Thursday, June 30, 2005

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/30/2005 11:15:00 PM | 0 comments

Oh. So that's what Lincoln's for. Actually Lincoln's life is a lot like Mr. Obama's. Lincoln came from a lean-to in the backwoods. His mother died when he was 9. The Lincolns had no money, no standing. Lincoln educated himself, reading law on his own, working as a field hand, a store clerk and a raft hand on the Mississippi. He also split some rails. He entered politics, knew more defeat than victory, and went on to lead the nation through its greatest trauma, the Civil War, and past its greatest sin, slavery.

Barack Obama, the son of two University of Hawaii students, went to Columbia and Harvard Law after attending a private academy that taught the children of the Hawaiian royal family. He made his name in politics as an aggressive Chicago vote hustler in Bill Clinton's first campaign for the presidency.

You see the similarities.

What is in the air there in Washington, what is in the water?

What is wrong with them? This is not a rhetorical question. I think it is unspoken question No. 1 as Americans look at so many of the individuals in our government. What is wrong with them?

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/30/2005 12:22:00 PM | 0 comments

Media inquiries have government officials from across the U.S. mainland defending their decisions to attend the conference. Some boards have even decided not to allow any of their members to attend.

"I certainly would not have had it in Honolulu if I had my choice, but unfortunately I don't get to choose the place," Taylor said.

Although some government officials have canceled their plans to fly to Hawaii courtesy of taxpayers, a NACO spokesperson says the turnout is expected to settle at about 3,000.

Supervisors said the county's road needs cost much more than a trip to Hawaii.

"You're not going to pave roads for $3,500," Taylor said.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/30/2005 10:51:00 AM | 0 comments

Blackwell admitted manslaughter with diminished responsibility. He suffers 'narcissistic personality disorder'.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/30/2005 10:29:00 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

The letter dubbing the project the 'Lost Liberty Hotel' was posted on conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh's Web site. Clements said it would include a dining room called the 'Just Desserts Cafe' an a museum focused on the 'loss of freedom in America.'

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/29/2005 04:24:00 PM | 0 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/29/2005 02:12:00 PM | 0 comments

The rules are simple: “Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3-by-3 box contains the digits 1 through 9.” But from that brief description, aggravation sets in.

“Sudoku” is a Japanese word that, roughly translated, means “unique number.” In Britain, in little more than six months, it has gone from obscurity to fad to mania.

The innocuous-looking logic puzzles, first introduced in November by the Times of London and then taken up by almost every other major newspaper in the nation, are causing commuters to miss their stops and students to skip their homework.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/29/2005 02:06:00 PM | 0 comments

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

An international consortium chose France on Tuesday as the site for an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, a $13 billion project that developers hope will one day generate endless, cheap energy by reproducing the sun's power source and wean the world off fossil fuels.

France beat out Japan to host the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project, which is also backed by the United States, China, the European Union, Russia and South Korea. Nuclear fusion produces no greenhouse gas emissions and only low levels of radioactive waste.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/28/2005 04:42:00 PM | 0 comments

Monday, June 27, 2005

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/27/2005 12:19:00 PM | 0 comments

Sunday, June 26, 2005

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/26/2005 11:05:00 PM | 0 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/26/2005 10:58:00 PM | 0 comments

In front of a sellout crowd at Boardwalk Hall, Mayweather backed up his bold statements with a virtuoso performance that was the boxing equivalent of a no-hitter.

The slick and confident 28-year-old thoroughly dominated Gatti on Gatti's home turf, masterfully dodging punches and easily landing his own at will. The end came when Gatti could not answer the bell for the seventh round, but the result was obvious by midway through the second. Only Gatti's legendary courage -- and Mayweather's decision to taunt and toy with the champion before officially taking his belt -- kept it from ending earlier.

'Gatti was tough, strong and came to fight,' Mayweather said. 'I respect him for giving me the chance to win the title. I boxed, and I stepped it up. He's a great champion, I'm a great champion. Everything I said about him before the fight was just to hype the fight.'

"Too much speed," Gatti said. "Things weren't coming out right. . . . He's harder to hit than I thought."

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/26/2005 10:48:00 PM | 0 comments

China is building its military forces faster than U.S. intelligence and military analysts expected, prompting fears that Beijing will attack Taiwan in the next two years, according to Pentagon officials.

U.S. defense and intelligence officials say all the signs point in one troubling direction: Beijing then will be forced to go to war with the United States, which has vowed to defend Taiwan against a Chinese attack.

China's military buildup includes an array of new high-technology weapons, such as warships, submarines, missiles and a maneuverable warhead designed to defeat U.S. missile defenses. Recent intelligence reports also show that China has stepped up military exercises involving amphibious assaults, viewed as another sign that it is preparing for an attack on Taiwan.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/26/2005 10:37:00 PM | 0 comments

"It's a bullet trying to hit a second bullet with a third bullet in the right place at the right time,' said Rick Grammier, project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Scientists hope the July 4 collision will gouge a crater in the comet's surface large enough to reveal its pristine core and perhaps yield cosmic clues to the origin of the solar system.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/26/2005 10:33:00 PM | 0 comments

The IFW World Economics Institute in Kiel said that any number of 'unwelcome developments' could provoke a crisis. Given that the industry was already producing at full capacity to meet soaring demand in China and India, there was almost no margin to absorb a sudden supply shock.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/26/2005 10:30:00 PM | 0 comments

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Big puncher vs. skilled boxer is usually a potent formula for fistic fireworks. That's the expectation Saturday night at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall, where WBC super lightweight champion Arturo "Thunder" Gatti puts his title on the line against top-ranked contender "Pretty Boy" Floyd Mayweather Jr.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/25/2005 02:25:00 PM | 1 comments

With Thursday's Supreme Court decision, Freeport officials instructed attorneys to begin preparing legal documents to seize three pieces of waterfront property along the Old Brazos River from two seafood companies for construction of an $8 million private boat marina.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/25/2005 11:56:00 AM | 0 comments

This year the world is consuming about 84 million barrels of oil a day. America alone guzzles about 20.8 million barrels a day. Experts think oil-producing nations have only 1.5 million barrels a day or less of unused production capacity right now. A disruption anywhere could cause market panic and spiking prices. That's largely why oil and gasoline prices are so high right now.

Saudi Arabia and other countries are trying to increase production, but that won't help much before next year at the earliest. Meanwhile, any hiccup in production, delivery or refining could cause disaster.

'A million or a million and a half barrels of oil a day off the market is a very realistic kind of scenario. You can think of a dozen different countries around the world ... where you can see that happening. Or even a natural disaster could do that,' Gates said in an interview.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/25/2005 11:32:00 AM | 0 comments

Perhaps even more troubling, it reflects the majority's assumption that private property rights do not really exist. Rather, individuals are simply "trustees" of the land, until the government decides that its transfer to another "trustee" would better serve its version of the "public good." This ruling shifts a massive amount of power from citizens to the government and opens the door wide to increasing abuse of that power.

The Justices are charged with the interpretation of the Constitution. In this case, they were confronted with a prohibition: "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation," and they have effectively re-written it as a grant of authority for local governments to redistribute private property according to any plan that any local government authorities believe to be economically beneficial. You read that right, the Supreme Court of the United States has sanctioned the redistribution of property. Who usually sanctions the redistribution of property? Well, let's see, there's the FMLN in Nicaragua, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Karl Marx was a big fan... what's wrong with this picture?

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/25/2005 11:24:00 AM | 0 comments

Friday, June 24, 2005

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/24/2005 04:49:00 PM | 0 comments

'O Blessed Trinity, we thank you for having graced the church with Pope John Paul II and for allowing the tenderness of your fatherly care, the glory of the cross of Christ, and the splendor of the Holy Spirit, to shine through him.

'Trusting fully in your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of Mary, he has given us a living image of Jesus the Good Shepherd, and has shown us that holiness is the necessary measure of ordinary Christian life and is the way of achieving eternal communion with you.

'Grant us, by his intercession, and according to your will, the graces we implore, hoping that he will soon be numbered among your saints. Amen.'

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/24/2005 10:36:00 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, June 23, 2005

A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth often is at war with individual property rights.

The 5-4 ruling - assailed by dissenting Justice Sanday Day O'Connor as handing 'disproportionate influence and power' to the well-heeled in America - was a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They had argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas.

As a result, cities now have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes in order to generate tax revenue.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/23/2005 12:03:00 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

[B]etween 1960 and 2005, foreign aid worth more than $450 billion, inflation adjusted, poured into Africa. Result? Between 1975 and 2000, African gross domestic product (GDP) per capita declined at an average annual 0.59 percent rate. Over the same period, African GDP per capita fell from $1,770 in constant 1995 dollars adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) to $1,479.

In contrast, South Asia performed much better. Between 1975 and 2000, South Asian GDP per capita grew at an average annual 2.94 percent. South Asian GDP per capita grew from $1,010 in constant 1995 dollars adjusted for PPP to $2,056. Yet, between 1975 and 2000, the per capita foreign aid South Asians received was 21 percent that received by Africa. The link between foreign aid and economic development seems quite tenuous.

The truth is there are no quick fixes to African poverty. Like so many times in the past, the grand utopian visions of well-meaning Westerners are likely to crash on the hard rocks of African reality. In the end, Africans will get it right and prosper, but they will not succeed by seeing foreign aid as a panacea or hoping someone else will solve their problems for them.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/22/2005 12:49:00 PM | 0 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/22/2005 12:19:00 PM | 0 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/22/2005 12:18:00 PM | 0 comments

Virginia is counting on each and every one of us to ensure she has a Governor with the courage to lead and perseverance to do the right thing regardless of political consequences.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/22/2005 11:49:00 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/21/2005 07:07:00 PM | 0 comments

From an extensive battery of surveys on personality traits, religious beliefs and other psychological factors, the researchers selected 28 questions most relevant to political behavior. The questions asked people "to please indicate whether or not you agree with each topic," or are uncertain on issues like property taxes, capitalism, unions and X-rated movies. Most of the twins had a mixture of conservative and progressive views. But over all, they leaned slightly one way or the other.

The researchers then compared dizygotic or fraternal twins, who, like any biological siblings, share 50 percent of their genes, with monozygotic, or identical, twins, who share 100 percent of their genes.

Calculating how often identical twins agree on an issue and subtracting the rate at which fraternal twins agree on the same item provides a rough measure of genes' influence on that attitude. A shared family environment for twins reared together is assumed.

On school prayer, for example, the identical twins' opinions correlated at a rate of 0.66, a measure of how often they agreed. The correlation rate for fraternal twins was 0.46. This translated into a 41 percent contribution from inheritance.

As found in previous studies, attitudes about issues like school prayer, property taxes and the draft were among the most influenced by inheritance, the researchers found. Others like modern art and divorce were less so. And in the twins' overall score, derived from 28 questions, genes accounted for 53 percent of the differences.

But after correcting for the tendency of politically like-minded men and women to marry each other, the researchers also found that the twins' self-identification as Republican or Democrat was far more dependent on environmental factors like upbringing and life experience than was their social orientation, which the researchers call ideology. Inheritance accounted for 14 percent of the difference in party, the researchers found.

"When people talk about the political debate becoming increasingly ugly, they often blame talk radio or the people doing the debating, but they've got it backward," Dr. Alford said. "These genetically predisposed ideologies are polarized, and that's what makes the debate so nasty."

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/21/2005 11:37:00 AM | 0 comments

'Why don't we resign ourselves to the fact that we lost that battle and dedicate our energies instead to projects where we can find greater social consensus?' he writes.

Because this, he says, would be a superficial and hypocritical solution.

'Recognizing the sacred nature of human life and its inviolability without any exceptions is not a small problem or something that can be considered part of the pluralism of opinions in modern society,' he writes.

'There is no such thing as 'small murders'. Respect for every single life is an essential condition for anything worthy of being called social life.'

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/21/2005 11:28:00 AM | 0 comments

Monday, June 20, 2005

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/20/2005 02:43:00 PM | 2 comments

Sunday, June 19, 2005

Let's be frank, Ralph. Public radio and television programming has been perceived as having a liberal slant, just as all mainstream media are. That's why you want to do away with it. But perceptions don't make it so. This is speech that could be censored by axing its budget, so that makes it fair game. But that doesn't make it right. That you have the power doesn't mean you're required to abuse it.

I was impressed, maybe even a little disappointed, with how balanced PBS and NPR 2004 campaign and election coverage was. So many stories on public radio and television tell us of the less fortunate, here and around the world, and of those who have overcome hurdles to succeed. Should stories about the toll American actions have taken on others not be told? I wonder what Native Americans might think about that.

Indeed, $400 million is a small price to pay for stories that might not otherwise be told.

Last week it was reported that government lawyers, apparently at the Bush administration's behest, backed off of monetary penalties being sought from Big Tobacco--funds that were to be used for smoking-cessation programs.

The result of the 11th-hour change of direction is that the Justice Department won't ask for the $120 billion from Big Tobacco that would have targeted the 45 million Americans who smoke. It will settle instead for $10 billion earmarked for preventing future smokers from taking up the habit.

The result is a break for big business, and a greater number of long-term smokers whose habit-related ailments will further overburden the nation's health-care system as the boomer generation ages. It's a typically short-sighted view from a short-sighted administration.

This is the perfect example of dangerous policy that combines two Bush administration favorites: the politics of fear and the abuse of power. By using the former, he is seeking permanent authorization of the latter.

...

It's the U.S. government's responsibility to keep us safe, but to accomplish that without compromising the personal freedoms that set us apart. Big Brother isn't welcome here, but no matter how the president tries to justify it, that is what he wants.

What he also wants is Big Moral Brother, a compass that always points toward the GOP conservative wing's view of things. The president approves of the precedent the government set by taking sides in the case of Terry Schiavo, the Florida woman who was allowed to die after subsisting for 16 years in a vegetative state. But about 80 percent of Americans, no matter where they stood on the issue, think government should have kept its nose out of it.

The same holds true for embryonic stem-cell research. Large majorities of Americans, up to 70 percent, want the research to proceed based on the promise--not the guarantee--that it could hold the key to various maladies and diseases from which actual living people suffer.

"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/19/2005 11:48:00 AM | 0 comments

Virtually all cars sold in the United States since the early 1980s can run on gasoline containing as much as 10 percent ethanol. In addition, there are an estimated 5 million 'flex-fuel' vehicles already on U.S. roads that can burn a mixture as high as 85 percent ethanol. But big logistical and political hurdles remain. Only a few hundred of the nation's approximately 169,000 retail gas stations are equipped to sell so-called E85 fuel. Nationwide distribution would require station owners to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in special tanks and pumps.

Although U.S. ethanol makers say they could easily double their output to meet any increase in demand, experts say that's still a drop in the bucket compared with the tens of billions of gallons that would be needed annually to displace meaningful amounts of petroleum. The U.S. industry is loath to give up tariffs that protect it from cheaper alcohol from Brazil. Meanwhile, some environmentalists say feedstock such as grasses and municipal waste offer much more promise than corn. But huge investments in research are needed to bring the costs down for this so-called 'cellulosic' ethanol.

What most can agree on is that Brazil is an example of what might have been if America had seriously committed itself 30 years ago to renewable energy.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/19/2005 11:06:00 AM | 1 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/19/2005 10:50:00 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, June 18, 2005

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/18/2005 04:57:00 PM | 0 comments

The legislation would prohibit University of Wisconsin System health centers from advertising, prescribing or dispensing emergency contraception - drugs that can block a pregnancy in the days after sex. The state university system has 161,000 students on 26 campuses.

Republican Rep. Daniel LeMahieu introduced the bill after a health clinic serving UW-Madison students published ads in campus newspapers inviting students to call for prescriptions for the drug to use on spring break.

'Are we going to change the lifestyle of every UW student? No,' LeMahieu said. 'But we can tell the university that you are not going to condone it, you are not going to participate in it, and you are not going to use our tax dollars to do it.'

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/18/2005 03:25:00 PM | 0 comments

Friday, June 17, 2005

'On average, smarter people learn quicker, make fewer errors, and are more productive,' McDaniel said. 'The use of intelligence tests in screening job applicants has substantial economic benefits for organizations.'

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/17/2005 02:19:00 PM | 0 comments

The Freedom and Prosperity Agenda focuses on four main areas - taxes and spending, property rights, education reform and transportation. The Agenda's planks are as follows:

Eliminate the War of 1812 tax (BPOL)
Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR)
Eliminate the Death tax
Eliminate the prepayment of the Sales and Use tax
Redefine and limit the public uses for which private property may be confiscated
Constitutional Amendment to base real estate taxes on the acquisition value of the property
Parental choice in education
Protect the transportation trust fund with a Constitutional Amendment
Proposals for new taxes must contain sunset provisions
Freedom and Fiscal Accountability Act for Virginia's Public Colleges and Universities
Eliminate the Car tax

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/17/2005 12:25:00 PM | 2 comments

Thursday, June 16, 2005

The real question voters were asking was "what do we do about the problem?" Collectively, while I agree wholeheartedly with the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, we didn't have a single voice on how to solve the problem. Sure we can cut off the oxygen and put out the fire, but to what ends?

I think voters are seriously looking for answers to the questions regarding transportation, education, and the like. TABOR is a good start. Devoting 65% of every dollar to the classroom is another (Virginia only allocates 61.6% on average). Restructuring VDOT so that rather than operating from the top-down, localities set the needs and agenda and VDOT chimes in. True tax reform that abolishes the car tax, property tax, estate tax, and comes up with a more equitable system of taxation that works at the local level first.

Those are ideas. Those are solutions. While we aggressively promoted them in the 54th, conservatives statewide didn't speak with a single voice.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/16/2005 04:34:00 PM | 1 comments

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/16/2005 01:16:00 PM | 0 comments

American elections have become so rigged in favor of incumbents that it can require a crow bar to wrench them out of office. So it's worth noting those occasions when entrenched officeholders do find a way to lose.

In Virginia's primary races Tuesday, several Republicans who voted for the biggest tax increase in the commonwealth's history in 2004 faced single-issue anti-tax challengers. The most vocal of those pro-tax incumbents was so embattled that he withdrew from the race. Another was trounced, two-to-one, by a twentysomething political neophyte. Two others barely won, and in the statewide contests to select the GOP's Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General nominees, the tax hike defenders were upset by anti-tax challengers. Several other tax-raising Republicans beat back challenges more comfortably, but we suspect they also got the voter message.

GOP taxpayers had reason to be upset because they now know the $1.4 billion tax increase was sold under false pretenses. Democratic Governor Mark Warner -- who had won in 2001 on a no-new-taxes-pledge -- argued that it was necessary to balance the state budget even as the reviving economy was creating a new revenue surge. This year Virginia is sitting on a $1.5 billion surplus thanks to a 14% rise in tax revenues.

Will this surplus now be returned to taxpayers? Will it be used to kill the state's hated car tax, as Republicans once promised? Guess again. Mr. Warner and the legislators are spending the new money as fast as it comes in. Taxes are bound to be an issue in the general election this November, and it will be revealing to see if voters are up for imposing another round of accountability.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/16/2005 09:29:00 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

It was a crucial mistake to send out the entire constitution to every French voter, the architect of the EU's first constitution Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has said in an interview.

...

One crucial mistake was to send out the entire three-part, 448-article document to every French voter, said Mr Giscard.

Over the phone he had warned Mr Chirac already in March: "I said, 'Don't do it, don't do it'".

"It is not possible for anyone to understand the full text".

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/15/2005 10:36:00 PM | 0 comments

With 55 percent of the vote, he defeated Spotsylvania County Republican Chairman Shaun Kenney in a House of Delegates primary that drew only 7 percent of the 54th District's voters to the polls.

Orrock wasn't elated with the results, admitting to his supporters that he hadn't won by the margin he'd wanted.

Kenney won in seven precincts --all in Spotsylvania--of the 21 precincts in the district, which includes central Spotsylvania and the Woodford area of Caroline County.

He told his crowd of about 30, gathered at the Massaponax Howard Johnson, that the showing was respectable.

posted by Shaun Kenney | 6/15/2005 09:49:00 PM | 0 comments

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