Another Hurdle for Clean Energy

A completely new NATIONWIDE infrastructure would have to be made for Wind to be a viable power source...

Sigh

When the builders of the Maple Ridge Wind farm spent $320 million to put nearly 200 wind turbines in upstate New York, the idea was to get paid for producing electricity. But at times, regional electric lines have been so congested that Maple Ridge has been forced to shut down even with a brisk wind blowing.
That is a symptom of a broad national problem. Expansive dreams about renewable energy, like Al Gore’s hope of replacing all fossil fuels in a decade, are bumping up against the reality of a power grid that cannot handle the new demands.
The dirty secret of clean energy is that while generating it is getting easier, moving it to market is not.
The grid today, according to experts, is a system conceived 100 years ago to let utilities prop each other up, reducing blackouts and sharing power in small regions. It resembles a network of streets, avenues and country roads.

So for wind power to even produce any power we have to tear down the system we have and start from scratch? That'll take decades, and billions. Hell, by that point, we're spending more money than we're saving. How viable is an energy source that needs an entirely new infrastructure?

HPV Vaccine Not Safe

From ABC:

First, Gardasil's long-term effectiveness is unclear. Because cervical cancer takes years to develop, critics say the current information is insufficient to determine whether Gardasil works.
"The overall effect of the vaccines on cervical cancer remains unknown," Dr. Carolyn J. Haug, the Journal of Norwegian Medical Association's editor, wrote in the New England Journal editorial. "The real impact of HPV vaccination on cervical cancer will not be observable for decades."
...
"Most of the information people have right now leads them to believe that if they're vaccinated with Gardasil, they're protected for life, and that's just not true," said Dr. Diane Harper of Dartmouth College.
There is also the issue of side effects. FDA records reveal that, since Gardasil's approval, nearly 9,000 girls had "bad health events" after receiving their shots. These included 78 reported outbreaks of genital warts, 18 deaths and six cases of Guillain Barre Syndrome, which can result in paralysis. It is unknown whether there are unseen side effects, like decreasing the body's ability to fight off other strains of the HPV virus.

To compare this against an unsafe drug...Fen Phen had less than 200 negative side effects, and 1 death, when it was pulled from the market. Guardasil has about 4500% more health problems related and 1700% more deaths than the "unsafe" Fen Phen. Far from being considered a health risk, it is potentially going to be forced on young girls by several different states. By any objective standard of risk, this drug qualifies. The lead toy, and date rape drug toy scandals of last Christmas claimed no lives, and injured few, yet they held the headlines for days. This drug has killed almost 20 and has maimed thousands, and yet may be forced upon unwilling teens?

Where the hell is the FDA?

Bush's Third Term

Lurches Sharply to the Left...

GOP Platform may have Global Warming Plank

WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- The Republican platform may include a first-ever plank on global warming, an examination of a draft document indicated.

"Increased atmospheric carbon has a warming effect on the Earth," The Hill reported the draft document as saying. "While the scope and long term consequences of this warming effect are the subject of ongoing research, we believe the United States should take measured and reasonable steps today."

Sen. John McCain, poised to become the party's presidential nominee next week during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., is a proponent of tackling global warming.

McCain, supposedly the massive right winger, comes out to endorce a milder version of Barack Obama's position. While the Republicans are tepidly endorcing McCain, because he's not Obama, positions like this are the reason for McCain's lagging support. And they put the lie that McCain is Bush III, and a massive rightwinger to boot to rest.

More Government Efficiency

In not firing consistantly missing employees:

Via ABC:

The federal government has 2.6 million civilian workers, making it the nation's largest employer. But, it turns out a growing number of these workers are not working.
"People have just flat not shown up for work," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. "My question is: If people aren't showing up for work, why are they still employed by the federal government?"
Coburn commissioned the report "Missing in Action: AWOL in the Federal Government," which tracked the number of absent workers without leave, AWOL workers, across 18 government agencies from 2001 to 2007.
It found that federal workers missed nearly 20 million hours of work in the last six years, not including vacation time or sick leave. On average, 2.8 million hours of work are lost per year because of AWOL absences.
The numbers show the formation of a growing trend: Forty-five percent more workers are absent without leave throughout different government agencies than in 2001.

A massive government agency not noticing if some of it's employees are absent? Say it aint so!

How could this happen?!? Let's hear the explaination:

"To me it's a scathing indictment of the Bush administration, their total incompetence and mismanagement and disdain for government and running government," said Mark Roth, general counsel of the American Federation of Government Employees/AFL-CIO. "Apparently, they are so asleep at the wheel that they're letting people go for months without any consequences."

The head of these people's union passing the buck? Astonishing!

Realistically though, it's assinine to expect any one man to actively monitor 2.6 million people. It can't be done. Even if that person had no other responsibilities, it would be impossible to keep track of that many people with any real accuracy. Even expecting 535 people (Congress) to do it would be a daunting task. And since these people live lives and have other responsibilities, expecting the federal government to take care of problems that these agencies won't is unrealistic. If the agencies themselves aren't cracking down, and they have full legal power, what is any Congress or President to do? If these problems were being widely reported...they would be taken care of now wouldn't they?

The simple problem here is that the bigger any agency gets, the harder it becomes to micromanage. It's easy to look at one office with 10 people and determine waste or laziness. When that becomes 500 offices with 50,000 people that becomes harder still. If the company is not reporting the problems they know about to the higher ups, it becomes impossible to determine the problems. Ridiculously, the article quotes the biggest offender, the VA, as to what the solution is:

Also, the State Department and independent agencies don't monitor the number of AWOL workers, which could increase the number of lost work hours considerably, according to the report.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, the worst violator according to the report, has asked for more employees.

Of course the solution is to replace the people who don't work with people who do. Not simply to add more workers. Unfortunately, putting the people at fault in charge of the solution is more than a little like putting the Fox in charge of the Henhouse.

Of course this is nonsense. Would a parent accept "Well if my allowance was higher, the grass would get mowed better" as an excuse? Of course not. They'd demand the lawn was done or no allowance would be tendered. If you took your car to a mechanic and paid 100 bucks for a new tire, then found the tred worn bare...would you pay more money for a different tire? Of course not. You'd demand a new tire since you paid for a new tire. We should hold these agencies accountable like we would any business.

Real Oppression

The Olympics are bringing out ugly truths, whispered in secret, about the Communist dictatorship hosting them.

Thank god the Chinese are a just people!

Two elderly Chinese women who applied to hold a protest during the Olympics were ordered to spend a year in a labor camp, a relative said Wednesday. Police later squelched a pro-Tibet demonstration.

While this is making our papers, it'd be nice to see this start to get as much attention as Abu Ghraib. Sadly, the American media are only interested in exposing American misdeeds. It's not enough that the media let's Americans know of the Abu Ghraibs, they have to be clear that what the Chinas and Russias of the world are doing are wrong too. The condemnations have to be open and loud and often. Otherwize the American people won't get it.

Our Bold New Plan to Educate Our Youth

Remove all standards for grading them in school!

Dallas public school students who flunk tests, blow off homework and miss assignment deadlines can make up the work without penalty, under new rules that have angered many teachers.
The new rules will be distributed when teachers return to their campuses next week. But many who have already seen the regulations say they are too lenient on slackers, and will come at the expense of kids who work hard.
For example, the new rules require teachers to accept late work and prevent them from penalizing students for missed deadlines. Homework grades that would drag down a student's overall average will be thrown out.
School officials said the new guidelines are needed to ensure that all district teachers operate under the same rules and to create a "fair system" for grading students.

Nothing says fair to me like grading the students who do their work on time the same as the students who don't. With the constant bemoaning how much our students are falling behind, this certainly isn't going to help. Part of the job of schools is to prepare our students for the work world. In the real world a deadline means something. You either make it or you're fired. If we're falling bhind now...I can't wait to see what this'll do for our standings against other countries!

Why We Should Adopt the British Health Care System!

Because it's so damned cost eficient!

Patients 'should not expect NHS to save their life if it costs too much

The NHS should not always attempt to save someone's life if the cost is too much, the medical regulator has ruled.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Guidelines (Nice) has ruled for the first time that saving a life cannot be justified at any cost, in a review of its ethical guidelines.
Nice is facing growing criticism over the number of drugs it is now rejecting which are available throughout Europe and in America. Last week, it refused to sanction four kidney cancer drugs which can double life expectancy.
It has now rejected the so-called "rule of rescue" which stipulates that people facing death should be treated regardless of the costs. The rule is based on the natural impulse to aid individuals in trouble.
In a report on "social values judgement" the regulator says: "There is a powerful human impulse, known as the 'rule of rescue', to attempt to help an identifiable person whose life is in danger, no matter how much it costs. When there are limited resources for healthcare, applying the 'rule of rescue' may mean that other people will not be able to have the care or treatment they need.

It should be noted that the British system, always touted for it's fairness, is rejecting drugs that are being used everywhere else in the world. Yet here we have a system which is seemingly more worried about costs than our American system.

Nice is facing increasing accusations that it is giving undue weight to financial considerations - rather than medical benefits - when making decisions on whether to allow drugs or other treatments on the NHS. Doctors and patients have alleged that they are treated with contempt by the organisation and that life-saving drugs are being unfairly denied.

THE UGLY SPECTOR OF CAPITALISM STRIKES AGAIN!

The Daily Telegraph disclosed yesterday that Nice is preparing to offer patients advice on the medical benefits of drugs that are not available on the NHS. The disclosure is likely to anger patients who face paying tens of thousands of pounds for expensive drugs which may prolong their lives.

And why shouldn't it anger them? The system is supposed to cover all of their medical expenses, and the taxes are quite a bit higher to cover it. And yet, the system has created an Edwards-esque "Two Britains", one where the rich can buy medicines and live, and the other where the poor are just out of luck.

It's kinda clear that if we're really concerned about cheap, widely accessable health care...Britain is not the system we should follow.

Simply Amazing

From the Associated Press:

VENTURA, Calif. (AP) — The family of a gay teenager who was fatally shot in class blames the school district for allowing their son to wear makeup and feminine clothing to school — factors the family claims led to the death.
The parents and brother of 15-year-old Larry King of Oxnard filed a personal injury claim against the Hueneme school district seeking unspecified damages for not enforcing the dress code.

Chances are if the school had enforced the dress code...they would've been sued just like the federal government, the prisons, the army, City Halls, and even Fema.

Even if you do what they want, you can get sued by transsexuals.


It's very much a damned if you do, damned if you don't type of thing. If you prevent them from doing what they want, you're discriminating against them. If they get hurt...well, why didn't you stop them? It's ridiculous.

And moreover, why didn't the parents stop said behavior?

King was a ward of the court and living at a shelter for abused, neglected and emotionally troubled children at the time of the shooting.

Oh, well then. So the parents' wrongdoing put their son in a shelter and made him "emotionally troubled." So, this whole thing is their fault. And now they're suing. Spectacular.

Maybe if they'd taken better care of their kid, he wouldn't have ended up dead.

Obama Could Make His Biggest Blunder

In who he chooses as his running mate.

BOSTON (WBZ) ― Barack Obama has yet to name a vice presidential nominee and some are wondering if he might turn to Massachusetts to round out the ticket.

John Kerry for vice president?

Don't dismiss the notion just yet.

Some political insiders are telling WBZ it could happen.

The article goes on to ask the very first question that popped into my head:

So why would Obama reach out to Kerry as his choice?

Even Heller admits its out there:

"If you're laughing off the idea of Kerry back on the national ticket again, I don't blame you. While he came close four years ago, his campaign was widely derided as, to put it politely, clumsy.

Obama is already being hammered as an out of touch elitist who changes his position every 15 seconds by his Republican opponents. So yeah, lets invite Mr. Flip Flop on the ticket. That's absolutely brilliant. Obama would be done before the end of the week. Hillary would use that to argue that Barack can't win and that she should be the nominee. And the DNC may just buy it.

While the article goes on to list all the strengths that Kerry would bring...it neglects that Kerry LOST on all of those areas. If Obama is looking to bolster his military credentials, Kerry is worst person he could go to. It wasn't that long ago that right wing blogs were slamming Kerry for his "get stuck in Iraq comments". Most Democratic pundits believe the Swift Boat Vets killed Kerry the first time around. What? They won't go after Obama too? Better to have no record than a glaring weakness. More Americans believe that McCain is better on foreign issues that Obama. Adding the dude who lost to Bush, air force memos and "dissertion" rumors and all. Will the Winter Soldier really help Obama beat a POW on war issues? Hardly.

Taking in Kerry would confirm with the public everything the Republicans have been saying, he's an out of touch, elitist, arrogant. And it would cost Obama an election that he's already struggling in. Obama may be superman, but John Kerry is political Kryptonite.

h/t Drudge