Is there an alternative to the EU in the works?

The current EU is dominated by France and Germany and they really don't have much of an ability to do much but spend money and frankly they waste most of it.

I would avidly support an alternative open market to the EU, let's start with the new democracies in the Balkans and move in concentric circles from there.

What will happen to steel jobs in USA?

Mittal merger goes thru ... according to Reuters report early this morning from India

Some challenging possibilities for Northwest Indiana. These companies will be heavily leveraged and selling off or closing facilities will be inevitable. I think it is entirely possible that Mittal in Northwest Indiana will be closed entirely within the next three years.

Mittal has excercised a classic "oligopolist" move by consolidating the industry ... next step is to cut back on production world wide so that prices can rise. For those in the resulting industry, probably a boon. For those who lose their jobs in the cutbacks, a serious personal crisis.

Bird Flu Jumps from person to person

I picked this up on digg.com so I was a little sceptical. Looking forward to some additional confirmation. Of course "experts" have been predicting this would happen eventually.

As a student of history, we learn that human to human transmission of animal viruses is nothing new and was a regular part of nation conquering when the New World invaded the Old World.

Albania This Week

So you haven't thought much about Albania lately?

That's OK, me neither, but it only took perhaps 30 minutes to get a little history lesson on this truly crossroads nation. They are at the crossroads of Muslim-Christian juxtoposition. They are at the crossroads of the Socialist-Democracy conflict. They are next door to Kosovo and Montenegro ... one a new country and one a possible new country. This is a hot bed of activity and possible crisis.

The UN will probably allow Kosovo to split from Serbia next year. Most of Kosovo is Albanian, but the Albanians don't want to integrate the two areas, they favor a new nation formation.

Serbia are basically the bad guys of the whole region. Beaten right now, yes. But watch out, haven't we learned from Iran and No. Korea that they may not stay beaten?

U.N. Special Envoy Soeren Jessen-Petersen says the people of Kosovo are growing impatient with the province's uncertain future. As he prepares to leave after two years on the job, Jessen-Petersen told the Security Council that after seven years of U.N. rule, the time has come to finally settle the question of Kosovo's status. "We cannot keep Kosovo in limbo for much longer. And as I leave, this is my biggest hope is that we clarify the status and that all those who have suffered so badly during the conflicts in the region over the last 15 years can finally be the beneficiaries of a settlement," he said.
The envoy expressed fear that people's patience might run out if Kosovo's "limbo status" drags on. "For the last two years, we've been managing stability in Kosovo on the basis of hope - hope given by the launch of the status process. People have been remarkably patient. Remarkably. Because we have a status process that is moving forward. If suddenly the status process either slows down or stops, I think that patience will be running out. This is not a threat, this is not blackmail. It is a simple recognition of reality on the ground. We need to move from a limbo situation to clarity," he said.
Jessen-Petersen's comments came as the Security Council appears increasingly likely to allow Kosovo to break away from Serbia. A vote is expected by the end of the year.

Want to check on this pretty wild region:

http://www.albanian.com/community/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=912

http://www.albanian.com/community/index.php

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/al.html

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/albania.html

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/altoc.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albania

I love this one

These people can't agree on anything! They have different political views and religious views, and many of them would sanction killing each other over their differences. But they agree to go to Washington to tell the US to send more money. That's what they all agree on?

State's Rights vs. Big Government?

Let's dig in and debate this one a bit.

The salient details: Maryland's legislature wants to move people off the public health care rolls. They pass a law requiring larger employers (specifically Wal Mart) to provide a level of health coverage. The governor vetoes the law, the legislature overules his veto.

Now Wal Mart, represented by Supreme Court Justice Scalia's son, says to a judge, "throw it out"

Whay do you think? I have some strong opinions but would like to get some comments first.

Read the article here

Former Vice President Walter Mondale says he would back pre-emptive strike against North Korea. Interesting! So, maybe we should drop some bombs on their missile technology and launchers ... that would get their attention.

Or, did he say this as a favor to the adminstration as a way of getting some attention from North Korea from an "un-official" statement?

Or, is it a set-up by the Dems to try and get the Bushies to get excited about Iraq 2 and let too much of their long term plan out before the mid-term elections?

Which one?

On a local front, we continue to be attacked by those that want "all" new home construction to be halted. Bob Harper and his merry band of "against everythings" have struck down another project becuase the neighbor wants in on the action!

Arrests in Miami, possible terror suspects, details spotty so far.

Ding Dong the #$%^ is Dead

Zarqawi is dead, thank God. It is high time that Iraq be given a chance to enjoy their democracy.

This will take time and we will still be training and mentoring for many years. But I think this is the beginning of the end of the localized war, thought the global war on terror will continue.

A fisking - a term derived from the many times bloggers have dissected the deranged writing of Robert Fisk - is a genre that takes a text by someone else, and responds to it sentence by sentence, point by point

So one blogger decided to take W's speech and tear it apart one point at a time, like Rush does to Clinton often, by do so in an audio sphere and podcast it! Thus he suggests a new term "Pod-fisking" Remember he is definitely a W hater.

Islamo-Fascicism ... New term coined for the Jihadists.

So, the Dems lost the "special election" house seat in California last night? So this landslide of Dems over Republicans that we've been hearing about for November, dead on arrival?

I liked this articles title "Boo Freakin Hoo"

This writer suggests on National Review that the Fed is creating inflation by raising the cost of borrowing.

A group of Palestinian children were sent towards the Gaza Strip border fence holding toy guns on Thursday in order to test the vigilance of the soldiers on duty

Thoughts for Wednesday - Tech

Have you followed Google's "deal" with China? They agreed to create a separate search site that could be watched more closely by the government and censored. CNet article suggests a possible insider plan wherein Google uses this censored site to appease the Chinese but really drives traffic through the real uncesored site. Dangerous game?

"Stepping into a research area marked by controversy and fraud, Harvard University scientists said Tuesday they are trying to clone human embryos to create stem cells they hope can be used one day to help conquer a host of diseases" Better follow the news gang, are we going to create human farms so we can grow disease prevention and health care?

"Google needs to embrace the possibility of failure. They need to stop making all of the same mistakes Microsoft made. They need to build aggressive and visionary products, kill stuff that doesn’t work, muzzle their out-of-control communications team and start telling us what Google 2.0 is going to be. " So Google has released a spreadsheet program and is trying to compete with Yahoo's flickr for photo manangement, good competition is working. Keep the government out and let them battle and innovate.

Here's an "of course" statistic. Higher fuel costs are driving people to want to telecommute instead of go to the big office. Good. The market works. Now, let's raise fuel taxes another 10% and use the money to build new technology and infrastructure, or better yet just balance the federal budget. Further reducing driving and fuel consumption. This should make everyone happy. $5.00 a gallon gas ... a balanced budget ... clean air ... more people working from home ... less corporate overhead from fat employees not really working that hard ...