How Much BP Oil Has Leaked Into the Gulf of Mexico?

Friday, January 11, 2008

Wanna Be Dictator Chertoff Shoving REALID Down Our Throats

Chertoff is a maniacal, power-hungry, greedy bureaucrat wannabe despot and nutcase, and hopefully more states will join the seventeen that already have decided his interpretation of this legislation is way out of bounds, illegal, and an usurption of states rights to consolidate federal power. REALID is totally unconstitutional and unnecessary in every way.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080111/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/secure_driver_s_licenses;_ylt=AhHt9v4F92ekTLMyc4sk5E.s0NUE

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Capsulizing My Economic and Political Beliefs

These three definitions capture much of my belief structure and thoughts economically and politically. But none go enough to match my fervor on setting limits and controls on the size, market share, power, freedoms, and influence of business and maximizing competition in all sectors of the economy through governmental exertion, influence, power, and funding for entrepreneurs and start ups.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communitarianism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_center_%28politics%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_way_%28centrism%29

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The Bastards Better Be Afraid

The first article points out the fear of corporate wealthy elites of having John Edwards as the next President or in the next administration in some capacity. These greedy pigs have been exploiting and destroying America's middle class and poor for decades now all to line their pockets and weaken democracy and the standard of living across the land. Destruction and substantial weakening of big businesses in our society is absolutely essential to save our nation and ensure a reasonable standard of living and quality of life for ourselves and the children of today in the near and distant future.

The second article makes a good argument about why Edwards is the choice even for individuals with a heritage and experiences that are removed from what Edwards is talking about.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/feedarticle?id=7217369

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=788&thisview=item

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Mountain West Conference Hoops Heads Full Throttle into Conference Play

With the completion of all non-conference games but one earlier this week, the MWC gets into the struggles and ordeal of the conference games schedule with its heavy travel and diverse difficult venues of play.

One can basically trisect the nine team conference into teams that will make the postseason, will try to make the postseason, and will not make the postseason. The three teams that are going to be there all year and should be playing in the NCAAs are New Mexico, San Diego St, and Brigham Young. All three are outstanding clubs capable of winning the conference. The three clubs that are close and could make the postseason are Nevada-Las Vegas, Utah, and Air Force. All three are not fully complete teams and a notch below the elite three. But they each could gel and coalesce into strong contenders and prove to be surprises as the season continues on. The three teams at the bottom, Texas Christian, Colorado St, and Wyoming, will struggle and seem certain to have losing campaigns for both conference and overall play. TCU could play spoiler at times but its looks like a long winter in Fort Collins and Laramie.

I would expect BYU and SDSU to qualify for the NCAAs; New Mexico needs to have a great conference season and MWC tournament to get in as there has been a long standing bias against the Lobos by the NCAA tournament committee. UNLV, Utah, and Air Force all could reach the tournament but are more likely to be in the NIT. I look for five or six MWC teams to be playing in the postseason in late March.

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National Hockey League Reaches Halfway Mark

All 30 clubs in the NHL have now played at least 41 games which marks the halfway point of the regular season. It has been a quite competitive season as all but a handful of teams still harbor hopes or expectations of a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

In the East, Ottawa got off to a great start and has never looked back, setting the pace in their division and conference all season. New Jersey leads the Atlantic, but it is a close race with the four other divisional clubs playing well and competitive for the divisional title and postseason. Carolina has set the pace in the Southeast and has opened up a little space over the other four clubs, all whom having losing records. In the Northeast Montreal has stayed within sight of the Senators and the Bruins have played better than expected, but Buffalo and Toronto have underperformed and will have to play much better to get to postseason. It would not be surprising to see all five Atlantic division teams in the postseason and just one from the Southeast.

As for the Western Conference, the conversation starts and ends with one club: the Detroit Redwings. Detroit is a machine, methodically destroying its opponents as they have racked up 70 out of a possible 90 points so far in the campaign for a winning percentage of .778. They are threatening to have the best record in league history, exceeding the great 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens. The Redwings lead the Central Division by 21 points over St Louis so its all but over there. In the Pacific, a good three way dogfight is underway as San Jose, Dallas, and the defending Stanley Cup Champion Anaheim are all neck and neck with surprising Phoenix just 7 points off the lead. Los Angeles is the league's worst club and buried in last place. In the Northwest, another good three way dog fight is ongoing between Minnesota, Vancouver, and Calgary all tied at the moment with injury-racked and powerplay goals-deprived Colorado just 5 points back. Edmonton has played better than expected and is just 8 points back. Look for three teams each from the Pacific and Northwest in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with St Louis joining overwhelming favorite Detroit in the postseason from the Central.

The regular season continues on with the finales wrapping up on Sunday 6 April with the playoffs scheduled to start on Wednesday 9 April to begin the best postseason in sports.
Hopefully the Avalanche get healthy and find their mojo on the powerplay so they can meet preseason expectations of winning the Northwest Division title. No way can we have the dreaded evil Redwings play for and win the Cup !

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NFL Picks for Divisional Playoffs

Here are my National Football League picks for the games being played in week nineteen, the Divisional Playoffs, on Saturday and Sunday 12-13 January.
Saturday 12 January

SEA(11-6) @ GB (13-3); 2:30pm MST (FOX)
Seahawks (+7 1/2) 30, Packers 27

JAX (12-5) @ NENG (16-0); 6pm MST (CBS)
Patriots (-13) 27, Jaguars 20

Sunday 13 January

SD (12-5) @ IND (14-2); 11am MST (CBS)
Colts (-10) 32, Chargers 20

NYG (11-6) @ DAL (13-3), 2:30pm MST (FOX)
Giants (+7 1/2) 29, Cocaineboys 24

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