven't already, please consider putting 10 bucks on your credit card at my ACT BLUE site for Tom Wyka. Or come down to Washington St in Morristown, next to the green and Act Blue in Person.

Fuel --> Exhaust	(f) Mass conversion fraction	Exhaust speed m/s
p + 11B --> 3 4He	6.926 E13	11,800,000 m/s
p + 6Li --> 4He + 3He	5.472 E13
3He + 6Li --> 2 4He + p	1.277 E14
6Li + 6Li --> 3 4He (Combined)	1.596 E14	17,800,000 m/s
3He + 3He --> 4He + 2 p	2.059 E14	20,300,000 M/s
De + 3He --> 4He + p	3.505 E14	26,500,000 m/s