Buffalo Boy's Blog

Today, Dr. Danny Jazarevic, who served as the Chief of Trauma, Critical Care and Vascular Surgery at Landstuhl, issued the following statement on Barack Obama's canceled visit to Ramstein and Landstuhl:

"Last week, Senator Obama skipped a visit with wounded U.S. troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany because the Pentagon would not allow campaign staff or media to accompany him into the hospital. I served as director of trauma surgery at that hospital for nearly four years and saw the effect that a visit from a celebrity like Senator Obama could have on morale. During that time, I do not recall a single member of Congress canceling a visit with the troops despite being just a few hours away, but Senator Obama seems to have been more concerned with how the visit would affect him than how it would affect the soldiers recovering from wounds received in the service of their country."

Americans favor an increase in offshore oil drilling by a 2-1 margin, a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll reveals.

In the poll, 69 percent of respondents said they support the increase, while 30 percent said they are opposed to it.

But when asked if increased offshore drilling would reduce gasoline prices in the next year, only 51 percent of those polled said it would, and 49 percent said it would not.

President Bush on Wednesday called on Congress to schedule a vote to lift the ban on offshore drilling before its August recess, citing an “urgent” need to reduce pressure on crude oil and gasoline prices.

It could take up to 15 years to access offshore oil in some areas, according to CNN. But Sara Banaszak, senior economist at the American Petroleum Institute, said lifting the ban would send a “strong signal” to the oil futures market and could help bring down the price of crude oil immediately.

http://www.aninconvenientguilttrip.com/?gclid=CO25rvis2JMCFRIkxwoda1CESw

http://www.iceagenow.com/Ocean_Warming.htm

Everyone cares about public schools. Whether it’s through values, taxes, the economy, or labor issues, we all have a stake in public schools, a dog in the fight.

Of course, some dogs are bigger than others.

There is no disputing that America’s teachers unions -- in particular, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers -- are the most organized and powerful voices in education politics. There are groups of people that care more deeply about public schools (parents, most notably), but they lack the coordination and vast resources that teachers unions have at their disposal.

Above all else, because of their easy identification with educators themselves, teachers unions enjoy a level of credibility with the voting public that any politician would envy. But is this credibility deserved?

According to the New York Times, an international comparison finds that the United States has the worst educational quality per dollar spent on schooling, ranking 18th in reading and 28th in math.

Why are we getting so little for our money?

Since its founding, the Center for Union Facts has collected a wealth of research documenting the impact of teachers unions on our nation’s children, schools, politics, and even teachers themselves. Here are some of our findings:

Teachers Unions Oppose Education Reform

While Americans’ opinions vary widely on education reform measures such as school choice, charter schools, and paying better teachers more money, teachers unions are in comparative lockstep. These unions fight tooth and nail against any meaningful change to their comfortable status quo -- to the detriment of schoolchildren and taxpayers.

Union Contracts Wrap School Districts in Red Tape

Countless studies have documented how unnecessary provisions in union contracts inflate the cost of education. But most parents, reporters, and politicians probably don’t know that those same contracts keep the neediest districts from hiring and retaining the teachers they need most.

Teachers Unions Protect Bad Teachers

Teachers unions defend the practice of granting educators “tenure” after only a few years. Tenure laws help keep bad teachers in the classroom by making it almost impossible to fire them. Few other professions feature this kind of ironclad job security; even some convicted criminals with teacher tenure don’t get fired.

Union Officials Misuse Teachers’ Money

Most teachers unions are exempt from the transparency required of private-sector unions, making embezzlement of members’ dues money especially easy. Many union officials have endorsed costly retirement plans for teachers in exchange for kickbacks. And many dues-paying teachers don’t support the political causes and candidates funded by the union dues they’re forced to pay.

Most teachers are doing a wonderful job under difficult circumstances. The overall effect of teachers unions on public education, however -- when lawmakers and voters leave their power unchecked -- is far from positive.

Al Gore imagines that future poets will be singing his praises 1,000 years from now. In the meantime back on Planet Earth, he may have to settle for the slings and arrows that he deserves for his epic hypocrisy.

A year after the Tennessee Center for Policy Research exposed Gore’s prodigious personal use of electricity at his Nashville mansion (20 times the national average), the center reported this week that Gore’s personal electricity consumption during the past year actually increased by 10 percent.

So while he campaigns for Americans to curtail their electricity use — you should take cold showers, forego air conditioning and dry your clothes on a clothesline — Gore is plugging in and turning on more than ever.

He tried to defend himself by stating that his family "has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power …, installing solar panels and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy-saving technology."

But aside from increased energy use not being consistent with Gore’s preaching about downsizing our lifestyles, it’s worth noting that his personal energy use increased despite using energy saving devices and solar power.

During a time of an alleged crisis, the profile of his personal power consumption is more akin to "greed" than "green"; moreover, the environmental impacts of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s "green power" program from which Gore buys high-priced energy are murky, if not downright trivial.

Only 0.05 percent of TVA’s power is "green" and TVA acknowledges its green power program still produces greenhouse gases. All Gore really knows about any alleged benefits is that he pays an extra $4 for every 150-kilowatt hours of "green power" purchased.

He also says he has purchased "carbon offsets to offset the family’s carbon footprint." It’s not at all clear, however, that carbon offsets actually offset anything. Carbon offsets and the industry that sells them are so dubious that Congress and the Federal Trade Commission launched investigations of them last year.

Gore’s electric bill is outpaced only by his amped-up rhetoric and chutzpah. In his new slideshow, a sort of "Son of An Inconvenient Truth," Gore ironically chides those who "talk the talk" but don’t "walk the walk" when it comes to saving the planet.

In observing that religion is about behavior rather than belief and citing Gandhi’s "you must become the change that you wish to see in the world," Gore says, "… the outcome about which we wish to be optimistic is not going to be created by the belief alone except to the extent the belief brings about new behavior."

Well, we’ve seen Gore’s behavior with respect to his personal energy consumption and it certainly doesn’t match up with the alleged beliefs he continually broadcasts through a gullible media to a gullible public. Gore’s new slideshow goes on to expand the definition of behavior.

"As important as it is to change the light bulbs, it is more important to change the laws," he says.

Here’s where it gets more interesting. The laws that Gore is referring to, of course, are those that would provide subsidies to and mandates for the alternative energy industry. Gore spotlights a number of these companies, including Smart Car; Amyris Biotechnologies; Altra Biofuels; Mascoma (cellulosic ethanol); Great Point Energy (biomass-to-gas and carbon capture technology); Altarock Energy (geothermal energy); Bloomenergy (fuel cells); Missole (solar technology); and Ausra (solar technology).

As the companies; corporate logos flash on the screen, Gore states: "Here are just a few of the investments that I personally think make sense. I have a stake in these."

Putting aside the questionable legality of Gore’s promotion of his investments — conduct that could very well be contrary to federal and state securities laws that forbid an unlicensed individual from promoting unregistered securities to the public — it seems that it’s important to change the laws so that Gore can expand the $100 million-plus fortune he’s already accumulated since leaving public service in 2001.

Without laws that either mandate the adoption of alternative energies or subsidize their use, society has little use for these inefficient and not-ready-for-prime-time alternative energy technologies. While showing an image of the founding fathers signing the Declaration of Independence, Gore calls for a new "hero generation" to save us from the "planetary emergency."

He apparently sees himself as a 21st century Ben Franklin. But while the founding fathers risked their lives and fortunes in the pursuit of political freedom and self-government, Gore risks just a small part of his vast fortune in pursuit of potentially huge profits that will come at the expense of our pocketbooks and freedoms.

He can hardly be called heroic. Even more grandiosely, Gore sums up his slideshow by stating, "I think we ought to approach this challenge with a sense of profound joy and gratitude that we are the generation about which a thousand years from now, philharmonic orchestras and poets and singers will celebrate by saying 'they were the ones that found it within themselves to solve this crisis and lay the basis for a bright and optimistic human future.'"

Move over, Achilles and Hector. Make room for Gore-acles, the hero of the future epic "The Iliad (Global Warming Edition)."

Wait didn't that commie bastard predict the end of the world??? Whats he worried about 1,000 years from now for? Hell his doomsday count down clock is all over the internet. He is a shit head from the word go. All you other commies (you know who you are, libs/dems, looking for the govt to take care of you) keep buying into his bullshit and youll find yourself living in a one room apartment with no yard and regulations on what you can own, which is nothing unless you purchased from the govt.) Reminds me of Hitler. He'll live the high life while everyone else suffers!!! This bullshit has to stop. The American people are smarter than this.