Right Mind

Sanitation crews struggle with the weather: Latah Sanitation manager says 'it's pretty ugly out there'

Well, Mayor Nancy Chaney wanted Moscow to be modeled after a Third World village.

Looks like she’s getting her wish.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Snow and ice have kept garbage and recycling crews from accessing some customers in Latah and Whitman counties since snow started falling in early December. Crews that make it out also must struggle to get to garbage cans, recycling bins and Dumpsters that are surrounded by snow, all while trying to keep themselves safe.

"It's pretty ugly out there," said Latah Sanitation general manager Lori Winn. "The last two winters have been worse than the last eight put together."

…

Sanitation crews cannot safely access some roads right now. Felsted said trucks can't get through alleys in the College Hill historic district, so residents have to put their cans on the street. Ross said crews had to skip pickup areas near Potlatch recently because of unplowed roads, and some Moscow side streets were inaccessible.

Avista rate hike hits Palouse Thursday: Utility official says gas rate increase might not stick for long

Grab your wallets — yet again.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission approved an agreement Monday that will increase electric rates by 9.1 percent, and natural gas rates by 2.4 percent. The monthly increases are expected to amount to $2.90 for an average customer using about 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each month. Natural gas customers using about 70 therms a month should expect the bill to be bumped up by about $2.18.

The Spokane-based Avista serves 231,432 electric customers and 144,152 natural gas customers in eastern Washington and northern Idaho. The rate increase will bring in an additional $37.3 million in electric and natural gas revenue, said Avista Communications Manager Jessie Wuerst.

Avista last settled a rate case with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission that went into affect Oct. 1.

Wuerst said the increased cost of natural gas to Avista customers may not stick long.

Company officials filed requests with Washington and Idaho utility commissions late Tuesday night to reduce a natural gas surcharge beginning next month.

Wuerst said the wholesale cost of natural gas has recently decreased so company leaders want to pass through the savings to customers. Washington customers could see a decrease of 3 percent as early as Jan. 16, while Idaho customers may be passed on a savings of 4.7 percent effective Jan. 6.

"We're trying to be as sensitive as we can during these hard economic times," Wuerst said.

The increases to electricity rates effective Thursday, however, will still be enforced. Wuerst said the most recent agreement was a settlement, since the company pitched a request in March to hike rates by 14 percent.  

More Global Warming on the Way

On the Palouse, the forecast calls for snow accumulations of 1 to 3 inches of new snow today, while a new storm is expected Thursday, which could drop moderate to heavy snow all across the Palouse. The National Weather Service is releasing a wind advisory for the Palouse on Thursday and Friday saying 45-50 mph winds mean considerable blowing and drifting of fresh snow, making driving conditions hazardous. 

 

The Camas Prairie could also see significant snow in the upper elevations and 2 to 4 inches in the lower valleys. The weather service has also issued a wind advisory for the Camas Prairie, listing 40 to 50 mph wind gusts that could cause new snow to drift across the roadways.

Gregoire calls for jailed illegal aliens to face deportation

Are the progressives going to scream that we need to pay to keep illegal aliens in our jails?

From the Associated Press:

To save money, Gov. Chris Gregoire wants illegal aliens serving time in state jails deported.

Her proposal estimates that deporting illegal aliens - who are serving or would serve time in state jails for drug or property crime convictions - will save the state more than $9 million in the next two-year budget.

The state faces a $5.7 billion budget deficit over the next 21/2 years, and Gregoire has proposed a no new-taxes budget laden with cuts, including about $200 million from the Department of Corrections, the Attorney General's office, and other public safety programs.The deportation proposal is modeled after a program in Arizona that has saved the state more than $18.5 million since 2005, said Eldon Vail, Secretary of the state Department of Corrections.

"It's not an ideal choice; if revenue was there, I'd say have them do their time," Vail said. "Is justice better served? It's a tough question to wrestle with when you don't have resources."

The proposal would call for the state to come to an agreement with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which would carry out the deportations. In Washington, there are about 350 prisoners who would be eligible to be transferred to ICE. On average, it costs the state $90 a day to imprison an inmate, Vail said.

It also includes allowing state workers to act as immigration agents in some instances, assisting ICE in processing illegal aliens under a version of the so-called 287(g) agreements, which are contentious among immigrant advocates.

"Generally, we are always concerned with any attempt by local, state officials to try to enforce immigration law," said Jorge Baron, executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, a legal aid organization for immigrants.

"It's a field of law that's very complex. In our experience, any time local, state agencies get involved, it leads to problems," Baron said.

You've Got to be kidding me

In today’s Daily News, from editorialist Jean Wardwell:

Obama needs to make the case for government. Perhaps a speech or two like his one on race is needed. He is uniquely talented to do this. Reading his book, "The Audacity of Hope," it comes across that Obama may understand the Constitution better than any president since the Founding Fathers.

Jean’s old enough to have read the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers. All I can assume is that she’s forgotten all that she read 60 years ago…

Guess what Hamas just legalized?

Crucifixion. Believe it or not.

Dedicated to Nick Gier, who still cannot tell the difference.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Both Iran and its Hamas proxy in Gaza have been busy this Christmas week showing Christendom just what they think of it. But no one seems to have noticed.

On Tuesday, Hamas legislators marked the Christmas season by passing a Shari'a criminal code for the Palestinian Authority. Among other things, it legalizes crucifixion.

Perhaps they should have waited until closer to Easter…

Hamas's endorsement of nailing enemies of Islam to crosses came at the same time it renewed its jihad. Here, too, Hamas wanted to make sure that Christians didn't feel neglected as its fighters launched missiles at Jewish day care centers and schools. So on Wednesday, Hamas lobbed a mortar shell at the Erez crossing point into Israel just as a group of Gazan Christians were standing on line waiting to travel to Bethlehem for Christmas.

While Hamas joyously renewed its jihad against Jews and Christians, its overlords in Iran also basked in jihadist triumphalism. The source of Teheran's sense of ascendancy this week was Britain's Channel 4 network's decision to request that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad give a special Christmas Day address to the British people. Ahmadinejad's speech was supposed to be a response to Queen Elizabeth II's traditional Christmas Day address to her subjects. That is, Channel 4 presented his message as a reasonable counterpoint to the Christmas greetings of the head of the Church of England.

Incredible. Just incredible.

HT: Bill J.

Sue the Cops!

Former drug cop turned drug decriminalization campaigner, Barry Cooper, discusses his plan to start suing 300 police each year for their violations of people's rights.

Barry announces his two new movies coming out this year as well as a new initiative he is working on to strike back at corrupt cops.

It is time to end the insane “war on drugs”.

This is part 4 of 7 — where the discussion starts getting really good.

HT: Chris W.

IAF Attack on Hamas Vehicle Loaded with Grad Missiles Eng.

Here’s a video of Hamas loading rockets onto their trucks.  The rockets are stored in a high density residential area.

This reminds me of the Viet Cong tactics.

Via LGF:

The IDF has opened a channel on YouTube to post videos showing why they’re fighting Hamas; one of the most-viewed videos showed Hamas terrorists loading rockets into a truck in a residential neighborhood. And of course, Hamas supporters are using YouTube’s “flagging” features to get these videos removed: What YouTube Doesn’t Want You to See.

Here’s that video, still available on Liveleak:

HT: Dave G.

Sign Stealing

Here is one professor who will pay for his inability to let others have a different view point.

Goes to show that you don’t need any morals or common sense to be a professor.

From Northfield News:

Former visiting St. Olaf College professor Phillip Busse paid a $480 fine after pleading guilty to misdemeanor theft charges stemming from a series of political campaign sign thefts.

During the election season earlier this fall, Busse admitted to taking multiple John McCain/Sarah Palin lawn signs along a stretch of Hwy. 19 near St. Olaf in an article on the “Huffington Post,” a national news blog. After receiving several complaints about Busse’s article, members of the Rice County Sheriff’s Department met with Busse in late October and charged him with theft of three campaign signs.

The erstwhile journalist and professor appeared in Rice County Court on Dec. 1 and pled guilty to the theft, according to the Rice County Attorney’s Office. Shortly after being charged, Busse resigned his position in the St. Olaf College Media Studies department.

Because it is so difficult to track down individuals who do steal campaign signs, Sergeant Dave Stensrud of Rice County Sheriff’s Office said, rarely is the department able to prosecute the thefts. In this case, however, Busse’s own article, and a photo of the stolen signs in a recycling bin attributed to Busse, made the investigation fairly straight-forward.

“Normally you don’t have that much concrete evidence,” Stensrud said. “It was pretty quick from start to finish.”

In addition to the fine, Busse also faces an $880 restitution claim filed by the Scott and Rice County Republican parties for the material cost of 50 political signs — the number of missing signs for which the Republican parties believe Busse might be responsible.

“It was our feeling that he owed that amount to us,” said Kathy Dodds, the chair of the Rice County Republicans. “We did feel that the theft of those signs dug right into our pocketbook.”

In the article, titled “Confessions of a Lawn Sign Stealer,” Busse likened his thefts to an act of civil disobedience and said that stealing the signs was “one of the single most exhilarating and empowering political acts that I have ever done.”

“Whether he was a Democrat, Republican or Independent, what he did was so unusual and so brazen,” Dodds said.

Theft: an act of civil disobedience.

With that logic, just about anything could be an act of civil disobedience.

HT: Dave G.

"Death to All Juice"

Tiger Hawk has the classic quote:

If this picture were of a white man in Mississippi with the stars and bars on his rear bumper, it would be the subject of hanky-twisting and gum-flapping from coast-to-coast, or at least on the coasts. Change the guy holding the sign to a bearded dude who might be "of color," and suddenly illiterate anti-Semitism is just another man's free speech.

Picture via LGF.

HT: Dave G.

Third-World Seattle

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Jim Conchie of South Seattle said his garbage hadn't been picked up since two weeks before Christmas.

He said Mayor Greg Nickels should stop pushing ambitious global climate initiatives and concentrate on core city services, such as garbage pickup and snow removal.

"It's time for the mayor to give up all his high-flying fantasies and get back to providing basic services," said Conchie, who lives east of Columbia City.

Does anyone know how much money is in the City of Moscow’s budget for global warming / carbon footprinting shenanigans?

HT: Mike Costello

AFT and UAW - More Alike Than You’d Think

Whenever you try to kick at the union, “progressives” say you are kicking at the teachers.

J.P. Green makes some excellent comments about the comparison of the two big unions: teachers and auto workers.

I think the real problem is not that school reformers demonize teachers but that defenders of the government school monopoly angelize them. When we reformers insist that teachers should be treated as, you know, human beings, who respond to incentives and all that, rather than as some sort of perfect angelic beings who would never ever allow things like absolute job protection to affect their performance, it drives people like Weingarten and Herbert nuts.

But what I’d like to pick up on is the question of whether the troubles of the government school system are comparable to the troubles of the auto industry.

…

But teachers’ unions have pushed up costs - dramatically. In the past 40 years, the cost of the government school system per student has much more than doubled (even after inflation) while outcomes are flat across the board. And this has mainly been caused by a dramatic increase in the number of teachers hired per student - a policy that benefits only the unions.

It’s true that high salaries aren’t the main issue in schools, although teacher salaries are in fact surprisingly high. The disconnect between teacher pay and teacher performance is much more important. But the UAW has the same problem! Their pay scales don’t reward performance, either.

…

In fact, a lot of smart people have been arguing (scroll down to the Dec. 26 post) that exorbitant salaries and benefits aren’t nearly as much of a problem in the auto industry as union work rules - including poor performance due to absolute job protection, pay scales that don’t reward performance, and rigid job descriptions that make process modernization impossible.

Sound familiar?

Too familiar.

WA Governor Faces 2nd Union Lawsuit Over Budget

The unions will balance their budgets on the backs of everyone else.

From Northwest Public Radio:

A second labor union has filed suit against Washington Governor Chris Gregoire over her budget proposal. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) says Gregoire’s budget is illegal because it fails to fund pay raises for homecare workers. Those raises were ordered by an arbitrator after contract talks broke down. S-E-I-U 7-7-5 President David Rolf says the Gregoire Administration has its priorities mixed up.

Rolf: “They have to decide that it’s more important to pay struggling homecare workers who care for the elderly and disabled than it is to maintain billions of dollars in corporate tax loopholes that benefit some of the wealthiest economic entities on the planet.”

Rolf says his 23-thousand members deserve a 47 cents-per-hour raise over two years. Gregoire says the state can’t afford it. Her office says she plans to pursue legislation that would make arbitration deals contingent on the budget situation. The Washington Federation of State Employees union has also sued Gregoire alleging breach of contract for failing to fund pay raises for state workers.  

Downsizing the Federal Government

Where to start? With the Department of Agriculture.

Ditto that!

Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

Firefighters ordered into 'gay' parade back in court: 4 told to appear on pro-homosexual event or face discipline

This is an update of my August 2007 post on Firemen ordered against will to drive in gay parade.

From World Net Daily:

Four San Diego firefighters who claim they suffered sexual harassment when they were ordered by the city to participate in an obscenity-laden "gay" pride parade in 2007 are going to trial for a second time, and their attorney says this time he'll seek to introduce photographic evidence of the illegal public sex at the event.

The firefighters are John Ghiotto, Chad Allison, Jason Hewitt and Alexander Kane and they filed a complaint after being ordered to participate in the July 21, 2007, parade promoting homosexuality and explicit sex.

WND reported earlier when attorney Charles LiMandri, who also serves as the West Coast director for the Thomas More Law Center, launched the legal action against the city of San Diego.

"These men were sexually harassed in clear violation of San Diego's sexual harassment code," LiMandri said. "Further, the California Constitution's freedom of speech provision prohibits compelled speech. What the firefighters were ordered to do was endorse what goes on at this parade through their participation in it."

As WND reported, in July 2007 the firefighters, all Christians, were ordered to participate in uniform on their city fire engine in San Diego's annual "Gay Pride" parade.

On a blog for a defense fund assembled for the firefighters, LiMandri said eight of the 12 jurors in the first trial this past fall agreed that the case documented sexual harassment, but that was one short of the necessary nine jurors.

"The city of San Diego subjected these firefighters to sexual harassment rather than take reasonable steps to prevent it as the law requires," he said. "When these four firefighters requested to be excused from participating in the 2007 San Diego Gay Pride Parade, their request was denied by their superiors." 

WND has the details, if you can stomach it.

Voted for Prop 8? You're fired! Same-sex marriage activists target businesses, employees

We’ve seen the same tactics here in Moscow (Moscow's Religious Bigots Now Have a Little List; defense of bigotry; French Whine; etc) by the homosexual lobby.

From World Net Daily:

Protests following the passage of California's Proposition 8, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman, made news headlines, but the Pacific Justice Institute reports a growing number of cases where those opposed to the ballot measure have taken out their anger more quietly: by harassing – and even firing – employees who voted for it.

PJI, a non-profit legal defense organization specializing in religious freedom, claims to be representing a San Francisco woman who was fired for voting for Proposition 8, but whose name remains confidential to protect her privacy and legal case.

"Californians have been shocked by the aggressiveness of radical homosexual activists who have ousted several individuals from their jobs and livelihoods based solely on their support for traditional marriage," states Brad Dacus, president of PJI, on the group's website. "These tactics of fear and intimidation in retaliation for supporting a lawful ballot measure are completely unacceptable."

PJI also claims to be advising several others seeking settlements after they too were fired for supporting Proposition 8.

"Unfortunately, this is far from an isolated case," asserts a recent PJI statement.  

RNC Calls Bush a Socialist for the Bailouts

From The Washington Times:

In what would amount to a slap in the face to a sitting Republican president and the party's Senate and House leaders, national GOP officials, including the vice chairman of the Republican National Committee, are sponsoring a resolution opposing the resort to "socialist" means to save capitalism.

"We can't be a party of small government, free markets and low taxes while supporting bailouts and nationalizing industries, which lead to big government, socialism and high taxes at the expense of individual liberty and freedoms," said Solomon Yue, a cosponsor of a resolution that would put the RNC -- the party's national governing body -- on the record as opposing the U.S. government bailouts of the financial and auto industries.

So now, after 8 years of Bush’s socialism, the RNC gets religion?

Priceless.

Scientists eye swarm of Yellowstone quakes: Were the more than 250 tremors a sign of something bigger to come?

From MSNBC:

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Yellowstone National Park was jostled by a host of small earthquakes for a third straight day Monday, and scientists watched closely to see whether the more than 250 tremors were a sign of something bigger to come.

Swarms of small earthquakes happen frequently in Yellowstone, but it's very unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days, said Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah.

"They're certainly not normal," Smith said. "We haven't had earthquakes in this energy or extent in many years." 

Smith directs the Yellowstone Seismic Network, which operates seismic stations around the park. He said the quakes have ranged in strength from barely detectable to one of magnitude 3.8 that happened Saturday. A magnitude 4 quake is capable of producing moderate damage.

"This is an active volcanic and tectonic area, and these are the kinds of things we have to pay attention to," Smith said. "We might be seeing something precursory.

"Could it develop into a bigger fault or something related to hydrothermal activity? We don't know. That's what we're there to do, to monitor it for public safety."

Obama Tax Cuts for the Middle Class: On again, off again, on again

Last night, Obama’s Senior Economist, Gerald Prante, appeared on CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight to discuss Obama's plans to first repeal the Bush tax cuts on the top two income brackets, then deciding to let them expire in 2011, then changing his mind again.

Recall that Bush’s tax cuts applied across the board: to the poor, middle class, and rich.

While Obama said he wouldn’t raise taxes on the middle class (wink, wink; nudge, nudge), repealing Bush’s tax cuts on the middle class is raising their taxes.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2008/12/29/ldt.schiavone.obama.tax.cuts.cnn

Reb Bradley: "Born Liberal Raised Right"

He was on C-SPAN a couple days ago. I’m looking for an online copy of that.

The Top 10 Everything of 2008

Time Magazine has provided us with their “Top 10 Everything of 2008” — 50 Top Ten lists with everything you can imagine.

Here’s their full list:

13 Most Popular New Year's Resolutions

From USA.gov:

Spokane to alter plow strategy for today's storm

Can’t keep everything plowed. So they are focusing on the main arteries.

From KREM News in Spokane:

To keep people moving in today's heavy snowfall, the City of Spokane is changing its plowing strategy for today, Monday, Dec. 29, to concentrate on specific north-south and east-west corridors that motorists can rely on.

MPC Computers will liquidate assets, lay off remaining employees

Sad news from Boise. This was like watching a train wreck in progress.

From the Idaho Statesman:

Nampa's troubled computer company has given up and locked the doors permanently. MPC Computers, which has been operating under the protection of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, notified the Idaho Department of Labor that it would terminate its remaining employees in a letter today. MPC said 147 employees would be terminated immediately and 51 would be retained while the company liquidates its assets. The company laid off 200 in October and filed bankruptcy in November. It had been attempting to continue operations while reorganizing but was not able to obtain financing it needed to continue operations. In its letter to the Labor Department, MPC blamed the state of the credit markets as well as its own financial position for the closure. MPC also said the decision was influenced by the recent departure of critical employees. "Between December 4 and December 12 a substantial portion of MPC's sales force resigned without prior notice," the letter said. "Their departure made it impossible for MPC to continue any viable business operations."

F.A. Hayek on 'Meet the Press' in 1975

Here’s a classic 1975 interview on “Meet the Press” with one of the world’s leading economists: Dr. Friedrich August von Hayek. Hayek was one of the most influential members of the Austrian School of Economics.

The discussion occurred during the depression of the middle 70’s.

The discussion is important for the economic issues of today. They talk about inflation, unemployment, federal reserve printing money, government actions to “fix” the economy, political liberty, unions, etc.

Well worth listening to.

UAW refuses to pay taxes on plush lakeside resort

I mentioned previously about the plush golf course and lakeside resort that the UAW owns.

Well, now they are refusing to pay their taxes.

What would happen if I tried to pull that trick?

The United Autoworkers Union has refused to pay assessed property taxes on a $33 million private resort for members and their families in recent years, which has impacted funding for education and other basic public services in rural Cheboygan County.

According to public records, the UAW has challenged Waverly Township in the state Tax Tribunal and won reductions of nearly $5 million over the past four years. The legal challenges comes at a time when Cheboygan County struggles with cash-strapped schools, high unemployment and increased property foreclosures.

“Shame on the UAW for not paying its fair share towards educating Cheboygan County’s next generation,” said County Drain Commissioner-elect Dennis Lennox (R-Topinabee). “The UAW is using its $1.2 net worth to get around the system and its responsibility to pay the same taxes that hard-working families pay without dispute.”

Tony Matelski, who recently retired as Waverly Township supervisor, says local government can’t afford to defend itself against the UAW and its legion of attorneys — including County Commissioner Leonard Page (D-Grant Township), who served as the union’s associate general counsel from 1970-1999.

While Page’s district includes the lavish resort, he has avoided helping Waverly Township and the UAW come to a resolution despite assurances at County Commission meetings that he would help end the long-standing dispute.

FOX News reports the resort — formally known as Walter and May Reuther Family Education Center — has lost $23 million in the past five years. The UAW covers costs the interest it earns on its strike fund, according to tax documents, but massive losses in the past five years have forced the union to make heavy loans to keep the center afloat.

Calvin & Hobbes on the Bailout

Click to enlarge.

From Dave M. HT: Club for Growth

#1 December for snowfall since 1895

This December is the Number 1 December for snowfall since 1895.

Here is a remarkable article from weatherman Cliff Harris.

You will find a discussion of sunspots here as well.

Time to buy that winter home in Florida…

From the Coeur d’Alene Press:

A series of blizzards from late October until now may be just the start of an era of harsh winter seasons across the Northern Hemisphere.

Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a primary researcher at the Institute of Geophysics in Mexico City, recently stated;

"In about ten years, the Earth will enter a 'new little ice age' that will last from 60 to 80 years or more." Will this be a new Maunder Minimum cycle?

Herrera bases his predictions on a sustained decrease in sunspot activity plus an increase in global volcanic eruptions that will cool this planet very quickly, much like what happened following the massive June 16, 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, which led to a rather significant drop in temperatures of more than a degree Celsius in less than 10 months.

Since February of this year, we've observed a cooling globally of nearly 0.7 of a degree. Yes, I believe in climate change, but from both sides of the temperature scale, up and down!

With the exception of three days, Dec. 10-12, there has been no sunspot activity at all. In fact, the number of sunspots Dec. 10-12 averaged only 13 sunspots, a very low number. Last August, the entire month was completely devoid of solar activity.

The lack of solar storms on the sun, combined with generally cooler than normal sea-surface temperatures, has led to another very snowy and cold early winter season across the northern U.S. and much of southern Canada. Parts of the Pacific Northwest have already doubled their normal snowfall totals for an entire winter season. These cities include Seattle, Portland and Olympia. 

And here’s The Top 10 Decembers for total snowfall in Cd’A since 1895.

1. December 2008, as of 10 a.m. on Sunday -- 77.9 inches.
2. December 1915 -- 63.6 inches.
3. December 1996 -- 57.7 inches.
4. December 1964 -- 53.2 inches.
5. December 1992 -- 49.6 inches.
6. December 2007-- 47.0 inches.
7. December 1951 -- 43.8 inches.
8. December 1895 -- 42.8 inches.
9. December 1922 -- 42.6 inches.
10. December 1984 -- 40.2 inches.

We also have easily topped the annual snowfall record of 139.7 inches set in Coeur d'Alene in 1922.

I encourage you to read Cliff’s entire article. You won’t see this kind of writing in the MSM.

HT: Dave G.

Economic Darwinism: the Survival of the Fittest

Who wants the most inefficient, weak, and worthless companies to survive by redirecting taxpayer’s dollars?

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Economic cycles are Darwinian, picking off weak companies and leaving survivors stronger. A year into the recession, solid retailers have their pick of mall space. Respected banks are getting an influx of deposits. Tech companies with money to spend are having an easier time hiring.

It has been a year of brutal losses. More than 1.2 million jobs have vanished. The broadest measure of the stock market, the Wilshire 5000, is down more than $7 trillion, a 40% slide. Corporate survivors, however, should benefit as competitors disappear.

Retailer Bed Bath & Beyond will not have to contend with Linens 'n Things, which is in liquidation. Best Buy may not be fighting price wars with Circuit City, which is reorganizing in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. FedEx will not scrap for market share against DHL Express, a German-owned company that is leaving the United States.

Staying in business will not be easy - sales declines are a given and job cuts are likely to continue. But the United States will not remain in the dumps forever, and the companies that will be best positioned when the economy eventually improves may include these examples: Kohl's, Wal-Mart, McDonald's, Wells Fargo, Delta, Google, AT&T, Verizon.