Reflections From a Murky Pond

Coffee – the dark and invigorating brew that fuels Americans every morning – could soon be providing energy to far more than just our bodies and minds. Engineers at the University of Nevada have proven that used coffee grounds can be effectively used as a source for both biodiesel and solid fuel pellets.

Details of their findings can be found here [PDF].

Every 1,000,000 pounds of coffee grounds can produce just slightly over 13,900 gallons of biodiesel and 847,600 lbs of solid fuel pellets. Since Starbucks generates an estimated 210,000,000 – yes, 210 million – pounds of spent coffee grounds per year in the US, the researchers at the University of Nevada believe that Starbucks could amount to 2,920,000 gallons of biodiesel and 89,000 tons of fuel pellets. This would represent just slightly less than 2.00% (1.986%) of the estimated 147,000,000,000 gallons of diesel fuel required by the US and Europe annually. Now that’s some go juice!

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It seems that even Obama can sense when the winds have shifted and his campaign promises are best left lying in gutter. With oil prices now under $50 a barrel for light crude – down from a high of $147 during last July – Obama has decided not to implement his windfall profits tax upon US oil companies.

CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters):

President-elect Barack Obama is not planning to implement a windfall profit tax on oil companies because prices have dropped below $80 a barrel, an aide said on Tuesday…

Obama, who signaled early in his campaign for the White House that he would take an active approach to oil markets as president, had planned to use the revenue from a windfall profits tax to fund a tax rebate for low- and middle-income families struggling with high energy prices.

The environmentalists in specific and the Left in general are gnashing their teeth over what they perceive as a betrayal by their Messiah. Meanwhile the oil companies are breathing a sigh of relief and crowing just a bit. Both groups are to some extent acting like idiots.

Let’s look at this from a pragmatic point of view. President-elect Obama is a politician – one raised in Chicago’s school of political street fighting – with political goals. It does not serve his purposes to use a tax to steal money from the oil companies when there’s no available money to be had. This is no way indicates that Obama doesn’t want to take money from the oil companies and use it for his own aims. If and when oil prices climb again, he’ll be more than willing to snatch as much as he can get away with.

There’s also another point that the environmental types should remember – Obama’s proposed windfall profits tax upon the oil companies wasn’t intended to be spent on green power; it was meant to be spent on an “energy rebate” ($500 to individual workers, $1,000 to families). With the drop in fuel / energy costs, this rebate is no longer needed.

On the other hand, the oil companies need to remember that Obama is no where’s near being their friend. They should keep it firmly in mind that this is a stay of execution, not a pardon. Obama and the Left have already tried them and found them guilty of the worst crime in the Left’s view of America – wealth. Obama and his constituents and helpers – Pelosi comes quickly to mind – will come for the oil companies sooner or later.

As I said, the winds have shifted – but it’s mostly nothing more than hot air.

This US Presidential is all about Race – at least it seems to be to Michelle Obama, wife of presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

A shocking article by African Press International (API):

Accusing API of colluding with American internet bloggers in an effort to bring down her husband, Mrs Obama said she decided to call API because of what she termed, API’s help to spread rumors created by American bloggers and other racist media outlets in their efforts to damage a black man’s name, saying she hopes African Media was mature enough to be in the front to give unwavering support to her husband, a man Africans should identify themselves with.

When API told her that our online news media was only relaying what the American Bloggers and other media outlets had discovered through their investigations, Mrs Obama was angered and she came out loud with the following: “African Press International is supposed to support Africans and African-American view,” and she went to state that, “it is strange that API has chosen to support the racists against my husband. There is no shame in being adopted by a step father. All dirt has been thrown onto my husband’s face and yet he loves this country. My husband and I know that there is no law that will stop him from becoming the president, just because some American white racists are bringing up the issue of my husband’s adoption by His step father. The important thing here is where my husband’s heart is at the moment. I can tell the American people that My husband loves this country and his adoption never changed his love for this country. He was born in Hawaii, yes, and that gives him all the right to be an American citizen even though he was adopted by a foreigner; says Michelle Obama on telefon to API.”

This is a very interesting turn of events. The American man Dr Corsi was recently reported to have been arrested in Kenya because there was fear that he might reveal information on Obama when he wanted to hold a press conference in Nairobi.

The question now is why he was arrested and who ordered his arrest. Was Obama’s hand in this in any way? We will never know the truth but what is clear is that Dr Corsi was seen as a threat while in Kenya.

When API asked Mrs Obama to comment on why Dr Corsi was arrested by the Kenyan government and whether she thought Kenya’s Prime Minister Mr Raila Odinga was involved in Dr Corsi’s arrest, she got irritated and and simply told API not to dig that which will support evil people who are out to stop her husband from getting the presidency.

When asked who she was referring to as the evil people, she stated that she was not going to elaborate much on that but that many conservative white people and even some African Americans were against her husband, but that this group of blacks were simply doing so because of envy.

On Farakhan and his ministry, Mrs Obama told API that it was unfortunate that Mr Farakhan came out the way he did supporting her husband openly before the elections was over. That was not wholehearted support but one that was calculated to convince the American people that my husband will support the growth of Muslim faith if he became the president, adding “even if my husband was able to prove that he is not a Muslim, he will not be believed by those who have come out strongly to destroy his chances of being the next President. Do real people expect someone to deny a religion when 80 percent of his relatives are Muslims?; Mrs Obama asked.

Mrs Obama asked API to write a good story about her husband and that will earn API an invitation to the inauguration ceremony when, as she put it , her husband will be installed as the next President of the United States of America next year.

— Published by African Press International – API

Obviously this report cannot be fully verified because it references a direct telephone conversation between Michelle Obama and people at API. Still, API – an Afrocentric as in African Continent – media outlet headquartered in Norway has little reason to lie about something like this.

Frankly, I don’t feel the need to comment on the article. Mrs. Obama has spoken quite clearly and eloquently about her views of race, racial loyalties and duties, and White people.

NOTE: Obama campaign senior adviser Robert Gibbs says the interview is a complete and utter fabrication. “It’s bogus, she didn’t call, it’s all a lie,” he says.

I’m leaving this post up for now on the hope that further details on this article and on the reasoning / agenda behind it are made clear.

On Monday, January 7, 2008, more than 50 of Tianmen city’s Chengguan – Chinese City Management Administration & Implementation of Law – enforcers dragged Wei Wenhua, a local blogger or independent journalist, out of his car and savagely beat him to death when they realized he was filming them as they fought with local residents.

Wei happened on a confrontation in the central Chinese province of Hubei between city inspectors and local residents of Wanba village protesting over the dumping of waste near their homes. A fight had developed when the residents tried to prevent trucks from unloading the rubbish. The villagers were upset because they said the waste was polluting the air and drinking water.

When the Chengguan saw Wei using his cell phone to record the protest, more than 50 municipal inspectors turned on him and beat him severely for many minutes. Wei was pronounced dead on arrival at Tianmen ‘s No.1 People’s Hospital.

Go here to read the source article.

How many more incidents like this will happen as Beijing tries to hide the filth and refuse of its cities from the eye of the Olympic Committee?

To my surprise, the Japanese government has backed down and suspended plans to hunt up to 50 humpback whales after extreme protests by the Australian people and government. Chief Japanese government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura said humpbacks would not be part of the annual hunt in the waters around Antarctica.

It’s true that Australia expressed quite a strong opinion to Japan on this. As a result, I hope that this will lead to better relations with Australia.

— Nobutaka Machimura
Chief Cabinet Secretary

It may have taken more than just the mentioned protests to convince the Japanese of the error of the ways though. Australia has been ‘dogging’ Japan – including flying survelliance aircraft – for its plans to resume whale hunting in the Antarctic region. The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd had recently announced plans to dispatch an armed observation ship to track the Japanese whaling fleet and gather evidence for a possible lawsuit at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Never underestimate the power of armed diplomacy!