In correspondence with a friend who is a therapist and someone I really respect and she put one of the aspects not often considered into perspective in the aftermath of disasters such as Hurricane Irene.  Having been on the counseling teams for disaster planning in several educational institutions I was aware of emotional aftermaths but did not put it in such accurate words.... and from someone who cares for the real well-being for those affected by disasters.  I grew up in Santa Monica/Malibu, California and had several friends who lost everything to fires and mud slides and their loss of memorabilia always made an impression on me...

Here's Laura's comments:

Even this morning I saw footage of numerous houses floating downstream!  Tons of them!!  What are these people going to do in the meantime while seeing what is to be done?!  A woman was interviewed by phone from a shelter and told the reported that although glad to be alive and at a shelter, she and the others were still in shock; in one second they lost their homes, memories, jobs, belongings, neighbors, and are currently trapped in this shelter that is now an island between flood waters.  They'd been there for 3 days and are going crazy.  Can't even go outside because it's too dangerous.  I live in Ohio and, even though I've enjoyed gorgeous weather during this whole thing, I've been dripping tears for the past week, oversleeping, can't really enjoy anything.  I'm wondering if the media is downplaying a lot of this now so the rest of the country doesn't get depressed like this?  If so, it may only serve to be turning Americans into seemingly cold-hearted, misinformed, arrogant jerks who judge what they don't even know about.  It really creates a nasty split within our own society.  The same thing happened when I returned from my military service.  I finally quit discussing the ills of the Army and my overseas experiences after so many friends and relatives responded that they'd never heard of the incidents I spoke of on the news, the military would NEVER do some things I mentioned to its own people, etc..  Now we see on an even larger scale how this happens in our society.  This would never occur in Japan.  I'm still much happier to be in the U.S. but "I'm just sayin'."


so please remember those who are still in shock, trying to figure out how to survive when it's all gone..... and to those who say it's no big deal.... consider those who lost it all in seconds.... there is nothing saying that it can't happen to you... fires, tornadoes, floods, mud slides can happen.

Libya

OK.

Now what?

What is really scary is the weapons of mass destruction that exist there.  They SAID they stopped producing them in 2003.  UN scientists did take out a few pounds of military grade.

900 Metric tons "Yellow Cake" uranium stored that could be sold to... Iran?  Al Quida?

11,000 metric tons of mustard gas.

30,000 anti-aircraft rockets

We don't KNOW where these are stored.

What if they fall into radical Islamist hands?

What if Khadaffi has a button and can set them off into the world?

What about that guy Libya got out of Scotland, now Scotland would like him but they are refusing?  It would have been nice if the rebels would return him to Scotland as a sign of cooperation.  Hmmm maybe a covert operative could take him out.... after all he is responsible for 900 deaths over Lockerbie Scotland.

THE SPY IN YOUR HOME

Don't go looking for 'bugs' being installed.  They ARE coming.
at first glance and from utility company propaganda, it seems like an idea for people to help control their utility bills.  Or a way to 'protect the environment' ... and anyone who knows me, knows that I am a rational environmentalist.

HOWEVER, it is now turning out that they can, by remote control, cut off use of appliances 'they' don't think you should use.  When do you want your refrigerator/freezer turned off?  When on a hot day do you want your A/C cut off?  When you can watch that new flat screen TV or use your computer?

Could this be used punitively if you voice an opinion contrary to the government?  And if they force you into electric cars, will the utility company/government decide you drive too much?  The utilities have the ability to get and store a lot of information about you and your habits.  What about seniors who are home all day?  What about children after school? (drive them into community centers where they can be controlled easier?)  Burglars can hack into the information and find out when you are regularly away and break into your home with less fear of discovery.

Better start thinking about unintended consequences NOW or it will be too late?

What surprised me is that my 'liberal' former home area is now fighting against this invasion.  PG&E is arrogantly insisting that they CAN do this.  They even hide installers in the bushes waiting for people to leave the home so they can install them without the homeowner there to fight it.  Despite the right you have to refuse the meter, the utilities, companies like PG&E and NV Energy.

There IS a health danger associated with these meters.... and the empirical science supports this.  The utilities are installing antennas without city's permission.  The costs of running the transmitting your information will also be charged to you as well as mix-up in information so that you can get stuck with paying your neighbors' bills.

http://stopsmartmeters.org/

the reports are here.
http://sagereports.com/smart-meter-rf/

Please read the enclosed URL.... before it's too late.. if it doesn't like, copy and paste it into your browser.... this is too important to skip.

Margaret Thatcher:

Margaret Thatcher:

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery..." - Winston Churchill

Proposed Congressional Reform Act of 2011

I didn't write this, but I've been thinking exactly the same thing:

   
Proposed Congressional Reform Act of  2011  
     
1.   No Tenure / No Pension.  
   A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.   
   
2.   Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.  
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately.  All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.  It may not be used for any other purpose. 
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.  
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.  Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.  
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.  
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.  
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.  

   The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.  Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.   Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career.  The  Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.  

White House Staffers Got a Raise Last Year, And You Did Not

The White House released its annual salary report last week, and as usual, it's nice to work for Barack Obama: Most staffers who were there for more than a year got a salary bump. A bigger one than you did.

The last time we checked in on White House salaries, we found that an astonishing 75% of continuing staffers got raises from 2009 to 2010—a huge number given the fact that, according to compensation experts, most companies had skipped routine raises that year in reaction to the economic crisis that the White House was busy failing to solve. This time around—from 2010 to 2011—the ratio is a little less dramatic. Of the 270 White House staffers who have been there for more than a year, 146—or 54%—received raises. The average salary increase was 8%. If you look at only staffers who got raises, the average increase was twice that.

That's a much bigger raise than the average white-collar worker got. According to a survey conducted last year by the human resources consulting firm Mercer, most firms were projecting a 3% increase in base pay for executives. White House workers did nearly three times as well. Overall, it should be noted, the White House's salary budget contracted slightly, from $38.8 million to $37.1 million, largely because the number of staffers fell. The average salary also dropped from $82,721, or 65% above the median household income, to $81,765—or 65% above the median household income.

But high turnover left plenty of room for White House staffers climb up the ladder and snag huge pay boosts. One of Obama's first acts as president was to freeze the salaries of all White House officials earning more than $100,000 because "during this period of economic emergency, families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington." Two years later, he extended that policy to all federal workers, using the same logic: "Small businesses and families are tightening their belts. Their government should too." But the across-the-board freeze didn't take effect until January 1, 2011, so the most recent report (which goes back to July 2010) features some eye-opening raises, like special assistant to the president for economic policy Matthew Vogel's $59,000, 82% raise to an annual salary of $130,500, or director of African American media Kevin Lewis' $36,000, 86% pay hike.

Both of those were accompanied by title changes indicating that the bigger paychecks came along with new duties. But almost half of the raises doled out by the White House in the last year—59, or 40% of all raises—weren't accompanied by new job descriptions. One of them—special assistant and associate counsel to the president Michael Gottlieb's 14% pay bump from $114,000 to $130,500—was a clear violation of Obama's freeze on salaries over $100,000. UPDATE: A White House spokesman says that, because Gottlieb left his job in 2010 only to return in 2011 at precisely the same title but with a higher salary and "considerable additional responsibilities," his raise didn't violate the freeze.

The White House says that many of those positions are considered nonpolitical jobs that come with their own pay schedules, and that what matters is that the total budget and average salary are decreasing slightly. But that doesn't change the fact that White House staffers who stick it out are being rewarded, on average, for their continued service at a rate that far outstrips how the average white-collar worker is doing. The rhetoric behind the White House salary freeze was about making sure that the people engaged in leading the nation out of its economic mess share a sense of what American workers are experiencing. Unless roughly half of American workers saw their paychecks go up by an average of 8% last year (hint—they didn't), that's not the case.

for the list, the names, the position, the former  salary, the raised salary and the per centage of increas go to:  0706_whchart.jpg 1090×634 pixels