Lobotero’s Info Ink

Republican presidential candidate John McCain wants the U.S. military to be much larger than current expansion plans envision, an adviser to the Arizona senator said this week.

The Bush administration has begun expanding the U.S. Army and Marine Corps to create a combined strength of around 750,000 active duty troops — a process backed by McCain’s Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.

But McCain believes an Army and Marine Corps with a combined strength of up to 900,000 troops is necessary, said Randy Scheunemann, an adviser to the candidate on foreign policy and national security.

The U.S. Army and Marines have been severely strained by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many troops have served multiple tours in the war zones and currently spend only 12 months at home before they deploy again for another year.

As a member of the U.S. Senate’s armed services committee, McCain has built a reputation for scrutinizing the costs of big weapons programs and he has pledged to pursue that approach in the White House if he wins November’s election.

Obama and McCain have a very similar vision for the service to the country.  So if that is one of your guidelines for picking a candidate, then flip coin.

For many months the threat has been there, some sort of action against Iran, but what would the consequences be for Iraq if such an action was begun.

Iraq will be plunged into a new war if Israel or the US launches an attack on Iran, Iraqi leaders have warned. Iranian retaliation would take place in Iraq, said Dr Mahmoud Othman, the influential Iraqi MP.

The Iraqi government’s main allies are the US and Iran, whose governments openly detest each other. The Iraqi government may be militarily dependent on the 140,000 US troops in the country, but its Shia and Kurdish leaders have long been allied to Iran. Iraqi leaders have to continually perform a balancing act in which they seek to avoid alienating either country.

The balancing act has become more difficult for Iraq since George Bush successfully requested $400m (£200m) from Congress last year to fund covert operations aimed at destabilising the Iranian leadership. Some of these operations are likely to be launched from Iraqi territory with the help of Iranian militants opposed to Tehran. The most effective of these opponent groups is the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK), which enraged the Iraqi government by staging a conference last month at Camp Ashraf, north-east of Baghdad. It demanded the closure of the Iranian embassy and the expulsion of all Iranian agents in Iraq. “It was a huge meeting” said Dr Othman. “All the tribes and political leaders who are against Iran, but are also against the Iraqi government, were there.” He said the anti-Iranian meeting could not have taken place without US permission.

May I suggest that a rethink should been done on any action against Iran, the region cannot stand another upheaval like the one began by the invasion and occupation of Iraq.  The troops may NEVER come home it the ignorance prevails.

Former Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), a conservative icon who represented the Tarheel State in the Senate for 30 years, died early this morning at the age of 86.

Helms served in the Senate from 1972 to 2002, where he became a leading voice of the right wing of the Republican Party. Nicknamed “Senator No” by his many critics, Helms was a fierce anti-communist whose support for Ronald Reagan in 1976 proved a critical juncture in Reagan’s eventual rise to the Oval Office. To many on the right, it was Helms, not Reagan, who was the true heart of the conservative movement.
But as much as he was lionized by the right, Helms was vilified by the left for his “Old South” racial politics, as well as his open scorn for the press, gays, liberals, and the United Nations. During his 1990 reelection battle with Democrat Harvey Gantt, the black former mayor of Charlotte, his campaign ran an infamous ad that shows a pair of white hands crumpling up a job rejection letter, as the narrator says, “You needed that job, and you were the best qualified, but they had to give it to a minority, because of a racial quota. Is that really fair? Harvey Gantt says it is.”

In the early 1960s, Helms became an on-air commentator for WRAL-TV in Raleigh and began to gain a statewide following. Helms vehemently opposed the civil-rights movement, and he made a frequent target of the University of North Carolina, which he saw as a bastion of liberalism in an otherwise conservative state. “The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that’s thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men’s rights,” Helms said in a 1963 TV editorial.

Slowly, but slowly the “Old South” good old boys, the people that fought against civil rights and such, are slowly dying off.  In a way it is good, maybe then we can put the racial BS behind us and move on to a better country.

04 July

Five newspaper boys from the Baltimore Sun died when the steamer they were on, the Three Rivers, caught fire near Baltimore, Md. - 1924

With the Great Depression underway, some 1,320 delegates attended the founding convention of the Unemployed Councils of the U.S.A., organized by the U.S. Communist Party.  They demanded passage of unemployment insurance and maternity benefit laws and opposed discrimination by race or sex. - 1930

Two primary conventions of the United Nations’ International Labor Organization come into force: Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize - 1950

This is why I had reserved my support for any candidate before now….they say and do anything to be elected.  Obama has been called the most left person in the senate, but to be elected he is moving to the center….will it work…yes, he will most likely be elected president this Fall.

- Sen. Barack Obama raised the possibility of slowing a promised gradual, 16-month withdrawal from Iraq if he is elected president, saying that Thursday he will consult with military commanders on an upcoming trip to the region and “continue to refine” his proposals.

“My 16-month timeline, if you examine everything I’ve said, was always premised on making sure our troops were safe,” Obama told reporters as his campaign plane landed in North Dakota, a state no Democratic presidential candidate has carried since 1964. “And my guiding approach continues to be that we’ve got to make sure that our troops are safe, and that Iraq is stable. And I’m going to continue to gather information to find out whether those conditions still hold.”

In a second, hastily convened news conference, Obama insisted that his policies have not changed, and that he has “not equivocated” or is not “searching for maneuvering room” on Iraq. Consultations with commanders in the coming weeks will be focused more on the size of U.S. forces needed to train and equip Iraqi military and police units, as well as maintaining a “counterterrorism strike force” to prevent al-Qaeda from making a comeback, he said.

Do not know if anyone has noticed his slow but steady move to the center.  So please people, STOP calling him a progressive…..he is proving that he is NO progressive, but rather a typical politician.

First of all, I would like to wish all my readers a very merry 4th of July….eat lots…drink beer…and do not forget the watermelon..wink…wink….

Somewhere during the course of the evening, I had my 10,000 hit. I would like to thank all those who have helped me reach this goal and all those very intelligent people that have participated in my Info Ink. WordPress has made the experience of writing a blog very enjoyable and would like to thank them for an excellent site.

Thank you for all the support and hopefully it will continue and grow.

In 2030, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, world “liquids” demand is expected to reach 117.6 million barrels per day. Of this amount, unconventional fuels – synthetic liquids derived from tar sands, shale rock, and biofuels – may provide a total of 10.5 million barrels. That leaves 107.1 million to be supplied by conventional petroleum. But what if global oil output has fallen to 60-70% of that amount by 2030, as projected by many analysts? Under those circumstances, no amount of oil from Alaska or the outer continental shelf will be able to save this country (or the rest of the world) from a catastrophic energy crisis.

Some say that any palliative is worth the expense as we head toward certain disaster. But this is not a logical response. Knowing that the age of petroleum is drawing to a close, it is far better to devote our talents and investment dollars on hastening the arrival of its successor, rather than prolonging the agony of oil’s decline.

At this point, we cannot be absolute certain of the dominant energy source of the post-petroleum era. Will it be the Solar Age or the Biofuels Age or the Hydrogen Age? But we do know that it will revolve around some constellation of renewable, climate-friendly, domestically-produced supplies. From now on, America’s top priority in the energy field must be to explore all potential components of this new energy future and move swiftly to develop those with the greatest promise.

2030 is 22 yrs from now and will the next president truly be the author of a new and more environment friendly energy policy? I am thinking…no they will not…..somehow, something will happen to move this to the back burner….yet again.

As reported on Workers Independent News:

The 25,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are still on the job as their union reps continue to negotiate a new labor agreement. The ILWU’s Craig Merrilees
Says a good agreement has been reached on health care and the union is continuing to bargain over other issues. He says the ILWU is determined to win continued good wages and benefits…

[Merrilees]: “This union is well-positioned and I would say unusually well-positioned to try and be a beacon for folks that are holding out against the tide. I mean, how many Americans can’t think about having the kind of health care and retirement benefits that longshore workers have, let alone the pay – starting pay of $22.11 an hour, moving up to a basic wage of $30.68.”

The ILWU for decades has been a strong, progressive union and an inspiration to workers nationwide.

[Merrilees2]: “If nothing else, perhaps we can act as a beacon of hope for workers who are feeling the heel of the capitalists that are really cranking down the ropes on folks.”

The good news just keeps coming.  First, coffee puts lead in your pencil and increases the endurance factor and now there is good news about another fav of mine.  At my age, we look for all the help we can get.

Watermelons contain an ingredient called citrulline that can trigger production of a compound that helps relax the body’s blood vessels, similar to what happens when a man takes Viagra, said scientists in Texas, one of the nation’s top producers of the seedless variety.

Found in the flesh and rind of watermelons, citrulline reacts with the body’s enzymes when consumed in large quantities and is changed into arginine, an amino acid that benefits the heart and the circulatory and immune systems.

“Arginine boosts nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, the same basic effect that Viagra has, to treat erectile dysfunction and maybe even prevent it,” said Bhimu Patil, a researcher and director of Texas A&M’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center. “Watermelon may not be as organ-specific as Viagra, but it’s a great way to relax blood vessels without any drug side effects.”

The relationship between citrulline and arginine might also prove helpful to those who are obese or suffer from type-2 diabetes. The beneficial effects — among them the ability to relax blood vessels, much like Viagra does — are beginning to be revealed in research.

Citrulline is present in other curcubits, like cucumbers and cantaloupe, at very low levels, and in the milk protein casein. The highest concentrations of citrulline are found in walnut seedlings, Perkins-Veazie said.

Huh?  Is this one of those myths that came out in the 70’s?

An Ohio mechanic said he has created a car that gets more than 110 miles per gallon.

Doug Pelmear said he has perfected an engine developed by his grandfather 60 years ago. As gas prices continue to rise across the country, Pelmear said his engine gives his 1987 Ford Mustang 110 mpg.

“My grandfather had the idea back in the (1940s) that he (could) make a difference then,” Pelmear said. “There was quite a need at that time also, with the war going on and everything.”Pelmear, a mechanic in Napoleon, has been tweaking the engine for the past 10 years, squeezing out the maximum amount of power for a minimum amount of gas.”This will bring back the automotive industry,” he said. “They can sell trucks and (sport utility vehicles) and the models that are almost dead at this time.”Pelmear said the engine is 400 horsepower and goes from zero to 60 mph in three seconds.Some seemed more excited by the car’s power than its thrifty use of gas.”Even those of us who grew up in the muscle car age, this will pretty much blow your muscle car away,” said developer Mark Schnitkey.Pelmear wouldn’t allow anyone to take a detailed look under the car’s hood — some of his gizmos are still awaiting patents, he said.But Pelmear said the secret lies in making the engine more efficient. And with a little more work, developers believe they’ll be getting 500 miles to the gallon and revolutionizing the auto industry.

Is this real?  I have the problem with the 0-60 in 3 seconds…I cannot think of a car that can do that…but I guess it is possible.  If this is true then it will be a boon to drivers and the bane of the oil industry, who will do all they can to prevent this from hitting the market.