DNC is running out of money....

Betcha they can hit up the hollywood elite again.......

Democrats Cancel Speedway Event at Charlotte Convention

By Hans Nichols - Jun 26, 2012 8:47 AM ET

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Funding Shortfall Prompts DNC Kick-Off Event Move

Democrats canceled a political convention kick-off event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and will move the activities to Charlotte’s main business district, the convention’s host committee announced.

Enlarge image

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Photographer: Tyler Barrick/Getty Images for NASCAR

“While we regret having to move CarolinaFest away from our great partners at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and the City of Concord, we are thrilled with the opportunity that comes with hosting this event in Uptown Charlotte,” said Dan Murrey, the executive director of the Charlotte in 2012 Convention Host Committee.
The move comes as party planners are grappling with a fundraising deficit of roughly $27 million, according to two people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss internal party politics. With a party ban on direct contributions from corporations, the host committee has raised less than $10 million, well short of its $36.6 million goal, said one of the people.
Murrey said that logistics, not costs, were behind the decision to cancel the Speedway event.
“In order to facilitate public caucus meetings -- and to maximize accessibility, transportation, and proximity of all guests -- we have decided that moving CarolinaFest 2012 to Uptown Charlotte is the best way to achieve that goal,” Murrey said in a statement that the host committee released this morning, after Bloomberg reported last night that it may call off the Speedway festival.

Shortened Convention

In January, Steve Kerrigan, chief executive officer of the convention committee, said that Democrats were shortening their convention from four days to three “to make room for a day to organize and celebrate the Carolinas, Virginia and the South and kick off the convention at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Labor Day,” Sept. 3.
Kerrigan also announced that Obama would accept his party’s nomination at the almost 74,000-seat Bank of America Stadium, home of the Carolina Panthers professional football team. The outdoor finale would echo Obama’s convention speech at Invesco Field in Denver four years ago.
While the Democrats will receive a $50 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security to defray police costs for the Sept. 4-6 convention, security for the Speedway festival may not have been eligible because the event isn’t part of the official convention proceedings.
Republicans will also receive a $50 million grant for their four-day convention in Tampa, Florida, August 27-30.

Public Funding

Last week, the U.S. Senate voted 95-4 for a measure that would end public funding for both parties’ national nominating conventions, adopting an amendment from Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn.
Coburn has argued that it’s hypocritical for lawmakers to spend public money on their party conventions after criticizing the General Services Administration for spending $823,000 on a 2010 conference near Las Vegas.
The nominating conventions are funded through a combination of public and private money. Congress has appropriated $100 million for security at the conventions, with an additional $36 million going to the two parties for other convention expenses.
Republicans have not placed any restrictions on where they raise money and have secured corporate contributions from such companies as AT&T Inc. (T), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Coca-Cola Co. (KO) to meet their $55 million target.

Corporate Contributions

Four years ago, corporate entities accounted for more than $33 million of the amount Democrats raised for the Denver convention, according to campaign finance reports. While Democrats have placed restrictions on how the Charlotte host committee, headed by Mayor Anthony Foxx and Duke Energy Corp. (DUK) CEO James E. Rogers, can raise money, with a ban on direct corporate donations and a $100,000 limit on individual contributions, corporations are allowed to give unlimited in-kind contributions, such as telephone and technology services or gift cards.
At the same time, Democrats in Charlotte have registered a second committee, New American City Inc., with the Federal Election Commission that does accept corporate contributions.
In April, representatives of the major U.S. unions, including the AFL-CIO, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the United Auto Workers, were given a tour of the convention sites in Charlotte as Democratic officials prepared to ask them to help cover their funding shortfall.
Labor organizations have been reluctant to contribute to the convention because Charlotte lacks unionized hotels and is in a state where compulsory union membership or the payment of dues is prohibited as an employment condition.
North Carolina is one of about a dozen states that Democratic and Republican strategists say are likely to determine the outcome of the presidential election.

Broken Promises by Obama

I got this link of the broken promises by Obungler, truth be told some of the ones I saw I am glad that he didn't get.  that being said, this proves that he is an empty suit and a politician, and will say what ever is necessary to get elected.  Not the 2nd coming like certain members of the media has portrayed him to be.   I kinda wonder of Chris Mathew still gets the tingle down his leg like before.


The link is here

Promise Broken rulings on the The Obameter

Increase the capital gains and dividends taxes for higher-income taxpayers

Increase capital gains and dividends taxes from 15 to 20 percent for those making more than $250,000 (couples) or $200,000 (single)
>> More

Expand the child and dependent care credit

Expand and make refundable the child and dependent care credit.
>> More

Create a foreclosure prevention fund for homeowners

Create a $10 billion fund to help homeowners refinance or sell their homes. "The Fund will not help speculators, people who bought vacation homes or people who falsely represented their incomes."
>> More

Provide option for a pre-filled-out tax form

Will direct the Internal Revenue Service to "give taxpayers the option of a pre-filled tax form to verify, sign and return to the IRS or online. This will eliminate the need for Americans to hire expensive tax preparers and to gather information that the federal government already has on file."
>> More

Create a mortgage interest tax credit for non-itemizers

Create a refundable tax credit equal to 10 percent of mortgage interest for nonitemizers, up to a maximum credit of $800.
>> More

Require automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans

Automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans for workers whose employers offer retirement plans.
>> More

Require automatic enrollment in IRA plans

Require employers who do not offer retirement plans to offer their workers access to automatic IRAs and contribute via payroll deduction.
>> More

Create a retirement savings tax credit for low incomes

A tax credit for retirement savings up to $500 (couples) or $250 (singles). Phases out when incomes exceed $65,000 (couples) or $32,500 (single). Indexed for inflation.
>> More

End income tax for seniors making less than $50,000

"Will eliminate all income taxation of seniors making less than $50,000 per year. This will eliminate taxes for 7 million seniors -- saving them an average of $1,400 a year-- and will also mean that 27 million seniors will not need to file an income tax return at all."
>> More

End no-bid contracts above $25,000

"Will ensure that federal contracts over $25,000 are competitively bid."
>> More

Create a $60 billion bank to fund roads and bridges

"Will address the infrastructure challenge by creating a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal transportation investments. This independent entity will be directed to invest in our nation's most challenging transportation infrastructure needs. The Bank will receive an infusion of federal money, $60 billion over 10 years, to provide financing to transportation infrastructure projects across the nation. These projects will create up to two million new direct and indirect jobs and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic activity."
>> More

Repeal the Bush tax cuts for higher incomes

Repeal the Bush tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 (couples) or $200,000 (single)
>> More

Phase out exemptions and deductions for higher earners

Restore the phaseouts of personal exemptions and itemized deductions for those making more than $250,000 (couples) or $200,000 (single), with threshholds indexed for inflation.
>> More

Sign the Employee Free Choice Act, making it easier for workers to unionize

"Obama is a cosponsor and strong advocate of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a bipartisan effort to make the unionization process more transparent and increase penalties on companies that violate employee rights. He will sign EFCA into law as president."
>> More

Lift the payroll tax cap on earnings above $250,000

"Barack Obama believes that the first place to look to strengthen Social Security is the payroll tax system. Obama believes that one strong option is increasing the maximum amount of earnings covered by Social Security by lifting the payroll tax cap on only earnings above $250,000."
>> More

Forbid companies in bankruptcy from giving executives bonuses

"Protect the jobs and benefits of workers and retirees when corporations file for bankruptcy by telling companies that they cannot issue bonuses for executives during bankruptcy while their workers watch their pensions disappear."
>> More

Allow workers to claim more in unpaid wages and benefits in bankruptcy court

"Increase the amount of unpaid wages and benefits workers can claim in bankruptcy court against their employer."
>> More

Allow imported prescription drugs

"Allow Americans to buy their medicines from other developed countries if the drugs are safe and prices are lower outside the U.S."
>> More

Prevent drug companies from blocking generic drugs

"Prevent drug companies from blocking generic drugs from consumers."
>> More

Allow Medicare to negotiate for cheaper drug prices

"Allow Medicare to negotiate for cheaper drug prices."
>> More

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President Reagan owns a heckler

I just got back into town after being gone for 3 days.  I figured I would post something light until I get my email caught up and some great pics I have taken uploaded for a post I will do.

Carter 1.0 call out Carter 2.0

I think this is rich..the original appeaser and Muslim sympathizer calls out the replacement sympathizer.   Carter's human rights policies are overly idealistic.  Our foes routinely commit human right violations and nothing is said,  Islam is held to a different standard, but he likes to castigates us.  Probably because he know that the rule of law will save him in a western based society whereas in a Muslim based society, they will wrap a couple of tires on him and set him on fire...or just stone him.

Jimmy Carter Accuses U.S. of 'Widespread Abuse of Human Rights'

By Amy Bingham | ABC News – Mon, Jun 25, 2012

• Jimmy Carter Accuses U.S. of 'Widespread …

A former U.S. president is accusing the current president of sanctioning the "widespread abuse of human rights" by authorizing drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists.

Jimmy Carter, America's 39 th president, denounced the Obama administration for "clearly violating" 10 of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, writing in a New York Times op-ed on Monday that the "United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights."

"Instead of making the world safer, America's violation of international human rights abets our enemies and alienates our friends," Carter wrote.

[Related: Up to 27 million people living slavery]

While the total number of attacks from unmanned aircraft, or drones, and the resulting casualties are murky, the New America Foundation estimates that in Pakistan alone 265 drone strikes have been executed since January 2009 . Those strikes have killed at least 1,488 people, at least 1,343 of them considered militants, the foundation estimates based on news reports and other sources.

In addition to the drone strikes, Carter criticized the current president for keeping the Guantanamo Bay detention center open, where prisoners "have been tortured by waterboarding more than 100 times or intimidated with semiautomatic weapons, power drills or threats to sexually assault their mothers."

The former president blasted the government for allowing "unprecedented violations of our rights to privacy through warrantless wiretapping and government mining of our electronic communications."

Want more off-the-cuff politics? Check out OTUS on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @OTUSNews.

He also condemned recent legislation that gives the president the power to detain suspected terrorists indefinitely, although a federal judge blocked the law from taking effect for any suspects not affiliated with the September 11 terrorist attacks.

[Related: Adidas cancels 'shackle' shoe after outcry]

"This law violates the right to freedom of expression and to be presumed innocent until proved guilty, two other rights enshrined in the declaration," Carter said.

While Carter never mentioned Obama by name, he called out "our government" and "the highest authorities in Washington," and urged "concerned citizens" to "persuade Washington to reverse course and regain moral leadership."

Muslim Humor

It is called a Barka...

   I got it from my Dad....what can I say...His humor is more warped than mine is.

The anniversary of the U.S. Highway system

 June 26, 1956

As a As a young Army officer in 1919, Dwight Eisenhower took part in a U.S. Army convoy from Washington to San Francisco that took 62 days to travel the country -- averaging 6 mph. During World War II, he saw how quickly the German army could move thanks to the autobahn. Those two recollections help power President Eisenhower's support for the bill that passed Congress on this day in 1956 creating the U.S. interstate highway system. At a cost of $129 billion and covering 46,876 miles, the system ranks as the largest public-works project ever devised by humanity, and one that made America what it is today, for better and worse. Something to remember when you're stuck on one in a single file row moving 6 mph between orange barrels this summer.

strange vehicles....

I saw this on Yahoo.

    I have seen some strange cars..some that look good and some that look...well.....odd.  THere is a person that took a Ford Focus and cut it in half then welded a stakebody on the frame.  If I ever can get my camera ready when I see it cruising around where I live, I will get pics.  The strangest thing I ever saw...and I saw it in Tenn by the way was a 1996 Ford Taurus wagon that somebody cut the roof off of it and reinforced the frame making it the strangest vehicle I have ever seen.  But this one takes the cake.   

Every so often while trawling these internets, we come across something that just makes us shake our heads in wonder. This ad from Knoxville, Tenn., for a $3,000 car that's one part Pontiac Grand Am, one part 1962 International pickup and seven parts rolling -- OK, parked -- testament to Bondo must be seen, and seen widely, to be believed.

My favorite part of this ad is the way the seller never addresses how the cab and hood of a 1962 International came to be grafted onto the body of a Grand Am with the nose clip from a Oldsmobile Alero, or how the thing manages to keep its state title as an International, or any other of the next 10 obvious questions. It supposedly drives, brakes, has working air bags and lights, no engine warning codes and good exhaust; the air conditioning's on the fritz, so caveat emptor there.

As for the price of $3,000, the seller claims to have twice that amount invested in the vehicle. The reason for selling is the classic car guy refrain of "to (sic) many other projects," which raises the prospect of a few more creations from the automotive Dr. Frankenstein cruising the greater Knoxville area.

We can laugh all we want, but the seller knows his market, as the Knoxville Craigslist cup runneth over with people selling rusted wrecks under the rubric of "rat rods." Real rat rods are meant to stand apart from the crowd of high-gloss hot rods at the local car show, and whatever its mechanical state, when it comes to standing out this Inter-Grand-Alero has no peer.

The success of Space X is a boon to commercial aviation

The travel to space may be come a commercial venture.  Since the grounding of America's shuttle fleet, the commercial sector is moving ahead.  that is good for the country.  The skills of spaceflight will not be lost and more people will do it, that makes for more opportunities for the companies willing to take a chance and prosper.

June 18, 2012

Rep. Steven Palazzo wants to set the record straight, after Presidential Science Adviser John Holdren declared that the Obama administration made possible the successful flight of the SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station and back. “The Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program was proposed by the Bush administration in 2005 and authorized by Congress,” says Palazzo, the Mississippi Republican freshman who chairs the House Science space and aeronautics subcommittee. “The COTS contract that funded the SpaceX mission was awarded in 2006. The Commercial Resupply Services contract won by SpaceX and Orbital was announced at the end of 2008. Let the record be clear.”
Palazzo is right, of course. But now that SpaceX has demonstrated it can fly to the space station with pressurized and unpressurized cargo, and bring pressurized cargo back to Earth, there is plenty of credit to go around. Even Michael Griffin, who headed NASA during the Bush administration and conceived and funded the COTS federal seed money program that got Dragon off the ground, acknowledges that President Barack Obama upped the ante to $500 million a year from $500 million total funding (AW&ST May 38, p. 27).
More important is what the SpaceX flight means for commercial spaceflight in the future, both the cargo missions COTS funded for SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. (which plans to fly its first Antares/Cygnus stack this year), and possible human missions under NASA's commercial crew development (CCDev) effort. There was an immediate, practical impact on Capitol Hill, where the Republican-led House has adopted language “directing” NASA to pick a single CCDev vehicle to save development money. The same day that the Dragon splashed down in the Pacific, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that handles NASA funding, agreed to soften the House position in conference committee negotiations with the Senate. In a deal negotiated with Administrator Charles Bolden, Wolf agreed to let the U.S. space agency pick “2.5 program partners”—two proposals for a full share of federal seed money to develop commercial crew vehicles, plus another company that will receive a “partial award.” Wolf also accepted the Senate funding level for commercial spaceflight in fiscal 2013—$525 million—but not the $836 million NASA requested. The agreement also formalized NASA's plans to use a Federal Acquisition Regulation procurement for the integrated commercial crew systems the agency picks, instead of the less restrictive Space Act Agreements now in force.
For SpaceX itself, the successful flight meant some new business right off the bat. At one end of the spectrum, Intelsat contracted to be the first customer for the Falcon Heavy follow-on to the Falcon 9. And Spaceflight Inc., a Seattle-based startup founded by Andrews Space CEO Jason Andrews, signed up to use the Falcon for its planned secondary-payload business on missions with excess lift capacity.
“SpaceX is very proud to have the confidence of Intelsat, a leader in the satellite communication services industry,” says SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who has said he plans to take his company public this year. “The Falcon Heavy has more than twice the power of the next largest rocket in the world. With this new vehicle, SpaceX launch systems now cover the entire spectrum of the launch needs for commercial, civil and national security customers.”
Musk makes no secret of his desire to take over the market for launching cargo and crews to Earth orbit. The Dragon had been scarred from the beginning for commercial crew operations, and the successful rendezvous and grappling with the ISS probably gives it a leg up in the coming NASA downselect for the next round of commercial crew development support. One flight isn't going to win this space race, and Musk must be hearing the footsteps behind him as he circles the track.
Sierra Nevada Corp., which has received $100 million in CCDev funding to convert NASA's HL-20 lifting body into a hybrid-propellant commercial crew vehicle called Dream Chaser, has completed preliminary design review on the vertical-takeoff, horizontal-landing spaceplane. The review set the basic parameters of the design, architecture and performance of the integrated system, which includes its compatibility with the United Launch Alliance Atlas V that would take it to orbit. Sierra Nevada plans helicopter drop tests of the Dream Chaser, with autonomous approach and landing at Edwards AFB, this summer (AW&ST June 4/11, p. 14).

Younger jets retirement putting pressure on industry

Another aviation related post,
     The age of an aircraft isn't measured in years but hours of use or cycles, a cycle is basically 1 takeoff and landing.  That completes a cycle.  When an aircraft takes off, there is pressure exerted on the fuselage by the flexing of the metal or composites and the fasteners involved.  Metal or composites expands at different rates depending on the composition of the material and the weather.  An aircraft working the tropics will tend to age faster due to moisture which can present a corrosion factor.  Also many of the airplanes working the tropics also do a lot of island hopping, this adds cycles to the airframe.

June 22, 2012

The decline in the average and median age of commercial jets that are being retired is having an impact on aircraft valuations and financing, as well as spare parts suppliers, aviation industry observers and participants say.
“I would expect to see useful economic life and residual values reduced on certain aircraft types, primarily Boeing and Airbus narrowbodies,” says Owen Geach, commercial director for the International Bureau of Aviation, a global, U.K.-based aviation consultancy and aircraft appraisal company.
It probably will take another year, however, before the main appraisers have a more conclusive idea on where those values will end up, he adds.
That also affects who is willing to finance the acquisition of the younger used jets.
Export credit agencies have an incentive to help with financing if it helps sales of new aircraft made by a home country manufacturer, but no such motivation exists for used aircraft. Sellers of used aircraft may need to step up their efforts even more to find airlines that are cash-rich enough to buy them because fewer banks and leasing companies will be willing to finance or acquire them, Geach says.
Lessors also could be impacted. Geach says lease rates for Airbus A319s have fallen to less than $150,000 per month for some of the older aircraft, with pre-2005 aircraft under the most pricing pressure. Lease rates for A340-300s, he says, have dropped as low as $160,000 per month.
“The great evolution is getting the ownership of aging used jets to somebody else’s balance sheet,” says Fairfax, Va.-based Teal Group aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia, citing a conflict between “uninspiring” airline traffic numbers and high production rates for new aircraft by manufacturers such as Airbus and Boeing.
Conversely, Aboulafia notes, there is a school of thought that warns a reversal of the trend could cause problems for Airbus and Boeing.
“The real danger here is if you don’t accelerate retirements of what used to be called a middle-aged jet, you’re going to have a hard time justifying record-high production rates with the traffic numbers we’re seeing,” Aboulafia says
    

One of the chief espousers of this scenario is Adam Pilarski, senior VP for Avitas, a Chantilly, Va.-based aviation consulting company. At an International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading conference in March, he said it is possible that higher retirements and shorter economic life for aircraft are making enough room for new aircraft if oil prices remain high. But he believes oil prices are going to drop significantly.
For parts suppliers, the retirement of younger jets has “changed the face of the business completely,” says Boris Wolstenholme, CEO of U.K.-based A J Walter Aviation, a major, global spare parts supplier. Previously, parts suppliers paid a premium to get parts from an aircraft as young as the ones being retired now, he says. But now that more of those aircraft are being parted out, the prices have come down, leaving the companies that paid a premium in a difficult spot because most airlines today are ordering the parts only as needed, rather than to store for later use.
That development has not affected A J Walter, he says, because it already adjusted to airlines’ just-in-time delivery demands.
David Bridges, VP for sales and marketing at Boca Raton, Fla.-based global parts supplier VAS Aero Services, says the fast-changing market demands more attention and his company is now updating its forecast every quarter.
“I think the rules of the game have changed,” he says. Because of changes in the aircraft being parted out, “you’re not allowed to sit back and wait and see how things work out. You’re constantly managing the program.”

Airline buys refinery

As many of y'all know, I work here in the aviation field here in Atlanta.  The cost of fuel is the most volatile item on any transportation/aviation related field.  Companies try to plan expenses for the long term, it makes it easier to see how things are doing.  Well recently the local airline here in Atlanta purchased a refinery to better control the cost of fuel.  The projected savings will basically cover the cost of the purchase in 1 year.  That is a big savings in fuel cost.   the Atlanta Journal/Constitution(local fishwrapper) did a writeup on it recently.   Companies like Ford and American Standard among other conglomerates in the early part of the 20th century tried to control the cost of supplies from beginning to end to better control cost and quality.    later outsourcing became the vogue.  They say business works in cycles..this example bears it out.  It will be interesting if other airlines will try this also.

Monroe Energy officially acquires Trainer refinery, starts turnaround

---

June 22, 2012

Photo: The Trainer Refinery Complex in Pennsylvania. 

Delta’s wholly-owned subsidiary Monroe Energy LLC has completed its transaction with Phillips 66 to acquire the Trainer Refinery Complex south of Philadelphia, taking the next step in Delta’s fuel management strategy.

Phillips 66 handed over keys to the facility to Monroe officials on Friday. Monroe will start turnaround activities after the July 4 holiday to get the idled refinery producing fuel later this fall. Trainer aims to capture refining costs for Delta in an effort to lower fuel spending that was nearly $12 billion in 2011.

“We have a team of refining experts and proven leaders effectively implementing our refining strategy at the Trainer refinery,” said Jeffrey Warmann, CEO and president of Monroe Energy, in a statement Friday.

Once reconfigured, Trainer will produce 52,000 barrels of jet fuel for Delta every day. The gasoline and diesel fuels created in the refining process will be swapped for more jet fuel around the country with partners BP and Phillips 66, and the combination of Trainer’s production and the product swap will give Delta 80% of its domestic fuel needs.

The project employs roughly 400 workers at Trainer, which had been idled since last fall. Those jobs indirectly support thousands of additional jobs in the region.

Delta and Monroe paid $150 million for Trainer after a $30 million grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and will invest more than $100 million to maximize Trainer’s jet fuel production. The annual savings in refining costs are estimated to be $300 million

Einstein Wisdom

Some great military links

This is some great information for people that have served in the military. Even if you are not into this sort of thing, you might want to pass this on to others who are.

• Aviation Pioneers
• World War I Aces
• Hall of Fame of the Air
• WW2 European Theater (ETO)
• WW2 Pacific Theater (PTO)
• WW2 US Marine Corps
• WW2 US Navy Aces
• WW2 Mediterranean (MTO)
• WW2 German Aces
• Korean War Aces
• Russian Aces
• Vietnam Era Aces

Airplanes

• World War I Planes
• 1930s Aircraft photos
• WW2 Fighters
• WW2 Bombers
• WW2 German Planes
• WW2 Airplane Pictures
• History of Airplanes blog
• Nose Art
• Postwar Jets

World War Two

• WW2 Facts and Firsts
• WW2 Medals
• WW2 Museums
• WW2 Pictures
• WW2 Ships

WW2 Weapons

Conservative VS Liberal

Pretty much says it all....

ID a pistol...

I was asked by my Dad to ID a pistol for him,  The only ID markings on it are a 7...  The rest is pitted, The other side has "PS" on it.  From the looks of it I believed it to be a Tokorav varient or another combloc firearm due to the rounded end of the slide and the shape of the pistol grip.  I believe that the pistol may be a .25 caliber from the size, it is hard to deduce from a photo.   I am hoping others are more knowledgeable than I am.  I am not afraid to ask for help.)   I was told that it is a pretty old gun.

    Here is the photo

"NHS kills off 130,000 elderly patients every year"

This is our future under Obunglercare, the progressives are enamored with the British NHS.  Remember the claim of death panels?   

     I saw this on another of the foreign newspapers that I read since they are not beholding to the ChicagoJesus and will print stuff that is critical of his and the DNC's policies

Top doctor's chilling claim: The NHS kills off 130,000 elderly patients every year

• Professor says doctors use 'death pathway' to euthenasia of the elderly
• Treatment on average brings a patient to death in 33 hours
• Around 29 per cent of patients that die in hospital are on controversial 'care pathway'
• Pensioner admitted to hospital given treatment by doctor on weekend shift

By Steve Doughty
PUBLISHED: 18:08 EST, 19 June 2012 | UPDATED: 09:14 EST, 20 June 20, 2012

Worrying claim: Professor Patrick Pullicino said doctors had turned the use of a controversial 'death pathway' into the equivalent of euthanasia of the elderly

NHS doctors are prematurely ending the lives of thousands of elderly hospital patients because they are difficult to manage or to free up beds, a senior consultant claimed yesterday.
Professor Patrick Pullicino said doctors had turned the use of a controversial ‘death pathway’ into the equivalent of euthanasia of the elderly.
He claimed there was often a lack of clear evidence for initiating the Liverpool Care Pathway, a method of looking after terminally ill patients that is used in hospitals across the country.
It is designed to come into force when doctors believe it is impossible for a patient to recover and death is imminent.

It can include withdrawal of treatment – including the provision of water and nourishment by tube – and on average brings a patient to death in 33 hours.
There are around 450,000 deaths in Britain each year of people who are in hospital or under NHS care. Around 29 per cent – 130,000 – are of patients who were on the LCP.

Professor Pullicino claimed that far too often elderly patients who could live longer are placed on the LCP and it had now become an ‘assisted death pathway rather than a care pathway’.

He cited ‘pressure on beds and difficulty with nursing confused or difficult-to-manage elderly patients’ as factors.

Professor Pullicino revealed he had personally intervened to take a patient off the LCP who went on to be successfully treated.

He said this showed that claims they had hours or days left are ‘palpably false’. 
In the example he revealed a 71-year-old who was admitted to hospital suffering from pneumonia and epilepsy was put on the LCP by a covering doctor on a weekend shift.

 

• Nine out of 10 NHS Trusts are 'rationing operations'

Professor Pullicino said he had returned to work after a weekend to find the patient unresponsive and his family upset because they had not agreed to place him on the LCP.
‘I removed the patient from the LCP despite significant resistance,’ he said.
‘His seizures came under control and four weeks later he was discharged home to his family,’ he said.
Professor Pullicino, a consultant neurologist for East Kent Hospitals and Professor of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Kent, was speaking to the Royal Society of Medicine in London.

Distressing: The professor has claimed an approved technique of looking after the terminally ill is not being used in all hospitals

He said: ‘The lack of evidence for initiating the Liverpool Care Pathway makes it an assisted death pathway rather than a care pathway.

‘Very likely many elderly patients who could live substantially longer are being killed by the LCP.
‘Patients are frequently put on the pathway without a proper analysis of their condition.
‘Predicting death in a time frame of three to four days, or even at any other specific time, is not possible scientifically.

This determination in the LCP leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. The personal views of the physician or other medical team members of perceived quality of life or low likelihood of a good outcome are probably central in putting a patient on the LCP.’
He added: ‘If we accept the Liverpool Care Pathway we accept that euthanasia is part of the standard way of dying as it is now associated with 29 per cent of NHS deaths.’
The LCP was developed in the North West during the 1990s and recommended to hospitals by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in 2004.
Medical criticisms of the Liverpool Care Pathway were voiced nearly three years ago.
Experts including Peter Millard, emeritus professor of geriatrics at the University of London, and Dr Peter Hargreaves, palliative care consultant at St Luke’s cancer centre in Guildford, Surrey, warned of ‘backdoor euthanasia’ and the risk that economic factors were being brought into the treatment of vulnerable patients.
In the example of the 71-year-old, Professor Pullicino revealed he had given the patient another 14 months of life by demanding the man be removed from the LCP.

Professor Pullicino said the patient was an Italian who spoke poor English, but was living with a ‘supportive wife and daughter’. He had a history of cerebral haemorrhage and subsequent seizures.
Professor Pullicino said: ‘I found him deeply unresponsive on a Monday morning and was told he had been put on the LCP. He was on morphine via a syringe driver.’ He added: ‘I removed the patient from the LCP despite significant resistance.’
The patient’s extra 14 months of life came at considerable cost to the NHS and the taxpayer, Professor Pullicino indicated.
He said he needed extensive support with wheelchair, ramps and nursing.
After 14 months the patient was admitted to a different hospital with pneumonia and put on the LCP. The man died five hours later.
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘The Liverpool Care Pathway is not euthanasia and we do not recognise these figures. The pathway is recommended by NICE and has overwhelming support from clinicians – at home and abroad – including the Royal College of Physicians.
‘A patient’s condition is monitored at least every four hours and, if a patient improves, they are taken off the Liverpool Care Pathway and given whatever treatments best suit their new needs.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2161869/Top-doctors-chilling-claim-The-NHS-kills-130-000-elderly-patients-year.html#ixzz1yM7pWJ00

I got this from one of the foreign newspapers that I read since the LSM refuses to print anything that is critical of their ChicagoMessiah.  Since Mubarak has been overthrown with the support of Obungler  with the arab spring...funny how Obungler didn't do the same thing when Iran had its problem and our elected empty suit did nothing for fear of offending the Iranian regime that hates us anyway...but was willing to throw Mubarak under the bus because Egypt is an ally and this will prove dangerous for Israel.  This is what happens when people elect an amateur to the white house that forgets that his first loyalty is to America and not to other people.

“Jerusalem Shall Become Egypt’s Capital”

“If the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohammed Mursi should be elected as the next Egyptian president, Cairo will no longer be the capital of Egypt, but Jerusalem,” a high-ranking cleric said on Egyptian Safwat Hagazy radio. “Not Cairo, Mecca or Medina, but Jerusalem shall with Allah’s help become our capital. Under Mursi, the Arab nations are again becoming one power, with Jerusalem as the focal point. Either we will pray in Jerusalem or die as martyrs.” More on israelheute.com (Israel Today in German)… Translation below.

“Jerusalem shall take the place of Cairo”

“If the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohammed Mursi should be elected as the next Egyptian president, then no longer will Cairo be Egypt’s capital, but Jerusalem,” a high-ranking cleric said on Egyptian Safwat Hagazy Radio. “Not Cairo, Mecca or Medina, but Jerusalem shall with Allah’s help become our capital. Under Mursi, the Arab nation are once again one power with Jerusalem as the focal point. Either we will pray in Jerusalem or die as martyrs.” In addition, the public shouted: “Tomorrow, Mursi will liberate the Gaza strip.” Mohammed Mursi and the former premier under President Hosni Mubarak, Ahmed Shafik, are the two presidential candidates for which the Egyptian people must decide on June 16th and 17th. In order to steer the problems among his own people, such as high unemployment and a deficient economy, the attention is targeted with hostility against the Jewish neighbor. What is going on in Egypt right now is not just a warning sign for Israel but even more for the other Arab nations who have also undergone a revolt. The revolutions in the Arab countries marketed abroad as Arab Spring guarantees no better future for the Arabs in those particular countries, rather the contrary. The genocide in Syria, according to Arab sources, will not save Bashar al Assad and his family from being deposed. His regime is close to its end. However, afterward chaos will break out like in the other countries. Because the Assad family belongs to the Alavite minority in Syria, after their overthrow, a massacre against the 1.5 million Alavites in Syria is feared. Even though these uprisings are really a politically internal Arabic problem, Israel, the Jews and Jerusalem are always drawn into the Arab tohuvavohu (chaos).
Video: Millions of martyrs march on Jerusalem
Posted by PI / Translation: Anders Denken

Obama is bowing again.......dammit

The American president is supposed to be ramrod tall and proud to walk and be an American,  he represents the best of us especially overseas.  We are Americans we bow to no one.  We have done more for the world than anyone.  We are the beacon of freedom in the world we show what people can do when they believe in themselves.   Now we elected this hack who started his presidency on the great American apology tour...Really?   He wants to reset the relations with the  Soviets Russians, we have seen how that works....Russia will not abandon an ally, Syria despite having their internal problems.  Well we under Obungler threw Egypt under the bus,abandoned a staunch ally now Israel and the United Stated will have to deal with the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is in control of Egypt.  Israel is basically alone because of the Obungler effect I am sure that they have doubts about the support of their most staunch ally the United States.  Something the Taiwanese are figuring out also.  This is what happens when you elect amateurs to the white house.

  this from weasel zippers

       Mexican President Felipe Calderon(R) welcomes US President Barack Obama prior to the opening of the G20 Leaders Summit in Los Cabos, Baja California, Mexico on June 18, 2012. World leaders struggled Monday to inject confidence into the global economy at a G20 summit in Mexico dominated by a spiraling European debt crisis that is spooking markets and paralysing growth. (AFP PHOTO / PAUL J. RICHARDS)

Airplane restaurants

Where can you eat and sleep on an airplane without paying for a ticket? At airports, retired hangars, rural farmlands, and on bustling city streets, dining and sleeping are elevated to new heights with airplane restaurants and hotels across the world.
See Airplane Restaurants and Hotels around the World Slideshow
Whether it’s your fantasy to sleep in the cockpit, pretend you are flying a jumbo jet, or eat gourmet food in first class, airplane restaurants and airplane hotels around the world give travelers the chance to live their aviation dreams for a few hours or for the night.

Slideshow: Airplane Restaurants and Hotels around the World Slideshow

The decommissioned planes, from small turboprop planes to Boeing 747s, have storied pasts that include hauling manure, carrying cargo, and playing a role in covert missions in Southeast Asia,. Many of the aircraft have been claimed by airplane enthusiasts and turned into fanciful airplane restaurants and hotels.
One of the planes, a DC-3 that has been retrofitted to look like the space shuttle, still logs miles, on the road, that is. And should you decide you want your very own airplane, the mobile kitchen is for sale.

Read more: http://www.thedailymeal.com/fuselage-feasts-airplane-restaurants-and-hotels-take#ixzz1yIRiMEo8

Link - by Jon Dunbar and A. Abrams


The first Jumbo Jet to be flown commercially - rusting away, haunted by kitchen smells

We've seen "Airplane House & Boat Conversions", now it's time to check out converted-aircraft eating establishments - which lure customers inside the decommissioned planes (in hope to distract them from the quality of food?) Anyway, one such super-fast-jumbo-sized joint apparently is not in use any more:



all images copyright Jon Dunbar, used by permission

Jon Dunbar, whom you might remember from his "Abandoned Amusement Parks in Asia" article, sends us another account of his urban exploring in South Korea. This time it's an abandoned Boeing 747 restaurant, looming huge over the highway, and yet dwarfed by a swarm of apartment buildings all around.

Jon says: "Thanks to the helpful people at Urban Exploration Resource I discovered that this was the second Boeing 747 ever made and apparently the first to be flown commercially." Here is the photo of its better days (see more here) -


(image credit: Marc Lehmann)

Then later it was disassembled and partially reassembled over here to be used as a restaurant. It clearly was closed up very quickly and now just sits next to a railway wasting away.

On approach, one can see the apartment buildings, which in Suwon look somewhat like milk cartons:



Here it is, a strange sight in the neighborhood...





This is somewhat surreal shot: it almost looks like this Jumbo 747 landed on a poor little building, which still tries to be cheerful with all these painted Pokemons and a satellite dish:



The jet engines don't look very authentic, however:



Look at its proud cockpit, and try to reflect on this unique aircraft's history:




Inside the plane, the cockpit is no longer a cockpit - but a seating space with a view:




The menu, and typical restaurant bar trinkets are still there -





When airliners fall into disrepair, they spawn some unusual-looking mushroom growth on their wings... On the right, nicely-used landing gear:



On this photo the airliner looks like it's ready to join the flow of city's traffic -


all images copyright Jon Dunbar, used by permission

In its day, this particular Jumbo Jet (the second ever built, and the first one to be flown commercially) was subjected to rigorous testing - here is a "Tail Strike" Test video, plus its history holds some minor accidents and damage. Here it is shown being disassembled before reaching Korea - and a Boeing employee talks about its history:


(image credit: Duncan Stewart)

Then Humpty Dumpty was put together again, to host the hungry customers and thirsty bar drinkers.




Airliners used as restaurants seem to be quite popular in South Korea: there is one in Daegu, and here is another on in Mokpo:


(image via Cary, more info)

One more aircraft "cafe" was one time in Seoul, but is gone now (more info, the place now is used for screen golf)


El Avion: Iran-Contra-Cargo Plane Converted Into a Bar in Costa Rica

This cargo plane was apparently delivering supplies to the Nicaraguan Contras and was shot down in 1986... leading to the Iran Contra scandal and investigation of Reagan administration' involvement - for the full info and directions to get there click here

UPDATE: Andrew Hoskin writes: "Actually, this is the sister to the plane that got shot down. The US government had purchased and was running two of these planes. When the one that sparked the Iran Contra affair was shot down this one was abandoned at the San Jose airport in Costa Rica. It was many years later that the derelict plane was purchased and moved to its new location."




(images credit: Scott)


A plane inside a restaurant might be a better idea -



... then the unique (and often historic) aircraft is spared the wear and tear and spilled food from many customers, plus it's protected from weather elements. One restaurant owner in Switzerland - map - decided to put an old Russian Ilyushin-14 into his restaurant and called it "Runway 34":




(images credit: Runway 34)