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Month: January 2007

Vice President Richard Cheney – Unrestrained Arrogance

Vice President Richard Cheney – Unrestrained Arrogance

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America has had Vice Presidents who have been notable for their conduct in office. Take Vice President Aaron Burr who killed Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. Then there is Richard Johnson, Vice President under Van Buren, who brought his slave and mistress with him to Washington to act as his hostess. It was Spiro Agnew, Vice President to Richard Nixon, who was sent to prison for income tax violations and took bribes in the White…

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Mr. Bush’s New Executive Order to Muzzle Regulagatory Agencies

Mr. Bush’s New Executive Order to Muzzle Regulagatory Agencies

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I have complained previously about the people Mr. Bush appointments to executive positions in regulatory agencies because they were named in order to undermine the function of the agency. (Mr. Bush’s Appointment of Julie MacDonald 12/29) Now it appears Mr. Bush has found a new way of keeping regulatory agencies from doing their intended job. He has just issued a new executive order which gives him far greater power over government agencies. Mr. Bush’s order says each agency must have…

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Bush Politics & U.S. Attorney Carol Lam

Bush Politics & U.S. Attorney Carol Lam

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United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has long time connections to President Bush. It dates back to Mr. Bush, as Governor of Texas naming him as his general counsel while Gonzales was a partner in the Houston firm of Vinson and Elkins during the time the firm represented Enron. Later he served as Texas Secretary of State before being appointed to the Texas Supreme Court by Mr. Bush. After Mr. Bush was elected President, Gonzales was appointed to serve as…

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Overpaid CEO’s & Tort Reform

Overpaid CEO’s & Tort Reform

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One of the loudest cries of big business, in their tort reform campaign, is that of limiting the fees of contingent fee tort lawyers. Big business talks about the "greedy trial lawyers" and "outrageous fees" they want to limit to an amount which would effectively close the court house doors to injured citizens. So what about their own salaries? We have seen as common place, big corporations giving a wink and a nod to golden parachutes for departing CEO’s even…

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Umberto Nobile – Italian Airship Explorer

Umberto Nobile – Italian Airship Explorer

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I enjoyed reading the book,Disaster at the Pole. It’s a story about Umberto Nobile, an Italian aeronautical engineer and pioneer in Arctic aviation. He had designed and built dirigibles for Italy during the Italo-Turkish war in 1912. The book is a discription of his historic flights in airships across the North Pole. Born in 1885 in Italy, he died in Rome in 1978. During his life he made two flights in balloons over the pole without landing on either flight….

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Sammy the Limo Driver & The War in Iraq

Sammy the Limo Driver & The War in Iraq

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A few days ago, my wife Lita and I, along with our two Bischons’s, Napoleon and Josephine, were being driven to the Scottsdale airport for our flight back to Gig Harbor. During the drive our driver (call me "Sammy"), said he had been in Iraq for two years eight months and had recently returned. He was a translator for the military. He said he had been born in Iraq where his father was an engineer with the oil industry and…

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Senator Boxer, Condoleezza Rice & The Tactic of Personal Attack

Senator Boxer, Condoleezza Rice & The Tactic of Personal Attack

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In argument, "selective observation" uses the technique of only focusing on part of what is said and ignoring the rest. This type of response in argument might be called "cherry picking." It creates distraction from the overall point and is used by politicians defending themselves. However, a much more common technique, especially with the Bush administration, is that of "personal attack." This form of response is well known in political and communication circles. It refers to the practice of responding…

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The Story of the Panama Canal

The Story of the Panama Canal

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I just finished The Darkest Jungle by Todd Balf which is a true account of the Darien Expedition and America’s role in trying to find a route for the Panama Canal in the 1850’s. An area known as the Darien Gap was thought to be the best route for construction and in 1854 the U.S. sent an expedition with maps of earlier explorations. The 27 member crew landed on the Atlantic side to start their exploration. Led by 33 year…

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Storm Damage & Global Warming – They Go Hand in Hand

Storm Damage & Global Warming – They Go Hand in Hand

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The announcement of the Mississippi Katrina damage settlement prompted reports about the shifting weather patterns due to global warming. An environmental scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy said "There’s a shift going on to more frequent, extreme weather events. It’s as much an issue in the heartland as on the coast." The Department of Energy says that weather caused damage has increased from $1 Billion a year in 1970’s to $17 Billion a year over the last decade. In…

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Katrina, Senator Lott & State Farm’s Capitulation

Katrina, Senator Lott & State Farm’s Capitulation

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I reported Senator Trent Lott’s (R-Miss) declaration of war on State Farm Fire & Casualty Company when it refused to cover his house damage after Katrina. (It depends upon whose ox is being gored 12/4/06) He went from the best friend the insurance industry ever had to Attila the Hun attacking the entire insurance industry and threatening to take away their sacred cow immunity from anti trust laws. Now it looks like the insurance company decided it wasn’t in their…

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