The believe that the end of the world is coming soon is widespread. That would be the ultimate crisis, wouldn’t it? The recent string of bad weather and natural events including tornadoes, violent thunderstorms, drought, hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes only reinforce these beliefs.

Throw in a string of endless wars, Arab Springs turning into Arab Winters, financial disasters such as now occurring in Greece, Spain, Ireland, and other euro zone members and it is easy to see how current events fuel end of the world scenarios.

10% of People Worldwide Believe End of World Could Happen in 2012

Nearly 15 percent of people worldwide believe the world will end during their lifetime and 10 percent think the Mayan calendar could signify it will happen in 2012, according to a new poll.

The end of the Mayan calendar, which spans about 5,125 years, on December 21, 2012 has sparked interpretations and suggestions that it marks the end of the world.

“Whether they think it will come to an end through the hands of God, or a natural disaster or a political event, whatever the reason, one in seven thinks the end of the world is coming,” said Keren Gottfried, research manager at Ipsos Global Public Affairs which conducted the poll for Reuters.

“Perhaps it is because of the media attention coming from one interpretation of the Mayan prophecy that states the world ‘ends’ in our calendar year 2012,” Gottfried said, adding that some Mayan scholars have disputed the interpretation.

Read more … One in seven thinks end of world is coming:Poll

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Scientists are becoming increasingly alarmed by Gulf seafood deformities. Scientists and fishermen are saying they’ve never seen anything like it; horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp, all seem to point to consequences of the BP oil spill. Scientists can’t think of any other event that can be linked to such abnormalities.

2010 BP Oil Disaster May be Far From Over

Gulf of Mexico fishermen, scientists and seafood processors are finding disturbing numbers of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe are deformed by chemicals released during BP’s 2010 oil disaster.

Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp – and interviewees’ fingers point towards BP’s oil pollution disaster as being the cause.

Eyeless Shrimp Cause Alarm

Tracy Kuhns and her husband Mike Roberts, commercial fishers from Barataria, Louisiana, are finding eyeless shrimp.

“At the height of the last white shrimp season, in September, one of our friends caught 400 pounds of these,” Kuhns told Al Jazeera while showing a sample of the eyeless shrimp.

According to Kuhns, at least 50 per cent of the shrimp caught in that period in Barataria Bay, a popular shrimping area that was heavily impacted by BP’s oil and dispersants, were eyeless. Kuhns added: “Disturbingly, not only do the shrimp lack eyes, they even lack eye sockets.”

arla Rooks, a lifelong fisherperson from Port Sulfur, Louisiana, told Al Jazeera she is finding crabs “with holes in their shells, shells with all the points burned off so all the spikes on their shells and claws are gone, misshapen shells, and crabs that are dying from within … they are still alive, but you open them up and they smell like they’ve been dead for a week”.

Rooks is also finding eyeless shrimp, shrimp with abnormal growths, female shrimp with their babies still attached to them, and shrimp with oiled gills.

“We also seeing eyeless fish, and fish lacking even eye-sockets, and fish with lesions, fish without covers over their gills, and others with large pink masses hanging off their eyes and gills.”

Rooks, who grew up fishing with her parents, said she had never seen such things in these waters, and her seafood catch last year was “ten per cent what it normally is”.

“I’ve never seen this,” he said, a statement Al Jazeera heard from every scientist, fisherman, and seafood processor we spoke with about the seafood deformities.

Given that the Gulf of Mexico provides more than 40 per cent of all the seafood caught in the continental US, this phenomenon does not bode well for the region, or the country.

Read More … Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists

Naturally, local government officials are claiming that it is still safe to eat seafood coming from the Gulf of Mexico. That may be so but local fishermen say they would not eat much of the seafood they are now taking out of the Gulf. They believe the BP oil spill story will soon be back in the news and the news will not be pleasant.

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Most Americans go through their days without thinking once about how fragile the complicated systems are that help them complete the many necessary chores essential to modern living.

Such things as filling up the gas tank, shopping at the grocery store, receiving funds at an ATM machine, navigating in traffic with the aid of traffic lights, and flipping a switch to receive electricity, are just a few essential activities taken for granted. Without the constant delivery of goods by truck traffic few essential daily activities would continue for long.

“Commercial truck traffic is vital to our nation’s economic prosperity and plays a significant role in mitigating adverse economic effects during a national or regional emergency.Our economy depends on trucks to deliver ten billion tons of virtually every commodity consumed—or nearly 70 percent of all freight transported annually in the U.S. In the U.S. alone, this accounts for $671 billion worth of goods transported by truck. Add $295 billion in truck trade with Canada and $195.6 billion in truck trade with Mexico and it becomes apparent that any disruption in truck traffic will lead to rapid economic instability.

The American Trucking Associations researched seven key consumer industries to quantify
the potential consequences of restricting or halting truck traffic in response to a national or regional emergency. This report details the findings.

The Food Industry
Every day, Americans purchase billions of dollars of groceries. Most of these goods are brought to market via daily truck deliveries.

• Significant shortages will occur in as little as three days, especially for perishable items following a national emergency and a ban on truck traffic. Minor shortages will occur within one to two days.At convenience stores and other small retailers with less inventory, shortages will occur much sooner.

• Consumer fear and panic will exacerbate shortages.The forecast of a winter storm quickly exhausts basic commodities at grocery stores and supermarkets. It takes retailers up to three days to recover from these runs on supplies. News of a truck stoppage—whether on the local level, state or regional level, or nationwide — will spur hoarding and drastic increases in consumer purchases of essential goods.Shortages will materialize quickly and could lead to civil unrest.

• Supplies of clean drinking water will run dry in two to four weeks.According to the American Water Works Association, Americans drink more than one billion glasses of tap water per day. For safety and security reasons, most water supply plants maintain a larger inventory of supplies than the typical business. However, the amount of chemical storage varies significantly and is site specific. According to the Chlorine Institute, most water treatment facilities receive chlorine in cylinders (150 pounds and one ton cylinders) that are delivered by motor carriers.

On average, trucks deliver purification chemicals to water supply plants every seven to 14 days. Without these chemicals, water cannot be purified and made safe for drinking. Without truck deliveries of purification chemicals, water supply plants will run out of drinkable water in 14 to 28 days. Once the water supply is drained, water will be deemed safe for drinking only when boiled. Lack of clean drinking water will lead to increased gastrointestinal and other illnesses, further taxing an already weakened healthcare system.

Healthcare
Both healthcare providers and consumers rely on regular delivery of medications and healthcare supplies to hospitals, pharmacies, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities. Trucks deliver nearly all of these supplies.Al Cook, former president of the Materials Management Association and current member of the Medical Materials Coordinating Group, which is advising the U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources on emergency preparedness, describes over-the-road commercial transportation as “life and death to being able to care for sick people.”

• Without truck transportation, patient care within the truck stoppage zone will be immediately jeopardized. According to Cook, many hospitals have moved to a justin-time inventory system.In fact, some work from a low-unit-of-measure system. This means that essential basic supplies, such as syringes and catheters, are not ordered until the supplies are depleted. These systems depend on trucks to deliver needed supplies within hours of order placement. Internal redistribution of supplies in hospitals could forestall a crisis for a short time; however, in a matter of hours, hospitals would be unable to supply critical patient care.

• If an incident of national significance produces mass injuries, truck transportation is the key to delivering urgently needed medical supplies necessary to save lives.According to Cook, there are not enough medical supplies in any local area to support a large scale medical emergency. The Medical Materials Coordinating Group has worked with U.S. Health and Human Services to develop contingency plans that will coordinate national distribution of essential medical supplies during a national emergency.

Prepared by the American Trucking Associations these contingency plans ensure that affected areas receive adequate medical supplies to support the crisis while also maintaining adequate supplies for the basic medical needs of the larger community. Cook states that the medical redistribution program relies on trucks as the primary mode of transport to carry out the expedient redistribution of supplies, and ties the success of the program to the ability of trucks to access medical facilities and warehouses during an emergency situation.

• Hospitals and nursing homes will exhaust food supplies in as little as 24 hours. Hospitals and nursing homes receive daily truck deliveries of food for patients. The International Food Distributors Association notes that because these facilities lack significant warehousing capabilities, a truck stoppage will result in food shortages within 24 to 48 hours, particularly among perishable items.

• Pharmacy stocks of prescription drugs will be depleted quickly. Although pharmacies typically carry several weeks inventory of many drugs, seasonal pharmaceuticals, such as antibiotics and flu-shots during winter months, have faster turnover rates. According to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, most of the nation’s 55,000 drug stores receive daily merchandise deliveries by truck.

• Hospitals and other diagnostic and treatment facilities will exhaust supplies of radiopharmaceuticals and oxygen. Radiopharmaceutical supplies for cancer treatment and diagnostic services, which have an effective life of only a few hours, will become unusable. Hospital size and storage capacity determine the amount of oxygen a facility can maintain; howeever, in general, hospitals will exhaust oxygen supplies within seven to ten days.

Read more … When Trucks Stop, America Stops

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Last week by chance I discovered a new TV program on the Discovery Channel with the enchanting name of “Doomsday Bunkers”. That name is an attention getter, right? Kind of makes you want to gather the family around and learn how you too can survive the coming end of the world by living in a fortified hole in the ground.

One danger not explored, at least so far, by the TV program is how after a few months of confinement with no TV, Internet or friendly contact with what’s left of the outside world even the most loving, affectionate, compassionate, and caring family would likely be using all those firearms and ammunition catches against each other in what would amount to a final violent farewell. Family disputes would likely be settled by to the death duels.

Doomsday Headlines Galore

I have to admit that when one looks at today’s headlines of Arab Springs turning into Winters, Israel pushing the US to bomb Iran, Iran threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, F4 and F5 tornadoes blowing away entire towns, violent thunderstorms crisscrossing the countryside at 80 miles per hour, excessive droughts in some regions, excessive floods in others, and the Cold War threat of nuclear annihilation again raising its ugly head as Russia and China become more united in their opposition to US foreign policy, you have to at least consider the doomsday preppers may be right. Something really bad might this a way be a coming.

“It not only looks at a very timely movement or subculture — the prepper movement — but it also presents an opportunity to really explore science and design because it’s very much about the bunker building,” says Discovery Channel executive producer Anna Geddes.

When factoring in news headlines, natural disasters and economic issues currently going on, Geddes says she understands how people are becoming more interested in the prepper movement. “I think all of those things make people open to the ideas of the prepper movement,” Geddes says. “When you really listen to what they are trying to say there’s a lot of logic involved. It can be quite convincing.”

Doomsday Bunkers Have Preppers Shelling Out Big Bucks

The preppers certainly are convinced as they are plunking down big bucks for their doomsday shelters. A small shelter that may be suitable for riding out a tornado might cost $50,000. A 1400 square foot small home buried in the ground with its own water supply, septic system, and supposed protection from biological, chemical, or nuclear attack might cost $450,000. And that’s if you want a fairly basic model. As above ground if it’s real luxury you want you will spend far more to experience doomsday in relative comfort.

With climate change underway and weather becoming more violent I can see why families living in tornado alley would want to become preppers and have a sturdy storm shelter in the backyard that could serve as living quarters if their house is blown away. However, peppers that think they’re really safe hiding out in an underground doomsday bunker will likely be seriously disappointed should worse come to worse. Hungry mobs looking for their cache of food and survival provisions would probably be well equipped to penetrate a bunkers defenses.

Hungry mobs roaming the countryside would likely be heavily armed and populated with not so nice people. A few ex military special forces types would make good leaders. The amateurish defense devices shown on the TV doomsday bunkers program might knock off one or two careless raiders but would have no chance of defeating a well-armed mob willing to locate and cut off the air supply to the bunker or simply park a big truck on top of the entrance hatch and pour smoke into the ventilation system.

The sad thing about the doomsday bunker and doomsday prepper phenomenon is that it shows how thin the veneer of civilization truly is. Preppers are stockpiling arms and ammunition to defend themselves and their families. Apparently, they are willing to kill anyone who uninvited comes near their bunker. In the event of total disaster rather than stress how important it would be to work together and cooperate in order to maximize our chances for survival the Doomsday Bunker program focuses on the us against them mentality of the preppers that being so dominant in our selfish society probably led to disaster in the first place.

Then there is the really big question that preppers seem to be overlooking. If conditions become so bad that living in a doomsday bunker for six months is the only alternative for survival what type of world would the survivors emerge from their bunkers to face? I expect it would not be pretty and survival over the next six months would be problematic. Perhaps survival in the wilderness lessons should be included in the cost of the doomsday bunkers. After Armageddon like events it would be a cruel world.

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Pepper Spray was a widely used hot item this Black Friday.

The use of pepper spray was not limited to police security guards. Overly aggressive shoppers got into the act as well and used pepper spray to get competitive shoppers to back off from mutually desired merchandise. One lady shopper used pepper spray to “gain a competitive advantage” over fellow shoppers who were eager to snap up Xbox video game consoles units. After causing minor injuries to about 20 of her competitors she ran out of the Wal-Mart and is now being sought by police.

In another incident a video of a 56-year-old grandfather being attended to by police has gone viral on YouTube. Witnesses state that in order to protect his grandson the grandfather stuffed a videogame into his belt in order to pick up his grandson with both hands. An alert policeman spotted the man stuffing the videogame into his belt and was sure that he had spotted a shoplifter in action. The policeman slammed the old man to the floor with such violence that he split open his forehead. The video shows the unconscious man lying on the floor with blood streaming from his wound.

For those who have the stomach to witness American culture at its worst and how a police state operates by its own rules without regard to the law just Google “Black Friday 2011″. You will find videos of the above incidents as well as many more.

Black Friday : Example of American Culture at its Worse

Black Friday. The day has become an example of American culture at its worse. Many shoppers are so unruly, rude, and even dangerous that it is no wonder that the retailers bring in a heavy presence of security guards in an effort to maintain some order. However, the use of heavily militarized police officers who are apparently trained to use brute force in even routine situations leads to police state rules.

Please state rules means that the excessive use of force is considered to be necessary and quite normal, even if it is used against Wal-Mart customers who become carried away by the Black Friday advertising and marked down merchandise but who are not criminals. Perhaps a few multimillion dollar judgments against Wal-Mart and the police officers will cool down the violence.

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News of the tragedy of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster has largely disappeared from mainstream media news coverage. Yet nuclear energy experts are now widely saying that the Fukushima disaster will be worse than Chernobyl.

According to Al Jazeera correspondent Steve Chao in a report from Tokyo at least one billion becquerels of radiation continue to leak from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant each day. This level of radiation leakage is occurring even though it has been more than five months since the 9.1 Richter Scale earthquake and resulting tsunami devastated the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility.

Radiation Hotspots in Tokyo are Reaching Dangerous Levels.

Radiation hotspots are now accumulating in Tokyo with some radiation levels exceeding those that caused the evacuation in 1986 of large numbers of Soviet citizens who lived near the Chernobyl plant in the Ukraine. Experts are now beginning to think about what until recently was unthinkable. Large areas of Tokyo, a city of 35 million people, may eventually have to be evacuated.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is a slow-motion train wreck for Japan. Tens of thousands of Japanese families have had to evacuate areas near the nuclear facility. Towns surrounding the nuclear power plant have become ghost towns. Now experts warn that rising radiation levels in Tokyo may already be a health hazard, especially for the young. Many Japanese expectant mothers, fearing for the health of their unborn babies, have already left the city.

Japan has a population of about 127 million. Approximately 35,000,000 live in or near Tokyo. Should Tokyo eventually have to be evacuated where would 35 million people go? For Japan, one of the most highly developed nations in the world, the Fukushima disaster may be a total game changer.

Demographics are already working against the nation’s prospects for economic growth as Japan has one of the most aged populations in the world. Now the possibility of massive forced evacuations from Tokyo and the catastrophic disruptions that would bring to the Japanese economy and society add a massive level of uncertainty to an already struggling economy.

For Japan, there appears to be no good way out of the problems created by a disaster devastating an aging population. The standard of living in Japan is falling and probably will continue to fall for many years. The recent election of the sixth Japanese Prime Minister in five years does not improve confidence in the ability of the Japanese government to deal with their complex challenges.

Japan May Never Recover From the Fukushima Disaster

The catastrophic disruptive social and financial results of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster may eventually be far worse than Chernobyl as it is affecting one of the world’s most dense population centers. For Japan, there may be no recovery to previous economic levels. A “new normal” will likely take many years to evolve.

Perhaps these days news from Japan and Fukushima is so grim the mainstream media just doesn’t want to cover it. And how are the heroic workers doing, those who are risking their lives to try and clean up the mess? Shame on the media for forgetting about these brave people.

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Dmitry Orlov is a 49 year old engineer and author who lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union. He warns that the US’s reliance on being able to borrow money and being so dependent upon diminishing fuel supplies might be sending it down the same path the Soviet Union took before it collapsed.

American Public Poorly Prepared for an US Economic Collapse

Orlov gives several reasons why the Soviet Union was able to survive an economic collapse and why the US may have far more trouble in doing so.

In the video Mr. Orlov gives reasons why the United States is far less prepared for an economic collapse compared to the old Soviet Union. Some of the reasons given are that the Soviet Union had an extensive public transportation system and that the public was far less dependent upon traveling about in fossil fuel consuming automobiles than Americans.

In addition, most Soviet Union citizens lived in public housing projects and were not subject to foreclosure actions when they were unable to meet mortgage payments. They continued to be provided housing and utilities even when they had no means to pay for the services. Unfortunately for Americans, once they can no longer meet mortgage payments foreclosure action can begin and eventually they are tossed out into the street.

Another fact which helped the people of the old Soviet Union to survive the collapse is that a high percentage of the population still had close ties to small-scale agriculture. There were still close family ties to villages where vegetable gardens and animals such as chickens,cows, and pigs were raised for food. Even in the cities, many Soviets had small gardens which aided in their being less dependent upon produce being available in supermarkets.

Dmitry Orlov makes other worthwhile comparisons in the video. While the video is nearly 30 minutes long it is well worth watching for anyone who is concerned about the direction of the United States economy and the possibility of an eventual debt related collapse.

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You know that America is fast becoming a police state when children’s lemonade stands are being closed down in states all over the country, including California, Oregon, Texas, and Georgia – and even in previously bedrock, sensible-values American heartland states as Wisconsin and Iowa.

The latest of these unamerican police state actions came in small-town Georgia, where the local cops advised the kids in question that they had to cease and desist from selling their lemonade until they forked over $50 a day for a business license. Of course, since few if any kid’s lemonade stands anywhere clear $50 a day that put the three young entrepreneurs out of business just a day after their grand opening.

Sure, public health issues can be raised about the purity of the lemonade, whether the kids and their mom wore gloves while cutting the lemons and adding sugar and water, and if the lemonade was being stored and served in proper containers. Then in fear dominated modern America who knows — perhaps the police thought that the three young ladies and their mom were engaged in a terrorist plot to poison the helpless citizens of Midway, Georgia.

But really Americans. Isn’t enough of this silliness enough? Way back in the day in the Eisenhower years I was a young entrepreneur who with the help of my brother and mom had a lemonade stand. One hot summer my brother and I also had a handmade pottery stand where we sold pottery made from clay collected from a nearby bay.

Not once were we approached by the police or public health officials and asked to show our business licenses which of course we did not have. We did have adult clientele who seemed to get as much enjoyment out of buying products from two young entrepreneurs living in a still free America as we received from earning a small profit by selling lemonade and crude handmade pottery to them.

I really feel sorry for the young people of today. I also feel great sadness and sorrow over America being well on its way to being an absolute police state. When young people have the spirit of entrepreneurship sucked right out of them by police state actions how can the country expect to develop innovators and entrepreneurs?

How can Americans expect to lead a happy and fulfilling life when their every action is being monitored by an oppressive government and oceans of red tape and regulations surround every planned undertaking? How can Americans feel free and not threatened by the state when the government encourages Americans to snitch on their neighbors and friends as if they were living in a communist police state?

When police shutdown kid’s lemonade stands it really is another layer of conditioning for the population — follow the strict orders of the state, no matter how unreasonable they are, or else.

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The following article concludes that Rick Perry, governor of Texas, and Sarah Palin, former two-year governor of Alaska, may be nominated by the Republican Party to head up the 2012 presidential campaign ticket. Not only that, the article concludes that Rick Perry could become another Texan to occupy the White House, with Palin as his vice president.

While the article is written in a humorous way it is still frightening to read. The fright comes after you have chuckled your way through the article and suddenly realize that the author’s logic as to how Rick Perry could become the 45th president of the United States is spot on.

Rick Perry Headed to the Whitehouse in 2012?

Read the article with the title “Why Rick Perry is headed to the White House” by James C. Moore. Mr. Moore is a 36 year resident of Texas and Emmy award-winning former national TV news correspondent and co-author of the best-seller, “Bush’s Brain.

====================================================
As a resident of Texas for 36 years, I keep wondering why the rest of the nation pays any attention to our political and cultural absurdities and yet still chooses Texans as presidents. Our most revered historical moment, the Alamo, was arguably a mass suicide. The slaughter in San Antonio was followed by a massacre at Goliad, the fall of the Confederacy to Union forces, and later by the Houston Astros. Texas has a legacy of losing.

None of this apparently matters, though, because America is beginning the process of electing another Texan to be president. Gigantic tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, a trumped up war and a ruined economy from the last Texan seem incapable of dissuading supporters of Rick Perry.

His Saturday speech in South Carolina will make clear that he is entering the race for the White House and will spawn the ugliest and most expensive presidential race in U.S. history, and he will win. A C and D student, who hates to govern, loves to campaign, and barely has a sixth grader’s understanding of economics, will lead our nation into oblivion.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Politics: Rick Perry surges in poll

The big brains gathered east of the Hudson and Potomac Rivers believe that Mitt Romney is the candidate to beat. But they are unable to hear what Rick Perry is saying. The Christian prayer rally in Houston was a very loud proclamation to fundamentalists and Teavangelicals, which said, “I am not a Mormon.” The far right and Christian fundamentalists have an inordinate amount of influence in the GOP primary process and, regardless of messages of inclusion, very few of them will vote for a Mormon.

“We think a them Mormons as bein’ in kind of a cult,” one of the Houston rally attendees told me. “I couldn’t vote for one a them when we got a real Christian like Governor Perry runnin’.”

Perry, of course, can’t come right out and print bumper stickers that say, “Rick Perry — 2012 — Not a Mormon.” But he doesn’t have to. He’s wearing his faith like a power tie while Romney stays quiet as a tabernacle mouse on the topic of religion. Romney has business experience and intellect that are not on Perry’s resume’ but he is from “Massatoositts,” (Webster’s Texas Edition, see also “Massachusetts”), and Texans love to kick their political boots into New Englanders’ squishy parts. Perry is about to remind the tea partiers and fundamentalists that Romney created a state health care plan, (the horror, affordable health care for everyone), believes global warming is real, and has a troubling history for conservatives on the matters of abortion and gay marriage.

So much for Mitt.
=====================================================
To read the remainder of the article go to CNN.
=====================================================

Can you imagine Americans electing another Texas governor as President who was a marginal student, who according to Mr. Moore, hates to govern and who has a child like grasp of economics? This is a man who panders to the evangelical right by staging last Saturday in Houston a prayer event called “The Response”, attended by 30,000 devoted followers.

Can you imagine that presidential candidate being joined by another poor student but master at earning humongous sums of money through self-promotion, one Sarah Palin, who also has a fanatical right wing evangelical following and who considers ignorance a positive virtue?

Rick Perry may hate to govern but apparently he loves to campaign. He is a shrewd enough politician to win the Republican nomination for President by pandering to the evangelical far right wing of the party then moving to the center for the general election and hammering away at a struggling President Obama on jobs and the economy issues. This strategy could prove to be a powerful one as Sara Palin would use her immense popularity with the evangelical crowd to bring in the far right votes while Perry would chip away at Obama’s base and likely become popular with independents who in general are extremely disappointed with Obama.

Given a Poor Economy a Perry – Palin Ticket Will be Hard for Obama to Beat

James C. Moore may be on to something here. It is unlikely that economic issues would show much progress by the time of the 2012 election. President Obama is extremely vulnerable when it comes to the state of the economy and with continued high unemployment will be fighting a tremendous head wind as he campaigns to remain in the White House.

The handsome Rick Perry and the ever dapper and spicy looking Sarah Palin would indeed look good together as they posture before the TV cameras and wave at the millions of Americans who are more interested in beauty contests than serious political candidates who have coherent strategies to reduce America’s debt and to create meaningful jobs. In a time of national crises could Americans really be dumb enough to elect a pair to the nation’s highest offices who have more beauty than brains?

Judging from the self-inflicted wounds America keeps incurring the answer to that question is, You Betcha!

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Here is a good example of how the United States government is currently being run. Congress left for the weekend without renewing legislation for the FAA Reauthorization bill. The FFA will immediately have to layoff 4000 employees and stop funding airport improvement projects across the nation. Air traffic controllers will stay on the job but the FFA will not be able to collect air travel taxes as their authority has lapsed.

The Air Travel Taxes that are Affected Are:

- the 7.5% excise tax that applies to all domestic flights
- the $3.70 per flight segment tax, also for domestic flights
- the $16.30 international arrival and departure tax
- the $8.20 departure tax for flights between Alaska/Hawaii and the mainland USA

Congress Can Not Agree on Provisions of FAA Reauthorization Bill

Next week there will be a lot of pressure on congress to fix the mess but it’s a mess that should never have happened. Like the continuing vicious fight among the parties and the President over the debt and credit limit extension.

Today so much in government is being managed poorly. The ill feeling and dissent between the Democrats and Republicans has become so intense that compromise on even what used to be routine legislation has become almost nonexistent.

It’s really depressing to see how legislative gridlock now prevailing in Washington DC. affects even what should be routine legislation like the FAA Reauthorization bill.

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