Liberty Grotto Blog

The day of campaigning started in Monahans. Nothing fancy, just in a small room of the candidates and the community

This is what Republican Debra Medina says is the personal side to her campaign.

It’s important to have these conversations. I think you learn a lot more about a candidate,” (R) Gubernatorial Candidate Debra Medina said.

“Oh it went great! There was a great turnout.” Ward County Republican Chair Bertha Howell said.

Medina had a representative go Ward County because of a flight delay, but she made it in Andrews at the senior activity center.
What appealed most to west Texans was her stance on property tax and concern for school dropouts.

Scott Stapleton is a father of two and lives in the midland area.

“The debate last night was interesting as to what she had to say about property taxes,” he said, “I’d like to hear more about it.”

Eliminate property taxes in Texas because we must own our property,” Medina said, “That effects every business, homeowner, and citizen in the state.”

Her last stop for the day was at the midland center. All three campaign events allowed west Texans to question medina and voice their concerns.

“Anything you can do will help,” Stapleton said, “Get support when you find it.”

Tomorrow, Medina’s campaigning day starts in Crane high school, then to Lubbock and she says she expects to do very well for the primaries in March.

cbs

Officials in the Obama administration are moving quickly to develop the investment infrastructure behind the president’s proposal for mandatory automatic enrollment in individual retirement accounts, which could be supported by the creation of Treasury-issued retirement bonds.

J. Mark Iwry, deputy assistant secretary for retirement and health policy at the Department of the Treasury, said that administration officials are exploring some “conservative” options for investing the assets of 78 million Americans that he estimates could be automatically en¬rolled in this “universal” workplace retirement system.

He said that officials have discussed the possibility of making a low-risk life-cycle or target date fund the default investment option for these auto-IRAs, which would be mandatory for employers if they don’t offer a retirement plan to their workers.

Russia’s central bank announced on Wednesday that it had started buying Canadian dollars and securities in a bid to diversify its foreign exchange reserves.

Analysts said the move could be a sign of increased diversification of emerging market central bank assets away from the dollar and into investments denominated in other commodity-linked currencies, such as the Australian dollar.

dam Cole at RBC Capital Markets said if taken in isolation, Russia’s announcement that it was buying Canadian dollars was not significant, but if it was part of a broader trend, then it was an important step.

“If it is a barometer for the activity of other central banks, then its is structurally positive for the currencies of countries like Canada and Australia that have a commodity bias in their economies,” he said.

Although not officially confirmed, traders said that other emerging market central banks, including some in Asia which hold large foreign exchange reserves, have also been active in the foreign exchange market in recent weeks buying both Canadian dollars and Australian dollars.

FT

A Texas search and rescue team and other similar units mobilized to help earthquake victims in Haiti have been told they are not needed.

Members of Texas Task Force 1 have been on standby in Houston since Thursday to head to the devastated island nation.

But the United Nations mission in the country has declared the search and rescue teams already in the nation are sufficient to handle to the task and the Texas team and others prepared to deploy would not be needed.

The Texas unit, which has been on standby at Ellington Field in southeast Houston, was made up of 80 members including doctors and engineers. Four dogs were also part of the team.

article

“We want New computers from Taxpayers” – that what this piece of propaganda should be titled:

A big reason why the government is inefficient and ineffective is because Washington has outdated technology, with federal workers having better computers at home than in the office.

This startling admission came Thursday from Peter Orszag, who manages the federal bureaucracy for President Barack Obama.

The public is getting a bad return on its tax dollars because government workers are operating with outdated technologies, Orszag said in a statement that kicked off a summit between Obama and dozens of corporate CEOs.

“Twenty years ago, people who came to work in the federal government had better technology at work than at home,” said Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget. “Now that’s no longer the case.

“The American people deserve better service from their government, and better return for their tax dollars.”

The White House release that included Orszag’s comments said one “specific source” of ineffective and inefficient government is the huge technology gap between the public and private sectors that results in billions of dollars in waste, slow and inadequate customer service and a lack of transparency about how dollars are spent.

I worked for a fortune 500 company in the Information Technology division and I saw some of the most ancient terminals there still in use, the terminal really has no bearing on the data, a brand new one would function as well as one from the 70s. I seriously doubt they have any clients near there that old, and they definitely are not the source of government inefficiency, it’s the users and structure – this being a perfect example. In short, they want new computers and you to pay for them. Even though you have no say really in the ordeal, they put out the propaganda to get you riled up and hopefully you contact a representative or maybe the Administration and complain, and they will get new computers. Best use of Taxpayer dollars they boast. This is a microcosm of the beast that is big government.

A green sea slug appears to be part animal, part plant. It’s the first critter discovered to produce the plant pigment chlorophyll.

The sneaky slugs seem to have stolen the genes that enable this skill from algae that they’ve eaten. With their contraband genes, the slugs can carry out photosynthesis – the process plants use to convert sunlight into energy.

“They can make their energy-containing molecules without having to eat anything,” said Sidney Pierce, a biologist at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

Pierce has been studying the unique creatures, officially called Elysia chlorotica, for about 20 years. He presented his most recent findings Jan. 7 at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Seattle. The finding was first reported by Science News.

“This is the first time that multicellar animals have been able to produce chlorophyll,” Pierce told LiveScience.

The sea slugs live in salt marshes in New England and Canada. In addition to burglarizing the genes needed to make the green pigment chlorophyll, the slugs also steal tiny cell parts called chloroplasts, which they use to conduct photosynthesis. The chloroplasts use the chlorophyl to convert sunlight into energy, just as plants do, eliminating the need to eat food to gain energy.

“We collect them and we keep them in aquaria for months,” Pierce said. “As long as we shine a light on them for 12 hours a day, they can survive [without food].”

The researchers used a radioactive tracer to be sure that the slugs are actually producing the chlorophyll themselves, as opposed to just stealing the ready-made pigment from algae. In fact, the slugs incorporate the genetic material so well, they pass it on to further generations of slugs.

The babies of thieving slugs retain the ability to produce their own chlorophyll, though they can’t carry out photosynthesis until they’ve eaten enough algae to steal the necessary chloroplasts, which they can’t yet produce on their own.

Article

Press Conference – Vermont Secessionists Enter Statewide Race
Body:

January 15, 2010
Capitol Plaza Hotel
Montpelier, VT

For the first time in over 150 years, secession, political independence from the United States of America, will be front and center in a statewide New England political campaign. On Friday, January 15, 2010, Vermont Independence Day, a slate of Vermont independence advocates will announce their candidacy for statewide office at 2:00 p.m. in Boardroom 335 in the Capitol Plaza Hotel in Downtown Montpelier, Vermont.

Heading the ticket of Vermont independents will be fifth generation Vermonter and Kirby businessman Dennis P. Steele, who is founder and CEO of the well known Internet radio station Free Vermont Radio. Mr. Steele, who is running for Governor, will be joined by Burlington businessman and political activist Peter Garritano, who will announce his candidacy for Lt. Governor. In addition, longtime political activist Dennis Morrisseau will introduce several independents who have agreed to be candidates for one of the thirty State Senate seats which will be open this year.

What these candidates have in common is a commitment to bring home the Vermont National Guard troops from Afghanistan and Iraq now as well as a commitment to return Vermont to its status as an independent republic as it was between January 15, 1777 and March 4, 1791.

Few Vermonters realize that secession represents a return to their early nineteenth century roots when New England secessionists led the opposition to the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the national embargo of 1807, and the War of 1812. New England secessionists also expressed their opposition to a military draft at the Hartford Convention in 1814. Abolitionists in New England urged northern states to disengage from the Union.

The United States has lost its moral authority. The American Empire has become the largest, wealthiest, most powerful, most materialistic, most racist, most violent empire in history. Vermont patriots hope to regain the moral high ground by seceding from the Union.

In the words of Dennis Steele, “The gods of the Empire are not the gods of Vermont.”

VermontRepublic.org