Watching Over Us!!

A Goose Bumps Story!!

A girl went to her friends house and she ended up staying longer than planned, and had to walk home alone.

She wasn’t afraid because it was a small COMMUNITY and she lived only a few blocks away.

As she walked along under the bike trail Diane asked God to keep her safe from harm and danger.

When she reached the alley, which was a shortcut to her house, she decided to take it.However, halfway down the alley she noticed a man standing at the end as though he were waiting for her.

She became uneasy and began to pray, asking for God’s protection.

Instantly a comforting feeling of quietness and security wrapped round her,
she felt as though someone was walking with her.

When she reached the end of the alley, she walked right past the man and arrived home safely.

The following day, she read in the newspaper that a young girl had been raped in the same alley just twenty minutes after she had been there.

Feeling overwhelmed by this tragedy and the fact that it could have been her, she began to weep.

Thanking the Lord for her safety and to help this young woman, she decided to go to the police station.

She felt she could recognize the man, so she told them her story.

The police asked her if she would be willing to look at a lineup to see if she could identify him.

She agreed and immediately pointed out the man she had seen in the alley the night before.

When the man was told he had been identified, he immediately broke down and confessed.

The officer thanked Diane for her bravery and asked if there was anything they could do for her.

She asked if they would ask the man one question.

Diane was curious as to why he had not attacked her.

When the policeman asked him, he answered, ‘Because she wasn’t
alone.

She had two tall men walking on either side of her.
Goodness (Angel 1) and Mercy (Angel 2) shall follow you all the days of your life.

Amazingly, whether you believe or not, you’re not alone.

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Home Town 9/11 Tribute!!

The C.E.U Prehistoric Museum paid a special tribute to 9/11. Located in Carbon County Utah, Director Kathy Smith and her team put together an event to honor the lives lost and the sacrifices made for our country. 

“Dinosaurs, Ice Age & Archaeology

One of 5 accredited museum’s in the state of Utah and the ONLY accredited museum located off the Wasatch Front. Compared favorably to some of the largest museums in the country!” http://www.facebook.com/CEU.Prehistoric.Museum

I was in my home town to attend my 30 year class reunion…Class of 1980…The absolutely best group of people I have ever known. I always love coming home.

I was driving down main street of Price, Utah and saw this gathering in front of the CEU Prehistoric Museum and being a home town boy, I decided to stop and take in the event. I ordered a cheeseburger and fries from one of the vendors and listened to a very wonderful band. I shook hands and got hugs from long-lost friends and renewed some old memories.

As for the happenings of the reunion, some things we should just keep to ourselves. I just appreciate them putting up with me….lol.

I salute you Kathy and Team…job well done.

Utah Reforms Government Ethics

House GOP rolls out ethics reform package!

 

Republican lawmakers are formulating their own ethics reform package.The Deseret News reports House Republicans rolled it out after a closed-door caucus session Wednesday.

The package includes a constitutional amendment to create a five-member, independent ethics commission. The commission would consist of three retired judges, a retired House member and a retired state senator.

House Republicans also are pushing for four other changes:

• Monthly campaign finance reports
• More information included on conflict of interest forms — including ownership of stock above $5,000
• Further disclosure of gifts, and a ban on all gifts over $10
• Campaign donation limits — $10,000 for statewide races and $5,000 for senators and representatives

House Majority Leader Kevin Garn, R-Layton, calls the proposal “unprecedented.” http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=9414357

This is exactly what the State of Utah needs. I am very happy to see new “ethics reform” bills being rolled out on a local level.

Utah can now serve as an example of what we need on a national level.

I realize we already have ethics rules on the books but the part about “stock ownership” transparency has been one of my biggest issues and one of the most un-regulated forms of government corruption.

This is not a party issue. Ethic issues exist on a bipartisan level and need to be reined in on a bipartisan level.

Ethics reform is something we can all come together on!!

“Beat The Drum”

The GOP may be excused…

Congress in-action

With all its flaws, the Senate health bill would be the biggest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare, greatly improving the lives of millions. Getting this bill would be much, much better than watching health care reform fail.

At its core, the bill would do two things. First, it would prohibit discrimination by insurance companies on the basis of medical condition or history: Americans could no longer be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition, or have their insurance canceled when they get sick. Second, the bill would provide substantial financial aid to those who don’t get insurance through their employers, as well as tax breaks for small employers that do provide insurance.

All of this would be paid for in large part with the first serious effort ever to rein in rising health care costs.

The result would be a huge increase in the availability and affordability of health insurance, with more than 30 million Americans gaining coverage, and premiums for lower-income and lower-middle-income Americans falling dramatically. That’s an immense change from where we were just a few years ago: remember, not long ago the Bush administration and its allies in Congress successfully blocked even a modest expansion of health care for children. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/opinion/18krugman.html

We are just lucky to get something out of all the deals that have been made.

All this came down to conservative and liberal Democrats filling each other’s stockings for Christmas. I sure am glad we didn’t have to fill the stockings of the GOP to get this Health Care Bill passed….LOL. 

 There wouldn’t have been anything left over for us “Citizens” if we had to buy their support as well.

“Happy 4th Of July”

Over the centuries, there have been many great Americans who share in the honor and glory of our freedom.  I wish “ALL” Americans a happy 4th of July.

I would like to pay a special tribute to the Military personnel who are serving our country right now and can not be home with their families on America’s Independence Day!

Thank You!!

Thanks to all our Military personnel (serving now, future, and past) for the freedom and liberties me and my family take for granted on a daily basis. May you and your families be blessed for your sacrifice!!

President Obama debuts ‘global populism’

The American president took his case straight to the people on his trip this week, spending limited time with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Germany, and France. The American president started with a nuanced bid for US-Muslim understanding and Mideast peace at the storied Cairo University – and ended in front of a soaring statue at the American cemetery at Omaha beach in Normandy titled, “The Spirit of American Youth, Rising from the Waves.”

The trip, unusual in its limited time with state leaders in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Germany, and France – was a sweeping bid for the possibility of progress in long-intractable conflicts and standoffs, and a recasting of America’s role in that effort. It was an appeal to reason, history, values, remembrance, and common aspirations of humanity, in a populist fashion rarely seen on the world stage, say diplomats and specialists.

“What we are seeing is not spin, but a sincere effort to reach out to hearts and minds, appealing to better instincts, to the reasonable nature of others. It is a revolutionary approach,” says Charles Kupchan of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

Mr. Kuchan argues that Obama’s popularity allows him to try and create a new dynamic: “Obama is doing this because he can. But also because he believes that in an age of polarization and economic distress, this will work.

“If there is a deal with Iran,” Kupchan continues, “it won’t be because of back-room negotiations with Ahmadinejad, but because of an appeal to the broader Iranian polity that will build support for a new relationship with the US. His key interlocutors are not his counterparts, but people in Egypt and the Middle East.

“I’ve never seen anything like this on the Middle East,” says a former senior US diplomat who was responsible for Europe and the Mideast. “He’s [Obama] started something for Muslims, Israel, Europe, and the US, and it is something that can grow. He’s legitimizing a new discussion, saying other ways of thinking are possible, that if you change the psychology the policy will follow.

In a further challenge to Holocaust doubters, including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president suggested a visit to the camp would provide the “ultimate rebuke” to such views. With allied leaders including Fresh President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in attendance, along with veterans of the fateful invasion, the president continued his public appeal for a broader vision of humanity: “We live in a world of competing beliefs and claims about what is true,” Obama said. “In such a world, it is rare for a struggle to emerge that speaks to something universal about humanity. The Second World War did that.”

Spokesmen for the Lebanese militant group, Hizbullah, and Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood offered skepticism, and Osama bin Laden’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, flatly opposed Obama and his policies in two audio recordings that coincided with the president’s trip.

But Essam Derbala, a leader of Al-Gamaa Al-Islamiya who was imprisoned by Egypt amid the group’s insurrection in the 1990s, said the US president deserved a hearing. He told Reuters: “I call on the Taliban of Afghanistan and Pakistan and Al Qaeda to look at this solution and put the American side to a real test of the extent of its sincerity in achieving peace with the Muslim world.” http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0607/p06s01-wome.html

The spin on this doesn’t come from the camp of President Obama. It comes from Conservative extremist bloggers and media outlets like Fox who try to put a negative spin on anything President Obama does or attempts to accomplish.

I was watching Fox last night and saw Ann Coulter and a few others attempting to say that President Obama was snubbing the elite dignitaries in France and Germany. What they don’t understand is this trip was not about the leaders (which proper respect was given)…it was an appeal to the people. An appeal to hundreds of years of mindsets that had festered into hatred and mistrust. Believe it or not…they show President obama more respect than the American Conservative extremist do. My question to the conservative extremist is this, Did doing it your way work?

 

Permission to Pollute – The Lobbying Begins

During the final days of the drafting of a 946-page climate bill,  Rep. Gene Green (D-Tex.) won support for an amendment that deleted a single word and inserted two others. The words could be worth millions of dollars to U.S. oil refiners.

The Green amendment deleted the word “sources” and inserted “emission points.” In the arcane world of climate legislation, that tiny bit of editing might one day give petroleum refiners valuable rights to emit carbon dioxide when it otherwise might not have been allowed. Refiners could get the extra allowances in return for cutting carbon emissions by 50 percent at a single point of a vast refinery complex instead of slashing emissions by 50 percent for the entire facility.

The Center for Public Integrity said its review of Senate disclosure records showed that more than 880 businesses and interest groups have registered to lobby on climate change in the first quarter of 2009 — up more than 14 percent over the same time last year.

An item inserted at the behest of  Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) would give the auto industry $1.4 billion worth of extra allowances starting in 2012 when the cap-and-trade system takes effect, according to an estimate by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

In President Obama’s original cap-and-trade proposal, all allowances, or permits to emit greenhouse gases, would have been auctioned off by the government. The revenue would have been funneled into direct assistance for the poor and an extension of a tax credit for lower- and middle-income workers.

Critics complained that the cost of buying the allowances would be passed onto consumers, being a de facto tax. So House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman  Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and  Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) fashioned a bill that gives away allowances in an attempt to limit cost increases to consumers and industries — and which is tailored to meet the concerns of key members of the committee.

The biggest chunk of free allowances, worth $500 billion, would go to local electricity and natural gas distribution companies, with strings to make sure the firms use them to shield consumers from higher costs.

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) led the effort to protect coal-fired utilities and mining firms. He persuaded Waxman and Markey to accept a more modest reduction in emissions overall and to set aside 35 percent of allowances to help residential and industrial consumers of coal-fired power. He also won agreement for extra allowances and money — about $1 billion a year — to develop carbon capture-and-storage projects that will eventually be needed to cut carbon emissions of coal plants. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/04/AR2009060404435.html

Anytime I see this kind of activity on something where multi-million dollar industries are lobbying our congress, red flags just start popping up all over the place. This is something we need to watch closely and make sure not one single gift is accepted or given to or by anyone involved. If we start seeing gratutities being offered or accepted we need to slam the hammer down.

No longer will the practice of gratuities be acceptable!!!  AMERICA is watching all of you…better be careful what you do.

“Beat The Drum”

(go here to get info on your representatives)  https://italco.wordpress.com/politics-anti-government-corruption/ 

FBI and CIA Combine Anti-Terror Efforts!

 

 

 

 

I have never understood the separation of the CIA and the FBI. It always seemed to me that America would be much safer and much better off if the Justice Department and the CIA worked in harmony with one another. I am glad to see we have a President who agrees. After all, we are all on the same side. Why have two agencies working separately and not sharing vital information with the other. A combination of resources only makes sense.

Upon taking office in January, President Obama shut down the CIA’s secret “black site” prisons and forbade the use of coercive interrogation techniques.
That opened the door for an increased role for the FBI, which for the last year has deployed more agents and analysts overseas to work alongside the CIA, U.S. military and foreign governments. The initiative would mean even broader incorporation of the FBI and Justice Department into global counter-terrorism operations. Many national security officials said it is a vindication of the FBI, which before Sept. 11 had played a leading role in international terrorism investigations.

 

FBI agents for years had used non-coercive interrogations to thwart attacks, win convictions of Al Qaeda operatives and gain an encyclopedic knowledge of how the terrorist network operates. But they withdrew from questioning important suspects after the bureau opposed the tactics being used by the CIA and military — often by inexperienced civilian contractors. The harsh interrogations provided such bad information that U.S. agents spent years chasing false leads around the world, former FBI agent Ali Soufan testified before Congress two weeks ago. “It was one of the worst and most harmful decisions made in our efforts against Al Qaeda.”

 

Before Sept. 11, the FBI model of “informed” interrogation — knowing everything about a suspect to get them talking — was the preferred method of intelligence and military interrogators. Even veteran CIA agents said that abandoning that approach after Sept. 11 was counterproductive. “To use a contractor to ask the questions and not let the FBI guy who’s collected all the evidence and knows all of the intelligence about these guys, it makes no sense at all,” said former CIA counter-terrorism case agent Robert Baer.

One intelligence official said the FBI’s expanded role in the global fight against terrorism was a natural outgrowth of the Obama administration’s new priorities. “It stands to reason because, by executive order, the CIA is out of the long-term detention business,” the official said, referring to Obama’s closing of overseas prisons. Richard Clarke, a senior counter-terrorism official in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, said the turnabout was long overdue. http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-fbi28-2009may28,0,3584591.story 

He is coming to get you!!

 

Your one last place to hide will be taken over by the government with the newly appointed “cyber czar”…just think, all those bloggers out there who have been spreading there “hate” messages all over the internet will now have to worry about the government watching their every move. If I were them, I would go deep into the internet underground and form an internet rebellion to counter such an invasion of government control. Not only has the government silenced your voice in congress now they are appointing a “czar” to silence your voice online…I see computers being shut down all over the world……I wonder if those of us who have praised President Obama will be rewarded for being good boys and girls? (in case you take this seriously…stop it…they aren’t after us…lol)

“To oversee an enhanced security system for the nation’s computer networks, Obama is creating a “cyber czar” as part of a long-awaited plan stemming from a review he ordered shortly after taking office.

On Friday, Obama is expected to lay out broad goals for dealing with cyber threats while depicting the U.S. as a digital nation that needs to provide the education required to keep pace with technology and attract and retain a cyber-savvy work force. He also is expected to call for a new education campaign to raise public awareness of the challenges and threats related to cyber security.”

“Government and military officials have acknowledged that U.S. computer networks are constantly assailed by attacks and scans, ranging from nuisance hacking to more nefarious probes and attacks. Some suggest that the actions at times are a form of cyber espionage from other nations, such as China.

Obama is not expected to announce who will get the job during Friday’s unveiling of the review, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the selection process is ongoing. Other officials close to the issue say a handful of experts — both in and out of government — are under consideration.” http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090529/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_cyber_struggles

Vett them well Mr. President!!

Governors Collaborate to do their part!!

In September NGA Chair Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty launched the 2007-2008 NGA Chair’s Initiative – Securing a Clean Energy Future, proclaiming “America is ready for bold, innovative energy policies that will make us safer, more independent and better stewards of the planet. We’ve been asleep at the switch for too long – the time for action is now.”

 Securing a Clean Energy Future (SCEF) is designed to: 

• Identify new opportunities for states to save energy, support clean alternatives and encourage deployment of new technologies;
• Convene high-profile events and stakeholder meetings to advance this agenda;
• Produce toolkits and guides that analyze and examine current best practices;
• Establish state challenge grants for enhanced energy planning;
• Explore state compacts and state-industry partnerships that address initiative policy goals.
• Raise state and national awareness of the importance of clean energy; 

In November, Minnesota Gov. Pawlenty and SCEF Taskforce co-chair Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius announced a groundbreaking public-private partnership with Google and Intel Corporation’s Climate Savers Computing Initiative, that aims to reduce energy use from computers, servers and related equpment. 

In December, the SCEF Initiative held the Governors’ Summit on Alternative Transportation Fuels and Advanced Vehicles, in Tampa, Florida. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist joined Gov. Pawlenty, Gov. Sebelius, and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer during a Governors’ Roundtable to discuss alternative transportation fuels, clean vehicles and other technologies and policies that offer the potential to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and lower greenhouse gas emissions. 

At the Governors Summit the governors released A Call to Action, a report outlining the current energy challenges the United States faces, defining the role of states in developing clean energy in the future and presenting a roadmap for states interested in achieving the goals of the SCEF Initiative. 

For more information on the Securing a Clean Energy Future initiative, please visit www.nga.org/ci. To speak with one of NGA’s experts on this issue, please contact the NGA Office of Communications at 202-624-5301. 

http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.ef1a671e4253877ae8ebb856a11010a0/

This is an informational post with links to various places of interest. I hope you enjoy. I find it interesting to see what different government groups are doing. I am happy to see the Governors Association come together in an effort to address our concerns.