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NewzBites: Pelosi screws-up (not again), Obama's revenge by proxy(?) and why crude has fallen 21% in just two weeks

There is a ton of news that deserves Front Page attention this morning, but since we want to focus on one particular story, we'll first list the others below that you should be aware of - - - and then discuss a very interesting and very important story in our next post. A hint? It's about a major Democratic fundraiser uncomfortable with Obama . . . and her reasons why.

EDITORIAL

Anyway, here are the other stories of significant interest:

Anti-Obama Bloggers Say They Were Silenced...
This first story pains us the most. Read the article behind the link and make your own assessment as to whether anti-Obama blogs are being silenced. Now, whether Obama's people, i.e., his staff, have anything to do with these alleged efforts, to be fair, we know not nor is there any available evidence for or against. But politics of every stripe also love using surrogates (MoveOn.org on one side, SwiftBoat Veterans on the other) while publicly disavowing any formal connection, so who really knows at this point. We'll just have to wait and see.

PELOSI PRIVATELY TELLS DEMS THEY CAN BACK DRILLING...
This one is a no-brainer. We believe Nancy Pelosi has exhibited disgraceful House leadership behavior with her obsessive partisanship that has overshadowed her duty to serve the American people - - - all of the American people. But her obstinacy against offshore drilling is primarily hurting the "working" American families she loves to always claim are her first priority.

Gas price falls to 11-week low...
And why have the gas prices at the pumps fallen so dramatically, especially after George "I want to control America" Soros and others have declared the oil commodity unstoppable in its movement upward? Because Bush, despite a very long list of foolish, even stupid moves, did something very right when he put offshore drilling on the public table and took enormous pressure off the so-called demand for Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil. The effort to transfer America's well-deserved and hard-earned wealth into the hands of both Middle Eastern countries and the greediest of crude speculators by raising prices so inexplicably and artifically high, Americans said enough and overwhelming welcomed the option of drilling and controlling our own commodities - - - forcing both Obama and Pelosi to concede defeat - - - although one does have to wonder whose side they were on to begin with.

Greedy Real Estate Agents, Predatory Lenders & McDonald's Cooking Oil as Fuel Alternative

EDITORIAL

Two bits of news caught our attention this morning.

The first story says the McDonald's units in The Philippines (Makati outlets) will be donating used cooking oil to help co-power Manila's Police Cars:

With oil prices at crippling highs, the project would convert cars in the Makati financial district to run on a mix of 40 percent diesel and 60 percent cooking oil, its police chief Senior Superintendent Gilbert Cruz said.

With approximately 141 McDonald's within just 30 miles of our location near Boston, one can only imagine how much power they could provide for city and state vehicles. And when you add Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island McDonald franchise locations, include other fast food/hamburger outlets who cook with the same oil, the question then becomes, why aren't we doing that here?

Nevertheless, kudos to Makati and to McDonald's Corporate for their smarts and for helping our environment.

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GET RESTITUTION FROM THE LENDERS & REAL ESTATE COMMISSIONS . . .
NOT THE TAXPAYERS

The second story is about home prices in May dropping by the largest percentage in the history of the index that covers these patterns, from a year ago.

Boston, in particular, was listed along with Tampa, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York, Dallas and Atlanta, because they all showed a smaller annual decline.

Certainly not the best news.

Now, since we've never been fans of the false market conditions too many otherwise greedy real estate agents have been perpetrating on the public since at least 1986, nor the too many foolish buyers who never do their own neighborhood homework and blindly believed too many greedy real estate agents, we do feel for those buyers who were intentionally (allegedly) misled by their particular greedy real estate agents and/or by the alleged predatory lending practices of too many mortgage loan originators, an industry that is currently the target of Federal and State probes nationwide for too many allegedly illicit practices.

(That was possibly the longest running paragraph ever).

But those homeowners now in a financial bind certainly do not all deserve a bailout from the coffers of the U.S. Government, a.k.a., we the taxpayers. That could and should come from lender restitution (as an alternative to prosecution) and also include the related commissions of the greedy real estate agents as well.

Fat chance either will ever happen, but the fact that those of us who did not get caught up in the hype and easy-profit hysteria - - - while still having to endure the bragging rights from those who did - we're pretty darn pissed-off that our tax money will be bailing them out. Salt on the wound, or something like that.

From a less personal, more serious and economic pov, however painful these times are or may become for some homeowners, in the long run, realistic, stabilized pricing is what our local economies need for sustained growth. Home ownership is a business, repeat, a business, just like any other, not a guaranteed right for every American - - - nor an irresponsible, commoditized profit center for every greedy real estate agent or mortgage broker.

Bailing out America's homeowners will only reward those lenders who made the mistakes in the first place, and allow the greedy real estate agents to keep their undeserved commissions.

That's merely our opinion.

What's yours.

we invite you to email us your comments

Hybrid vehicles can be a danger to the blind or visually impaired, say advocates

We just got wind of a potential problem with Hybrid vehicles, due in part to the growing popularity of Hybrid vehicles - - - but it's not really with the vehicles themselves.

We'll explain.

From HealthDay:

Because they can be nearly silent, hybrid cars pose a serious threat of injury and death to blind and visually impaired people, says the American Council of the Blind, which is pushing the auto industry and government officials to develop ways to reduce this danger.

The Council is looking out for those who are blind or visually impaired because those are the individuals who most rely on the sounds within the sphere of their environment at that moment, although one would think that the elderly with certain hearing impairments could also be at risk:

"Traditionally, people who are blind or visually impaired learn to rely on their hearing and tactile cues to provide them with information about their environment, which they can use to navigate safely across streets and through other vehicular ways, such as parking lots. In so doing, the sound of traffic is their primary focus," Melanie Brunson, council executive director, said in a news release from the council.

Beyond that, we learned how particularly important some sounds can be to the safety of those most in need of those sounds:

"Traffic sounds provide information about such things as the position of vehicles, their direction of travel, their rate of acceleration, and the speed at which they are likely to move. With this information, the pedestrian can make informed decisions about when to cross a street or other vehicular way safely," she said.

How quickly the auto industry addresses this issue remains to be seen, but just how they're going to engineer the change is what will be fascinating to watch for and hopefully observe sooner rather than later.

Nevertheless, we see the potential of a whose responsibility issue cropping up, as in, who will be responsible for creating/installing a noisemaker into each vehicle?

Will the manufacturers take it upon themselves or be legislated to install as standard some sort of noisemaker - or will that responsibility ultimately fall upon the Hybrid owners, at their expense?

* * *

we invite you to email us your comments

Some major power behind wind farms

Yesterday, T. Boone Pickens, the famous oil tycoon and brilliant investor, announced his intentions to help offset our nation's excessive dependence on oil with a huge plan - offered to both Obama and McCain as well - to focus on the most cost-effective and renewable source of energy . . . wind from wind turbine farms.

And here's his commercial that he's apparently spending ten million of his own cash to air on national television networks:

And just today, General Electric announced that it had expanded (to $4 billion) its investment in turbine wind farms with

76 wind farms worldwide with a total capacity of more than 4,000 megawatts. The company plans to spend $6 billion on renewable energy by 2010.

. . . GE Energy Financial Services has or will invest in 76 wind farms worldwide with a total capacity of more than 4,000 megawatts. The company plans to spend $6 billion on renewable energy by 2010.

. . . They include a 126-megawatt wind farm in Wethersfield, a 106.5-megawatt farm in Chateaugay and a 97.5-megawatt site in Altona. Combined, the turbines can generate power for about 110,000 homes, the company said.

These are all magnificent steps in the right direction.

Now, if only the neighbors of The Kennedys, (plus video) whose spacious properties overlook Nantucket Sound, wouldn't get their gilded pantyhose in such a knot over the thought of Sound-based wind farms dotting their water landscape, then maybe we in Massachusetts could continue setting the national trend and agenda for successful energy creation and distribution through either land-based or sea-based wind turbine farms.

Hey Al Gore, would 'ya talk to the Kennedys for us?

EDITORIAL

Where's Al Gore when you really need him?

Last week, just before the start of the Memorial Day weekend, we took a trip to Hull, MA and on the way back, made sure we shot some video of their apparently very successful Wind Turbine towering above the town. This is the same Wind Turbine, in concept, that alternative energy advocates want to put into Nantucket Sound, as Wind Farms. But unfortunately, sound energy policy - definitely no pun intended - has been trumped, so to speak, and again with no intentional pun, because these turbines would then be within eyesight of the wealthy waterfront homes of the Kennedys and their fellow neighbors of Hyannis.

Last we checked, they have (whomever they are) somehow managed to stop the Wind Farm installation in Nantucket Sound. Whether they've done so for the self-serving reasons of preserving their pristine backyard waterfront views or because they feel entitled to unfettered sailing throughout Nantucket Sound, despite the projected as substantial energy savings from such an effort, there are no Wind Farms in a body of water where they could do the most good and become a respected prototype to further our nation's goal of reducing our dependence on oil.

Is this yet another example of Al Gore, Teddy Kennedy (our prayers are still with him) and John Kerry forever telling us how we should behave, yet they're entitled to march to their own drummers?

Whatever.