Right Mind

Floods are judgment on society, say bishops

I’m speechless at this article. This is attributed to the liberal Anglican Church of England. What’s Christendom coming to when Anglicans start talking like this!

From the U.K. Telegraph:

The summer floods are God's judgment on the immorality and greed of modern society, claim senior Church of England bishops.

	The Bishop said pro-gay laws were to blame for the floods

One, the Bishop of Carlisle, even said that the introduction of pro-gay laws had provoked God to send the storms that have left thousands homeless.

The bishops argued that while those affected are innocent victims, the flooding was a result of western civilisation's decision to ignore biblical teaching. The Rt Rev Graham Dow, said that the floods were not only a result of a lack of respect for the planet, but also a judgment for decadence.

"This is a strong and definite judgment because the world has been arrogant in going its own way," he said. "We are reaping the consequences of our moral degradation, as well as the environmental damage that we have caused."

The Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, previously seen as a future Archbishop of Canterbury or York, said: "People no longer see natural disasters as an act of God. However, we are now reaping what we have sown. If we live in a profligate way then there are going to be consequences." God is exposing us to the truth of what we have done."

The Bishops spoke as flood-hit communities were warned to expect up to two inches of rain - this weekend.

Whites Faced Election Bias

From the Washington Post:

The head of a Mississippi Democratic Party organization illegally suppressed white residents' votes, a federal judge ruled Friday in the first case filed by the Justice Department alleging that whites were subjected to voting discrimination based on their race.

U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee ruled that Ike Brown, chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee of Noxubee County, violated the Voting Rights Act by issuing different procedures for collecting and counting absentee ballots from white and black voters. The executive committee, also found liable in the case, is responsible for administering Democratic primaries in the county.

There was "ample direct and circumstantial evidence of an intent to discriminate against white voters which has manifested itself through practices designed to deny and/or dilute the voting rights of white voters in Noxubee County," Lee's ruling said.

Brown, who is black, has been chairman of the committee since 2000. He argued at trial that the government's suit was a perversion of the voting rights law and said it was "preposterous" that the Justice Department would claim that blacks, who faced 135 years of discrimination by whites in the state, are now oppressing whites.

The judge said he will consider a remedy at a later date.

Let me get this right — Ike Brown is arguing that blacks are incapable of taking actions that disenfranchise white voters?

Talk about a racist statement.

HT: Dave G.

The Big Kite

This is a simply amazing video!

http://media.right-mind.us/right-mind/TheBigKite.wmv

Be sure to make it as big as you can support.

Will Newt Run?

By Robert Novak over at Human Events Online.

Newt Gingrich is telling Republican insiders that his decision in September whether to run for president in 2008 depends on the progress of Fred Thompson's imminent candidacy.

If Thompson runs a vigorous and effective campaign, Gingrich says privately, he probably will not get in the race himself. If Thompson proves a dud, however, the former House speaker will seriously consider making a run. That implies that the others in the field look to Gingrich like losers in the general election.

A footnote: Gingrich has weighed in more heavily on the immigration issue than any of the major Republican presidential hopefuls. He has bombarded Republican Senate offices with material attacking the immigration bill backed by President Bush, even sending proposed talking points to senators about to meet with the president.

Hindu leader backs pyres bid in U.K.

From the UK’s Evening Chronical: A campagin for open-air funeral pyres in the UK has won the backing of the Hindu equivalent of the Pope.

Husband takes polygamy plea to Jakarta court

From the Australia’s The Sydney Morning Herald.

Indonesia’s government is on a collision course with political and religious leaders who are taking multiple wives in the name of Islam.

Muhammad Insa, a Jakarta businessman, has brought the issue to a head by petitioning the Constitutional Court, furious that permission for him to take a second wife was rejected by the Marriage Office, while others have been allowed to take four.

Mr Insa conceded that polygamy could hurt the feelings of first wives, but added that they receive compensation. “If the wife agrees her husband marry another woman, according to Islam, her reward in heaven will be big.”

Asked about his wife’s view of his pursuit of polygamy, Mr Insa said they had not discussed it. Asked why, he replied: “I don’t want to look for troubles.”

Indonesian law places strict restrictions around polygamy. The existing wife must give her approval. She must also be childless, terminally ill or unable to fulfil her sexual obligations.

But the restrictions have been ignored by prominent figures, most recently by the deputy parliamentary speaker and leader of the Islamic Reform Star Party, Zaenal Ma’arif, and the cleric Abdullah Gymnastiar. They say the Koran allows up to four wives and claim it prevents adultery.

One dead in Troy shooting

Update from the Daily News:

A 23-year-old Troy man was found dead from an apparent gunshot wound to the head early Saturday morning.

Latah County sheriff's deputies found Jeremiah Johnson at about 3:30 a.m. after responding to a report of a shooting on West 4th Street in Troy, according to a release from the sheriff's office.

A second man was found nearby and was transported to Gritman Medical Center in Moscow with a single gunshot wound. The man was later transported to the Kootenai Medical Center in Coeur d'Alene, according to the release.

A spokesperson for the sheriff's office said Saturday afternoon that they do not believe the shooter in the incident is still at large. No other information was being released.

The sheriff's office is investigating the shooting with assistance from the Idaho State Police and the Moscow Police Department.

This from Dan Carscallan.

I’ve not heard anything about this on the news yet.

Sometime early this morning there was a shooting in Troy.  I believe there is one dead, and one that was transported to Gritman and flown to Kootenai Medical Center.

From what I could glean from listening to the scanner, I believe it’s the shooter up at KMC with a self-inflicted wound.

That’s 6 now for our beleaguered coroner.

More info to follow.

Panama City Sherriff Cracks Down on Illegal Immigrants

From Fox News:

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. —  The sheriff's department has developed a remarkably effective — and controversial — way of catching illegal immigrants: Deputies in patrol cars pull up to a construction site in force, and watch and see who runs.

Those who take off are chased down and arrested on charges such as trespassing, for cutting through someone else's property, or loitering, for hiding out in someone's yard, or reckless driving, for speeding off in a car.

U.S. immigration authorities are then given the names of those believed to be in this country illegally.

"It's not wrong for them to run, but it's not wrong for us to chase them either," said Sheriff Frank McKeithen, who created his Illegal Alien Task Force in April to target construction sites in this Florida Panhandle county.

Immigrant advocates say the technique is repugnant, and the ACLU says its constitutionality is questionable.

Illegal immigrants are leaving town. And builders are worried the crackdown will deprive them of the labor they need to take part in a building boom in which Panama City's Beach cheap spring-break motels are being torn down and replaced with high-rise condos.

HT: Bill J.

Climate ethics on Capitol Hill

Here is a TownHall article about the energy bill before Congress.

Paragraph 3 explains that the bill does not increase oil or gas production at all. The government control and bureaucracy increases though.

Paragraphs 10 and 11 show the economic downturn that the bill would cause.

From TownHall:

But the bill doesn’t increase the nation's energy supply by one drop of gasoline or one watt of electricity, says Congressman Jim McCrery (R-LA). It lifts no bans on oil and gas drilling, and does nothing to ease regulatory impediments to pipelines, transmission lines, refineries, or coal and nuclear generating plants. The only power it generates is expanded bureaucratic power over energy and economic decisions.

…

An MIT analysis concludes that Sanders-Boxer would cost the US up to $403 billion in foregone Gross Domestic Product, corresponding to a loss of some 4.5 million jobs and an impact of $5370 per family of four. The Sanders-Boxer, Feinstein and Waxman bills would result in carbon offset allowances priced at $210 per ton of CO₂, adding a truly price-gouging $95 to the cost of a barrel of oil, $2 to a gallon of gasoline, $143 to a ton of coal, and 50% to the price of electricity, by 2020.

Domestic production of goods and services would plummet, and families with low incomes or living in regions with high heating or air-conditioning needs would be disproportionately affected, as they would have to spend much higher portions of their incomes on energy, food and consumer products.

HT: Dave G.

Alarmist global warming claims melt under scientific scrutiny

Do you think that Al Gore will admit to his errors?

What will the public’s reaction be once they realize that they have been duped?

Vin Suprynowicz puts it this way:

The global warming hysteria will be remembered as one of those episodes of "hysteria and the madness of crowds" which saw bands of flagellants wandering Europe urging folks to finish work on those cathedrals real soon because the world was going to come to an end at the millennium in 1,000 A.D., and the minor panic of Oct. 30–31, 1938, when numerous radio listeners were taken in by the realistic Orson Welles broadcast of "The War of the Worlds."

The difference from those earlier episodes of mass folly, however, is that there is a group of folks with an ulterior motive beating the drums for this one. These are jealous socialists who want America to be a lot more like Europe, punishing "rich people" for the gall of freely driving where they want, when they want, in their "wasteful" private automobiles. This gang wants prohibitive taxes on cars and gasoline, with the money to be shifted into mass transit boondoggles that will require us all to enjoy much more togetherness, singing kum-ba-ya in three-part harmony as we live in quaint urban walk-ups and ride around packed into little tin trolley cars in a neater, tidier world a lot more like Sweden, or possibly the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour – "Roll up, roll up for the mystery tour!"

These people still say they’re fighting "to protect the environment." But they’ve pulled off a massive shift, largely unnoticed, in the meaning of that word.

From the Chicago Sun Times:

Many of the assertions Gore makes in his movie, 'An Inconvenient Truth,' have been refuted by science, both before and after he made them. Gore can show sincerity in his plea for scientific honesty by publicly acknowledging where science has rebutted his claims.

For example,

• Gore claims that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking and global warming is to blame. Yet the September 2006 issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate reported, "Glaciers are growing in the Himalayan Mountains, confounding global warming alarmists who recently claimed the glaciers were shrinking and that global warming was to blame."
• Gore claims the snowcap atop Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro is shrinking and that global warming is to blame. Yet according to the November 23, 2003, issue of Nature magazine, "Although it's tempting to blame the ice loss on global warming, researchers think that deforestation of the mountain's foothills is the more likely culprit. Without the forests' humidity, previously moisture-laden winds blew dry. No longer replenished with water, the ice is evaporating in the strong equatorial sunshine."
• Gore claims global warming is causing more tornadoes. Yet the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in February that there has been no scientific link established between global warming and tornadoes.
• Gore claims global warming is causing more frequent and severe hurricanes. However, hurricane expert Chris Landsea published a study on May 1 documenting that hurricane activity is no higher now than in decades past. Hurricane expert William Gray reported just a few days earlier, on April 27, that the number of major hurricanes making landfall on the U.S. Atlantic coast has declined in the past 40 years. Hurricane scientists reported in the April 18 Geophysical Research Letters that global warming enhances wind shear, which will prevent a significant increase in future hurricane activity.
• Gore claims global warming is causing an expansion of African deserts. However, the Sept. 16, 2002, issue of New Scientist reports, "Africa's deserts are in 'spectacular' retreat . . . making farming viable again in what were some of the most arid parts of Africa."
• Gore argues Greenland is in rapid meltdown, and that this threatens to raise sea levels by 20 feet. But according to a 2005 study in the Journal of Glaciology, "the Greenland ice sheet is thinning at the margins and growing inland, with a small overall mass gain." In late 2006, researchers at the Danish Meteorological Institute reported that the past two decades were the coldest for Greenland since the 1910s.
• Gore claims the Antarctic ice sheet is melting because of global warming. Yet the Jan. 14, 2002, issue of Nature magazine reported Antarctica as a whole has been dramatically cooling for decades. More recently, scientists reported in the September 2006 issue of the British journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Series A: Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences, that satellite measurements of the Antarctic ice sheet showed significant growth between 1992 and 2003. And the U.N. Climate Change panel reported in February 2007 that Antarctica is unlikely to lose any ice mass during the remainder of the century.

HT: Dave G.

Nancy Pelosi Invests in Iran-Linked Company

Nancy talks big about how to run the war but she is still making money no matter which way the wind blows.

From Fox News:

 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has disclosed that she holds stock valued at up to $15,000 in Alcatel-Lucent (formerly Alcatel SA), a company with extensive investments in Iran and Sudan — nations that sponsor terrorism.

The disclosure of Pelosi’s holdings comes at the same time that legislation is making its way through the California legislature barring state pension fund managers from investing in companies, like Alcatel-Lucent, that do business with "terror-friendly" nations.

HT: Dave G.

Nate Wilson Book Signing at Hoopfest

A camp they can believe in: Ohio's Camp Quest lets young atheists enjoy summer fun with like-minded children

From the Chicago Tribune:

At the same time youngsters at Bible camps across the nation are reciting, "Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep," kids at Camp Quest are climbing into their bunks, confident there is no one out there to hear those prayers.

Proudly proclaiming the motto "Beyond Belief," Camp Quest bills itself as the nation's first sleep-away summer camp for atheists. Founded in 1996, it has inspired four similar camps across the nation for children whose parents are either opposed or indifferent to religion.

Much of what goes on here, amid the cornfields of southwestern Ohio, is little different from any other camp. Campers canoe on the Little Miami River, practice archery skills and go on nature hikes.

To be sure, they also engage in some unusual rainy-day discussions of philosophical issues. Children who barely come up to an adult's waist toss around terms such as "circular logic." And those nature hikes focus on the beauty of evolution, unaided by any unseen hand.

Atheism has been experiencing a revival, as it were. Some national surveys show the numbers of non-believers growing. Books hyper-critical of religion are best-sellers. The biologist Richard Dawkins argued in "The God Delusion" that religion is just that. Faith as the source of all evil was explored with burning passion by Christopher Hitchens in "God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."

Roseanne: 'Impeach The President And The Vice President, They Are Traitors To America, And So Are All Of Their Supporters'...

From Roseanne’s website:

IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT AND THE VICE PRESIDENT, THEY ARE TRAITORS TO AMERICA, AND SO ARE ALL OF THEIR SUPPORTERS. IMPEACH! ANYONE IN CONGRESS WHO REFUSES TO SAVE OUR UNION FROM THESE TRAITORS BY DOING NOTHING NEEDS TO BE RECALLED. SAVE OUR TROOPS!!! SAVE OUR SCHOOLS AND HOSPITALS AND JOBS. FEED OUR HUNGRY AND POOR! SAVE THE DROWNING PEOPLE IN NEW ORLEANS! ANYONE WHO MENTIONS PARIS HILTON ONE MORE TIME MUST DIE!

'Hamas Mickey Mouse' Killed By Israeli In Tv Finale

We discussed previously about Hamas’ use of “Mickey Mouse.” See:

• Palestinian Kindergarten Graduates Vow to Die for Allah
• Mickey Mouse character urging Palestinian children to fight

Now this from the Associated Press:

A Mickey Mouse lookalike who preached Islamic domination on a Hamas-affiliated children's television program was beaten to death in the show's final episode Friday.

In the final skit, "Farfour" was killed by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy Farfour's land. At one point, the mouse called the Israeli a "terrorist."

"Farfour was martyred while defending his land," said Sara, the teen presenter. He was killed "by the killers of children," she added.

Conservative Response to MoveOn.org in the Works

From The Politico:

Veteran Republicans say they have quietly raised millions of dollars for a pair of nonprofit organizations that will launch this fall with the ambitious aim of providing a conservative counterweight to the liberal MoveOn.org, Politico.com has learned.

The issues and education group, which has a plan to enlist hundreds of thousands of small donors, aims to be active in the 2008 presidential election, according to Republicans involved in the effort. Organizers, who include veterans of the last three Republican White Houses, would not give specifics on how much money the group has raised so far or who its donor base is.

The president and chairman of the board will be Bradley A. Blakeman, a lawyer who appears frequently on television as a Republican analyst and was a member of President Bush’s senior staff during his first term.

“We’re in the formative stages of creating a new group that will give voice and hope to conservatives everywhere who believe in peace through strength and limited government,” Blakeman said. “We expect to have more to announce sometime down the road.”

Breaking News: Judge Does Not Dismiss the MSD Lawsuit

Second District Judge John Bradbury determined that Jerry Weitz does have standing to bring the lawsuit against MSD.

The judge did not dismiss the case, as MSD requested.

Wall Street likes Micron announcement

Wall Street likes Micron announcement:

The possibility that Micron Technology could cut jobs and make other changes to streamline its microchip business attracted positive attention on Wall Street this morning.

Great News For Idaho Judiciary: Eismann New Chief Justice

Eismann to become next chief justice of Idaho Supreme Court | Idaho Statesman 

From Bryan Fischer, Executive Director of the Idaho Values Alliance:

In a piece of very good news for those of us who believe in judicial restraint, the rule of law, and originalist judges, Dan Eismann has been selected by his fellow justices to be the new Chief Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court.

Eismann has proven to be a judge who respects the original intent of the framers of the Idaho State Constitution and the legislative intent of laws passed by the state legislature, and will be a force for judicial responsibility on our state's highest court.

The Chief Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court also heads up the Idaho Judicial Council (IJC), the unelected committee that screens applicants for the high court when a justice retires before his term is up. Justice Eismann will assume leadership of the IJC on August 1, well before the IJC conducts interviews for Justice Trout's replacement.

This raises the possibility that the interview process this time around may actually involve quizzing candidates regarding the judicial philosophy they would bring to the bench, a dynamic that was virtually absent in the interview process that led to Warren Jones appointment to replace retiring Chief Justice Gerald Schroeder.

Although Mr. Jones may make a fine justice, the public has no way of knowing that since we know next to nothing about whether he thinks of our state constitution as a living document whose interpretation must change along with changes in culture, or whether he regards its meaning as fixed and something to be followed as mariners navigate by the North Star.

Justice Eismann will be one of only two members of the Idaho Supreme Court to gain his position on the bench by being elected to it, as the constitution directs. The other three - 60% of the Supreme Court - will have initially reached the bench through appointment rather than election.

With Chief Justice Eismann in charge of the interview process this time around, we hope to know more about the kind of justice the next appointee will make.

The IVA is preparing a fresh edition of our "Citizen Information" questionnaire, and it will be sent to each applicant for Justice Trout's position. The deadline for applications for her position is July 2.

Marriage rate falls to its lowest level since records began

From the UK’s This Is London:

Marriage has slumped to its lowest level since records were first kept more than 150 years ago, official figures have revealed.

The proportion of couples tying the knot has fallen back into line with its declining long-term trend following a clampdown on sham weddings.

The popularity of marriage has been waning since 1973, but in recent years it has been artificially boosted by such bogus unions. In London alone, new rules which make it harder to use marriage to win the right to stay in Britain cut the number of ceremonies by more than a third.

But the report from the Office for National Statistics said the crackdown was responsible for only some of the steep decline.

It said the long-term fall in the popularity of marriage was continuing, with millions of couples choosing instead to live together and delay having a family. The figures, which cover 2005, the same year the new rules were brought in, show the number of weddings in England and Wales dropped by more than 28,000, from 273,070 to 244,710.

The fall brought the marriage rate, the number of people marrying compared to the population as a whole, to its lowest level since records were first kept.

Given the number of immigrants in England, and the immigrants’ commitment to marriage, it would be interesting to see what the numbers above would look like if the immigrant population were removed from the statistics.

Poll: More than half of Americans won't vote for Clinton

Then again, you don’t need 50% of the votes to win.

From the Contra Costa Times:

More than half of Americans say they wouldn't consider voting for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for president if she becomes the Democratic nominee, according to a new national poll made available to McClatchy Newspapers and NBC News.

The poll by Mason-Dixon Polling and Research found that 52 percent of Americans wouldn't consider voting for Clinton, D-N.Y. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, was second in the can't-stand-'em category, with 46 percent saying they wouldn't consider voting for him.

Clinton has long been considered a politically polarizing figure who would be a tough sell to some voters, especially many men, but also Clinton-haters of both genders.

Thursday's survey provides a snapshot of the challenges she faces, according to Larry Harris, a Mason-Dixon principal.

"Hillary's carrying a lot of baggage," he said. "She's the only one that has a majority who say they can't vote for her."

Clinton rang up high negatives across the board, with 60 percent of independents, 56 percent of men, 47 percent of women and 88 percent of Republicans saying they wouldn't consider voting for her.

Health Alert Update: U. S. bans seafood from China

U. S. bans seafood from China.

FDA is concerned about long term exposure as well as the possible development of antibiotic resistance.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced a broader import control of all farm-raised catfish, basa, shrimp, dace (related to carp), and eel from China. FDA will start to detain these products at the border until the shipments are proven to be free of residues from drugs that are not approved in the United States for use in farm-raised aquatic animals.

The levels of the drug residues that have been found in seafood are very low, most often at or near the minimum level of detection. FDA is not seeking recall of products already in U.S. commerce and is not advising consumers to destroy or return imported farm-raised seafood they may already have in their homes

This action by FDA, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will protect American consumers from unsafe residues that have been detected in these products. There have been no reports of illnesses to date.

"We're taking this strong step because of current and continuing evidence that certain Chinese aquaculture products imported into the United States contain illegal substances that are not permitted in seafood sold in the United States," said Dr. David Acheson, FDA's assistant commissioner for food protection. "We will accept entries of these products from Chinese firms that demonstrate compliance with our requirements and safety standards."

Ron Paul on Cavuto About The Ed Brown Case

The "conservative" pundit, Neil Cavuto, is baffled by a traditional conservative.

Cavuto said the Browns do not want to pay their tax, which is not true. The Browns said they have the money and are wiling to pay - just show them the law.

Ron Paul says that they are responsible for the actions of their “civil disobedience”.

And Ron Paul gives Cavuto a lesson in tax history.

House Proposes Ban on Fairness Doctrine Funding

The Dems are taking their normal approach — if they cannot compete in the market place of ideas, they will regulate it so that they have a chance.

Of course, that’s regardless of the fact that “liberal” talk radio has been an abysmal failure.

From TV Week.

The House of Representatives moved today to ban the Federal Communications Commission from reviving the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to offer competing viewpoints in a balanced manner when presenting controversial issues.

The House inserted a ban on government spending in behalf of the doctrine into an appropriations bill, acting at the urging of GOP conservatives. Democrats charged the move was "a political stunt" aimed at quieting unwarranted conservative talk-show hosts' fears that the doctrine could return. The legislation was awaiting a final vote at press time.

Democrats admitted some concern about the lack of balance on talk radio, but said there was no immediate prospect for the Fairness Doctrine's revival.

"It's long since gone by the board because of court decisions and various FCC decisions," said House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, D-Wis., who readily accepted the GOP amendment, then saw conservatives spend half an hour rising to praise it. He called the move "another political exercise" intended to fix fears coming from "talk radio and yap-yap TV."

Explosives-Packed Car Defused in London

From MyWay:

Police thwarted an apparent terror attack early Friday after an ambulance crew reported seeing a smoking car parked near Piccadilly Circus that turned out to be packed with gasoline, nails, gas cylinders, and a detonator.

The explosives - safely defused by a bomb squad - were powerful enough to have caused "significant injury or loss of life" - possibly killing hundreds, British anti-terror police chief Peter Clarke said.

"Forensic staff are still examining the device, but once we know more about it, we'll know more about what type of individuals are behind this," a British security official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

Officers were called to The Haymarket, near Piccadilly Circus, after an ambulance crew - responding to a call just before 1:30 a.m. about an injury at a nearby nightclub - noticed smoke coming from the car, Clarke said.

…

The area - packed with restaurants, bars, a cinema complex and theaters - was busy and buzzing at that hour. Haymarket links Piccadilly Circus to the north to the Pall Mall at its southern end.

The security official said Britain's domestic spy agency MI5 also would examine possible connections between the bomb attempt and at least two similar foiled plots - including a planned attack on a West End nightclub in 2004 and a thwarted attempt to use limousines packed with gas canisters to attack targets in London and New York.

Latah County isn't waiting to prepare for West Nile virus

The following article ran in today’s Lewiston Tribune.

One year after Idaho led the nation with 23 deaths from West Nile virus, Latah County officials have decided to get ahead of a potential repeat by hosting a public meeting July 9, getting emergency procedures in place and exploring the possibility of establishing a mosquito abatement district.

This despite no evidence yet in north central Idaho of the virus or the mosquito that carries it.

"There's no alarm, but they're trying to be proactive," Carol Moehrle, director of the North Central District Health Department office in Lewiston said of Latah County's actions.

Moehrle labeled erroneous rumors earlier this week that Culex mosquitoes (the species that carries the virus) had been detected in Lewiston and Juliaetta. She said two species that don't carry the virus, the Anopheles and Ochlerotatus mosquitoes, have been confirmed. It is the first time, Moehrle said, the latter species has been found in traps.

"The only positive Culex is in Gem County," Moehrle said of statewide monitoring to date.

…

Tom Stroschein, chairman of the Latah County Commission, said the public information meeting will be aimed at updating the West Nile virus situation and discussing prevention measures. The meeting is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. in room 2-B at the Latah County Courthouse.

Stranger in Black Solves Small-Town Zoning Dispute

We need one of these guys around here in Moscow!

http://media.right-mind.us/right-mind/StrangerInBlack.mp3

HT: DJ

Huh?

Here’s a Gallup poll you won’t read about elsewhere:

• Americans have four times as much confidence in small business than in Congress.
• They even have more confidence in big business than Congress.

That’s something that you don’t hear touted.

2007 Session: Sine Die!

Forwarded from a friend with ties to Oregon.

This so reminded me of what Nancy Chaney’s “Progressive Moscow” would look like if she had unlimited control.

Not From the Desk of Speaker Merkley

Dear Progressive Oregonian:

The 2007 Legislative Assembly has been a victory for our progressive agenda.  This session we’ve been able to pass laws that don’t really do much… but sound FREAKIN’ GREAT on the campaign trail!  Unfortunately we were five seats short of really sticking it to the tax payer, so we’re going to need your cooperation moving forward. 

We will be campaigning heavily on our 2007 session accomplishments.  But, if the public actually reads the bills we’ve passed it’s going to be really bad for us.  So please don’t let anyone know the following:

• Rainy Day Fund: We passed HB 2707 “Rainy Day Fund” and the law says it can only be used after an ‘aye’ vote of three-fifths of both chambers.  Don’t let anyone know that this means absolutely nothing to a group of people who write the law.  Unless it’s in the Oregon Constitution we can change the “three-fifths” requirement by a simple majority vote!
• Domestic Partnerships: We passed HB 2007 – yeah it was somewhat different than SB 1000 (from last session) but we had to change it… “Domestic Partnerships” polled better than “Civil Unions.”  This bill flies in the face of traditional marriage and the overwhelmingly popular Measure 36, the Defense of Marriage Act of 2005, but so what – we know what’s best for Oregonians, not the voters.
• Renewable Energy Standards: Oregon is a green state and we’ve reinforced that image by requiring Oregon to reach a 25 percent renewable energy portfolio by the year 2025, even though we already have a 65 percent renewable energy portfolio.  Don’t let anyone know that we’re not counting most of our hydro electric power as renewable energy – please, just ignore the Columbia River from now on.
• Fighting for Living Wage Jobs: This should actually say: “Fighting for Living Wage Jobs as long as it’s a Union Job.” We didn’t actually do much in the way of economic development this session… but we did pass bill after bill to strengthen the Unions hold on Oregon’s economy.  Why?  Because Union dues pay for our election campaigns, duh!
• Reforming the Initiative Process: We call it “Reform” but we really know what it is… We’ve passed a number of bills that on the surface look like common sense safeguards but together protect Oregonians from themselves.  Passing laws is my job… the average Oregonian will just mess things up!
• Healthy Kids & Cigarette Taxes: Why?  Because smoking is bad and everyone knows it.  So we have to send it to the ballot to be put in the Constitution, that’s where taxes belong, IN THE constitution!
• Most Productive Session in Recent History:  You can see we really didn’t accomplish anything, but the Democrat-trifecta did allow us to push some policy bills that will make our priorities list to spillover on two pages:
•  We pushed hard to get more teachers in the classroom SB 724 – the bill, had Republican’s not killed it, would allow men and women who have been convicted of misdemeanor prostitution can be teachers!
• Thanks to SB 694 we’ll ensure that pigs have plenty of room to live before we make them into delicious bacon.
• We did everything we could to pass HB 2536 - mandating children under 12 years have to sit in the back seat, where they belong!

Progressively yours,

Not from Speaker Merkley

P.S.  Whatever you do don’t let anyone know that we passed a massive K-12 budget and did virtually nothing to improve accountability within the system, ignoring those pesky Chalkboard Project goons and their popular commonsense approaches to K-12 reform.

P.P.S.  And don’t let anyone know that Oregon will continue to be a beacon for illegal aliens by making it extremely easy for them to get an Oregon driver’s license.

Micron Expects to Downsize

• Micron posts quarterly loss of $225 million;
• Expects 'lower levels of employment';
• Appleton relinquishes presidency

From today's Idaho Statesman:

Micron Technology posted a net loss of $225 million on net sales of $1.3 billion in its third quarter, which ended May 31, the company announced this afternoon.

Chairman Steve Appleton told stock analysts this afternoon that Micron would downsize.

"We expect to have lower levels of employment," he said, though he did not say whether that means layoffs.

…

Micron said low prices in digital random access memory and Flash memory caused the revenue problems.

The company said its quarterly losses amounted to about 29 cents per diluted share.

Appleton also relinquished the presidency of the company to a fellow longtime executive at Micron, though Appleton remains chairman of the board and chief executive officer.