There they go again!
FactCheck.org : ‘Big Oil’ Backing Romney?
THE AIKEN JOURNAL-Covering Politics in Aiken, South Carolina,the Nation and sometimes the World.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Mitt Romney Speech after New Hampshire Primary
Many viewers may not have seen this speech as the major networks refused to carry it but here it is as uploaded to Youtube by PBS. Inspiring!
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Lack of jobs not always reason for high veteran unemployment | The Augusta Chronicle
An interesting article from the Augusta Chronicle today. The Augusta Warrior Project is a valuable resource for veterans.For more information on the Augusta Warrior Project go here
Lack of jobs not always reason for high veteran unemployment | The Augusta Chronicle
Lack of jobs not always reason for high veteran unemployment | The Augusta Chronicle
Nuclear Industry As A Multi Billion $$$ Welfare Program
When I write on nuclear industry matters I usually focus on my main concern which is resolving the nuclear waste dilemma. The following article by Senator Bernie Sanders provides another problematic view.
Dr. Rose O. Hayes
****************************************************************************
Stop the nuclear industry welfare programme
After 60 years, the taxpayer should not continue to subsidise multibillion-dollar corporations in the nuclear energy sector
'It is shocking that the nuclear industry continues to receive so much federal support at a time of record debt.' Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA
The US is facing a $15 trillion national debt, and there is no shortage of opinions about how to move toward deficit reduction in the federal budget. One topic you will not hear discussed very often on Capitol Hill is the idea of ending one of the oldest American welfare programmes – the extraordinary amount of corporate welfare going to the nuclear energy industry.
Many in Congress talk of getting "big government off the back of private industry". Here's an industry we'd like to get off the backs of the taxpayers.
As, respectively, a senator who is the longest-serving independent in Congress and the president of an independent and non-partisan budget watchdog organisation, we do not necessarily agree on everything when it comes to energy and budget policy in the US. But one thing we strongly agree on is the need to end wasteful subsidies that prop up the nuclear industry. After 60 years, this industry should not require continued and massive corporate welfare. It is time for the nuclear power industry to stand on its own two feet.
Nuclear welfare started with research and development. According to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, since 1948 the federal government has spent more than $95bn (in 2011 dollars) on nuclear energy research and development (R&D). That is more than four times the amount spent on solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biofuels, and hydropower combined. But federal R&D was not enough; the industry also wanted federal liability insurance too, which it got back in 1957 with the Price-Anderson Act. This federal liability insurance programme for nuclear plants was meant to be temporary, but Congress repeatedly extended it, most recently through 2025. Price-Anderson puts taxpayers on the hook for losses that exceed $12. 6bn if there is a nuclear plant disaster. When government estimates show the cost for such a disaster could reach $720bn in property damage alone, that's one sweetheart deal for the nuclear industry!
R&D and Price-Anderson insurance are still just the tip of the iceberg. From tax breaks for uranium mining and loan guarantees for uranium enrichment to special depreciation benefits and lucrative federal tax breaks for every kilowatt hour from new plants, nuclear is heavily subsidised at every phase. The industry also bilks taxpayers when plants close down with tax breaks for decommissioning plants. Further, it is estimated that the cost to taxpayers for the disposal of radioactive nuclear waste could be as much as $100bn.
Even with all of those subsidies, the private sector still will not agree to finance a new nuclear plant, so wealthy nuclear corporations recently secured access to $18.5bn in taxpayer-backed loan guarantees. Maybe the Wall Street banks agree with the Congressional Budget Office, which estimated the risk of default on nuclear loans at above 50%. The nuclear industry's financial troubles are not new. In the 1960s and 1970s, 100 reactors were cancelled because of cost overruns. Things were so bad Forbes called it "the largest managerial disaster in business history". Despite this history, some want to dramatically increase federal loan guarantees for nuclear plants.
It is shocking that the nuclear industry continues to receive so much federal support at a time of record debt. Of course nuclear subsidies benefit some of the wealthiest and most powerful energy corporations in America, which may explain the persistence of nuclear welfare. For example, Exelon, which takes in $33bn in revenue annually, is the leading operator/owner of nuclear reactors in the US. Entergy, with revenues of more than $11bn annually, is the second largest. Together, these two companies own or operate almost one-third of US reactors, and based on their revenue they are doing pretty well. Why do they need endless federal welfare for their industry year after year? Will it ever end?
Well, as secretary of energy Steven Chu confirmed at a recent Senate hearing, without federal liability insurance and loan guarantees, no one would ever build a new nuclear plant. Whether you support nuclear energy or not, we should all be able to agree that with record debt, we cannot afford to continue to subsidise this mature industry and its multibillion-dollar corporations. If the nuclear industry believes so fervently in its technology, then it and Wall Street investors can put their money where their mouth is. Let's let them finance it, insure it, and pay for it themselves.
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Friday, April 20, 2012
Symphony Orchestra Augusta concludes Aiken season with concert on April 27 | Aiken Standard
The following appeared in the April 20 edition of the Aiken Standard and is repeated here for those who may not have seen it. The Aiken Symphony Guild has been in existence for 26 years and sponsors the concerts described below. For more information about the Guild and the upcoming season go to the website : http://aikensymphonyguild.org/
In this case, the "victory" signaled in the conclusion is largely symbolic since Goethe's play is based on the tragic life of Count Egmont, who fought against the Spanish occupation of his native Holland in the 16th century. Egmont and his mistress Klarchen, who commits suicide after failing to save her lover's life, stand in Goethe's eyes - and Beethoven's, too - as martyrs in the fight for freedom.
Following this dramatic overture by Beethoven, the program shifts to three pieces for soprano and orchestra. The first is by Samuel Barber, one of my favorite modern composers - in part because he lived close to where I spent my undergraduate years in Pennsylvania. It is his "Knoxville, Summer of 1915," composed in 1947 and revised in 1950, and based on a text by James Agee from his classic memoir "A Death in the Family."
Essentially, this work is a 15-minute monologue describing a family gathering on the lawn behind the house, all of them lying on quilts laid out on the grass and gazing up at the stars. It is a piece of prose that aspires to the condition of poetry.
Although the speaker is male - Agee's younger self, the composition has nearly always been sung by a soprano. In the case, the honor goes to Laquita Mitchell. A graduate of Westminster Choir College and the Manhattan School of Music, Mitchell won the Grand Prize in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2004. Since then, she has appeared around the world; her most notable success, however, was probably her role as Bess in "Porgy and Bess" with the San Francisco Opera.
Her two remaining vocal selections, however, are also relevant to her ongoing career. She is, for example, scheduled to sing the role of Leonora in an upcoming production of Verdi's "Il Trovatore" or "The Troubadour." From that opera, she will perform on the Etherredge Center stage the aria "Tachea la note placida" or "Peaceful is the Night." In this piece, Leonora ponders over her attraction to an unknown knight who has just serenaded her.
Along with this aria from Verdi, Mitchell will perform a selection from Mozart's "Le Nozze (The Marriage) of Figaro." "Dove Sono" or "They Are Over" is the Countess Rosina's mournful acknowledgment that her days of happiness are over since she has discovered the unfaithfulness of her husband.
After an intermission, the orchestra returns to the stage to play Johannes Brahms' monumental "Symphony No. 1," which, appropriately enough is said to be a worshipful homage to Beethoven, the composer whose work opens this evening's concert.
Famous is the story of how Brahms postponed the writing of his first symphony until he was over 40 years of age because he was so intimidated by the thought of trying to compete with Beethoven. "I will never compose a symphony," he once asserted. "You have no conception of how the likes of us feel when we hear the tramp of a giant like him behind us."
Finished in 1876, Brahms' "Symphony No. 1" has, in certain key places, echoes of Beethoven's major work, especially the Fifth and Ninth Symphonies.
For more information on the Friday, April 27, concert of the Symphony Orchestra Augusta, call the Etherredge Center Box Office at 641-3305.
A Carolina Trustee Professor, Dr. Mack holds the G.L. Toole Chair at the University of South Carolina Aiken.
Read more: Symphony Orchestra Augusta concludes Aiken season with concert on April 27 | Aiken Standard
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Symphony Orchestra Augusta concludes Aiken season with concert on April 27
By Dr. TOM MACK, Columnist
For the last offering of its annual three-concert series at the Etherredge Center, the Symphony Orchestra Augusta's music director Shizuo Kuwahara has planned a program that he has titled "Dramatic Voices." Not all the "voices" in this April 27 concert will be human - most, in fact, will be instrumental - but there is no doubt that all of them will be "dramatic."
The program will begin with Ludwig Van Beethoven's "Egmont Overture." Composed in 1810 as one of a number of pieces of incidental music for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play titled "Egmont," the overture can be divided into three parts, roughly corresponding to the trajectory of any classic struggle: opposition, conflict and (one hopes) victory.
The program will begin with Ludwig Van Beethoven's "Egmont Overture." Composed in 1810 as one of a number of pieces of incidental music for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play titled "Egmont," the overture can be divided into three parts, roughly corresponding to the trajectory of any classic struggle: opposition, conflict and (one hopes) victory.
In this case, the "victory" signaled in the conclusion is largely symbolic since Goethe's play is based on the tragic life of Count Egmont, who fought against the Spanish occupation of his native Holland in the 16th century. Egmont and his mistress Klarchen, who commits suicide after failing to save her lover's life, stand in Goethe's eyes - and Beethoven's, too - as martyrs in the fight for freedom.
Following this dramatic overture by Beethoven, the program shifts to three pieces for soprano and orchestra. The first is by Samuel Barber, one of my favorite modern composers - in part because he lived close to where I spent my undergraduate years in Pennsylvania. It is his "Knoxville, Summer of 1915," composed in 1947 and revised in 1950, and based on a text by James Agee from his classic memoir "A Death in the Family."
Essentially, this work is a 15-minute monologue describing a family gathering on the lawn behind the house, all of them lying on quilts laid out on the grass and gazing up at the stars. It is a piece of prose that aspires to the condition of poetry.
Although the speaker is male - Agee's younger self, the composition has nearly always been sung by a soprano. In the case, the honor goes to Laquita Mitchell. A graduate of Westminster Choir College and the Manhattan School of Music, Mitchell won the Grand Prize in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2004. Since then, she has appeared around the world; her most notable success, however, was probably her role as Bess in "Porgy and Bess" with the San Francisco Opera.
Her two remaining vocal selections, however, are also relevant to her ongoing career. She is, for example, scheduled to sing the role of Leonora in an upcoming production of Verdi's "Il Trovatore" or "The Troubadour." From that opera, she will perform on the Etherredge Center stage the aria "Tachea la note placida" or "Peaceful is the Night." In this piece, Leonora ponders over her attraction to an unknown knight who has just serenaded her.
Along with this aria from Verdi, Mitchell will perform a selection from Mozart's "Le Nozze (The Marriage) of Figaro." "Dove Sono" or "They Are Over" is the Countess Rosina's mournful acknowledgment that her days of happiness are over since she has discovered the unfaithfulness of her husband.
After an intermission, the orchestra returns to the stage to play Johannes Brahms' monumental "Symphony No. 1," which, appropriately enough is said to be a worshipful homage to Beethoven, the composer whose work opens this evening's concert.
Famous is the story of how Brahms postponed the writing of his first symphony until he was over 40 years of age because he was so intimidated by the thought of trying to compete with Beethoven. "I will never compose a symphony," he once asserted. "You have no conception of how the likes of us feel when we hear the tramp of a giant like him behind us."
Finished in 1876, Brahms' "Symphony No. 1" has, in certain key places, echoes of Beethoven's major work, especially the Fifth and Ninth Symphonies.
For more information on the Friday, April 27, concert of the Symphony Orchestra Augusta, call the Etherredge Center Box Office at 641-3305.
A Carolina Trustee Professor, Dr. Mack holds the G.L. Toole Chair at the University of South Carolina Aiken.
Read more: Symphony Orchestra Augusta concludes Aiken season with concert on April 27 | Aiken Standard
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
WOLF: What happened to my Barack Obama? - Washington Times
An interesting article by a cousin of President Obama!
WOLF: What happened to my Barack Obama? - Washington Times
WOLF: What happened to my Barack Obama? - Washington Times
Monday, April 2, 2012
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